Shotguns

Overview
Usable By: 
 * Light Assault
 * Combat Medic
 * Engineer
 * Heavy Assault

Shotguns are the ultimate expression of close-range power on Auraxis, delivering extreme damage straight into enemies unfortunate enough to end up on the wrong end of the barrel. Though their range, in contrast, barely extends past spitting distance, their damage when they do get in range is hard to parallel.

Shotguns have a unique pellet spread mechanic that combines with typical cones-of-fire to restrict their range, and the variety of shotguns do little to combat this weakness. Instead, they offer varying amounts of damage output, different levels of difficulty to use, and ranging magazine sizes.

Three flavours of shotguns are available to those perusing the market; typical semi-automatic shotguns, like the FA1 Barrage, offer a balanced pallet of stats, large capacity semi-automatic shotguns, such as the  NC12 Sweeper, offer a larger magazine in exchange for even less range, fully-automatic shotguns, including the  Pandora VX25, trade-in all their other stats for raw damage-per-second, and the two types of pump-action shotgun, represented by options like the  TAS-16 Blackjack and  GD-66 Claw, deal brute damage in exchange for painfully slow firerates.

Veteran soldiers may also have the privilege of earning the option to select a shotgun in their secondary weapon slot as an Engineer.

Mechanics
Unlike other weapon classes, shotguns do not fire a single bullet when shot. Instead, shotguns are loaded with buckshot, scattering several pellets randomly to deal maximum damage at the cost of accuracy.

The theoretical damage of a shotgun is based on two factors; the gun's damage, and the number of pellets it fires. Each pellet deals identical damage, even if more than one hit the target. The Mauler S6, for instance, deals 100 damage per pellet, and fires 6 pellets. This gives the weapon a maximum potential damage of 600 per shot, assuming all pellets connect, which can scale down for each pellet missed, down to 100 if only a single pellet hits the target. Only pump-action shotguns such as the Phobos VX86 or TAS-16 Blackjack contain enough pellets per shot to deal over 1000 damage in a single trigger pull.

Similar to bolt action sniper rifles, some shotguns feature a rechambering time. These are pump-action shotguns, and heavily sacrifice rate-of-fire in exchange for the highest potential damage-per-shot of any infantry weapon in the game, with the heavier second generation pump-action shotguns dealing up to 1375 damage when all pellets connect.

All standard shotguns have access to two unique ammo attachments — Flechette Ammunition and Slug Ammunition:
 * Flechette Ammunition triples shotguns minimum and maximum ranges, in exchange for fewer pellets per shot, allowing for more consistent performance outside of extreme CQC, but less lethality overall.
 * Slug Ammunition on the other hand, condenses all the weapon's pellets into a single slug, that is far more accurate with a longer reach than the shotgun typically has. However, this does come at a cost to the weapon's damage-per-shot, with even pump-action shotguns unable anymore to achieve one-shot-kills with this ammunition type attached. Essentially, the attachment allows the user to trade damage to partially cover the shotgun's major weakness; range.

Statistics
Terran Republic=


 * -|New Conglomerate=


 * -|Vanu Sovereignty=


 * -|NS Operatives=


 * -|Common Pool=

History

 * March 30, 2022 Update (The Arsenal Update)
 * Starting CoF for all shotguns is now 0.15 in all non-jumping/sprinting/falling movement states.
 * Pellet spread values while aiming and firing from the hip have been standardized using the wider hipfire values.
 * Cone of fire now blooms per shot by 0.3 from the hip, and 0.15 while aiming.
 * Dev Note: The above changes aim to reduce the inconsistency and frustration of using these weapons, which was mainly caused by cone of fire spread stacked on top of the pellet spread. These changes are important when the new attachments and updated attachments come into play.
 * April 5, 2022 Hotfix
 * Semi-auto shotguns now use the same Slug Ammunition as automatic shotguns, changing their damage from 600-400 to 450-300. (This value was mistakenly shown as 475 damage before, both in-game and patch notes, that's been remedied as well.)