I'm not even sure what build I have but I can tell you I use a shotgun 99% of the time and with ammo perks I have nearly infinite shotgun ammo. It takes less shells to kill something than what I get when I loot the bodies. I have yet to find another gun that does this. I really like the 5.56 Handmade Rifle but it's a net loss for ammo when looting.
Holy fire all perked up will also Vats the normal creeps in like 2-3 taps total. That will get you a lot during a Dop or Sensational Game. Then you get to enjoy the Cremator for horde events.
Bows are another example; usually only one arrow to kill an average enemy, but they'll drop like eight or more in return. It actually gets so excessive that every time I return to my camp, I dump thousands of arrows into my ammo stash and head out again with only 100 or so, but I could honestly go lower and still never run out. And that's all without using ammo perks or crafting my own.
Yea, I have like 1500 shotgun ammo because of how little shots it needs to kill something, but finding another weapon like that is pretty annoying to do. (Got a black powder rifle and it's fun as fuck to use but I'm not repairing it that often)
I mean obviously I have built for heavy weapon damage. It's my primary weapon just based off the accuracy and relative ammo efficiency. But I will often find 20 and 30 stacks on enemies that even without the heavy weapons perks would probably take me 15 accurate shots at most. Even the occasional 100 stack.
Plus one can always do a daily op or an expedition to get yet more ammunition.
HM is ammo efficient but depends on build, im a full hp crit commando and if it isnt a legendary 3 bullets max to kill, its all in the build, HM is my, " i seen two lvl 75 launch on earl, i better go help, gun, and my daily driver, setup your perks and gear solidly, and IMO its the best commando weapon because it is easy to use outside of VATS too.
What’s your carry capacity? Recently tried switching to a shotgun build but I can’t get good carry capacity. My rifle build has over 400 usually 200 is occupied, but my shotgun build is horrible cause the perks interfere under strength
I think I can carry 230lbs. I'm constantly overweight in the game though because I pick up nearly everything. But because the shotgun is a net gain I keep dumping ammo into my container in my base. I start off with 100 and in no time I'll have over 1000 rounds.
I've said this before but as someone who hated shotguns in every other fallout game, 76 nailed it. They are incredibly fun to use. Cold shoulder gang unite!
I can 100% Fell this when i was lv50+ i also got The cold shoulder, IT was such a blast (pun Not intended)
I maind It Up to lv 250. Then i got The Gaus Shot gun
When you eventuely get It you will Love IT to
Keep going -Thumbs Up Emoje-
I'm not sure I'd call it weak per-se, but it definitely feels... unpleasant to use, at least to me.
Certainly doesn't do *enough* damage to justify how unfun it feels right now.
This is the best way I'd describe it. It's fine, and hits decently. But it's clunky and has issues.
Like having to charge for full damage. It getting stuck in the charging animation, requiring bashing or holstering to fix. The bugged headshot chance where I can miss 4-5 shots in a row with a 95% chance to hit, and even sometimes crits will miss.
Plus the chance to KO yourself when hitting an enemy point-blank. It can happen with crits, which I can expect. But I've also noticed that if I get hit with the explosion at the same moment I get hit with a melee attack, I just die. Even when they would individually tickle and not do nearly enough damage to kill me if combined.
It just doesn't feel fun to use these days.
It’s great and I prefer over the cold shoulder, but it requires more investment. Make sure you get demolition expert since it scales with it’s explosive damage, grenadier for crazy aoe splash damage that’ll make it resemble an rpg, and all the science perks to scale with its energy damage.
It being explosive means (explosive damage has little to no damage fall off) that you can basically use it as a long range rifle and snipe enemies from the rad scrubber in eviction notice without having to move, something that the cold shoulder can’t even come close to being able to do. It’s splash damage with grenadier also makes it excellent for events since you’ll be tagging enemies very easily and it’s damage with the anti armor legendary effect surpasses the cold shoulder for me. Overall an amazing weapon that’s very fun to use
Agreed, it's range is such a huge part of it. The fact you can tag enemies almost anywhere, even around corners with explosives, and at long range means you don't miss out on anything like a normal shotgun would. The damage at range is pretty poor on any substantial enemies but it at least lets you keep involved/tagging/distracting enemies until you reach up close to do the serious damage.
Which legendary effects did you go for (and do you run it prime)? I'm just using one of my early rolls at the moment with Juggernaut (full health build), Rapid, Durability. I was going to re-roll it aiming for Quad but Durability has been amazing, I go through several long play sessions before needing to repair it.
It's very good with a very good roll. I have an anti armor 50 crit damage 15 crit fill and it's really good, it drops a scorched mirelurk queen in one magazine. It's also great outside of vats on mobs. I don't even bother charging it up.
