What are Pistols Good For?

[katamariguy]

The only advantages to pistols I can think of are low weight and ease of repair with Jury Rigging. Otherwise, I would be better off with a rifle using the same ammunition.

[charwo]

Well, once you get the Hyperbreeder there's no reason to ever use anything else, so I guess pistols win in the end.*

 

*Well....expect the HyperBreeder is so overpowered even I feel like cheating using it. And it really takes something for me to care about 'cheating.'

[Moraelin]

Depends on the pistol, I suppose. Some of the endgame revolvers are pretty powerful, if you took the Cowboy perk, and I'm not aware of vanilla weapons that use the same ammo. Plus, IIRC pistols use less AP in VATS.

 

And with mods, well, you can have a pistol as overpowered as you wish. E.g., this isn't really more powerful than a Sequoia with the Cowboy perk, but never really felt underpowered to me (although, disclaimer, I'm the author, so I'm not an unbiased source): http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/46932/?

[flamenx01]

With a pistol drawn there is no movement speed penalty while with a rifle there is. Also quite a few of the pistols can be taken into casinos with high sneak.
Also perks like the professional can make pistols more useful

Edited December 29, 2013 by flamenx01

[katamariguy]

Depends on the pistol, I suppose. Some of the endgame revolvers are pretty powerful, if you took the Cowboy perk, and I'm not aware of vanilla weapons that use the same ammo.

 

There are the brush gun, the trail carbine, the cowboy repeater, the various smgs, the Survivalist's Rifle, assault rifles, and others.

Edited December 31, 2013 by katamariguy

[Moraelin]

Well, if all else failse, get a mod that adds a bigger gun.

 

E.g., this one has two full auto laser pistols: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/45273/?

 

The heavy one does quite a bit of damage. Especially if you take some perks for it.

[FiftyTifty]

What?

 

You'll eventually ruin your gun from use and/or run out of ammo. Then you gotta grab whatever is lying around and whatnot. Sometimes, you just have to survive with that 9mm pistol.

[Longknife]

Logistics.

 

Pistols are there to help you conserve on ammo for your rifle, nothing more. For that reason, any pistol with a heavy ammo type is just plain impractical, whereas the lightweight ones with high chance of crit (Lucky, Maria, That Gun) do the job best since their ammo types are common and cheap. Those three are typically easy and cheap to repair, easy and cheap to find ammo for them and there's a high chance to crit with them so you can end up doing as much damage as your rifle every second shop. And of course, obviously pistols have far more use in hardcore mode.

 

I never touch the flashy ones like the Ranger Sequoia, ALSID or Lil' Devil, simply because those attempt to be main weapons rather than sidearms, but they simply can't compare to actual rifles in that regard.

[flamenx01]

*Pistols tend to have a lower carry weight so you can carry a few spares to keep you pistol well maintained.
*Pistols tend to have a lower action point cost in VATS than a rifle of equivalent damage.
*Pistols also let you run quicker with it drawn than rifles do
*There is perks like run and gun and the professional that can boost how effective a pistol is.
*You can smuggle most of them in casinos
*Quite a few of the pistols can be silenced (good for sneak attack criticals)

[gmg2dave]

On top of all the reasons mentioned above, there is the need for something useful for killing small things. Who wants to waste 45-70 ammo on a molerat or a radroach? There are plenty of enemies out there that become more annoying than dangerous, but that nonetheless need to be dealt with. A 9mm pistol is perfect for killing them, and ammo is plentiful for it.