Since it always has Cunning and Endurance at the minimum, it can only be equipped by certain character classes and companions. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the shotgun is a secondary weapon which has variable characteristics like endurance, accuracy, and so forth. For soft targets (unarmored), this is very damaging to flesh, but useless for meat hunting. A shotgun variation not found in the game is "flechette launcher" which uses an explosive charge to throw a pattern of small aerodynamic darts in a cone from the smoothbore barrel. If multiple metal pellets or spheres are used in a loaded shell, it is suitable at shorter ranges for small game like fowl or rabbits.
If a single pellet (sphere or sabot) is used, it is of a large caliber and suitable for medium to large game at short to medium ranges. Briefly, a shotgun is a shoulder-fired weapon with an unrifled (smoothbore) barrel and is intended to fire one large or multiple smaller pellets of metal. "Scattergun" is slang or informal terminology for a shotgun class of weapon.