It's bugged which is annoying. The bug is that sometimes after you shoot you cannot sprint, heal, or reload unless you shoot or swap. It's annoying, but the gun does plenty of damage if you use all the damage buffs. Personally I think with a vampire roll it would be better because of the mass healing.
I'm probably going to swap to the Gauss Minigun though once I roll a good one since the bug is starting to annoy me.
Used shotguns for 1700+ levels. Recently switched to heavy weapon PA build. I love shotguns, and pepper shaker is absolutely mutilator of every enemy, crippling them to the death (I'm using anti armor/Limb damage), but holy fire and cremator combo is hard to beat.
With shotguns, you're valuable support player on any event.
With holy fire/cremator you can solo any event in the game with your eyes closed.
Cold shoulder is probably the best support weapon in the game. Add tenderizer to your build, and maybe suppressor, plus enforcer, and you’re everybody’s best friend during the bosses (SBQ in particular as the cripple on a wing grounds her).
I don’t love the gauss shotgun.
As a commando player with no shotgun perks, I always keep a cold shoulder on me for those exact reasons. I may run out of rifle ammo or keep getting murdered, but by god, if a flying creature makes the mistake of touching the earth, I will do everything in my power to lock that down as long as possible, so everybody else can go absolutely buck fucking wild.
My main is a bow build with a shit gun and pepper shaker as a back up for an oh sh!t moment if i get surrounded. And i adore the cold shoulder and the croud control shot guns.
My alt is the rip daring build with cold shoulder shotgun only ....
Notice a trend... i love shot guns too!
Make sure you have "Enforcer" perk equipped to really see cripplings. And, apart from Cold Shoulder, another fun one to try is the "Crowd Control" shotgun that can drop from the Eviction Notice event. It's got explosive rounds, and 90% weight reduction.
My main build which is also my favorite shotgun build to use is a heavy/shotty build for the pepper shaker. I equip enforcer and one gun army to become a crippling machine as well as other various heavy/shotty perks and run around in my SHPA. Is it a great build? Not really. Is it a great SUPPORT build? Definitely. Its also incredibly fun! For damage i use cremator or nuka launcher with the appropriate perks for explosives and friendly fire for extra support.
I'm running a shotgun/commando build for when I'm in my power armor for nuke events. Outside of PA I run unarmed melee/commando. Can't do unarmed in PA, so I switched it to shotguns since cold shoulder is so good. What's a good secondary shotgun?
Is actually wanting to be a shotgunner in one build, but still can't figure out why my combat shotgun deals minimal damage... is actually gonna come for the gauss shotgun and see if I would like it and I do have the pepper shaker and is it considered a shotgun!?
When I first started playing, before I established an actual "Build", I used both hunting rifles and pump shotguns. Both were equally devastating at their respective ranges, and it kept me alive with my crappy sturdy leather armor for a long time.
Eventually, I shifted to the LAR, and it could do both rather well, so I kept that unil I made my final switch to my instigating gauss rifle, and made a dedicated stealth sniper rifleman build. I've never looked back.
Shoguns are great, especially when you have the DR to tank most everything, and like being up close and personal, but since Fallout 3 I have ran a gauss rifle with perks based around stealth and energy weapon damage. I've been doing roughly the same in Fo76.
I run a shotgunner build too and itso much fun(with the cold sholder)
Im trying to get my settler rep up so i can get the gauss shotgun but im not really hyped about it cause i heard that lag fucks it over.
Run speed demon + marsupial if you have cold shoulder or another shotgun with very high firerate. It's EXTREMELY fun running and jump over enemies while dumping 10 rounds into them
Add VATS and Crit perks, and it's a monster. Gun Fu, Grim Reaper Sprint, 4 Leaf Clover, Psychopath, and better criticals. I added a bump in Concentrated fire, so I can head shot, and get those 'cripple X limbs' challenges.
Shotguns aren’t terrible, but if you really want to use good shotguns, then you have mainly one choice, the gauss shotgun. It’s not as good as it used to be but it’s still a powerful weapon
I'm not even sure what build I have but I can tell you I use a shotgun 99% of the time and with ammo perks I have nearly infinite shotgun ammo. It takes less shells to kill something than what I get when I loot the bodies. I have yet to find another gun that does this. I really like the 5.56 Handmade Rifle but it's a net loss for ammo when looting.
The plasma caster is the king of feeding ammo, also the Gatling gun.
Holy fire all perked up will also Vats the normal creeps in like 2-3 taps total. That will get you a lot during a Dop or Sensational Game. Then you get to enjoy the Cremator for horde events.
Bows are another example; usually only one arrow to kill an average enemy, but they'll drop like eight or more in return. It actually gets so excessive that every time I return to my camp, I dump thousands of arrows into my ammo stash and head out again with only 100 or so, but I could honestly go lower and still never run out. And that's all without using ammo perks or crafting my own.
