Apex Legends: The Mozambique Is Doing Its Best, So Why Does Everyone Hate It?

Why does everyone hate the Mozambique shotgun in Apex Legends? It’s simple really: it’s !@#$ing trash.

Why is the Mozambique shotgun so trash? Now that, my friends, is a bit of a story.

The SA-3 Mozambique was initially introduced in Titanfall 2, the precursor to today’s Apex Legends. In Titanfall 2, the SA-3 started out as a semi-automatic shotgun pistol with a 4-round magazine. However, it later became a fully-automatic shotgun with a 5-round magazine after a patch in October of 2017. It also became a primary weapon instead of a secondary weapon to better account for its greater power as an auto-shotty.

By the time Apex Legends had its surprise release on February 4th, 2019, the Mozambique had undergone quite a transformation. Gone was the fully-automatic shotgun of Titanfall 2, and instead, the Mozambique was back to its semi-automatic roots. It also somehow lost 2 rounds from its magazine, going down to a paltry three shells.

What’s worse, the Mozambique had an enormously long reloading animation, which meant that if you didn't make each of those three shots count, you had a nearly three-second wait before you could fire again. Three seconds is an eternity in Apex Legends, and this greatly contributed to the Mozambique gaining the reputation as the worst weapon in the game.

Why The Mozambine Is A Burning Dumpster Fire

In online shooters, time-to-kill (TTK) is everything. All things being equal, the gun that can deal more consistent damage faster to your opponent will determine the winner of each engagement. Unfortunately, the Mozambique’s TTK is utterly atrocious.

On an unarmored, unshielded opponent, the SA-3 Mozambique takes 0.91 seconds to kill with dead-center body shots. Compare that to the R-301 Carbine at 0.49 seconds, and any engagement where two people armed with these weapons simply start firing at each other's chests, and the Mozambique would lose every time.

Even against less powerful weapons, such as the RE45 Auto (0.69 seconds) or the Alternator submachine gun (0.7 seconds), the Mozambique still loses. Only against the humble P2020 pistol (0.94 seconds) does the Mozambique actually stand a chance, and only by the slimmest of margins.

Apex Legends: The Mozambique Is Doing Its Best, So Why Does Everyone Hate It

However, even then, most players would take the P2020’s longer range and more consistent accuracy over the Mozambique.

Things get marginally better if you’re shooting at an unarmored opponent’s head with the Mozambique, where TTK can drop to as little as 0.49 seconds. However, this assumes you’re at very close range and are skilled enough to strike an evading target twice in the head. In more real-world scenarios where the target is both armored, shielded, and too far away to ensure the Mozambique’s spread still entirely strikes the target, TTK can take anywhere from 3-5 seconds -- more than twice as long as any other weapon.

What Can Be Done About The Mozambique?

Respawn Entertainment, the makers of Apex Legends, knows that the Mozambique is trash. Mozambique memes have spread on Reddit to the point that the little semi-auto shotgun pistol is a widely understood joke.

Apex Legends: The Mozambique Is Doing Its Best, So Why Does Everyone Hate It

One such meme even got a response from Respawn senior designer Sean Slayback. When asked if the Mozambique might receive some balance changes in upcoming patches, Slayback replied: "Current plan is to keep enjoying the memes. In the meantime, remember that ADSing chokes the spread down, which makes it easier to hit that pattern. 2 to the chest, 1 to the head."

On March 4th, Respawn even acknowledge the Mozambique’s pathetic reputation in its “thank you” video for reaching 50 million players. While the video went on to display impressive statistics for the month-old game, the statistic shared of the Mozambique was a little tongue-in-cheek.

Perhaps Respawn will change its mind in the future, but for now, you’re almost always better off ignoring the Mozambique in favor of any light pistol or SMG. If you do get a kill with one,though, you can add your name to the elite group of Legends that manage to kill using the Mozambique.

The Mozambique is undoubtedly the worst weapon in Apex Legends.