Basic Sniper strategy

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I'm gunnin' for ya, you mongrels! Click to listen — The Sniper

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The Sniper excels in picking off enemies from great distances. His ability to headshot lets him deal severe damage to foes before they can even get close. Important targets for a Sniper include enemy Snipers, Medics, Heavies, and Engineers, enemies that tend to withstand or avoid direct assaults. The Sniper is one of the weakest classes at close range combat and is often targeted by classes that operate alone, such as Scouts and Spies. If cornered and alone, he is likely to be killed. A good Sniper supports his team's combat classes from behind, frequently changes sniping spots, and stays aware of his surroundings.

Primary weapons

All of your primary weapons can charge to deal significant damage but fire slowly, so your aim has to be precise. Experiment with your mouse sensitivity until you feel comfortable. If it is too low, you will have difficulty aiming at enemies who actively dodge. If it is too high, you will have trouble aiming at more specific targets, like your enemies' heads. If you are firing from a hidden position, remember that the deathcam reveals your location to the enemy. Switch positions often and keep an eye out for any enemies that try to flank you, especially Spies.

Sniper Rifle + reskins

The Sniper Rifle is completely accurate and can zoom in on faraway enemies. While zoomed in, the Sniper Rifle accumulates charge that causes it to deal extra damage. Additionally, headshots while zoomed are always critical hits. Take your shots depending on the target:

• A charged bodyshots are useful against a dodging Scout, rocket-jumping Soldier, or charging Demoman.
• Uncharged headshots are more appropriate for an immobile Heavy or enemy Sniper.
• An unscoped, uncharged shot deals a solid 50 damage to a weakened foe.

Even if you may hide away from enemies, the Sniper Rifle projects an obvious laser dot; if you want to hide it, aim elsewhere or take cover while charging.

Huntsman + reskins

The Huntsman fires slow arrows, which travel in a slight arc and can still headshot. The Huntsman cannot zoom in at all, giving you a broader battlefield view but making it difficult to target faraway enemies. Fight closer to the front lines, but stay behind teammates and take cover when possible - arrows take a good time to reload. Keeping an arrow drawn for longer than five seconds tires out the Sniper's arm, causing the arrow to go astray; alternate fire lets you stop charging your arrow to save it. Certain allies, such as friendly Pyros, can light your arrows on fire, allowing you to ignite enemies from far away.

Sydney Sleeper

The Sydney Sleeper is team-oriented version of the Sniper Rifle. It charges 25% faster, applies the Jarate debuff when you land a scoped shot, but only deals mini-crits instead of critical hits when headshotting. Apply Jarate on important targets, like an enemy Heavy and Medic combo, to weaken them for your team. Because the Sleeper deals less direct damage, you are weaker when dueling an enemy Sniper with the default Sniper Rifle and may miss kills a normal headshot would obtain. If you end up fighting alone against a Jarate-d enemy, follow up with uncharged shots or another weapon that benefits from Jarate. Overall, the Sydney Sleeper sacrifices powerful headshots to improve your bodyshots.

Bazaar Bargain

The Bazaar Bargain rewards consistent Snipers that are able to land headshots and stay alive. While the weapon begins with a 50% reduced charge rate, every headshot kill increases the gun's charge rate to a maximum of 100% faster. You might find it difficult to initially deal with bulky classes, such as the Soldier, without landing headshots. Focus on acquiring headshot kills against weakened enemies, then enjoy being empowered with quick-charging shots. You lose all bonuses if you die, so don't complacently stay out in the open even once you're on a roll.

Machina + reskins

The Machina's fully charged shot deals 15% bonus damage and, while tricky to line up, can pierce through multiple enemies. The fully charged shot is best for aiming at the bodies of clustered enemies, as a fully charged headshot from the Sniper Rifle can already instantly kill an overhealed Heavy. Using the Machina requires more caution than normal. It cannot fire when unscoped, so you will want to carry a proper secondary weapon like the Submachine Gun for close range fights. The Machina's tracer rounds also reveal your location after every shot, so keep switching locations to avoid counterattacks.

Hitman's Heatmaker

When using the Hitman's Heatmaker, you will build a Focus meter as you acquire kills and assists. Pressing the reload key will drain any Focus acquired to activate a meditative state where you charge shots 25% faster, don't unscope after each shot, but use tracer rounds similar to the Machina. These boons let you fire off stronger, more accurate shots that should take out enemies before they see your tracer and take cover. Bodyshots from this weapon suffer a 20% damage penalty and are unable to instantly take out any of the weaker classes, even if fully charged. The more accurate you are, the more you can ignore this downside.

Classic

The Classic is a callback to the old Sniper Rifle of Team Fortress Classic. It allows you to charge your shot while unscoped, at the cost of moving slowly while charging. However, it can only headshot once fully charged and deals less damage on bodyshots. Most significantly, the Classic cannot be used for quick-scoped headshots, leaving you at a disadvantage against enemy Snipers. The Classic's charge mechanics allow you to view your entire, unzoomed screen at any time, useful when tracking a target or watching for flanking enemies. Overall, you gain additional vision at the cost of damage.

