Footage of Fortnite’s New Double Barrel Shotgun in Action

The Double Barrel Shotgun has officially been added to Fortnite Battle Royale and players around the world are already beginning to get to grips with it.

Initial footage seems to suggest that the new weapon will be extremely powerful in close range gun fights but that the damage drop off will be significant at distance.

Popular Twitch streamer dakotaz was quick to pick up a Victory Royale with the Double Barrel and exclaimed “Oh my god it hits so hard bro! Dude… this thing is a monster, oh my god! Yooo this gun is crazy”.

Concerns about the gun being potentially overpowered have been replaced, by and large, by comments about the low effective range making it fairly balanced.

One Reddit user stated “I got into a fight with it, at a range of around 5-10 meters (1-2 floor tiles). I was only hitting 50% of my pellets, for around 75 damage each shot. When you consider the damage with the effective range, this thing is really not as overpowered as everyone thought it would be.”

The Double Barrel Shotgun’s biggest selling point is the fact that players can fire two shots in quick succession; something that has been sorely missed since switching between two different shotguns and shooting was nerfed.

It looks like the Double Barrel will be a weapon that rewards accuracy at close range but punishes players that spam shots or “spray and pray”.

As tends to be the case with a new weapon, it will take a few days of practice before players come to a final conclusion about the viability of the Double Barrel Shotgun.

However, early feedback certainly seems to suggest that it will be a specialist weapon that is only used in very specific situations.