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The subject of this article appeared in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The subject of this article appeared in Zombies mode The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty Online The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
For a similarly named bullpup full-auto shotgun, see S-12.

The S12 (Saiga-12[1]) is a weapon appearing as a semi-automatic shotgun in Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty Online, and as a fully-automatic shotgun in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II[]

"Semi-automatic shotgun. Deadly at short range."
— Description.


Campaign[]

The S12 is the standard shotgun of the Mercs and the ISI. It is one of the earliest unlocks for customized loadout and is available after completing "Pyrrhic Victory". However, it is never part of any recommended loadout (most likely because it's never used by friendly factions). The weapon is semi-automatic and sports a 10-round magazine (14 with Extended Clip), moderate damage, range, firecap, recoil and hip fire spread, making it sufficiently consistent with one-hit kills in close quarters. Although, outside of close quarters, the high rate of fire is enough to offset the lower one-hit-kill range than other shotguns.

Multiplayer[]

The S12 is unlocked as soon as Create-A-Class is unlocked at level 4, however, unlike the Remington 870 MCS, it must be bought with an unlock token.

The S12 is a low damage shotgun. The S12 fires eight pellets per shot. At any range short of 3.75 meters, the S12 will deal thirty damage per pellet, needing four pellets to kill. This is the only range at which the S12 can get a one pellet kill in Hardcore. Between 3.76 meters and 7.5 meters, the S12 will deal 20 damage per pellet, needing five pellets to kill. Between 7.51 meters and 12.5 meters, the S12 will deal ten damage per pellet, needing ten pellets to kill, guaranteeing the need for a two shot kill. Between 12.6 meters and 15 meters, the S12 will deal six damage per pellet, needing sixteen pellets to kill, nearly guaranteed to need at least three shots. The S12 does no damage past 15 meters. The S12 has somewhat superior range to the M1216, but the S12 is otherwise bottom of the barrel for damage among shotguns, and its range advantage over the M1216 is very minor. The S12 cannot be constantly relied upon to get one shot kills. The S12 has no penetration power, disallowing it from shooting through anything but glass, and the S12 does no extra damage on a headshot.

The S12's fire rate is the best in the class. The S12 fires semi-automatically, at a firecap of 468 RPM. The M1216 can match this, but the M1216's overall fire rate is stymied by the forced re-chamber, and the M1216's overall fire rate is less than half of the S12's maximum potential fire rate. A consistently high fire rate allows the S12 to make up for its damage deficiency and saturate the battlefield with buckshot. The S12's firecap is noticeably higher than semi-automatic shotguns in games past, and users can easily take advantage of it to put out rapid follow-up shots.

The S12's accuracy is standard for a pellet-firing shotgun. The S12's iron sights are very clear and easy to use, and the S12's recoil is quite mild for a shotgun. It also has the best centerspeed of the shotguns. 1200 centerspeed doesn't seem good on paper, but the S12's short range nature and slow-firing nature make it good enough in practice. More importantly, the S12 has a split personality on its pellet spread. When fired from the hip, the S12's hip-fire accuracy is rather poor, but when aiming down the sight, the S12's pellet spread is very tight, tighter than a handgun using the Laser Sight. Aiming down the sight with the S12 confers the tightest possible pellet spread, even tighter than firing from the hip with the Laser Sight.

The S12's handing characteristics are decent for a shotgun. The S12 allows users to move at 100% of the base movement speed, or strafe at 80% of the base movement speed. Between the tight pellet spread and far superior strafe speed, aiming down the sight is a viable tool on the S12. The S12 allows users to aim down the sight in 250 milliseconds. The S12's reload speeds are slow, despite being magazine-fed. The S12's reload animation is 3.05 seconds long, or 3.7 seconds long on an empty magazine. In either case, the user can Reload Cancel after 2.3 seconds. The reload speed is extremely slow, and such is the price for the ability to reload in one consolidated action.

The S12's magazine capacity is a problem, as it can only hold ten rounds at a time by default. Between the weak shots, fast fire rate, and small magazines, reloads will be a common and painful experience. The S12 allows users to spawn in with forty rounds total.

