I used one at 0% durability for hours the first night I played when it released. Jammed once or twice a mag which is still great. But I no lifed the game, and got completely burned out. 327 hours on steam currently. Might play it again in a month or so.
I mean most shotguns can 1-2 shots an exo in the head no problem, but the Saiga's main strength and what makes it the best gun in the game is its ability to magdump 12 buckshots then do it again 2 seconds later. I don't carry the Saiga for its accuracy and bodyshot/headshot damage, i carry it for the sole purpose of magdumping mutants.
450 Shots until broken * 0.75 (Veteran multiplier) = 337.5 shots before broken, Jamming starts to occur around 50% for most weapons, so after around 170 shots on veteran mode, the Saiga can start to Jam. Mag dumping excess damage can burn it out quickly, especially if you mag dump several bloodsuckers in a row when you only need 4-5 bodyshots to kill them. I think you should shoot in controlled bursts and know mutant breakpoints instead of just magdumping.
I get carried away magdumping on bloodsuckers because I cant tell if I killed it after the 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th shot. Might as well dump all 8 to be sure, durability be damned 😂 (yeah I am broke in veteran)
@@IcedCoffeeGamingi have never had a gun break on me in stalker is it that common? i don’t even bring 170 shots with me i bring like 50-70 shots at most and i just repair every time i go back to a base which is pretty frequent for me. i used the saiga for about 60% of my first playthrough or more and i never even got close to shooting 170 in between going to a base. if it was a tie breaker i could see the argument but i personally have never once considered whether my gun would break while out in the wild. honestly i don’t even think ive ever had a jam except maybe on the valik ak you get near zalyssia with the scope and that was less than 5 times in my entire playthrough
Saiga is officially a Witcher weapon, the perfect monster killer. Slow reload shotguns like RAM-2 and SPSA-14 may have great dps but they WILL get you killed going against tanky mutants! Go with M860 or even TOZ-34 until Saiga.
Just no. M860 might get you killed because you can't kill something fast enough. It's bad. TOZ is worse. SPSA is waaay better than either of them. Speaking as somebody who used the M860 until well past wild island on his first playthrough, so it's not like I have no valid experience.
Saiga is a must have for me. It never leaves my inventory once I get it. It's my main mutant killer. It also downs human in close quarters due to it's ridiculous penetration.
First time I ever used a Saiga 12 in the Zone was in Oblivion Lost 2.2 way back in 2008. You could find it laying on the floor of a shack in the Wild Territory. It had really high durability and could mutilate anything the Zone threw at you. Also, it was the sporting model ("C" if I recall) with a longer barrel than the combat model ("K"). Also a wood forearm and AK-pattern rifle sights. 1:41 "Two-power" is how you enunciate that. The fact that it's expressed as "2x" doesn't make it obvious, though. 3:40 / 6:15 Ackchyually, that would be closer to a DMR. 4:46 Why does Skif reposition his support hand while reloading with his shooting hand?! That's such a rookie technique (if you can even call it a "technique"). 6:07 Capacity is too high for the depth of the mag. Would be reasonable to start out with 5-rounders, then upgrade to 8-rounders. Also, the Holemaker should use 5-round mags. 7:10 Armor and helmets mostly protect against blunt projectiles, and slugs are less blunt than shot pellets. They're still technically blunt, but they also have substantial weight. IRL, a 12-gauge slug can bust the engine block of a Mack truck. 12-gauge bore diameter in metric is 18.5mm or .73 caliber. Slugs are contained in a wad which functions like a sabot, so the slug, itself, is a bit slimmer than the bore. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 17.3mm or .68 caliber.
Me personally I don’t think the Rifled Barrel is worth it because if you run out of slugs you cannot use the buckshot you found. Which is actually incorrect. What it would actually do is increase the Spread on the buckshot, not make it unusable.
I just passed the point no return and have been using saiga for a while and it’s insane how good it feels. I fully upgraded it and use it with kharod. So much fun.
