Pump Shotgun

A Level 2 shotgun many players trust for base defense. One pump shot ends doorway fights, but the slow follow-up punishes you if it misses.

Table of contents

Characteristics

Category: Weapon

Stack size: 1

Durability: 100

Workbench: Level 2

Craftable: Yes

Researchable: Yes · 60 Scrap

Damage: 210

Fire rate: 55 shots/min

Magazine: 8

Reload: 5.5 s

Overview

In-game description

A Shotgun. Fires 8 rounds.

Ask players what they hold when defending a base from the inside, and many will name this one. Once you have a Level 2 workbench it is a cheap research, and it also turns up in airdrops and at the travelling vendor, so you rarely run short of pumps for long.

The trade is simple. One hit up close is often the whole fight, but the pump action means a slow follow-up, so a miss in a doorway leaves you exposed. That is why some players carry a double barrel for ambushes, where two quick shots matter more than a big tube.

Shell choice changes the gun more than any attachment:

Buckshot for corridors, doorways and raid defense.
Slugs when the target is across a compound and pellets would just scatter.
Handmade shells only while you are still short of gunpowder, since they are weaker and slower.

Out in the open it loses to anything that shoots straight, so it makes a bad roaming main. Walk to the fight with a rifle, then switch to the pump when the fight shrinks to a single room.