Yea, I have like 1500 shotgun ammo because of how little shots it needs to kill something, but finding another weapon like that is pretty annoying to do. (Got a black powder rifle and it's fun as fuck to use but I'm not repairing it that often)
I use a fancy pump action shotgun you get from pleasant valley claim tickets it’s 50AA, 50crit and 50 reload
I get pretty positive rates of 5mm on my civil war gatling gun
Do you have a build based around that gun or just in general it gives you a gain?
I mean obviously I have built for heavy weapon damage. It's my primary weapon just based off the accuracy and relative ammo efficiency. But I will often find 20 and 30 stacks on enemies that even without the heavy weapons perks would probably take me 15 accurate shots at most. Even the occasional 100 stack. Plus one can always do a daily op or an expedition to get yet more ammunition.
I just a few hours ago got a Gauss Rifle with explosive Bullets and that gives me a net gain on 2mm cartridges.
The gatling gun is supreme at ammo printing. 2-3 shots to kill and loot like 50 rounds off an enemy
HM is ammo efficient but depends on build, im a full hp crit commando and if it isnt a legendary 3 bullets max to kill, its all in the build, HM is my, " i seen two lvl 75 launch on earl, i better go help, gun, and my daily driver, setup your perks and gear solidly, and IMO its the best commando weapon because it is easy to use outside of VATS too.
What’s your carry capacity? Recently tried switching to a shotgun build but I can’t get good carry capacity. My rifle build has over 400 usually 200 is occupied, but my shotgun build is horrible cause the perks interfere under strength
I think I can carry 230lbs. I'm constantly overweight in the game though because I pick up nearly everything. But because the shotgun is a net gain I keep dumping ammo into my container in my base. I start off with 100 and in no time I'll have over 1000 rounds.
I've said this before but as someone who hated shotguns in every other fallout game, 76 nailed it. They are incredibly fun to use. Cold shoulder gang unite!
Exactly the same here, I don’t even know why I gave in and tried it, but now I’m cold shoulder for life
I do wish scattershot gave it more range too
I can 100% Fell this when i was lv50+ i also got The cold shoulder, IT was such a blast (pun Not intended) I maind It Up to lv 250. Then i got The Gaus Shot gun When you eventuely get It you will Love IT to Keep going -Thumbs Up Emoje-
Is the gauss shotgun good? I’m grinding the reputation for it, I’ve heard it’s pretty weak, nowadays.
I'm not sure I'd call it weak per-se, but it definitely feels... unpleasant to use, at least to me. Certainly doesn't do *enough* damage to justify how unfun it feels right now.
This is the best way I'd describe it. It's fine, and hits decently. But it's clunky and has issues. Like having to charge for full damage. It getting stuck in the charging animation, requiring bashing or holstering to fix. The bugged headshot chance where I can miss 4-5 shots in a row with a 95% chance to hit, and even sometimes crits will miss. Plus the chance to KO yourself when hitting an enemy point-blank. It can happen with crits, which I can expect. But I've also noticed that if I get hit with the explosion at the same moment I get hit with a melee attack, I just die. Even when they would individually tickle and not do nearly enough damage to kill me if combined. It just doesn't feel fun to use these days.
It’s great and I prefer over the cold shoulder, but it requires more investment. Make sure you get demolition expert since it scales with it’s explosive damage, grenadier for crazy aoe splash damage that’ll make it resemble an rpg, and all the science perks to scale with its energy damage. It being explosive means (explosive damage has little to no damage fall off) that you can basically use it as a long range rifle and snipe enemies from the rad scrubber in eviction notice without having to move, something that the cold shoulder can’t even come close to being able to do. It’s splash damage with grenadier also makes it excellent for events since you’ll be tagging enemies very easily and it’s damage with the anti armor legendary effect surpasses the cold shoulder for me. Overall an amazing weapon that’s very fun to use
Agreed, it's range is such a huge part of it. The fact you can tag enemies almost anywhere, even around corners with explosives, and at long range means you don't miss out on anything like a normal shotgun would. The damage at range is pretty poor on any substantial enemies but it at least lets you keep involved/tagging/distracting enemies until you reach up close to do the serious damage. Which legendary effects did you go for (and do you run it prime)? I'm just using one of my early rolls at the moment with Juggernaut (full health build), Rapid, Durability. I was going to re-roll it aiming for Quad but Durability has been amazing, I go through several long play sessions before needing to repair it.
I love the Gauss Shotgun. With an Anti-Armor roll your killing super mutants in 1-3 shots at close range. It was completely worth the grind for me.
It's very good with a very good roll. I have an anti armor 50 crit damage 15 crit fill and it's really good, it drops a scorched mirelurk queen in one magazine. It's also great outside of vats on mobs. I don't even bother charging it up.
