AA-12

The Atchisson AA-12 is a fully-automatic shotgun that is featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance, and Call of Duty Online.

Campaign
The AA-12 appears in the campaign levels "S.S.D.D", "The Only Easy Day...Was Yesterday", "The Gulag", "Contingency", "Loose Ends", and "Just Like Old Times". In "S.S.D.D.", it can be used after completing the Pit the first time. In "The Gulag", it can be found in the armory. Last, in "Loose Ends", it can be found in the basement armory. It has an extremely high rate of fire in campaign, which makes it useful for clearing out corridors and other close quarter areas, however it also makes it so the AA-12 will deplete its ammo reserve quickly.

Multiplayer
Unlocked at level 18, The AA-12 is a unique weapon, being the only automatic shotgun in Modern Warfare 2. In addition, it uses an 8-round box magazine, which doubles when Extended Magazines is used. However, for balance reasons, the AA-12 has a lower rate of fire and damage in multiplayer than it does in campaign. Sleight of Hand is a very useful perk, due to the AA-12 being capable of emptying its magazine faster than it takes to reload. Extended Mags is also useful to counter this problem.

The AA-12's main downfall is that it only has one extra magazine unless using Scavenger Pro. It has moderate recoil, but this is usually negligible due to its limited range, and shotguns are often hip-fired for wider spray. It also has lower hitting power, often requiring two or more shots even at close range, but this is also negligible because of the weapon's automatic fire capability.

Equipping a Silencer is not recommended, as this will shorten its already limited range from 500 to 300 inches. Using Extended Magazines will increase the capacity to sixteen shells, allowing prolonged fire, but limits it to only one single magazine with no reserve ammunition, unless Scavenger is used. Using Extended Mags in conjunction with Scavenger and its Pro version can make it a highly useful weapon, and some players use it as a primary weapon. It is also notable that with the Grip attachment, the AA-12's raise and first raise time is noticeably quicker than without.

Optics aren't the best choice of attachments for the AA-12, due to the more usefulness of having Extended Mags or Grip attached. However, it can prove useful if the player wants to use the AA-12 for longer ranges.

Due to the overall aggressive play style of the AA-12, Marathon and Lightweight are useful for players so they can assault objectives quickly. Other useful perks that benefit the AA-12 greatly are Stopping Power, which allows for better damage, and coincidentally, a greater likelihood of a one-shot kill, and Steady Aim, which allows for more precise shots with the AA-12.

Special Ops
The AA-12 is obtainable in the Special Ops missions "O Cristo Redentor", "Bomb Squad", "Acceptable Losses", "Estate Takedown", "Armor Piercing", and "Wetwork". It shares the rate of fire from campaign. In "O Cristo Redentor" it can be found in the bed of a truck in the starting area, and "Bomb Squad" it is found leaning against the fence in the start area. In both instances it is equipped with a Heartbeat Sensor and Red Dot Sight. In "Acceptable Losses", it is one of the starting weapons, where it is uniquely found with Red Dot Sight, Silencer, and Heartbeat Sensor. In "Estate Takedown", it can be found in the basement armory. In the other levels, the AA-12 can be found around the map, either on the ground or from a killed enemy.

Weapon Attachments

 * Red Dot Sight
 * Heartbeat Sensor (Special Ops and Campaign only)
 * Silencer
 * Grip
 * FMJ
 * Holographic Sight
 * Extended Magazines

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized
The AA-12 appears as one of the two shotguns available in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized, the other being the SPAS-12. Though the AA-12 has a similar look to the AA-12 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there are many differences between the two. First of all, the AA-12 is a frequent starting weapon in the later levels of campaign mode; is used in the U.S. Marine missions most frequently. It also comes with a 32-round drum magazine by default, much greater damage per shell, a greater one-shot kill range, near infinite pellet range, and a much lower and controllable rate of fire than the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 version.

Campaign
In campaign, the AA-12 is a versatile weapon, having good range, high damage, and a large 32 shell drum magazine. Combined with the high damage, large shell capacity and good range, one can fire multiple shells to make a kill at medium range if needed. As mentioned before, the AA-12 is found in the later levels of campaign mode as a starting weapon, more specifically, in the levels "Training", "Closing In", "To the Rig", and "Oil Rig Confrontation".

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the AA-12 is the second weapon to be unlocked for the Coalition multiplayer faction, taking 150 kills with the Coalition faction to earn. Unlike the single player counter-part, the multiplayer is much weaker, needing at least 3 shots at close range to achieve a kill. Despite this lack of power, it is a great weapon to use if the player is just getting into the game, as it is one of the easiest weapons to use in the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The AA-12 returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, this time with a darker finish. It also has extra cosmetic features on it, such as a new grip, an empty spare shell holder, an ammo bag that reads 'U.S. Army', and new iron sights mounted on a permanent rail.

