In this weapons guide for Helldivers 2 we aim to provide the reader with a no-nonsense, quick and dirty overview of the shotguns currently in Helldivers 2. Even at the start of the game, before everyone got properly accustomed to the Helldive difficulty, it was quite obvious that not all weapons were created equal. Basically, if the question is “Can this gun carry me through Helldive?”, here we try to provide the answer. This article is up-to-date as of the Viper Commandos war bond, and will slowly be updated as the game evolves. This continues on our previous article: Helldivers 2: Assault rifle guide.
SG-8 Punisher
The first of the shotguns players will unlock in Helldivers 2 is without a doubt the SG-8 Punisher. There’s nothing fancy going on here, and anyone who has used a pump action shotgun in a video game will know the deal by now. This means: slow fire rate, massive spread that confines you to close quarters combat, high damage per shot and the cool factor of being the dude that brings a pump action shotgun to a fight. What this weapon is known for is the solid amount of stagger and push force it applies to enemies, as well as a good amount of total damage carried in reserves.
The stagger is fantastic because it helps keep you safe by stun locking small and medium-sized enemies when they get too close for comfort. It has a capacity of 16 shells and comes with 60 shells in reserve. Speaking of shells, they need to be manually loaded into the gun one by one, so make sure to keep the gun topped off as it can be a slow process. That being said, the reload animation speed is similar to the Punishers slow fire rate, so by spamming reload you can still send a decent amount of lead flying even if the gun runs dry during an engagement. When it comes to combating enemy factions, shotguns by their nature were always better against the bugs, and the Punisher is no exception.
The automatons tend to engage the player at range, and their heavier armor puts a greater emphasis on hitting weakpoints. As such, a light armor penetrating weapon that fires pellets in a wide spread is not an ideal choice against them. The Punisher is a good gun, but its performance decreases the more enemies are on the screen. To put it simply, the game sends so much bugs on the highest difficulties that 60 shells just isn’t enough to get the job done. The slow fire rate of just 80RPM means that your overall DPS is pretty low, even though you’re doing the most damage per shot of any gun (405 damage).
Verdict: A decent anti-bug weapon known for its stagger capabilities that really begins to struggle as the difficulty increases. There are much better anti-bug shotguns for high difficulty missions, stick to low and medium difficulties with this one. The Punisher is the cheapest gun in the game, and it’s available on the first page of the default war bond. As a beginner weapon, it’s a quite nice change from the default liberator.
Unlocked: Page 1 of the Helldivers Mobilize War bond.
Total cost: 4 Medals.
SG-8S Slugger
Out of all the shotguns in Helldivers 2, the SG-8S Slugger is the only gun the fires slugs rather than pellets. The change to ammo type ends up being rather transformative, and as a result the Slugger feels significantly different despite being just a modified Punisher. The slugs are very accurate and can even penetrate medium armor, but they deal less damage (250 compared to the punishers 405). As a result, the Slugger usually performs better as an anti-automaton weapon. In fact, before it was nerfed, and the marksman rifle class buffed, the Slugger was the game’s de facto marksman rifle.
It comes with a simple and clean red dot sight, so aiming at automaton weakspots is an easy affair. However, it lacks any zoom magnification, and the slug has noticeable drop off, so you won’t be doing any shooting past medium ranges. The firing animation in first person feels jittery to be honest, but because the fire rate is as slow as the Punishers, this isn’t an issue once you adjust to the gun. Like the Punisher, it also has a capacity of 16 shells and carries 60 in reserve. Since the automatons send fewer units than the bugs, this is usually enough to not run into any ammo issues. With all this being said, the Slugger is a mid-tier anti-automaton weapon.
The nerf it got for seemingly no reason slightly lowered its damage per shot and more importantly greatly reduced its ability to stagger enemies. It still applies some stagger to enemies, but it’s no longer a core feature of the weapon. Honestly, it’s somewhat hard to recommend when the Jar-5 Dominator does almost everything the slugger does but better (sans bullet velocity). For a weapon that costs a total of 710 medals to unlock, it could use a bit of a buff to restore it to what it was.
Verdict: A solid anti-automaton weapon for low and medium difficulties. It can somewhat hold its ground on higher difficulties as well in the hands of a skilled Helldiver, but it’s greatly outmatched by other anti-automaton weapons, so most players will be ignoring it.
Unlocked: Page 8 of the Helldivers Mobilize War bond.
Total cost: 710 medals. (650 medals to page 8 and 60 medals for the gun)
SG-225 Breaker
The SG-225 Breaker is a fully-automatic shotgun known for its impressive damage output. It holds 13 shells in its mag and comes with 7 spare mags. With a fire rate of 300, and 330 damage per shot, this means the shotgun can output 1650 DPS before it runs dry. This is one of the highest raw damage numbers in the game, if not the highest. The Breaker seems to have a slightly tighter spread compared to the Punisher, not that it matters since it’s a shotgun and probably shouldn’t be used past 15 meters. The 2 more pellets per shot it fires does make it a bit more consistent than the Punisher, though.
Like with the Punisher, it’s best used as an anti-bug weapon. It’s high damage output means it can do good work against the bots as well, but you still need to get close to be able to focus your fire on their weakpoints. This is a tall order when going up against several heavy devastators, however. Although it’s only light armor penetrating, it can do good work against medium-sized targets through sheer brute force. With its high stopping power and cheap price of just 95 medals on the default war bond, it’s no surprise this gun basically had a cult form around it when the game first launched.
