Distress Pistol

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A device used to launch an emergency beacon into the air. Fires Flare Shells.

In-game description

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The distress pistol, often called a flare gun, is a break action, single shot weapon that can be used to distract or scare away wildlife.

Overview

The distress pistol fires glowing red balls of light and noise that are effective at deterring hostile wildlife from attacking the player. The distress pistol is significantly more inaccurate than the hunting rifle or survival bow. Unlike the hunting rifle, the distress pistol will deter any wildlife creature, including bears, from attacking when fired.

Locating

Distress pistol cases are located inside the Tail Section of an airplane at the Summit of Timberwolf Mountain and in the yellow train car fallen to the bottom of the Ravine Basin. Additionally in The Hunted, Part One, there is a case in the basement near where that scenario begins. The pistols are inside these special orange case accompanied by up to 8 flare shells, which are used as ammunition.

Distress pistols can also be found near frozen corpses.

Use

The distress pistol is a ranged weapon and is equipped by selecting the "2" key on PC. The pistol holds only one round at a time and must be reloaded manually after it is fired. Aim while holding the "RMB", click "LMB" to fire. Reload with "R".

The launched flares are low velocity and arc significantly while travelling forward before impacting a surface. Flares that hit surfaces at an oblique angle glance off the surface, and can bounce around before coming to a rest. Flares that hit surfaces at perpendicular angles stick in place. The round burns brightly for 20 game minutes and emits localized smoke, but the player cannot interact with the round. Spent rounds remain visible even after they have burnt out.

Animals

Animals within hearing range of the flare shot flee immediately. Additionally, animals within visual distance of the impact site of the launched flare will also flee.

Flares that impact an animal directly stick to the animal, causing a bleeding wound that will eventually kill the creature. Tracking the so affected animal is made easy due to the fact that it now glows bright red and leaves a smoke trail in addition to drops of blood.

Animals wounded by the distress pistol bleed faster than from other more traditional ranged weapon wounds.

Bleed out time

Wildlife take a specific amount of time to bleed out, as follows:

Zone Hit	Bear	Deer	Wolf
Head	30 minutes	immediately	immediately
Chest	50 minutes	15 minutes	30 minutes
Hind	120 minutes	????	????
Foot	140 minutes	????	????

Game history

The distress pistol was introduced on 16 December 2015 in version 0.298 also known as the Timberwolf Mountain update.

Trivia

The flare round that is launched and glows is a model of the shell part of the ammunition that should have been left in the gun after firing.
The distress pistol closely resembles the real life Orion flare gun.

Distress Pistol

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