.410 Bore Shotgun

Lore & Background

On Halcyon, firearms are as much a commodity as water or oxygen, and the .410 Bore Shotgun sits at the bottom of that hierarchy. It is the kind of weapon you'd find in a settler's lockbox, a dockworker's belt, or a surplus crate marked 'MIL-SPEC – DO NOT ISSUE.' The narrow .410 bore means each shell carries fewer pellets and less kinetic force than a 12-gauge round, but the trade-off is a lighter gun with a shorter recovery time between shots—useful in the cramped corridors of the Halcyon's lower decks where a 12-gauge blast might punch through a bulkhead you didn't intend to breach.

The Outer Worlds' weapon ecosystem is built around the idea that every firearm has a niche. The .410 Bore Shotgun's niche is accessibility and lightness. It pairs well with a build that values mobility over raw stopping power, and its modest stats mean it won't overshadow a legendary scattergun later in the game, but it will reliably put a settler or a low-level raider down in a tight hallway. For players who want to feel the pump-action rhythm—rack, rack, rack—without the heavy recoil of a larger gauge, it fills that gap cleanly.

In the broader Halcyon setting, where the Monarch's corporate grip has turned a frontier colony into a gilded cage, even a humble .410 shotgun carries weight. It is the weapon of the overlooked: the maintenance tech, the cargo handler, the person who was never supposed to end up in a firefight at all. When the colony's systems fail and the Monarch's 'help' arrives with more questions than answers, that same .410 might be the only thing standing between a settler and a very bad day.

In Their Own Story

The air in Deck 7's maintenance corridor tasted of recycled ozone and rust. Mara pulled the .410 from its sling, racked the pump once—just to feel the weight of it, the way her father used to check a fishing rod before a trip out to the reef. The settler in front of her had a knife and a look that said he'd been cornered by something worse than a knife.

She didn't monologue. She didn't have the time or the patience. One pump, one blast, a wet thud against the far bulkhead. The settler dropped. The knife clattered on the grated floor.

Mara racked the pump again, slid the spent shell out, and tucked the gun back under her arm. Somewhere above, the Halcyon's engines hummed their indifferent lullaby, and the Monarch's little voice on the overhead speaker asked, in a tone of practiced concern, whether she was all right. She was. She was perfectly, boringly all right. She just needed to find a 12-gauge before the next corridor.

Reader's Guide

Item: .410 Bore Shotgun Type: Shotgun (pump-action) Tier: Common

Stat Block (general): The .410 Bore Shotgun deals lower per-shot damage than 12-gauge shotguns in the game. It is lighter in weight, which matters for encumbrance-sensitive builds. It has no special effect or unique modifier in its base form—it is a straightforward, low-tier spread weapon. Expect roughly 4–6 pellets per shell with modest per-pellet damage, and a pump-action reload rhythm.

Acquisition: The .410 Bore Shotgun is available early in the game. It can be found in the starting area of the Halcyon (the ship's lower decks and early settlement zones) as a world drop or in settler lockers. It is also stocked by early-game vendors as a cheap shotgun option. It is NOT quest-gated and NOT DLC-exclusive; it is a standard, always-available common-tier weapon.

Notable notes: The .410 gauge is a real-world shotgun bore size, smaller than 20-gauge and 12-gauge. In The Outer Worlds, this translates to a lighter, lower-damage shotgun compared to its 12-gauge siblings. There is no hidden easter egg or secret flavor text unique to this specific item beyond its standard weapon description. It functions as a stepping stone: useful at level 1–5, outclassed by mid-game shotguns.

For players building a shotgun-focused character, the .410 is a fine placeholder but should be swapped out as soon as a 12-gauge or higher-tier scattergun is within reach.

Did You Know?

• The .410 bore is a real shotgun gauge used in the real world, typically associated with smaller-framed shooters and bird hunting. Its inclusion in The Outer Worlds adds a layer of grounded, real-world firearms detail to
• In The Outer Worlds, weapon tiers (Common through Legendary) affect both stats and visual appearance. The .410 Bore Shotgun, as a Common-tier item, has the most basic visual model in the shotgun family, making it easy to
• The pump-action mechanic means the .410 Bore Shotgun has a distinct reload animation—racking the forend—setting it apart from semi-automatic or fully automatic shotguns that appear later in the game.
• Because it is lighter than 12-gauge alternatives, the .410 Bore Shotgun is a practical choice for players who are juggling many items and need to keep their total weight under the character's carrying capacity in the ear