Shotguns

Shotguns
The Pump Shotgun, one of the various Shotguns.

Shotguns are a type of weapon in Fortnite: Battle Royale. The purpose of these weapons is for short range combat. All Shotguns use Shells.

Functionality

Shotguns fill the role of a short range weapon and are often used for up close engagements, due to their high damage per shot. Shotguns uniquely fire a spread of pellets rather than a single shot. Swapping between two shotguns after firing results in a small cooldown to prevent the player dealing too much damage per second. Shotguns are very weak at longer ranges and oftentimes cannot even hit a player at medium range.

List of Weaponry

Name	Image	Rarities	Ammo Type	Description
Normal Modes
Pump Shotgun		Common	Shells	High Damage, Pump Action Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Tactical Shotgun		Common	Shells	Fast Firing, Full Auto Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Heavy Shotgun (Old)		Epic	Shells	High Damage Semi Auto Shotgun.
		Legendary
Heavy Shotgun (New)		Common	Shells	Fires a single high damage slug instead of a buckshot spread.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Double Barrel Shotgun		Epic	Shells	High Damage Shotgun which only holds two rounds.
		Legendary
The Dub		Exotic	Shells	Exotic version of the Double Barrel Shotgun. Knocks player back.
Combat Shotgun		Uncommon	Shells	Longer Ranged Semi Auto Shotgun.
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Drum Shotgun		Common	Shells	Fast Firing, Full Auto Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Charge Shotgun		Common	Shells	Shotgun which must be charged to deal full damage.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Kit's Charge Shotgun		Mythic	Shells	Charge Shotgun used by the Kit AI.
Dragon's Breath Shotgun		Epic	Shells	Single shot Shotgun which can ignite structures.
		Legendary
Lever Action Shotgun		Common	Shells	High Damage, Lever Action Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Makeshift Shotgun		Common	Shells	High Damage, Low Magazine Size Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
Primal Shotgun		Uncommon	Shells	Fast Firing, Full Auto Shotgun.
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Spire Assassin's Primal Shotgun		Mythic	Shells	Primal Shotgun used by the Spire Assassin AI.
Auto Shotgun		Common	Shells	Automatic Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Striker Pump Shotgun		Common	Shells	High Damage, Pump Action Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Ranger Shotgun		Common	Shells	Single Shot, longer ranged Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
Two-Shot Shotgun		Common	Shells	Two-Round Burst Shotgun.
		Uncommon
		Rare
		Epic
		Legendary
		Mythic
Other Modes
Pump Shotgun		Epic	Shells	High Damage, Pump Action Shotgun. Exclusive to the Spy Games LTM.
Heavy Shotgun (Old)		Rare	Shells	High Damage Semi Auto Shotgun. Exclusive to the Spy Games and Team Brawl LTMs.
Unavailable
Ostrich Weapon		Rare	Infinite Ammo	B.R.U.T.E.‘s built-in weapon with little damage falloff.
B.R.U.T.E. Weapon		Rare	Infinite Ammo	Salvaged B.R.U.T.E.‘s built-in weapon with little damage falloff.

Strategy Guide

The risk was calculated... but man am I bad at math.

This section outlines a strategy. Feel free to add tips, tricks and general advice about the topic.

• Many Shotguns load one shell at a time. This means that if you are careful, you can interrupt your reload in order to shoot at an opponent if you are unable to complete a full reload. Some shotguns load multiple shells at once, such as the Combat Shotgun, meaning the same is applicable but with two shots.
• The Combat Shotgun is more of a medium ranged weapon than a close ranged one, meaning it should be handled differently to the other shotguns.
• Though cross-hairs show where the spread will hit, players should still rely on the center of the reticle when aiming, otherwise they risk only getting a partial shot in, thus dealing out sometimes much lower damage.
• Some shotguns are inaccurate in general, so (this works with all guns) crouch, stay still, and aim down sights to get your maximum accuracy and minimum spread.
• The Dub and Striker Pump Shotgun will shoot faster when you swap between several of them in your inventory, rather than waiting for the delay between shots to pass.
• For slow firing shotguns like the Pump Shotgun, it is best to follow up with an Assault Weapon or SMG to eliminate an opponent if you deal enough damage with the shotgun. This is not needed for shotguns with a fast fire rate like the Auto Shotgun.

Trivia

• In season prior to Season 5, shotguns, especially the Pump Shotgun, could be swapped quickly without needing to 'pump' the weapon. This allowed for much higher than intended damage per second outputs, and so a delay was added between swapping guns and firing.
• In Update v20.30, every single shotgun was reworked. Most shotguns now do heavy amounts of body and headshot damage. To combat these adjustments, every shotgun was given a maximum damage cap, which affects the highest possible damage able to be delivered in a single shot (all pellets hitting). Due to these changes, the Legendary Dragon's Breath Shotgun is (currently) the only shotgun able to deal 200 damage exactly.
  • As an example for how the damage works, the Legendary Pump Shotgun does 128 base damage with a headshot multiplier of x2. Theoretically, this shotgun would deal 256 damage (enough to eliminate a player with full health, shield, and overshield). However, the maximum damage cap for this weapon is 185. Thus, the weapon only deals 185 damage total.
  • This is the first time that an entire weapon class was changed in a single update.