Nerf Zombie Strike Doublestrike

The Doublestrike is the smallest thing in Zombie Strike and the one that gets dismissed fastest. Two darts, no clip, no motor. That is the whole blaster. Dismissing it misses the point, because two darts you can put exactly where you want them beats twenty you spray at a wall.

The short verdict

• Two darts, in barrels stacked one above the other rather than side by side.
• Nothing to go wrong. No magazine, no flywheel, no priming slide, nothing to jam.
• Deliberately oversized for a pistol, which reads as a prop rather than a scaled replica.
• The best paint project in the line for its price, because the size makes detail work read at a distance.
• Two shots and then you are reloading by hand. Run it as a backup, not a primary.

Buy it if you want a backup pistol, a cheap paint project or a cosplay piece. Skip it if you expect to carry a whole fight with it.

What the Doublestrike is

It is a two-shot, hammer-cocked pistol with the barrels stacked, one directly under the other, rather than side by side. You cock the hammer back, aim, pull the trigger, and repeat. Two darts, fired in quick succession, and then you are reloading.

There is no magazine, no flywheel, no priming slide, and nothing to jam. In a line built around a game where things go wrong, that simplicity is a feature rather than a shortcoming.

Physically it is oversized for a pistol. Held next to the sidearms it is styled after, it is noticeably bigger, and that is deliberate. It reads as a prop rather than a scaled replica, which is exactly what you want out of a foam blaster.

How it actually plays

Close quarters is the entire use case. There is nothing more accurate than a pistol when the target is already ten feet away and closing. You are not leading anything, you are not compensating for arc, you are pointing and firing.

Clear aim, no misfire drama, no motor spinning up to warn everybody you are there. That last one matters more than people expect in any game built on ambush.

The second barrel is the part that earns its place. One shot on a target that does not go down is a bad situation. Two shots, back to back, with no reload between them. That covers the two most common versions of the problem. The target that soaks the first dart, and the second target coming up behind them.

After that you are dry, and reloading two darts by hand while somebody is charging you is not a plan. So run it the way it is meant to be run, as a backup to something with capacity, not as your primary.

The honest limitation

Two darts is two darts. No amount of good handling changes the arithmetic, and anybody telling you a two-shot pistol is a viable primary is selling something.

What makes it worth owning is that the two shots are always there, always work, and cost you almost nothing to carry. A blaster you never think about until you need it has a real value that does not show up on a spec sheet.

No verified range figure

Straight with you. We have never recorded a confirmed range number for the Doublestrike, and Hasbro’s own published figure is not something we can vouch for.

Anyone quoting you a precise distance for this blaster is repeating something rather than testing it. That includes plenty of pages that sound very confident.

What is safe to say is where it sits by design. It is a small, hammer-cocked pistol with two barrels, which puts it at the short end of the line by construction, not by accident. Judge it on the close-quarters job and it holds up fine.

If range is the thing you are shopping for, this is the wrong blaster. The Slingfire is the one in this line with a published figure behind it.

How it compares in the line

If you searched for a Zombie Strike pistol and landed here, there are two of them and they are not interchangeable.

• The Hammershot is the five-shot. Revolving chamber, hammer pulled back for each shot, tactical rail, sling adapters. It is the one to buy if you want a pistol you can actually fight with for more than a few seconds.
• The Doublestrike is the two-shot. Smaller, simpler, cheaper, and built to ride as a backup rather than lead.

Against the rest of the line the contrast is sharper still. The Sledgefire is the shotgun: nine darts loaded in three-dart shells that fire simultaneously, with the shells stored in the stock, and around 50 feet of range. And the Slingfire is the lever-action with a six round magazine and a claimed 75 feet. The rest of the line sits in our Zombie Strike coverage.

The Doublestrike and the Ricochet are not the same idea

Worth noticing the difference, because they sound alike and are not. The Ricochet is the disc blaster, front-loading two discs that fire together rather than in sequence, at roughly 27 to 35 feet from shoulder height.

The Ricochet sends both its projectiles at once, in one trigger pull. The Doublestrike gives you two separate shots, one after the other. If you want two chances, that is the Doublestrike. If you want one bigger hit, that is the Ricochet.

Where it belongs in a loadout

The Doublestrike is a specialist, and specialists are easy to misuse. Three placements that work.

