This is a tough one in my opinion. The Desolator is basically a big Stryfe with a fixed buttstock. Drac has said numerous times that it's slim and very comfortable. The RapidStrike is an icon of the hobby. Except for its low rate of fire, nerfers absolutely love it. Me included.

If I went unarmed to a nerf event and had to pick one, I'd pick the Desolator. I like having control of my shots. The Desolator gives you that immediate tactile feedback. The RapidStrike is much more mechanical.

I consider the Desolator as more of an offensive blaster, whereas the stock RapidStrike is more of a defensive blaster. That distinction should definitely calculate into your playstyle.

HOWEVER, if you have any aspirations of modding, the RapidStrike is superior in every way. Case closed.

Does the desolator fire farther than the rapidstrike?

I just got a desolator from target for only 20 bucks so I got 2

> I just got a desolator from target for only 20 bucks so I got 2

Sweet! They're definitely dual-wieldable.

Something you may find about the Desolator, if you have long fingers, is that the trigger well is "set back" into the grip geometry further than most blasters. So you may find that the angle your trigger-finger knuckles need to be at will cause rapid fatigue after shooting it for more than a few minutes.

But having one in each hand helps. And there are plenty of spots on the back side to attach an improvised sling, to free up a hand for mag swaps and then quickly re-grab it.

@EthanCoolio123 asked: "Does the desolator fire farther than the rapidstrike?"

Just to elaborate on @Kyber417's keen observations, both blasters' top velocity is 70± FPS. So no, the Desolator doesn't "fire farther". But how you fire it does make a difference.

The phenomenon Kyber is referring to is called Recovery Time - the time it takes the flywheels to spin back up to full speed after firing a dart. It's possible to pull the Desolator's trigger faster than its recovery time. When you do that, the shots may have significantly reduced range.

The RapidStrike's rate of fire is optimized to minimize this effect. Plus, the RapidStrike uses an integrated voltage regulator to increase the RPMs when it senses a drain on the motors. Basically, it gives the motors more juice when they're working harder, so that ALL the shots have similar range. Even so, there is a discernable decrease in range after the second or third shot.

But no matter how slowly you pull the trigger, the max effective flat range is about 35 feet from either blaster.