Steel Beast

* Item

16 (Bulk)

50 (Firestorm)

75 (Firestorm&Renegade)

1 (Sniper)

300 (Sniper)

15/7 - Very High (Firestorm)

3/3 - Very Low (Sniper)

## Class Perks

**Shellshock (Renegade)**50% more pellets per shot

**Scavenger (Technician)**Convert weapon to a modpack

## In-game Description

*While it can only hold one shell at a time, this scattergun turns each shell into a devastating cloud of shrapnel, firing more pellets at double the damage per pellet of the standard Shotgun.*

*You feel this gun has done more than its fair share of demon splattering.*

## Tactical Analysis.

A direct upgrade for the classic **Shotgun.** In comparison, the Steel Beast boasts doubled damage per pellet (10 vs 5), 3 more pellets per shot (10 vs 7), slightly tighter spread (5 vs 6.5) and a miniscule increase in fire rate.

A definition of substance over style, the Steel Beast by default has nothing going for it other than better stats. It is a superior pump-action shotgun, nothing more, nothing less. The Steel Beast does shines when it comes to upgrades however, as all of them are very viable and only one of them has any sort of downside, namely the Sniper mod.

The **Renegade** and his **Shellshock** perk synergises with the Steel Beast, increasing the amount of pellets per shot up to 15, complimenting the already high damage output to an impressive degree.

As a **unique weapon,** Only one modpack can be installed on the Steel Beast, all three exotic modpacks have special, often much better effects when installed. As of DRLA 1.1.4 Normal modpacks are allowed on some unique weapons including the Steel Beast, with vastly improved stat upgrades but still generally inferior to that of an exotic modpack.

## Modpack Analysis

### Bulk

Increases the amount of pellets per shot to 16 and in turn, raise the minimum damage potential to 160 if all pellets hit. The Bulk modded Steel Beast also stacked with **Shellshock** perk, further raises the pellets number up to 24. An inferior upgrade to the Firestorm mod but without the massive firing cone that comes with it.

### Power

Increases the minimum damage to 16 per pellet. Interestingly, providing all pellets hit the same enemy, the final minimum damage from both the Bulk and Power modded Steel Beast will always be 160 (or 240 with **Shellshock**). Power gives more damage per pellet while bulk gives more chance to hit. Which is better is purely the matter of preference.

### Agility

Greatly tightened the spread caparable to that of a **Hunting Shotgun.** Damage-wise, this is an inferior upgrade to the Sniper mod. Function-wise, they fullfilled the same role but without the potential for self-injury by the exploding slug round.

### Technical

Greatly improved the shell cycling speed of the Steel Beast, Almost doubling its fire rate. A bland yet very practical upgrade for any player who championed the belief of putting as much lead into the air as possible is the key to victory. The speed gain from this upgrade will not disappoint.

### Sniper

Turns the multi-pellets buckshot into a very accurate, single projectile with fiery properties, completely change the Steel Beast's role from a close quarter spread gun to a long range sniper rifle. These slug rounds deals a whopping 300 points worth of damage at minimum and are deadly accurate, allowing an ammunition type normally go unused at long range battle to be of use. They now also counts as fire element instead of bullets, making them even more effective against various exotic tier of enemies. The explosive slug also deals splash damage to all enemies near the target but the radius is quite small. More caution is required as it's explosive nature can also hurt the player, as such, it can no longer be use in something a normal shotgun could do such as stop a charging Pinky. And due to having a single projectile means **Shellshock** perk can no longer applies. An ideal upgrade for a **Demolitionist** however, as his **Fireangel** perk makes them immuned to the splash damage, essentiallly giving them a big damage and accuracy boost with completely no downside.

### Firestorm

Massively increases both the number of pellets and spread radius. The Steel Beast is now capable of firing 50 pellets per shot, exceeding even that of the infamous **Quad Shotgun**. Its firing cone is now three times larger than the unupgraded version. **Shellshock** perk also synergise with this upgrade, further increases the amount of pellets to 75, enough to one-shot heavyweight monsters such as Mancubi at point-blank range. Fortunately, the damage stays the same at 10 per pellet despite the mod description says "low damage". Arguable THE best upgrade for the **Renegade.** Even for a non-renegade user, the Firestorm modded Steel Beast is still the very same weapon but amplified to the maximum potential, a pure upgrade with no downside or tradeoff.

### Nano

Added EMP effect to the Steel Beast. Each pellet now has a random chance of disrupting any kind of cybernatically enhanced monsters, short-circuit their system and root them in place for around 5 seconds. Even the mighty Cyberdemon can succumb to this EMP efffect. But despite sounds like an interesting mechanic on paper, this upgrade is unreliable and gimmick at best as the chance to stun is not guaranteed and combined with the slow fire rate of a pump shotgun, the player are entirely at the mercy of luck should they try to stun the oncoming horde of revenants when they're better off switching for a more effective weapon.

**List of monsters affected by Nano upgrade**

* **Arachnotron**
* **Mancubus**
* **Revenant**
* **Cyberdemon**
* **Spider Mastermind**

## Summary

#### Pros

* Better than the weapon it replaced in every ways.
* Higher damage per shot.
* Higher number of pellets.
* All modpack upgrades are useful, more than a few are direct damage upgrade.
* No-nonsense weapon.

#### Cons

* Actually a low tier weapon despite the unique status.
* Slow fire rate.
* Requires a modpack to stay relevant.
* Requires a specific class to stay relevant.
* Has no gimmick.