Heavy Automatic Shotgun (Abzats)

"This buckshot-firing heavy machine gun is deadly at close range, but eats through ammo at a high pace and does not accept silencers."

- Last Light in-game description

The Heavy Automatic Shotgun, or Abzats, is a makeshift firearm in Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. It's one of the more powerful non-explosive weapons in terms of concentrated damage. It resembles (and is derived from) a cut-down DShK 12.7mm machine gun, re-chambered and re-bored for shotgun shells, and completely redesigned to be wielded by one user. The weapon is only made available in-game by purchasing the Ranger Pack for Metro 2033 or Last Light's Season Pass. In the Redux version, it is a rare but obtainable weapon.

Overview
After the war, Andrew the Blacksmith obtained a wide variety of old pre-war guns that were in barely-serviceable condition and set about making them useful. One of these projects was finding a use for the DShK 12.7mm machine gun, which, being quite old, was comparatively easy to come by in the industrial areas above-ground. As the DShK's 12.7x108mm rounds are extremely hard to come by, Andrew went about refitting the barrel to accept shotgun shells.

Very little needed to be changed for the Abzats; with the gun already designed for very large and powerful rounds, he did not need to make big changes to the firing mechanism to accept smaller shotgun shells. The end result was a powerful close-combat weapon well-suited for handling the biggest threats found in the Metro, especially against hordes of mutants. The design, however, was also quite bulky and expensive, ensuring that only a few in the Metro could actually afford them and that other designs remained more popular. The weapon itself had problems. Like its machine gun parent, it is very heavy, weighing more than twenty pounds despite steps taken to reduce its weight.

Tactics and Use
The Abzats is the most powerful weapon in terms of concentrated damage in the game; no enemy can take a full belt of ammo from it, even with less-than-optimal hits, and survive. Its large ammo capacity gives it an advantage over the Shambler and Duplet, and its rapid fire rate overpowers the advantages of the bayonet attachment and rapid follow-up shot ability of the Shambler or Saiga-12. These traits make the Abzats a powerful weapon for close-quarters combat, capable of gunning down entire swarms of mutants without having to reload. In Metro 2033, its alternate fire allows Artyom to fire the weapon semi-automatically in order to save accuracy and reduce recoil; in Metro: Last Light, this was changed to a rapid 5-shot burst requiring a brief cool-down period.

Despite its power, the Abzats has some drawbacks. It is the weakest shotgun in terms of single-shot damage and it has the shortest effective range. While shots fired from the Abzats do not spread as much as the Duplet, the spread pattern is more random and cannot be compensated for, but saturates a much larger area than the single shot action. The main drawback is that the Abzats will consume shells about as fast as the Kalash 2012 consumes 5.45mm rounds when fired on full-auto. Because it uses such costly ammunition, the Abzats can become an expensive investment. The Abzats also has a lengthy reload time, regardless of how many shells are used. It is recommended that the area is clear before reloading. Furthermore, the player's movement speed is decreased when both walking and sprinting, due to the heavy weight of the weapon.

While the Abzats offers unrivaled punch at close-range, it must be used effectively and carefully or it will quickly consume ones supply of shotgun shells. With this in mind, it is imperative to collect as much shotgun ammo as possible by finding it in the field and trading unused ammo types to buy more from vendors. Playing on Ranger difficulties eliminates crosshairs and encourages the use this weapon when facing pack enemies, like watchmen and nosalis, or single strong enemies, like librarians; otherwise, it is a waste of ammunition.

Even if one does not intend to use it, the Abzats is worth obtaining due to its high trade value: Exchanging it for a Duplet gives a net total of 58 military-grade rounds. It can also be traded for other guns at Armory or Hole stations, or the trader at the end of "Quarantine"; this can lower the price of a scoped Helsing to 82 MGR.

