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Description
When playing Nerf, it's important to choose the blasters that are right for you and for the gametype. Your secondary is the blaster at your hip, the one you reach for when things are getting tough and there's not enough time to reload the big gun.

But what is a secondary? What makes one blaster a better choice than another?
Well, a secondary blaster, at least for me, is smaller and more compact than a primary, ideally uses a different loading system to your primary, and can hold its own at mid-range. So, let's look at some possible primary blasters!

Important! All blasters are tested with stock internals. Any modifications are purely cosmetic, paint and the like.

Recon CS-6
The Recon is an older blaster that has been replaced by the Retaliator. Since I don't have a Retaliator, I can't review that, but most of the points should still be relevant. This review is for the basic blaster only, with none of the attachements so that it's small enough to be considered a sidearm.
A clip system blaster, the Recon can take any Nerf magazine, and the 18-round mags give it a fair amount of staying power that most sidearms lack. Very reliable, even after a lot of abuse, and rarely jams unless darts are really mangled.
Cocked by using the slide on top, so it takes two hands to use and isn't the fastest blaster around to load or fire.
Ranges are acceptable for a sidearm, but not exactly competitive, and you won't be getting many hits at mid-long range. Couple that with the low fire-rate and you should treat it like you would a single-shot blaster; draw, fire, hide and reload your primary. It's also quite large, and a larger magazine makes it difficult to holster.
The Recon isn't really available any more but came with a stock, barrel extension, red light and flip-up sight. The Retaliator comes with a foregrip, stock and the old Recon barrel extension, making it a good choice if you're more interested in getting attachements than using the blaster.

Strongarm Elite XD
The Strongarm is a revolver-type blaster with a six-shot cylinder. This review is for the Elite XD re-release.
To start with, the Elite XD build quality isn't very good. I got two of these, and neither was assembled properly; one wasn't screwed completely closed and the other's front sight was only halfway inserted. Easy enough to fix, but still worth noting. Check your blasters before you buy them, just to save yourself some hassle.
Cocked using the slide on the rear of the blaster, so you'll need two hands to use it. You might be able to one-hand it if you use a lanyard attached to the slide's sling point.
You reload by hitting the button on the side, which makes the cylinder swing out for easier loading. Just close it when your darts are in and you're ready to fire.
The cylinder rotates on the trigger pull, not on the slide pull, which makes the trigger just a bit sluggish and can pull the blaster to the right a bit when firing. Nothing that will really affect your accuracy, but it's there.
Very accurate, the Strongarm is a mid/long range blaster that hits surprisingly hard for its size. Though, admittedly, it's a bit on the large size for a sidearm.
The fire-rate depends on the user, but it does have slamfire, which means it can fire off all six darts extremely quickly.
Generally reliable, there's the occasional misfire where something doesn't work right, and if the cylinder isn't lined up right it might not fire either. The less you bang it around, drop it or throw it, the more reliable it is. The Strongarm doesn't like being knocked around very much.

Hammershot
The Hammershot is a revolver-type blaster with a five-shot cylinder. The internals are identical to the Rebelle Sweet Revenge, as far as I can tell. The only differences are in the shell.
Nerf opted for a more realistic design with the Hammershot, since you cock it with a hammer instead of a slide This means you can use it one-handed pretty easily, which is a great feature for a sidearm. You can hold your primary in one hand while drawing and firing your secondary with the other. Loading is easy, you just shove the darts in the front.
It's suited for short/mid ranges, not being accurate enough to reliably hit things at its upper range.
The cylinder rotates on the cocking, not the trigger pull. This gives it a more responsive trigger with a shorter pull.
While the Hammershot and Sweet Revenge are both quite compact, the Sweet Revenge is easier to holster. The Hammershot is boxier and less sleek, and I've noticed it catching when I put it back in its holster.
The fire-rate is decent, depending on how fast you can work the hammer, but can't compete with faster sidearms. This can be ignored if you duel-wield a pair of Hammershots, since you can fire one while cocking the other.
Extremely reliable, since the internals are a single, almost solid assembly without any fragile parts. You'd almost need to deliberately try and break it to actually stop it from working. As long as the darts are in properly, it'll fire.

