Fortnite: Battle Royale (PC, PS4, iOS & Xbox One) has recently received a new weapon. But what is behind the Heavy Shotgun? And what is the “Double-Shotgun” trick all about?
The colorful shooter Fortnite: Battle Royale regularly gets new weapons in addition to skins and game modes. This time there is a new shotgun: the Heavy Shotgun. The weapon was available in the game a few hours before the official release and caused quite a stir.
Some players and streamers showed that with the good old “Double-Shotgun” trick, you can achieve a really good fire rate with the new shotgun. This method refers to a way of shooting very quickly with the pump shotgun in the past.
You carried two shotguns: Instead of reloading, you switched to the next weapon and shot again right away. This was quite overpowered and was nerfed in the meantime.
The Heavy Shotgun in Values
But first, let’s talk about the values of the weapon. The Heavy Shotgun looks cool and has a nice, deep sound when it fires. The design corresponds to the real-life shotgun SPAS-12, an automatic shotgun from Italy. The new shotgun is available ONLY in epic or legendary versions. It can only be found in supply drops or chests.
The values of the new shotgun lie between those of the tactical shotgun and the good old pump shotgun. The first value refers to the epic, the second to the legendary version:
- Damage: 73.5/77
- Fire rate: 1
- Reload time: 5.94/5.62
- Magazine size: 7
With these values, the weapon resembles the Hand Cannon and fills the gap between the pump shotgun and the tactical shotgun. It fires slightly slower than the tactical shotgun. However, it is slightly better in range, as the pellets have a tighter spread. It is not really effective at medium range, though. It remains a close-combat weapon.
The new Double-Shotgun in Action
The slow fire rate of the Heavy Shotgun can be circumvented by the Double-Shotgun trick. The streamer King Richard demonstrates this in a video where he juggles two legendary Heavy Shotguns, firing multiple times within a second. This could be quite devastating in the game.
On the other hand, Heavy Shotguns are much rarer than the pump shotgun, with which this trick was previously executed en masse. Therefore, there are likely to be far fewer battles in which you can perform this maneuver.
However, it remains to be seen whether the new weapon will become overpowered and if Epic will push a fix.
Here you can find our guide to the ideal item loadout in Fortnite.
