Shotgun/parts

Shotguns fall into two families, differentiated primarily by their magazines: combat shotguns and assault shotguns. Operationally, the two families strongly resemble one another. Combat shotguns have a lower rate of fire and a slightly higher degree of magnification when zoomed, while assault shotguns have a higher rate of fire, with fewer projectiles per shot. Other than magazines, the two families share most parts, though certain accessories or other parts are specific to one or the other.

Different parts will influence different attributes of the weapon.

A shotgun's name derives from the body, stock, and magazine parts present on the weapon.

Body
The body of a shotgun is usually easy to identify, since the model name declares it straightforwardly. Combat and assault shotguns share the same set of bodies.

Stock
The shotgun stock is completely specified within the weapon's model number, which is fortunate as the part is completely invisible in-game. Determining the stock on a Unique shotgun without a model number is challenging, typically requiring either access to the debug console or else performance comparisons with other shotguns. Combat and assault shotguns share the same set of stocks.

The stock affects both overall weapon stability (i.e., recoil reduction) and the reload speed.

Note that the weapon's model number is a function of both its stock model number (listed here) as well as its magazine model number.

Magazine
The magazine is specified within the weapon's model number. For unique weapons without a model number, they're mostly easily distinguished by the weapon's ammo capacity. Combat shotguns and assault shotguns use completely different magazines. Any sniper rifle with or  is an assault shotgun, while all others are combat shotguns.

Primarily, the magazine specifies the number of rounds of ammunition carried by the shotgun; beyond that, it influences weapon damage and reload speed.

Note that the weapon's model number is a function of both its magazine model number (listed here) as well as its stock model number.

Assault Shotguns
Assault shotguns will have different ammunition capacities depending on the manufacturer, the material grade, and the magazine part. Maliwan and Hyperion make assault shotguns with a baseline capacity of 5, while S&S weapons start at 7.

An assault shotgun magazine has no effect on the weapon beyond specifying its ammunition capacity.

Barrel
While shotgun barrels do not affect the weapon's model number, they are easy to distinguish visually from their overall length and the profile of the end of the barrel. Combat and assault shotguns share most of the same set of barrels, though one variant is specific to combat shotguns.

Barrels strongly affect the shotgun's damage and accuracy, and can influence recoil reduction and weapon tech level as well.

Sight
Shotgun sights are easily distinguished by the zoom statistic published on the weapon's gun card. They have little further effect on the weapon's attributes. Certain fighting styles may nevertheless favor certain sights, either for ease when firing from the hip or for improved peripheral-field visibility. Combat and assault shotguns share the same set of sights, though the greater zoomed FOV of combat shotguns gives them a lower zoom statistic (counterintuitively) on their item card.

The weapon's published zoom statistic may include other factors, such as the manufacturer and material grade (e.g., Jakobs material 2 "ZZ"). The following table summarizes zooms for weapons with no other such modifiers present.

Accessory
Unlike other parts, the accessory part does not have a consistent effect on a weapon's attributes: some accessories boost tech, some alter recoil, some speed rate of fire. Some accessories grant a special property to the weapon, Elemental Damage, beyond mere attribute modification; furthermore, almost all accessories make their weapon eligible for a special name prefix describing the weapon's altered behavior, such as "Terrible."

Most accessories are easy to differentiate visually. They always appear immediately to the left of the receiver.

An accessory may or may not be present on any given shotgun, and no more than a single accessory may be present, which is why the game will never spawn a legendary Raging Crux (e.g.).

While the elemental accessories are common to both families of shotguns, the rest are specific to one or the other.

Elemental accessories
There are four different elemental accessories, ,, , and , corresponding to the four different varieties of Elemental Damage. Each glow in the color corresponding to their element, making them easily identifiable. Elemental accessories grant shots fired from the shotgun elemental properties, imposing a -40% damage penalty in exchange, and grant an increase to the weapon's overall tech level.

The accessories of the legendary Plague, Friendly Fire, Crux, and Hammer each resemble an ordinary elemental accessory. However, Plague and Friendly Fire only appear on combat shotguns, while Crux and Hammer only appear on assault shotguns.

The Incendiary accessory will never spawn on an assault shotgun.

A shotgun with an elemental accessory is eligible for various elemental prefixes, depending on the weapon's element and net tech level.

Jagged accessory
The melee accessory

Spiked accessory
The melee accessory

No accessory
The part serves as a placeholder for a weapon with conventional behavior, nothing more. A shotgun with this non-part will have no accessory visible beside the receiver.

Naming
Other than unique drops, a shotgun name consists of the name of its body, a model number comprising stock and magazine, a possible manufacturer-specific material code, a prefix derived from its attributes or accessory, and a title.

Since the two families of shotgun use different magazines with non-overlapping model codes, they are distinguishable by name.

Body name
The first element of the shotgun name is the name of its body part. To recap:

Model number
The model number consists of the sum of the number codes for the weapon's stock and magazine. Weapons with both a stock (i.e., any stock part other than ) and a quality magazine (any magazine other than or ) have this model number further multiplied by 10, denoting their premium quality.

The magazine of the legendary Bulldog has the same code as its base part, 90. Hence Bulldogs are distinguishable only by their title "Bulldog."

Material code
Material codes are common to all weapons. See Material Grade for more info.

Prefix
The prefix is determined either by the weapon's overall attributes, its accessory, or possibly its material grade. Attribute prefixes may further bias the weapon's attributes.

Title
The title is determined either from the weapon's overall attributes, its accessory, or a legendary part. If the weapon does not qualify for any of these, its title defaults to "Shotgun."

Other resources

 * The Gearcalc tool, whose mechanics research made the precise data on this page possible
 * For an alternate specification of every sniper rifle part's contribution to the whole, see http://blmodding.wikidot.com/combat-shotgun and http://blmodding.wikidot.com/assault-shotgun
 * Part Spotter's Guide presents visuals of every part