Secondary weapons

Submachine Gun + reskins

The Submachine Gun is stronger than your melee weapon and fairly accurate, but still not great for direct combat. Nonetheless, it is one of your best close range options. Use it to finish off weakened foes or fight enemies that are difficult to hit, such as Scouts. It is easier to defend yourself with the Submachine Gun rather then the Jarate when you're operating alone or away from teammates. It pairs well with the Sydney Sleeper, to finish off enemies affected by Jarate, and the Machina, which is difficult to use at close range.

Razorback

The Razorback will protect you from one enemy backstab before breaking, emitting an electronic sound and disabling the Spy's equipment temporarily. However, it deprives you of a secondary weapon and renders you unable to be overhealed, making it much harder to defend against close foes. A Spy will typically switch to his Revolver upon seeing the Razorback, which can still kill you before you react. Thus, the Razorback works best when fighting near allies, where an enemy Spy would risk revealing himself to your entire team if he were to attack you. The Submachine Gun or Jarate might be better anti-Spy choices if you're operating alone.

Jarate + reskins

Jarate is thrown like a grenade and inflicts a debuff upon its victims, causing all soaked enemies to take increased damage in the form of mini-crits. In large firefights, keep a moderate distance, douse multiple enemies at once, and let your teammates finish the job. You can pair it with the Bushwacka to quickly dispatch foes that get too close. Additionally, Jarate can be used to extinguish burning allies, including yourself, and easily nullify a Spy's Cloak and disguise. Jarate does replace your Submachine Gun, making it harder to fend off enemies alone.

Darwin's Danger Shield

The Darwin's Danger Shield gives you full afterburn immunity and 50% resistance to fire damage, but removes access to a damaging secondary weapon. This gives you some protection when facing enemy Pyros that manage to maneuver to your sniping position, but also makes you unable to effectively fight back. Stay closer to the main battle, where you can escape to your team if an enemy Pyro finds you.

Cozy Camper

The Cozy Camper is a secondary weapon that enhances long-ranged sniping. It prevents flinching when your shot is fully charged, great when your enemies are harassing you with minor attacks that would otherwise affect your aim. To make use of this effect without drawing attention, you will probably need to fully charge your shot before leaving cover. The Cozy Camper also lessens all knockback experienced, further aiding precision when aiming. Its innate health regeneration can help negate damage from afterburn or bleeding inflicted by various long range weapons. The lack of a secondary weapon encourages you to camp away from the front lines (hence the name!).

Cleaner's Carbine

The Cleaner's Carbine is a weaker backup weapon than the Submachine Gun, but brings potential for more offense. The Carbine builds up a "CRIKEY" meter as it deals damage. Alt-fire when the CRIKEY meter is filled grants guaranteed mini-crits for eight seconds. Find opportunities between sniping, such as killing weakened enemies or dealing chip damage, to build up CRIKEY. Once the mini-crit boost is acquired, pick a weapon to rampage with. If you switch weapons, the Huntsman or Bushwacka work well with mini-crits. If you stick with the Carbine, focus on accuracy instead of firing rapidly, as reloading will consume a little over a second of your mini-crits.

Melee weapons

Kukri + reskins

If you are forced to enter melee combat with the Kukri, avoid blindly charging in and try to dodge enemy attacks - your low base health and short melee range leaves you vulnerable to ranged weapons. Instead, strike once the enemy has depleted their ammo and is reloading. If you do not need to approach an enemy, use your ranged weapons until aiming becomes difficult.

Tribalman's Shiv

The Tribalman's Shiv deals reduced damage but inflicts bleed. When including the bleed effect, one hit from the Tribalman's Shiv does more damage than the Kukri, but over a longer period of time. Despite dealing higher total damage, hitting a healthy enemy with this weapon will usually not dissuade them from continuing to attack you. Land one hit, then back away to supplement the bleed with ranged attacks. The Submachine Gun or Jarate can be used alongside this weapon for consistent, moderate damage. The bleed effect can also be used to track down Cloaked Spies, as they will flicker each time they take damage.

Bushwacka

The Bushwacka deals critical hits whenever you would normally mini-crit. It can be combined with mini-crit boosts from your various weapons, including the Sydney Sleeper, Jarate, and Cleaner's Carbine. Out of all of these, using the Bushwacka in combination with Jarate to quickly dispatch nearby foes is most consistent. It is least effective alongside the Sydney Sleeper, as enemies will rarely charge directly at you while afflicted by Jarate. Be wary when approaching your target, however, as the Bushwacka's low melee range and increased damage vulnerability will allow enemies to kill you faster - most notably the Scout or Soldier, who may kill you instantly with a point-blank Scattergun or Rocket Launcher attack.

Shahanshah

The Shahanshah deals 25% less damage (49 damage) when you're above half of your maximum health and 25% more damage (81 damage) when you're below half of your maximum health. Use other weapons, such as the Huntsman or Submachine Gun, for close range combat until your health is low enough that you can use the Shahanshah as a strong last resort.

See also

• Community Sniper strategy
• Sniper match-ups
• Team strategy