Chrome Shotgun

"This shotgun'll work."

- Coach "This shotgun feels right. Real right."

- Ellis

The Chrome Shotgun is a pump shotgun variant in Left 4 Dead 2. It has the tightest spread of all of the shotguns, which makes it more effective at distance shots compared to the other shotguns. Its high damage per shot and high penetration against Common Infected also make it a good weapon for handling hordes. Compared to the pump shotgun, it has a tighter spread and more damage per pellet, but fewer pellets overall, leading to a negligibly lower amount of total damage (The difference between the total damage of all 64 shots done by this and the pump shotgun is only 128 damage, in other words close to half a shot).

Pros

 * Very effective on tightly bunched Common Infected or on Special Infected that are close.
 * It is one of the only weapons which can Cr0wn a Witch.
 * The shotgun can penetrate through walls which is great for helping teammates.
 * Higher rate of fire and damage per second than pump shotgun,
 * The Chrome Shotgun is reloaded with individual shells, so reloading often and early can result in very quick reloads.
 * A lot more damage per shot than the SMGs.
 * It is very useful to combine the shotgun with explosive or incendiary rounds.

Cons

 * Very low amount of ammunition. A total of just 8 shells in the gun and 56 extra.
 * It is not effective for long range targets and is not effective against hordes in big, open spaces.
 * The Chrome shotgun must pump every time you fire, making it hard to hit fast moving targets.
 * Friendly fire becomes a danger on Expert difficulty, as one shot can incapacitate a teammate at close range.
 * It has a long reload time if you are reloading from empty or a low amount of shells.
 * Smokers and Spitters will be very hard to hit at long distances, making them near impossible to kill.
 * Not very effective when dealing with the Tank.

Tactics

 * The Chrome Shotgun's accuracy makes it more effective than the pump shotgun for taking out Special Infected from a distance.
 * Due to the tight spread of the chrome shotgun, it's best to find a narrow passageway to kill multiple Common Infected with one shot.
 * The chrome shotgun's fairly tight spread makes it an effective weapon for cr0wning Witches.
 * Like with all shotguns, reload as frequently as possible and stock up on ammo whenever you can.
 * The Dual Pistols are the most effective sidearm for any shotgun, although the Magnum works well too. Avoid using melee weapons, as the Chrome Shotgun benefits more from a ranged secondary weapon.
 * Explosive ammunition makes your shotgun fire slugs with large explosions. You can use this to shoot the ground and take out large numbers of Common Infected and push back Special Infected.
 * Take advantage of Incendiary ammo with the Chrome shotgun to ignite multiple Infected with one shot. The weapon's accuracy (for a shotgun) also means that you can get distance shots on Special Infected and still kill them through burn damage.