In Metro: Last Light, it's still a powerful weapon and now semi-automatic by default. It can be upgraded with a muzzle brake (reduces recoil), an autofire adapter (increases rate of fire, enables automatic operation), a laser sight (increases hip fire accuracy), and an extended magazine (doubles ammo capacity).

Variants and Customisation
In Metro: Last Light (including the Redux version) and Metro 2033 Redux, the weapon has two attachment slots, with four attachments in total. As attachments in the misc slot can be combined together, all four attachments can be mounted to the weapon at once.

Metro 2033
The heavy automatic shotgun is a promotional weapon, requiring a download code to obtain. Once the code is redeemed, there are several chances to obtain the weapon. Note that for the weapon to appear, you will need to be logged into Xbox Live. You can, however, obtain the shotgun, disconnect, load the save and still have it in your inventory. The code could be obtained through pre-ordering the game or purchasing the "Special Edition" from Gamestop. PC gamers who have bought the game through Valve's Steam service will find that the weapon is included in the purchase as it counts as part of the free DLC. The Abzats is also available in Metro 2033/Last Light Redux.

Metro: Last Light

 * Can be taken from the armory in D6 for free, though it will be lost after Ashes unless playing on Ranger difficulties.
 * A single Abzats is available on all difficulties during the mission Pavel after escaping the concentration camp. Before activating the double-lever door with Pavel, an Abzats can be found hanging on a tool rack on the wall to the right of the lever Artyom must use and to the left of the control panel where he has the choice to release the prisoners. (Removed in Metro: Last Light Redux)
 * One is found in Undercity, near the door that uses a wooden crank to open, and makes short work of the nearby nosalis horde.
 * One can be bought in the Depot level, costing 200 MGRs on Hardcore.
 * One can be obtained near the end of the game in D6 for free.

Metro Exodus

 * While the Abzats itself is not present in Metro Exodus, the Shambler can be reconfigured into something resembling it by equipping the long barrel and 20 round box magazine attachments.

Trivia

 * The heavy automatic shotgun, like the VSV, is an example of a successful pre-war design becoming an even more successful post-war design.
 * If left idle with it equipped for a while, Artyom will play around with the weapon's grips and stock.
 * This weapon, like all other shotguns in Metro 2033 and the Duplet in Metro: Last Light, can only be fired from the hip, which makes it hard to aim on Ranger difficulties. While this should not be a problem when dealing with mutants, consider attaching a laser sight to aid accuracy.
 * The Abzats is also unique for being belt-fed. Belt-fed shotguns are extremely rare in real life due to their impracticality, as most shotgun users will prefer a box-fed or a tube-fed shotgun.
 * The Abzats uses similar ammo boxes used by DShK and gatling. The biggest difference is that it is loaded with shotgun shells.
 * Despite the various modifications made to lighten the weapon, it would still be too heavy to be effectively wielded by one person: the DShK on which it is based weighs 75 pounds (34 kg) unloaded and is unlikely to be reduced to any practical level.
 * The word abzats (абзац) means "paragraph", but in slang its meaning is "Wow!" or "Oh crap!" - both of which can be applicable to this weapon.
 * In the Redemption ending of Metro: Last Light, a Red Line heavy soldier is seen wielding the Abzats.
 * The Abzats is the rarest and most valuable shotgun in the game, worth about 200 MGRs.
 * Abzats can be a useful against librarians, as its high damage at close range often kills them in a few shots to the head or chest in full auto. It is also good against other boss-type mutants encountered in Metro: Last Light.
 * Although shotgun rounds in-game are referred to as 12x70 Buckshot, this type of ammunition has vastly different dimensions than the 12.7x108mm rounds that the Abzats was originally chambered for. In order to fire shotgun ammunition, an Abzats would require extensive modifications to its firing operation, to the extent of being rebuilt entirely from scratch.
 * When reloading the heavy automatic shotgun in Metro 2033, the shotgun shells just seemingly "appear" when Artyom inserted the belt to the chamber. However, this is fixed in Metro: Last Light.