Alyx's Gun
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| Alyx's Gun | |
|---|---|
| Production information | |
| Faction |
|
| Manufacturer |
Le Clarion (HL:A) |
| Type | |
| Technical specifications | |
| Damage |
Low |
| Ammo |
|
| Max ammo |
Infinite |
| Ammo type |
11mm Pistol Rounds |
| Operation |
Double Action Automatic/Semi-Automatic/Burst-Firing |
| Rate of fire |
High |
| Accuracy |
Medium |
| Range |
Short to medium |
| Usage | |
| Used by | |
| Game information | |
| Entity |
|
- "Well, Russ, it's official. There is NOTHING left of your gun in this gun. This is just... this is MY gun."
- ― Alyx Vance[src]
"Alyx's Gun" is the nickname given to Alyx Vance's trademark weapon featured in Half-Life 2 and its episodes, and one of the three weapons wielded by her in Half-Life: Alyx. It is a handgun originally owned by the Combine and given to Alyx by Russell.
Contents
Overview[edit]
Half-Life 2[edit]
In Half-Life 2, the appearance of Alyx's Gun is similar to that of a fully upgraded pistol in Alyx. It retained the black casing and slide, as well as the underslung laser sight, however the bullet reservoir is replaced by a simple extended magazine that boasts a 30-round ammo capacity. It is capable of both semi-automatic (as seen in Half-Life 2) and fully-automatic fire (as seen in Episode One), and does roughly the same amount of damage as the 9mm Pistol. Alyx easily conceals it inside her jacket, and uses it often to defeat hostiles alongside Gordon Freeman.
Half-Life: Alyx[edit]
In Half-Life: Alyx, the weapon, which is referred to as Alyx's Pistol at the time,[1] features a muzzle compensator and an LED ammo counter on the grip, and its rate of fire is dependent on the shooter’s trigger finger. Its magazine is able to store up to 10 rounds and has a ring-shaped light at the bottom that slowly depletes when being fired. The pistol will make a beeping noise when the final round is chambered while emitting a red light at its rear when empty. When equipped with the bullet reservoir upgrade, its ammo capacity is boosted to 20 rounds at the cost of a longer reload: the user must first insert a magazine whose bullets will be stored into the reservoir via two mechanical prongs, eject the empty magazine, and then load a second one normally. When modified with the burst fire module, a second slide is affixed to its back with a fire selector that enables it to switch between semi-auto and 3-round burst firing modes. Combine Ordinals and Combine Grunts also carry magazines for this weapon, despite not visibly using it.
The pistol's serial number is filed off. On one side of the slide the brand "Le Clarion" is etched, whose logo resembles an escutcheon depicting a skeleton blowing a clarion; inscribed on the other side are the words "automatique calibre 11mm 43", which clarifies that the weapon is in fact French-made. The text "Civil Protection Annex 19-19191" along with what looks like a Combine bar code are also laser-etched on the top. This Civil Protection etching indicates that the Pistol is one of the weapons the Combine confiscated and redistributed, much like the Shotgun.
Russell initially "lent" this weapon to Alyx, stating that its one of his "lesser" guns. However with Alyx upgrading it more and more, it gradually becomes "her" gun, and she expresses her liking for it. When entering the Vault, this pistol is sucked away from Alyx along with her other weapons, and it is unclear how she retrieved it later.
Upgrades[edit]
The pistol can be modified to include various attachments using a Combine Fabricator. When fully upgraded, it greatly resembles its appearance in Half-Life 2 with minor differences. Listed below are all upgrades for the pistol along with their description and their Resin cost.[2]
| Upgrade | Description | Resin Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Reflex Sight | Adds a reflex sight to help with aiming and pinpoint weak spots of enemies | 10 |
| Burst Fire | Adds a toggle which switches between semi-automatic and burst-fire shooting | 20 |
| Bullet Reservoir | Adds a capacity of 10 rounds in a magazine on right side of the pistol which automatically loads rounds into itself and chambers them in order. Permits 20 rounds, 10 in the regular magazine, 10 in the self loading side magazine | 30 |
| Laser Sight | Adds a laser sight to help with aiming | 35 |
Tactics[edit]
Half-Life 2[edit]
During the first two chapters of Episode One and a brief period in Episode Two, Freeman only has the Gravity Gun and has to rely mainly on Alyx to dispatch enemies, depending on the availability of physical objects to use as ammunition. Alyx is a fairly good shot, and her pistol can fire at distant hostiles which the energized Gravity Gun cannot reach, but she must not be left dealing with too many enemies by herself, or she might be overwhelmed and get killed, resulting in a game-over.
