Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol

Overview

Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol is a Rare / Epic pistol-class ranged weapon in Windrose. An elegant pistol with engraved barrels. The top one reads 'Head,' the bottom reads 'Eyes.'

Pistols are one-handed sidearm firearms that scale with Precision and occupy the off-hand slot alongside a melee weapon. See Pistols for ammunition capacity and the full class profile.

At a Glance

Effects

Rare and Epic variants share a base effect. Ascending the Rare to Epic at the Weaponsmith Workshop preserves the Rare effect and stacks an additional bonus on top.

Crafting

Craft at the Weaponsmith Workshop (Level 1). Base recipe: Wood x10, Copper Ingot x5.

Upgrade Bands

Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol uses the Pistol upgrade bands: 5 bands from Lvl 2 to Lvl 15 with Copper Ingot x5 at the base, scaling through Foothills Iron Ingot and Mire Metal Ingot; Master's Tools is required from Lvl 7 upward.

Item-level upgrades for Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol are performed at the Weaponsmith Workshop and follow the same per-band pattern documented for every weapon. See Weapon Upgrade Bands for the full per-band material costs.

Ascension to Epic

Ascending the Rare variant at the Weaponsmith Workshop converts it into the Epic variant and unlocks the Epic bonus line. Ingredients: Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol x1, Tumbaga Ingot x7. The ascension consumes the Rare weapon. See Tumbaga Ingot for sourcing notes and Upgrade System for the full ascension mechanic.

How to Obtain

• Drops from the standard pirate chest pool (Blackbeard Crew, Buccaneers', Old Skeleton, Decrepit, Smugglers', Thomas Richards') at 20% per pull.

• No guaranteed loot row; relies on chance-based rotations in pirate camps.

Tactical Usage

The highest per-shot damage pistol (420 Pierce). The double-tap combined with Epic Vulnerability (+15% all damage to target) makes it the setup weapon for burst combos: fire two shots to apply Vulnerability, then swap to melee or a second pistol for the amplified damage window. Best paired with rapier main-hand.

Keep a one-handed melee weapon in the main-hand to double the ranged loadout's options. Pistols reward quick pre-combat volleys before the fight closes to melee range. Reload management matters: without Gunpowder stockpiled, pistol shots dry up fast. Stock at least 30 bullets before a boss engagement.

Talent Synergies

Precision-scaling weapons pull from the Marksman branch of the Talent System. Relevant picks include talents that boost Pierce damage, Critical Damage, stand-still bonuses that extend the Buccaneer's Friend spread perk, and gunpowder efficiency. Precision firearms reward investment in talents that increase rifle-style precision at range.

See the Talent System article for the current list of unlockable talents and their exact bonus values. Every firearm consumes Gunpowder, so stockpiling Sulfur and Ash for the Millstones conversion remains a background chore for any ranged build.

Comparison Within Class

Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol sits alongside 4 other pistols on the current live index. Consider the alternatives:

• Pistol: Uncommon, 360 Pierce, Precision (B). no special effect

• Reliable Pistol: Rare / Epic, 380 Pierce, Precision (S). Can fire 3 shots without reloading.

• Plague Pistol: Epic, 400 Pierce, Precision (B). Restores 40% of dealt Damage as Health.

• Worn-Out Pistol: Common, 300 Pierce, Precision (C). no special effect

See Also

• Ranged Weapons for the full firearm index.

• Weapons for the cross-class roster.

• Pistols for the pistol category roster.

• Precision is this weapon's scaling attribute.

• Gunpowder is the ammunition every firearm consumes.

• Upgrade System covers Rare-to-Epic ascension with Tumbaga Ingot.

• Weaponsmith Workshop is the crafting and ascension station.

• Combat covers stamina, posture, and firearm animation frames.

