
This allows the Colt Python to be used as a makeshift sniping weapon until obtaining the Crossbow. Alternatively, a player may hold down the primary fire button while the zoom is being released to instantly fire a round and diminish jolting. The player should zoom into the target and have the desired target in the center of their crosshair, then the zoom must be quickly released and the player must fire. Since it has no built-in scope in Half-Life 2, the HEV Suit zoom can be used to aim for long distance shots.In Half-Life multiplayer, the secondary fire button triggers a zoom which may be used for long-range sniper shots.Therefore, use the Python in situations where sniping is appropriate, such as to pick off HECU who are at a distance but not moving.
With its accuracy and power, the Colt Python is the best sniper weapon in the game, which is counterintuitive being a pistol rather than a long gun. All of the enemies that can be killed with one Colt Python shot can also be killed with double a HECU Shotgun blast or one Combine Shotgun blast (as provided all pellets hits the target), which has much more ammo scattered throughout the game than the Colt Python does. While this may sound tempting, it is better to conserve Colt Python ammo for foes that require multiple shots to take down, such as the Alien Grunt, Alien Controller, Poison Zombie, and Overwatch Elite. The Colt Python can kill anything weaker than a Bullsquid and Overwatch Soldier (in Easy mode) in one shot. In Episode Two, it is found while trekking through the Antlion caves in the Victory Mine. In Episode One, it is found in the first room of the Technical Trainstation. Like most weapons, it can be acquired later, such as near a Citizen corpse at the Petroleum Station along the Coast. In Half-Life 2, the first Python the player acquires is in the chapter Water Hazard, in a Civil Protection outpost on the Canals. In Blue Shift, the player finds the weapon in the chapter Captive Freight next to a dead security guard near a Black Mesa SUV. After being captured by HECU soldiers, it can be found again near a Bullsquid eating a dead guard in the Chapter Residue Processing.
In Half-Life, the player finds his first Python near a dead security guard in the chapter Blast Pit, near the Tentacle roots under Silo D.It has near perfect accuracy, but rapidly firing shots will cause accuracy to significantly decrease because of the weapon's fair amount of recoil. It is very powerful, but it has a long reload time and low rate of fire. The Python is a double-action revolver which fires six rounds.The Colt Python's first appearance, in Half-Life.