9mm Pistol

Lore & Background

In the bureaucratic machinery of The Company, the 9mm Pistol is not a weapon so much as a line item. It appears in the employee orientation packet alongside the mandatory safety goggles, the ration crackers, and the non-negotiable scrap quota. The Company's procurement division selected it for the moons because it is cheap to manufacture, easy to ship in the cargo crates, and—most importantly—cheap to replace. An employee who loses their 9mm to a crawler or a careless drop into a vent is simply issued another at the next supply run. The employee themselves, by contrast, are not so readily replaced.

The moons themselves are a patchwork of derelict industrial complexes, half-swallowed by rust and the strange, humming flora that grows in the low-gravity dark. The creatures that inhabit them—spiders, crawlers, the tall and silent humanoids—evolved or were built in an environment where a small, fast, semi-automatic pistol is the last thing a scavenger wants to reach for. The 9mm was never designed for this job. It was designed for a warehouse security guard on a corporate campus, and The Company simply repurposed it. The employees know this. You can hear it in the static-laced radio chatter: the quiet, resigned mutter of someone counting rounds before a door opens onto the dark.

Fans of the game often romanticize the 9mm as the 'true' weapon of Lethal Company, the one that captures the spirit of the experience. There is something deeply fitting about a crew of four, huddled in a flickering corridor, one of them holding a twelve-round pistol like it's a lifeline, while the others try to decide whether to run, fight, or quietly accept that the quota will have to be met by the next shift. The Company's ledgers do not record fear. They record scrap.

In Their Own Story

The fluorescent tube above the supply crate flickered once, twice, then held. Mara counted the rounds in the magazine—twelve, as always—and slid it home with a click that sounded too loud in the silence of the dropship's cargo bay. Three of her crewmates were already strapping on their harnesses, saying nothing. The Company's manifest glowed on the small terminal: Moon 7, Sector Kappa, Quota: 400 scrap. No weapons listed beyond 'standard issue.' Standard issue. As if the word made the thing less inadequate.

The airlock cycled with a groan of hydraulics, and the moon's grey light bled in through the porthole—flat, lifeless, the color of old television static. Somewhere out there, in the rusted guts of a factory that hadn't seen a human hand in decades, something with too many legs was waiting. Mara checked the 9mm one more time. Twelve rounds. Four people. One flashlight. She holstered it, pulled her cap low, and stepped into the dark with the quiet, practiced resignation of someone who had done this before and would do it again, because the Company's payroll did not pause for the living.

Reader's Guide

9mm Pistol – A semi-automatic sidearm that fires one round per trigger pull, your cheapest and lightest option in the armory.

• Damage: Lowest of all firearms • Magazine: 12 rounds • Fire mode: Semi-automatic • Weight: Lightest firearm (minimal movement penalty) • Cost: Cheapest gun in the catalog

Tactical note: The 9mm is your go-to for the small, fast threats—the spider and the crawler—where a quick burst of two or three rounds can drop them before they close distance. It is also the only gun light enough to carry alongside a shotgun or SMG without feeling like you're dragging a crate around a corridor. Avoid using it against the Tall Man or any large, armored creature; you will burn through all twelve rounds and still be in range for a fatal hit. A common mistake new crews make is treating the 9mm like a primary weapon in a full run. It is a backup, an emergency, a last resort. If you can afford the SMG or the shotgun, take it. Save the 9mm for the moment the bigger gun runs dry and something is already in your face.

Did You Know?

• The 9mm Pistol is the only firearm you can realistically afford alongside a second weapon on a low-budget run, making it the most versatile 'two-gun' setup in the game.
• Because it is semi-automatic, each trigger pull fires exactly one round—there is no full-auto burst, which means every shot is a deliberate choice under pressure.
• The 9mm's low weight means it imposes the smallest movement penalty of any firearm, letting you sprint and dodge with minimal slowdown compared to heavier weapons.
• Many veteran players still keep a 9mm in their loadout as a guaranteed backup, because in a close-quarters corridor with a crawler lunging, a single well-placed round is all you need.