Cutlass Take Aim Stack Combo

The Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol pairs exceptionally well with the Cutlass because the two effects layer cleanly on top of each other. The Cutlass applies Take Aim! on every hit, stacking up to nine times, and the next shot deals 10% bonus damage per stack. Drake's two quick shots then each apply Vulnerability at Epic rarity, which increases all damage taken by the target by 15%. The intended flow is: slash the target with the Cutlass several times to build Take Aim stacks, swap to Drake's and fire both barrels into the head, then swap back to the Cutlass to swing into a target that is now carrying a Vulnerability debuff.

Why this compounds. Take Aim stacks boost the damage of the shot that consumes them (so the two Drake's shots both benefit if fired back-to-back into a freshly stacked target). Vulnerability then boosts every subsequent hit, including the Cutlass slashes that follow. Layered on top of a Headshot for the guaranteed Critical Hit, this is one of the highest single-target burst combos available before endgame gear.

Stat-sharing with the Cutlass. Drake's scales with Precision while the Cutlass scales with Agility, so this combo deliberately spreads stat investment. If you want a single-stat alternative, pair Drake's with a Rapier or the Rapier of a Thousand Cuts instead, both of which scale with Precision and skip the Agility tax.

Vulnerability Debuff Synergy

The Epic-tier Vulnerability mark is the real reason Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol shows up in so many endgame loadouts. The shot itself is a respectable 420 Pierce, but the headline number is the +15% damage-taken debuff that the bullet glues to the target. That debuff is not limited to follow-up pistol shots. It is a universal multiplier that boosts every source of damage the target takes for the duration of the mark, including direct melee swings, damage-over-time ticks, and consumption damage from plague-stack mechanics. The practical role of the pistol on a melee build is therefore to pre-load the debuff, swap to a one-handed weapon, and let the melee swings cash in the bonus.

Three damage paths in particular are worth calling out because they are not obvious from the tooltip. First, Plague Marks consumption damage is amplified by the debuff. Heavy attacks on the Rapier of Devastation detonate stacked Plague Marks for bonus damage that can critically strike, and the Vulnerability mark adds another 15% on top of the consumption hit. Second, Bleeding damage-over-time ticks from the Rapier of a Thousand Cuts benefit too, despite bleed scaling poorly with stat investment otherwise. Community testing on a debuffed pirate showed roughly 15% larger bleed numbers per tick while the mark was applied, which is a sizable boost on a damage type that is otherwise hard to scale with rings or sets. Third, follow-up musket and pistol shots into a marked target also pick up the bonus, so a co-op partner running the Reliable Musket sniper build benefits even if Drake's is on a different player.

Because the bullet itself does not need to crit or roll high to apply the mark, ammunition quality is irrelevant for the debuff role. A Stone Bullet applies the same 15% Vulnerability as a proper lead round, so stockpiling cheap ammo for the off-hand pistol is fine when Drake's is being used purely as a debuff applicator before melee swings.

Hot Bar Pattern

On most one-handed melee builds the standard layout is melee main weapon, Drake's Double-Barreled Pistol for the Vulnerability debuff, a utility pistol slot (typically the Plague Pistol for emergency life-steal healing or Soul Eater for the 2-minute drain nuke), and a fourth slot for a parry weapon, shield, or tool. The flow is straightforward: open with both barrels of Drake's into the highest-priority target, swap to the melee main, and burn the Vulnerability window with light-attack pressure. If the fight goes long the utility pistol comes out for a heal pulse, then the rotation resets.

Two pieces of housekeeping make this loadout sustainable. Keep the off-hand Pistols stocked with at least 30 rounds before a boss engagement so the opener never runs dry, and remember that Drake's is one of the few firearms where Stone Bullets are an acceptable choice because the per-shot damage is incidental to the debuff. Save your better ammunition for the Reliable Musket or other firearms whose raw damage actually carries the rotation.

Details

Properties

Crafted By

Crafted at: Weaponsmith Workshop

Ascend Cost

Ascend at: Weaponsmith Workshop

Where Found