Sheriff

The Sheriff is the premium sidearm: a 6-round revolver firing at a slow 4 rounds per second, but with genuinely massive per-shot damage — 159.5 headshot damage within 30 meters and 55 to the body, both far above any other pistol. It one-taps an unarmored head at any range and can kill through body shots alone faster than most other sidearms manage even with a headshot.

High wall penetration puts it in the same category as the sniper rifles for punishing hidden angles, which is unusual for a weapon this cheap — the Sheriff is arguably the single best value-per-credit weapon in the game when it lands.

It's also the sidearm most associated with deciding pistol rounds outright — a single well-placed Sheriff pick can swing an early-round economy advantage for an entire half, which is part of why it carries an outsized reputation relative to its actual price.

The damage output is the whole story — against an armored 150 HP target, the Sheriff can still secure a kill through a small number of body shots alone, something the Ghost and Bandit can't reliably do. High wall penetration adds real utility for punishing common wallbang spots even on a pistol round.

The slow fire rate and small 6-round magazine make it high-risk: a missed shot is expensive both economically and tactically, since there's little room to recover within a single magazine, and the revolver's fire rate leaves a real window of vulnerability after every shot.

The reload is also notably longer than most sidearms, which means a Sheriff user caught with an empty cylinder mid-fight has essentially no recourse — the weapon's entire risk profile is concentrated in that vulnerability window rather than spread evenly across an engagement.

At 800 credits, the Sheriff is the most expensive standard sidearm, and it's usually reserved for pistol rounds and dedicated force-buys where a team is betting on individual duels rather than raw economy. It's a common pick specifically because a single Sheriff pick can single-handedly win an early pistol round through pure one-shot damage.

It's a poor choice for a player without confident aim, since the cost of a miss — both in credits and in the round — is higher than with almost any other sidearm. Teams sometimes stagger who buys a Sheriff on a force round specifically because not every player wants to take on that risk.

It's also a common secondary buy alongside a rifle in some situations, giving a rifle player a genuinely dangerous backup weapon rather than the usual Classic fallback — though this is a real credit commitment on top of the rifle itself and only makes sense with a healthy economy.

The Sheriff rewards the most patient, precise playstyle of any sidearm — pre-aiming head height and taking a single confirmed shot rather than trying to spray or flick between targets, since the slow fire rate punishes a missed follow-up shot badly.

It's a strong pick for anyone who already plays a precision-first style on rifle rounds and wants to carry that same headshot-focused mentality into the pistol economy, where the payoff for landing clean shots is even higher relative to cost.

Against multiple opponents, disengaging after a confirmed kill to reload somewhere safe is usually smarter than trying to fight through a second target with only a few rounds left in the cylinder — the Sheriff wins clean duels far more reliably than it wins extended fights.

Against any other sidearm in a one-on-one duel, the Sheriff is favored on raw damage alone, provided the first shot lands — the real risk is entirely in what happens if it doesn't, since the slow fire rate leaves a genuine window for a Frenzy or Ghost to punish a miss.

Against a full rifle on a force round, the Sheriff can still compete at close-to-medium range, since a landed headshot kills just as fast as a rifle's — but it's a much worse bet at long range, where a rifle's fire rate advantage compounds over multiple shots.

Against another Sheriff, the matchup is close to a coin flip decided entirely by whoever fires first and lands cleanly — there's no real secondary advantage either side can lean on.

High wall penetration makes the Sheriff a genuinely strong pick for pre-firing known thin-cover spots on a pistol round, punishing an opponent who assumes they're safe behind common wallbang material at a price point where most sidearms can't do that at all.

It's most effective held at a range where a single confirmed shot decides the fight — an open lane or a mid-length hallway rather than a chaotic close-quarters scrum where the slow fire rate becomes a liability instead of an asset.