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Roadhog's Scrap Gun has two modes of firing. A short-range shotgun-like primary fire, and a long-range shrapnel ball secondary fire.

Scrap Gun primary fire stats Scrap Gun primary fire

Scrap Gun secondary fire stats Scrap Gun secondary fire

At what range does Roadhog's secondary fire start dealing more damage to a single target than his primary fire?

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  • This feels really opinion based. You use the alt for long range, normal for short range..
    – n_plum
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 20:59
  • @n_palum Right, but what defines "long range"? What's a good range for me to stop using primary fire?
    – Stevoisiak
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 21:05
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    More specifically, I'm looking for a damage comparison of Roadhog's primary and secondary to find out at what range the secondary is more effective.
    – Stevoisiak
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 21:11
  • Again, asking at what range it is most effective is still opinion based. Especially when taking into consideration things like a player's aiming ability and the movements of enemies. At the point of bursting on the alt fire, you can one shot headshot a lot of enemies, but that's if you can aim well.
    – n_plum
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 21:21
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    When you see the ball explode. You should spend some time in the practice range - it will tell you far more than a text answer could.
    – Wrigglenite
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 21:27

2 Answers 2

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Well the "alternate fire" is just like his "primary fire" except with a longer range. It launches a ball of scrap, and after a short distance, it explodes into a normal shotgun blast. It's meant to be used to kill or harrass people who are outside of your regular primary fire range, assuming your hook isn't available at the time.

A similar question has already been answered on Reddit, where someone has posted a diagram portraying the use of Roadhog's "alternate fire", credit to Redditor _SpliceD;

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  • I've made an edit and I hope it provides some insight into the question and others that may have been asked prior.
    – Riftcaster
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 21:38
  • That diagram made me realize I've misunderstood how Roadhog's alternate fire worked for almost an entire year.
    – Stevoisiak
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 22:59
  • Well atleast you learnt before next year :P.
    – Riftcaster
    Commented Jun 3, 2017 at 23:05
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    @StevenVascellaro You were partially correct in that it does shoot a shrapnel ball which can damage enemies on its own, but I'm guessing you missed the part where it explodes into the shotgun blast after a distance. That is why the wiki includes the 50 damage in addition to 2-9 per pellet.
    – VanBuzzKill
    Commented Jun 4, 2017 at 2:50
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The general rule of thumb is that if they're more than 1 tracer blink away it's best to use the alternate fire. At this range the primary fire deals the maximum damage (at the maximum range) (after this range your damage will start to drop off), however after this distance the secondary will maintain maximum damage (for roughly twice the distance of the primary).

As a separate thing, using the secondary for any less than 1 tracer blink means it won't explode and is basically useless.

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