The gun can carry its weight on high difficulties, but its main problem is ammo-related. The Breaker doesn’t carry that much more total damage over the Punisher, it can just dump it extremely quick. When fighting bugs on high difficulties, you’ll often find yourself in situations where you have to burn through a lot of ammo to keep yourself safe. Admittedly, this can be solved by bringing a supply backpack with you. When unconstrained by ammo issues, the gun becomes decent, even if you have to spend half the game reloading. Whether it’s worth doing this when the Breaker Incendiary/Spray and Pray exist…is another mater entirely.
Verdict: A solid anti-bug weapon that performs well enough to be usable in high difficulties. Could use a buff to ammo reserves to bring it up to par with the rest of the Breaker family.
Unlocked: Page 4 of the Helldivers Mobilize War bond.
Total cost: 95 medals. (75 medals to page 4 and 20 medals for the gun)
SG-225SP Breaker Spray & Pray
The last of the shotguns to be found in the Helldivers Mobilize warbond in Helldivers 2 at the time of writing. The Spray and Pray is a modified version of the Breaker that uses birdshot pellets according to its flavor text. In game, this means an absurdly wide spread that makes the gun extremely inaccurate past point-blank range. While that might sound like a criticism, that’s kind of the point with this gun (if the name didn’t give it away). Which is to say, punish anything dumb enough to enter your immediate surroundings with a high volume of pellet fire.
To help you in this regard, the S&P has a 10% faster rate of fire compared to the base version and double the mag size. It also comes 8 spare mags, which means the gun carries the largest amount of raw total damage of any gun out there (excluding lasers). All in all, you can actually spam this gun without much fear of going dry, unlike with the base version. The S&P is best used against hordes of lower tier bugs, and in this regard it’s a truly fantastic weapon.
While it deals significantly less damage than the base Breaker, it’s still a full auto shotgun capable of outputting 1050 DPS at point-blank range, so you’re not left entirely defenseless against medium-tier bugs if they get too close. Against bots, however…don’t bother. This is an anti-bug weapon through and through. Honestly, this is a pretty good weapon for clearing swarms of lower tier bugs. Shame the Breaker Incendiary stole its job.
Verdict: A potent anti-bug shotgun designed to deal with crowds of smaller bugs. It has just enough kick to not leave you defenseless against bigger targets, and with enough ammo to keep the pain coming. It’s great for packs of hunters, and the S&P is the best anti-shrieker weapon out there. While the S&P can hold its own in high difficulty missions, it’s somewhat of a rare sight as it has unfortunately been outclassed by the Breaker Incendiary.
Unlocked: Page 9 of the Helldivers Mobilize War bond.
Total cost: 910 medals. (850 medals to page 9 and 60 for the gun)
SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary
The Breaker Incendiary variant fires ammunition that has the ability to set targets on fire. Fire damage was always good against bugs, so it should come as no surprise that a combo of shotgun and fire damage is a Terminids worst nightmare. The Incendiary occupies the same role as the Spray & Pray, which is to burn through (this time literally) swarms of lower tier bugs. Unlike the S&P where you keep firing until everything dies, with the Incendiary you want to ignite the swarm and let the fire do the rest of the work. The combo of raw and fire damage is usually good enough to kill every low tier bug in a swarm. Repeated application of fire can eventually kill or damage larger bugs as well for a relatively low ammo cost.
The point is that the gun carries a lot of raw potential damage in its ammo reserves, but through the fire DoT it can achieve a lot more…well over even what the S&P has to offer. It deals more raw (excluding fire) damage than the S&P but less than the regular Breaker. At point-blank it can output 1200 raw DPS, so much like the previous entry, you aren’t defenseless in close quarters combat. The Breaker Incendiary holds 25 shells in its mag, and comes with 6 spare mags. Against the bots, this weapon’s performance is interesting. It still suffers from the fact that it’s a short-ranged weapon going up against a faction that tends to fight from a distance, so you’re better using it as an anti-bug gun.
Despite the bots being made of metal, they’re still susceptible to fire damage. It takes a very long time for fire to kill them, though, but you can keep reapplying the fire DoT to a large amount of enemies for a low ammo cost until they finally succumb to it. Whether this is worth doing is another question entirely. It’s probably better to stick to dedicated anti automaton weapons, but if you ever get the need to shotgun some bots, the Incendiary is probably your best option.
Verdict: One of the best shotguns in Helldivers 2 at the time of writing, and the apex of anti-bug technology. So great it made the Breaker S&P, a very good gun in its own right, almost obsolete.
Unlocked: Page 2 of the Steeled Veterans premium war bond.
Total cost: 120 medals (60 medals to page 2 and 60 for the gun)
Final Thoughts on Shotguns in Helldivers 2
It should be no surprise by this point that shotguns in Helldivers 2 as a weapon class are uniquely well suited at combating the Terminids. The bugs try to overwhelm the player with massive swarms of lightly armored enemies, and it’s in this scenario where shotguns, with their high damage output, tend to shine. In fact, two of the best anti-bug primary weapons in Helldivers 2 are shotguns. And while some of the weapons on this list could use a buff to their ammo reserves, they still perform better than half the primaries in the game. Some shotguns could use some tweaks, but overall this class of weapon is in a decent state.
Image Credit: Arrowhead Game Studios.
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