Campaign
The AA-12 is found in three missions: "Hunter Killer", "Turbulence," and "Stronghold". The AA-12 was originally the starting secondary weapon of "Hunter Killer", but was replaced by the USP .45.

Multiplayer
The AA-12 is the fourth shotgun available to the player and is unlocked at level 26.

The AA-12 is less competitive than its Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 counterpart by virtue of a wider spread (the widest of all shotguns, in fact) and a reduction in its damage per pellet from 20 to 15. In spite of these changes, the AA-12 still has an incredibly low ammunition count; only 8 shells upon spawning (12 with Ext Mags) without the use of Scavenger. The AA-12 also has a very abupt damage drop-off, in some cases requiring more than an entire magazine to kill at the edge of its effective range.

Because of this, players armed with the AA-12 should engage opponents exclusively in close quarter conflicts where the AA-12's high damage output can be most effective. A silencer is not a competitive attachment for the AA-12 as the AA-12 has the shortest range of any weapon in the game when silenced. On the other hand, Extended Mags is very useful as it increases the AA-12's easily expendable magazine size by 50%, thus lengthening the time in which players can take advantage of the AA-12's monstrous damage per second. Despite the AA-12's recoil, Grip is not a recommended attachement since recoil is negligible within the AA-12's recommended range.

For this same reason, Kick does not provide a serious benefit to the AA-12. Damage, however, provides two major benefits by increasing the radius of possible one-shot kills and increasing the AA-12's minimum damage at range. Similarly, Range will increase the radius of possible one-shot kills but also extend the range the AA-12 can do any damage at all.

Recommended perks include Scavenger due to the lack of starting ammunition and Steady Aim, which counters the wide spread of the pellets and takes advantage of the high mobility given to shotguns. Unlike most other shotguns, however, the AA-12 actually has a tightened spread when aiming down the sights equivalent to hip firing with Steady Aim. While Steady Aim will not affect the ADS spread further, this does open up some alternative perk combinations (such as Extreme Conditioning/Quickdraw/Stalker) that other shotgun classes would be less suited for.

The AA-12 is best suited for very small maps like Dome or a map with tight spaces such as Seatown where the user can quickly clean out a room full of enemies or take advantage of corridors and chokepoints. Should the enemies be slightly out of reach, players can close the gap by jumping or walking while firing. However, one should be mindful of the AA-12's small magazine and make as many shots as possible count and be aware of its low range

The January 25th, 2012 patch modified the AA-12 to not expel extra pellets when equipped with Extended Mags.

Special Ops
The AA-12 appears in both Mission Mode and Survival Mode of Modern Warfare 3.

Mission Mode
The AA-12 is only obtainable in two levels. The first is Milehigh Jack, where it can be dropped by FSO agents. The other is Over Reactor, where the AA-12 is the secondary weapon in the loadout.

Survival Mode
The AA-12 is unlocked at level 44 in Survival Mode and is the last shotgun to be unlocked. It costs $5000 from the Weapon Armory. It does a decent amount of damage with a very high rate of fire, making it lethal against large groups of enemies at all levels. It is advised to phase out the AA-12 for hard hitting weapons past the heavy troops as its rate of fire, poor range and spread, and lengthy reload (however, the reload can be remedied with Sleight of Hand) can be cumbersome and difficult to successfully undertake in the middle of a wave.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grip - Unlocked at weapon level 2.
 * Silencer - Unlocked at weapon level 5.
 * Red Dot Sight - Unlocked at weapon level 12.
 * Holographic Sight - Unlocked at weapon level 17.
 * Extended Mags - Unlocked at weapon level 26.

Proficiencies

 * Kick - Unlocked at weapon level 4.
 * Focus - Unlocked at weapon level 9.
 * Attachments - Unlocked at weapon level 14.
 * Melee - Unlocked at weapon level 19.
 * Range - Unlocked at weapon level 23.
 * Damage - Unlocked at weapon level 28.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
Tha AA-12 returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance. It now has recoil and has higher damage per pellet as well as a different HUD icon, but is otherwise unchanged from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized.

Call of Duty Online
The AA-12 appears in Call of Duty: Online as the Atchisson AA-12.

Attachments
 (Incomplete list) 
 * Red Dot Sight
 * Heartbeat Sensor

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

 * The AA-12 has a different reload when the Heartbeat Sensor is equipped; the empty magazine will actually be thrown away when reloading, instead of disappearing off-screen as is the case with other attachments.
 * The pick-up icon in the campaign labels it as "AA-12 Shotgun".

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized

 * In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized the AA-12 ejects pink shells. This happens also with the SPAS-12.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

 * Like in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it is called the "AA-12 Shotgun" in the campaign and Special Ops.
 * It has a shellholder on the side, similar to the M1014 in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the Stakeout, the WA2000 in Call of Duty: Black Ops, and the Remington 870 MCS in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, but unlike these other guns, it is empty.
 * On the side of the top rail, there is written: "Knights Armor INC RS400 Rail".

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