Ultimate killer for up close and personal situations. You really can skip a few aiming-related upgrades to make repairs cheaper, as most times you're just mag-dumping up close. Strangely, right now you can get "extra barrel rifling" upgrade for more armor penetration, without doing "rifled barrel" conversion. Likely a bug and will be fixed later. Only two bad aspects about Saiga is that LITERALLY FINAL BLUEPRINT is past the "Point of no return" as well as drum mag attachment. Again, hoping for more "side-grades"/"alternatives" like Chaser 13 (Winchester 1300), Elliminator (Armsel Striker) from previous games and stuff like AA-12, USAS-12, M4, so there's at least 1 other option that handles slightly different.
best shotgun, i got it early, like early mid, getting out of slag heap, i want to upgrade it but technician was past red forest, oh well that thing helped me out with bloodsuckers better than any other weapon, i cant never go out exploring without my trusty saigaD-12
You can get it that early? I did a marathon all the way to Yantar vehicle graveyard just to get the Saiga. Didn’t want to wait until I run into Nimble .
No, you can get the 12% AP increase with the slowed spread increase. There is no picking one lane and having to stick to it with those barrel upgrades. It is almost surely the way to go as it affects the damage against those 80% armor enemies quite a bit. But the further reduced spread does have that backhanded version of even more range going for it.
Clusterfuck is the best gun in the game imo. Can't convince myself to ever replace it. It's a great headset weapon and I usually just run regular 556 through it since they up'd how quick it's durability drains. I'll use it for humans and I'll use the saiga for mutants. If humans ate close? Skifs pistol.
In my opinion it’s best sniper weapon up until the very endgame. Unfortunately it cannot one shot exosuit monolit guys, even with ap rounds. But for like 70% of a game it’s amazing. Sniper rifle with minimal recoil and sway on hit, 50 rounds magazine, ammo is easily available and cheap and you can even put grenade launcher on it. Only downside is it has very low durability, but I don’t see it as a problem
@@FatGuyEngineer at some point you’ll have to use AP rounds, and later you won’t be able to one tap headshot tougher enemies anymore. Still, exactly what I run. Cluster, saiga and skif pistol/apsb. Try out apsb with ap rounds, absolutely wrecks humans
Clusterfuck works really well in endgame. It is probably the best use of 5.56 ammo in the game. Use AP and it two taps monolith exos. All around i'd argue it as the most compelling light sniper/DMR feeling weapon on offer. It feels positively weird that it is available as fairly early as it is, assuming a more normal and not a guided to get late game gear fast progression path. This guy would probably just read off the spreadsheet and say a bunch of incorrect stuff about it though since the sheet doesn't take into account upgrades. Upgrades are a huge deal with Clusterfuck as it is a T1 gun with cheap yet powerful T1 upgrades, but unique stats that rank in the vicinity of a ~T2.5. Take for instance: The sheet says it has terrible efficiency, but the sheet thinks it is a 41k coupon gun compared to the likes of the Kharod at 28k coupons. They are in fact ~80k and ~200k when fully upgraded, switching the efficiency around entirely.
@@Nidarru I still just use regular over AP as I just 2 tap exo enemies in the head. I'd rather 2 tap than use AP as AP runs the durability down quicker.
I feel like I’m done with the game. Spent almost 120 hours, explored almost al stashes secrets artifacts weapons etc, I will be waiting for dlc or some interesting major updates
Best shotgun in the game imo. Sure the RAM does more damage per shot but it can't dump rounds like the Saiga can. Bursting down annoying mutants like Burers or Polterghasts before they can pop their shields. As for bloodsuckers? They cease being a threat once you've got one of these. You can even kill one during its scream if you can get your mouse over it since it's still semi-auto even in the slowed time, basically stuns itself ready for a face full of buckshot. Then you get to humans and it's still great, 1/2 tapping all the way into the endgame. If I'm entering any close range space where there might be combat 99% of the time I've got this thing in my hands.
Saiga 12 is really one of the best guns in the game, you can delete EVERY MUTANT with it. Literally every mutant. You can deal with a Pseudogiant very easily even in veteran. I mean you can pretty much deal with that meatball with every gun, which have at least 2 penetration and as long as you hit your shots...(At maximum 300 rounds for assault rifles, for the Saiga? Couple mags... Literally 4-5 mags and its a done deal...)
Paired Magazine for Saiga is easily a better option than the Large Magazine. The reload is rapid and increases your overall DPS if you're needing to actually pump that much damage into a larger enemy or even multiple. Try it out. Maybe a exosuit run in one of your myth-busters video. Large Mag vs Paired Mag. The difference is noticeable in larger fights.
