Blacktail



The Blacktail, based off the Croatian HS Produkt HS2000 and marketed in the US as Springfield Armory XD is a 9mm Handgun that can be purchased at the beginning of the Castle in Resident Evil 4. The Blacktail is the second most powerful handgun in Resident Evil 4, having a high fire-rate, high ammo capacity, steady handling, and medium attack power. The Blacktail was also used by Ada Wong, during the Los Illuminados event.

The Blacktail is available for purchase from the Merchant for 24,000 pesetas. It takes up 6 spaces of Leon's inventory. The Blacktail costs 362,000 pesetas to fully upgrade. When fully upgraded it is the fastest firing handgun in the game.

While not as powerful as the Red9, the Blacktail's superior capacity and rate of fire still make it a lethal weapon in the right hands. Since it takes up less space than the Red9, it is better suited for those who use the handgun strictly as a secondary weapon. But for those who use the handgun as a primary, be wary; it's easy to get carried away with its fast firing rate.

The Springfield XD also serves as Ada's weapon throughout Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. This is anachronistic, seeing as many of the segments where it is seen take place in 1998, while the first 9mm HS2000s were released in 1999, and Springfield did not begin importing them into the U.S. until 2001.

Trivia
It has the fastest firing speed of any handgun in the game when fully upgraded. The Blacktail also makes an appearance in Dead Rising, another Capcom zombie game.

Upgrade Chart
|Level| Firepower      | Firing Speed  | Reload Speed  | Capacity      | exclusive power: |    |                 |               |               |               | power is upgraded to: | 1  | 1.6             | 0.47          | 1.70          | 15            | 4.5 (80,000)*   |  2  | 1.8 (10,000)    | 0.40 (10,000) | 1.47 (8,000)  | 18 (8,000)    |    |  3  | 2.0 (15,000)    | 0.27 (20,000) | 0.83 (15,000) | 21 (10,000)   |    |  4  | 2.3 (20,000)    |       -       |       -       | 25 (15,000)   |   |  5  | 2.7 (25,000)    |       -       |       -       | 30 (20,000)   |   |  6  | 3.0 (35,000)    |       -       |       -       | 35 (25,000)   |
 * Cost is in parenthesis


 * In the Japanese and US Gamecube versions, the Blacktail's exclusive only increases firepower to 3.4. In the PAL Gamecube, PS2, PC and Wii ports, the Blacktail's Exclusive upgrades the firepower to 4.5.