Resident Evil 4 Remake offers a plethora of weapons, a total of 29 weapons are there to be had and unless you plan on playing multiple New Game+ you will have to make a choice on what you upgrade and use. There are five Handguns for you to look over before deciding what to go for.

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The Punisher will let your bullets pierce through enemies.

#1 - Red 9 Pistol¶

This was arguably the best Handgun in the original versions of Resident Evil 4, purely down to it being the most powerful Handgun out of the bunch. It’s not as useful as it was in the original, what with only certain guns being able to use a Laser Sight now so your accuracy with the gun should factor into the choice.

The other downside to the Red 9 is that, with its stock attached (which you will want for the extra damage), it takes up by far the most amount of space in your inventory.

You can find the Red 9 in Chapter 4, on the shipwreck in the middle of the lake.

#2 - Blacktail¶

It’s a tough toss-up between the Red 9 and the Blacktail, both could arguably be the best handgun (in our opinion) in Resident Evil 4 Remake. Whereas the Red 9 Pistol focuses on raw firepower, the Blacktail beats it in most other categories. It still has high firepower though, and it’s a speedy gun with great accuracy. Even better, the Blacktail takes up significantly less space in your inventory.

The one downside to the Blacktail in the past is that you won’t get it until late in your first playthrough, it’s the last Handgun to be available to purchase from the Merchant and costs a lot at that. With Resident Evil 4 Remake, you can now purchase it from the Merchant at Chapter 7, although it is still expensive.RE4 Remake Shooting Range - Chapter 3 Highest scores

#3 - Punisher¶

The Punisher’s main draw is its ability to pierce through enemies, allowing it to act more of a crowd control weapon. You’ll sacrifice some firepower for this, but early on, especially when it’s available, it’s a great upgrade over the starting Handgun. Still, the exclusive upgrade is rather unnecessary as you’ll never need to shoot through more than two-three enemies so five is overkill.

The downside to the Punisher is that it’s weaker than both the Blacktail and Red 9 and it has a rather poor exclusive. Still, it’s an excellent weapon to tie you over until the Red 9 becomes available.

You can trade for the Punisher with the Merchant for five Spinels, the currency you receive from completing Requests (you can get this as early as the first Merchant visit in Chapter 2).

#4 - Matilda¶

The Matilda used to suffer by being a post-game unlockable, and although that has changed with the Remake, there are just much better weapons to get in the vein of the Blacktail and Red 9. Its main feature is that it has burst-fire capability, a welcome addition, but also one that will eat through your bullets quickly.

As mentioned above, the downside to the Matilda is that it eats through your ammo reserves at an alarming rate. Almost definitely use the Attache case that provides you more Handgun ammo drops if you do decide to go for this weapon.

You can Trade for the Matilda from the Merchant for 10 Spinels, starting from Chapter 8.

#5 - SG-09 R¶

As you may expect, the first Handgun you start the game with is the worst one. It’s not a bad Handgun by any means, it’s a good all-rounder and for that, it does its job well.

The downside is that it lacks any of the unique features that all the other Handguns stand out for. It’s fine enough as a starting Handgun but look to change to another one as soon as possible (ideally the Punisher before the Red 9 is available).

Sentinel Nine¶

It feels important to list the Sentinel Nine here, but there’s no ranking for it as it’s a DLC Weapon that you can get by purchasing the Deluxe Edition of Resident Evil 4 Remake or by buying it on it’s own off a digital storefront.

The Sentinel Nine is an interesting Handgun, but it’s one that has many similar features with the SG-09 R (as you may expect with them being available from the start of the game). It ranks as the lowest damaging Handgun alongside the Punisher when maxed out, but it has a better rate of fire than the SG-09 R and a vastly increased max ammo capacity (31, the highest of all Handguns).

Instead, the Sentinel Nine really shines once you get its Exclusive upgrade, this will increase the Critical Rate by 5x (like the SG-09 R), allowing you to make each bullet really count.