In Destiny 2, shotgun players may not aim, but they pump everything away from close range without much thought. MeinMMO is on the trail of the hated phenomenon of the ‘Shotgun Apes’ and provides you with counter-tips.
For years, a persistent accusation has existed in the Destiny universe: Anyone who plays a shotgun has no skill and cannot aim!
In fact, this statement is not entirely wrong. Despite many nerfs and adjustments, shotguns in Destiny 2 are as popular as ever. No wonder, since it is simply a satisfying part of the gameplay to completely destroy your opponents up close without really having to aim.
- One part of the Guardians tries to tactically position themselves with snipers or pulse rifles to always fight precisely and elegantly at medium range.
- The other part runs and slides towards their opponents without much thought and pumps every finely crafted tactic into space in mere seconds.
- And when they are not running, shotgun players camp in corners and rooms to lure unsuspecting Guardians into their traps.
This behavior is exactly what the ‘Shotgun Apes’, as the official term for shotgun-loving Guardians, display in their natural crucible habitat.
Always close to the enemy, they sniff out their trail and are a horror for players not equipped for such attacks, with their loaded melee combat. An unsuspecting Guardian might, during a PvP match, look down the ‘barrel of quick departure’ multiple times before throwing their controller or keyboard out the window in frustration.
The list of guilty shotguns is long: Besides the shotgun Riiswandler, there is also Felwinter’s Lie, which costs many Guardians their last nerve. Added to this are temporary reigns of terror, like that of the pseudo-shotgun Lord of Wolves.
If you can’t counter, you don’t deserve a chance
For sure, a shotgun has the ultimate advantage that you don’t really need to aim with it. However, this does not change the fact that shotguns in Destiny 2 are damn effective.
No matter how controversial this play style is, in the end, only the kills matter. And here, the effectiveness of a shotgun gives the Shotgun Apes every right to use this weapon type as often as possible, even if they like to claim that the multitude of kills is obviously only due to their extremely quick reflexes.
I gladly admit that I was initially not a fan of the rough and somewhat ungraceful playstyle with shotguns. Too often it was that one small, careless moment in battle with shotgun players that cost me my life in the crucible time and time again.
But over time, I also realized that every Guardian who wants to be a good PvP player must use a shotgun. On the one hand, this weapon type is necessary on certain maps, and on the other hand, I now also say: ‘Anyone who finds no answer to counter a shotgun simply does not deserve a chance.’
It doesn’t matter whether Guardians use a shotgun as their universal remote control against you or only use it as their personal “panic button” at close range. Anyone unwilling to change their playstyle must learn to counter the foolish attacks.
Shotguns can be learned to counter: Remember – a shotgun player can easily blow away our finely crafted tactics in mere moments. Therefore, one must exploit certain situations and outmaneuver shotgun opponents.
- The best solution is surely to just stay out of reach. It helps to know and assess the range of the currently trending shotguns.
- Avoid close combat situations. You can hardly win against a shotgun.
- Frantically sprinting around corners? Better not. The radar is your best friend and shows you where your grenade should fly. The maximum radar range is about 40 m, which is five times the range of a shotgun.
- Precision or adaptive sidearms as well as fusion rifles are also highly recommended.
And those who now say that these are all things that never work for them, the simplest counter-tip is still to simply join the shotgun apes and beat them at their own game.
Are you also a shotgun ape? Or do you belong to the players who are always snacked by the one-shot shotguns in the crucible and are fed up with it? You are always welcome to shoot your opinion in the comments.
