Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle is a large caliber gas-operated semi-automatic handgun. It appears in Resident Evil 2, Code: Veronica, Outbreak - Files 1 & 2, Dead Aim, and Resident Evil 5.

Resident Evil 2
It appears in Leon's and HUNK's games in Resident Evil 2. Referred to as the "Magnum" in game, and chambered with the large caliber .50 Action Express round, the Desert Eagle is among the most powerful weapons in the game, capable of killing many enemies such as zombies and lickers with a single shot.

On top of its already considerable damage capability, Leon can also upgrade his Desert Eagle using the magnum parts (a custom 10 inch barrel) located in the weapons locker of William Birkin's laboratory, allowing for one-shot kills of even some of the toughest B.O.W.s such as enhanced Lickers.

Comparisons to Claire's Arsenal
The Desert Eagle has a longer range than the roughly analogous Grenade Launcher, with a single shot usually causing more damage than any of the three kinds of grenade rounds. The magnum pays for this however with enormous recoil (making it much slower to fire than the Grenade Launcher) a small magazine size (8 rounds) and exceedingly limited ammunition supplies.

HUNK's Magnum
The regular Magnum also appears in HUNK's kit, where he carries only one spare magazine on top of the gun's initial load (16 rounds in total).

Resident Evil Code: Veronica
Rodrigo Juan Raval is seen carrying a Desert Eagle in the opening FMV, though it is never made available to the player.

Resident Evil: Dead Aim
The Desert Eagle is availible in Dead Aim under the name "Magnum". It is found in the captain's quarters and is chambered for the .44 Magnum round.

Resident Evil 5
The Desert Eagle (Lightning Hawk) returns in Resident Evil 5, only now it is classified as a Magnum.

The L. Hawk is available after completing Chapter 5-3. It can be purchased for 5,000 Gold.

The L. Hawk can also be found during your first encounter with Wesker. It can be found up stairs in a sarcophogus along with two jewels. You will need help from your partner to move the lid.

It has a starting firepower of 1400, reload speed of 1.70, a capacity of 5, and a piercing value of 3. Fully upgraded, it has a firepower of 3000, reload speed of 1.36, a capacity of 8, and a piercing value of 7.

This Desert Eagle appears to be chambered for the .44 Magnum round, hence the 8 round capacity.

RE Outbreak File 1&2
Also reffered as the Magnum Handgun, The Desert Eagle can be found in the "Below Freezing Point" scenario with Yoko only, where it is given to her by an unnamed Umbrella employee. In Outbreak #2, it can be found in two locations: the "Desperate Times" scenario behind the Hallway painting using the Unicorn Medal (difficulties change location), and if the player is in control of Kevin Ryman, it can be found inside his personal desk.

Live-Action Films
It also appears in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction as L.J.s preferred weapon. The only differences are that L.J.'s are custom gold and are chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge. In Extinction movie, L.J. only uses one. Carlos Oliveira carried a pair of blued .44 Desert Eagles in Apocalypse. In the new film Resident Evil: Afterlife, Wesker is seen firing two Desert Eagles.

Replicas


Tokyo Marui, a high end airsoft manufacturer, released three separate Desert Eagles as part of their BioHazard line.

The first was a standard-sized model with a satin silver finished slide and frame. The grip had imitation wood grips set with a Raccoon Police medallion. This was modeled off of the Magnum in RE2. This model being the rarest of the three and the most difficult to obtain.

The second, modeled after the Magnum of RE2 combined with the



custom parts, had a matte upper receiver with a 10 inch barrel and adjustable sights. The lower frame was identical to the standard edition.

The third, called the "Leon Custom" also had a 10-inch upper, with a chrome silver finish throughout and black grips. The grip had large finger grooves and was engraved with "Leon". This is most likely a reference to the third Resident Evil novel, City of the Dead, in which Leon has been given a custom Desert Eagle with a 10 inch barrel as a gift.

The first two models, while true to the game, had an older gas system, and did not function as well as Marui's other Desert Eagles. The Leon custom did utilize the newer gas system, which gave it stronger recoil, a louder firing report and better performance. A drawback of this latter system is none of the Desert Eagles can take high power gasses very well, and as a result the stock models are unsuited to most

skirmish usage.

The standard model came in a fairly ordinary box adorned with Biohazard 2 screenshots, while the 10 inch models both came with wooden collector's boxes. All three have been discontinued by Tokyo Marui, and along with the Samurai Edge models, are some of the most coveted custom airsoft replicas.

Trivia

 * The Desert Eagle is one of the few weapons in Resident Evil 5 that is not referred to by its actual name. Another video game called Counter-Strike refers to the Desert Eagle as a "Nighthawk", which is similar to the name of the gun in RE5. Neither of these guns are related to pistols made by Nighthawk Custom, a gun manufacturer.


 * The Desert Eagle is one of only three semi-automatic magnums available in Resident Evil, with the other two being the Sporting Int. Magnum Custom Edition and the AMT Hardballer Longslide.


 * The name of the weapon in RE5 (Lightning Hawk), is a reference to Thunder Hawk (Abbreviated as T Hawk), a Native American Fighter from the Street Fighter series, another Capcom video game saga.
 * Even though it was never shown in any of the games, featured or otherwise, the Desert Eage can also chamber the .357 Magnum cartridge.
 * Considered to be one of the most powerful weapons in games, killing most enemies with one shot and recommended to be used for bosses, however in Resident Evil Outbreak the magnum handgun will only do half of its firepower to the G-Mutant boss.