Pistols in Battlefield 6 aren’t quite as valuable as they were in some of the previous games, but if you ever need to defend yourself in times when your primary weapon is unusable, you can always rely on these sidearms to give you a fighting chance.
The good thing about the pistols in Battlefield 6 is that they don’t require much time investment in order to be useful. They’re perfectly serviceable by default, and since most players won’t be using handguns as their main weapons, we’ve ranked each of the game’s pistols according to how reliable they are out of the box.
Best Pistols in Battlefield 6
- M44 Rex
- M45A1
- P18
- ES 5.7
There are four pistols in Battlefield 6 at the time of the game’s launch, and out of the available choices, the M44 Rex is arguably the best one to use for situations that call for a sidearm. The rest perform just fine (albeit with caveats of their own), but the M44 is easily the most lethal out of them all when it comes to dealing with an emergency in close quarters across all of BF6’s maps.
M44 Rex
This pistol is a revolver, and if you’ve played past Battlefield games that had similar weapons, you already know what to expect. The M44 blasts targets within 15 meters for a whopping 60 damage to the chest and 90 to the head, which means that no matter where you hit, you’ll be taking a target down in just two shots. If you manage to level this pistol up to Rank 24, you can equip the Hollow Point attachment to bump your headshot damage up to 105, guaranteeing an instant kill.
Of course, the main downsides of the M44 are its ammo capacity, fire rate, and high skill floor relative to the other pistols. You absolutely need to have good aim when using this weapon, as missing a single shot can send you back to the respawn screen. However, hitting targets within the 15-meter mark isn’t that difficult in practice, and if you can land a clean headshot with Hollow Points equipped, you can beat players using even the best weapons in BF6 (shotguns included).
M45A1
The M45A1 is the bridge between the M44 Rex and the rest of the pistols. At very close ranges, it can kill enemies in 3 shots to the chest, making it very lethal during times when enemies get the jump on you. This lethality drops down to 4 shots to kill at 20 meters, which is still quite impressive for a semi-auto pistol.
The only issue with the M45A1 is its magazine size. By default, it only has a 7-round magazine, which can be extended to 11 rounds once you reach Rank 9 with the weapon. Like the M44, you’re going to have trouble using this pistol if you like spamming your shots, but if you learn how to pace yourself, you’ll get more value out of this gun.
P18
The P18 isn’t particularly special. It’s average at best, though it’s all one ever really needs in a pistol. Its fire rate is fairly fast, it has good hipfire accuracy, and it can kill opponents in 4 shots to the chest at very close ranges. The P18 gets the job done more often than not, and unlike the two previous pistols, this one doesn’t need a great deal of skill to use.
If you don’t really care much about using the best pistol in BF6, then the P18 is more than enough to keep you covered. Just put an extended mag and a laser sight on it, and you’re good to go no matter where you are.
ES 5.7
The ES 5.7 is the complete opposite of the M44 and M45A1. Instead of precision, this pistol is best used when spam-fired straight into an enemy’s chest. It has virtually no recoil, making follow-up shots extremely easy to hit, and with its base magazine size of 20, you can afford to miss your shots without running out of ammo as quickly.
Unfortunately, the ES 5.7 has the lowest damage value out of all pistols in the game. While it compensates for that by having the fastest fire rate, it is still the slowest-killing secondary weapon in Battlefield 6, even within its ideal engagement range. This pistol is labaled as a Medium Range gun, so keep that in mind the next time you get forced to pull this pistol out in close quarters.
