Carnage
| Carnage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Class | Shotgun |
| Type | Power |
| Ammo | Shotgun Ammo |
| Headshot | +85% |
| Armor Pen | 50% |
| Attack Speed | 0.8 |
| Range | 8 m |
| Projectiles | 10 |
| Weight | 9.6 |
| Location | Downtown |
The Carnage is Budget Arms' heavy shotgun, a crude, oversized gun built on one rule: bigger is better. Each shell fires a wide cloud of pellets, and at close range a single blast can tear an enemy apart. It is slow to fire and slow to reload, and its weight slows V down. The Carnage works best in a Body build that charges into rooms and wants each shot to kill. It is also the base gun for the Iconic shotguns Guts and Mox. The Carnage is sold by weapon vendors across Night City and dropped by enemies. A Legendary one drops from the cyberpsycho in On Deaf Ears.
Combat
The Carnage is a Power shotgun. It holds just a few shells, and each one fires a heavy spread of pellets. Shotguns are close-range weapons that can knock enemies off their feet. The Carnage is at its most deadly at arm's length.
The cost is speed. The Carnage fires slowly and reloads slowly, so a missed shot leaves V exposed. As a heavy weapon, it also slightly lowers movement speed and jump height while it is out. It works best when V can choose the moment. Good moments are around a corner, through a doorway, or after an enemy stumbles out of cover.
How to Get Carnage Guide
- Buy the Carnage from weapon vendors, such as the shops in Kabuki, The Glen, Vista del Rey and West Wind Estate.
- Loot it from enemies who carry one.
- Defeat the cyberpsycho Cedric Muller in Cyberpsycho Sighting: On Deaf Ears for a Legendary Carnage.
Carnage Map Location and Quest Guide
- Drive through Downtown in City Center to get Regina Jones's call about Cyberpsycho Sighting: On Deaf Ears.
- Go to the parking area in Downtown marked on the map.
- Find the cyberpsycho Cedric Muller.
- Fight from long range, since Cedric uses a shotgun.
- Neutralize Cedric, lethally or with a non-lethal finish.
- Loot the Legendary Carnage from Cedric's body.
Carnage map location:
Map credit by Map Genie.
Compatible Mods
11 weapon mods are compatible with Carnage.
| Name | Image | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Better Half | 
|
Raises crit chance with the second half of the magazine |
| Condenser | 
|
Tighter pellet spread, less damage per pellet |
| Critochet | 
|
Raises crit chance with ricochets |
| Equalizer | 
|
More damage against Elite enemies |
| Firecracker | 
|
Shoots explosive rounds |
| Kneel! | 
|
Leg shots can dismember and kill instantly |
| Pax | 
|
Makes the weapon non-lethal, more damage outside combat |
| Pyro | 
|
Turns part of the damage into Thermal damage with a chance to Burn |
| Shuffler | 
|
Drawing the weapon refills part of the magazine |
| Swiss Cheese | 
|
More armor penetration, higher Stamina cost per bullet |
| Vivisector | 
|
More dismemberment, then more torso damage for a short time |
Crafting Spec
Weapon vendors sell the Carnage spec. The spec lets V craft Carnage in the crafting menu. Every spec in the game is listed on the Crafting Specs page.
The table shows what crafting Carnage costs at each tier.
| Tier | Components |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 30 Tier 1 components |
| Tier 2 | 30 Tier 2 components |
| Tier 3 | 30 Tier 3 components |
| Tier 4 | 30 Tier 4 components |
| Tier 5 | 30 Tier 5 components |
Upgrades
Standard weapons like the Carnage are improved by crafting or buying a higher tier. With its crafting spec and enough crafting components, V can craft the shotgun at a higher quality. Crafting is faster than waiting for a better one to drop.
Character Builds
The Carnage uses the Body tree. Like A Feather removes the movement penalty for shotguns, which matters on a heavy weapon. Die! Die! Die! adds crit chance at low Stamina and improves fire rate and handling as Stamina drops. Spontaneous Obliteration and Close-Quarters Carnage add a chance to Obliterate weakened enemies at close range. Rush Of Blood speeds up the reload after a dismemberment. With Rip And Tear, a shotgun hit doubles the damage of the next quick melee attack, and the reverse is also true. Those melee hits fill the long gap between shots.
For cyberware, Immovable Force and Shock Absorber reduce recoil. A Sandevistan slows time, which gives V time to aim the next blast.
Its mod slots take shotgun and Power mods. Vivisector raises dismemberment chance and adds torso damage after a dismemberment. Kneel! adds a chance to dismember and kill with leg shots. Swiss Cheese adds armor penetration. Pyro turns part of the damage into Thermal damage with a chance to Burn. Equalizer adds damage against Elite enemies.
Select a Build
Dashes close the gap so the shotgun can blast enemies at point-blank range. A quick melee hit after a shot boosts the next one through Rip and Tear. The shotgun and LMG perks grow stronger at low Stamina, so the build keeps shooting and dashing without a pause.
Attributes: Body 20, Reflexes 20, Technical Ability 20, Intelligence 3, Cool 18.
