The Pepper-ball Gun is a primary, non-lethal weapon introduced in SWAT 4. It fires OC-balls ejected by compressed carbon dioxide at relatively high speeds.
In-Game Description[]
"The Pepper-ball gun is based on technology originally designed for recreational paintball. Compressed Carbon Dioxide ejects the ammunition at relatively high velocities. The Pepper-ball gun allows officers to quickly deploy OC at specific targets, in more easily controlled quantities, and at significantly longer ranges than a grenade or standard pepper spray. With the large ammunition hopper this weapon never needs to be reloaded under normal operating conditions."
General Usage[]
The Pepper-ball gun is mostly used as a non-lethal option alongside the Less Lethal Shotgun in combat situations. As a non-lethal weapon, its can be used on targets without adhering to the rules of lethal engagement since it is incapable of causing death or incapacitation. When compared with the Less Lethal Shotgun, it has an incredible rate of fire and whopping 200 rounds within its magazine, thus it is very often used during speed runs. Unlike the Less Lethal Shotgun, however, some experience is required to effectively use the Pepper-ball gun since it possesses three major drawbacks - the weapon is incapable of stacking morale modifers upon mutiple strikes, it also has no impacts when used under the cover of CS Gas, and finally it has no effects against suspects equipped with gas masks.
Effect[]
Once a pepper ball impacts a surface, a gas cloud with a radius of 50 units (1 meter/3.25 feet) is released, which will dissipate after 2 seconds. Once a target inhales the gas payload, the target will start coughing for 10 seconds with their morale value subtracted by 0.35. The target is also temporarily incapable of doing anything else except cough uncontrollably and remark on their suffering. Given how morale damage is calculated for gas weapons, multiple pepper-ball strikes or using pepper-ball with CS Gas inhalation will not increase morale modifiers beyond 0.35 when lowering a target's morale, thus a non-gas type backup weapon is needed in case the target refuses to surrender.
Counter-intuitively, the pepper-ball is not counted as the same type of attack as pepper spray for the purpose of morale reduction calculation, despite the in-game description stating they are using the same chemical agent. This means it is possible to stack pepper spray's morale modifier with pepper-ball's morale modifier when trying to subdue targets.
However, when a target is equipped with a gas mask in single player mode, the effect of this weapon is completely nullified. In multiplayer, any player equiped with the gas mask will have the pepper-ball gun's effect reduced by 80%.
Changes in Elite Force[]
In SWAT: Elite Force, the effect of the Pepper-ball gun has been significantly nerfed. The gas cloud's radius has been cut by half, while unprotected suspects now have a 20% chance not being affect by the gas cloud. The coughing duration has also been reduced to 5 seconds with the morale reduction value cut to 0.2. As a compensation it can now be equipped as a secondary weapon.
| SWAT 4 Weapons | ||
|---|---|---|
| SWAT 4 | Assault Rifles | Colt M4A1 Carbine - AKM Assault Rifle - G36C Assault Rifle |
| Less Lethal | Less Lethal Nova - Pepper-ball Gun - Taser Stun Gun | |
| Pistols | Colt Python - Colt M1911 (VIP Colt M1911) - Glock 17 | |
| Shotguns | Benelli Nova - Benelli M4 Super 90 | |
| Submachine Guns | MP5A4 SMG (Suppressed MP5A4 SMG) - UMP SMG - Suppressed Uzi | |
| TSS | Grenade Launchers | HK69 Grenade Launcher |
| Less Lethal | Cobra Stun Gun | |
| Light Machine Guns | M249 SAW Light Machine Gun | |
| Machine Pistols | TEC-DC9 | |
| Marksman Rifles | Colt Accurized Rifle | |
| Pistols | Desert Eagle | |
| Submachine Guns | FN P90 | |
| SEF | Assault Rifles | AKs-74u - FN FAL - Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle (Suppressed Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle) - SG552 Commando (Suppressed SG552 Commando) - HK33A2 - SCAR-H (Suppressed SCAR-H) - Suppressed M4A1 Carbine - Suppressed G36C Assault Rifle |
| Grenade Launchers | ARWEN 37 | |
| Machine Pistols | Glock 18 - MP5KA4 (Suppressed MP5KA4) | |
| Marksman Rifles | Scoped HK33A2 | |
| Less Lethal | Less Lethal M870 | |
| Pistols | Browning Hi-Power (Suppressed Browning Hi-Power) - P226 (Suppressed P226) - Glock 19 - XDM | |
| Shotguns | Remington M870 (Remington M870 Breaching) - Benelli M1 Super 90 | |
| Submachine Guns | Colt Model 635 (Suppressed Colt Model 635) - MP5SD6 SMG - Suppressed UMP SMG - MP5KA4 SMG (Suppressed MP5KA4 SMG) - Suppressed FN P90 | |