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"Extra pistol? Might come in handy."
Nick
"I'll grab that pistol!"
Ellis

The P220 Pistol is the backup weapon of the Survivors in Left 4 Dead 2, replacing the M1911 Pistol from Left 4 Dead. It is one of the weapons they can use when knocked down. The Pistol(s) is one of the only weapons that has infinite ammunition. However, they are still limited to a magazine capacity of 15 rounds.

Even though they are meant as emergency weapons, Pistols make great secondaries, or even primaries for Grenade Launcher or shotgun users. They pack a punch larger than that of the M16 Assault Rifle, but smaller than the Combat Rifle, and possess better accuracy than most of the Tier 1 weapons. Pistols will usually spawn on the first level of each campaign. This occurs most frequently on Easy and Normal. However, on Advanced and Expert, they are often not available during the first level.

Dual-Wielding

"Gonna go all akimbo and shit!"
Coach
Pistol dual wield L4D2

Ellis with dual pistols

If a second Pistol is found, it will be a semi-automatic Glock and the two pistols together can be dual-wielded. Second Pistols are placed periodically by the Director but can also be picked up when dropped by a teammate who has taken a Magnum, melee weapon, or has died. Dual pistols double the player's available pistol ammo capacity to 30 rounds and increases the maximum rate of fire from 300 to 600 RPM, thus allowing the player fire so fast as the trigger is pulled. The downside of having two Pistols is that it takes slightly longer to reload, but this delay is marginal and does not affect gameplay much, the accuracy for both pistols will slightly decrease, and there will be higher recoil. When dual-wielded, like the M1911 Pistol, the left-hand Pistol has no light. These pistols are the only weapons in the game that can be dual-wielded.

Tactics

The single pistol is rarely worthwhile unless you're determined to use a shotgun in the early game or are confident enough in your abilities and the director to give you a second one en-route. Once doubled, the pistols become a viable weapon for a shotgun user to traverse the field with, switching to the shotgun when targets begin to close in.

No pistol makes a great fallback weapon when you're empty and surrounded, so it's always better to be leading with the pistol and falling back on primary, not vice-versa. However, the dual pistols are more effective than the Magnum in tight quarters against many Common, and in normal difficulty can drop larger numbers of Horde before reloading. The downside being that they aren't effective against most Specials, so the prospects of blasting a Hunter off someone in a timely fashion are not good unless it's a very clear shot.

These pistols rely on rapid, constant, and accurate semi-automatic fire so fatigue or stress can quickly sneak up on an inexperienced user and cause them to be ineffective down the stretch. As the Director ramps up the intensity through the middle levels the pistols also begin to do less and less against increasing Tanks, Chargers, and large swarms of Horde, making them desirable in the early game but less viable later on. In higher difficulties the damage from the Pistols becomes negligible and usage is really only seen amongst dedicated head-shotters that can compensate for the lack of power.

If a survivor is armed with a shotgun, a sniper rifle, or he/she is running low on primary ammunition, it is advised to switch to these pistol(s) and engage enemies at nearly any range, provided the user is crouching. Dual-wielding pistols will greatly compensate for a shotgun's low rate of fire and are reliable mainly at close range and a sniper rifle's low rate of fire and low moving accuracy. They are also good for killing swarms of common infected at medium range when spraying bullets but this may not apply to special infected in higher difficulties.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Can be dual-wielded for increased firepower and magazine size.
  • When dual-wielded, inflicts higher damage per second than the Magnum (providing the Pistols are fired as fast as possible).
  • Conserves primary ammo in low-threat environments.
  • Has a high rate of fire, firing as fast as a player can pull the trigger.
  • Has a magazine of 15, 30 if dual-wielded, and has infinite ammo.
  • Has a fast reload.
  • Deals relatively little friendly fire damage.
  • When dual-wielded, it can kill most Special Infected quickly.
  • Particularly handy for people who can easily attain headshots against common infected as the large ammo pool can allow them to easily thin down incoming hordes with accurate shots before needing to reload.

Cons

  • Can require up to 4 body shots to take down Common Infected on harder difficulties.
  • Inflicts very low damage on the Witch and some other Special Infected, such as the Charger.
  • Much less effective when incapacitated than the Magnum (due to massive accuracy decrease and slowed firing speed).
  • Melee weapons are often superior to the pistols at close range.
  • Has a longer reload time if there are less than 2 rounds in the pistol(s), especially when dual wielded.
  • Has a relatively high recoil, even at medium range.

Behind the scenes

Originally, the P220 pistol had the same firing and reload animations as the M1911 Pistol. Early videos display this.

