Force-A-Nature: The Superior Scattergun

The Force A-Nature is a peculiar weapon. Seemingly underpowered, people constantly set it aside in their backpacks to collect dust or be converted into metal, but does it deserve this kind of treatment? I say ‘No, of course not!”

The Force-A-Nature is different weapon, like the Quick-Fix. You have to think differently. Think mobility and disorientation.

The FaN trades off six shots and a little damage for two shots, more pellets, knockback, and faster firing speed. At first glance, you may think “Why on earth would I use this? Six shots is much better than two, and knockback is a silly gimmick!” Well, I assure you, if you use this weapon correctly, it’s devastating,.

Firstly, use your mobility! The ‘silly gimmick’ that this weapon provides is now your entire gamestyle: Mobility. Be ready to triple-jump everywhere, over your enemies, over sticky traps, above rocket-splash and whatnot. If you fail to utilize this, the entire purpose of the Force-A-Nature has fallen apart and you almost by default cannot win with this weapon.

Secondly, know how to use knockback offensively. One of things I hear about this weapon is that trying to get up close and to your enemy, you knock them back, not allowing you to finish them off since they’re flying away from you. Instead of treating this as a bad thing, use it for your advantage. Disorientation is a keyword here. Now that your enemy is flying, aiming is more difficult for him, but not for you! If there is a Demoman walking by an environmental hazard, knock him back into his falling doom. If there is a Heavy-Medic duo about to destroy your team, fire the Medic in front of his Russian friend to get slaughtered by your enemies. If you want go for the kill yourself, don’t hesitate and follow your enemies – you can get close to them by being unpredictable and jumpy!

Thirdly, know how to Use Knockback Defensively. If you gotten yourself into a tight situation, cornered by, say, a Demoman with pipes, and you know that you cannot kill him, use your abilities to save yourself! Disorientation is the keyword here again. Knocking him back will make it harder for him to aim again, and applying that with using your triple jump, trying to kill you will be a difficult task.

Lastly, jump to those unreachable places! Mobility, my dear friend; now, with your triple jump, or even quadruple jump if you go with an Atomizer, you can reach ledges or floors which you had to go around to reach! I would not recommend using the Atomizer though, because of two reasons. One is simply personal honor, but the other one is practical. You have the least amount of health as the Scout. Granted losing 10 health isn’t much, you have to realize you cannot afford to do a lot of Atomizer jumps because you will be putting yourself in a dangerous position with your low health. With that said, I honestly recommend using the FaN instead for the same jump effect! You have the element of surprise now, so use it! Seize your opportunity to lay a smackdown simply because an enemy was not expecting you to be where you are!

So, for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that both guns deal base damage. No crits, no ramp-up or fall-off, just the simple base damage. If all the pellets hit your desired target, with the Scattergun, you shall deal:

6 damage/pellet * 10 pellets = 60 damage

The Force-A-Nature, on the other hand, will deal:

5.4 damage/pellet * 12 pellets = 64.8 damage

So for plain damage output, the Force-A-Nature is slightly superior to the Scattergun. However, let’s look at both weapons over a period of time and see whether one performs better than the other with reloading and fire speed.

When you look at the math provided above, you see that the Force-A-Nature is better in the first moments and over time, whereas the Scattergun shines in between. I do not disagree with the fact that the Scattergun is a good weapon, even the best at times. I mean, after all, the do use it in competitive. However, in a non-competitive scene, the scattergun can easily be replaced, even outdone by the Force-A-Nature, simply because of its ‘silly’, yet powerful gimmicks.