Autopistol

The autopistol is a light, single-shot firearm in RimWorld which deals a slightly lower amount of damage per shot; very short time between shots; slightly shorter range and slightly higher accuracy. Although the autopistol uses the old pistol's sprite, the revolver is functionally closer to the old pistol than the autopistol is.

Combat performance

It'll take 5 shots to the torso to kill an unarmored human with an autopistol, or around 8-9 shots against a human with a normal armor vest. The autopistol can also instantly cripple digits, eyeballs, and cause very severe brain damage against unprotected skulls. Limbs can be crippled in 3 shots against an unarmored human.

As a weapon with a slightly shorter range and a very short time between shots, the autopistol is a very skill-friendly weapon. A healthy level 4 traitless shooter, level 0 careful shooter or level 8 trigger-happy can somewhat efficiently use the autopistol up to 15 cells. However, a level 11 traitless shooter, level 6 careful shooter or level 14 trigger-happy is advisable to efficiently use the autopistol up to its maximum range of 22 cells.

On average, the autopistol is best paired with a careful shooter up until level 16, and a trigger-happy shooter onwards.

Melee Combat

An autopistol 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 an autopistol:

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

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

Pirates:

Drifter - 11.2% chance (shoddy quality on average, 20-60% health)
Scavenger - 18.2% chance (poor quality on average, 20-90% health)
Pirate - 5% chance (normal quality on average, 40-150% health)

Outlanders:

Villager - 7% chance (poor quality on average, 20-200% health)
Town Guard - 9.5% chance (poor quality on average, 20-200% health)

Mercenaries:

Mercenary Gunner - 5% chance (normal quality on average, 70-230% health)

Spacers:

Space Soldier - 4.5% chance (good quality on average, 100% health)

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

Conclusion & Comparison

Compared to the revolver, the autopistol deals slightly less damage per shot, but this is more than offset by the autopistol's considerably shorter cooldown time. However, the autopistol also has a shorter range and needs more research before it can be produced. There's little incentive to produce the autopistol though when scavenged weapons at that point are probably going to be significantly better and it's unlikely that you'll have a good crafter early on.

The machine pistol only requires 15 more steel and 1 more component to produce than the autopistol, but is 'automatic' and offers a shorter time between bursts than the autopistol's time between shots, therefore making the machine pistol a more viable option to produce since it also requires the same research as the autopistol; both more skill-friendly and offers vastly superior damage output despite the deficit in damage per shot.

Depending on biome, the greatbow is probably a better choice than the autopistol anyway: significantly cheaper; offers similar damage output, even superior from 11 cells onwards - more demanding on skill though since the great bow has a significantly longer time between shots.

Graphs

The graphs assume a normal quality autopistol 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.