Infectious Smile Handgun: Locations, Combat Stats, and Grab Rules

The Infectious Smile handgun is a semi-automatic ranged firearm that deals roughly 10 damage per shot across a 70-stud firing range. Players can scavenge it from specific facility stages or purchase it at spawn to attack smilers from safe distances.

Weapon Overview and Combat Statistics

The handgun is modeled after a standard USP .45 pistol and functions as a primary ranged tool among human weapons. Equipping the firearm triggers an animation where the player character pulls back the slide. Unlike melee options that feature broad hitboxes, the handgun fires pinpoint projectiles that possess zero spread within an effective range limit of 70 studs. Targets positioned beyond 70 studs take no damage, making trigger discipline necessary to avoid wasting rounds.

Each bullet inflicts roughly 10 base damage. Standard smilers possess 100 health points, meaning 10 clean hits down a target if the smiler does not regenerate health between shots. Because infected players naturally recover health rapidly when not actively taking hits, landing shots in immediate sequence is required to secure an elimination.

Recoil handles predictably during sustained firing. The initial shot kicks vertically by 3 studs, followed by 2.5 studs of vertical climb on subsequent shots during a quick burst. Every 6 shots, the weapon produces a horizontal recoil shift of 1 stud to the right and back. Firing 10 rounds in unbroken, rapid succession eliminates recoil entirely until the player pauses firing or unequips the tool.

The defining drawback of the handgun is its complete lack of a stun attribute. Shots hit without staggering smilers or interrupting their forward sprinting speed. Consequently, hitting targets at close range without a defensive barrier allows enemies to close the gap and initiate an infection grab.

Map Spawn Locations

Players find the handgun inside several recurring stages during standard cycles. Each location requires completing a small traversal path, opening a locked container, or waiting for stage machinery to cycle.

• Boiler Room: Players climb an orange truss on the right side of the room to access a high, narrow walkway. The handgun rests directly on the wall at the end of the walkway past the steam vents.
• Cargo Shipment: Opening the cargo train containers reveals random loot. The handgun can spawn inside these crates alongside secondary supplies, though containers also hold hostile smilers.
• Gun Factories and Gun Facility: These variants feature an automated glass enclosure holding 3 handguns. Players press a dispenser button on a 2-second cooldown to drop orange battery cylinders into a conveyor receiver. Depositing 10 cylinders fills the progress bar, opening the enclosure. The glass box locks again and restocks after 45 seconds.
• Nuclear Site: Ascending to the third floor reveals an office desk holding rubber ducks, notes, and a handgun pickup. The position provides immediate defensive sightlines down the access ladders.
• Volcano Pit: At the bottom of the volcanic mineshaft sits a locked safe. Players must carry a Red Key down the elevators to open the safe and extract the firearm before the rising lava cycle triggers.
• Desolate Shelter and Warhead: Subterranean routes and bunker rooms within these maps feature handgun pickups on tables and weapon shelves.

Handgun Acquisition Methods

The method used to acquire a handgun determines your starting ammunition count and inventory retention upon respawning.

Purchasing the handgun directly at spawn grants an expanded ammunition capacity of 75 rounds (historically 150 rounds in earlier game builds). Free map pickups deliver a smaller magazine of 15 to 25 bullets, making stage firearms strictly suited for defensive skirmishes rather than extended combat runs.

Smiler Grab Mechanics and Inventory Retention

Carrying a handgun alters how your inventory functions when an infected player initiates a grab. While holding or carrying the handgun, your hotbar remains accessible during the grab animation, allowing you to fire back or switch items.

Firing the handgun while grabbed consumes twice as many bullets per trigger pull. Because the handgun deals 10 damage per shot and lacks a stun effect, emptying a standard 15-round stage magazine into a full-health smiler while grabbed will consume 30 virtual rounds of ammunition capacity. A single standard map handgun therefore cannot eliminate a full-health attacker before the grab finishes infecting you. Smilers suffering from prior damage can be downed, but against healthy opponents, the handgun functions primarily as a bridge to pull out an instant escape weapon like the knife or shotgun.

Smilers frequently counter handgun users during a grab by toggling shift-lock and rotating their camera erratically. This rapid spinning shifts the hitboxes and causes point-blank handgun bullets to miss entirely, burning the human player's remaining ammunition.

Game Mode Applications and Badges

The handgun serves specific tactical duties across objective modes and achievement runs.

In elimination mode, the handgun is central to human defense on the Nuclear Site stage. Human teams secure the third floor early in the 5-minute round to claim the desk firearm. Smilers cannot easily cross the narrow walkways under sustained handgun fire, allowing teams to preserve weapon durability on their melee items while maintaining distance from overseer smilers.

Against the Giant boss in Bacon Site 9 and related laboratory stages, the handgun deals consistent chip damage. The Giant features an expansive collision box that absorbs bullets easily, preventing wasted shots from recoil. A group using multiple handguns can defeat the Giant safely from outside its melee sweep radius.

Collecting the handgun is also mandatory for the Obtained All Weapons In One Life badge. Unlocking this achievement requires holding the handgun concurrently alongside the bat, bottle, all weapons badge targets, knife, hatchet, shotgun, ice potion, and invisibility potion without dying. Picking up the weapon at the Gun Factories or Nuclear Site early in a run provides the ranged coverage needed to survive transitions between hazardous stages.