Pump Shotgun vs Charge: Which weapon is an optimal pick in Fortnite Season 4?

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 4 has introduced some massive changes to the weapon pool and has fulfilled some of the long-term wishes of the community. The developers brought Pump Shotguns and more weapons/items to the game, and their efforts were highly appreciated by fans.

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The newest season also introduced new weapons to the game like Stark industry rifles, which have a slow firing rate but deal a ton of damage. Last season, the community received the new Charge shotguns as a potential replacement for the Pump shotguns. However, most of the players didn't like it for multiple reasons and wanted their old trusted weapon back in the game.

Thus, in this article, we will be comparing the two shotguns in the game.

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Pump Shotgun vs Charge Shotgun in Fortnite

Here are some of the factors which will help us understand these weapons' strengths and weaknesses in the game.

#1 Comfort Factor

This one's a bit psychological as it varies from player to player. Choosing any weapon in the game is based on your experience and comfort.

If OG players have more experience with the Pump shotguns (as they were a part of the game since the beginning), then they would be more comfortable using them. However, many professional players like the Charge shotguns as they could be used well with your builds in the game.

Pump Shotguns in Fortnite. (Image Credit: Itsdawnn/Twitter)

#2 Damage and Magazine

Pump shotguns have a magazine of 5 shells and inflict damage of 70-110 based on the rarity of the weapon. On the other hand, the Charge shotguns have a magazine of 3-4 shells depending on the rarity of the weapon and dish out 80 to 98 damage.

Based on damage and shell quantity, Pump shotguns seem to have a head start in our comparison while it is to be noted that the Charge shotguns are also good in this department.

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#3 Fire rate and reload time

The fire rate of Charge shotguns is 0.85 compared to 0.9 of the Pump shotguns in the game. If we compare the reload time of these weapons based on their rarity tier-list in the game, Pump shotguns have an approximate reload speed of 5.7- 4.0 seconds compared to Charge shotguns, which have an approximate reload speed of 4.8- 4.0 seconds.

In these aspects, we can clearly see that there isn't much of a difference between the two weapons.

Charge Shotguns in Fortnite (Image credit: Epic Games)

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#4 Best synergies

charge is more skillful than pump

— NRG Zayt (@zayt) September 3, 2020

The best synergy of the Pump shotguns was the double pump strategy, which was nerfed by the developers as it was very overpowered in the game. Currently, there aren't many synergies available for this weapon.

On the other hand, Charge shotguns were an absolute skill-based weapon in the previous season. However, if you synergize your shots with the boogie bomb, which also made a return this season, it could help you get those fully charged shots off and net you some very easy eliminations in a Fortnite match.

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