Becoming a Better Sniper
by Jacob "Euchre_King" Wedlick
Hail to the king, baby.
~TABLE OF CONTENTS~
INTRO
WEAPONS
TACTICS
ENEMIES
END
=INTRO=
Do you ever get tired of running across the battlefield, about to cap the winning point, and then all
of a sudden you find yourself ragdollized and sitting against the nearest wall, only to find some prick
in oversized sunglasses smiling to himself smiling at your death? If the answer is yes, there are two
good options: become a Spy and put a knife in his back or become a Sniper and perform brain surgery the
old fashioned way.
Now, I am by no means a "1337 5n1pz0r", but the first few hours I put into Sniper I died in every way
imaginable because I was doing everything WRONG. Some people can turn sniping into an artform, causing
people to scream at their monitors and slam the F10 key. I am here to tell you it is not as hard as it
looks, and with this basic guide you too can ragdollize people before they even know what hit them.
=WEAPONS=
1. Sniper Rifle
2. Submachine Gun
3. Khukuri (also known as Machete)
1. Sniper Rifle
This is the main, and most of the time only, weapon you will use. It holds 25 bullets and is bolt
action, meaning that there is a reload time after every shot. Right clicking will bring up the scope
and you will see a colored dot in the middle of your screen that grows in size and brightness as the
bars on the side of your screen fill up. These bars represent the power of your sniper round. A fully
charged round will take out class if you hit him in the head, and most classes in the body. If you are
good you CAN hit something while unscoped, but even if you hit them in the head it won't be a critical
hit, so use it as a last resort.
2. Submachine Gun
This is your secondary weapon, it holds four clips of 25 ammo each and is fully automatic. I'm going
to come straight out with it: This thing is a piece of crap. I consider it the worst weapon in the
entire game. Only use this if you absolutely have to, like if an angry Pyro is running at you and you
want to take a few potshots while you run to someone who can kill him for you. Some people may
disagree with me on this, but it's my guide and they can free to write their own.
3. Khukuri
This is your melee weapon. Yes it is called a Khukuri, it is not called a machete. There is a
difference. Now that I've cleared that up just know that this is your basic melee weapon. Getting a
kill with it then teabagging shortly after (so it shows up on the freezecam) shows that you are better
than the person you just killed in every way shape and form. In fact they should format their hard
drive and cry in the corner.
=TACTICS=
1. Finding a Good Spot
2. Aiming
3. Psychological Warfare
4. When the Situation Turns Bad
1. Finding a Good Spot
The first thing you want to do is pick a spot far away from the enemy. You want to put as much
distance between you and them as possible. If you're having trouble judging "far away", from the
building on the first cap of Gold Rush to their spawn is a great distance. Although you want to stay
far enough away to not get killed, you do not want to be too far away, you have to be able to aim.
Another part of finding a good sniping spot is finding good cover. You want to make it hard for people
like heavies and soldiers to hit you from far away. Barrels, low walls, and anything about waist level
make great cover. Do not forget that you CAN crouch, and I have found it beneficial to do so. It
makes you a harder target to see and consequentially harder to hit.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing about finding a good spot is to make sure to keep your back against a wall.
Anything to the back or side of you is an instant kill for a Spy, and unfortunately you are an
incredibly easy target for them. Imagine you're taking a leak against a wall and someone comes up
behind you and throws a bucket of green paint on you. If the enemy team can see any green, you're
screwed. Yes that was a ridiclious example but you won't forget it.
The final piece of information is do not keep camping the same spot. Eventually you're going to upset
somebody on the opposing team and are going to end up splattered on the wall behind you.
2. Aiming
After you have found a good spot to hunt your prey, the next thing you have to do is take aim. It is a
scary thought but you have to aim at your targets. Right click to bring up your gun and look through
your scope. As mentioned earlier there will be a colored dot in the middle of your screen. The most
important thing that new snipers don't know is THE ENEMY CAN SEE THIS DOT. This may seem like a bad
thing that the enemy possibly knows where you're aiming, but you can use this to your advantage, which
I'll explain later.
