Starfield Unique Pistol Tier List

Collecting rare gear with some of the best weapon and armor effects is arguably the true endgame of Starfield. While players may not be able to craft their own gear, there are a few guaranteed ways to encounter some seriously powerful loot, such as the unique weapons in Starfield.

While pistols generally make for great backup weapons, some of Starfield’s unique pistols are strong enough to use as primary weapons. Between their stealth capabilities, ammo efficiency, light travel size, and overall utility, players may want to always keep a trusty sidearm on them, and there are some great options among the unique pistols in Starfield.

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S-Tier

Memento Mori

It comes with three unique weapon effects, as well as the Explosive Rounds mod attachment, so this weapon essentially has four weapon effects. On their own, these effects aren’t exactly overpowered, but all together, this weapon is a powerful package.

Trickshot

The Trickshot features high base damage as well as the ability to occasionally fire two shots at once, which amounts to a powerful weapon that is also extremely efficient with ammo. Although it’s not a great option for being sneaky, players who regularly carry around a pistol anyway should consider adding this weapon to their collection.

The Zapper

High capacity, fast fire rate, and cheap ammo mean that players can put this weapon’s electricity damage to good use. While it’s not an overpowered weapon in terms of damage output, this weapon’s utility can be extremely useful, especially when equipped in the hands of one of the companion characters in Starfield, whether the companion is proficient with pistols or not.

The Prime

The base weapon that the Prime is built on is a relatively strong pistol, which makes the Penetrating Rounds mod attachment overkill for this weapon. It also has the Elemental weapon effect, which overall offers a powerful and enjoyable weapon to use.

Marathon Pistol

This lightweight, silenced pistol is a great choice for stealth builds in Starfield despite not having any damage-oriented weapon effects. Stealth can be considerably difficult in the beginning before players invest in stealth-related skill points in Starfield, so this weapon can go a long way to making up for some of the difficulty curves in this context.

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A-Tier

Ace Sidearm

The Ace Sidearm is likely one of the first unique weapons that players will encounter after the introduction of Starfield’s main story, assuming they choose to spend the credits for it. Since this weapon can be found early on, this naturally makes it a good weapon for getting through the early game, although it still holds up on higher levels, assuming that players haven’t found a better replacement by that point.

Ambassador and Elegance

The Elegance is fairly identical to the ambassador, except the Elegance is a vendor item and not a missable side objective from a quest. These pistols are generally fun weapons to use, although it isn’t always practical to capitalize on their projectiles’ piercing capabilities. One of the best case uses for weapons with piercing projectiles is in the small interiors of boarding enemy ships in Starfield. However, it may be a better idea to bring a shotgun to these kinds of fights, instead of a pistol.

Keelhauler

Although the Keelhauler comes with three separate weapon effects, they are each arguably lackluster compared to what are considered the meta weapon effects in Starfield. It’s still a strong weapon, although there are better-performing unique pistols out there.

B-Tier

Radburn

The Radioactive weapon effect combined with the Whitehot rounds mod attachment makes for a fun weapon to use. The Eon pistol base weapon of this unique gun is one of the weakest pistol types in Starfield, but this unique weapon arguably makes up for that with its additional traits.

Street Sweeper

The utility of this weapon isn’t quite as effective as the ability for the Zapper’s electricity to stun enemies, but the Street Sweeper still sports a high enough capacity and fire rate that generally make activating the weapon’s Bleed damage fairly consistent to pull off. At the same time though, the base weapon of this unique pistol is fairly underwhelming in terms of damage, so between the two, the Zapper unique pistol is a better choice.

The Mutineer and The Spacer

The Space Adept effect can be hit or miss, but considering these weapons are pistols, it won’t take up much inventory space for players to haul it around in their inventory or stash it in the captain’s quarters of the player’s ships in Starfield to save it for a rainy day. The main difference between these two weapons is that the Mutineer is a ballistic gun and the Spacer is a laser gun.

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C-Tier

Short Circuit

The Short Circuit is an anti-robot stealth pistol. It’s a decent utility weapon for what it offers, but at the same time, it’s far from being the best at what it does, between its strengths against robots and its stealth capabilities.

Unfair Advantage

Naturally obtaining this weapon depends on the player’s faction allegiance in a long questline. However, the alternative weapon that players can earn instead of this weapon is arguably a better reward. Given that this weapon is almost identical to another unique pistol that is much easier to get, the Radburn, players should consider collecting the Tempest unique rifle instead of this weapon during the Crimson Fleet questline.

Vampire’s Sidearm

This weapon sounds way better than it is, although it’s still a handy tool to carry around since pistols alone generally won’t make players over-encumbered in Starfield. Swapping to any Med Theft weapon to finish off an enemy is a great habit that will reward players with more medical supplies than usual.

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D-Tier

Deadeye and Ember

These two pistols have a distinct name and a custom paint job, but they lack a weapon effect, so they are better off as collector’s items in Starfield instead of viable weapons. These weapons are still plenty powerful on their own, but without any special effects, they ultimately fall short of most weapons.

Sir Livingstone’s Pistol

Although the rarity of this unique weapon makes it a collector’s item, it doesn’t quite hold up to the other unique weapons in Starfield‘s late-game difficulty considering that it lacks a special weapon effect.

Solace

Solace is another unique weapon that unfortunately doesn’t come with any weapon effects. For the price that players have to spend to get this weapon, it’s only worth collecting for Starfield completionists.

Starfield

Released

September 6, 2023

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

20 Hours

X|S Enhanced

Yes

File Size Xbox Series

101 GB (November 2023)

Metascore

86