Revolver

The revolver is a light, single-shot firearm in RimWorld which deals a moderate amount of damage per shot; short time between shots; moderate range and slightly higher accuracy. The revolver can be considered as the true replacement for the pistol, being the closest in terms of damage model and ease of acquisition, and the fact that the revolver's a starting weapon rather than the autopistol.

Combat performance

It'll take 4 shots to the torso to kill an unarmored human with a revolver, or around 7-8 shots against a human with a normal armor vest. The revolver can also instantly cripple digits, eyeballs, and cause fatal brain damage against unprotected skulls. Limbs can be crippled in 3 shots against an unarmored human.

As a weapon with a moderate range, decent fire rate and overall fairly consistent damage output profile, the revolver can be viewed as a fairly skill-friendly weapon. A healthy level 6 traitless shooter, level 2 careful shooter or level 10 trigger-happy can somewhat efficiently use the revolver up to 18 cells. However, a level 11 traitless shooter, level 7 careful shooter or level 15 trigger-happy is advisable to efficiently use the revolver up to its maximum range of 26 cells.

On average, the revolver is best paired with a careful shooter up to the equivalent of a level 20, then with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Similar to its predecessor, the revolver's main strength really is how easy it is to acquire both by purchase and by raider. However, investing a little more in an automatic weapon's generally going to be more favorable for your colony.

Melee Combat

A revolver has a weapon bulk of 50%, but weapon bulk doesn't seem to have any observable effect on actual gameplay.

All possible melee attacks with a revolver:

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS	Armored DPS
Overall	-	-	8	1.6s	-	5	4.6
Grip	Smash	Blunt	8	1.6s	33.3%	5	4.6
Barrel	Smash	Blunt	8	1.6s	33.3%	5	4.6
Barrel	Poke	Blunt	8	1.6s	33.3%	5	4.6

Obtaining

Revolvers can be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, or obtained from the following raider kinds:

Pirates:

Drifter - 10.1% chance (shoddy quality on average, 20-60% health)
Scavenger - 17.5% chance (poor quality on average, 20-90% health)
Pirate - 5.3% chance (normal quality on average, 40-150% health)

Outlanders:

Villager - 6% chance (poor quality on average, 20-200% health)
Town Guard - 10.1% chance (poor quality on average, 20-200% health)

Mercenaries:

Mercenary Gunner - 4.7% chance (normal quality on average, 70-230% health)

Spacers:

Space Soldier - 4.6% chance (good quality on average, 100% health)

Revolvers can also be crafted at a machining table once the gunsmithing research is completed; from 30 steel, 2 components and 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work.

A revolver is also one of the three starting weapons in the standard crashlanded scenario, along with a bolt-action rifle and plasteel knife.

Conclusion & Comparison

Due to its early-game abundance, the revolver is quite a solid solution to early-game ranged combat. However, with this in mind, it won't be long before you'll be replacing your revolvers with assault rifles, heavy SMGs, and the like. The revolver offers marginally superior range to the LMG, but falls behind the LMG everywhere else other than being significantly quicker to fire.

However, the great bow can be had for a significantly lower asking price (biome-dependent), achieves parity with the revolver at touch range, and actually pulls ahead from 7 cells onwards, along with offering superior range. The great bow's higher damage per shot also means that it's more likely to hinder limb function.

Graphs

The graphs assume a normal quality revolver against an adult human that's out in the open in clear weather. For DPS, projectile speed has also been factored into the equation, with the weighting based on the base amount of attacks that it'll take to put the aforementioned target into pain shock.