The S12 has the standard assortment of shotgun attachments available to it. The Reflex Sight is completely pointless, as the S12's iron sights are perfectly clear, and its shotgun nature makes sight attachments mostly unnecessary even for those who do not like the S12's iron sights for whatever reason. Similarly, the Millimeter Scanner is also rather pointless, only being useful for potential scouting purposes since the S12 cannot shoot through walls and other obstructions at all.

The Long Barrel, as is the case on other pellet-firing shotguns, borders on mandatory, boosting the S12's range benchmarks by 16%, and boosting the S12's total range by 16%. The attachment improves shot consistency within the S12's effective range, and it is hard to argue against using it. Conversely, it's tough to justify using the Suppressor. The stealth benefits are powerful for a shotgun playstyle, but reducing the S12's finite range - even by just 10% - is a very risky proposition.

The magazine attachments are some of the most commonly used attachments on the S12. Fast Mag is arguably the S12's most popular attachment, making reloads far quicker to perform. This fixes the S12's major reload speed problem perfectly. Extended Clip is an intriguing alternative solution for the S12, increasing the magazine capacity to fourteen rounds and increasing the starting ammo loadout to 56 rounds. It will make reloads ten percent slower, but it allows the user to delay reloading more often, allows the user to sustain combat for longer before needing to reload, and gives the user more ammo. Either magazine attachment will be a fantastic choice on the S12.

The Laser Sight tightens the S12's hip-fire spread by 37.5%, providing similar hip-fire accuracy to a Type 25. It highly improves hip-fire consistency. The Laser Sight's value mostly boils down to playstyle. Those that use hip-fire extensively will find the attachment to be invaluable, while those who mostly aim down the sight will find less of a need for it.

The Adjustable Stock increases the S12's strafe speed from 80% to 88%. The change is negligible and is not worth the point spend.

The Quickdraw Handle speeds up the S12's aim down sight time from 250 milliseconds to 150 milliseconds. Much like with the Laser Sight, the Quickdraw Handle's value mostly boils down to playstyle. Those that make constant use of the aim down sight function on the S12 can come to highly appreciate this attachment, but those who regularly hip-fire will find the attachment to be mostly useless. Unlike with the Laser Sight which tends to be appreciated almost universally among players that consistently hip-fire, those that consistently make use of the aim down sight function on shotguns may not always find the Quickdraw Handle to be a necessity.

Overall, the S12 is a very flawed primary weapon that possesses extreme upside. Between its lacking damage, very short range, and slow reloads that users have to constantly perform, the S12 is a weapon that demands attachment investment to mitigate and/or fix its problems, with many finding the need to combine three attachments through the use of Primary Gunfighter. Those that are capable of putting up with and/or fixing the S12's problems will find that the weapon is among the most consistent CQC options in the game. Providing unparalleled damage output up close, the S12 can not only kill quickly, but provide large margin for error within its effective range. The S12 has poor one shot kill ability, but the S12's great fire rate allows the user to make up for this very easily. Like any shotgun, the S12's range being finite heavily restricts when and where it can be used effectively, but even within the S12's effective range, it has very inconsistent performance, as it can take more than two shots to kill enemies at the edge of the S12's effective range. Due to its sheer number of weaknesses and great inconsistency, the S12 is among the least popular primary weapons in the game, but the S12 is still plenty capable of providing elite performance within its effective range.

The S12 is extremely similar to the M1216, another fast-firing shotgun. Both shotguns have similar strengths and weaknesses. The S12 has superior range benchmarks within its effective range (both weapons have the same effective range), and the S12 does not have to re-chamber every four shots, allowing the S12 to maintain a consistent 468 RPM. The M1216 has superior reload speeds, a faster aim down sight time (200 milliseconds compared to 250 milliseconds), much faster reload speeds, and most significantly, a significantly larger magazine that gives the M1216 a far larger starting ammo loadout. The choice between the two shotguns mostly boils down to whether the user values the ability to fire at a consistent 468 RPM or values the superior sustained combat capability, reload speeds, and ammo loadout of the M1216. The S12's potential is greater, but the M1216 is generally considered easier to use overall.