Stryfe
The Stryfe is an odd little blaster that could be either a primary or secondary, but doesn't really fit either class out of the box. Too big to be a proper sidearm, too small to be a proper primary. This will review it as a secondary only.
Probably the only flywheel blaster that can be used as a secondary, the Stryfe is a great panic blaster. Semi-automatic, it fires as fast as you can pull the trigger and can actually fire faster than anything else on this list if you don't mind some drop-off from the flywheels slowing with each shot. It has the usual problem of the flywheels being noisy when revving, of course, so forget about stealth.
Using an eighteen dart mag gives the best performance, but makes the Stryfe harder to holster, so you'll probably want a sling unless you have something custom made.
Definitely a mid-range blaster, but you can manage some worthwhile long-range shooting with a bit of practice and some luck.
It's uncommon for the Stryfe to jam as long as the darts are in passable condition, and it's almost as reliable firing quickly as it is firing slowly.
Without any attachements, it's small enough to use one-handed, although it's still a bit front-heavy, especially with a larger magazine. If you really want to, you can duel-wield a pair of Stryfes and beat out any other sidearms for sheer volume of foam and fire-rate.

Firestrike
The Firestrike is a single-shot pullrod+piston blaster, a tried-and-true design that's been used time and again.
It's small and lightweight, easy to holster or hang from a sling without it getting in the way. It's small enough to fit into a pocket as well.
To cock it, just pull the rod at the back. Loading is just as simple, put a dart in the front. It takes both hands to cock and load.
There's room for two spare darts under the barrel, and it has a small red flashlight built in. Not one worth using, though.
Decent range and accuracy, but nothing amazing. It does best at short ranges.
The Firestrike isn't suited for being a proper secondary, honestly. Single-shot and slow to load. You can leave it primed during a game and pull it out for a panic shot when your primary is empty, but don't expect to win any games with it.
Extremely reliable. You can drop it, throw it, kick it and bang it around, then stick a dart in and it'll shoot no problem. Short of actually snapping the pull-rod off, not much will stop the Firestrike.

Description
When playing Nerf, it's important to choose the blasters that are right for you and for the gametype. Your secondary is the blaster at your hip, the one you reach for when things are getting tough and there's not enough time to reload the big gun.

But what is a secondary? What makes one blaster a better choice than another?
Well, a secondary blaster, at least for me, is smaller and more compact than a primary, ideally uses a different loading system to your primary, and can hold its own at mid-range. So, let's look at some possible primary blasters!

Important! All blasters are tested with stock internals. Any modifications are purely cosmetic, paint and the like.

Recon CS-6
The Recon is an older blaster that has been replaced by the Retaliator. Since I don't have a Retaliator, I can't review that, but most of the points should still be relevant. This review is for the basic blaster only, with none of the attachements so that it's small enough to be considered a sidearm.
A clip system blaster, the Recon can take any Nerf magazine, and the 18-round mags give it a fair amount of staying power that most sidearms lack. Very reliable, even after a lot of abuse, and rarely jams unless darts are really mangled.
Cocked by using the slide on top, so it takes two hands to use and isn't the fastest blaster around to load or fire.
Ranges are acceptable for a sidearm, but not exactly competitive, and you won't be getting many hits at mid-long range. Couple that with the low fire-rate and you should treat it like you would a single-shot blaster; draw, fire, hide and reload your primary. It's also quite large, and a larger magazine makes it difficult to holster.
The Recon isn't really available any more but came with a stock, barrel extension, red light and flip-up sight. The Retaliator comes with a foregrip, stock and the old Recon barrel extension, making it a good choice if you're more interested in getting attachements than using the blaster.

