In this weapons guide, we aim to provide the reader with a no-nonsense, quick and dirty overview of the shotguns in Helldivers 2. Even at the start of the game, before everyone got properly accustomed to the highest difficulty, it was quite obvious that not all weapons were created equal. Basically, if the question is “Can this gun carry me through Super Helldive?”, here we try to provide the answer. This article is up-to-date as of the Truth Enforcers premium war bond, and will slowly be updated as the game evolves. More info on these weapons place in the meta, as well as links to our other weapon guides, can be found in our Helldivers 2: Weapons Meta article.
SG-8 Punisher
The SG-8 Punisher is without a doubt one of the first shotguns in Helldivers 2 that new players will unlock. 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 direct 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 can 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, the slug has noticeable drop off, and one of the patches increased its spread so you won’t be hitting any weakpoints past low 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, which can feel thin on Super Helldive. 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. Subsequent buffs have improved its stagger to be as powerful as the one on the JAR-5 Dominator, making it possible to stun lock enemies once more. 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 make it stand apart.
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-20 Halt
The SG-20 Halt is a pump-action shotgun that came with the Truth Enforcers premium war bond. We’re not quite sure whether it belongs in the Punisher family, but there are some similarities. Much like the Punisher, it’s a pump-action shotgun with a fire rate of 80 that holds its ammo in two magazine tubes, which hold 8 shells each. However, the standout feature is that each magazine holds a different ammo type, and the player can switch between them at will in the weapon’s options menu (accessed by holding the reload key). The Halt is the first primary weapon to come with this feature, and the first among pellet shotguns in Helldivers 2 to come with medium armor penetration.
Your primary damage dealers are going to be the flechettes. This ammo type deals 35 damage (10 durable) and penetrates medium armor. With each trigger pull the Halt will fire 11x of this unusual projectile, for a respectable total of 385 damage per shot. The spread is absurdly wide and imparts a moderate amount of stagger and knock back to enemies. The second ammo type has the ability to stun targets. Stun pellets are incredibly potent, to the point where a single shot can stun a charger provided all pellets connect to its weakpoint. The halt will fire 20x of these pellets per shot in an equally massive spread, making it easier to afflict multiple enemies with the effect. However, this ammo type deals minimal damage (6 normal/2 durable), and can only penetrate light armor.
Needless to say, having access to multiple ammo types makes for increased flexibility on the battlefield. Not to mention it’s just a great amount of fun in general. The flechettes will be doing basically all the killing, and with them quipped the Halt functions as a standard shotgun. Stun pellets, on the other hand, can keep you safe when enemies get too close for comfort. You can hold enemies in place for a stratagem or to give yourself a bit of space to reload the weapon. Speaking of which, each tube needs to be reloaded separately. You get the standard allotment of 60 shells, and you have to do even more switching so you can load the proper magazine.
This can be quite an annoying process in the long run, because switching ammo is a fiddly process. Instead of just pressing one button to switch, you instead need to hold the reload key, then select the ammo type, and wait a tiny bit for the animation to play out. This isn’t a problem with the gun itself so much as with game design, but it can kill your enjoyment of the weapon. In terms of performance, once again, shotguns by their nature are better against bugs due to their massive spreads limiting them to close quarters combat. As the first medium armor pen shotgun you’d imagine the Halt would do a better job against the bots than most. In truth, the large spread means all of its damage can’t be focused on a single enemy spot easily, so the bots end up taking more hits to bring down than expected. Its better against the bugs, but with just 60 shells in reserve, it will burn through its ammo quickly.
Verdict: A proper mid-tier weapon. Good enough to be viable, but with many downsides keeping it from being great.
Unlocked: Page 1 of the Truth Enforcers premium war bond.
Total cost: 20 medals.
SG-451 Cookout
The second of the shotguns in Helldivers 2 to fire ammunition that can set enemies on fire. The SG-451 Cookout shares most of its stats with the base version of the gun, so we’ll just quickly go over them. Standard allotment of 76 shells (16 mag + 60 reserve). The exact same fire rate of 80 rounds per minute. Shells need to be loaded manually and impart a potent mix of stager and knock back on hit. For the record, it has a bit less stagger and knock back than the regular Punisher, but in game this is barely noticeable and sustained fire can still stun lock enemies. The Cookout is a light armor penetrating shotgun that deals 320 damage per shot spread equally over 20 pellets. This high pellet count comes in handy as it lets the shotgun easily set multiple enemies on fire. The massive spread also helps the gun in this regard.
Spreading fire DoTs is exactly what you’ll be using this shotgun for because its DPS is even lower than the Punishers. Not only that, but the Cookout deals the least durable damage out of all the shotguns in Helldivers 2, which further limits its use against some medium-sized targets. To put it simply, this is a Punisher that sacrifices its damage output for the ability to mass afflict bugs with fire damage. This makes the gun actually quite powerful when dealing with low tier bugs such as warriors and hunters, but you’ll see it struggle against anything tougher (especially hive guards thanks to their high durability). When it comes to shotguns in Helldivers 2, and just primary weapons in general, the Cookout is actually a reasonably good weapon for clearing packs of low tier bugs. The elephant in the room is the Breaker Incendiary. The Breaker Incendiary is an auto-shotgun with a much more impressive fire rate of 300. This means that it can spread fire a lot faster than the Cookout ever could.
The BI deals less damage per shot, but since you often just want to saturate an area in incendiary pellets this works out in its favor, making the gun more ammo efficient when it comes to setting multiple enemies on fire despite the lower pellet count (16). And even when you want to kill enemies directly, the BI has a DPS output of 1200 which is almost 3 times more than the Cookouts 426 DPS. This high damage output does wonders to keep players safe when bugs come too close for comfort, and can even give you a fighting chance against chargers. If that’s not enough, the BI also carries more total damage in its reserves (30k compared to the Cookouts 24k). Long story short, while the SG-451 Cookout is a solid weapon on its own, the potent mix of knock back and stagger is the only thing keeping it from becoming obsolete. When it comes to everything else, the Breaker Incendiary does a better job.
Verdict: A reasonably powerful shotgun designed to deal with large amounts of low-tier Terminids. Unless the fantasy of wielding a pump-action shotgun that fires incendiary ammo greatly appeals to you, it might be better to spend your hard-earned super credits to buy the Steeled Veterans premium war bond instead. That way, you can get the Breaker Incendiary and the Jar-5 Dominator, two of the best weapons in the game.
Unlocked: Page 1 of the Freedoms Flame premium war bond.
Total cost: 20 medals.
SG-225 Breaker
The SG-225 Breaker is a fully-automatic shotgun known for its impressive damage output. It holds 16 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 decent anti-bug weapon that performs well enough to be usable in high difficulties. It could use a buff to either mag size or ammo reserves.
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 in Helldivers 2 to be found in the free war bond. 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 horizontal 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 less damage than the base Breaker, it’s still a full auto shotgun capable of outputting 1320 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 a competent 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 shotgun got hit with a major nerf that saw its total damage reserves reduced from 42k to 30k. So unfortunately it went from a weapon that’s likely to run out of ammo during a bug breach on Super Helldive difficulty to one that’s almost guaranteed to run out of ammo. 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 4 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.
Even with the nerf, it’s still remains the #1 anti-bug weapon in the game, though you might want to bring a supply pack now.
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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