Fortnite: How will vaulting the Charge Shotgun affect the game?

The recent patch for Fortnite has vaulted one of the three shotguns that was available during Fortnite Season 4. The Charge Shotgun had been one of the strongest shotguns available to players this season, so how will Fortnite play without it?

What did the Charge Shotgun do in Fortnite that the others didn’t?

The stats for the Charge Shotgun in Fortnite are as follows:

Charge Shotgun (1.5x headshot multiplier)

• Common: 80/102
• Uncommon: 85/127
• Rare: 89/134
• Epic: 94/141
• Legendary: 98/148

The main mechanic of the Charge Shotgun in Fortnite was the ability to charge up the shot to deal greater damage. The shotgun had a low ammo capacity and took three seconds to charge, but that didn’t hold it back from becoming one of the strongest weapons to use.

The main benefit of the Charge Shotgun was that it had the ability to deal over 200 damage on a charged headshot when at Rare or higher rarity. In addition to that, any Charge Shotgun could reach over 100 damage on a fully charged shot, meaning that even a common one could give you a massive lead in a fight.

This ability to effectively end a fight in one hit, especially when combined with a SMG or other rapid fire weapon, meant that this weapon ended up being over represented in Fortnite.

How do the Pump and Combat Shotguns compare?

The combat shotgun is still weak. #Fortnite

— RagingZ (@raging_z) October 14, 2020

Combat shotgun sucks ass. @FortniteGame buff it or vault it.

— 🎃insta: impact.sprxkz 🕷 (@sprxkz) October 18, 2020

While the removal of the Charge Shotgun might sound pleasing to some people, currently there appears to be a clear winner when choosing between the remaining two shotguns. The Pump Shotgun deals 100 damage at Epic rarity, and 110 at Legendary rarity, all with a 2x headshot multiplier.

This means Pump Shotgun users can one-shot other Fortnite players with a well placed headshot, while still having the option of swapping to a SMG after a body shot too.

The main problem holding back the Combat Shotgun is that it excels at the things no one asks a shotgun to do.

The Combat Shotgun has a slightly better shot grouping than the Pump in Fortnite, and a reasonably good fire rate, both of which are nice but not necessarily why people pick up shotguns to begin with. Shotguns are used for dealing high damage quickly, and in Fortnite the Pump Shotgun just does all of that better.

However, things can change, and it is possible that this could be the break the Combat Shotgun needed to find its niche in Fortnite. Give it a shot and see how it plays to see if you prefer it over the Pump.