Strongarm Elite XD
The Strongarm is a revolver-type blaster with a six-shot cylinder. This review is for the Elite XD re-release.
To start with, the Elite XD build quality isn't very good. I got two of these, and neither was assembled properly; one wasn't screwed completely closed and the other's front sight was only halfway inserted. Easy enough to fix, but still worth noting. Check your blasters before you buy them, just to save yourself some hassle.
Cocked using the slide on the rear of the blaster, so you'll need two hands to use it. You might be able to one-hand it if you use a lanyard attached to the slide's sling point.
You reload by hitting the button on the side, which makes the cylinder swing out for easier loading. Just close it when your darts are in and you're ready to fire.
The cylinder rotates on the trigger pull, not on the slide pull, which makes the trigger just a bit sluggish and can pull the blaster to the right a bit when firing. Nothing that will really affect your accuracy, but it's there.
Very accurate, the Strongarm is a mid/long range blaster that hits surprisingly hard for its size. Though, admittedly, it's a bit on the large size for a sidearm.
The fire-rate depends on the user, but it does have slamfire, which means it can fire off all six darts extremely quickly.
Generally reliable, there's the occasional misfire where something doesn't work right, and if the cylinder isn't lined up right it might not fire either. The less you bang it around, drop it or throw it, the more reliable it is. The Strongarm doesn't like being knocked around very much.

Hammershot
The Hammershot is a revolver-type blaster with a five-shot cylinder. The internals are identical to the Rebelle Sweet Revenge, as far as I can tell. The only differences are in the shell.
Nerf opted for a more realistic design with the Hammershot, since you cock it with a hammer instead of a slide This means you can use it one-handed pretty easily, which is a great feature for a sidearm. You can hold your primary in one hand while drawing and firing your secondary with the other. Loading is easy, you just shove the darts in the front.
It's suited for short/mid ranges, not being accurate enough to reliably hit things at its upper range.
The cylinder rotates on the cocking, not the trigger pull. This gives it a more responsive trigger with a shorter pull.
While the Hammershot and Sweet Revenge are both quite compact, the Sweet Revenge is easier to holster. The Hammershot is boxier and less sleek, and I've noticed it catching when I put it back in its holster.
The fire-rate is decent, depending on how fast you can work the hammer, but can't compete with faster sidearms. This can be ignored if you duel-wield a pair of Hammershots, since you can fire one while cocking the other.
Extremely reliable, since the internals are a single, almost solid assembly without any fragile parts. You'd almost need to deliberately try and break it to actually stop it from working. As long as the darts are in properly, it'll fire.

Stryfe
The Stryfe is an odd little blaster that could be either a primary or secondary, but doesn't really fit either class out of the box. Too big to be a proper sidearm, too small to be a proper primary. This will review it as a secondary only.
Probably the only flywheel blaster that can be used as a secondary, the Stryfe is a great panic blaster. Semi-automatic, it fires as fast as you can pull the trigger and can actually fire faster than anything else on this list if you don't mind some drop-off from the flywheels slowing with each shot. It has the usual problem of the flywheels being noisy when revving, of course, so forget about stealth.
Using an eighteen dart mag gives the best performance, but makes the Stryfe harder to holster, so you'll probably want a sling unless you have something custom made.
Definitely a mid-range blaster, but you can manage some worthwhile long-range shooting with a bit of practice and some luck.
It's uncommon for the Stryfe to jam as long as the darts are in passable condition, and it's almost as reliable firing quickly as it is firing slowly.
Without any attachements, it's small enough to use one-handed, although it's still a bit front-heavy, especially with a larger magazine. If you really want to, you can duel-wield a pair of Stryfes and beat out any other sidearms for sheer volume of foam and fire-rate.

Firestrike
The Firestrike is a single-shot pullrod+piston blaster, a tried-and-true design that's been used time and again.
It's small and lightweight, easy to holster or hang from a sling without it getting in the way. It's small enough to fit into a pocket as well.
To cock it, just pull the rod at the back. Loading is just as simple, put a dart in the front. It takes both hands to cock and load.
There's room for two spare darts under the barrel, and it has a small red flashlight built in. Not one worth using, though.
Decent range and accuracy, but nothing amazing. It does best at short ranges.
The Firestrike isn't suited for being a proper secondary, honestly. Single-shot and slow to load. You can leave it primed during a game and pull it out for a panic shot when your primary is empty, but don't expect to win any games with it.
Extremely reliable. You can drop it, throw it, kick it and bang it around, then stick a dart in and it'll shoot no problem. Short of actually snapping the pull-rod off, not much will stop the Firestrike.