One of the biggest arguments made in favor of RAM over this was that RAM by the way it works saves us precious ammunition. This is a real argument but it would only make sense if we were on any other category of weapon because in reality, the 12 gauge must be the only ammunition that we will find for sure during our entire game given that it is used by the enemies from the beginning to the end, in one way or another. This makes it the most abundant ammunition in the entire game in addition to being one of the cheapest to buy. The desire to save this ammunition therefore becomes totally futile. In addition, if we combine this with the fact that the vast majority of players only use this caliber against mutants, it already greatly reduces the consumption of this ammunition without even having to really pay attention to it since we encounter fewer mutants and that in addition, these are often not even worth killing, we will not spend ammunition for that. The argument that could go with the reduced use of ammunition would be that we also save money on the repair of the weapon which again is true. But in reality, as said above, we don't shoot that much with the base but in addition, the 2 or 3 bullets fired in addition with the Saiga so that its rate secures us the opportunity to alabaster an enemy quickly, it allows us to save on the price of repairing our armor in case the enemy has had time to cause us damage, which is often the case while the repair of armor is an even bigger financial drain than the repair of weapons. To conclude, the Saiga may be less powerful per ammunition compared to the RAM but its rate of fire coupled with its reload speed gives us much more margin for error than its abundance of ammunition allows us to have in addition, in a game where mistakes are rarely forgiven.
Love it when a controller or burer shows up and you erase it magdumping with Saiga even before it has chance to do anything.
The Saiga is the best Quality of Life upgrade in the game.
For sure especially against mutants. SPAS is good too but the reload is too slow if you are going against multiple mutants at once.
Skif reloads the spas at the speed of a soldier from squad in a life threatening situation
I used one at 0% durability for hours the first night I played when it released. Jammed once or twice a mag which is still great.
But I no lifed the game, and got completely burned out. 327 hours on steam currently. Might play it again in a month or so.
@@yonghominale8884 nope. Best QoL upgrade in this game is weird water
I mean most shotguns can 1-2 shots an exo in the head no problem, but the Saiga's main strength and what makes it the best gun in the game is its ability to magdump 12 buckshots then do it again 2 seconds later. I don't carry the Saiga for its accuracy and bodyshot/headshot damage, i carry it for the sole purpose of magdumping mutants.
450 Shots until broken * 0.75 (Veteran multiplier) = 337.5 shots before broken, Jamming starts to occur around 50% for most weapons, so after around 170 shots on veteran mode, the Saiga can start to Jam. Mag dumping excess damage can burn it out quickly, especially if you mag dump several bloodsuckers in a row when you only need 4-5 bodyshots to kill them.
I think you should shoot in controlled bursts and know mutant breakpoints instead of just magdumping.
Op basic math strikes again.
Sometimes though you just gotta unleash the inner Frank Reynolds and start blasting 😂
I get carried away magdumping on bloodsuckers because I cant tell if I killed it after the 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th shot. Might as well dump all 8 to be sure, durability be damned 😂 (yeah I am broke in veteran)
@@IcedCoffeeGamingi have never had a gun break on me in stalker is it that common? i don’t even bring 170 shots with me i bring like 50-70 shots at most and i just repair every time i go back to a base which is pretty frequent for me. i used the saiga for about 60% of my first playthrough or more and i never even got close to shooting 170 in between going to a base.
if it was a tie breaker i could see the argument but i personally have never once considered whether my gun would break while out in the wild. honestly i don’t even think ive ever had a jam except maybe on the valik ak you get near zalyssia with the scope and that was less than 5 times in my entire playthrough
Close range... upper body/head and shoulders.
Saiga is officially a Witcher weapon, the perfect monster killer.
Slow reload shotguns like RAM-2 and SPSA-14 may have great dps but they WILL get you killed going against tanky mutants!
Go with M860 or even TOZ-34 until Saiga.
You do not know what the fuck you are saying man
Just no. M860 might get you killed because you can't kill something fast enough. It's bad. TOZ is worse. SPSA is waaay better than either of them. Speaking as somebody who used the M860 until well past wild island on his first playthrough, so it's not like I have no valid experience.
Saiga is a must have for me. It never leaves my inventory once I get it. It's my main mutant killer.
It also downs human in close quarters due to it's ridiculous penetration.
First time I ever used a Saiga 12 in the Zone was in Oblivion Lost 2.2 way back in 2008. You could find it laying on the floor of a shack in the Wild Territory. It had really high durability and could mutilate anything the Zone threw at you. Also, it was the sporting model ("C" if I recall) with a longer barrel than the combat model ("K"). Also a wood forearm and AK-pattern rifle sights.
