Punisher

A wise choice, mate. Its ammo will penetrate just about anything.

The Punisher is available for purchase from the Merchant and is a civilian FN Five-seveN (distinguishable by its straight trigger-guard) rechambered for the 9mm Luger cartridge. It takes up 6 spaces (3x2) of Leon's inventory.

While the Punisher costs 20,000 pesetas, it can be obtained for free upon completion of the "Blue Medallions" subquest by shooting at least 10 of the 15 medallions. However, if all 15 are shot, the Punisher will be available free, but with the added free bonus of a firepower upgrade on the weapon. The Punisher can shoot through two enemies but is the second weakest of all guns (weakest being the TMP).

The FN Five-seveN is chambered for the 5.7x28mm round in real life. This round has been under fire from several anti-gun groups for it's ability to pierce Level II body armor. This is not true of all 5.7mm rounds, those rounds are generally limited to military and law enforcement. This is the reason for the Punisher's ability, in game, to pierce multiple enemies. While it's not far-fetched for any bullet to penetrate multiple targets, and even walls, it seems that the developers used the 5.7mm round's capability to pierce armor as a means to pierce multiple enemies. In reality, when hitting a soft target, the armor piercing round is designed to yaw and spend it's energy inside the target and not exit the other side to prevent accidents regarding over penetration. Not all 5.7x28mm behave in this manner, generally only military and law enforcement rounds will. Bullets that penetrate multiple soft targets will generally do less damage per target than a round that expends all of its energy a single target.

Upgrade Chart
|Level| Firepower      | Firing Speed  | Reload Speed  | Capacity      | |    |                 |               |               |               |   |  1  | 0.9             | 0.47          | 1.70          | 10            |   |  2  | 1.1 (10,000*)   | 0.40 (10,000) | 1.47 (8,000)  | 13 (8,000)    |   |  3  | 1.3 (15,000)    | 0.33 (20,000) | 0.83 (18,000) | 16 (10,000)   |   |  4  | 1.5 (20,000)    |       -       |       -       | 20 (15,000)   |   |  5  | 1.7 (25,000)    |       -       |       -       | 24 (18,000)   |   |  6  | 1.9 (35,000)    |       -       |       -       | 28 (24,000)   |
 * Cost is in parenthesis


 * Its exclusive upgrade allows it to penetrate up to five enemies with one shot.

Resident Evil: The Deck Building Game
The punisher is introduced in the deck building game's third expansion set: nightmare. The benefits offered with this pistol are that the player gets +2 cards and +1 Action during the turn this card is played. It deals 30 points of damage at the cost of the same ammo points and cost 70 gold.

Strategies
The Punisher isn't used very often by the player, as it has the lowest stopping power of any handgun featured in the first game. However, for those who like the gun, there are a number of uses for it:
 * The Punisher is the best handgun for the cabin standoff, so long as the player is camping on a chokepoint. Standing at the top of the stairs is the best place for this, as you can hit multiple enemies with a single bullet.
 * Keep in mind that the Punisher's critical hit chance resets after each enemy the bullet passes through. Thus, it is possible to kill an enemy with an overpenetration.
 * Using the Punisher on the cable car car portion of the game, immediately following the barricade cabin segment. Since enemies are knocked off when hit by anything, and are often times standing adjacent to each other, one round from the Punisher can knock the off two at a time. The weapon is also more stable than the Silver Ghost, making longer range shots here much easier.
 * The Punisher can punch through enemy shields, although it has a harder time breaking them. Use it to cause shield bearers to fall to their knees, creating choke points and opening large groups of enemies up for grenades.
 * Ada's Punisher in the Mercenaries is extremely useful. A skilled player will discover fairly quickly that a headshot from the Punisher followed by a Fan Kick is almost always a critical hit, allowing the player to rack up large combos without using their rarer rifle or TMP ammo.

Trivia

 * The Punisher costs 296,000 pesetas to fully upgrade (276,000 if the player shot 10 medallions, and 266,000 if the player shot all 15 medallions).


 * It is the smallest handgun in the Resident Evil 4 (technically the Matilda is smaller if the stock is not included)


 * The Punisher was included as a weapon in the mobile Resident Evil: Degeneration tie-in video game.
 * It is just a game mechanics that the Punisher has the only 9mm penetrating ammunition, as in real life, the 9mm penetrates most targets.
 * The non exclusive Blacktail is similar to the punisher in firing speed.