The Combat Shotgun is my favorite shotgun in Call of Duty: Vanguard. Unlike the Einhorn Revolving Shotgun, this one is excellent in both close and mid-range engagements, and to be fair, if you’re accurate with your shots, your opponents don’t stand a chance.
It is a one-shot kill from point-blank even if you haven’t made use of any of the weapon-enhancing attachments. When it comes to medium-range, if you want to make your shotgun just as lethal, it’s worth adding a 1.5x optic and attachments to tighten the spread of the pellets fired.
The shotgun itself reloads relatively fast and the fire rate isn’t bad at all. The TTK when you need to fire two shots out of the Combat Shotgun is nearly the same as that of a standard SMG.
With that aside, in close range, you hardly need to aim. I just played a game now and hardly used the scope. Bear in mind that aiming through the scope is particularly necessary and very useful in long-range encounters.
One thing I really don’t like about it is that it takes so much space on the screen when you sprint. You virtually can’t see anything on your right-hand side. If you’re lucky enough to be on PC or a next-gen console, you can adjust the FOV to make up for it.
Either way, after playing around, I’d like to show you the best Combat Shotgun class setup in Call of Duty: Vanguard. It’s a great short and medium range. The reload time is great and so is the sprint to fire, which is ever so important for shotguns.
Best Combat Shotgun Attachments
If you’ve maxed out the Combat Shotgun and have access to all the attachments, then that’s brilliant news. You can simply apply the attachments from the bullet points below and make yourself a loadout that will be super enjoyable to play with – to say the least.
- Muzzle: M97 Full Choke
- Barrel: Sawed-Off
- Optic: Slate Reflector
- Stock: CGC 2M Wire
- Unberbarrel: Mark VI Skeletal
- Magazine: 12 Gauge 5 Round Tube
- Magazine Type: Incendiary
- Rear Grip: Leather Grip
- Profficiency: Sleight of Hand
- Kit: Quick
Continue reading further if you’re interested in finding out why I picked each of the attachments that I recommended and some alternatives that you can make to adapt your Combat Shotgun to different styles of play.
Muzzle – M97 Full Choke
Over the years, I’ve found that shotguns with tighter pellet spread tend to be better, especially for players that can aim and are accurate. This means that when you fire at someone nearby, the pellets from the bullet will be directed more precisely to the direction of where you’re aiming.
It’s perfect for longer-range engagements and point-blank encounters. The great thing about this muzzle is that there are no downsides to it and that it is first on the list of muzzle attachments, meaning you can unlock it just after a few games.
Potential Alternative: If you’re looking for more accuracy, go with the SUHL 16 Brake, which you will unlock at weapon level 60. If you’re after more recoil control, go for G28 Compensator, and last but not least, if you want to increase the spread of the pellets as opposed to tightening them, go for the A5 Smoothbore. The latter would be best if you just want to run and gun opponents in close range.
Barrel – Sawed-Off
For barrel, I went for the “Sawed-Off”. It’s personally my favorite barrel attachment because it increases my movement speed by quite a decent amount. One thing to note is that it does reduce your weapon’s accuracy by quite a significant amount but since most maps on Vanguard are relatively tight-spaced, it’s not going to be big of a deal for me.
Potential Alternative: If you’d like to focus on making your shotgun more controllable while increasing your headshot damage and bullet velocity & range, then you would benefit from going for the Framble 18″ Precision barrel more. Do note that this one reduces body damage, your sprint to fire speed, and your overall movement speed.
Optic – Slate Reflector
When it comes to optics, I honestly prefer this shotgun with just the default optic. But, for the sake of this article, if I were to pick an optic, it would be the Slate Reflector. This optic magnifies the field of view by 1.35x and makes you a little more precise in long-range.
Though you need to reach level 41 with the Combat Shotgun to unlock the Slate Reflector, the great thing about this optic is that there are no downsides to using it. Thanks to its sleek and minimalistic design, aiming down the sight isn’t slowed down and isn’t super disruptive to your gameplay.
