Should I save the shotgun for bosses, or use it instead of the pistol?

[BisectedBrioche]

As far as I can tell, any thing I'd want to shoot in the early game (i.e. cerebuses and that one crimson head on the second floor) is worth dealing with quickly, but at the moment I only have the 6 shots already in the gun (plus the box of ammo to the left of the crypt if I go back for it).

Is there enough shotgun ammo lying around, or should I stick with the pistol (I don't want to carry both, since that's 4 slots wasted)?

[Funpire]

Meh, shotgun is good for dogs, hunters, and one shotting crimson heads. For Jill, bazooka and magnum are the boss weapons. For Chris, use the magnum, flame thrower, or shotgun. I used to just reload my shotgun at every inventory room. Then leave the ammo.

I'd generally try to pistol everything down I wanted dead since I had a lot of ammo from zombie dodging. Knife works well for some bosses too.

[Purplefairy22]

Use it instead of pistol.
Don't kill everything, just things in narrow hallways, or something that'll be in the way later.
i tend to take dogs out with a pistol, From a distance.
Only real survivor and ghost mode left.
Not looking forward to the latter

[NATOMarksman]

Originally posted by BisectedBrioche:

As far as I can tell, any thing I'd want to shoot in the early game (i.e. cerebuses and that one crimson head on the second floor) is worth dealing with quickly, but at the moment I only have the 6 shots already in the gun (plus the box of ammo to the left of the crypt if I go back for it).

Is there enough shotgun ammo lying around, or should I stick with the pistol (I don't want to carry both, since that's 4 slots wasted)?

Anything that is weak enough for the pistol is weak enough for you to have time to go back to an item box. Keep the shotgun and put away the Handgun for now.

That being said, only use the shotgun on enemies that you absolutely cannot avoid fighting. Get that ammo, you want every shotshell (and any type of ammo, for that matter) you can get.

[BernyMoon]

I use it to kill hunters.

[Rockhead Gaz]

I tend to save it for hunters, too, but there's enough ammo available later that it shouldn't be a problem to use it for headshotting zombies is some of the more regularly used thoroughfares in the early game.

Besides, explosive rounds works just as well for hunters if ammo does become a concern.

[FINISH THEM]

If you're playing on normal and below you can spare a few rounds in the early game, so long as you don't over do it. On harder modes you should save whatever rounds you find for later sections. Magnum and grenade launcher rounds are very rare as well. Barry won't leave you any flame rounds, for example.

[AlucarD]

use it on dogs and Hunters, you can skip most bosses in this game.

[KuuKuu]

pretty much what they've said...personally, i saved the shotgun for after the residence (when hunters appear) pretty much could've used the shotty and grenade launcher to kill everything that moves from that point on and still have ammo left...i tried to conserve ammo on my 1st run that i have so many unused at the end of the game. tyrant, i believe, pretty much took 2 clips/reload of magnum...so theres still plenty left. this was on normal diff btw

[DeadPhoenix]

just try to avoid the zombies as much as possible. but i usually use my shotgun to kill a zombie with a headshot if possible. also if you can't avoid them, you can use the fake grab to pass the zombies. this however doesn't always work. some camera angles can make it tricky to pass.

as for the Magnum, i save if for the lab part. kill zombies with a headshot. and you can always burn them later on, if you didn't manage to kill em. but the magnum has a high headshot rate.

[Purplefairy22]

i Always save the magnum for the labs but i'm always left with 18 ammo (normal difficulty), i don't untilize it fully. best time is probably on return to the house, there's not much to kill, and hunters deserve a good magnum to the face.

[DeadPhoenix]

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

i Always save the magnum for the labs but i'm always left with 18 ammo (normal difficulty), i don't untilize it fully. best time is probably on return to the house, there's not much to kill, and hunters deserve a good magnum to the face.

i agree with that. but i usually play on hard or real survivial difficutly. so magnum ammo is pretty rare. you can only find 12 extra ammo for it throughout the whole game. and i save this for lab and tyrant.

[zigs]

Honestly, I just use the shotgun when the hunters come 'round, and I never use it before then, unless I'm playing really sloppy and have no ammo for anything left. But, yeah, you should probably go back for those shells, they're invaluable.

[Rockhead Gaz]

Originally posted by Purplefairy22:

i Always save the magnum for the labs but i'm always left with 18 ammo (normal difficulty), i don't untilize it fully. best time is probably on return to the house, there's not much to kill, and hunters deserve a good magnum to the face.

I literally only use the magnum for the tyrant. After all these years, I still refuse to waste a single shot on anything other than him, and as a result, am usually left with more ammo than I could have possibly hoped to use for it.

[AlucarD]

also if you play with Jill dont bother with the hunting shotty or at least never reload it once you fired your 6 shots, save Richard instead and collect his assault shotty with 10 shots and reload the shotty from the crate and never carry the ammo with you, you will never need more than 10 shots to make it alive from crate to crate trust me ^^

[supertrooper225]

I only really trully start using the shotgun as a steady weapon when the hunters show up and I tend to bring it to bosses as a back up. Zombies and dogs typically get the pistol for me since I can bolt if I get overwhelmed.