Shotguns

Shotguns are your secondary weapons, used for close-range combat. Always be ready to switch to your shotgun quickly if you get into a short-range fight. The same applies when someone rushes you, and you know he or she will get close before you can down him or her with your rifle.

Understand that Gears multiplayer is as much about close-range brawls as it is medium-range firefights. You can’t keep your distance at all times, so you must learn to recognize when to bring out your shotgun and get into the close-quarters combat.

Gnasher

> A powerful all-around shotgun, the Gnasher excels at close range. It also has enough accuracy to deal solid damage when you hipfire it, and can even punish targets at close-medium range when you aim it.

Weapon Profile

The Gnasher has a good ammo load, solid accuracy, and lethal damage at close range. As a rule, the Gnasher should be your go-to shotgun for close-range combat. It has more ammo, a faster reload, and better range than the Sawed-Off Shotgun. These are important attributes for a weapon to hold its own in a lengthy firefight.

On the other hand, the Gnasher is a skill-intensive weapon. You can expect to get slapped around a bit in online Gnasher duels if you lack Gnasher experience. Don’t dismay; a bit of practice, and you can tear it up with the best of them.

Rather than simply aiming at a target at short range and expecting the foe to fall over in a single shot, plan for multiple aimed shots to down a target. Consequently, your movement skills are just as important as your aim when you use the Gnasher, if not more so. You must be able to use nearby cover and evasive movement to dodge incoming fire, simultaneously keeping a bead on your target and continually unloading shots.

Exploit the Gnasher’s range…it’s absolutely possible to down a target at distances out to close-medium, even from behind cover. Do it! Here are a few pointers:

• Hipfire instead of aiming. Losing movement speed is the last thing you want to do. Save your aimed shots for last-second finishers after you weaken your target, or if they try to run.
• Wall bouncing is very useful in Gnasher duels, but don’t try to mix it into combat until you’re very comfortable with movement tricks. Use it to slide toward a wall and cancel at the last second to make yourself a very difficult target.
• Be careful about rolling in the open. Experienced players know exactly how far and how fast a roll goes, and they’ll be waiting for you with a shotgun blast to the head.
• Aim slightly high when you’re close…headshots are lethal.

Sawed-Off Shotgun

> The Sawed-Off Shotgun is a powerful firearm that’s instantly lethal at ultra-close range, and it can insta-kill more than one target at once!

Weapon Profile

Devastatingly powerful, the Sawed-Off Shotgun is the final word in close-quarters combat. It’s ideal for defending against shotgun rushers. Take the Hammerburst or the Lancer and hang back, using the Sawed-Off Shotgun to defend yourself when overzealous rushers try to assault your position from cover or a flank.

On offense, the Sawed-Off Shotgun is slightly less useful than the Gnasher. Its limited ammunition and lengthy reload time are liabilities when you try to engage in a lengthy firefight or face multiple enemies. The necessity of reaching melee range forces you into dangerous situations…not a good recipe for a long life.

The Sawed-Off Shotgun instantly gibs an opponent if you hit dead on. It downs them if you’re slightly off target or at a short distance. You can even kill more than one enemy at close range! Outside of melee range, don’t expect anything. If you’re lucky, you can inflict enough damage to down foes with a melee strike, but you’re usually better off quickly retreating while you reload.

The Sawed-Off Shotgun is extremely dangerous in combination with a mantle kick. Stunning an opponent for a second is all you need for an instantly fatal pointblank shot. Keep an eye out for opportunities to use this combo.

Don’t bother aiming with the Sawed-Off Shotgun, as the spread is enormously large. Plus, the loss of mobility from aiming is the last thing you want as you try to get into range to deliver your payload.