Stock – CGC 2M Wire
For stock, my attachment of choice is the CGC 2M Wire, which boosts my sprint to fire speed and movement speed by two and one points respectively. Though you’ll see a decrease in initial accuracy and recoil, the upside of this attachment is much greater and is definitely worth it.
Underbarrel – Mark VI Skeletal
As I’ve already mentioned a few times throughout this article, the aim down sight speed of this weapon has a huge impact on how lethal the shotgun will become. The faster you are at aiming, the quicker you can pull the trigger and rid of your enemy.
For that reason, I went for the Mark VI Skeletal underbarrel, which will boost your aim down sight speed by one point. There are no cons to this attachment.
Potential Alternative: If you aren’t looking at using your optic much and would much rather just point and shoot, you’d benefit from going with the M1915 Steady underbarrel. This attachment will increase your hip fire accuracy by a single point. There are no drawbacks to it.
Magazine – 12 Gauge 5 Round Tube
The 12 Gauge 5 Round Tube makes the most sense of our all other magazine attachments. Though you need weapon level 69 for this attachment, it’s worth it. You’ll see a boost in bullet velocity and range, bullet penetration, and damage range, which are all super important for making the Combat Shotgun effective in mid-range combats.
On the downside, you’ll see a reduction in movement speed, fire rate, and recoil control & accuracy. It’s worth mentioning that any of the other three are much worse when you put the pros against the cons.
Potential Alternative: The only magazine alternative that I would consider would be not having a magazine attachment at all.
Magazine Type – Incendiary
My pick of ammo type would be the incendiary. These rounds burn as they travel and upon impact, they will deal a small but decent amount of damage to the opponent. It just makes your shotgun more powerful than it already is.
On the downside, you’ll see a reduction in bullet velocity and damage range, which isn’t that drastic anyway.
Potential Alternative: As a viable alternative, I would opt for the “Hollow Point”. This type of ammo is specially shaped to increase limb damage to your opponents. The cons of it are a decrease of damage range by two points.
Rear Grip – Leather Grip
Another big problem that I faced when playing with this shotgun is the aim down sight speed. It was decent but not quick enough, which led to my death a couple of times. The “Leather Grip” rear grip solves that problem very effectively. The great thing about it is that it doesn’t have any drawbacks to your overall Combat Shotgun loadout.
Potential Alternative: A one up from the “Leather Grip”, provided you want to sacrifice accuracy by one point is the “Fabric Grip”. This attachment will boost your aim down sight speed, sprint to fire speed, and hip fire recoil recovery by one point. It also only requires weapon level 40 as opposed to 59.
Proficiency – Sleight of Hand
While playing around and doing all the in-game testing of the various attachments for the Combat Shotgun, I noticed how quickly I was running out of bullets. I would eliminate two or three players, and then I would have to reload, which is quick but not quick enough. For that reason, you’ll benefit a lot from the sleight of hand proficiency.
Potential Alternative: If you’re happy with the reloading speed of your Combat Shotgun, you could opt-in for the “Momentum” proficiency instead. This one will boost your movement speed after a kill, meaning you can quickly get on your feet, flee the area, and sprint towards your next target.
Kit – Quick
Speed and mobility are very important for me when it comes to playing with a shotgun loadout. I want to be able to not only catch up to my enemies (if I am following someone) but also escape tight spaces quickly and hopefully survive if I am getting shot from further away. For that reason, I went with the “Quick” kit.
Potential Alternative: An alternative upgrade can be “Fully Loaded” as that will give you the maximum amount of bullets to start off with. It’s handy if you’re playing passively and don’t expect to be eliminated after two or three eliminations.
Final Thoughts
The Combat Shotgun is great. Having played with a number of shotguns over the years, I can confidently say that this is my favorite one. It’s powerful, has minimal TTK (time to kill), and you can move rather quickly with it.
However, if you’re yet to unlock all of the attachments or are completely new to using the Combat Shotgun, I’d recommend you to use it as it is without any attachments. I tried to make use of some of the starter attachments when my gun was a lower level but those just ruined it for me. Focus on leveling up the weapon as much as you can or just use the default one.