Attachments[]

Zombies[]

"Hmm...very much in the lieu of the Russian classics. I can see why Misty appreciates its reliability."
Marlton Johnson, when obtaining the S12 from the Mystery Box.

The S12 appears in all Zombies maps (with the exception of Origins), available out of the Mystery Box for 950 points. By default, it has the same high damage with 10 rounds and 30 reserved ammo as from multiplayer. It is not a very effective shotgun, taking numerous shots to take down one zombie as early as round 10. Having only 40 rounds, a slow magazine reload speed, and decent automatic fire makes this a sub-par weapon. 

When Pack-a-Punched, it becomes the Synthetic Dozen. It gains an ammo reserve of 50 rounds, increased damage, and the Fast Mag attachment. Subsequent Pack-a-Punching retains the Fast Mag and will cycle between iron sights, the Long Barrel and the Reflex Sight. Ammunition is still a big concern with this weapon, and the damage doesn't support the low starting amount of ammunition either. Players must rely on a Max Ammo to replenish the S12's ammo supply, and due to the fact that ammunition can't be purchased off the wall, makes the S12 hard pressed for ammunition. Of the 5 shotguns, the Synthetic Dozen is the weakest option as the Remington 870 MCS and Olympia have buyable ammo, the M1216 fires in full auto with the largest magazine, and the Executioner has the most damage.

S12 vs Synthetic Dozen[]

S12 Synthetic Dozen
S12 BOII S12 Upgraded BO2
Damage 270-23 x4 560-48 x4
Fire mode Semi-automatic Semi-automatic
Rate of fire 468 RPM 468 RPM
Magazine size 10 10
Max ammo 30+10 50+10
Mobility Medium Medium
Extras More ammo, Fast Mag, higher damage
Possible Attachments Reflex Sight, Long Barrel


Gallery[]

For camouflage images, see S12/Camouflage.
For attachment images, see S12/Attachments.

Video[]

Call of Duty Online[]

The S12 appears in Call of Duty Online as the GPAS-12.

Attachments[]

Gallery[]


Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered[]

The S12 returned as the Kamchatka-12 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered via an update on February 7th, 2017. It is fully-automatic rather than semi-automatic.

The Kamchatka-12 can kill in one hit within its effective range, firing eight pellets similarly to most of the other shotguns. However, the range is very short, and damage per pellet is less than that of any other shotgun. This results in the Kamchatka-12 being less likely to kill in one shot than any other shotgun. It makes up for this, however, with being fully automatic and having a relatively generous 8-shell magazine. The 468 RPM is slower than the theoretical maximum the Rangers could accomplish, and is a good deal slower than the rate of fire of other fully automatic weapons, but it is still rapid for a shotgun and in most cases more than enough to kill opponents within effective range before they can react.

The Kamchatka-12 has great uses on maps such Shipment, being able to take out targets with much ease due to its high rate of fire. However the high rate of fire can sometimes leave the player stripped of ammunition, which can be alleviated with the perks Bandolier and Sleight of Hand. Sleight of Hand is particularly beneficial: The Kamchatka-12 has a moderately slow reload time of 2 seconds, and reload cancelling has a minimal effect.

As the weapon is fully-automatic, bots will fire the gun without stopping until they are out of ammo or the target is dead.

Attachments[]

Gallery[]

For camouflage images, see S12/Camouflage.

Trivia[]

Call of Duty: Black Ops II[]

  • In the alpha and beta stages, the S12 had a small skull on the charging handle.
  • "Made in Russia by Izhmash" can be seen stamped on the left of its receiver.
  • Interestingly, there's a small heart on the iron sights, on the lower right. This can be easier seen while aiming down the sights.
    • There is also a visible Fleur-de-Lis symbol near the iron sights. This is seen when holding the gun by the hip (not aiming down the sights).
  • The serial number for the S12 is 27395872.

References[]

  1. As referred by Marlton in Die Rise, as well as in early gameplay footage and game files.
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