Pistol

This article is about the weapon from Wolfenstein 3D. For other uses, see Pistol (disambiguation).

Pistol
HUD Picture

The Pistol is a weapon used in Wolfenstein 3D. In the official Wolfenstein 3D games, the player starts with one and the Knife, and will spawn with it after dying. The Pistol will only fire one bullet every time the fire button is pressed, and cannot be held down to quickly fire more shots. It will be a player's primary weapon until they pick up a Machine Gun or Chain Gun.

Strategies

The Pistol is surprisingly useful against groups of Guards. Against small groups (1-4), stay back and begin tapping the fire key. With larger groups (5+), get on the other side of a door and pick them off at they come through the doorway in a single-file line.

Against a single SS, make sure there's a good amount of distance between the both of you before attacking. Even though the pistol gets weaker the farther away your target is, the SS' accuracy will decrease and his shots won't do as much damage as well, thus nullifying the advantages his Machine Gun has over your Pistol. The same goes for single Mutants and Officers.

Don't even think about taking on groups of SS, Officers, or Mutants with the Pistol. The Pistol's semi-automatic nature makes it worthless as a crowd controller, and you will end up dead long before you can put a dent in a group.

Once you get a Machine Gun, the Pistol becomes obsolete.

The Pistol in the SNES, Mac and 3DO ports.

The Pistol in the Jaguar port.

Notes

• The pistol is the only non-rapid-fire gun in the game.

Trivia

• The pistol in the original PC release is stated to be a Walther P38.
• The Mission packs' version looks like a Walther PP.
• The pistol in the Mac Family appears to be a Luger.
• The pistol in the Jaguar port uses the Doom pistol graphic which is based on the Beretta 92FS pistol.