Ghost

The Ghost is the standard 500-credit sidearm and, for many players, the default pistol-round pick: a 13-round magazine, a suppressed weapon with no muzzle flash or bullet tracer to give away position, and headshot damage (105 within 30 meters, 87.5 beyond it) that one-taps an unarmored head at any realistic engagement distance.

That one-shot headshot potential at a genuinely cheap price is the whole reason the Ghost has been a pistol-round staple — it delivers rifle-tier one-tap potential to the head for a fraction of a rifle's cost.

It's also, quietly, one of the more forgiving sidearms to reload cancel or reposition with mid-fight, since the semi-automatic fire rate and generous 13-round magazine give more room to disengage after a missed shot than most other pistols allow.

The combination of a real one-shot headshot kill, a 13-round magazine, and being suppressed (no tracer for enemies to trace your position from) makes the Ghost a genuinely complete sidearm for the price — there is very little it does poorly relative to its cost.

Medium wall penetration and moderate body damage (30 per shot within 30 meters) mean it isn't a body-shot weapon the way a Sheriff can be — winning a Ghost duel usually means landing the headshot, not just outlasting an opponent through spray. It also loses outright to any sidearm with genuinely higher per-shot damage in a body-only exchange.

The falloff past 30 meters, while modest, is still enough to matter on a map with genuinely long pistol-round sightlines — a Ghost user shouldn't assume the one-tap holds at absolute maximum engagement distances the way it does at typical pistol-round ranges.

At 500 credits, the Ghost is the most common pistol-round buy for players who want reliable one-tap potential without spending the extra 300 credits a Sheriff costs. It's also a very reasonable buy on an eco round where the team wants a genuine weapon upgrade over the free Classic without spending much.

The savings over a Sheriff can matter directly — 300 fewer credits per player adds up across a full team and can be the difference in reaching a rifle buy one round sooner.

It's also a common choice for a player who'd rather bank the savings toward the following round's rifle buy than commit the extra credits to a Sheriff purely for one round's marginal damage advantage.

The Ghost rewards headshot-focused aim just as much as any rifle — since a body-shot-only fight is a losing proposition against most other sidearms at this price, training to go for the head specifically on pistol rounds pays off more here than almost anywhere else.

Its suppressed nature also makes it a strong choice for a more passive, information-gathering playstyle, since an enemy team has less audio and visual information to work with when tracking where shots came from.

It's a good weapon for holding an off-angle quietly and waiting for a confirmed headshot opportunity rather than contesting a loud, obvious position — the lack of tracer rewards exactly that kind of patient, low-profile play.

Against a Sheriff, the Ghost is behind on raw damage but ahead on magazine size and fire rate — it's a genuinely competitive matchup where landing the first confirmed headshot usually decides the fight either way.

Against a Bandit at longer pistol-round range, the Ghost's falloff is the deciding disadvantage — the Bandit's flatter damage curve holds up better the further the engagement distance stretches.

Against a Frenzy or Classic, the Ghost's one-tap headshot potential is the clear advantage, provided the aim is there to land it — a body-shot-only fight against a full-auto Frenzy is a much closer and riskier proposition.

The suppressed fire and one-tap headshot potential make the Ghost a strong pick for holding a quiet off-angle on a pistol round — a spot where an opponent won't hear or see where a shot came from until it's too late.

On maps with especially long pistol-round sightlines, its falloff past 30 meters is worth remembering — a player expecting to duel at the very edge of typical engagement range may get more consistent value from the flatter-damage Bandit instead.

The lack of a tracer also pays off most on maps with several viable off-angles — a Ghost user willing to rotate between quiet positions rather than holding one obvious spot gets more mileage out of the suppression than on a map with only one realistic angle to hold.

It's also the most common pairing with saved shield credits on a pistol round — since it's cheap enough to leave room for light armor in the same budget, and that extra buffer often matters more for round-to-round survivability than the marginal damage difference against a Sheriff.