Blue pump shotgun now in Fortnite, but what is it and why is it here?

Thursday is becoming designated Fortnite day with the weekly patch releases and unlocks of the new weekly challenges, but this week, a very interesting thing has been introduced to the game: Blue pump shotguns. “The green pump shotgun was overpowered! They added the heavy shotgun last week! We don’t need more powerful shotguns!” we hear you cry. But, it’s not quite as simple as that. Let us explain.

Prior to this patch, the pump shotgun was available in the common (white), and uncommon (green) variants, while its not-so-powerful brother was found in uncommon, rare (blue) and epic (purple) rarities. This made the green pump incredibly easy to find, and even though the infamous ‘double pump’ strategy is no longer possible, it was easy to find and almost as easy to blast someone in the face for 220 damage. Compare that to the epic tactical shotgun, and it was a simple choice for which one was the much better weapon, despite being two tiers below in rarity.

Patch v3.4 has altered the rarities for both the pump and the tactical shotgun. The tactical can now be found as a common, uncommon or rare weapon, while the pump is now uncommon or rare. The damage and stats for each of the weapons hasn’t changed; the tactical is simply now easier to find, while the pump is more difficult. Epic has likely implemented this change to try and balance the shotguns even further now that the heavy shotgun has been out for a week and can be found in epic and legendary (orange) variants.

But how does it compare stats-wise to the other shotguns in the game? Both variants of the pump are still dominant in terms of damage with 90 and 95 for the uncommon and rare types respectively, while the tactical still falls short with 67, 70 and 74 instant damage for each rarity ascending. The heavy shotgun on the other hand is still surpassed by the pump for damage, dealing only 73.5 and 77 for the epic and legendary types, but it’s important to remember it can fire once per second, while the pump can only shoot 0.7 times per second. Combine that with the extended range on the heavy shotgun and the reduced reload time to 5.6 seconds on the legendary variant, and the heavy can compete toe-to-toe with the now-blue pump in terms of power level. It all depends on whether your preference is getting up close and personal with one swift blow to the head, or firing a couple of rounds from the heavy from range.

That’s all there is to it. It’s not a new weapon, the green pump just decided on an identity change. Elsewhere in Fortnite news today, we have a guide to complete the challenges this week, we’ve summarised the important changes in the new patch, and we’ve had a look at some upcoming skins.

(Header image courtesy of SirCheeks on YouTube)