🔫 ASSAULT SHOTGUN

Overview

The Assault Shotgun is GTA 6's most terrifying close-quarters weapon — a fully automatic 12-gauge combat shotgun that fires as fast as you can pull the trigger, delivering a wall of buckshot that shreds enemies, vehicles, and environmental objects within its effective range. Based on military automatic shotgun designs like the AA-12, the Assault Shotgun eliminates the pump-action delay that makes traditional shotguns vulnerable between shots, creating a weapon that functions as a room-clearing instrument of pure devastation. Each pull of the trigger releases eight 00-buckshot pellets that spread in a cone pattern, and the automatic action allows follow-up shots at 300 RPM — meaning a full 8-round magazine dumps 64 pellets downrange in approximately 1.6 seconds. The result is a weapon that kills reliably at close range regardless of aim precision — the spread pattern compensates for poor accuracy, making the Assault Shotgun the great equalizer for players who struggle with precision gunplay. The devastating cost is range: beyond 15 meters, pellet spread disperses damage to non-lethal levels, and beyond 25 meters, the weapon is essentially ineffective. The Assault Shotgun is a specialist tool — overwhelming in its niche, useless outside it.

Damage & Stats

The Assault Shotgun's damage model operates on a per-pellet basis. Each of the 8 pellets deals 12 damage, for a theoretical maximum of 96 damage per shot if all pellets connect — enough to kill any unarmored enemy and most armored enemies in a single trigger pull at point-blank range. Practical damage depends heavily on range: at 5 meters, approximately 6-7 pellets hit a human-sized target (72-84 damage); at 10 meters, 4-5 pellets connect (48-60 damage); at 15 meters, only 2-3 pellets find the target (24-36 damage). The fire rate of 300 RPM allows rapid follow-up shots that compensate for per-shot inconsistency — two shots at 10 meters virtually guarantee a kill. The 8-round box magazine is the weapon's critical limitation; reloading takes 3.2 seconds as the entire magazine is swapped rather than individual shells loaded. Recoil per shot is manageable due to the gas-operated action absorbing energy, but the automatic fire rate means sustained firing climbs significantly over the full magazine. The weapon has no headshot multiplier — shotgun pellets deal flat damage regardless of hit location, making body shots equally effective as headshots.

Tactical Analysis

The Assault Shotgun demands a specific combat philosophy: close the distance, overwhelm with volume, retreat to reload. The weapon is the ultimate breaching tool for missions requiring room-by-room clearing — kicking open a door and dumping three rounds into a room eliminates every threat within before they can react. The automatic fire eliminates the pump-action vulnerability window that makes traditional shotguns risky against multiple enemies — you can engage two or three targets in the time a Pump Shotgun fires once. Against vehicles, the Assault Shotgun's concentrated pellet mass at close range destroys tires, shatters windshields, and can kill drivers through car doors at 5 meters. The weapon is particularly effective in the tight interiors that define many GTA 6 missions — hallways, offices, nightclubs, warehouses, and ship compartments where engagement ranges rarely exceed 10 meters. The critical tactical discipline is range management: never engage targets beyond 15 meters, and always have a fallback weapon (an SMG or pistol) for medium-range transitions. The 8-round magazine demands awareness — count your shots and reload behind cover, never in the open.

Attachments & Mods

The Assault Shotgun supports five attachment slots. Optics: Laser sight (hip-fire accuracy improvement — the most useful optic for a shotgun, as ADS slows movement in CQB), red dot sight (marginal improvement for a spread weapon), or flashlight (illuminates dark interiors — surprisingly useful for nighttime missions). The laser sight is the clear recommendation. Muzzle: Choke (tightens pellet spread by 20%, extending effective range to approximately 18 meters — the single most impactful attachment), duckbill (widens spread horizontally for hallway clearing at the cost of range). Magazine: Extended magazine (12 rounds — a 50% increase that dramatically improves sustained-fire capability), drum magazine (20 rounds — transforms the weapon into a sustained-fire nightmare but doubles reload time). Grip: Vertical foregrip (recoil reduction during automatic fire), pistol grip (faster weapon swap speed). Ammunition: Slug rounds (replaces buckshot with a single projectile — dramatically increases range and per-hit damage at the cost of the spread advantage), flechette rounds (armor-piercing needles that penetrate body armor more effectively).

Best Situations

The Assault Shotgun is the optimal weapon for: building interiors with room-to-room combat (warehouses, compounds, office buildings), vehicle boarding operations (approaching alongside a car and firing through the window), nightclub and bar fight scenarios where civilian density prevents precision shooting, and defensive positions where enemies must approach through doorways or corridors. It's the best weapon for the panic moments — when an enemy appears unexpectedly at close range and reaction time matters more than accuracy. The Assault Shotgun is the wrong weapon for: any outdoor engagement beyond 15 meters, missions requiring stealth (no suppressor option), sniper-dominated environments, and ammunition-scarce scenarios where the 8-round magazine burns through reserves quickly. The weapon pairs best with a medium-range backup — carry an assault rifle or SMG to cover the ranges the shotgun cannot reach.

How to Obtain

Purchase: Available at Ammu-Nation after completing Act 2's opening missions for $12,500 — one of the more expensive weapons, reflecting its devastating capability. Attachments range from $750 to $3,000. Free acquisition: Found in the weapons cache during The Art Heist mission and frequently dropped by NOOSE tactical teams during 4-5 star wanted levels. The Port Gellhorn warehouse contains one in a locked weapons crate. Upgraded variant: The "Tactical Assault Shotgun" (pre-attached choke, laser sight, and extended magazine) is available from the underground gun store for $18,000. Mission reward: A gold-plated cosmetic variant is rewarded for completing all Fight Night challenges.

GTA Series History

The Assault Shotgun debuted in GTA IV's The Ballad of Gay Tony as one of the expansion's signature additions — a weapon that immediately became a community favorite for its devastating automatic fire in a franchise where shotguns had previously been slow, pump-action affairs. GTA V retained the weapon as a mid-game unlock with Ammu-Nation customization, establishing the standard for automatic shotgun performance. GTA Online expanded the category with variants like the Sweeper Shotgun but the original Assault Shotgun remained the gold standard for close-quarters devastation. GTA 6's version refines the formula with improved pellet physics (individual pellet trajectories rather than a unified cone), the new ammunition type system (slug and flechette rounds), and attachment options that allow meaningful range extension through the choke modification. The weapon maintains its franchise identity as the close-range equalizer — the weapon that turns any player into a lethal threat within 15 meters regardless of their shooting skill level.

The Assault Shotgun's semi-automatic action eliminates the pump-action delay of conventional shotguns — each trigger pull fires immediately without a cycling animation, producing a fire rate approximately three times faster than the Pump Shotgun. This sustained rate of fire, combined with the detachable box magazine (8 rounds standard, 12 with extended magazine), allows the Assault Shotgun to clear rooms with continuous fire that keeps enemies staggered and unable to return effective shots.

The weapon's gas-operated mechanism is more sensitive to environmental conditions than pump-action alternatives — sand, mud, and submersion can cause cycling failures that jam the weapon mid-fight. This reliability trade-off means the Assault Shotgun excels in urban environments but requires maintenance attention in the rural and swamp areas of Leonida where environmental contamination is more likely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated April 25, 2026. For the full database, visit our Weapons Wiki Database.