The shotgun is absolutely terrible

[RaidenFury]

Title. I've yet to survive longer than 8-10 minutes with the shotgun. Trying to prioritize mag capacity upgrades and ROF/reload speed. Damage is awful, even jacking up the ROF and reload speed still can't save you from getting swarmed. This thing needs a buff or just removed all together. It's absolute trash. The RNG of upgrades makes this totally unreliable.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

Shotgun + Containment Field + Helix Barrel + Splitter = Untouchable.

Shotgun + all Bullet Count upgrades you can get + Homing sight + 100% crit chance = "Run little piggies, run."

Shotgun + Helix + Homing + Splitter + bullet count + crit chance 100% = "Oh, was that the final boss? Sorry I broke it."

Also, sometimes augments matter, and sometimes what you focus on in your available weapon upgrades also matters. I mostly had good runs with an armor build - 100 HP can last a lot longer when everything's doing 1 or 2 damage to you.

There's no bad weapons.

[RaidenFury]

Originally posted by Kyouko Tsukino:

Shotgun + Containment Field + Helix Barrel + Splitter = Untouchable.

Shotgun + all Bullet Count upgrades you can get + Homing sight + 100% crit chance = "Run little piggies, run."

Shotgun + Helix + Homing + Splitter + bullet count + crit chance 100% = "Oh, was that the final boss? Sorry I broke it."

Also, sometimes augments matter, and sometimes what you focus on in your available weapon upgrades also matters. I mostly had good runs with an armor build - 100 HP can last a lot longer when everything's doing 1 or 2 damage to you.

There's no bad weapons.

What's the bullet count stat actually mean?

[thantounderscore]

Shotgun + Bullet Hell Barrel + Infinite Ammo Belt = nothing gets to be on the screen
Get Filed-Off Magazine for magazine reduction and rate of fire. You should get down to 1 round per magazine.
- Shatter Magazine, so every shot gets the last round bonus and doesn't spawn unnecessary effects
- Biometric Gel Grip, so you get 150% crit bonus almost immediately
- Shock Emitting Stock - rapidly explode

[Tyyne]

Shotgun feels terrible at the start if/when you haven't upgraded your passives, it benefits tremendously from those.
The build I usually go with the shotty is split barrel/magazine and ammo count, combined with Infinite Ammo Belt and 1 ammo clip combined with the Brass Knuckle tier IV, while trying to build up bullet count, something like this (I forgot about crit change this time but you get the general idea):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3372216902

Bullet count means that every time you fire, that's how many bullets you are firing, f.ex. if your bullet count is 2.16, you'll fire 2 bullets AND have a 16% chance to fire one more.

[SaeLipa]

any gun with the insta reload perk and rate of fire can win a run

[thegreatvarholy]

The shotgun is tricky. I managed to build a winning one by using the lightweight grip/stock, hellspitter barrel and the ammo rack. Can't remember the other bits, might have been the cold mags if only to keep the enemies slowed down and therefore give myself some breathing room or let my drone use the bootleg Aliexpress Hammer of Dawn I created using a rocket launcher with the bullet hell barrel.

[Protek]

OP you just lack build knowledge. The shotgun is one of the best weapons. Its also used to kill el fuego. Its an insane weapon.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

Shotgun users: "El Fuego, more like El Muerto."