The perks, cyberware and weapon mods for this build are listed below.
| Name | Image | Level | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Painkiller | 
|
Body 4 | Slow Health regeneration in combat |
| Dorph-Head | 
|
Body 4 | Brief full Mitigation after using a Health item |
| Speed Junkie | 
|
Body 4 | Faster Health regeneration while sprinting |
| Die! Die! Die! | 
|
Body 9 | Higher crit chance and fire rate at low Stamina |
| Bullet Ballet | 
|
Body 9 | Less bullet spread while moving |
| Like A Feather | 
|
Body 9 | No speed penalty with Shotguns and machine guns |
| Don't Stop Me Now | 
|
Body 9 | Mitigation at low Stamina |
| Adrenaline Rush | 
|
Body 15 | More Health and the Adrenaline Rush mode |
| Juggernaut | 
|
Body 15 | More speed and damage during Adrenaline Rush |
| Unstoppable Force | 
|
Body 15 | Immunity to knockdown and other status effects during Adrenaline Rush |
| Calm Mind | 
|
Body 15 | Adrenaline lasts longer before it decays |
| Spontaneous Obliteration | 
|
Body 15 | Chance to instantly kill enemies at low Health |
| Close-Quarters Carnage | 
|
Body 15 | Higher Obliterate chance at close range |
| Skullcracker | 
|
Body 15 | Quick melee hits harder at low Stamina |
| Dread | 
|
Body 15 | Ranged attacks strip enemy armor |
| Rush Of Blood | 
|
Body 15 | Faster reload after a dismemberment |
| Bloodlust | 
|
Body 15 | Dismemberments refill Adrenaline |
| Rip And Tear | 
|
Body 20 | Shotgun shots and quick melee attacks boost each other |
| Onslaught | 
|
Body 20 | Light Machine Gun kills refill ammo |
| Pain To Gain | 
|
Body 20 | Kills recharge Health items during Adrenaline Rush |
| Dash | 
|
Reflexes 9 | Unlocks the Dash and makes it cheaper |
| Air Dash | 
|
Reflexes 15 | Dash in midair |
| Tailwind | 
|
Reflexes 20 | Stamina back from Air Dashes and double jumps |
| Health Freak | 
|
Technical Ability 9 | One more Health item charge and faster recharge |
| All Things Cyber | 
|
Technical Ability 9 | Stronger cyberware stats |
| License To Chrome | 
|
Technical Ability 15 | Stronger cyberware, more armor and a Skeleton slot |
| Ambidextrous | 
|
Technical Ability 15 | A second Hands cyberware slot |
| Name | Image | Slot | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| ThreatEvac | 
|
Circulatory System | Faster movement at low Health |
| Mechatronic Core | 
|
Frontal Cortex | More damage against drones, robots and mechs |
| Self-ICE | 
|
Frontal Cortex | Blocks an enemy quickhack |
| Microgenerator | 
|
Hands | Reloading an empty gun charges an electroshock shot |
| Painducer | 
|
Integumentary System | Turns part of damage taken into damage over time |
| Reinforced Tendons | 
|
Legs | Double jump |
| NeoFiber | 
|
Nervous System | More Mitigation Chance and Strength |
| Militech Apogee Sandevistan | Operating System | Slows time by 85% with crit bonuses | |
| Epimorphic Skeleton | 
|
Skeleton | More max Health |
| Spring Joints | 
|
Skeleton | Stronger Mitigation |
| Name | Image | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Kneel! | 
|
Leg shots can dismember and kill instantly |
| Firecracker | 
|
Explosive rounds |
Lore
The Carnage's database entry is brutally honest about it. Some weapons are subtle, some are elegant, and some are precise. The Carnage is none of those things. Its designers followed one simple rule, that bigger is better. The result is massive and deals ridiculous damage. It also kicks hard enough to pop a shoulder out of its socket. The entry warns against using it without the right cyberware, such as an endoskeleton or carbonweave muscles. Without them, a shooter is better off with a more normal gun. It also breaks easily and is badly balanced. People who buy this kind of gun rarely notice those details.
Its in-game line matches the tone: blast a hole through spacetime.
Notes
- Guts and Mox are Iconic variants of the Carnage.
Weapon Categories
All Shotguns
Every shotgun is listed below. The Iconic weapons come first, then the standard ones.
Iconic Shotguns
| Name | Image | Headshot | Armor Pen | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabai | 
|
+85% | 25% | Dogtown |
| Amstaff | 
|
+150% | 25% | |
| Ba Xing Chong | 
|
Northside | ||
| Bloody Maria | 
|
+85% | 25% | Little China |
| Dezerter | 
|
+85% | 75% | Dogtown |
| Guts | 
|
+85% | 75% | Corpo Plaza |
| Mox | 
|
+85% | 25% | Kabuki |
| Order | 
|
+50% | 100% | Dogtown |
| Pozhar x-MOD2 | 
|
+85% | 25% | Dogtown |
| Sovereign | 
|
+85% | 75% | Japantown |
| The Headsman | 
|
25% | North Oak |
Standard Shotguns
| Name | Image | Headshot | Armor Pen | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnage | 
|
+85% | 50% | Downtown |
| Crusher | 
|
+135% | ||
| DB-2 Satara | 
|
+85% | 50% | |
| DB-2 Testera | 
|
+85% | 50% | |
| DB-4 Igla | 
|
+85% | 25% | Northside |
| DB-4 Palica | 
|
+35% | ||
| L-69 Zhuo | 
|
+35% | 25% | |
| M2038 Tactician | 
|
+85% | 25% | |
| VST-37 Pozhar | 
|
+85% | 25% |