The double barrel shotgun, a videogame classic since 1994, is coming to Fortnite Battle Royale. Evidence of the new weapon was dug up yesterday by XDA dataminers, and confirmed earlier today in the game.
*POP* *POP**reload*Double barrel shotgun coming to #Fortnite! pic.twitter.com/mVWqY5zvxBAugust 6, 2018
A two-shot boomstick is a common break-action shotgun in Fortnite: Save the World, but it hasn't made an appearance in Battle Royale yet. Details of the Battle Royale weapon, beyond what's in the tweet—"New Epic and Legendary shotgun that can be fired twice in rapid succession"—haven't been revealed, but based on that description it will be a rather more rare and valuable weapon than its StW counterpart.
The shotgun could be Epic's attempt to bring back the 'double pump' tactic, where players would pick up two pump shotguns, fire one, and switch to the other instantly for some of the highest DPS in the game. It has since been patched out; a short delay was added when switching between pump shotguns. The double barrel's ability to fire two successive shots appears to perform a similar function in spirit, this time in the form of a single weapon for easy tweaking.
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The datamining that uncovered the shotgun also stumbled upon a "heavy sniper" rifle with a slow reload time that's capable of penetrating walls. That's pretty close to unofficial confirmation that the discovery of a wall-punching sniper rifle a couple of weeks ago was legit.
There's no word from Epic yet on when the new weapons will go live, but the 5.20 update is set to roll out tomorrow and I wouldn't be surprised to see them included.
