BF6: Hallway Delete Button — M87A1 Shotgun Build

Everybody in BF6 right now is obsessed with beaming people from across the map. Cool. Congrats on your 45-meter headshot while mounted on a window. Meanwhile, the actual fights that win the match are happening five feet inside a doorway — and that’s where people are getting folded. That’s why I told you to run the shotgun.

This isn’t some clickbait “secret build” either. It’s just a good, honest close-quarters setup built around the M87A1 that does exactly what you expect: you point it at somebody in a hallway and they stop existing. That’s all most of us want.

The reason it works is simple: BF6 funnels people. Stairs, flag rooms, ladders, little side alleys — all of it forces players through tight angles. You can pretend you’re playing some tactical AR sim, but if the map is making everyone walk through the same door, the person holding that door with a shotgun wins. That’s why I said run it.

So here’s what we’re actually doing.

We take the M87A1 and give it the 20" factory barrel — not because we’re trying to cosplay a sniper, but because it keeps the spread from being dumb. You want your pellets going into the guy, not into the drywall next to him. Then we slap on the high-power laser. That’s the secret sauce for grown gamers. Hipfire suddenly isn’t a coin flip. You come around a corner, you don’t have to ADS, you just click and they’re gone. If you don’t have the top laser unlocked, fine, run the weaker one. The point is to make the gun forgiving.

Underneath it, run a handling/control grip — the stubby/stippled/whatever-your-version-calls-it. Shotguns in BF6 punish bad shots harder than older Battlefields. You miss, they mag-dump you. The grip helps you get that second shot out without the gun jumping like it’s mad at you.

Magazine? Extended tube. Don’t argue. Shotguns only feel “OP” when you can delete two or three people before reloading. If you’re reloading after every kill, it’s not a power weapon, it’s a comedy weapon. Get the extra shells.

Ammo is the only part I’ll let you flex on. Default to buckshot — it’s what people expect, it’s what works in rooms. If you know the map is a little more open or you’re catching people on stairs at 25–30 meters, swap to slugs. But don’t be that guy running slugs in a pure indoor lobby and then complaining the shotgun “isn’t hitting.” That’s user error.

Now, here’s the part people never write in guides because it doesn’t sound sexy: you can’t play this like a crackhead sprinter. A shotgun in BF6 is not “run straight at five players and hope.” You fight from the choke. You let them come to you. You make noise, back up half a step, and you blast them when they ego-peek because they heard footsteps. It’s old man shooter logic: position > reaction time. That’s why this build fits our lane — the “I actually have a job” lane.

You can spell it out right on your site, too: this isn’t “best shotgun for pros,” it’s “best shotgun for people who log on at night and want to punch somebody off the objective without sweating.” You don’t need to master recoil patterns, you don’t need 120 FOV on an ultra-wide, you just need to be the one holding the doorway with a gun designed for doorways.

Will it beat someone lasering you in the open at 40 meters? No. Because that’s not what this gun is for. That’s the other thing nobody says. Every time a shotgun video goes up, there’s always one dude in the comments like “aCtUaLlY mY Ar BeAt It At RaNgE.” Yeah. Because you used the wrong tool for the job. This build is for interiors. You bring it inside, you win. You take it outside, you accept the risk.

And yeah, it’s fair to say: if DICE randomly decides to nerf pellet damage or mess with the spread on the M87A1, this will drop a tier. Also fair to say: if you’re playing the plated/BR-style stuff all night, shotguns won’t feel as punchy. That’s just math. That doesn’t make the build bad — it just means you’re in the wrong mode for it. Say that in the blog so people don’t try to “well actually” you in the comments.

Bottom line? This shotgun works right now because BF6 still forces close fights, and most players are approaching those fights like they’re using an AR. You’re not. You’re using a gun that erases people at bad-breath distance. Treat it that way. Hold angles. Clear rooms with teammates. Don’t ego-push open lanes. And enjoy the part where people start typing in chat because they didn’t expect to get deleted that fast.