1:41 "Two-power" is how you enunciate that. The fact that it's expressed as "2x" doesn't make it obvious, though.
3:40 / 6:15 Ackchyually, that would be closer to a DMR.
4:46 Why does Skif reposition his support hand while reloading with his shooting hand?! That's such a rookie technique (if you can even call it a "technique").
6:07 Capacity is too high for the depth of the mag. Would be reasonable to start out with 5-rounders, then upgrade to 8-rounders. Also, the Holemaker should use 5-round mags.
7:10 Armor and helmets mostly protect against blunt projectiles, and slugs are less blunt than shot pellets. They're still technically blunt, but they also have substantial weight. IRL, a 12-gauge slug can bust the engine block of a Mack truck. 12-gauge bore diameter in metric is 18.5mm or .73 caliber. Slugs are contained in a wad which functions like a sabot, so the slug, itself, is a bit slimmer than the bore. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 17.3mm or .68 caliber.
Me personally I don’t think the Rifled Barrel is worth it because if you run out of slugs you cannot use the buckshot you found. Which is actually incorrect. What it would actually do is increase the Spread on the buckshot, not make it unusable.
I just passed the point no return and have been using saiga for a while and it’s insane how good it feels. I fully upgraded it and use it with kharod. So much fun.
Ultimate killer for up close and personal situations.
You really can skip a few aiming-related upgrades to make repairs cheaper, as most times you're just mag-dumping up close.
Strangely, right now you can get "extra barrel rifling" upgrade for more armor penetration, without doing "rifled barrel" conversion. Likely a bug and will be fixed later.
Only two bad aspects about Saiga is that LITERALLY FINAL BLUEPRINT is past the "Point of no return" as well as drum mag attachment.
Again, hoping for more "side-grades"/"alternatives" like Chaser 13 (Winchester 1300), Elliminator (Armsel Striker) from previous games and stuff like AA-12, USAS-12, M4, so there's at least 1 other option that handles slightly different.
Played console and struggled hard with bloodsuckers on veteran (prepatch). Then i picked up this bad boi and i worried no more.
best shotgun, i got it early, like early mid, getting out of slag heap, i want to upgrade it but technician was past red forest, oh well
that thing helped me out with bloodsuckers better than any other weapon, i cant never go out exploring without my trusty saigaD-12
You can get it that early? I did a marathon all the way to Yantar vehicle graveyard just to get the Saiga. Didn’t want to wait until I run into Nimble .
No, you can get the 12% AP increase with the slowed spread increase. There is no picking one lane and having to stick to it with those barrel upgrades.
It is almost surely the way to go as it affects the damage against those 80% armor enemies quite a bit. But the further reduced spread does have that backhanded version of even more range going for it.
no joke im just running 2 Saigas one buck one slug
That's the Spirit 😂👍
@exgebe4407 I call them bucky and slugo
Clusterf*ck review pls , interesting how it works in end game
Clusterfuck is the best gun in the game imo. Can't convince myself to ever replace it. It's a great headset weapon and I usually just run regular 556 through it since they up'd how quick it's durability drains. I'll use it for humans and I'll use the saiga for mutants. If humans ate close? Skifs pistol.
In my opinion it’s best sniper weapon up until the very endgame. Unfortunately it cannot one shot exosuit monolit guys, even with ap rounds. But for like 70% of a game it’s amazing. Sniper rifle with minimal recoil and sway on hit, 50 rounds magazine, ammo is easily available and cheap and you can even put grenade launcher on it. Only downside is it has very low durability, but I don’t see it as a problem
@@FatGuyEngineer at some point you’ll have to use AP rounds, and later you won’t be able to one tap headshot tougher enemies anymore. Still, exactly what I run. Cluster, saiga and skif pistol/apsb. Try out apsb with ap rounds, absolutely wrecks humans
Clusterfuck works really well in endgame. It is probably the best use of 5.56 ammo in the game. Use AP and it two taps monolith exos. All around i'd argue it as the most compelling light sniper/DMR feeling weapon on offer. It feels positively weird that it is available as fairly early as it is, assuming a more normal and not a guided to get late game gear fast progression path.
This guy would probably just read off the spreadsheet and say a bunch of incorrect stuff about it though since the sheet doesn't take into account upgrades. Upgrades are a huge deal with Clusterfuck as it is a T1 gun with cheap yet powerful T1 upgrades, but unique stats that rank in the vicinity of a ~T2.5. Take for instance: The sheet says it has terrible efficiency, but the sheet thinks it is a 41k coupon gun compared to the likes of the Kharod at 28k coupons. They are in fact ~80k and ~200k when fully upgraded, switching the efficiency around entirely.
