New Fortnite shotgun stats leaked

A new “Western Shotgun” has potentially been leaked through the investigative efforts of the Fortnite community.

This new shotgun may be the one seen in the Fortnite Season 5 Battlepass trailer. Its leaked stats have been compared to the recently vaulted Pump Shotgun, suggesting that it might find a niche in the current season of Fortnite.

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 Shotgun meta

Upcoming Western Shotgun, better spread than gold pump, faster fire rate & bigger clip but lower damage & slow reload..(*Rare/*Epic)Spread: 0.75/0.75Fire Rate: 0.5/0.5Clip Size: 6/6Damage (Body): 85/89Damage (Head): 170/178Reload Time: 9/8.5 (seconds)

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) December 8, 2020

The current season of Fortnite features an unusually high variety of shotguns for players to choose from, with four in the game. However, realistically, only two of these can be acquired with any regularity, with the Dragon Breath Shotgun and The Dub being more niche and harder to acquire.

Additionally, it may be that this new shotgun will prompt the vaulting of one of the others in order to ensure that there isn’t too much overlap between them all.

The current stats, as shared by @HYPEX, suggest that the Western Shotgun will have a tight spread and very slow fire rate that will make it capable of dealing reasonable damage at a range, with the downside of being very risky if missed.

Uniquely, this shotgun appears to have a 2x headshot multiplier - something which may actually make it quite powerful in the right hands.

By comparison, none of the Tactical Shotguns can claim to hit that hard and only the Legendary Charge Shotgun can manage that without charging. If these stats prove to be correct, it could slot in as a burst damage weapon meant to soften targets before swapping to an SMG.

Damn sherlock

— epicgamesdefo(follow back 💯♻️) (@epicgamesdefo) December 8, 2020

Weapon balance is actually pretty good right now

Fortnite Season 5 has overall been a net positive in terms of balancing out the game, as the removal of superpowers has largely brought the game back to its roots. It’s true that the current season of Fortnite does feature some notable imbalances despite this, but nonetheless it’s a lot less polarizing.

Notably, many of the special weapons that players can earn by beating bosses or by buying them from vendors tend to be very specific, such as The Dub or Night Hawk revolver.

Additionally, there are a number of special sniper rifles added to the game which are strong in their own right, but not too broken, as they usually have built-in counterplay.

Gone are the generalists that seem to be the best possible weapon for multiple situations, such as Doom’s, Thor’s, or Iron Man’s various powers which gave players a strong tool that was good no matter what.