Epic keeps jamming more incredible shotguns into Fortnite, and it might be the best meta ever
I used to think that the heart of a perfect Fortnite Battle Royale loot pool was two strong shotguns: a pump-action for raw one-shot power, and an automatic shotgun for drawn out fights. Pump shotguns bark the last word in expert hands, but spammy weapons are more forgiving if, like me, your aim is mush.
Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 2 has disabused me of that notion. It's proved that more—more choice, more playstyles, more power—is simply better, so long as each individual weapon has its own quirk.
The recent addition of the Super Shredder, a funky shotgun-sniper hybrid whose spread shrinks to a pinpoint when aimed in, gives us four solid shotguns. The Chaos Reloader is the best, but the Iron Pump and Shredder are close behind. The Dual Hammer is probably the weakest but even they have their place because of their forgiving spread sustained damage over time. A friend who plays on a controller swears by them.
What impresses me most is that there's real intention and thought behind each one. They all enable a completely different playstyle—and each has weaknesses you must compensate for elsewhere in your loadout.
Chaos theory
The single-shot Chaos Reloader is clearly the beast of the pack. Its body shots hit like a runaway train, dealing up to 150 damage, but you can only fire once before reloading. Missed shots are brutal. I've died multiple times because I've missed, switched weapons, sprayed, swapped back to my Chaos and fired a blank because it hadn't finished reloading. You need to pair it with a reliable spray weapon and you can't just run, for example, a long-range DMR alongside it.
The Iron Pump's 2x headshot multiplier is brilliant, but if you're hitting the body its damage per second is piddly at around 80—one of the lowest for any weapon in the game. It demands precision and nifty feet to dance in and out of cover, matching your clicks to the slow fire rate.
The Super Shredder's wayward hipfire necessitates you aiming down your sights, making it harder to track your targets up close, while the Dual Hammer shotguns are consistent but lack one-shot power. They're therefore weak against enemies who jiggle in and out of cover, or during a box fight, where you might only have a split second to fire before your opponent builds a barrier.
My shotgun thoughts mirror my general feeling on this season's lootpool. Epic has nailed it. My tier list, which I update regularly, bulges in its A and B tiers. Pick up any three weapons and you'll probably have a viable combo: a refreshing change to the tired meta dominated by red-dot rifles. I've particularly enjoyed the renaissance of SMGs after multiple chapters of irrelevance.
But more than any other season in memory, it feels like the shotgun you pick determines your loadout and playstyle. Carry the Chaos and you need a powerful short-range secondary—an assault rifle won't cut it. Pick the Shredder and you'll want to keep your distance; the Dual Hammers work only if you can apply constant pressure. Switching guns between rounds lends variety to every Fortnite session, and a healthy mixture within a squad prepares you for every situation. Player numbers might be dwindling but I can't remember a better shotgun meta.