Core Eject Shotgun

For information about the other variants, see Shotgun (disambiguation).

The Core Eject Shotgun is the blue variant of the Shotgun, and can be acquired by defeating Swordsmachine's first phase for the first time in [ 0-3: DOUBLE DOWN ], though it can be obtained early via a secret encounter with Swordsmachine in [ 0-2: THE MEATGRINDER ].

Description[]

Press Alt Fire to overheat and launch the shotgun's cores.
Hold to charge distance.
Explodes on impact.
- The Terminal.

The Core Eject Shotgun appears to be a futuristic, double-barreled, break-action shotgun. 2 cylindrical cores can be found in the chamber, which is flipped open to vent the overheated cores on primary fire and ejected as a single projectile on secondary fire. After ejecting a core, the 2 cores are replaced with a flip of the shotgun. Placed around the shotgun are displays that show how far the core will eject, which goes from blue to red as it charges. During the shotgun's idle state, the meter glows blue.

Mechanics[]

Primary Fire[]

Pressing primary fire will cause the shotgun to fire a random spread of 12 pellets. Each pellet deals 0.25 damage for a maximum of 3 damage if all pellets hit. When more than enough pellets to kill an enemy hit it, the excess pellets will pierce through, making them good for crowd control. Shotgun pellets can also be parried immediately after firing to imbue one pellet with greater velocity and an explosive effect that deals 3.5 damage.

After each shot, the shotgun briefly flips open to let the cores cool down before closing back up, ready to fire again. This cooldown period takes roughly 1.25 seconds, making it slower overall than the Pump Charge Shotgun, though the Core Eject deals slightly more damage.

Alternate Fire[]

Pressing alternate fire and releasing will eject a core from the shotgun while holding it down increases the ejection distance. Ejected cores cause an explosion on impact, dealing 3.5 explosive damage and sending out a cosmetic shockwave and debris. This explosion is ineffective against the Malicious Face, as they are immune to explosions. It is also ineffective against Streetcleaners, as not only do they only take half damage from explosions, they are capable of actively batting away core ejects, making it extraordinarily difficult to hit them with one.

Cores will detonate on magnets both in-flight and embedded in terrain, though without any special properties.

Cores in-flight will bounce off other ejected cores as well as rockets, without detonating either.

Red Explosions[]

An ejected core can be shot with a hitscan attack to prematurely detonate it, causing its damage and radius to double. At point-blank, it will deal 7 damage, falling off to 4.6 damage.

If shot with the Malicious Railcannon (or a Face's beam), the explosion will instead deal double damage and have double the radius of a Malicious explosion. At point-blank, it deals up to 13.25 damage due to the addition of the Malicious explosion, falling off to 10.85 and then 4.6 once outside of the Malicious explosion radius. Naturally, this will also reflect projectiles in a large radius, potentially dealing friendly fire and clearing nearby projectiles if used near V1.

Core ejects will also be targeted by ricoshots from coins, being prioritized over enemies. While initially tricky to pull off, this can be easier in the end if one has trouble shooting cores in mid-air. In addition, it increases the damage of the explosion.

While the explosion does double damage to enemies, it still deals the normal 35 damage to V1, making it a cheaper damage boost than Overpump. In addition, the Malicious variant launches V1 at extreme speeds, dealing 35/50 damage depending on which explosion hits V1 first (See also: Ultraboosting).

Note that conduction electric charges and Ferryman's lightning do not interact with a shotgun core.

ULTRAGUIDE[]

ULTRAGUIDE - Shotgun Tech Quick Guide

ULTRAGUIDE - Core Mechanics and Core Sniping

Advanced Shotgun Techniques[]

Projectile Boosting[]

Immediately after firing either Shotgun variant, the Feedbacker can be used to parry the resultant spread of pellets, turning one of the pellets into an accurate high-velocity explosive projectile that deals an extra 3.5 explosive damage. However, this explosion will scatter any pellets that remain airborne in its area of effect, meaning that in most cases projectile boosting will only deal the 3.5 damage of the explosion and nothing else. Keep in mind that Malicious Faces are completely immune to explosion damage, and as such projectile boosting offers little worthwhile benefit against them.