As a backup to a clip-fed primary

This is the intended job. Something with a 12 or 18 dart clip does the fighting. The Doublestrike lives on a belt, for the moment that clip runs out at the wrong time. It weighs almost nothing and it is always loaded.

As the indoor blaster

In a hallway or a small room, capacity stops being the deciding factor and size starts being one. A two-shot pistol clears a doorway faster than a rifle you have to swing around a corner.

As a first blaster for a younger player

No batteries, no clip to lose, no jam to clear, and a hammer that takes almost no force. It is hard to break and hard to get wrong, and the low capacity naturally teaches aiming rather than spraying.

Where it does not work

As anybody’s only blaster in a game with more than about four people. You will spend most of the round reloading. That is not a criticism of the blaster. It is a description of what a two-shot pistol is.

Why a two-shot blaster exists at all

It is a fair question. In a line where the cheapest step up gives you five darts, why would Hasbro build something that holds two?

Because the line is about scarcity

Zombie Strike was built around Humans vs Zombies, a format where ammunition is limited on purpose and every shot has a consequence. A two-shot blaster is not a compromise in that world, it is a design statement. It makes you choose.

Plenty of blasters make you feel powerful. This one makes you feel careful, and in the game it was built for, careful wins more often.

Because a backup has different requirements

A backup blaster is judged on three things: whether it is always there, whether it always works, and whether carrying it costs you anything. Capacity is not on that list.

Add a magazine and you add weight, a release catch that can snag, and a part you can lose. Add a motor and you add batteries that go flat while the blaster sits unused for a month. The Doublestrike removes every one of those failure points by removing the features that cause them.

Because it teaches the thing that actually matters

Anyone who learns to shoot on a high-capacity blaster learns to correct by firing again. Anyone who learns on a two-shot learns to aim the first one.

That transfers. Hand a careful Doublestrike player a clip-fed blaster and they are immediately better with it than someone who has only ever sprayed. It is the same reason people learn to drive in slow cars.

The counter-argument, stated fairly

None of that helps if your games are large, fast and forgiving of volume. In a big backyard war with a dozen players and darts all over the ground, capacity genuinely wins. A two-shot pistol becomes a novelty you put down after one round.

Buy this blaster for the game you actually play, not for the game the marketing describes.

Cosplay, paint and the prop angle

This is where the Doublestrike quietly beats blasters twice its price. The stock design leans steampunk and old west at once. A slightly futuristic body wearing classic western lines, in black with deep maroon and purple. It already looks like a prop before you have touched it.

The size helps here too. Being oversized means detail work reads at a distance instead of disappearing, which is the usual problem with painting small blasters.

Two directions that work. Go full old west and lay down a flat matte grey over the whole thing, and it stops looking like a toy immediately. Or push the steampunk read that is already there. Brass and copper on the barrel and hammer, and let the maroon underneath do the heavy lifting.

Either way, our step by step Paint Your Nerf Gun series covers prep, primer and clear coat. Prep is where most people lose the job before they start. If you want the moulding lines gone first, the sanding guide covers how far to take it.

It is also the cheapest way into painting blasters. A first attempt on a Doublestrike costs very little if it goes wrong, and the lessons transfer directly to something you care more about.

Buying a Doublestrike secondhand

Zombie Strike is no longer a current line, so this is a secondhand purchase. The good news is that the Doublestrike is close to the safest used blaster you can buy.

Here is why. It has no electronics, so there are no battery contacts to corrode and no motor to burn out. It has no magazine, so there is no clip release to wear out and no feed lip to crack.

What is left that can fail is a tired spring and cracked plastic, and you can check both in about ten seconds. Cock the hammer, feel the resistance, dry fire it, look at the seams around the barrel and grip. That is the whole inspection.

Prices on the small pieces of a discontinued line stay reasonable, because collectors chase the headline blasters and nobody is fighting over the backup pistol. That works in your favour, and it is the main reason to buy this one rather than a similar current-shelf pistol.

If you would rather buy something current instead, our guide to the new Nerf guns covers what is on shelves now.

What to pay for one

We do not publish prices. A discontinued blaster costs whatever the market is doing this month, and a number written today is wrong by next season. What we can give you is the shape of a good deal.

