Beginner Here With Two Questions About Shotguns!

[Rien]

So I'm sort of a new player and have been rocking a Braton for a while, and it's quite a good weapon to use (since it has pretty decent accuracy any sort of long-ranged.) Anyway, I've been trying out shotguns (starting with a Strun, obviously), but it's pretty short-ranged and lacking in damage (the latter may just be due to a low rank.)

 

My main question is, what are some good mods that I should have for shotguns/Strun? I was thinking about adding Blaze (which I got from the School Alerts a while ago) when I have enough mods points (if that's what they're called.) What other mods should I have?

 

Bonus question: should I decide to keep on using shotguns (which I might, since shooting games aren't really my thing and my aim is quite bad), which shotgun(s) should I get?

[Rukkhadevata.]

Get boar prime for a shotgun for number 2

 

Blaze is a good mod

 

Use the market and void to find and buy bp's

[Hrodgrim]

Shotguns are a blast to use if you mod them right.

The right way is to max the multishot and damage, that way you can pull off tons of damage at point blank.

 

Of course, that's not the only right way.

Some shotguns are great as status tools, and due to the way multishot works on them, you can proc SEVERAL debuffs at once.

 

Once you find all the parts, you should build the Detron or the Brakk. They're both pistol-slot shotguns, and they're just as powerful as the main weapon.

 

The Phage is a unique shotgun in that it's a continuous fire weapon. If you ever build that thing, try to get its fire rate as low as possible for supreme ammo economy. It's also a great weapon for proc-ing  status effects.

 

Overall, shotguns demand huge multishot in order to be really effective, but once you have that the rest becomes easy peasy.

[VKhaun]

Point Blank / Vicious Spread / Hell's Chamber / Blaze tends to be your core, folllowed by elemental mods or crit mods.

 

Make sure and do the ongoing event! I don't remember when it ends exactly but one of the rewards at 10 points is +120% slash damage for shotguns. One of the top shotguns (our double barrel) has massive slash damage stats.

 

Your top shotguns will be Tigris and Boar Prime IMO. Boar Prime will run your ammo dry real quick and has poor range, so you would use that with an ammo-efficient pistol with some range, or if you like to melee a lot. Tigris you couldn't run out of shells for if you tried and it has a longer reach than other shotguns, so it's good for spammy machine gun pistols. 

 

Short term, I would point you towards Sobek. It's a shotgun with a massive magazine and very slow reload. It fires in automatic mode, but with a slowish rate of fire. At low levels you can use it as a semi-auto firing one shell at a time. Mid levels you can start to spam a little automatic fire on heavier enemies. High levels it starts to lose it's kick, but it will clear the star chart and do non-endless stuff if you put a catalyst on it.

[Katinka]

Blaze is brilliant.  The boost to base damage multiplies with the boost it gives to fire damage so Blaze by itself actually gives a greater total fire damage than Incendiary Coat (the pure +90% fire damage mod) and it boosts your other damages too.  Due to how different mods multiply or add damage you probably want Hell's Chamber next for Multishot although it is a big drain on the allowance.  For a Strun I might consider Tactical Pump.  It wont boost your damage but it makes reloading less frustrating and the less frustrating a weapon is, the more fun using it is and the less likely I am to hate getting it to 30.

[The_Rising_Dusk]

For shotgun modding, your build should include Point Blank, Hell's Chamber, Vicious Spread and Blaze for raw damage. After that, slot in a few elemental damage mods (choose between Incendiary Coat, Charged Shell, Chilling Grasp, Contagious Spread depending on the faction and their weaknesses) and Shotgun Spazz for fire rate. Maybe a Shotgun Ammo Mutation mod if necessary.

 

Some of these mods can be difficult to acquire, however. Hell's Chamber can be dropped by a lot of stuff (check the wiki for more info) but it is rare so it won't drop that frequently. Vicious Spread is a corrupted mod, so it will be difficult for you to get without buying it off the market. Incendiary Coat is dropped by Sniper Crewmen, which don't spawn very often. Contagious Spread is also pretty rare. Shotgun Spazz is only found in the Orokin Void or created via transmutation. Shotgun Ammo Mutation can also take a lot of farming to get. 

