Applies to: Battlefield 6 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, on Game Update 1.4.3.0 (dated September 15, 2026), during the current season, Season 4: Naval Warfare. 1.4.3.0 is the newest update EA has published as of September 25, 2026.
Quick Answer
- There are exactly four shotguns in Battlefield 6: the M87A1, the M1014, the 18.5KS-K and the DB-12. None has been added since the DB-12 arrived in Game Update 1.1.2.0.
- The M87A1 is our pick for best shotgun, and it is the one you already own. It is the only Default Unlocked shotgun and the slug platform the community actually reaches for.
- Shotguns are the only primary class with no published ballistics. We re-parsed the last full balance overhaul, Game Update 1.3.3.0: 50 muzzle-velocity entries and 39 recoil-variation entries, and not one of them is a shotgun. Game Update 1.4.3.0 does not mention the class either.
- Every shotgun stat chart online is therefore third-party measurement, not EA data.
- One published rule quietly favours the class. When 1.3.3.0 slowed average time-to-kill by cutting limb and lower-torso damage, EA exempted shotguns and sidearms by name.
- The DB-12 is last, and it is not close. EA last balanced it in Game Update 1.2.2.0 and has not returned. Players grinding it call it a challenge, not a weapon.
- The class does get new hardware, just no balance numbers. Shotgun Speedloaders (1.3.1.0), the 00 Buck shell (1.3.2.0) and the Season 4 Extended Barrel (1.4.1.0) are all real, documented additions.
Shotguns are the strangest class in Battlefield 6, and not because of how they shoot. EA has spent a year publishing detailed, per-weapon ballistics tables for every other primary class and has never published a single number for this one. That leaves "best shotgun" as the only weapon question in this game nobody can settle with a patch note. So this guide lays out every fact EA has actually published about the four shotguns, marks where evidence ends and opinion starts, and ranks the class on that basis rather than on invented numbers.
How many shotguns are in Battlefield 6?
There are four, and all four are listed on EA's Loadout Creation and Weapon Classes page, which carries a "Recently Updated for Season 4" tag. EA's own class description, verbatim:
"Shotguns pump out pellets or a single slug towards their target. Available to all classes in Closed Weapon experiences."
That second sentence matters more than it looks. In Closed Weapon experiences each class is restricted to its own Signature Weapon plus Carbines, DMRs and Shotguns — so a shotgun is one of only three ways a Recon or Support player gets a close-range primary there.
Here is the full roster with EA's unlock condition and description, both quoted from the catalogue page:
| Shotgun | Unlock (verbatim) | EA's description |
|---|---|---|
| M87A1 | Default Unlocked | "A reliable pump-action shotgun chambered with 3" shells for improved stopping power." |
| M1014 | Career Rank 42 | "This popular semi-automatic shotgun hits hard with 3" shells, but is limited by its magazine tube capacity." |
| 18.5KS-K | Assignment POINT BLANK 2 | "A magazine-fed, semi-automatic shotgun firing 2.75" shells for sizable damage." |
| DB-12 | Season 1 Challenge Unlock (Originally Available in California Resistance Bonus Path) | "A double-barrel, pump action shotgun allowing for a rapid follow-up shot before having to rechamber the next set of shells." |
Two things stand out. First, the shotgun class hands you a usable weapon at Career Rank 0, which carbines and DMRs do not. Second, the spread of unlock routes is unusually wide for four guns: one free, one gated behind Career Rank 42, one behind an Assignment, and one behind a retired seasonal path.
Why there is no Battlefield 6 shotgun stat chart
This is the part every other "best shotgun" article skips, and it changes how you should read all of them.
Game Update 1.3.3.0, announced June 26, 2026, is the last full weapon-balance overhaul and still governs the meta. It published two large per-weapon tables, which we re-parsed from EA's page while writing this guide: 50 muzzle-velocity entries and 39 recoil-variation entries, covering assault rifles, carbines, SMGs, LMGs, DMRs, sniper rifles and secondaries.
The M87A1, M1014, 18.5KS-K and DB-12 appear in neither table. The only mention of any of them in the whole update is a cosmetic fix: M87A1 magazine tubes no longer becoming invisible in third-person view.
Game Update 1.4.3.0, the current live build, is the same story. A full-text scan of that page returns zero hits for all four shotgun names and zero hits for the word shotgun.
So when you see a shotgun tier list quoting pellet counts or muzzle velocity in metres per second, understand what you are reading: somebody measured it in a Firing Range, or an aggregator inferred it. Useful, but not EA data, not versioned, and it silently goes stale. We do not publish those numbers.
