12 Gauge Incendiary Shell

Honestly, most of the time you shouldn't load these. Incendiary shells exist for the moments when you want fire on the floor or on something wooden, not for winning a straight shotgun duel. In a normal doorway fight plain buckshot kills faster, and its recipe skips the extra sulfur.

That sulfur is the real price. Every shell you craft is sulfur that could have gone towards raid explosives, and on a small group's budget that adds up quicker than you expect. If you are saving up for C4, these are the first thing to cut.

So where do they make sense? Fire is good at making people stop. Someone peeking a corner of your compound with a pump shotgun has to decide whether to push through burning ground, and that hesitation is often enough to reload or reposition. Fire can also burn wooden deployables, like a sleeping bag tucked behind a wooden barricade.

Treat them as a utility slot. Keep a handful separate from your buckshot so you never reload fire by accident in a fight where you needed damage.