Notes

  • Upon picking up a melee weapon, Survivors drop their Pistol (if they are dual-wielding, they will drop both Pistols). However, when they are incapacitated, they still pull out a Pistol, and once revived, the Pistol is gone and the melee weapon is still in the secondary slot. While illogical, Valve has stated that this was done for gameplay reasons, as an incapacitated survivor without any sort of firepower would be too easy to kill.
  • The P220 Pistol actually does not look at all like the real life SIG Sauer P220 that it claims to be, but it appears to be a composite of SIG Sauer pistols. It has the slide and barrel from a P228 mounted on a P220 frame, with an adjustable rear sight. It also seems to have the safety mechanism from the SAO version of the P220, and it has a custom two-tone finish.
  • The Glock is based on a composite blend of Glock pistols. The shape of the fore-end of the slide is the shape of some of the subcompact models such as the Glock 26, while the dimensions of the Glock itself have the slide length of a standard frame like a Glock 17 but the grip seems stunted and off a slightly smaller compact model like a Glock 19.
  • Since the left-hand Pistol does not have a flashlight, the Glock is the only shooting weapon to not have a flashlight.
  • Strangely, if you pick up a P220 Pistol that another Survivor drops when they pick up a melee weapon or a Magnum, it changes to a Glock. In addition, if you pick up a Glock when you have a melee weapon or Magnum, it changes to a P220.
  • When a Survivor using a melee weapon is downed and pulls out a Pistol, once they are revived, the Pistol quite simply disappears. It is not in the holster, nor present anywhere else on their person.
  • Also, it's worth noting that, unlike Left 4 Dead, dead Survivors will not drop their second pistol after death. Even more odd is fact that if the Survivor is defibrillated, after revival he/she has only one pistol instead of both.
  • When using Dual Pistols, the sounds of the two sidearms are swapped - The P220 gets the Glock's firing sound, while the Glock gets the firing sound used by the P220.
  • The P220 reuses Left 4 Dead's pistol HUD icons, regardless of its different appearance.
  • In Realism Mode, using a P220 on a Common Infected can cause body deformation. This may be because in real life, a pistol can blast holes in its target. Of note is that the intro for Left 4 Dead shows Zoey shooting a Common Infected's head off with her Pistol which cannot be done otherwise, unless a Common using any of the first game's models, whether Realism or not, receives a bullet to the head.
  • Reloading from empty will be slightly longer than if reloading with ammo remaining in the magazine. If dual-wielding pistols and at least 2 bullets remain unfired, the reload time will be much faster than a dry reload.
    • Even if you fire only one bullet from one of the pistols, the user will always reload both pistols.
  • If you shoot all but one round when dual-wielding the Pistols, and you switch to your primary weapon and back to Pistols, after you cock the guns, the P220 will cock itself back because it has no rounds left.
  • Even though the P220 appears to be equipped with a laser sight (just below the flashlight), it is never actually used in-game.
  • In Left 4 Dead 2, the P220 and Magnum Pistol are the only weapons in the game with an "empty reload animation", which means the reload is slightly longer if reloading from an empty magazine.
  • While incapacitated, if you hold the melee key while shooting, your gunshots make no noise and the pistol(s) do(es) double damage. This is a bug which has yet to be fixed.
  • In the beta version of Left 4 Dead 2, the P220 had a lighter color scheme. It also reused the same reloading animation as Left 4 Dead's M1911s.
  • When firing with two pistols with sv_infinite_ammo enabled, one pistol will play the recoil animation while the other one will have a muzzle flash. Which pistol does the animation depends on the last pistol that was fired before infinite ammo was enabled.

Gallery

External Links

  1. Pistol in action
  1. Dual pistols in action
Weapons
Primary Weapons
Tier 1 Chrome invert Chrome Shotgun / Pump invert Pump Shotgun / MP5 Invert MP5 / Mac10 invert Silenced Submachine Gun / Uzi invert Submachine Gun
Tier 2 Ak invert AK-47 / Scar invert Combat Rifle / M16 invert M-16 Assault Rifle / SIG Invert SG 552 / Auto invert Auto Shotgun / Spas12 invert Combat Shotgun / AWSM Invert AWP / Hunting invert Hunting Rifle / Steyr Invert Scout / G3 invert Sniper Rifle
Special Tier Grenade launcher inverted Grenade Launcher / M60Icon M60 Machine Gun
Secondary Weapons
Sidearms Pistol inverted M1911 Pistol / Deagle invert Magnum Pistol / Pistol l4d2 inverted P220 Pistol
Melee Weapons Bat invert Baseball Bat / Cricket invert Cricket Bat / Crowbar invert Crowbar / Axe invert Fireaxe / Pan invert Frying Pan / GolfClubIcon Golf Club / Guitar invert Guitar / Katana invert Katana / Knife Invert Knife / Machete invert Machete / Baton invert Nightstick / Icon pitchfork inverted Pitchfork / Icon shovel inverted Shovel
Special Tier Chainsaw invert Chainsaw
Other Weapons
Grenades Bile invert Bile Bomb / Molotov inverted Molotov Cocktail / Pipebomb invert Pipe Bomb
Upgrades L4D2 ammo explosive Explosive Ammunition / L4D2 ammo incendiary Incendiary Ammunition / Laser sight HUD invert Laser Sight
Fixed Weapons MMG Icon Heavy Machine Gun / Minigun icon Minigun
Items
Usable Items Explosive Barrel HUD invert Explosive barrel / Fireworks icon Fireworks / Gas canister HUD invert Gas can / Oxytank icon Oxygen tank / Propane tank icon Propane tank
Special Items Cola Cola / Gnome icon Gnome Chompski
Featured in both games / L4D1-exclusive / L4D2-exclusive (Counter-Strike weapons / PC-exclusive)
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