The one balance rule that favours shotguns
There is a published rule that works in the class's favour, and almost nobody mentions it. When 1.3.3.0 slowed the game's average time-to-kill, it did so by cutting damage to limbs and lower torso. EA's wording is explicit about who was left out:
"To better reward skill and mastery, average Time to Kill (TTK) has been slowed down without affecting the best possible TTK. Damage to limbs and lower torso has been reduced for all weapon classes except shotguns and sidearms."
Every rifle, carbine, SMG, LMG and marksman rifle now needs roughly one extra shot when you catch somebody in the arms or legs. Shotguns do not. In a class whose entire job is hitting a body somewhere, anywhere, at short range, that exemption is a real and permanent advantage over the rest of the arsenal. The same update increased bullet drag by 40% across all weapons, and by 100% with Match Grade ammo — which cuts the other way for anyone running slugs at range.
Battlefield 6 shotguns ranked
A note on method. EA publishes no shotgun ballistics, so this ranking is built from what EA does publish — role descriptions, unlock cost, balance history and attachment support — plus clearly-labelled community consensus. Where we say players think something, that is sentiment, not measurement.
1. M87A1 — the best shotgun in Battlefield 6
The free one wins, which is a rare and genuinely good outcome. The M87A1 is Default Unlocked, and EA describes it as chambered with 3" shells "for improved stopping power". It is the class's pump-action baseline and the platform the slug crowd overwhelmingly builds on — the community loadout split has been stable for months: slugs on the M87A1, 00 Buck on the M1014.
It has also never been nerfed. We read every Game Update page EA has published for Battlefield 6, and every single M87A1 entry across all of them is additive or cosmetic: a unique reload animation and Shotgun Speedloader support in 1.3.1.0, a third-person magazine-tube fix in 1.3.3.0, and Extended Barrel support in 1.4.1.0. Not one line has ever reduced its performance. A weapon EA has never felt the need to rein in is usually a weapon sitting where EA wants it.
2. M1014 — the semi-auto insurance policy
The M1014 is the answer to the pump-action's biggest problem: missing. It is semi-automatic, uses the same 3" shells, and EA names its weakness directly — it "is limited by its magazine tube capacity". The real cost is the unlock. Career Rank 42 is the single largest rank gate on any shotgun in the game, and players who get there tend to keep it in a loadout permanently, which is the strongest signal a weapon can send.
3. 18.5KS-K — magazine-fed, assignment-gated
The 18.5KS-K is the only magazine-fed shotgun in Battlefield 6, which means reloads are a swap rather than a shell-by-shell prayer. EA describes it as semi-automatic, firing 2.75" shells "for sizable damage" — the smallest shell of the three semi-auto and pump options, traded for feed speed.
It is one of twelve launch weapons gated behind an Assignment rather than a Career Rank, in its case POINT BLANK 2, and it got a specific attention pass in Game Update 1.2.1.0 that improved its attachment setups "ensuring these weapons use their intended attachments and are better balanced when found as loot". It lands third because that gate makes it harder to reach than the free M87A1 while giving up shell size to do it.
4. DB-12 — the one to skip
The DB-12 arrived in Game Update 1.1.2.0 alongside the M357 Trait sidearm. EA buffed it immediately afterwards, in Game Update 1.2.1.0:
"DB-12: Increased rate of fire and faster pump action to improve reliability in close-quarters combat."
It got one more pass in 1.2.2.0 — "Adjusted DB-12 recoil values to align with intended performance" — and then nothing. Across every update since, including all of Season 4, the DB-12 appears only in UI fixes, such as muzzle attachment indicator alignment in 1.4.1.0. It has not been balanced in any direction for multiple seasons, and note the wording of that last pass: EA considered it already at intended performance.
Player sentiment is harsher than anything we would write. The current consensus is that the gun exists to be levelled for a challenge and then never equipped again, with several players describing abandoning it partway through the grind. The most constructive advice from anyone still using it: run 00 Buck, accept that the firing pattern is fire-fire-pump, treat it as short to medium range only, and hold a choke point rather than pushing. Chase it for the completion, not the performance.
Slugs, buckshot and the Season 4 Extended Barrel
The ammo choice is the biggest decision on a shotgun, bigger than the shotgun itself.
Slugs turn a shotgun into a single-projectile weapon and are the reason the class shows up at ranges people do not expect. They are firmly an M87A1 thing in practice, although players report the M1014 handles them acceptably. They are also unforgiving: hipfire with slugs is closer to a coin flip than a strategy.