 

However, there are substitutes for a few of these mods. Contagious Spread can be subbed out for Toxic Barrage, which is fairly common but only drops from T4 Void missions. Ask your clan and someone should have an extra copy lying around. Shotgun Spazz can be replaced with Accelerated Blast, which is a nightmare mod and can be farmed a lot more easily (look on the wiki for information about Nightmare Mode). Unfortunately, Hell's Chamber, Incendiary Coat, Vicious Spread and Shotgun Ammo Mutation cannot be replaced with anything directly.

 

Out of these mods, Hell's Chamber and Vicious Spread should be the ones you start looking for ASAP, as they provide you with too much damage to pass up. Shotgun Ammo Mutation isn't required by a lot of shotguns in this game (only the Boar Prime needs it, really) and Incendiary Coat can be subbed out for a utility mod (eg: reload speed). 

 

I understand that I've probably thrown too many unfamiliar terms at you, but if you do a bit of research on the wiki and ask your clanmates, you should be able to find out where to start farming the more elusive mods I've previously stated. In the short term, just using Blaze / Point Blank and a few of the more common elementals should be fine for clearing the lower level areas of the solar map, but you'll want to start finding the rarer mods to help bring your shotguns into end-game content. Good luck!

[Tar_Spit_Fire]

potato it and get point strike, vicious spread, hell's chamber, blaze, and any other elemental mods~

[GinKenshin]

I recommend you go for the Tigris, it's very different from the other shotguns and I just got it recently, it takes time to know how to play it but it's a lot of fun, I have 1100 slash damage with mine

in the case of mods, I recommend point blank, hell's chamber, tactical pump, vicious spread, blaze, 2 element mods, blunderbuss, ravage and a 2nd element if u like 

[LukeAura]

I'd definitely recommend going to the Sobek next. It has a much longer range than the Strun, but is a little less like a shotgun because of its tight spread. It still has that powerful feel you don't get with rifles though. The Drakgoon is another good option too. It's got the ability to tighten its spread for focused shots or crowd hitting wide shots on tap, it does have travel time and projectile arc though.  


Personally, I'd probably recommend getting your hands on a chilling grasp, most elemental mods cost at base 6 points but it only costs 4 so its a lot cheaper to use which is great since you'll be a little starved for mod points without forma or potatos early on. 
Hell's Chamber, Vicious spread are both valuable but if you're newer to the game they might be a little of your reach yet, Vicious Spread is really not important enough to go after for most content you'll be coming across for a while, don't worry about it until you've gotten farther in. Hell's Chamber is more debatable as multishot just makes any possible build better. I still wouldn't worry about it getting it yet, but it'll be a goal to find one much sooner than Vicious Spread.  
Point Blank is one you probably have a better chance at, definitely try to hunt it down if you don't already.  
 

[MrJxt]

If you can get the parts for the boar prime then you can use it at mastery rank 2. It's a fully automatic shotgun and is strong vs shields.

 

Drakgoon is a pretty interesting shotgun that can charge its shots for more damage and accuracy, unlocked at mastery rank 3.

 

Phage is my personal favourite, an alien gun that "tickles" your enemies with laser beams, unlocked at mastery rank 6.

 

If you want some standard shotguns then sobek/hek/tigris are all available at rank 4.

-Sobek, automatic, large ammo capacity, long reload, good vs shields.

 

-Hek, 4 shots, great vs armor, accurate.

 

-Tigris, "double barrel shotgun", 2 shots, good vs flesh.

[(XBOX)DirtyDNA]

can you use the regular shotgun mods for the pistol slot shotguns (Detron and Brakk) ?

[MrJxt]

no, detron and brakk use pistol mods.

[(XBOX)DirtyDNA]

ok thanks...