This Shotgun Should Be ILLEGAL! Slate Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896
Intro
Hi guys, REX here! The slate is widely recognized as one of the best shotguns in Hunt: Showdown, and for good reason! This shotgun has everything you need to dominate in close quarters; high fire rate, extreme stopping power and good magazine capacity. The slate comes in two variants: The regular slate – and the riposte, which features a melee attachment. Stats wise both options are the same, except for the increased melee damage with the riposte. This variant enables a stab and a slash attack instead of the usual blunt attack using the stock of the weapon. While this seems like an overall better idea, it could be a dealbreaker if your loadout lacks blunt damage, as you would for example struggle to deal with immolators. If that’s not an issue, taking the riposte for an extra 10 hunt dollars is a great idea, and enables massive damage output for boss killing as well as a backup plan should you run out of bullets.
As for ammo types, the slate can run regular buckshot, penny shot and slugs. Buckshot is the base ammo type for all shotguns and performs well across the board. This ammo type will usually one shot in close range if your aim is true, but also has the added benefit of being able to penetrate wooden walls. Next up, penny shot is more of a PVE ammo type, despite its ability to shred through hunters in close range. This is both because penny shot has a larger spread and is unreliable at distance – but more importantly because it lacks penetration power. The number of times I’ve died because penny shot got stopped by a door- or window frame is too damn high, so I personally never run this ammo type as my only ammo type for any shotgun. Penny shot should not be underestimated though, as it has incredible value for PVE and for tactical plays. This ammo type will one shot immolators, annihilate bosses and can also be used to break open doors or windows for quick and tactical pushes. While it may not be my go-to for the slate, I made good use of it as a 2nd ammo type on the Romero, which you can see in the Romero Mastery video I posted a while back. Finally, Slugs are generally the king of shotgun ammo. This ammo type is expensive, but reasonably so. Slugs are single large projectiles that will tear through enemies at close range, whilst being accurate enough to headshot on medium range – and sometimes even on long range. I say sometimes, because slugs were updated to have a deviation in their accuracy when Hunt: Showdown 1896 launched, which means they now become less accurate over distance. This means you can still one-shot hunters on any range if you’re able to land a shot, but it will be harder and less reliable than before.
For my sidearm for this challenge, I ran the LeMat pistol. This pistol has quickly become one of my favorite sidearms as it offers accuracy on range combined with a backup shotgun round for close quarters. When you combine it with a shotgun, like the slate, it can also boost your ammo pool a bit if the ammo type is shared, for example by running slugs on both the slate and the LeMat. When I played buckshot on the slate, I often chose slugs on the pistol, as I find slugs more reliable on it, and it allowed me to refill from both regular and special ammo boxes.
In this video, I am putting the slate with buckshot and slugs to the test. As previously explained, I don’t see penny shot as a great pick for this weapon – but it can certainly work in the right situations. At the end of this video, I will give you my thoughts and recommendations for the Slate, so stay tuned, but without further ado – let’s dive into it!
Thoughts & Recommendations
After having played the Slate for a couple of days, here are my thoughts! As always, the slate performed just as expected. This shotgun makes you feel unstoppable, as you drop one enemy after the other and still have the ability to keep going. It is the perfect shotgun for aggressive playstyles but works just as well for slower and more methodical gameplay. While you are paying more for the Slate than you would for say a Rival or a Specter, I overall feel like this shotgun performs better – and that was my experience in my original mastery series as well. The slate just hits different, and maybe that is just my experience – but I have done pretty thorough testing of all weapons in Hunt: Showdown over the years. As for ammo types, I actually expected buckshot to perform better than it did this time around. I think that was mostly due to bad luck with the games, as we often ended up in half-empty lobbies or in long range encounters where my shotgun & pistol loadout came in lackluster. The buckshot rounds got a lot better eventually, and more to the level I had expected initially. As for slugs, it is not without reason that this is such a popular ammo type. My slug rounds were amazing from the start, and it was easy to rack up kills as the slugs easily shredded through enemies in both close and medium range. After this challenge, I heavily favor slugs over buckshot for the slate. It just feels better and more consistent but arguably requires better aim and movement in general. My recommendation would be to stick with buckshot if you are new to the game or not very accurate in general but go with slugs if you are more experienced.
But now I want to hear your opinion! What is your favorite ammo type for the Slate, and why? Let me know in the comments, and until next time I’ll see you in the bayou!
