The Triple Take: Apex Legends’ best shotgun?

Apex Legends players sometimes affectionately refer to the Triple Take sniper rifle as the game’s best shotgun. Weapon designer Sean Slayback himself once alluded to its close-range potential by describing it as a good gun for “emergency house clears.”

Since it fires three pellets in a spread pattern, it isn’t surprising that it would give the impression of a hybrid weapon. But is the Triple Take actually usable as a shotgun? The short answer is — no.

Shotgun sniper?

If you can land your headshots, the Triple Take has almost the same DPS as a Peacekeeper. That’s not very high, since both weapons fire very slowly. The major difference is that, without headshots, the Triple Take’s damage falls off considerably. True shotguns have high base damage and a lower headshot multiplier. Accuracy is less relevant.

So, the trick to using the Triple Take as a shotty is to consistently land your headshots, right? That’s easier said than done, unfortunately. You can safely hipfire a Peacekeeper or an EVA-8 at your target’s upper body from between 10 and 35 meters away and deal consistent damage. If you hipfire the Triple Take at that range you will often hit their body with unsatisfying results. Worse yet, you are just as likely to whiff the shot completely due to random vertical scatter, which all Apex Legends sniper rifles suffer from when hipfired.

You cannot aim down sights at that range to avoid the hipfire issue. The Triple Take, like all snipers, slows you down to 36 percent movement speed when aimed. That’s roughly three times slower than you move when aiming a shotgun. Standing still in close range is suicide in Apex Legends, especially with a low DPS weapon. As a final blow, snipers cannot equip the close-range digital threat scope.

Emergency house clears

If you find yourself in a situation where you absolutely must use the Triple Take at close quarters, aim for the upper chest below the neck and pray. Connecting with two pellets to the body will still do more damage than landing just one to the helmet. At around 10 meters and closer you can actually hipfire to the head. The scatter is just light enough at that range to land on target and even secure the occasional 2- or 3-shot kill.

At that range, the Triple Take’s pellet spread is very tight, which means you might as well be using any other weapon. In fact, another sniper rifle with a bigger magazine and higher DPS — like the Longbow — would make a much better “shotgun.”

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