The Pistol is Duke's trademark, and (arguably) his weakest weapon. Duke has used this weapon in almost each game since Duke Nukem 3D. It is usually accurate and shoots fast, but is not automatic and needs to be frequently reloaded with its low magazines. The Pistol has several variations in Duke Nukem games, like the Desert Eagle or the M1911 and became one of Duke's most symbolic guns.
The Pistol is a dark grey handgun. It is invariably the first weapon the player will use/find in each game.
The Pistol has a high rate of fire, but each of its magazines only hold 12 rounds, meaning it needs to be reloaded, which takes time. It also has a high accuracy and can be used to shoot switch buttons in the game.
Even though they do not use Pistols, Assault Troopers and Assault Captains will occasionally drop ammo for the Pistol when they are killed. They are known to be 9mm PAK.
The player starts with 48 bullets, the same as an new picked-up weapon.
The Pistol is very accurate, which makes it perfect for shooting buttons at a distance.
If you want to shoot an enemy in front of you without hurting the other ones, it is best to use the pistol.
As the first weapon the player will have, due to lots of ammo being available and the player likely preferring to use stronger weapons, the Pistol will almost always have lots of ammo, in case it is ever needed as a backup.
The Pistol reloads when the ammo count is a multiple of 12. Individual magazine ammo counts do not exist, so it is not possible to be carrying around multiple magazines with a couple of rounds in each of them. Any magazines not in the Pistol will have 12 rounds in them.
If you know you only have a couple of rounds left before you need to reload the Pistol, it may be wise to waste them before going into battle, so that you won't be forced to reload (which takes valuable time) almost as soon as you encounter an enemy.
Strangely, the Pistol maximum ammunition amount (200) is not a multiple of each magazine amount (12). In Duke Nukem 64, it has been changed to 192.
The game has an unused ammo for Pistol (48/AMMOLOTS) which adds 48 of ammo to the player. The same quote as the ammo magazine is used. There is no present graphic image for the tile.
In Duke Nukem 3D, the pistol resembles a Glock 17. In Duke Nukem 64, it resembles a Colt 1911 pistol. In Time to Kill and Manhattan Project, the pistol is a golden Desert Eagle. A possibility is that Duke's pistol is actually a Hi-Point C9 9mm firearm.
Some of Duke's pistols have a Pistol Laser Mount for better accuracy/or used as crosshair in the games.
The LameDuke pistol is surprisingly similar to the final game. The only real difference between it and the final pistol is that the LameDuke version has a laser sight on it that points to a target. This was probably removed when the crosshair was added, as a laser sight on it does the same thing as a crosshair does.
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