One misconception worth correcting: players quote specific muzzle velocities for slugs, and those figures are not from EA. No shotgun has ever appeared in EA's velocity table. Slugs do drop, and they are subject to the same 40% bullet-drag increase 1.3.3.0 applied across all weapons — but the exact numbers being traded around are estimates.
Buckshot, and specifically 00 Buck, is the default for everything else. It is not the stock shell: EA added it as a new attachment in Game Update 1.3.2.0 and described it precisely:
"00 Buck: Standard-penetration shotgun ammunition with increased range and damage per pellet, but fewer pellets per shot."
That is the whole trade in one sentence, and it is why 00 Buck is the standard recommendation on the M1014 and the only one anyone makes for the DB-12: fewer, harder pellets reaching further is exactly what you want on a semi-auto you can follow up with, or on a gun that gets two shells before a pump.
Two other attachments matter. Game Update 1.3.1.0 added Shotgun Speedloaders as a magazine attachment for the M87A1 and M1014, which directly attacks the shell-by-shell reload that gets slug players killed. And from Game Update 1.4.1.0:
"Season 4 introduces the Extended Barrel and 1P86 LPVO sight. The Extended Barrel with a 4" extension increases projectile velocity at the cost of mobility and aim-down-sights speed, and is available for the M87A1, M1014, 18.5KS-K, and DB-12."
The Extended Barrel is available on all four shotguns and EA named them explicitly. It is a velocity-for-handling trade, which makes it a natural fit on a slug build and a questionable one on a close-range buckshot build. Note also that EA has never published an Attachment Points cost for it, so ignore any chart that gives you one.
Getting the unlocks without the grind
The shotgun class is unusually front-loaded: you get the best one for free, and then the ramp gets steep. The M1014 needs Career Rank 42, the 18.5KS-K needs the POINT BLANK 2 Assignment, and the DB-12 sits behind a Season 1 Challenge Unlock players openly describe as a slog. That is a lot of hours between you and a complete shotgun locker.
Want the shotgun locker without the 42-rank climb? These are the services that cover it directly.
- Battlefield 6 Weapon Leveling — level any shotgun to its attachment unlocks, including the DB-12 challenge grind nobody wants to do twice.
- Battlefield 6 Career Rank Boost — push Career Rank toward the Rank 42 M1014 gate and everything else on the way.
- All Battlefield 6 services — the full list, including account leveling, vehicles and campaign.
For the rest of the arsenal, our best carbine and best SMG rankings are built on the same 1.3.3.0 tables shotguns are missing from. If unlocks are the bottleneck, see our weapon unlock and fastest leveling guide and the Career Rank cap breakdown. And if an attachment you earned is not appearing, that is a known issue covered in our attachments not unlocking guide.
FAQ
What is the best shotgun in Battlefield 6? The M87A1, on the evidence EA has actually published. It is Default Unlocked so it costs nothing, EA describes its 3" shells as giving "improved stopping power", it has never received a nerf in any update, and it is the platform the slug community builds on. The M1014 is the better choice if you miss often and want semi-automatic follow-ups, but it is locked behind Career Rank 42.
Is the DB-12 worth unlocking? For completion, yes. For performance, no. EA buffed its rate of fire and pump speed in Game Update 1.2.1.0, adjusted its recoil "to align with intended performance" in 1.2.2.0, and has not balanced it since — while current community sentiment is close to unanimous that it underperforms the other three. If you do run it, the advice from players who persevered is 00 buckshot, a suppressor, double-tapping each target, and holding a choke point instead of pushing.
Do shotgun slugs have bullet drop in Battlefield 6? Yes, but nobody outside EA knows exactly how much. Slugs are projectiles and Game Update 1.3.3.0 increased bullet drag by 40% across all weapons, so drop at long range is real and visible. The specific slug velocity figures circulating in community threads are estimates: EA has never listed a shotgun in its muzzle-velocity table.
How do you unlock the M1014 in Battlefield 6? Career Rank 42. There is no Assignment or challenge shortcut — it is a straight rank gate, and the deepest one on any shotgun. The 18.5KS-K by contrast unlocks through the POINT BLANK 2 Assignment, and the DB-12 through a Season 1 Challenge Unlock that was originally part of the California Resistance Bonus Path.
What is the best shotgun ammo in Battlefield 6? 00 Buck for most players. EA added it in Game Update 1.3.2.0 and describes it as "standard-penetration shotgun ammunition with increased range and damage per pellet, but fewer pellets per shot". Slugs are the specialist pick, effectively an M87A1 option, and they punish misses far harder.
