um. Because range and accuracy and power?
Because it's a good offset to the shotgun on a scout?
Because you don't always want to spray and pray?

I run a heavy, and there's no better sidearm in the game for a heavy than the bolt pistol.

Why? Because the thing allows you to slowly weaken heavy targets from long distances away. When they finally get within range they won't have much health left and you can kill them easily with your HMG.

People who get shot by the bolt pistol also get really confused. They first think it was a mlt sniper and don't care, then they realize they have no shields and panic, and after that it takes maybe 1-2 more shots before they're dead thanks to the armor bonus the weapon gets

Just don't use it CQC, only on players that are far away. The weapon doesn't work well with other long-range weapons, but makes a great addition to short-range ones.

Bolt Pistol is damn awesome. Picking off shields and finishing them off with a M512 A-SMG. Those head shots too. YUM.

This would be true if it wasn't bugged to have an absolute range of 60m. It becomes literally useless after that range, making the magsec a much better long-range sidearm.

wut bolt gets bonus to armor... if i was going to run dual pistols it would be scram then switch to bolt

-blink- Uhh... let's see... something is wrong here...

Scrambler pistol... laser damage profile... +20% versus shields, -20% versus armor

Bolt Pistol... rail damage profile... -10% versus shields, +10% versus armor

Pretty sure that means the Scrambler does less damage to armor, not the Bolt pistol.

@Thread: The thing with the Magsec is that it is much harder to actually control the thing when firing full auto due to the insane amount of kick it has due to being a smaller, more compact Rail Rifle... yes, it fires faster and currently has more range due to the bug, but trying to compare the Magsec and the Bolt Pistol's ranges when one is currently being hampered by a coding bug is heavily flawed and does not make a good point for discussion.

Yes, the Bolt Pistol does seem unappealing to most due to its low rate of fire, but the thing is the freaking hand cannon of Dust, it is not meant to shoot fast, it is meant to shoot one powerful bullet with each "trigger pull" that your enemies will feel for certain and reward you for being able to consistently put the shoots on your target from down range instead of spraying and praying with a gun that kicks harder then an Asian grandpa in a cheesy kung fu flick. It is not a weapon meant for those who have issues with precision shots, it is a skill weapon that makes up for its sniper rifle level of damage with the need to practice and learn to make those 6 shots in your clip count.

Bolt pistol has zero kick, when aiming down sites. It starts to kick with hip-fire, but you don't want to use it that way. It has a scope for a reason.

Bolt pistol is a great little sidearm, a lot of player skill is required to use it well (it's all in the timing of shots). Easy to learn, hard to master.