Which Fortnite Shotgun is best?

In this recent season of Fortnite there are quite a number of shotguns that are competing for your load out slots. In this article, we compare all the shotgun options to find the most lethal. 

Generally speaking, the shotgun is a hard hitting, short range weapon that needs to be carried alongside longer range or mid-range options. However, depending on which complementary weapons you carry, you might arrive at two different conclusions. In order to pick the most lethal shotgun we are going to consider two scenarios: 

1. As a singular standalone weapon option (for example in a two gun load out)

2. As a complementary weapon in a three plus gun load out (for example along side a strong mid range weapon or secondary short range weapon).

Let's consider the first: 

If you are only carrying a single short range weapon (alongside a Red-Eye Assault Rifle in a two gun load out for example), you need a weapon that is capable of single handedly dispatching competitors at short range quickly. This in practice translates to a straight forward calculation, where you find which weapon can deplete 250 points in total health the fastest. As we have in the past, we can compare weapons on Time to Kill. 

If we consider purely on TTK the heavy shotgun appears to be the heading candidate leading the best Maven Auto Shotgun by 7%. However, given how close these three options are it's worth considering a few other data points. 

One highly important characteristic of a shotgun is its stopping power and the heavy shotgun can take out big chunks of damage from opponents at short range and farther away. When opponents are able to close the distance quickly with the hammer it can be advantageous to have a weapon able to hit face to face and at lengthier short range.

This hard hitting capability extends to a material DPS advantage over its peers. 

 

It lags slightly in mag damage making it slightly less compelling if going up against a large number of opponents in a team battle for example, but its performance in other categories makes up for this small flaw. As a stand alone shotgun, I would select the heavy shotgun for your load out. 

 Now let's consider the second: 

One of the biggest reasons competitors carry shotguns is for their stopping power at very close range. With close range movement and chaos in short range end battles or battles that happen inside buildings, you want a weapon that can take a large chunk of health from your enemy without requiring you to land repeated shots. If you are able to pair a shotgun with a pistol, assault rifle, or twin mag for example you can whittle down the health of an opponent and then finish them at close range with a shotgun. In this scenario, you are very likely going to prefer using a shotgun that hits the hardest.  For this there is a clear leader: 

 

 If you are looking to run a shotgun alongside a Tactical pistol or Twin mag the hard hitting thunder shotgun becomes a highly compelling option for it's ability to yield up to 218 points of damage for a headshot with a legendary version. This is a 23% hard hit than the formidable heavy shotgun. Add this to your load out if you are looking for a short range beast.

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