The Handmade Shell, while a bit crude, is a default ammunition type that comes preloaded in weapons such as the Waterpipe Shotgun and Eoka Pistol. In addition to this, it’s also the only ammunition type that is compatible with Shotgun Traps.
The ideal fire distance for handmade shells is incredibly short but capable of dealing lethal damage to players in almost any armor type at point-blank range.
Handmade shells are a default blueprint on vanilla servers and are available to craft by all players. Part of the shotgun family of ammunition, they are compatible with any shotgun weapon type. They are also more commonly used during the earlier part of a wipe due to their reliance on stone instead of metal fragments to craft.
Handmade shells are an early choice amongst ‘eco’ raiders that want to gain easy access to player bases through wooden doors or walls (see raiding tutorial) without making an overabundance of noise. They can potentially impact with 20 lower-damage beads, with that damage decreasing further very rapidly over distance.
Similar to 12 Gauge Buckshot, handmade shells may be loaded into Auto Turrets with a shotgun-type weapon for base defense but are highly ineffective at practically any distance.
The Handmade Shell’s most significant utility is for base defense as Shotgun Trap ammunition. Specific base design strategies use this combination of trap and ammunition as a focal point of offline and online base security.
