One fat barrel that fires a spray of six pellets every trigger pull. Up close, every pellet lands and it hits harder than a Sledge shell. At range it's a handful of pellets flying past.
At 0 stat points. Pellet speed and range include the global bullet-speed and range multipliers.
| Tier | 3 |
| Unlock level | 30 (12,205 score) |
| Upgrades from | Rattler |
| Upgrades into | Level 45: Birdshot, Twinbore |
| Barrels | 1, short and wide |
| Pellets per shot | 6, spread evenly across a 22° cone (11° either side of your aim), each with a small random wobble |
| Reload | 1.09 s between shots (0.92 shots per second) |
| Pellet damage | 5.6 per pellet, 33.6 for a full spray (+1.75 per pellet, +10.5 per spray, per Bullet Damage point) |
| Damage per second | About 31 if every pellet lands |
| Pellet speed | 331 px/s on average, each pellet anywhere from 281 to 380 px/s |
| Pellet range | About 179 px on average (152 to 205 px). Pellets live 0.54 s, 60% of a normal bullet |
| Pellet penetration | 3 each |
| Pellet size | Radius 6 (a Recruit bullet is 8.5) |
| Recoil per shot | 3× a Recruit shot, straight backwards |
| Drones / traps / turrets | None |
| Body | All body multipliers 1.0. Top speed 168 px/s at level 30, 108 max HP at level 30 |
Buckshot is a real shotgun. Every trigger pull throws six pellets out of one barrel, spread across a 22° cone. Each pellet does 5.6 damage with penetration 3, so a spray that lands in full does 33.6 damage in one go, more than a Sledge shell's 28. You get one spray about every 1.09 seconds.
The range is short on purpose. Pellets only live for 0.54 seconds, so on average they stop about 179 px from your barrel. Every pellet also flies at its own speed, up to 15% faster or slower than the average, so the spray stretches out as it travels. The fastest pellets reach about 205 px and the slowest die around 152 px. By the time the spray gets anywhere near that distance it's thin and uneven.
The cone decides how many pellets hit. Against a normal-sized tank all six land out to roughly 130 px. Further out, the outer pellets start passing either side, and at the edge of your range you're landing three or four of them at best. So Buckshot has one distance where it works: close. Inside about 130 px you're doing the full 33.6 per shot. Beyond 180 px you're doing nothing at all.
That shapes the rhythm. You close in, fire when the whole spray will land, and use the reload to move. Each shot kicks you backwards three times as hard as a Recruit shot, which pops you out of contact after you fire. Fire, drift back, step in, fire again. The kick also means you can't hold fire while chasing, because every shot throws you away from the thing you're trying to catch.
You'll meet Buckshot bots too, and they play it the way it's meant to be played. They rush you, try to sit inside about 200 px, and keep moving. Don't let one get close for free.
Buckshot beats anything that comes to it. Bastion and Vector have to touch you, and they eat full sprays on the way in. It's very good against drones: bullets hit drones for double damage, so three pellets kill a 25-health drone, and one spray into a cluster can take out two at once. It's good in corridors and crowded team fights where people can't keep their distance.
It loses to anything that won't come close. Every other gun class at tier 3 outranges you. A Vantage-line sniper can hit you from more than three times your range, and even a Duet-line tank at 300 px is well out of your reach. Snare is a nasty matchup, because you have to walk through its traps to get within 130 px. In open free-for-all, where everyone can see you coming, it's a hard class to make work.
Birdshot is for players who already win their close fights and want them over faster. Twinbore is for players who keep missing the one big shot and want more, smaller chances.