With LTLX7000 being out, the main question asked of most shotguns is "are they as good as LTLX?" As for M26-MASS, she does her damn best trying to be. While LTLX has her SUPER dumb damage mitigation in her active skill, M26 has it baked in as a passive. If any damage she takes is 5 or lower, it’s completely ignored, as if she had very good flash rounds. This is applied AFTER armor mitigation AND flash rounds. With flash rounds, she’s essentially immune to anything 8 damage or lower, which is very strong. However, if the enemy does too much damage, this passive does nothing. However, in current day, LS26 exists. This fixes damage taken to 5 which, spoiler, is negated by MASS's skill. Can be very strong to force MASS to tank some insane things. How often will that be used? Eh. It's neat at least.

The one thing she does have going for her with her passive is that she can actually mitigate damage that bypasses armor. You can entirely mitigate stuff like grenades through it. You could sit in gundam range for a bit and not fussed about it. You could even sit in Typhon lasers and be fine. (Depending on firepower of Typhon, please do not attempt without consulting a local doctor)

Overall, she does fall short of LTLX just due to the sheer power of doubling your armor along with 20% DR. The utility of her active also is less relevant compared to LTLX. Removing HP shields and buffs (which get far more common) is stronger than a Molotov and DR to backline. To add to that, the 6 second initial cooldown hampers the effectiveness of the backline portion of the skill. This is because most things that do target the backline would already be skullfucking you at that point. Other cases this is bad include maps M26 shouldn’t be brought to for one reason or another, like when shotguns are bad for it in general or you can’t use machine guns.

Oh hey. DPS shotgun. Like every other DPS shotgun, she has the issue of “when would this even be relevant?” So, I’m not going to focus on that.

The main eye-catching bit of her skill is the instant kill shot once she hits 100 stacks. While useful, it only happens once per battle, so you can’t rely on it. Her real strength comes from her having perfect accuracy, higher knockback chance, and no need to reload. This can make her an absolute monster when knockback is desired.

The problem with this comes with the constraints that you need to follow to really get her going. First, you need another shotgun with her, which isn’t terribly difficult. Next, you need to have her hit 100 stacks. You get one per hit on an enemy, which may sound like a lot, but it isn’t. This takes into account dummy links, as well as the fact that shotguns hit multiple enemies, so you can get up to 25 stacks per shot. (Assuming you’re using bird shot, which you should be using) It’s entirely feasible to get 100 stacks in one of her mags. However, this can be an issue in battles with lower enemy count, which will hamper her stack gains.

The change of artist did her a world of good. She went from kind of cute to straight up hot. Too bad your waifu still sucks. She isn't the shittiest shotgun in the game, but her mod's not exactly groundbreaking. The decrease in enemy movement speed is almost an afterthought since it lasts one second and she has a very low rate of fire making the skill questionable at best. If the duration were longer and knockback didn't have such a low chance to go off maybe it'd be better, but alas.

The other shotgun besides KSG that has +Armor skills. Has higher HP and really good armor, but has an offtank aura meant for 2-shotgun formations which means you'll either need to move her every fight or have another shotgun. The aura effect is less flexible than a firepower buff, but potentially useful buff to a lot of MGs like M2HB or PK who could really use an acc boost. Regardless, If the primary consideration is just sheer defensive power, she makes an decent pick.

CAPTAIN CHINNNAAAAA! Surprisingly good for a free unit. Has the lowest armor among the shotguns (tied with Super Shorty), but she will get you started considering how easy it is to get her. Aura optimized for 1SG/1HG/3MG setups, and works well with Mk23 and M2HB (which are both given for free to new players too). Has a very tiny 3-shot magazine compared to the usual 4 most SGs get which limits her firepower somewhat, but her skill offsets this a bit. A flawed unit and not a first pick for many lineups, but most SGs are interchangeable as far as front-row tanks go anyway, even if she's not as good at it as the other ones you'll get eventually. Her main merits are a decent aura shape and being free.

She does have a mod which...kinda makes her better? Will add that article soon...probably.

Called "The Northern Hemispheres" for fairly obvious reasons. Somehow, someone decided "Featherlight" clearly means "biggest tits on a t-doll possible." Her skill lets her do a bit of damage except you dont care about that sort of thing on a shotgun and its not like the skill has time to trigger on a typical fight (most SGs dont get to use their skills anyway). Still, well... she's a shotgun with 22 base armour. This puts her ahead of the lower end shotties like supershorty.

Despite having the lowest armor among the shotguns (tied with Captain China), her skill offsets this a bit. Also has the lowest HP among the 4 star shotguns though, but whatever, she can still take hits. Her main downside is the shitty aura, but she can at least do the job of eating hits.

Unlike the other shotguns, she's focused on firepower instead, with her skill basically making her go DAKKADAKKADAKKA. You would want an Acc scope on her so she can actually hit anything. Sometimes used in 1SG/1HG/3MG formations to provide MAXIMUM FIREPOWER. Tiles are a little eh for that though. Armour is average.

The Queen of Gluttons, and reason you lock up your ration storage. If you get -MRE tiles on random nodes, don't believe the fake news, its just a cover for her breaking into your food stores. No seriously, all her damned lines are related to food, EVEN HER OATH LINE.

Actually has a really nice skill but has fairly average stats. Her skill doesn't work with slugs, only further highlighting how shit slugs are. Her defenses are actually not as good as some of the others, but she has good offensive stats (for a shotgun). Basically a direct upgrade to unmodded Type-97.

A Heavy Cruiser from Kantai collection that got lost somewhere.

Not a superlative shotgun, but has a decent aura for 2SG formations where she wants to be in the 3 position, because 20% firepower is nice if you absolutely need a second shotgun and have no room for an HG. Her skill would be better if it didn't have such a godawful startup time. Like SPAS, her armour is not exceptional.

21 Armour and her HP isnt high enough to make up for it at a mere 231 per dummy link (compare 275 for SPAS-12!). Her skill doesn't help her tank, and while her skill kinda helps a little for mass knockback, her ammo count is awful, so you can't rely on it.

She's better than nothing, but you already get SPAS-12 for free.

She has Python-like activation requirements to pop open free shields, which can be useful for some situations. YMMV overall.

OK, your mileage may vary a lot for this one. Her Armor isn't great and she herself isn't exactly super tanky without her skill up. On the other hand, her skill might buff your other shotgun(s), so it may be useful for that.

I struggle to find something nice to say because I legitimately forgot she existed. She has one of those experimental skills that might have some value, but isn't enough of a game-changer to really displace current normal tactics and strategies.

Expensive AND still doesn't do anything useful? Say it ain't so.

Shame, since I like the shotgun, but she sucks harder than the vacuum cleaner she should be using instead of her broom.

Note from Kyazuki: Xecty doesn't like DPS shotguns, but she's alright if you want her for that. Probably not worth the cost for most.