Pistols are a family of small one-handed guns.
Borderlands
While pistols can be useful to all four character classes, they are a trademark weapon for Mordecai, who has an entire skill tree and several Class Mods dedicated to their mastery.
Pistols comprise two distinct families.
- Repeater Pistols (including machine pistols) have a higher rate of fire and greater magazine capacity, but inflict less damage per shot.
- Revolvers have a lower rate of fire and much smaller magazine capacity, but inflict greater damage per shot, and are generally more accurate.
The two families use different varieties of ammunition, but share a single Weapon proficiency. Mordecai's Gunslinger talents apply equally to both families.
The compact nature of pistols differentiates them from other kinds of weapon loot. Pistols are small enough to be swallowed whole by Skags and hungry Zombies, thus they can appear as loot in a Skag pile, or regurgitated by a certain talkative Zombie as a possible reward for his missions. Weapon chests (either red, white, or Crimson Lance) can contain up to four pistols per shelf, whereas other weapons are limited to one or two per shelf. Pistols can also be found in lockers.
The small size of pistols allows Lance Defenders to fire them with one hand, their other hand being occupied by their riot shield. Pistols are also very common among bandits, especially Thugs.
Borderlands 2
Pistols are also present as a basic armament in Borderlands 2. Unlike any other weapon type, they are made by all manufacturers.
- Bandit: Bandit pistols boast large magazine sizes; however, their lackluster stats overall make them the worst manufacturer in most situations.
- Dahl: Dahl pistols are semi-automatic when fired from the hip and fire bursts when aiming down the sights.
- Hyperion: Hyperion pistols are ideal for run-and-gun gameplay due to their excellent accuracy when fired continuously.
- Jakobs: Jakobs pistols are semi-automatic but may be fired very rapidly. They also offer a higher critical hit bonus than other pistols.
- Maliwan: Maliwan pistols have elemental damage, but suffer from the major drawback of consuming double ammunition.
- Tediore: Tediore pistols have mediocre stats overall, but their quick reload speed means frequently flying explosive guns.
- Torgue: Torgue pistols deal more damage than any other pistol due to their hidden explosive damage bonus. However, the gyrojets they fire travel slower than projectile bullets.
- Vladof: Vladof pistols offer great rates of fire, often rivaling those of SMGs.