The best Warzone shotguns for power, speed, and mobility

Guide by Josh Broadwell Contributor

Published on June 18, 2021

Warzone shotguns might not be the most popular weapons on the battlefield, but there’s no denying their uses. Long-range kills from sniper rifles are only good if you can keep distance between yourself and your enemies. When that fails, the shotgun is your best friend.

The future Warzone time to kill (TTK) update could significantly change what makes for the best Warzone shotgun. For now, we’ve picked out the fastest and strongest shotguns to make short work of your foes.

For more on Warzone, check out our best Warzone loadouts page.

Best Warzone shotgun

The Jak-12 is still the best Warzone shotgun, even after being nerfed in recent updates. Jak-12 is fully automatic with an impressive rate of fire and short TTK. In normal speak, that means you can fire a lot of shots at once, and it won’t take many to down an enemy.

It’s big weakness is range. While you could make a Jak-12 loadout to augment that, your best bet is increasing its hipfire accuracy. Jak-12’s automatic rate and high power means is a shotgun for running in fast and taking down as many enemies as possible.

How to unlock Jak-12 in Warzone

You’ll need to score three hipfire kills across seven separate matches to unlock Jak-12.

Best Jak-12 Attachments

Our Jak-12 loadout fixes the range issue and gives you a deadly boost in speed and sprint fire.

Best Jak-12 Attachments
Attachment type	Name
Barrel	ZLR J-3600 Torrent
Muzzle	FORGE TAC Marauder
Laser	5mW Laser
Rear Grip	Stippled Grip Tap
Ammo	20 Round Drum Mags

Best Warzone shotgun for fire rate

The crown for best shotty is often shared between Origin and Jak12 for good reason. Origin lacks in fire rate and raw power compared to Jak12, but it makes up for that with a few key strengths. For one, it boasts a bigger magazine.

It might not hit as hard — especially not at very close range, after 2020’s Origin nerf — but it basically never stops firing. When it does, you’ll find Origin reloads a bit faster than Jak12 as well. Like most shotguns, you don’t really want to waste time with ADS. Focus on improving the spread to deal more damage instead.

How to unlock Origin in Warzone

The only trouble with Origin is that it won’t unlock until level 31, so it’ll take a while to get this one.

Best Origin Attachments

This loadout reduces ADS speed, but makes up for that with better pellet spread and mobility.

Best Origin Attachments
Attachment type	Name
Barrel	FORGE TAC Impaler
Muzzle	Choke
Ammo	25 Round Drum Mags
Stock	No stock
Laser	5mW Laser

Best Warzone shotgun for mobility

Raven might have issued a Streetsweeper nerf in Season 4, but it's still one of the game's best shotguns. The Streetsweeper is another fully automatic shotgun with intense power, but only at close range thanks to that nerf reducing effective damage range.

Still, it ranks high in mobility compared to its competitors, which means you can dash in and clear a room at close range without having to worry about setting up shots. That's a good thing, since the Streetsweeper's reload time is pretty long.

How to unlock Streetsweeper in Warzone

Unlocking the Streetsweeper involves a bit of work. You'll need to get three shotgun kills without dying in 15 different matches. You can also purchase the Shock Value DLC bundle if you don't feel like completing the challenge, but we recommend the free route.

Best Streetsweeper Attachments

This loadout maximizes Streetsweeper's potential for fast, heavy damage at close range. Your ADS speed goes down, but really, you shouldn't be using ADS for most shotguns anyway.

Best Streetsweeper Attachments
Attachment type	Name
Muzzle	Agency Choke
Barrel	13″ Reinforced Heavy
Ammo	STANAG 18 Round
Stock	No stock
Laser	SWAT 5mw Laser Sight

Best Warzone shotgun for raw power

The R9-0 remains one of the most powerful Warzone shotguns even after being nerfed, though there are a few caveats. R9-0 has a quirk where there’s a brief pause after a burst of rounds. The upside is that initial burst is enough to down an opponent, since a kill usually just takes two shots from the R9-0.

The Dragon’s Breath rounds won’t give you as much damage as it used to. However, the extra damage it deals makes it a useful workaround for the pause in fire if you didn’t finish someone off with the initial round.

Shotguns aren’t normally built for range, but the R9-0 features better range than your average shotty. It’s still better played in close quarters, but the added versatility is never a bad thing.

How to unlock R9-0 in Warzone

Fortunately, R9-0 unlocks at Rank 1 in Warzone, so you can try it for yourself immediately and switch to one of our other picks if it doesn’t suit your style.

Best R9-0 Attachments

Dragon's Breath might have been nerfed, but it's still the best ammo to take out enemies fast. The rest of this loadout boosts your speed so you can clear groups of enemies fast.