The Doublestrike sits at the bottom of the Zombie Strike price range, and it should. It is the smallest, simplest blaster in the line, and there is no collector premium on it. Collectors are chasing the Sledgefire and the headline pieces. If a Doublestrike is priced near a Hammershot, walk away and wait, because another one will appear.

The exception is a boxed example in good condition, which carries a real premium for the same reason any boxed toy does. Decide up front whether you are buying a blaster or a collectible, because they are different purchases at different prices.

The Doublestrike is gone, so what rides on a belt now?

Zombie Strike is retired, so the Doublestrike is a used-market buy. Here is the honest replacement picture.

Nothing current is a two-shot break-action pistol. That was always a deliberately awkward idea, and Nerf has not made another one. If the two-shot gimmick is what you want, buy used.

But if you wanted a small sidearm that rides on a belt, there is a better one now. The Nerf Loadout FlareFusion comes from the Nerf Loadout line, and it holds 6 darts in a revolving cylinder with bolt action priming. It ships with 18 N1 darts and 3 swappable attachments. Hasbro rates it 8+.

Six shots instead of two changes the job completely. The Doublestrike made you spend both barrels and then hide. A 6-dart cylinder lets you actually stay in the fight.

One catch before you order. Blasters from the Nerf Loadout line fire N1 darts, not Elite darts. Nerf’s own listings say N1 darts work only in N Series blasters, so the Elite foam a Doublestrike takes will not feed one. Budget for N1 darts alongside it.

Where to buy

As an Amazon Associate and eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases.

• Current Doublestrike listings on Amazon, the honest link for a discontinued blaster.
• Official Zombie Strike 30-dart refill, the line’s own foam.
• N-Strike Elite 250-dart pack, which works just as well in it.
• Safety glasses.
• Used Doublestrike listings on eBay, usually the better hunting ground for a Zombie Strike blaster that left shelves years ago.

Frequently asked questions

How many darts does the Doublestrike hold?

Two, in barrels stacked one above the other. There is no magazine, so both are loaded by hand.

How far does the Doublestrike shoot?

We do not publish a figure, because we have not measured one and Hasbro’s is not one we can stand behind. By construction it sits at the short end of the line, which is what you would expect from a small two-barrel pistol.

Does the Doublestrike need batteries?

No. It is hammer cocked and entirely mechanical, which is why it is one of the safest used blasters in the line.

Doublestrike or Hammershot?

Hammershot if it is the blaster you intend to fight with, because five shots and a rapid-fire mode is a different proposition. Doublestrike if you want a small, cheap backup or a paint project.

Does it fire both darts at once?

No, and this is the common mix-up. It fires one dart per trigger pull, twice. The Ricochet is the blaster in this line that sends both projectiles together.

Is the Doublestrike good for cosplay?

It is one of the best in the line for it. The steampunk western styling is already there in the mould, and the oversized body means paint detail still reads at a distance.

Can you carry the Doublestrike on a belt?

It has no dedicated holster and no sling points, so most people pocket it or use a generic belt clip or pouch. Its size counts against it here. It is larger than the sidearms it is styled after, so check it against whatever rig you already run.

Is the Doublestrike good for younger players?

It is one of the better first blasters in the line. There are no batteries to manage, no magazine to lose, no jam to clear, and the hammer takes very little force. The low capacity also teaches aiming rather than spraying, which is a habit that carries over to every blaster afterwards.

What darts does the Doublestrike use?

Standard Elite darts, so ammunition is easy to find and cheap. Zombie Strike refills work too and are cosmetically matched to the line if that matters to you.

Is there a modern version of the Doublestrike?

Not a two-shot one. Nerf has not made another break-action pistol since Zombie Strike ended. For a small blaster that rides on a belt, the closest thing on shelves is the FlareFusion from the Nerf Loadout line, which holds 6 darts in a revolving cylinder. It fires N1 darts, so your Elite foam will not load into it.

Is the Doublestrike worth buying today?

As a sidearm, a paint project or a cosplay piece, it is a good buy on all three counts. Pair it with something clip-fed or drum-fed as your primary and it does the one job it was built for very well. For everything else in the family, start with the Zombie Strike lineup, or browse every blaster we have covered.

It’s Nerf or Nothin’!