Even with its upgrades the Flare Gun only does about 60-70 damage with the fire portion, it's not necessarily lethal. This is specifically made to kill people, even if it'd be used the same way the Flare Gun would be used if someone were trying to actually get a kill with it. Personally, I like the idea of a well-placed no-scope killing someone after a minute of wondering why the hell they can't find a Health Station. 2 credits is a bit steep of a price though, considering you get 3 shots and it's a pistol, note the "well-placed" part of what I said before, you're definitely gonna miss a shot from time to time with a pistol.
flaregun: run into water GG EZ poison dart: "DETECTIVE YOU SELFISH CUNT GIVE ME HP IM ESSENTIALLY PROVEN YOU TWAT" "no xd suffer"
Flaregun: runs in to water that is on virtually all but 90% of our maps in circulation Poison dart gun: detective possibly across map gimme go I'm at here I'm only gonna drop to 10 hp. Unless people have upgrade that costs probably a bit less than Insta knife Yes they are exactly the same except this version is actually almost more survivable.
BUT you can always tune the stats u kno dps buff? sure y not more accurate sneaky beaki like shots? ok ah, my gut amp boosted? h*ck yeah