AA-12-Buster

A shotgun based on AA-12, which allows you to switch between different types of ammunition. In Challenge modes, you can fire special ammunition with high damage and accuracy.
- Weapon description

AA-12-Buster

PVP
PVE
PVE Charged

Overview

Aliases

AA-12-Zombie Destroyer

Type

Shotgun

Manufacturer

Maxwell Atchisson

Origin

United States of America

Obtainable

Defense Mode Boxes
Black Market
Item Shop

Technical statistics

Ammunition

12 Gauge shells (PvP)
12 Gauge special (PvE)
12 HE (PvE, Buster Shot)

Magazine

23 / 23 (PvP)
37 / 111 (PvE)
10 / 0 (PvE, Buster Shot)

Firing Mode

Full automatic

Secondary

Ammo swap (PvE)

Others

Kill Icon

AA-12-Buster is a specialized variant of AA-12 in CrossFire.

Overview

This AA-12-Buster is a special automatic shotgun that fed with 12 Gauge shells. It uses an extended drum magazine that holds 23 shells per magazine (+3). It also has a slightly faster drawing and reloading speed rather than the original weapon.

When this weapon is used in either Zombie Mode or Defense Mode, just like M240B-Tesla, it becomes an anti-zombie shotgun. In these modes, AA-12 Buster is equipped with special 12 Gauge shells, which are much lighter (for faster draw / reload speed) and narrower spread - more importantly, they are smaller so the drum can now hold 37 rounds. The charging bar also fills much faster than M240B-Tesla, and when it is full, pressing RMB will switch the normal drum mag for a stick magazine with 10 rounds of HE Shells, which deal massive explosive damage against the zombies/enemies. Finally, this gun will always have the charging bar filled upon re-spawning, so players won't have to wait for it to fill upon re-spawning after getting killed.

Advantages

Normal mode

Moderate to high damage dealing.
Fast rate of fire.
High magazine capacity.

Challenge/Defense mode

High damage dealing.
Very fast rate of fire.
Very high magazine capacity.
High accuracy.
Fast drawing speed.
Fast reloading speed.
Narrow shell spreading.
Each shot stuns the enemy.
Capable to switch the ammunition into HE shells.
Charging bar will be filled upon re-spawning.

Disadvantages

Normal mode

Slow drawing time.
Slow reloading time.
Heavyweight.
Only has one spare magazine.
Easily to runs dry.

Challenge/Defense mode

Requires the full charging bar to be able to switch to HE shells.
Limited HE shells magazine capacity.
Easily runs dry.
Charging bar will reset if the player drops/trades the weapon.

Availability

CF China
CF Russia
CF Brazil
CF North America
CF Vietnam
CF Japan
CF Philippines
CF Indonesia
CF Europe
CF Español

Trivia

World

This is the first gun to feature three different skins in one (M240B-Tesla has 2 skins in one). In normal mode, it has a normal Buster skin with black drum, while in ZM/DM the drum is painted with anti-zombie logo. In Bomb Blast mode, the drum mag is replaced with a stick magazine (10 rounds), also painted with special Bomb Blast mark.
- It's also the first weapon to utilize 3 different ammo types - normal 12 Gauge (Red shells) in normal mode, 12 Gauge special (Blue shells) in ZM/DM and 12 HE (Grey shells) in charged mode.
- Despite this, the newest variant AA-12-Infection only has 2 skin (as the ZM/DM skin is used in normal mode, despite having a separate Bag Icon / Item Icon for normal mode view).
AA-12 Buster is the first Anti-Zombie weapon to feature Weapon Inspection animation upon first entering a ZM room (for owner) or first picked up by any other player. The M240B-Tesla simply reused its reload animation for this purpose.
It is possible to conserve HE shells if players have already switched ammo and fired some - just press RMB again to switch back to normal ammo. The energy bar will only be emptied once 10 HE rounds have been fired.
The ammo buff for this gun is quite odd, as normally CF weapons receives +10 or +15 in this range - yet, AA-12-Buster has a +14 (Or when comparing to original AA-12, +17). Also, unlike the M240B-Tesla, this gun doesn't receive extra mag in ZM / DM, despite being designed specifically for these modes.
- This trait was corrected in CF Mobile for the equivalent variant, the AA-12 Hellfire, that has 25 rounds mag (PvP) and 40 rounds mag (PvE)
Unlike M240B-Tesla, the AA-12 Buster gets very limited boost in normal mode - it draws and reloads only very slightly faster. This is presumably because AA-12 Buster uses lighter buckshot ammo in ZM/DM, so it's lighter weight and thus can be drawn/reloaded faster.
It's unknown why AA-12-Buster has 3 different killmarks (Normal, Charge and PVE), of which the latter two would never be used in ZM/DM. Probably "PVE" also contains Bot TDM, and the Charge shot might be usable in Mutation Mode in the beta but was dropped.
Interestingly enough, the Buster Shot can penetrate glasses roof on Dinner Theater without breaking it. This means it can be used to kill the flaming Jumpers before triggering Bullet Time, as long as players aim and fire correctly at the moment the Jumpers hit the glasses.
Because of the instant-fill energy bar upon respawning in ZM, one of the most devastating tactics for this gun when fighting against bosses is to simply fire off 10 Buster Shots, drop the gun (for your teammates) then commit suicide. Respawn with another AA-12 and you can blast off 10 Buster Shots again then repeat. This will allow for very fast boss defeating as long as you have enough Revival Tokens to spare.
- This tactic can be even more devastating if players own multiple AA-12 Buster (Or just have one along with Infection variant) and AI Bag Switch item. They can fire 10 Buster Shot, switch bag then fire another 10 one until they run out of AA-12 Buster and then commit suicide. A maximum of 70 shots are available upon every respawn, which can seriously damage any bosses.

CF North America

This gun is given to players who pre-order Barrett M82A1-Iron Shark (30d), hinting that a temp variant can come separately from permanent variant.

CF Vietnam

AA-12 Buster is categorized as Black Market Item and thus won't drop when its owner get killed. However in ZM/DM, if the owner gets killed while using Bomb Blast, the gun will actually drop and other players can grab it. This makes "sharing" this gun easier if players have AI Bag Switch item and cannot drop weapon, as they just need to get killed while having Bomb Blast active.

CF Philippines

Just like the M240B-Tesla, this weapon is undroppable upon death, as it is categorized as a Specialized Weapon.
It is also one of the obtainable rewards in the Return User Support System for 3 days (stackable)

CF Indonesia

CF Indonesia is the only version to feature AA-12 Buster in its own capsule rather than bundling it with other weapons. It's also the one of the versions that has AA-12 Buster with a damage bar (the other one is CF Brazil).