How to make the shotgun effective?

[Chronocide]

The shotgun ammo seems to be the most common, so I figured, may as well make a build around it. But I am struggling to make the weapons useful against all but the lightest armored enemies.

There's 3x shotgun specific damage perks, 9 levels between them, I've got about 6 levels worth so far, plus bloody mess.

Combat shotgun, at the moment.

On paper, I deal 21dmg x 8 which should be 168 damage, but it sure isn't doing comparable damage to single shot rifles or melee that deal similar damage.

As far as I can tell, there's no perk option to boost armor pen, and there doesn't seem to be a non-kinetic shotgun upgrade.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this weapon just supposed to suck/be waste of perk points...?

[Vinnolo]

shotgun is terrible because of how DR works, each pellet gets reduced to basically nothing, the only way to deal some damage is a vats crit build, and an armor pen shotgun legendary is basically obligatory (honestly, just go melee)

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Vinnolo:

shotgun is terrible because of how DR works, each pellet gets reduced to basically nothing, the only way to deal some damage is a vats crit build, and an armor pen shotgun legendary is basically obligatory (honestly, just go melee)

Not the answer I was hoping for, but thanks.

[Eriskumma]

Shotguns are a bit tricky but doable. Basically you need good VATS build with high crit damage and really recommend using shotguns that can have Perforating mag mod since they don't have armor penetrating perks as you said. Rest really depends on your playing style, tanky run & gunner or stealthy shotgunner. Stealth gives good amount of extra damage and uses much less ammo. My shotgun toon is low health stealthy VATS build and his main shotgun is Vampire's combat shotgun, have Bloodied and Vampire's gauss shotguns as backups.

[-=[Archangel]=-]

However, a "Vampire" shotgun is very very handy to have as a backup gun. You heal really quickly due to the pellets. I always have my double barrel "Vampire" shotgun on my inventory wheel.

[lockwoodx]

As a shotgun main there are 2 uses:

1. Cripple targets because you like playing with your food.
2. Tagging targets while running group buff perks.

If you want the shotgun to feel good you have to take every buff and chem known to man. Then you'll 2 shot kersplatty smaller stuff. If it's as big as a supermutant, or an event critter with buffed hp, your gun will break before you kill your target so bring nades.

edit: they also recently nerfed shotgun VATs damage in exchange for a laughable amount of more range.

[AbsynthMinded]

Gauss Shotgun and Pepper Shaker are very viable.

[Eriskumma]

Originally posted by JG Wentsworth:

As a shotgun main there are 2 uses:

1. Cripple targets because you like playing with your food.
2. Tagging targets while running group buff perks.

If you want the shotgun to feel good you have to take every buff and chem known to man. Then you'll 2 shot kersplatty smaller stuff. If it's as big as a supermutant, or an event critter with buffed hp, your gun will break before you kill your target so bring nades.

Not true. I one shot L100 super mutants with non-explosive Vampire's combat shotgun, can solo most Daily ops and Expeditions to max rewards etc. And all damage buffs I have are stealth, vats and low health.

[Wade]

Cold Shoulder

[Vic Evicerator]

From my experience the only shotguns worth even thinking about using are the Cold Shoulder (prior-season scoreboard reward) or the Gauss Shotgun (energy weapon). Combine appropriate perks for extra damage (Shotgunner cards - Strength), stagger+cripple limb (Enforcer - Agility), and optionally faster reload/weight reduction (Scattershot - also Strength).

I personally think a VATS build gets the most out of shotguns, since it makes all pellets hit, and when you save a Gauss Shotgun charged shot for a crit you are dealing pretty significant damage.

Legendary perks also help. Anti-Armor can help combat the low damage per pellet against tougher enemies, but a Vampire Gauss Shotgun makes you damn-near immortal - each pellet also explodes, thus counting double, so at 2% per hit x 8 pellets x 2 hits (ballistic hit, explosion hit) = 32% health per hit.

[lockwoodx]

Originally posted by Eriskumma:

Originally posted by JG Wentsworth:

As a shotgun main there are 2 uses:

1. Cripple targets because you like playing with your food.
2. Tagging targets while running group buff perks.

If you want the shotgun to feel good you have to take every buff and chem known to man. Then you'll 2 shot kersplatty smaller stuff. If it's as big as a supermutant, or an event critter with buffed hp, your gun will break before you kill your target so bring nades.

Not true. I one shot L100 super mutants

highly SUS. You'd have to be crazy min-maxxed for damage and abandon QoL perks. For the one-stop-shotgun-shopper you're not going to 1 shot ANYTHING, especially a bullet-sponge like a super mutant.

[Oculi]

Cold Shoulder and a Gauss Shotgun are your go to for shotgun builds. Also shotgun builds work much better with vats/crit builds. Cold Shoulder will be your go to for close ranger DPS on a boss or larger enemy. Gauss will be for longer ranges as shotguns have a terrible damage penalty from longer ranges so the explosion from the Gauss will be the one doing enough damage.

Best legendary effects on a Gauss would be: Anti Armor, Bloodied, Quad, and Vampire.
Anti Armor for full health builds, bloodied for low HP builds, Quad for better DPS, and Vampire for constant healing. Other legendary effects to possibly look out for 3 stars are the 25% reduce in AP cost, 50% increase in crit damage.

I have been running my shotgun build since Ive started and so far its been working out for me. If you are interested in how my build looks just lmk.

[climbingeastofwinter]

I really liked Concentrated Fire, Enforcer, Better Criticals, and Four Leaf Clover for my shotgun character when I made one. Crowd Control served me pretty well but any shotgun sort of works for the early leveling. Aim for the legs or torso to charge crit and cripple, target the head with the critical.

[soulshiver]

Originally posted by Chronocide:

How to make the shotgun effective?

Get a rifle...

[steventirey]

Part of the problem might be that you are using a combat shotgun, which deals the least amount of damage of all the shotguns. Pump actions deal more damage, and double barrel shotguns deal more damage than those. Double barrels also have the highest rate of fire. Their drawback is only having 2 shots, however if you get your hands on a Quad version your double barrel shotgun now has 8 shots and can benefit more from that higher rate of fire.

Shotguns are also supposedly VATS weapons, as VATS (or so I'm told) forces all the pellets to hit the same targeted area. So all pellets could be hitting the head.

[Katzh]

aren't they gonna buff shotgun soon?
thought I've read that somewhere..