Zoom adds a multiplier to your range. Optics / Sights / Scopes help decrease the Damage Drop-off Over Distance Penalty, and the rare, Custom Optics Perk adds a pretty noticeable difference to your damage over distance. This is a mini episode, only about 90 seconds. Hope this helps when deciding what perks to roll with :) This is a follow up to my Range / Aim Assist / Accuracy video. BTW: [u]If you hipfire[/u], you have [b]ZERO Zoom[/b], meaning there's a significant [u]range penalty[/u]. Ya.. Bungie really doesn't like hipfiring now. Strange, Halo used to be all about hipfire. Hmm [u]All weapons have a base Zoom when aiming.[/u] Shotgun - 1.2x Auto Rifle, Fusion Rifle, Machine Gun - 1.5x Hand Cannon (I believe Hand Cannon Zoom was nerfed at some point, so it could potentially be 1.5x), Pulse Rifle - 1.7x Scout Rifle, Rocket Launcher - 2.0x Sniper Rifle - 4x So basically, hipfiring with a shotgun is like removing that 1.2x range multiplier. Damn. Also, shotgun handling was nerfed (handling is how fast you switch weapons AND how fast you Aim Down Sights). Ya, remember how the Snapshot Perk (Aim Down Sights 30% faster) felt useless? Now that seems important, huh? haha If you have any questions, let me know! This Reddit post has a lot of good (albeit somewhat outdated) info, which includes many zoom values / optics if you really really wanna know the numbers behind it: https://redd.it/2i75yk