Mustang Arms .357 Magnum

The Mustang Arms .357 Magnum is a weapon in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Overview
The Mustang Arms .357 Magnum is a derivative of the Diamond Back .357, featuring an enhanced trigger group, bore and optimized cylinder to allow for a faster fire rate, more accurate shot placement, quicker reloads and larger magazine size overall. The slightly lowered damage (as well as discontinuation of the explosives ammo upgrade) is a rather marginal trade off, all considering.

It is a dependable weapon, featuring a non-obtrusive iron sight and good accuracy even without upgrades. It actually has a range of 55 meters, but standard .357 bullets only generate sound out to 45, so a crack shot can most certainly kill some baddies or cops before his buddies even notice they're under fire. Even without upgrades, the standard revolver packs enough punch to kill unarmored thugs and grunts with a single shot to the stomach, head, or groin, and the damage is high enough to (usually) break police helmets in two shots, one with full damage upgrades. Weaker grunts, like Tars' bodyguards, die to limb shots from an unupgraded revolver, while later game Dvali tend to get knocked on their asses instead.

The gun has some weaknesses. Without upgrades, and even with them, getting swarmed is usually a death sentence. Ammunition, of both kinds, is primarily bought in stores, and very hard to come by in the world. Fully upgraded, the damage is still not enough to drop black armor cops with a body shot, which also means you can't drop most ARC soldiers or shadow ops operatives, either. That's why the developers gave you a beast rate of fire, very predictable and comfortable handling (pretty accurate to the real world handling of a colt anaconda, actually). The base ammo isn't strong enough to kill even the weaker blue uniform metro cops in one shot, let alone guaranteed helmet break on the second shot, but occasionally, you can land either a shot at the crack between the armor and the helmet, which kills them, and up close, a stomach or crotch shot can kill, but you need damage upgrades for that to be reliable. Basically, two shots to kill anyone with even the weakest armor protection at base.

Overall, this weapon shines at handling small groups, regardless of what gear they have, what level they are, or who they are, especially at close range. Note also that most .357 hits that don't result in kills, or strike armor, lead to the enemy entering a long 'ouch' animation, like they do with the sniper rifle. Even high morale cops sometimes react like this when you peg them from 50+ meters away. The standard revolver, without upgrades requires 3 shots to kill an unaware metro cop from the back at 30 meters, 2 at 29 meters.

Fully upgraded, the standard revolver is powerful enough to dispose of black armor cops in 5 body shots from beyond 30 meters range, which is quite an achievement for such a straightforward weapon.

Since for whatever reason only the standard revolver is capable of using standard .357 rounds, it's recommended to save any of the ever so precious AP round for the classic diamondback variant, or Otar's unique revolver, should you decide to pick a fight with him.

Classic .357 Magnum Revolver

 * Included as part of the Classic Gear DLC, available as a free download, and can be acquired for inventory storage at anytime during the game.


 * Has the highest per shot damage once fully upgraded, but it has the lowest accuracy, slowest base rate of fire, and slowest reload speed.
 * Only accepts Armor Piercing rounds.
 * Has a maximum range of 50 meters.
 * The rate of fire on the classic is very deceptive. The hair trigger upgrade (which would seem to provide minimal boost for lots of crafting parts), essentially turns it into a crysis 3 semi-auto weapon. There's quite literally no wait time between shots, and if you're not used to it, you can drain a full 9 round cylinder in seconds.

Otar's .357 Magnum Revolver

 * A custom-made revolver and trusty sidearm of Otar Botkoveli. Can be looted from his body after killing or knocking him out, either on the 1st day in Prague inside his casino, or during the 3rd night inside the Dvali theater.
 * It is the only sidearm that can use a scope, coming pre-equipped with a 4x scope. It is the most accurate variant, has the highest base damage, and has the least recoil, but has the smallest magazine, lowest max rate of fire, and cannot be upgraded.
 * Only accepts Armor Piercing rounds.
 * Has a maximum range of 65 meters, the longest of the three revolver variants.

Tips

 * 357 AP ammunition is the rarest non-grenade ammunition in the game; roughly 180 such bullets can be found, and fully half of them must be purchased.
 * The revolver with AP ammunition is an extremely powerful weapon.
 * Revolver AP ammunition is the most powerful ammunition against turrets, robots, and other hard targets such as metal doors.
 * Revolver AP is also very effective against personnel. Without upgrades, a single body shot is enough to kill low-tier unarmored opponents. Fully upgraded, a single body shot is capable of killing opponents "veteran" level Shadow Operatives. Only fully armored police, 'elite' level shadow ops and ARC soldiers, as well as exosuits can tank more than two body shots. So while you may not have a lot of bullets, you really won't need that many, either.

Trivia

 * The Mustang Arms .357 was likely inspired by the concept.
 * The Classic and Otar's .357 variants has the upgraded barrel of the explosive rounds kit from Human Revolution, but fire Armor Piercing bullets instead. "Diamond Back .357, MA-HEX20" is written above the barrel and "MA-HEX20, High Ex/Incendiary, Tracer" is written below the barrel.
 * The Classic .357 can hold up to 9 rounds, 2 more than its counterpart in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
 * The classic revolver's description claims that the increase damage stems of having a larger barrel. The weapon itself doesn't have a larger barrel than its more common counterpart. In real life, having a larger barrel would greatly decrease the accuracy and power of the weapon, as the round would have room to bounce against the sides of the barrel, allowing energy to pass around it, before tumbling out of the barrel.

Renders
Револьвер Mustang Arms 0.357 magnum