Ammunition: Superheated Plasma
Dual-wield: Yes
Damage: Low
Range: Close
Accuracy: Medium (Charged: Homing)
Rate of fire: Low (Charged shots), Medium (Rapid single shots)
Autofire capability: No
Energy per round: 0.5% (Charged: 15%)
Overheating: Average
Melee attack: Medium
Headshot Capable: No
Scope: No
As a rule of thumb, the Plasma Pistol is equipped by lower-ranking Covenant. Its primary form of fire is inefficient against large groups or stronger foes, even in a dual-wield configuration. Attempts to imitate automatic fire by pulling the trigger quickly will soon lead to overheating.
The Plasma Pistol's secondary fire ability is what brought it to prominence in Halo: Combat Evolved. Depressing the trigger will form a large ball of plasma at the muzzle of the pistol. This charged blast travels slower than most munitions, homes onto a close-medium range opponent, saps 15% from the battery, and overheats the weapon once released, but will completely eliminate an enemy's shields (including overshields). An overload shot will also instantly destroy unshielded Sentinels (beware of the explosion effect radius of a disabled Sentinel), however, does not damage flesh nearly as severely. Because UNSC weapons and Carbines are excellent at damaging flesh, it's recommended to bring one along,since the target has no shields to protect them anymore.
It should be noted that much about the operation of the Plasma Pistol was "nuked" from its former Glory in Halo: Combat evolved. In Halo, you could rapidly tap the trigger to fire what would seem like a fully automatic stream of shots- a delay between shots has been added to Halo 2 making this impossible. It is also basically impossible to kill an opponent with the overcharge shot, as the bolts deal a miniscule amount of damage to a player's health (although it does eliminate all shields). In Halo: Combat Evolved, a few overcharged shots could kill almost any opponent. In Halo 2, a player can be hit with literally dozens of overcharge shots and live.
The overcharged-blast/headshot combo is often referred to as the "n00b combo" by players on the receiving end, since it is perceived as requiring little skill. Bungie has since removed this Covenant weapon from select maps where this combo is abused.