Starfield: How to Get the Keelhauler Legendary Pistol

The Keelhauler Legendary Pistol is one of many named Legendary items in Starfield, and depending on when you do certain quests, you might go an entire playthrough without seeing it once. One of its most remarkable traits is it’s a full-auto revolver, capable of emptying its six-shot cylinder in less than a second. It’s not great at range, thanks to an absolutely massive amount of recoil, but if you put it right up against someone’s backside, they’ll be in for a hurting. Thankfully, it’s not hard to get once you know what to do. Here’s how to find the Keelhauler legendary pistol in Starfield.

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How to Get the Keelhauler in Starfield

The Keelhauler is a reward early in the UC SysDef vs. Crimson Fleet questline. Shortly after getting in with the Fleet, you’ll go down to The Lock supermax prison on Suvarov. After clearing the place of its roach problem and finding out how to find out where Kryx’s Legacy is, you can return to The Key. Report back to Delgado about what you learned (give him the slate), and you’ll begin to discuss the next phase of the plan. At the end of the conversation, he’ll give you the Keelhauler.

If you’re early in a playthrough and have started the Crimson Fleet quest, I suggest holding out on continuing until you’re at a higher level. Loot rewards drop at around your current level in relative power, so while my Keelhauler only has 76 damage, if I had waited until either the end of my story campaign or New Game Plus to do the quest, I could have had an absolute monster of a gun.

As for the weapon itself, the one I got is fully automatic with a triple laser sight, a long barrel, and a compensator. It also came with three powerful perks: Frenzy (which causes Frenzy), Staggering (which increases Stagger chance), and Berserker (which increases the weapon’s damage with less armor worn).

The Keelhauler is best used in a close-range heavy setup with shotguns and SMGs to bolster the Legendary’s almost constant downtime. I’d also recommend trying to finish with it rather than using it to do most of your damage. It simply fires too fast, and its reload is a bit too long to be consistent at anything but chunking health bars in a second. If that’s what you’re looking for, though, then the Keelhauler is the Starfield gun for you.