Pistols

General Strategy

Pistols are usually overlooked once players have enough cash to buy any other type of weapon. Often times your sidearm can be the determining factor between life and death in a stale firefight. Switching to your sidearm the instant your primary weapon needs to be reloaded will give you a much better chance of coming out alive.

The worst thing you can do after emptying your clip at a close range enemy is to wait to reload before firing another round. Assuming you've hit him a couple of times, you should switch to the pistol and fire away. You should be able to take down the enemy in the time it would have taken you to reload your primary weapon. Once you neutralize the threat, switch over to the primary weapon and reload. Then reload your sidearm.

When you fire your pistol, take advantage of its semiautomatic nature and try to fire as fast as you can. Try for headshots if you're at close range, otherwise go for the body.

H&K USP45 Tactical

USP buy screen

USP in action

Availability: Terrorists and Counter-terrorists
Cost: $500
Rounds per clip: 12
Rate of fire: 7 rps
Reload time: 2.7 seconds
Avg. damage to unarmored chest: 31 health
Avg. damage to unarmored chest (silenced): 26 health
Avg. damage to unarmored head: 100 health
Avg. damage to unarmored head (silenced): 100 health
Avg. damage to armored chest: 15 health, 8 armor
Avg. damage to armored chest (silenced): 13 health, 7 armor
Avg. damage to armored head: 65 health, 33 armor
Avg. damage to armored head (silenced): 50 health, 25 armor

USP spread

The H&K USP45 is one of the better pistols in the game. It is the default pistol for the CT side, and is a much more powerful than the T's default Glock. As shown in the bullet-spread shot, the USP maintains a fairly high degree of accuracy at high rates of fire. You can add a silencer to your USP with the secondary fire button. The silencer is nice for shooting unsuspecting enemies at close range, but don't expect to surprise more than one person at a time since it takes quite a few shots to take someone down.

The USP is one of several guns in CS that is affected by range. At close range, one shot to an unarmored head will take off all 100 health. With enough distance between you and the enemy, the same shot will leave him with health in the single digits or thereabout.

Glock 18

Glock buy screen

Glock in action

Availability: Terrorists and Counter-terrorists
Cost: $400
Rounds per clip: 20
Rate of fire: 7rps
Reload time: 2.3 Seconds
Avg. damage to unarmored chest: 18 health
Avg. damage to unarmored head: 82 health
Avg. damage to armored chest: 9 health, 4 armor
Avg. damage to armored head: 42 health, 21 armor

Glock spread

The Glock 18 is Gooseman's subtle way of telling America's youth that terrorism sucks. The Glock is the worst gun in Counter-Strike. It is the weakest in terms of damage, and it is not very accurate at long range. Although it is fairly accurate at close range, there isn't much incentive to stick with this weapon. In a pistol duel, the Glock's large clip will outlast most other weapons. Sadly, your opponent will likely kill you before you need to reload.

If you are confident in your aim, the Glock's secondary three shot burst fire is really the way to go at close range. Two bursts to the head will usually secure the kill. You may want to stop the enemy with a shot or two in regular semi-auto mode just to create a still target. Then, switch to burst mode and nail the head.

The stopping power of the Glock can really come in handy for your teammates as well. If you really want to make a fellow sniper happy, touch up his target with a couple of semi-auto Glock shots to make him an easy shot. Run over to the corpse and grab his weapon afterwards.