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CS 1.6 Pistols Guide — All 6 Sidearms Compared

Glock, USP, P228, Desert Eagle, Dual Elites, Five-Seven — every pistol in Counter-Strike 1.6 with damage, mag size, price and when to buy each.

Updated: 2026-07-30

Every round in CS 1.6 starts with a pistol. Even on full-buy rounds, pistols end up mattering — you'll drop your primary to buy armor, run out of ammo mid-fight, or need the round-winning burst from a Deagle to finish someone.

Six pistols total. Two are the free starters. Four are buyable upgrades. Here's the full breakdown.

The starters

Glock-18 (Terrorist)

  • Real gun: Glock 18C
  • Team: Terrorist starting sidearm (free every round)
  • Magazine: 20 rounds (largest starter mag)
  • Reserve: 120
  • Base chest damage: ~30 (low)
  • Special: 3-round burst mode — press secondary attack to toggle
  • Movement: 250 units/sec

The Glock's headshot damage is enough to kill unhelmeted enemies with 2-3 head-hits. Its 20-round mag makes it forgiving on pistol rounds — you can miss a lot. Burst mode is situational: useful for close-range panic sprays, near-useless past 15 metres.

USP-45 (Counter-Terrorist)

  • Real gun: H&K USP .45 Tactical
  • Team: Counter-Terrorist starting sidearm (free every round)
  • Magazine: 12 rounds
  • Reserve: 100
  • Base chest damage: ~34
  • Special: Toggleable silencer — press secondary attack
  • Movement: 250 units/sec

The USP is more accurate than the Glock and hits harder per bullet. The silencer is one of the game's most underrated tools — it doesn't reduce damage meaningfully but makes CT pistol rounds much stealthier. USP head-hits on unhelmeted Ts frequently one-shot.

The buyable pistols

P228

  • Real gun: SIG-Sauer P228
  • Team: Both
  • Price: $600
  • Magazine: 13 rounds
  • Reserve: 52
  • Base chest damage: ~40
  • Headshot: Kills unhelmeted enemies in one shot

The P228 is the underrated pistol. Slightly stronger than the USP/Glock, cheap enough to buy on eco rounds, and packs the same one-shot-headshot potential vs unhelmeted enemies. If you're saving money but want an upgrade over the free sidearm, the P228 is the answer.

Desert Eagle (.50 AE)

  • Real gun: IMI Desert Eagle Mark XIX
  • Team: Both
  • Price: $650
  • Magazine: 7 rounds
  • Reserve: 35
  • Base chest damage: ~54
  • Headshot: One-shot kill even against helmet at close-mid range

The round-winner. The Deagle is the only pistol that reliably one-taps helmeted enemies. Its downside is the tiny 7-round mag, brutal recoil (worst of any pistol), and hefty per-shot muzzle climb.

Deagle strategy: hold your crosshair at head height, stand still, click once. If you miss, wait ~250 ms before clicking again — the recoil recovery is punishing.

The Deagle is the only pistol that AWPers routinely carry as backup — it kills at any range the AWP does, and the mag holds enough for 1-2 close-quarters emergencies.

Dual Elites (Beretta 96 Elite II)

  • Real gun: Beretta 96 Elite II (dual-wielded)
  • Team: Terrorist only
  • Price: $800
  • Magazine: 30 rounds total (2 × 15)
  • Reserve: 120
  • Base chest damage: ~36

The T-side "spray pistol". Larger magazine than the P228 but worse accuracy and much slower reload. Popular on Terrorist eco rounds where you're rushing a bombsite with 4 teammates and volume of fire matters more than precision. Not competitive-tier.

Five-Seven

  • Real gun: FN Five-seveN
  • Team: Counter-Terrorist only
  • Price: $750
  • Magazine: 20 rounds
  • Reserve: 100
  • Base chest damage: ~30
  • Special: High armor penetration — bullets pass through kevlar with less damage loss

The Five-Seven is the CT-side answer to the Dual Elites — bigger mag than USP/P228, and its high armor penetration means it hits kevlar+helmet enemies harder than most pistols. Not as popular as the Deagle for round-winning but a solid pistol-round upgrade.

Which pistol to buy on eco

Standard competitive eco-round decisions:

  1. Full save — keep your USP/Glock (free). Save money for next round.
  2. Half-save — buy Deagle ($650) if you have a defensive spot.
  3. Semi-eco / anti-eco — buy P228 ($600) + kevlar ($650) = $1,250 total for a much more survivable position.
  4. Terrorist rush eco — Dual Elites ($800) for 4-5 players storming a bombsite together.
  5. CT retake eco — Five-Seven ($750) + kevlar for the extra armor penetration.

Pistol round meta

Pistol round = the first round of each half, everyone starts at $800.

Standard buys:

  • Terrorist pistol round — Kevlar + Deagle + defusal? no, T can't buy defuse. Or: Kevlar + 2 flashes for a coordinated rush. Or: keep Glock + kevlar + smoke.
  • CT pistol round — Kevlar + defuse kit + USP silenced. The CT's advantage on pistol round is armor + silencer + defusal.

Whoever wins pistol round gets a $3,500 boost that domino-effects into round 2's "anti-eco" advantage. In competitive CS, the first round matters enormously.

Pistol movement

All pistols move at the same 250 units/sec — same as the knife. This is faster than any primary weapon. On eco rounds where you're saving your primary, you're the fastest-moving player on the server, which changes what angles you can play.

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