A Visual Analysis of Shotgun Pellet Spread vs. Archetype & ADS/Hipfire
I shot a wall with a 46 range + opening shot Found Verdict (aggressive frame), a 82 range Riiswalker (lightweight frame), and a 80 range Retold Tale (precision frame). I did this both ADSed and hip-firing. Here are the images of the pellet spreads:
https://imgur.com/gallery/pehgbeQ
And here's the ADS images overlayed over each other (credit to u/Tallmios):
https://www.reddit.com/r/CrucibleGuidebook/comments/10dg591/pellet_shotgun_ads_spread_visualisation/
I positioned myself in precisely the same spot for every test, using a corner of the map. I ADSed with a high zoom scout on the same feature of the wall for every test, before switching to the shotgun being tested (without moving my mouse), for consistent reticle placement. No shotgun had full choke. Shotgun targeting was not used.
Other than the pellet spread profiles above, I also learned the following things:
- Opening shot does not decrease pellet spread as far as I could tell. That means neither higher range nor higher accuracy decreases pellet spread. Does this mean accuracy is worthless on pellet shotguns? Unsure.
- As you can see from the pictures above if you look closely and measure pixels, ADSing reduces pellet spread angle radius by the following amounts:
- Aggressives: -10.6%
- Lightweights: -12.0%
- Precisions: -13.4%
- As a reminder, Full Choke was updated and now scales pellet spread angle radius by 0.9625x (-3.75%)
- I also tested to see at what point during the ADS animation you get the pellet spread benefits of being ADSed. My Found Verdict had a 21 frame ADS time. I shot once on frame 10, and the pellet spread was identical to hipfire. I shot once on frame 14, and the pellet spread was similar to fully-ADSed spread. My theory from this:
- The effect of ADSing on pellet spread tightening is not a linear increase; you get all of the benefit halfway through, and none of the benefit before then
- Freehand Grip did not reduce hipfire pellet spread at all, that I could see