A seemingly minor buff in Warzone Season 5 has turned out to be the most impactful of the entire update, with a previously overlooked shotgun becoming the fastest killing weapon in the game.
As expected from a major patch, Season 5 introduced a range of buffs and nerfs to various weapons. Amongst these was an adjustment to the Reclaimer 18, listed as “Fixed an issue causing inconsistent damage dealt to enemies in both fire types.”
In reality, this sentence affects far more than initially expected. The Reclaimer 18 received a large-scale rework to its damage profile, with semi-auto mode now able to down enemies in two shots. This results in a TTK of just 300 ms, as tested and confirmed by shotgun expert Goomie.
The Reclaimer 18 is now the most lethal weapon in Call of Duty’s battle royale, so here’s the Tac-Stance build you’ll want to use to best take advantage of this:
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- Muzzle: Bryson Choke
- Barrel: Ironbrand Long Barrel
- Stock: No Stock
- Underbarrel: Bruen Bastion Angled Grip
- Rear Grip: Haste XV Grip Tape
Interestingly, the Reclaimer 18’s TTK is now identical in both Warzone and multiplayer, with the shotgun’s semi-auto mode requiring two shots to kill in both modes.
This discrepancy suggests the buff wasn’t intended to work like this, and the absurdly fast TTK that has resulted is almost certainly a bug. Given this, a fix is probably coming in the future, though when that will be is hard to say.
Naturally, Warzone players will be keen to jump on and try out this powerful rendition of the SPAS-12 before it gets nerfed. Just keep in mind that it is still a shotgun, so you’ll want to ideally keep gunfights within 10 meters or so. Beyond that, meta SMGs will comfortably outgun the Reclaimer 18.