Pistols are one of the weapon types added to V Rising during the Gloomrot update. Players can now use these guns to run around the world and shooting at their foes. If you’re looking to use V Rising’s pistols, then we teach you how to unlock them, the various recipes you can get, the unique version, and the builds you can run.

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Here’s a closer look at everything you need to know about pistols in V Rising, feature unlock, builds, and more.

Unlocking Pistols¶

To get pistols, you first need to defeat Jade the Vampire Hunter. Jade is a boss who wanders around the Dunley Farmlands, so she’s never really in a consistent spot where you can locate her. So, mark her with your V Blood tracking tool, and go look for her around the farmland pathways. Map Marker

When you find Jade, be aware she is a level 64 V-Boss. You need to be a similar item level to ensure you can damage her effectively and survive her onslaught of attacks. Her main attacks are her silence pistol skill, along with the high-damage bomb. She’ll also do burst pistol rounds at 50% HP, a one shot one kill announcement, which you need to get in cover to avoid and be aware of her invisibility and relocation. Once she’s dead, you’ll get the pistol recipe.

The remaining recipes you’ll get as you naturally defeat more bosses, or get recipes from vendors, unlocking new materials, and reaching endgame. You can even get a unique pistol by completing end-game vendor rolls or completing rift events. More on that later.

Pistol Skills¶

Here are the basic skills you will use in V Rising, alongside tips and combos you can use to set them up efficiently. The skills are as follows:

• Primary combo - Fire three pistol attacks, with the first having a 0.5-second cast time, with a delay between the next two shots. The first round deals more damage, while the other two have slightly less damage but fire more rapidly. The combos takes around 2.15 seconds to complete.
• Fan The Hammer - Fire 10 bullets in a cone over 1.5 seconds. Each bullet deals 25% physical damage and knocks the target backwards. 8 Seconds cooldown.
• Explosive Bullet - Perform a dodge roll and then fire an explosive round, dealing 25% physical damage. The bullet then explodes dealing 125% physical damage in an area and knocks enemies back.

Due to the ranged nature of the pistols, the primary combo has some delay to it to give it some counter-play. However, you can get some solid burst damage by preparing the combo and aiming well.

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Fan the Hammer is one of the pistol skills in V Rising that you can use to deal lots of damage and chain knock-back enemies. Image via Stunlock Studios.

As for the Pistol, the skills of the weapons are designed to disengage opponents while dealing lots of damage. You’ll largely be using an Explosive shot at its max range when and enemies’ dodge is down, then following it up with a Fan The Hammer. This deals around 150% damage of the explosive shot, combined with up to 250% damage with Fan The Hammer. This is a lot of damage for weapon skills. Not to mention you’ll continuously keep enemies disengaged since both weapons skills knock back. So, this weapon is a great tool for dealing with tricky melee enemies with skills or for avoiding gap-closing enemies in PvP, such as the Greatsword dash skills.

Unique Pistol¶

The unique pistol in V Rising is called The Endbringers. These are level 30 item level pistols, which come with modified weapon skills. You will be able to move while casting Fan The Hammer at 40% movement speed, alongside your Fan The Hammer applying Ignite, the mechanic that Chaos Spells apply.

You also get a second cast of Explosive Shot. Landing the shot again will deal 100% physical damage and apply the 250% delayed explosion instantly. You will also apply Ignite to the target.

The Endbringers are a very strong weapon for its ability to deal significant burst damage and make timing your knockbacks and combos significantly easier.

Pistol Build: Recommended Spells¶

So, there’s a few different spells you can use to assist with your pistol gameplay. We’ve got a list of main spells you may consider for your preferred playstyle. Below you’ll find a table of three possible spells we recommend using, there’s more tips on how to use them in the following section, along with more info on potential movement spells and ultimates.

Icon	Spell	Type	Description	Earned Via
	Crystal Lance	Frost	Throws an icy lance that applies chill to enemies and deals 160% magic damage. Crystal lance can also freeze enemy for 4 seconds, with further upgrades to the freeze length by gemming.	Tier 2 Spell Point and up to V Blood level 3.
	Wraith Spear	Illusion	Dash backwards and throws a very long-range unholy spear, dealing 160% magic damage and inflicting Weaken. Subsequent hits deal 75% magic damage, but grant Phantasm stacks.	Cyril the Cursed Smith
	Lightning Ball	Storm	Summons a lightning ball in place for three seconds, dealing 180% magic damage per target, inflicting Static. Ball Lightning cannot exceed more than 350% magic damage on a single target. When the ball expires, it blows up for a further 50% magic damage in an area.	Ziva the Engineer

Glossary:

• Weaken: Weaken your enemy to reduce their damage output by 15% for 5s. In addition, you get a 25% chance to gain Phantasm whenever a weakened target perishes.
• Phantasm: Reduces your spell cooldowns by 1% and grants a 2% chance to reset the cooldown on cast. This effect stacks up to 10 times and is removed once you successfully reset cooldown on cast.
• Static: Electrify your enemy for 5s causing physical damage dealt to them to trigger a shock dealing 10% magic damage.

Pistol Build Tips¶

In general, there’s a few ideas you can use for the build.

Wraith Spear is a long-range skill that can keep you at range with another bounce back. Combine with Explosive Shots to keep enemies at bay. The application of Weakened is also a nice defensive tool to lower an enemy’s damage. The Phantasm stack resets also enable you to cast even more Wraith Spears during extended fights to assist with even more disengage options to stay at range using your pistols.

Crystal Lance is a solid skill to use, as you can freeze or at least chill and slow enemies. Freezing the enemy in place makes it extremely easy to hit Explosive Shot into Fan The Hammer for maximum damage. And then combo your basic attacks with whatever remaining duration is on the frozen enemy.

The other spell we recommend is Ball Lightning. This has the potential to be your highest DPS combo if you can reliably set the combo up correctly. You place a static ball that lasts three seconds, dealing damage and it applies static. If you can place this down, then combo your Fan The Hammer knockbacks to keep them in the Lightning ball AOE effect, you can easily get your damage setup, and multiple Static bonus damage setups, and hit them for the AOE explosion too. It requires smart planning, setup and knowing when dodge timing works, but, if you can set up and predict, then it is a great combo to use.

Pistol PvP Tips¶

If you intend on using pistols in V Rising’s PvP mode, then there are a few clever combos you can use. For example, the main thing you need to know is about gap closer spells or skills on weapons. Take the Greatsword for example, which has a charge, or the Power Surge skill that grants movement speed. If an enemy player uses something along those lines, your knockback spells on your pistol can keep them away from deadly gap-closing and attack nuking combos.

Furthermore, you can also run the pistols with a Greatsword yourself. Once you’ve gained space, and knocked back enemies with Fan the Hammer and Explosive shot, you, can then trade your movement skill to get close to them, hit them with the Greatsword, as they try to dash away, get closer with the Greatsword using a charge, or keep with your pistols to combo them as they move distance. Throw in the use of the spells like Wraith Spear or Crystal Lance, and you can easily land CC spells or apply nasty debuffs to gain advantages in fights.

It’s essentially the premise of how pistols are used in PvP. They won’t hard carry you, but the disengage tools and harass they can bring into the game make them incredibly strong for skirmishing before closing in for kills with melee weapons, ultimate, or another weapon type.