Fortnite Weapon Guide: Lever Action Shotgun Has Arrived

Right when it would have felt that there were enough shotguns Epic went ahead and dropped yet another one on us. So we've had a few days to play the lever action shotgun, and now it's available in competitive playlists. So the big question is if this new shotgun is of any worth in Fortnite. In this Fortnite Weapon Guide we will be taking a look at this new weapon how it stacks up in-game against the competition with tips on maximizing your damage and which playlist works best with the lever action.

Fortnite Lever Action Shotgun Weapon Guide:

Is It Any Good In-Game?

The best way to describe the lever action is that it's kind of like the tactical and pump shotguns had a baby. Basically it's similar to both and the official description says it deals high damage as a moderate fire rate with a short range and limited magazine size. That's pretty accurate but to be honest we personally wouldn't consider it high damage at least when compared to the charged shotgun at 100% power. However, its body shot damage is definitely better than a quick zero percent shot from the charge.

Which means it's excellent at getting in significant hits through a quick edit into a reset. Similar to how you would use the pump but another downside is that the lever action only has a headshot multiplier of 1.45. That means you can't one shot a 200 health player with it. It's going to take at least two shots or is swapped to a spray weapon to finish off opponents.

Does that make this weapon in Fortnite useless? The answer is no. The lever action shotgun is surprisingly balanced. It's not a purple or gold pump but compared to what's available this might be the go-to shotgun for a lot of players. It fires instantly making it great to use. Not only that, but it holds more ammo than a charge, and it deals more damage than attack. The only areas where the lever action shotgun really struggles in Fortnite are its range and its reload speed.

Where to Aim?

Since the lever action shotgun in Fortnite has a less than stellar headshot multiplier, where should you aim with it? There seems to be a lot of confusion about whether you should just go for headshots or only go for the body. It makes sense to go for the body since that's just how you use the dragon shotgun but the range on lever action isn't as lousy as the dragon. It's more similar to the tactical shotguns.

Which is why you generally want to aim at the neck. This allows you to connect a lot of pellets on the body and a few on the head which seems to net the highest possible damage. The only time that you want to aim entirely on your opponent's head is if you're on top of them at point-blank range in the same box where your crosshair can just fit over their noggin but at one or two tiles away or more. That's when aiming for the neck maximizes damage.