You Are Empty: 6000-Pellet Shotgun Guide

You can make the shotgun in You Are Empty fire 6000 pellets with one trigger pull by editing a single text file. This page shows which file to open, which lines to change, and what the other weapon and player variables do.

The short version: the weapon and player values are plain .lua scripts in the game folder, so any text editor will do and no extra tools are needed. Open weapon_obrez.lua, set m_bullets_in_shot to 6000 and save. The game lags for a few seconds on each shot at that setting. Changes like these can make the game easier, so I would play through on the unmodified files first.

Find the weapon scripts

To reach the game folder, right-click You Are Empty in your Steam library, pick Manage, then Browse local files. From there go into gameres\scripts\you_are_empty\prototypes\weapons. Each weapon has its own .lua file in that folder, and you can open any of them in a text editor such as Notepad++. The game's shotgun, the Obrez, is weapon_obrez.lua.

The file lays out the weapon's variables in a clear structure, with some basic scripting around them. Change a value next to a variable and save the file.

Make the Obrez fire 6000 pellets

These game values can be edited simply, and the result is the Obrez firing a huge cloud of pellets. Only m_bullets_in_shot is needed for that. The other changes are optional tuning around it. As of the launch build, the Obrez fires 5 pellets per shot by default. Restart the game after saving if it was running. The meaning of each variable is in the reference below.

Variable	Original	Changed	Reason
weapon_obrez.single.m_bullets_in_shot (required)	5	6000	The 6000-pellet shot
max_ammo (in the properties block)	60	666	Carry far more shells
weapon_obrez.single.m_bullet_damage	50	1	Each pellet does much less damage
weapon_obrez.single.m_shot_disp	25	150	A wider cone of spread
weapon_obrez.single.m_shot_recoil	3.5	9	A harder kick when firing
weapon_obrez.m_clip_size	2	6	A larger magazine

m_ammo_for_shot stays at 1, so each shot still uses one round.

Weapon variable reference

These variables appear across the various weapon scripts. The lists are a starting point and not a complete reference, and they may change with game updates. The generic weapon behaviour, such as how reloading and ammo handling work, lives in base files under gameres\scripts\engine\prototypes\weapons.

Ammo and magazine

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
loaded_ammo	Rounds in the gun	Does not set magazine capacity. It appears to decide how much ammo is loaded when you first pick the weapon up.
all_ammo	Ammo you receive when picking the gun up
max_ammo	Total ammo the player can carry for this gun
m_clip_size	Magazine capacity	Must be equal to or higher than loaded_ammo
m_ammo_for_shot	Ammo used per trigger pull	0 gives infinite ammo
m_ammo_class	Name of the ammo the gun uses	The prototypes\ammos folder lists the available classes
m_ammo_type	Companion setting to the ammo class	Copy it from another weapon script

Damage and range

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
m_bullets_in_shot	Bullets or pellets per trigger pull	Raise it on any gun to turn it into a shotgun
m_bullet_damage	Damage per bullet or pellet
m_bullet_impulse	Force applied to physics objects and NPCs	Very high values send enemies through the terrain
m_bullet_min_dist	Shortest distance a bullet can travel	Seems to add some randomness to bullet range
m_bullet_max_dist	Longest distance a bullet can travel
m_bullet_dist	Average bullet travel distance	Unclear, but it appears to set how far the wrench can hit

Spread and recoil

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
m_shot_disp	Shot spread	Higher means more spread
m_shot_disp_zoomed	Shot spread while aiming	Higher means more spread
m_shot_recoil	Recoil	Higher means a harder kick
m_shot_recoil_zoomed	Recoil while aiming	Higher means a harder kick

Fire rate and effects

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
m_rate_of_fire	Rounds fired per second	For comparison, an AK fires about 10 rounds per second
fire_finish_interruption_time	Delay before the next shot while the firing animation plays	At 0, the whole firing animation plays out before the next shot
light_enable	Whether the muzzle flash gives off light	true or false
m_shot_effect_name	Name of the muzzle flash effect file	For example, the SMG could use the shotgun's flash
m_shot_point_name	Point on the gun where the muzzle flash appears
m_trace_bullet_effect_name	Bullet tracer effect

View and aiming

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
m_normal_fov	Field of view tied to the gun	At the time of writing it seems to do little, since the game has a FOV slider
m_model_fov	Field of view used to draw and position the gun model	A higher number shows more of the gun, as if it were pushed forward
m_zoomed_fov	How much aiming zooms the view	A smaller value means a stronger zoom
m_zoomed_mouse_sens_scale	Mouse sensitivity while aiming
m_hide_crosshair_in_zoom	Whether the crosshair is hidden while aiming	true or false

Animations

Each states_design entry sets the animation and its playback speed for one state of the gun. A higher anim_speed plays the animation faster, and you could swap in a different animation, for example the reload animation for drawing the gun. The reload entry also sets reload time, and a higher number reloads faster.

Variable	State it covers
states_design["show"]	Drawing the gun
states_design["hide"]	Putting the gun away
states_design["idle"]	Idle
states_design["fire"]	Firing
states_design["zoom_in"]	Aiming
states_design["fire_zoomed"]	Firing while aiming
states_design["reload"]	Reloading

Player and NPC variables

The player values live in actor_player_design.lua, in the folder gameres\scripts\you_are_empty\prototypes\actors\actor_player. The NPC rows are in the same table.

Player

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
stay_height	Player height
sit_height	Crouch height
max_health	Player maximum health
walk_forward_speed	Sprint speed	The names are swapped: this one is sprinting, and run_forward_speed is normal walking
walk_backward_speed	Backwards walking speed	You can make backwards movement many times faster than forwards
run_forward_speed	Normal walking speed
jump_height	Player jump height	Handy for getting unstuck and for reaching out of bounds areas
min_steps_time	Shortest time between footstep sounds
max_steps_time	Longest time between footstep sounds	Setting both to around 25 gives very slow footsteps
m_health_regeneration	Health regeneration speed	0 by default. Raising it turns regeneration on, and 20 is the value suggested.
actor_spawn_props_default	A large array of what the player starts with on each level	Copying the default table into a level's array starts a game with all weapons

NPC

Variable	What it controls	Extra notes
turn_speed	How fast NPCs turn
view_fov	NPC vision cone, in degrees
view_dist	How far NPCs can see, in meters