DOOM (2016): Beware the Double Shotgun MP Loadout Exploit

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DOOM (2016) is a hyper-violent throwback to classic shooters, and one aspect of the old-school they’ve kept alive is that the simple shotgun is completely devastating. Using two at once? You’re basically godlike. At least, that’s true right now for the online component. Players have discovered a ridiculously powerful loadout that’s pretty much unfair. In it’s current state, DOOM’s multiplayer has seen an up tick in cheaters and hackers, but this over-powered strategy comes baked into the vanilla game.

WARNING: This is a potentially game-ruining trick, so we don’t recommend you use this combo in MP. It’s very likely that id, the developers behind DOOM, did not intend for this loadout to be as powerful as it is, so expect to see patches and hotfixes to rectify the issue in the near future. If/when that happens, we’ll update this page. Until that time, let’s go over what is going on with this exploit.

Double Shotgun MP Loadout Exploit

This multiplayer exploit takes advantage of one simple fact; switching weapons skips weapon reload animations. The Super Shotgun’s greatest weakness is its slow reload and limited range. This exploit doesn’t change the range, but it turns your DOOM Marine into a shotgun-shell spewing machine of death.

This is how people are exploiting the Combat Shotgun / Super Shotgun loadout in MP:

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Players equip the Super Shotgun and Combat Shotgun in slots [1] / [2] — this allows quick-change access to rapidly alternate between weapons.

While fighting, swapping between weapons skips the reload animation, allowing you to fire the Super Shotgun, swap, fire the Combat Shotgun, fire, and swap back to the Super Shotgun. All reload (cycling) animations are skipped.

Because there are no actual “reload” animations as we typically see them in games, swapping lets you continuously shoot both shotguns without the pause between shots. Landing both hits accurately can deal 100% damage. That’s an insta-kill one-two punch.

Combined with the teleporter, you can zip across long-distances and blast opponents point-blank.

Hopefully id is on the case.

Need more DOOM info? Check out the essentials on Gameranx: