This Page/Section is about an item / mechanic that has been put in The Vault.
This item has been made unavailable in standard playlists to balance the loot pool. It may return in the future.
This Item/Mechanic is not present in competitive playlists.
It can still be found in core playlists and other game modes when available.
| “ | Shotgun: Break-Action. Deals high damage at a fast fire rate. Short range and very limited magazine size.
|
” |
- — In-Game Description
The Dragon's Breath Shotgun is a weapon in Fortnite: Battle Royale. It was added in Chapter 2: Season 5.
Functionality[]
The Dragon's Breath Shotgun is a single shot weapon, which consumes all four rounds of its magazine. It is short ranged, with a large hipfire spread.
When fired, the weapon will ignite wooden objects and structures. The weapon's shells are piercing, meaning they will ignite them through players. The weapon will not ignite a player unless they stand on the burning structure.
Dragon's Breath Shotgun in action
Stats[]
Dragon's Breath Shotguns uses 
Shells, has a Headshot Multiplier of 1.5x and a Max Damage Cap of 195/200.
Unlike other Shotguns, the Dragon's Breath Shotgun reloads all shells at once, instead of one at a time.
|
Dragon's Breath Shotgun (Epic) |
|---|---|
| DPS | 158 |
| DAMAGE | 158 |
| MAGAZINE SIZE | 4 |
| FIRE RATE | 1.0 |
| RELOAD TIME | 4.3 |
| STRUCTURE DAMAGE | 64 |
|
|
Dragon's Breath Shotgun (Legendary) |
|---|---|
| DPS | 165 |
| DAMAGE | 165 |
| MAGAZINE SIZE | 4 |
| FIRE RATE | 1.0 |
| RELOAD TIME | 4.1 |
| STRUCTURE DAMAGE | 67 |
The Dragon's Breath Shotgun is a hitscan weapon which fires a spread of 10 pellets when both aiming down sights and hipfiring. Aiming down sights tightens the spread of pellets.
Damage falloff:
- Damage falloff begins at 9 meters (1.75 tiles).
- Damage steadily decreases down to 70% of its maximum at 10 meters (2 tile).
- Damage decreases down to 30% of its maximum at 12.5 meters (2.5 tiles).
- It deals damage until 18 meters (3.5 tiles).
Sounds[]
| Sound Type | Rarity | Audio |
|---|---|---|
| Pullout | Epic and Legendary | |
| Shooting | Epic and Legendary | |
| Shooting (other players) | Epic and Legendary | |
| Drop | Epic and Legendary | |
| Pickup | Epic and Legendary | |
| Reload | Epic and Legendary |
Obtained[]
From when the weapon was last available in Chapter 4: Season 3:
| Rarity | Chest | Rare
Chest |
Floor
Loot |
Supply
Drop |
Fishing
(Plain) |
Fishing
(Hole) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epic | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
| Legendary | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ |
As of Chapter 4: Season 3, the Dragon's Breath Shotgun can only be obtained from the Fire Armory Augment.
Strategy Guide[]
This section outlines a strategy.
Feel free to add tips, tricks and general advice about the topic.- The Dragon's Breath Shotgun excels at extremely close ranges, so get as close to your opponent as possible before using the Dragon's Breath Shotgun.
- If you know an opponent is inside a wooden structure, fire the Dragon's Breath Shotgun at their building to burn it down and flush them out.
- Be careful when using the Dragon's Breath Shotgun. The fire it produces can damage you and your allies.
- The Dragon's Breath Shotgun benefits from landing as many pellets as possible rather than landing headshots. Aim for the upper chest to land as many pellets as possible while still getting in some headshot damage.
- It's best to pair the Dragon's Breath Shotgun with an SMG, preferably one with a high capacity. After expending the weapon's capacity, switch to your SMG to finish off your opponent.
- Unlike most other shotguns, it's best not to deal chip damage at longer ranges due to the Dragon's Breath Shotgun's long reload time.
- After a fight, the Dragon's Breath Shotgun should be reloaded first to ensure you can defend yourself if you get pushed.
Weapon ID[]
The Dragon's Breath Shotgun is referred to as Shotgun Break Barrel Dragon in the files.
- Epic: WID_Shotgun_BreakBarrel_Dragon_Athena_VR_Ore_T03
- Legendary: WID_Shotgun_BreakBarrel_Dragon_Athena_SR_Ore_T03
History[]
Chapter 2: Season 5[]
- Update v15.00
- Introduced the Dragon's Breath Shotgun in Epic and Legendary rarities.
- December 4th 2020 Hotfix
- Dragon's Breath increased effective range and damage[1].
- Update v15.10: Added the Dragon's Breath Shotgun to Creative.
- Despite Fire not being supported yet.
Chapter 2: Season 6[]
- Update v16.00: Vaulted both rarities of the Dragon's Breath Shotgun.
Chapter 3: Season 2[]
- Update v20.30: Increased the damage from 152/160 to 158/165, headshot multiplier increased from 1.25x to 1.5x and added a max damage cap of 195/200.
Chapter 3: Season 3[]
- Update v21.51: Unvaulted the Dragon's Breath Shotgun in both rarities for Fire with Fire Week.
- 09/13/22: Vaulted the Dragon's Breath Shotgun in both rarities.
Chapter 4: Season 3[]
- Update v25.30: Unvaulted the Dragon's Breath Shotgun in both Rarities
- Update v25.30:
- August 8th: Vaulted the Dragon's Breath Shotgun in both Rarities
- August 15th: Unvaulted the Epic Dragon's Breath Shotgun. It is exclusive to the Fire Armory Augment.
- The Dragon Breath is no longer able to be upgraded at Upgrade Benches
Trivia[]
- It is the first non-disposable weapon which is able to deal fire damage to players. The first weapon to deal fire damage was the Flare Gun.
- Dragon's Breath is the real world name of the standard incendiary cartridge used for shotguns.
- The weapon appears to be based on the American Winchester Liberator, a prototype four-barrelled shotgun designed in 1962. However, the real Liberator fires only one shell at a time, whereas all four barrels are unloaded after one trigger pull in-game. It has a similarity with the DP-12 Incendiary shotgun.
- Since the shotgun rework in Update v20.30, the Legendary Dragon's Breath Shotgun is one of the three shotguns able to deal 200 or more damage in a single shot, alongside the Enhanced Havoc Shotgun and Epic/Legendary Charge Shotgun.
- Considering it can only be fired once, and all four shells are loaded at the same time, it has the slowest effective reload of any shotgun, as it cannot be cancelled to quickly fire.
- This is the only gun that requires a full magazine to be fired. If the player doesn't have enough shells to do a full reload, the weapon will not fire as if it is out of ammo.
- When other players are firing the Dragon's Breath Shotgun, it makes firing sounds of a Double Barrel Shotgun.
- The Legendary variant of this shotgun is the highest damaging gun ever in terms of max body shot damage. There are some non-gun weapons such as Deku’s Smash that deal more damage though. However in Chapter 4 Season 4, in conjunction with the Augment First Shotgun, Kit’s Charge Shotgun now does the most body shot damage, at an insane 195 with a full charge. The Legendary Dragon’s Breath remains the highest without an Augment.
