Resident Evil 4 Which is the best handgun: Blacktail or Red9?

[Steve]

Hey guys,

Wifey bought me the Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4 earlier today, and I'm keen to get stuck in as soon as possible. It's been a while since I last booted up my old copy of RE4, so I'm a little foggy as to which would be the best handgun to focus my attention on. I know you don't get to unlock either the Blacktail or Red9 from the Merchant's shop until Chapter 2 (or is it Chapter 3...?), but I'll be holding onto as much gold as possible and ditching the default handgun at the first opportunity.

I remember the Punisher being useless, aside from serving as a free magazine upon collecting all the Blue Medals, so not too worried about that option.

From what I remember, the Blacktail was better from a speed standpoint, with faster reloads and firing rates, but the Red9 had huge stopping power on its stand. I'm thinking that, combined with a standard shotgun as a reserve, the Blacktail would be the better choice during the early game. Which one did you favour and why?

 

[Rain611]

Neither, IMO. The exclusive upgrade for the first handgun you get is a 5x greater crit hit chance, which greatly outdoes the exclusive for the blacktail or the red 9 imo, though if you would rather have the here and now approach going instead, I would go for the red 9, since it's exclusive upgrade makes it a powerhouse. So, standard handgun is my favorite and I usually upgrade it and the s75 until I get to the castle and forget about other weapons. Once I get to the castle I sell the shotgun for the riot gun and start upgrading that, but only after buying all possible upgrades for the handgun and s75. I will stop now since I'm wandering off topic

 

[Jen]

My personal preference was the Blacktail, but that's because I prefer a faster firing rate. When it's fully upgraded I think that because of the rate of fire, the Blacktail does end up being the more powerful. I think it also has better capacity. If you're bothered about inventory space, the Blacktail is smaller and so you can carry more ammo. However, it does cost more to fully upgrade, and the Red9 does have better handling than the Blacktail but only if the stock is equipped. I think it largely depends on what your play style and personal preference is.

 

[Maestro]

My favourite handgun from RE4 was always Red 9. Best firepower is all what I need, I usually reloading my gun after every shot (if I have a few seconds free, of course), so reloading speed is not so important to me (it is rare situation when I'm out of ammo during fight), capacity is also not so important, because two-three shots are enought for most enemy. But, as Jen said, all depends from your playing style

 

[KevinStriker]

I actually use both the Blacktail and the Red9. If I'm using a Wiimote, I definitely prefer the Red9 because of its 6.5 Damage output and it blows off most heads in 1 or 2 shots. If I'm using a Classic or GameCube controller, however, I use the Blacktail for its fast firing rate because using the laser pointer means I can't often aim for the head in a tight pinch.

 

[Spikeyroxas]

Re9
Upgrade this baby to "exclusive" and it becomes the most powerful gun in the game
Firepower : 50 !

 

[KevinStriker]

Re9
Upgrade this baby to "exclusive" and it becomes the most powerful gun in the game
Firepower : 50 !

6.5 in later versions.

 

[Spikeyroxas]

6.5 in later versions.

Awww really?
I swear my ps3 version was 50 because that's the only version I have ever played.
Oh well
It's still a cool looking handgun, and luis uses it too

 

[KevinStriker]

Awww really?
I swear my ps3 version was 50 because that's the only version I have ever played.
Oh well
It's still a cool looking handgun, and luis uses it too

You know what? I have no clue why the Red9's exclusive upgrade is so inconsistent. In some versions in some regions, it's 6.5, in others it's 5.0. GAAAH

 

[Spikeyroxas]

Heh
Well I guess the Red9 is rather pot luck at this stage in terms of final firepower

 

[Steve]

Neither, IMO. The exclusive upgrade for the first handgun you get is a 5x greater crit hit chance, which greatly outdoes the exclusive for the blacktail or the red 9 imo, though if you would rather have the here and now approach going instead, I would go for the red 9, since it's exclusive upgrade makes it a powerhouse. So, standard handgun is my favorite and I usually upgrade it and the s75 until I get to the castle and forget about other weapons. Once I get to the castle I sell the shotgun for the riot gun and start upgrading that, but only after buying all possible upgrades for the handgun and s75. I will stop now since I'm wandering off topic

It'll be a long while before I'm able to afford the chance to purchase any Exclusive upgrades, but that critical hit bonus does make the default handgun quite appealing again. In truth, during my first however-many playthroughs on the PS2 version (years and years ago), I would rely exclusively on the standard handgun just because I was too stubborn to switch it out and lose all of the upgrades I'd invested in, so I'm not quite ready to return to it yet while it's still so fresh in my mind (despite the 3-5 year gap since playing that version).

