Shotguns

Shotguns are your crowd control weapons, or are used against single powerful enemies at close range. They're perfect for dealing with three, four, or a dozen enemies when you can crowd them into a small space, such as a narrow corridor or a doorway; it's relatively to aim in the general area of their heads at this point and dish out massive damage to the entire group. Where shotguns really shine is in their ability to knock over enemies; when shot at close range with a shotgun blast, an enemy will pretty much always be knocked down to the ground, thus giving you six or seven seconds to maim their bodies before they get back up again.

At this range, most normal enemies will die in one shot from a shotgun, especially when it's aimed at their heads.

Shotguns are the only weapons to deal a different amount of damage based on the range of the enemies. When shooting enemies at close range, the numbers below are accurate; when your target is more than ten feet or so away, though, these numbers usually drop down to around a third of the normal amount. The lesson is to let your enemy approach you before you start wailing on him!

Shotgun The trusty boomstick is going to be your only shotgun for a good length of time at the beginning of the game, and a fine weapon it is. It fires rounds in a tight group, and, well, is fun to use when aiming at a ganado's head at close range. Know it, love it.

Inventory Spaces Required: 8x2

Firepower

Firing Speed

Reload

Capacity

Exclusive: Enables the Shotgun to deal extra damage against distant foes.

Riot Gun

The Riot Gun is a fairly marginal improvement over the shotgun. It seems to have a tighter spread, but beyond that, the gains in firepower and ammo capacity are minor at best. If you don't mind the Striker's wide spread, then keep the Shotgun until you're able to buy that weapon; otherwise, you can do just fine with the normal Shotgun throughout the entire game. If you're going for the Exclusive upgrades, though, the Riot Gun's is a bit better.

Inventory Spaces Required: 8x2

Firepower

Firing Speed

Reload

Capacity

Exclusive: Increases Firepower to 10.0.

Striker

The Striker - sounds like a car from Grand Theft Auto or something. Anyway, the ultimate shotgun in the game has a number of advantages in its favor. The most telling is the significant size difference between it and the other shotguns; it'll take up a full six fewer blocks of attache case, allowing you to carry three more first aid sprays, grenades, ammo containers, or what have you. Secondly, the firepower upgrades will let it deal more damage than either of the other shotguns, even when you consider the Riot Gun's Exclusive upgrade. The Exclusive upgrade for the Striker is also rather unique; it allows the weapon to carry up to 100 rounds of ammo in a single barrel. This isn't tremendously useful in combat - you'll rarely run through even ten rounds without having a chance to reload - but it will save you a tremendous amount of inventory space, since shotgun ammo only stacks to a maximum of 15 rounds before you have to start a new stack.

The Striker also has a distinctly wider spread of fire than the other guns do; this will let you hit more enemies at once, especially in open areas, but can also mute the damage dealing capabilities of the weapon a bit, especially in cases where you don't want to run right up next to an enemy, such as when a tentacle enemy is slashing away at you.

Inventory Spaces Required: 5x2

Firepower

Firing Speed

Reload

Capacity

Exclusive: Increases maximum ammo capacity to 100 rounds.