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Fortnite Season 4 is out, and for the first time ever players will not have access to the Tactical Shotgun when playing the game. Although this might seem like a small change, the lack of the Tactical Shotgun for season 4 means that players will lose access to certain tactics and strategies, and that up close fights are going to emphasize different skills altogether.
What role did the Tactical Shotgun fill in Fortnite?
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To understand what Fortnite will be losing, we have to see what the Tactical Shotgun provided the game first. Depending on the state of the game’s balance, the Tactical Shotgun usually filled the niche as either the Best-in-Slot close quarters weapon, or as an alternative close quarters weapon that had lower risk/reward compared to slower shotguns.
It was a shotgun that blended the ability to fire quickly with making each shot individually impactful. Sometimes it was outclassed by slower shotguns that could eliminate players in a single shot, but usually it was strong enough to be worth carrying, especially in duos and squads where fighting multiple enemies was more common.
Without the Tactical Shotgun, what’s the go-to weapon for players in Fortnite?
After losing the Tactical Shotgun there are ultimately two ways Fortnite players can compensate. They can lean towards more speed, and switch to a comparable SMG, or they can lead towards more power, and pick up a different shotgun. It’s too early to definitively say which one is the better choice, so let’s look at both of them.
If you prefer to lean towards more speed, if you think your tracking in Fortnite is strong enough and you believe you can avoid damage effectively, then it might be worth it to switch to a Tactical SMG. This weapon will give you a fairly stable damage output, but comes at a high risk in that failure to track effectively will nullify this weapon.
However, the SMG will have the added benefit of being useful for taking down builds quickly, so if you want that edge in a build fight then you should consider this a solid tool.
The other direction, and one I expect most will go with, is picking up a different shotgun. Fortnite Season 4 will also see the return of the Pump Shotgun, one of the only shotguns that could rival the Tactical back when it was still strong. We don’t know if the numbers on the Pump have been changed, but if they can still hit for 200 on headshot at higher rarities, then carrying one or two Pumps may be the way to go.
Other weapons to replace the Tactical?
Honorable mention for this season of Fortnite is the Revolver, also set to come back this season. The revolver often struggled to find an appropriate niche, but it’s usually pretty fun to play. Although it hits hard, it doesn’t hit as hard as a shotgun, it doesn’t compete at a medium range like an AR or LMG, it doesn’t take down builds like an SMG, and it doesn’t have the accuracy to fight long range like any scoped weapon.
The revolver is a weapon that is just bad enough at everything to not be worth using for any one particular strategy, but nevertheless you can expect to see me running around with a pair of them like it’s the wild west.
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