Shotgun

Lore & Background

XCOM's standard doctrine favours engagement at range. Rifles, shotguns aside, are the backbone of a squad's firepower because most alien encounters unfold in open corridors or across a tile grid where distance can be maintained. The Shotgun exists for the doctrine's failure state: the moment a Sectoid lunges from a doorway, a Muton rounds a corner, or a squad is pinned in a narrow alien-base hallway where there is simply no room to aim a rifle. In the fiction of the series, the Shotgun is a standard-issue military primary weapon, the kind of brutal, over-penetrating tool that a soldier grabs when the fight has collapsed to inches.

It is not a precision instrument; it is a volume-of-lead instrument. At one tile, the spread is irrelevant because the target fills the entire frame. In XCOM 2, the Shotgun is a primary weapon that does not prevent equipping a secondary weapon (e.g., pistol or grenade launcher), allowing soldiers to maintain versatility even at close quarters. In tight XCOM 2 base interiors and the cramped corridors of alien facilities, that combination of close-range lethality makes the Shotgun a specialist's tool rather than a generalist's default.

Reader's Guide

SPEC: Shotgun Class: Close-range firearm | Hands: One | Range: 1–2 tiles Damage: High at 1 tile, reduced at 2 tiles. No spread penalty at point blank. Obtained: Researched in the Weapons lab. In XCOM: EU it is an early-to-mid research slot; in XCOM 2 it is available through the standard weapons research track.

It is not an alien-tech exclusive—this is a human-made weapon. Tech tree position: Sits in the Weapons research column, generally before or alongside mid-tier rifle upgrades. It does not gate behind alien-tech salvage, making it accessible to squads that have not yet cracked an alien weapon blueprint. Class suitability: Best on soldiers who will operate in tight corridors, base interiors, or flanking positions where range is inherently short.

Pairs well with a one-handed secondary (pistol, SMG, or melee) in the off-hand. Less ideal on soldiers whose role is sustained mid-range suppression. Tactical niche: The Shotgun is a burst-damage tool. Use it on the tile where the encounter collapses to close quarters—doorways, narrow alien-base halls, the moment a Muton charges.

It is not a replacement for your rifle; it is the weapon you switch to when the rifle's range advantage no longer exists. In a squad loadout, one Shotgun-carrying soldier covers the close-range gap that every other weapon leaves open.

Did You Know?

• In XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within, the Shotgun has a range of 1-2 tiles, with a point-blank damage bonus at 1 tile; in XCOM 2, its range extends to 1-3 tiles.
• In tight alien-base corridors where multiple enemies can occupy adjacent tiles, a Shotgun's close-range burst makes it disproportionately effective compared to a rifle's single-target focus.