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The fan-favourite pump shotgun is returning to Fortnite – but there’s a catch. The controversial gun is set to have its damage profile tweaked, which will arguably make it less powerful.
According to legendary leaker Hypex, the pump shotgun will have a tight spread of fire, be long range and is expected to a have reduced Headshot Damage at Legendary Rarity. This is expected to be quite the nerf from a weapon that once used to do 200+ damage.
While the Pump Shotgun was typically awesome at close-quarters combat when it first arrived on the scene in Season 1, the gun has been vaulted and unvaulted a number of times since. Nearly every time, its damage profile has been tweaked, drastically changing the dynamics and effectiveness of the weapon.
The shotgun has 5 shells in the magazine and has a slow fire rate due to the pump action. Typically, this slow fire rate is made up by a decent bullet spread – meaning you don’t need to spend too long aiming. However, this latest nerf actually makes the fire rate more linear – so you’ll need to be more accurate with your shots. On the plus side, the tweaked damage profile does suggest the gun could perform better at long range – although we will need to test this to see if it holds true.
The good news is that the pump-shotgun should still remove a shield with one shot in both regular and zero build (+50 shield) modes, so while it’ll be punishing if you miss, the weapon is still incredibly powerful during intense firefights. Of course, like with any shotgun, the damage will drop off at range, so we advise not using the weapon for anything other than close range.
To combat the shotguns slow fire rate, we recommend pairing the weapon with a fast-firing pistol or machine gun. A classic combo is to use the shotgun to take down the shield, then quickly swap to a fast-firing weapon to finish off the weakened target.