This Shotgun REALLY SLAPS! Rival 78 Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, rex here!

The rival is a double barrel shotgun that comes in 3 variants.
The regular Rival, the shorty, and the trauma – which is an enhanced version of the standard Rival.

The weapon features regular buckshot and 4 special ammo types.

• Buckshot will consistently one-shot at around 10 meters distance and can penetrate wooden walls.
• Pennyshot behaves very similar to buckshot and deals tremendous damage to bosses but is less consistent on range and has no penetration power.
• Dragon breath will set enemy hunters on fire and can be used to burn downed hunters. The downside of dragon breath is low damage and no penetration power which makes it very inconsistent for PVP.
• Flechette inflicts bleeding on impact and has a very tight spread and good damage drop-off, making it great for longer range kills and pressure, but again this ammo type has no penetration power.
• The final ammo type is slugs, which are single large projectiles similar to a rifle. Slugs will penetrate up to two wooden walls and can headshot hunters for a one-tap kill on longer ranges than the other ammo types. The downside of slugs is a slight deviation with the shots making it somewhat inconsistent on longer ranges.

I played both the regular rival and the shorty variant for a couple of days. I primarily played buckshot but also played some slugs. For my sidearm I mostly played a conversion pistol with FMJ ammo and I grabbed the Fanning trait whenever possible.

This video features the best rounds, and at the end of the video I’ll give you some of my thoughts and recommendations for this weapon. Let’s dive into it!

Thoughts & Recommendations

The rival is a very powerful shotgun that offers a lot of bang for your buck. It is a fairly cheap weapon, and both the short and large variants feel great and are a lot of fun to play.

The large variant paired with a decent pistol gives you a loadout that works well for most scenarios – however I would argue that the shorty variant is not far from its large counterpart in performance, which allows you to run it with a 2-slot weapon instead, or a 3-slot weapon if you take the quartermaster trait.

The shorty variant is a fantastic secondary weapon to any rifle, allowing you to effectively dominate on any range.

As for ammo types, I personally prefer buckshot by far, as it is in my opinion the most consistent ammo type for this weapon. Slugs are a good option as well, but overall, they don’t perform as well for me.

The remaining ammo types: penny shot, dragon breath and flechette are in my opinion not worth it due to the lack of penetration power and/or damage. If anything, these ammo types are better suited for a shotgun with a higher magazine capacity like the Specter or Slate.

What is YOUR favorite variant and ammo type for the Rival? Let me know in the comments, and until next time I’ll see you in the Bayou!