Is Prime shotgun in Fortnite the best close-range weapon of this season?

The Prime Shotgun was added to the loot pool of Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 after the v21.30 update. Although it has six rarities, the best one — Mythic — is reserved for the Creative Mode. It's unclear why the developers did this, as other Mythic shotguns are present in the normal Battle Royale Mode.

Nevertheless, moving on from this fact, the weapon is a powerful close-range beast capable of shredding opponents. While it does have a few unique quirks, are they enough to help label it as the best close-range weapon of the season? Read on to find out.

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Prime experience in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3

The Prime Shotgun has been around for about ten days, give or take. However, in this short period, the Fortnite community has fallen in love with it, and there's a good reason. At the lowest rarity — Common — the weapon deals 76 damage and 79 DPS.

While this number is lower than the Two-Shot and Auto Shotguns, the first shot fired from the Prime deals 1.5x damage, approximately 114 in damage. Considering this, it turns into the second most powerful shotgun in the current loot pool.

Nevertheless, for some players, this first-shot bonus damage may not seem all that useful and pivots more towards being a gimmick. This sentiment, to an extent, is true as they will have to reload constantly to get the bonus damage.

That being said, with only four rounds per magazine, pausing to reload is probably the norm at this point.

Speaking of reloads, one of the other quirks of the Prime Shotgun in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 is its reload time. All rarities of the weapon have a fixed reload time of 4.5 seconds.

The only shotgun to beat this time is the Mythic variant of the Striker Pump, which has a reload time of 4.2 seconds.

Given the low reload time, it can be said that hypothetically, loopers will gain a combat edge in-game even while using the Common rarity of the Prime Shotgun. However, since reload times do not improve with better rarities, there is some performance loss in that segment.

That being said, the weapon is well-balanced and perfectly suited for most close-range encounters in Fortnite. While a larger magazine would have helped, the bonus of 1.5x damage on the first shot and low reload time makes up for its shortcomings.

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What does community think of Prime Shotgun in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3?

Despite not being anywhere close to the godly OG Pump, the Prime has found many fans in the community. The bonus damage on the first shot is its crowning feature for most users.

Even if it's not enough to kill an opponent, hitting over 100 plus damage in one shot is a huge deal. Here's what fans have to say:

While the sentiment towards this weapon is mostly good vibes, not everyone is smitten with it. A user said:

"That's cool and useful, but I kind of wish they'd stop giving gimmicks to shotguns. Not sure why they couldn't have nerfed the Pump to 185 and then kept it there instead of vaulting it."

While Epic Games has the final say on weapon damage capping, having the OG Pump back in-game would make many players happy. Although gimmicks are not all that bad, gamers do need to adjust and memorize them to make the most of the weapon.

With all that being said, it can be concluded that according to the mass majority, the Prime Shotgun is the best close-range weapon this season. The only real drawback is the low magazine count, which can be overcome by switching to a secondary weapon.

Other than that, the weapon is a major "W" for Fortniters.