Shotgun Parrying[]

Firing a shotgun at point blank range can parry enemies if timed correctly, similar to the Feedbacker. Hitting an enemy up close right before a parryable attack will parry the attack and add bonus damage to the shotgun blast. Successfully shotgun-parrying an enemy with the Core Eject Shotgun will deal an extra 4 damage and award the [+PARRY] style bonus.

Shooting a Malicious Face at point blank range will always deal Shotgun Parry damage whether it is preparing an attack or not. This makes engaging a Malicious Face at close range highly rewarding, if somewhat risky.

Shotgun Swapping[]

Switching between the any two Shotguns will skip their reload animations, allowing for one to switch between shotguns and fire them in rapid succession. This can drastically increase damage output, allowing one to kill a Malicious Face at point blank in less than 2 seconds if done fast enough.

Shotgun Swapping can be combined with Projectile Boosting, performed by projectile boosting once, swapping to another shotgun, then projectile boosting again. This can be done for up to 3 shots in a row, since the Feedbacker will begin to punch slower after 3 melees to prevent the player from spamming parries. This also means that one will have to wait for the Feedbacker's "fatigue" to wear off before rapidly chaining Projectile Boosts once more.

Orbital Core Striking[]

Just like Orbital Coinstriking, using the Knuckleblaster then launching a core from the shotgun will send it to go flying. Although not useful at all it is still fun to pull off. When you do this the core will go in a seemingly random direction but will be in your view, although you won't be able to see it go it's so fast. If you shoot it with the Malicious Railcannon while it's in the air, it's kinda like detonating a nuke, except the nuke is going up very fast.

Auto-Nuke[]

Because the Malicious Face's laser uses the same code as the Malicious Railcannon, if it hits a core, then it will cause a Nuke without needing to use a Railcannon charge. This is difficult to achieve, but with practice can become a very useful strategy in The Cyber Grind or maybe some other places idk. The Alternate Core Eject's cores inherit the player's momentum, making it much easier to hit auto-nukes with that.

Reverse Shot[]

If you use the Knuckleblaster and use primary fire with the shotgun at the same time/after the shockwave appears, the pellets from the shot will go directly behind you. This can be used in many situations, such as when Gabriel teleports behind you in phase 2 of 6-2, or when mindflayers teleport behind you as well.

Strategy[]

The Core Eject Shotgun's primary fire is quite useful in general, dealing a reliable amount of damage up close and piercing through enemies to deal with large groups of enemies such as Filth. It also has the capability of being chained together with another shotgun to deal even more damage with the heightened rate of fire. This technique of shotgun swapping allows for the shotguns to yield some of the highest single-target DPS in the game.

Core ejects by themselves are not very useful, as the same explosion with the same damage can be created by simply projectile boosting, or from any Rocket Launcher. However, red explosions created by shooting cores in the air with hitscans deal double damage with double radius, making them a viable use for core ejects. Utilizing the unique, high-damage red explosion created by the Malicious Railcannon allows for amazing crowd control, dealing massive damage to enemies caught in its considerable radius. This can come in handy in the Cyber Grind, where many enemies will usually be crowded into a tight space.

Explosions, including Knuckleblaster's shockwave, will launch cores randomly at massive speeds. This should be avoided as it deletes the core.

Trivia[]

Projectile boosting was originally a bug discovered by Hakita as player projectiles used repurposed code from enemy projectiles. As such, you were able to parry it. This was then kept in the game and given its special score bonus.^[1]
In contrast, shotgun swapping was an intentional feature from the start of the shotgun's development.^[2]
Red explosions were added with Patch 7: GREED. Before this, Ultraboosting was significantly more difficult, relying on the player being pushed by two explosions simultaneously instead of one special explosion, and often sending the player in unintended directions.
With the exception of Ferryman's lightning, any hitscan attack can destroy the core, setting off a red explosion.
Ejected Cores appear to reuse the Hell Orb textures.
It is possible to projectile boost the same shotgun pellet multiple times, although getting the pellet fly back at the player is a bit of a challenge.
Shotgun cores were able to be hooked by the Whiplash during Early Access versions 11a through 11c.
Hitting a core with a rocket from a Rocket Launcher will send the core in a random direction.