I don't really count my more recent playthroughs of the PC version of RE4 (the non-Ultimate HD Edition version) as being a fair assessment for weapon strengths and weaknesses, largely because I use weapon mods that switch out the default weapons for SMGs and machine guns and stuff.

If you're bothered about inventory space, the Blacktail is smaller and so you can carry more ammo. However, it does cost more to fully upgrade, and the Red9 does have better handling than the Blacktail but only if the stock is equipped. I think it largely depends on what your play style and personal preference is.

Ah! I'd forgotten about the ruddy extra inventory space that the Red9 takes up. I'm already having to have to toss the occasional item or two because my suitcase is full to the brim of tat already, so I'll definitely need to bear that in mind until the Merchant starts flogging the large inventory suitcase.

My favourite handgun from RE4 was always Red 9. Best firepower is all what I need, I usually reloading my gun after every shot (if I have a few seconds free, of course), so reloading speed is not so important to me (it is rare situation when I'm out of ammo during fight), capacity is also not so important, because two-three shots are enought for most enemy.

Same. Reloading speed can be helpful, but already-super-fast guns like the Blacktail plateau and reach the point of diminishing returns around the half-way mark of the upgrade ladder That's probably another one of the Blacktail's greatest strengths: it's default speed doesn't require a tremendous amount of additional upgrading, saving us precious pennies for rocket launchers and junk.

 

[Kayowakimono]

I'll go

Hey guys,

Wifey bought me the Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4 earlier today, and I'm keen to get stuck in as soon as possible. It's been a while since I last booted up my old copy of RE4, so I'm a little foggy as to which would be the best handgun to focus my attention on. I know you don't get to unlock either the Blacktail or Red9 from the Merchant's shop until Chapter 2 (or is it Chapter 3...?), but I'll be holding onto as much gold as possible and ditching the default handgun at the first opportunity.

I remember the Punisher being useless, aside from serving as a free magazine upon collecting all the Blue Medals, so not too worried about that option.

From what I remember, the Blacktail was better from a speed standpoint, with faster reloads and firing rates, but the Red9 had huge stopping power on its stand. I'm thinking that, combined with a standard shotgun as a reserve, the Blacktail would be the better choice during the early game. Which one did you favour and why?

I'll go with Blacktail + Silencer but only if u upgrade it to its highest 15

 

[Pistol_Pete]

They're both very good, but in different ways.

I've used both on many, many playthroughs of all difficulties although traditionally red 9 more so.

In a nutshell:
Blacktail is faster/safer easier to respond quickly to threats, red 9 is more efficient/powerful and more likely to get one shots from head or suplex after a leg shot.

Typically I would recommend red 9 on first play through since you get it pretty early on, so you don't have to go through the village with a gimped handgun or drop a bunch of cash you wont see again on upgrading handgun or punisher, additionally you get the amazing exclusive a bit earlier on that the blacktail. Red 9 has the disadvantage of being bigger in the inventory too, however you can easily use it without the stock in a majority of situations.

If your playing new game plus it's pretty much down to personal taste I'd say.

Starter handgun isn't terrible either as very early exclusive is saving grace for island allowing it to hold it's own somewhat versus red and blacktail. Lacks the versatility for taking on masked guys/bosses and setting up the suplex with good inital damage though. Which relegates it to 2nd tier.

Punisher is the only really bad option which just doesn't have the killing power to do well in the later stages of the game, the penetration can be useful occasionally but to get maximum use it pretty much forces you to spam bodyshots for (only) 2ish damage per person which is pretty ineffecient considering red 9 hits 6.5 per shot every time. Besides, shotgun/nades and leon's trusty kick always exist for groups.

 

[KevinStriker]

I gotta say: Red9.

I love the Red9 for its sheer power. The stock is also helpful if I'm using a controller rather than a Wiimote. The firing rate honestly means nothing to me because I'm not using the handgun to fire dozens of quick shots at an enemy closing in on me, I'll save that for my TMP. The small magazine and reload time also doesn't bother me because I reload after every little instance. Shootin' some birds out trees, reload; shooting a couple of villagers in the head, reload; Shoot some treasure out of a tree, reload.

 

[Agent Spike]

Red 9 all the way! Firepower is amazing for a handgun and it looks rad. Blacktail has faster fire rate but I don't care about that since I use a shotgun or TMP for crowd control.

 

[ROCKMAN X]

Why is this even a question? Red9 is the best.. that satisfying sound&firing rate is unrivalled! Red9's firing is not too fast nor too slow making it the most ideal for ammo conversation&aiming... Blacktail's too fast for me and i don't really care about its piercing abilities when i can just switch to shottty anytime.

 

[PierreLeSang]

Finished the game 3 times and always user Red9... It's just super steady and powerful!