Combine SPAS-12

"Here, I have a more suitable gun for you. You'll need it—Catch!"

- Father Grigori

The Combine SPAS-12 is a powerful pump-action shotgun that fires buckshot in a cone-shaped pattern. It is used by various characters and NPCs in Half-Life 2 and its episodes.

Overview



 * The SPAS-12 is first given to Freeman by Father Grigori in the sixth Half-Life 2 chapter "We Don't Go To Ravenholm...".


 * The SPAS-12 fires one shot if the main fire key is pressed, and will fire two shots at once when the alternate fire key is pressed. The alternate fire uses two shotgun shells at once. However, when Gordon pumps the shotgun, only 1 shell is ejected.


 * This weapon is used by both Rebels and Overwatch Soldiers, who have a different uniform than regular soldiers.


 * When the gun is reloaded, Freeman inserts one shell at a time. The reloading process can be interrupted at anytime by hitting any of the fire keys.


 * After the Nova Prospekt chapter, Kleiner greets Alyx and Gordon with a SPAS-12, mirroring a scene from Half-Life.


 * In Episode One, the SPAS-12 is found in the chapter Lowlife, along with the USP Match.


 * The crosshair itself actually shows bullet spread of the shotgun, from a given distance


 * In the Episode One Hospital, Alyx picks up a SPAS-12 that she effectively uses against opponents. Just like with her gun, it appears to have unlimited ammo.


 * In Episode Two, it is found in the chapter To The White Forest, while trekking through the Victory Mine.

Tactics



 * The SPAS-12 is very effective at close range against most targets. However, its effectiveness decreases significantly with range because its pellets spread more the farther they go.


 * The SPAS-12 is one of the most effective weapons in the game, as the single shot's spread is tight enough to hit enemies at up to medium range, and it does a lot of damage per pellet. Its ammunition can be found very often as well.


 * Ammunition for the SPAS-12 is extraordinarily common. SPAS-12s found on the ground or dropped by Overwatch Soldiers supply a full magazine of 6 rounds, and boxes of ammo contain a staggering 20 shells. Two boxes of ammo can fully resupply even an empty SPAS-12 with some shells to spare.


 * The double-shot is very powerful, but its large spread means that it should only be used at short range.


 * The SPAS-12 is a very good weapon when dealing with Zombies of nearly any type, and their Headcrab counterparts can be dispatched very quickly, easily, and safely with the SPAS-12. Even if only a few pellets hit a Headcrab, their combined damage should be more than enough to kill it. If you are fighting Poison Zombie using SPAS-12 however, use caution and make sure you are loaded to 6 rounds first, because it is more durable than other type of Zombies, and 3 Poison Headcrabs it carries make it dangerous even for SPAS-12 users.


 * It may be desirable to enter a firefight with the SPAS-12 and, once the supply of shells has been exhausted, switch to a backup weapon instead of reloading.


 * A common tactic when using the SPAS-12 is to reload every one or two shots if possible to avoid the long reload time. However this is generally not recommended if multiple enemies are at close range.


 * Compared to its Half-Life counterpart, this weapon has less ammo that can be carried and lower magazine, making it less useful in firefights, but it deals higher damage than Half-Life counterpart.


 * When dealing with Zombies, aim for the head to avoid fighting the Headcrab, two round burst is the guaranteed kill. As long as the "killing shot" is aimed at the head, the Headcrab should die.


 * The SPAS-12 is the most effective weapon against Antlions.

Behind the scenes



 * The SPAS-12 in the leaked Half-Life 2 Beta has a completely different model and completely different firing sounds. The sounds can still be found in retail sound files. The model appears in the E3 2004 trailer and in the retail game files as a "DirectX 7" model, although its textures are missing.

Trivia

 * The animation for Resistance NPCs is changed in Episode One, the firing animation of female NPCs will fire his shotgun from the hip, thus increase the rate of fire, while the male NPCs will fire in same way as in Half-Life 2. The reload animation is also changed, pump the shotgun in the air after put a shell. In Half-Life 2, the Resistance NPCs will fire his shotgun from the shoulder and it has much slower pumping rate, thus they are incapable to defend himself while attacked by enemies that use automatic weapons at close range, since the Resistance NPCs will have aim first before firing, during this process, if they are attacked, they are unable to shoot the shotgun and will have to re-aim again. Unless they are on move which is much more effective as they will fire the shotgun in semi-automatic.


 * NPCs appear to use the SPAS-12 semi-automatically when on move, as there is no pumping sound between shots, and the rate of fire seems to be slightly higher than the player's shotgun. Also, when a Combine soldier is shooting, it appears as though they discharge four shells through both barrels, and then a single shell due to the fact that they only fire five shells before they reload.
 * The NPCs will only shoot the SPAS-12 in pump mode when they standing still. And most notably, it has much slower firing rate than player.
 * It's also possible to force the Combine soldier to fire the sixth shell, but they will only shoot then player continues chase the soldier while retreating.


 * The Nova Prospekt Prison Guards seem to use the SPAS-12 more frequently than normal Overwatch Soldiers, perhaps due to the shorter combat ranges and therefore enhanced shotgun effectiveness.


 * As with the original SPAS-12, artwork often depicts Gordon Freeman with it, making it the only weapon besides the crowbar he is depicted with in concept art.


 * Its possible to alter the number of pellets in the shell used by SPAS-12, via the console command.


 * In real life, the SPAS-12 cannot fire two shots simultaneously, as it only has one barrel. In the case of Half Life 2, the ammunition tube on the bottom becomes the second barrel. It's possible that the gun was modified to have both barrels use the Metal Storm system (which multiple projectiles loaded nose to tail in a single gun barrel with propellant packed between them) to fire both barrels simultaneously. Another (and more practical) possibility is that it is modified to fire a two-round burst, but the rounds come out so fast that each burst acts as if it is a single round in gameplay, making the weapon's secondary fire technically burst-fire, but functionally semiautomatic (although the first round ejects semiautomatically and the second round ejects by pumping the gun). This could attribute to the gun's select-fire ability as in real life it can switch from pump-action to semiautomatic.


 * Left 4 Dead 2 by Valve also features the SPAS-12, in the form of the Combat Shotgun. The Combat Shotgun from Left 4 Dead 2 features the SPAS-12 with its stock folded up. It also fires semi-automatic, as opposed to the SPAS-12 in both Half-Life games' story arcs, which fires using the pump-action mode.


 * Unlike how the NPCs reload the SPAS-12 all at once, the player must reload one pellet at a time.


 * In Episode One, when Alyx takes a SPAS-12, she will take the furthest shotgun (from right to left) in the rack, and this SPAS-12 will always be unobtainable for the player. Even if the reserve ammo for the SPAS-12 is altered to be far more than normal, the player will still not be able to retrieve it, get ammo for it, or pick it up. The SPAS-12 is essentially just a prop only for use by NPCs.
 * It is also possible that Alyx will take a different shotgun instead of the one on the end, but the SPAS-12 she normally takes will still not be obtainable in any way for the player.

List of appearances

 * ''Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Source Particle Benchmark
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two