Highlights
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege has a variety of shotguns, each with unique characteristics and benefits for close-quarters combat and breaching rooms.
- Shotguns in Siege offer high damage per shot, making them extremely powerful at close range despite their shorter range and lower rate of fire compared to other weapons.
- The selection of shotguns in the game provides a diverse range of options for different playstyles, allowing players to choose a shotgun that suits their preferences and the operator they are using.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege is one of the most popular tactical FPS games in recent memory. With gameplay heavily centered around close-quarters combat and breaching rooms, few games better suit the use of shotguns than Siege. Despite often having a shorter range and lower rate of fire than many alternative weapons, none do more damage per shot than these powerful close-range weapons.
With a versatile range of weapons across several different operators both attacking and defensive, there is sure to be a shotgun to suit any playstyle, whether for taking out targets or breaching rooms themselves.
8 SuperNova
The Benelli SuperNova is a pump action shotgun available to the operators Hibana, Echo, and Amaru. Despite having a relatively slow pump rate when compared with other shotguns, the SuperNova provides a lot of power with roughly 48 damage per pellet and a decent range before this begins to drop off.
One of the main advantages of this shotgun over many other weapons in the game is the ability to silence it with zero negative effects to damage or range. The fact that it can be equipped by various operators also makes it one of the most diverse shotguns available.
7 Super 90
The Super 90, also known as the Benelli M3, is a compact shotgun available for the Canadian defensive operator, Frost. Functioning as both a pump-action and semi-automatic shotgun, the Super 90 is widely regarded as a "kill machine" and coupled with such a popular and capable operator, makes it a great choice for newer players seeking to experiment with shotgun play.
The Italian-made weapon has a base damage output of 35, which means it should not take more than a couple of shots to down even a heavily armored enemy operator. Recently, the shotgun has also been made available for South African operator Melusi.
6 SIX12
The SIX12 is a semi-automatic shotgun available for the operators Ying, Lesion, and Nokk. Despite its relatively slow rate of fire for a semi-automatic shotgun, the SIX12 and SIX12 SD variants unleash a powerful blast of eight pellets per shot, and catching an opponent cleanly from anywhere in a close-to-mid range is likely to kill them.
This shotgun also boasts the fastest reload time out of any available shotgun, the only drawback being the weapon's strong recoil and slow fire rate. The SD variant also features an integrated suppressor, but this is only available for Nokk.
5 SASG-12
The SASG-12 is a Russian-made semi-automatic 12-Gauge shotgun available for Kapkan, Finka, and Fenrir. This powerful weapon has a great balance of a high fire rate and magazine capacity combined with the power to rip both enemy targets and the surrounding environment to shreds at a moment's notice.
The SASG-12 has one of the highest damage outputs of any weapon at 50, and it also has a handily fast reload time thanks to its magazine-fed mechanism. The only downside to the SASG-12 is a fair amount of recoil and a very steep drop-off in damage once opponents have exited close range.
4 SPAS-15
The SPAS-15 is the successor to the popular SPAS-12 model and is available for the operators Caveira and Thunderbird. This semi-automatic shotgun has a very high rate of fire and is effective for much longer ranges than many of its counterparts, despite its weaker base damage.
The downside to the SPAS-15 is its low ammo capacity, holding just 6 shots per magazine, which can quickly disappear due to the gun's rapid firing. With that said, the fast output and quick reload time make this a great weapon, particularly for the fast-moving Caveira.
3 M590A1
The M590A1 is a pump action shotgun available to the operators Sledge, Thatcher, Smoke, Mute, and Warden. Considered to be a "jack-of-all-trades" this weapon is equally adept at blasting through obstacles and doors as it is taking out enemies at close range.
Provided that the player has a decent sidearm equipped, this weapon can act as a powerful breaching tool without compromising too much on medium-range damage. The only downside to the M590A1 is its low reserve ammunition, which players must keep note of before expending their ammo too quickly.
2 Skeleton Key
The Skeleton Key is a unique under-barrel weapon that is only available as a gadget to the operator Buck. This 12-Gauge shotgun is just as good as any other in the game and can be used for the purposes of eliminating enemies at close range or destroying walls and doors to create entry points alike.
What makes this weapon special is the fact that it does not take up an entire primary weapon slot, but can be switched back and forth by Buck along with his primary assault rifle. The downside of the Skeleton Key relative to other shotguns, however, is its reload time and ammo capacity.
1 FO-12
The FO-12 is a semi-automatic, mag-fed shotgun that was released as part of the Operation Orchid Expansion for the operator Ela. Widely considered to be the best shotgun in the game, this weapon combines a high ammo capacity with a fast rate of fire and powerful damage with each shot.
With a range of versatile attachments and a good range, before damage begins to decrease, the only downside to this shotgun is its heavy recoil, which can be unsettling for players who are not used to it.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.