@@Nidarru I still just use regular over AP as I just 2 tap exo enemies in the head. I'd rather 2 tap than use AP as AP runs the durability down quicker.
Where’s the technician that upgrades?
Yaniv IIRC, possibly cement factory and Malachite. Pripyat for sure as well.
@ thanks. I’ve had the gun since early game could never find a tech.
@@IcedCoffeeGamingonly Yaniv and Pripyat mechanics can upgrade it.
Margach D12 Saiga variant is excellent
You should test the Integral-A two round burst mode. It stacks two rounds basically on top of eachother like youre single firing, and has zero recoil
I feel like I’m done with the game. Spent almost 120 hours, explored almost al stashes secrets artifacts weapons etc, I will be waiting for dlc or some interesting major updates
this is one of the few guns that can stop a leaping bloodsucker before it touches you.
having an autoclicker helps.
Best shotgun in the game imo. Sure the RAM does more damage per shot but it can't dump rounds like the Saiga can. Bursting down annoying mutants like Burers or Polterghasts before they can pop their shields. As for bloodsuckers? They cease being a threat once you've got one of these. You can even kill one during its scream if you can get your mouse over it since it's still semi-auto even in the slowed time, basically stuns itself ready for a face full of buckshot. Then you get to humans and it's still great, 1/2 tapping all the way into the endgame. If I'm entering any close range space where there might be combat 99% of the time I've got this thing in my hands.
I carry the rhino with 9x39 expansive ammo for a good lightweight mutant/backup gun.
The saiga shreds through mid game, in end game i really only use is at a mutant killer.
no one is micro crouching in a gunfight
😂😂 i agree
I do hide behind cover crouched and recommend it to everybody
never met a payday player huh?
MRK 1 EMR next?
Saiga 12 is really one of the best guns in the game, you can delete EVERY MUTANT with it. Literally every mutant. You can deal with a Pseudogiant very easily even in veteran. I mean you can pretty much deal with that meatball with every gun, which have at least 2 penetration and as long as you hit your shots...(At maximum 300 rounds for assault rifles, for the Saiga? Couple mags... Literally 4-5 mags and its a done deal...)
This is my GOTO gun now
Paired Magazine for Saiga is easily a better option than the Large Magazine. The reload is rapid and increases your overall DPS if you're needing to actually pump that much damage into a larger enemy or even multiple. Try it out. Maybe a exosuit run in one of your myth-busters video. Large Mag vs Paired Mag. The difference is noticeable in larger fights.
Is the paired saiga mag even in the game? Like the Drim mag is past the point of no return so it's basically useless
In reality the rubber stock upgrades don't matter cause you only get the unlock after the point of no return. Sadge
It's always in my load out feel naked without it. deals with most mutants pretty well
i think slug only is the way to go on this gun
The problem solver 9000
Say ga. Or Sega.
One of the biggest arguments made in favor of RAM over this was that RAM by the way it works saves us precious ammunition.
This is a real argument but it would only make sense if we were on any other category of weapon because in reality, the 12 gauge must be the only ammunition that we will find for sure during our entire game given that it is used by the enemies from the beginning to the end, in one way or another.
This makes it the most abundant ammunition in the entire game in addition to being one of the cheapest to buy. The desire to save this ammunition therefore becomes totally futile. In addition, if we combine this with the fact that the vast majority of players only use this caliber against mutants, it already greatly reduces the consumption of this ammunition without even having to really pay attention to it since we encounter fewer mutants and that in addition, these are often not even worth killing, we will not spend ammunition for that.
The argument that could go with the reduced use of ammunition would be that we also save money on the repair of the weapon which again is true. But in reality, as said above, we don't shoot that much with the base but in addition, the 2 or 3 bullets fired in addition with the Saiga so that its rate secures us the opportunity to alabaster an enemy quickly, it allows us to save on the price of repairing our armor in case the enemy has had time to cause us damage, which is often the case while the repair of armor is an even bigger financial drain than the repair of weapons.
To conclude, the Saiga may be less powerful per ammunition compared to the RAM but its rate of fire coupled with its reload speed gives us much more margin for error than its abundance of ammunition allows us to have in addition, in a game where mistakes are rarely forgiven.