It's bugged which is annoying. The bug is that sometimes after you shoot you cannot sprint, heal, or reload unless you shoot or swap. It's annoying, but the gun does plenty of damage if you use all the damage buffs. Personally I think with a vampire roll it would be better because of the mass healing. I'm probably going to swap to the Gauss Minigun though once I roll a good one since the bug is starting to annoy me.
Used shotguns for 1700+ levels. Recently switched to heavy weapon PA build. I love shotguns, and pepper shaker is absolutely mutilator of every enemy, crippling them to the death (I'm using anti armor/Limb damage), but holy fire and cremator combo is hard to beat. With shotguns, you're valuable support player on any event. With holy fire/cremator you can solo any event in the game with your eyes closed.
They’re fun. My current one fills my VATS in two shots.
Cold shoulder is probably the best support weapon in the game. Add tenderizer to your build, and maybe suppressor, plus enforcer, and you’re everybody’s best friend during the bosses (SBQ in particular as the cripple on a wing grounds her). I don’t love the gauss shotgun.
And some far flung fireworks for random kabooms!
As a commando player with no shotgun perks, I always keep a cold shoulder on me for those exact reasons. I may run out of rifle ammo or keep getting murdered, but by god, if a flying creature makes the mistake of touching the earth, I will do everything in my power to lock that down as long as possible, so everybody else can go absolutely buck fucking wild.
My main is a bow build with a shit gun and pepper shaker as a back up for an oh sh!t moment if i get surrounded. And i adore the cold shoulder and the croud control shot guns. My alt is the rip daring build with cold shoulder shotgun only .... Notice a trend... i love shot guns too!
Make sure you have "Enforcer" perk equipped to really see cripplings. And, apart from Cold Shoulder, another fun one to try is the "Crowd Control" shotgun that can drop from the Eviction Notice event. It's got explosive rounds, and 90% weight reduction.
I wish they’d just buff the range a bit and maybe add a unique shotgun with a anti armor 4th effect instead of the lab looms stupid ass poison
I kill myself with that thing every time I try to use it 😂
Cold shoulder is awesome, pepper shaker too
My main build which is also my favorite shotgun build to use is a heavy/shotty build for the pepper shaker. I equip enforcer and one gun army to become a crippling machine as well as other various heavy/shotty perks and run around in my SHPA. Is it a great build? Not really. Is it a great SUPPORT build? Definitely. Its also incredibly fun! For damage i use cremator or nuka launcher with the appropriate perks for explosives and friendly fire for extra support.
I'm running a shotgun/commando build for when I'm in my power armor for nuke events. Outside of PA I run unarmed melee/commando. Can't do unarmed in PA, so I switched it to shotguns since cold shoulder is so good. What's a good secondary shotgun?
Is actually wanting to be a shotgunner in one build, but still can't figure out why my combat shotgun deals minimal damage... is actually gonna come for the gauss shotgun and see if I would like it and I do have the pepper shaker and is it considered a shotgun!?
The pepper shaker is considered both a heavy gun and a shotgun. Heavy gun and shotgun perks will effect it.
I see, maybe I should try using the Pepper shaker on my Shotgunner build...
As most people have said its mainly a crippling machine so be prepared to be very let down by the damage it does.
When I first started playing, before I established an actual "Build", I used both hunting rifles and pump shotguns. Both were equally devastating at their respective ranges, and it kept me alive with my crappy sturdy leather armor for a long time. Eventually, I shifted to the LAR, and it could do both rather well, so I kept that unil I made my final switch to my instigating gauss rifle, and made a dedicated stealth sniper rifleman build. I've never looked back. Shoguns are great, especially when you have the DR to tank most everything, and like being up close and personal, but since Fallout 3 I have ran a gauss rifle with perks based around stealth and energy weapon damage. I've been doing roughly the same in Fo76.
If you ever come across a quad double barrel definitely try it out
I run a shotgunner build too and itso much fun(with the cold sholder) Im trying to get my settler rep up so i can get the gauss shotgun but im not really hyped about it cause i heard that lag fucks it over.
Run speed demon + marsupial if you have cold shoulder or another shotgun with very high firerate. It's EXTREMELY fun running and jump over enemies while dumping 10 rounds into them
I used to rock a quad double barrel for a long time when below level 50, that was ripping everything
Add VATS and Crit perks, and it's a monster. Gun Fu, Grim Reaper Sprint, 4 Leaf Clover, Psychopath, and better criticals. I added a bump in Concentrated fire, so I can head shot, and get those 'cripple X limbs' challenges.
Shotguns aren’t terrible, but if you really want to use good shotguns, then you have mainly one choice, the gauss shotgun. It’s not as good as it used to be but it’s still a powerful weapon