Uboinik (Shambler)

Automatic Shotgun
General Characteristics
Real name:	Uboinik
Type:	Shotgun

The Uboinik is a shotgun made after the nuclear devastation. It is a powerful weapon for close-quarter combat, and though it lacks the vicious alpha strike damage of the Duplet, it has considerably better sustainability and is infinitely more reliable when faced with enemy aggression.

Overview

The Ubonik is one of the "signature" weapons of the game, featured prominently throughout the game and on numerous promotional materials. It is also one of the more useful guns in the game, being effective against virtually any opponent once you're up-close. Unfortunately, like most shotguns, it has quite a sluggish reload rate, as well as a slightly confusing reloading system.

The Ubonik has a six chamber cylinder design similar to a revolver, but utilizes clamps instead of solid chambers and a gas operated rotation.

The mechanism is similar to the Luger P08 or its predecessor Borchardt C-93. After a shell is fired, the barrel and toggle assembly (both locked together at this point) travel rearward due to recoil. The toggle strikes a hook that rotates the cylinder, causing the knee joint to hinge and the toggle and breech assembly to unlock. At this point the barrel stops its rearward movement, but the toggle and breech assembly continue moving (bending the knee joint) due to momentum, extracting the spent shell from the chamber and ejecting it. The toggle and breech assembly subsequently travel forward (under spring tension) and the next shell from the cylinder is loaded into the chamber.

When tapping the "reload" button, Artyom loads one shell and cocks the gun. After that he can load four more shells out of the remaining five since the lower clamp is blocked. After firing off three rounds, Artyom has to manually cock the gun again and chamber the next round to overcome the gap left by the empty clamp. Additionally, after firing once, the empty chambers are exposed and a full six rounds can be loaded.

When holding the "reload" button, Artyom loads four shells into available clamps, cocks the gun and loads the remaining two. Reloading can be interrupted at any point. Likewise empty clamps can be loaded at any time unless they are blocked by the mechanism. Dropping the weapon by picking up any other secondary weapon will empty all clamps and reloading can be repeated from scratch.

Variants and Obtaining

There are two variants that can be acquired in the game.

All costs are in MGR (Military-Grade Rounds), these are the real costs, because the weapon cost depends on the value of the weapon you have in that slot.

Automatic-Shotgun: standard shotgun, in addition uses the stock for melee attacks. Can be picked up free, from most dead human enemies. Shops - 120 MGR on non-Ranger difficulties, and 95 MGR on Ranger difficulties. You can also obtain one from Bourbon's backpack when he leaves it in the Dry Station's air vent along with extra ammo for it.

Automatic-Shotgun with Bayonet: instead of attacking with the stock, you attack with the bayonet. One can be found on a bandit in the crate maze on the left platform of the Dry Station. One can be found in the flooded backroom of the Red's outpost in the Frontline level. Can be bought in Hole Station and Polis. One can be taken for free in Sparta. One can be found on a dead body in the third room after Demon attack in Library level.

Tactics and Use

350px|right The Uboinik is your best friend in close-quarter encounters; from the moment you get one for your arsenal, it is by far one of the most reliable guns in the game; a lot of your fighting takes place indoors, where the Uboinik is at it's best. Its power is quite impressive; It quickly brings down even armored infantrymen with body shots. Unfortunately, it reloads incredibly slowly; each shell has to be loaded by hand, resulting in a terribly slow reload process between volleys. Whilst not so bad against single targets or pairs, this terribly long process can be outright fatal if you do not fight smart. Staying mobile with this weapon is vital, as is taking advantage of the fact that it can fire while it's reloading if there's ammo in the chambers.

The Bayonet is a dramatic improvement for this gun; it does a fair bit of damage, has no need for ammo, and saves you the need to switch weapons to melee attack to break open a door or deal with a small threat, like a lurker. It also effectively doubles the utility of the weapon; by alternating up Bayonet attacks and Shotgun blasts, the Uboinik can quickly bring down the toughest of enemy opposition with some practice. A weapon not to be ignored.

It's also very effective to utilize the Uboinik as a single-shot gun. Firing the one round of the first reload results in a quick reload of the next. This is very effective when fighting off Lurkers as one shot will usually do them in and won't get you caught up in a slow reload cycle.

Using the Bayonet Effectively

The Bayonet attachment takes some getting used to. Once you have it, simply pulling the trigger causes Artyom to do a quick jab forward with the weapon. Holding the fire button down causes Artyom to pull the weapon back and ready for a much more powerful thrust. The jabs are mostly used for forcing enemies back and holding the line while you reload; the power thrust is much more powerful and can one-shot a nosalis with a lucky hit. Likewise, this can cause an instantly-fatal head-strike on many enemies with a fully-readied power-thrust.

Note: The Bayonet, like Artyom's Knife, has a silent attack (which means that it will not alert hostiles in the area), and has unlimited uses. Making good use of it will more than double your efficiency with the Uboinik.

Related Achievements

	Weaponsmith	40
	Kill at least 1 enemy with each weapon available in the game.

Trivia

• The prominent rod under the Uboinik's barrel is a cleaning tool and maintenance device; it can be used to clear jams. If the player is idle long enough, Artyom will eventually eject the rod, and use it to clean the inside of the weapon's barrel.
• It is the most common weapon used by NPCs; Hunter uses one, as do Vladimir and Bourbon. It's also common among the Nazis, however, none of them ever use the bayonet.
• It does less damage-per-shell than the double-barreled shotgun, but has the advantage of rapid follow-up shots.
• If the weapon is not empty and you reload it, then you will reload to 5 rounds only, but if you waste a round then reload, you can have 6 rounds.
• It is the gun most commonly shown in official media.
• It is possible for the Automatic Shotgun to "consume" rounds, as the rounds loaded into the weapon do not appear to return to the players ammo cache when the weapon is dropped. It is entirely possible to use up all your shotgun shells without firing a shot, by swapping, reloading, and repeating.

Bugs/Issues

When looking at your watch with the Automatic Shotgun equipped, the screen does not focus on the watch, it is instead completely blurred.