Black Ops 7 Season 2 brings the new SG-12 Shotgun, and it marks the return of the infamous fire Shotgun meta that has dominated many CoDs in the past.

From battle royale to multiplayer, Call of Duty has had plenty of notorious  metas over the years, from the DMR to noob tubes. But one of the most divisive is fire Shotguns, which have appeared in everything from Warzone to Vanguard.

Shotguns are deadly at close range to begin with, but with dragon’s breath rounds, they do a ton of burn damage, not to mention the way they cover the map in flames.

Following the arrival of a new Shotgun, it appears the controversial meta is back once again in Black Ops 7.

Fire Shotgun meta is back in Black Ops 7

As part of the new Escalation Directive event, players can unlock the SG-12 Shotgun, which offers the option for 12 Gauge Dragon’s Breath rounds under the Fire Mods category. This transforms the already strong weapon into an absolute monster at close range.

With the help of the flaming rounds, you can literally melt through enemies by lighting them on fire and dealing burn damage over time, especially if you throw on extended mags to allow you spam lots of shots in quick succession. In the matches we played, it took only two or three shots to take down a player on full health, which is light work if you have a fast trigger finger.

Particularly on small maps like Blackheart or Nuketown, we’ve already seen it completely take over lobbies. It’s even more effective than the Akita, which had been the go-to shotty until it was nerfed in Season 2.

The 12 Gauge Dragon’s Breath attachment does come with some drawbacks, such as a reduction in its damage range. However, as pointed out by ‘Warzone Meta,’ you can get around with this by using the 20″ Hawker Reach Barrel and the MFS Pulse Fire Taclight Laser, which make it very strong up to around 12 meters.

Of course, on larger maps, you might still want to run an Assault Rifle like the AK-27 but if you want something to partner with it using the Overkill Wildcard, the fire SG-12 is almost unbeatable at short range.