Half-Life: Alyx[edit]
Being the first firearm given to the player, the pistol is the only available weapon in the early chapters of the game and perhaps the most extensively used. Compared to the other two guns, the pistol is somewhat mediocre but more balanced in terms of performance: while its lack of damage and rate of fire often makes it slow to take down targets, it compensates with accuracy, stability, and large amounts of easily accessible ammunition, excelling in jobs that require conservation of rarer ammo, such as breaking locks, cleaning out Barnacles or Bloaters, and igniting explosives. Due to its early obtainment, the pistol is often the first weapon to be upgraded, further enhancing its versatility. The reflex sight enables better precision at a low Resin cost, and the burst fire greatly boosts the damage dealt, making the pistol especially useful against Combines and Antlions.
Related achievements[edit]
| Half-Life: Alyx | |
|---|---|
|
Up in Arms |
| Install your first pistol upgrade. | |
Behind the scenes[edit]
In the leak and retail versions of Half-Life 2, the weapon can be spawned and used by the player, suggesting it was to be an available weapon at some point. The viewmodel is however missing and the weapon will improperly appear on the left of the screen as the worldmodel. Furthermore, ammunition for it does not exist, although it can be overridden with the console code "sk_max_alyxgun #", which sets the maximum ammo.
Closer looks at the model's animations in the Source SDK show that it can be converted to both a rifle and a submachine gun, having a retractable stock, front folding grip and extended barrel with silencer, never seen in-game. In an assembly animation in The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx, the pistol's front laser sight is shown to be also able to unfold vertically, presumably reusing the AR version's folding grip design.
During the elevator ride with Mossman in Black Mesa East, one of the Rebels working on the generators with the Vortigaunts is holding Alyx's Gun in his right hand. This is probably a developer's oversight, or the remnant of an early test of other NPCs using the gun.
Alyx's Gun reused the 9mm Pistol's NPC gunshot sounds in Half-Life 2. Unique gunshot sounds for the weapon were introduced in Episode One.
In Half-Life: Alyx, the ammo capacity upgrade for the pistol was initially designed to replace all standard magazines with extended ones. However the elongated magazine looked ridiculous when protruding from the gun's grip, and they left players wondering about what happened in their backpack that transformed the old magazines. It also created problems concerning the newly found ammo from then on, which would all need to magically be double-sized. Finally, the developers took inspiration from "hopper" loaders on paintball guns, which eventually evolved into the bullet reservoir in the retail game. In fact, the bullet reservoir is still internally referred to as the "bullet hopper".[3]
Players who ordered the Valve Index in 2019 were given a set of bonus pre-order exclusive weapon skins in Half-Life: Alyx. The alternate skin for the Pistol depicts it with darker metal and a brown grip.
Gallery[edit]
Half-Life 2[edit]
Worldmodel, leak version.
Worldmodel.
Alyx wielding her gun in a promotional image for Episode One.
Variant with Dog in the background.
Alyx protecting herself from Gordon's flashlight while holding her gun.
Concept art of Alyx wielding her gun in the White Forest helicopter hangar.
Alyx wielding her gun in the Outlands.
Rebel holding Alyx's Gun in Black Mesa East
Half-Life: Alyx[edit]
Pre-release[edit]
An early model of Alyx's Gun originally created for Half-Life 2: Episode Three, featuring a grip and trigger later incorporated into the Pistol.
Retail[edit]
Reverse side of the weapon.
Pre-order exclusive skin.
Ditto, reverse side.
In-game.
Ditto, reverse side.
Clip model.
Long clip model (unused).
Clip holder model.
Russell offers his Pistol to Alyx, assuring it's unloaded.
The "unloaded" Pistol fires into a car's windshield after being thrown down by Russell.
Other[edit]
The Pistol as it appears in The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx.
Ditto, mid-application of attachments
Ditto, all attachments added.
List of appearances[edit]
- Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Half-Life: Alyx
