Chain shotgun

The chain shotgun is a very short range, multi-shot firearm in RimWorld which fires 3-shot bursts which deal fairly high damage individually (X3); a slightly shorter delay between each shot; a moderate time between bursts; slightly lower overall accuracy and slightly heavier weight.

Acquisition

Chain shotguns can be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, outlaner settlements, or obtained from the following raider kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Mercenary Gunner	12.36%	Normal	70-320%
Ancient Soldier	11.05%	Normal	100%

Chain shotguns can also be crafted at a machining table once the gas operation research has been completed; from 70 steel, 5 components and 31,000 ticks (8.61 mins) of work. A crafting skill of at least 6 is required.

Analysis

Compared to the pump shotgun, the chain shotgun trades range and accuracy for the ability to fire in 3-shot bursts rather than being single-shot.

Similarly to the pump shotgun, the chain shotgun has a respectable per-shot damage as well as exceptionally high stopping power, being able to stagger all pawn kinds in the game except for elephants, thrumbos and megasloths. However, the chain shotgun also combines the aforementioned traits with a deadly 3-shot burst which results in a significantly higher overall rate of fire than the pump shotgun; a single burst can occasionally deal enough damage to incapacitate a perfectly healthy human from pain shock if internals are also struck.

Raw damage output is exceptional as a result, only being surpassed by the minigun and the single-use triple rocket launcher. Although accuracy is rather poor, this actually allows the chain shotgun to do some crowd controlling due to its rate of fire. Despite the aforementioned accuracy, the chain shotgun's single-target damage output is also the highest out of all ranged weapons in the game (excluding the single-use rocket launchers); only the heavy SMG, charge rifle and minigun come somewhat close in this area.

However, the chain shotgun's range is the shortest in its class, being tied with grenades and molotovs. Additionally, the chain shotgun is heavier than most other ranged weapons, being high enough to have a slight impact on a colonist's overall carrying capacity.

Regarding use-cases, the chain shotgun is best suited as a close-quarters offensive weapon, but is also an excellent supporting weapon against infestations due to its stopping power, damage output (especially against megaspiders) and ability to crowd control. This weapon's also unsurprisingly a poor choice for field combat due to its range, and is definitely not advisable to use as a hunting weapon since quarry will be significantly more likely to turn manhunter within the chain shotgun's range.

Against an unarmored human, a chain shotgun can kill with 3 hits to the torso, 2 hits to the head or neck, or 1 hit to the brain; cripple or destroy limbs in 2 hits; and destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 4 hits (~6.4 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Overall, the chain shotgun is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 6, then with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Melee Combat

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	AP	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS
Overall	-	-	9	13%	2.00s	-	4.50
Stock	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	50.00%	4.50
Barrel	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50
Barrel	Poke	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50

Chain Shotgun vs. Comparable Weapons

This section goes over how well the chain shotgun fares against comparable weapons (similar value, tech level or similar characteristics) in 1 vs. 1 combat.

Methodology

All testing is semi-automated which allows for large sample sizes to be gathered per set of results with ease
All pawns have skill levels of 14 in ranged and melee
No pawns have any traits that affect combat performance
All pawns are of at least 18 years of age and completely healthy
Pawns are divided by walls to prevent stray shots from skewing results in any way
Weather is always kept clear
No cover is used for either team

Results in the tables below are the percentages of battles that chain shotguns either won or tied against the weapon listed in the first column of said tables, with a sample size of 2,000 battles per result. Higher percentages are better.

Unarmored

For the unarmored testing, all pawns wore normal quality plainleather pants, plainleather button-down shirts, plainleather dusters and plainleather cowboy hats.

Other Weapon	3	7	12	18	25	32	40
Pump Shotgun	73.75%	72.94%	71.80%	-	-	-	-
Heavy SMG	40.30%	52.64%	64.30%	-	-	-	-
LMG	70.41%	67.51%	67.06%	-	-	-	-
Charge Rifle	70.27%	66.55%	64.00%	-	-	-	-
Minigun	76.82%	66.55%	58.93%	-	-	-	-

Armored

For the armored testing, all pawns wore normal quality flak pants, flak vests, plainleather button-down shirts, flak jackets and steel simple helmets.

Other Weapon	3	7	12	18	25	32	40
Pump Shotgun	74.11%	73.86%	76.84%	-	-	-	-
Heavy SMG	40.13%	50.64%	61.06%	-	-	-	-
LMG	72.44%	71.78%	67.40%	-	-	-	-
Charge Rifle	52.81%	52.22%	49.98%	-	-	-	-
Minigun	80.61%	69.19%	62.05%	-	-	-	-

Graphs

The graphs assume a normal quality chain shotgun against an adult human that's out in the open in clear weather. For DPS, projectile speed has also been factored into the equation, with the weighting based on the base amount of attacks that it'll take to put the aforementioned target into pain shock.