A Shotgun is a ranged weapon used by both police officers and criminals in 112 Operator. Twice as expensive as the default Handgun, the Shotgun is a highly-inaccurate weapon with a low rate of fire whose primary advantage is a huge damage value. This guarantees neutralizing a target within 2 hits at the most, and with a very high chance of injuring them with the very first hit.
Description[]
"The long gun that fires a lot of small metal bullets. Most effective at close range and with high firepower."
Overview[]
The Shotgun can be used by both police officers and criminals, having somewhat different behavior in each case.
Police Weapon[]
The Shotgun becomes unlocked for police officers partway into a career, scenario, or freeplay game, often together with the Rifle. It can only be added to a police gear set, and goes only in the Ranged Weapon slot.
The Shotgun is a ranged weapon with a 6m range. The officer will approach to that range unless the target does so first.
The Shotgun has a firing rate of 15, attacking once per 15 seconds of real time (on SLOW game-speed). This makes it one of the slower weapons available.
The weapon itself has an Accuracy rating of only 20%. In other words, the chance to hit the target with each attack is equal to one fifth of the officer's own Accuracy skill. For example, an officer with 80% Accuracy only has a 16% chance to hit the target with each attack of the Shotgun. Coupled with the weapon's slow firing rate, it is a serious downside of this weapon. As such, it should be equipped on officers with the highest Accuracy skill you can muster.
The mitigating factor is that the Shotgun has a damage rating of 1.0. This practically guarantees that it will injure the opponent with the very first hit - instantly taking them out of the fight and requiring them to be treated and transported to hospital. If, somehow, the first hit did not neutralize the suspect immediately, the second hit always will. Getting those hits in, however, is the tricky part.
Shotguns are good for taking one person out of the fight early on - if they can hit at all. The low accuracy and speed make this weapon almost useless in prolonged fights, compared to others. The price tag of €4,000 also makes it a little expensive, though not nearly as much as a Rifle or Sniper Rifle. An officer carrying a Shotgun should be highly armored, to reduce the chance of them getting hurt by return-fire as they reload their weapon. Optimally, they should be paired with other officers carrying faster weapons, and provided with a pacifying Melee Weapon as their secondary, to deal with any suspects who get too close. Overall, the Shotgun is a risky pick, but can occasionally resolve firefights very quickly, with some luck.
Criminal Weapon[]
Criminals are also allowed to carry Shotguns, but they are quite rare: only the most hardened criminals such as robbers, mob soldiers and terrorists, have any chance of carrying them.
The Shotgun has the same basic properties when used by a Criminal, but its application is somewhat different. For one, criminals may not carry two weapons simultaneously, and cannot boost the gun's properties using accessories, like officers can. This gives the officers a potential advantage in combat.
Furthermore, both the Shotgun's chance to hit, and its chance to injure the target, can be reduced by bonuses given to the officer through personal armor or vehicle armor. A Protection bonus makes the officer harder to hit, while the Damage Reduction bonus increases the number of times they can get hit before injury is guaranteed. However, the shotgun's damage value is so high that it practically ignores the latter.
All in all, fighting against a shotgun-wielding criminal is very dangerous, but if they happen to miss their first shot (which will usually be the case) they can easily be taken down by officers with nothing more than Handguns. It's that first shot that is exceptionally dangerous, however - often taking out an officer instantly.
Note that police officers will never surrender to Criminals; either they get injured (or killed), or they keep fighting until all criminals are neutralized.
Availability[]
Available in the base game of 112 Operator.