So since they can see this dot what you want to do is, if you're looking down a doorway, estimate head
level of the enemy and move the dot to the side of the doorway. This way they will not see the dot and
you have lured them into a false sense of security.
Next is actually hitting enemies. The biggest mistake new players make is chasing enemies. If you
chase your enemies across the screen with your dot then you will not end up hitting them. What you do
instead is when you see an enemy, put a dot on a point in the screen ahead of where they're running and
wait for them to run into it. For example, on 2Fort, if they are running out from the right door of
their battlements and running to the left door, then you would put the dot before the left door at head
level and shoot once the dot is on their head.
One thing you might like to know about aiming is how physics come into play. When a Scout, Soldier, or
Demoman flys into the air, at the top of their jump they come to a complete stop for a split second.
An object (in this case a Team Fortress 2 character) cannot change direction (from up to down) without
stopping at some point. And when something is still, that's the best time to shoot it.
On that same note, try to find enemies who are unaware. Any enemy who isn't looking or shooting at you
is automatically a top candidate for your head removal services.
The next thing you need to know about aiming is how to prioritize your targets. As a general rule of
thumb: heavies, medics, demomen, soldiers, and espeically enemy snipers are the most important threats
to your team. I would include Spies in that list, but a good Spy should not make it obvious that he is
a spy. Scouts and Pyros are very fast and hard to hit, so usually you would save your time and ammo
and let a Soldier or another class take care of them. Engineers who shoot at you are usually just
trying to distract or annoy you.
Some other things about aiming you should know are first of all, you do not always need a head shot.
Many times a body shot will kill them or at least mortally wound them. An assist can be just as
important as a kill. Another thing is don't try to make ridiclious shots. Wait until you get a good
bead on somebody who's running in a straight line, or even better find someone standing still.
3. Psychological Warfare
One of the most important parts of being a good sniper is the art of psychological warfare. If you can
mess with your opponents heads, you can make them move and behave in predictable ways.
The first example is our lovely dot. Even though you want to keep your dot hidden so the enemy does
not know there's a sniper, sometimes them knowing about you can be used to your teams' advantage. If
you put your dot in a doorway, someone will usually see it and will not come out of the doorway because
they know what will happen when they run out. But if you keep them in the doorway, a friendly demoman
can bounce a few grenades around the corner and gib them to kingdom come.
Another great way to mess with your opponents is to shoot them in the body, but not kill them. When
they see most of their health disappear they will run back to the spawn to heal or run around in
circles frantically screaming for a medic. This will then cause the other team to group together more,
since the players who just died and the player who just ran to the spawn will most likely stick
together, they can all be taken out easily with explosive weapons. Not only does injuring an enemy
cause them to stick together, it instills a sense of fear into the enemy team, causing them to play
more cautious and possibly scaring them.
The next method of psychological warfare is shooting a sentry. Two fully charged shots will bring down
a level 3 sentry. But this is not always what you want. The engineer is a predictable creature,
running frantically to his injured sentry. The greatest thing about this is most engineers will stand
or crouch perfectly still while fixing their sentry. You know what to do.
The final method of psychological warfare is just firing off a random shot every now and then when you
don't see anybody. The report of a sniper rifle is very distinctive, and your enemies know this. The
sound of a sniper scares players and will cause them to look around trying to find you. This leaves a
great opening for another class to kill them while they're busy looking for you.
4.When the Situation Turns Bad
If you have a good team you should be ok sniping people from your comfy vantage point. But
occasionally the situation turns bad. If you see a Pyro running towards you or you see a spy has
missed a backstab here's what you can do:
Jump off your vantage point (usually it's elevated), pull out your submachine gun (as bad as it is),
and run backwards to the nearest point of safety. This is usually your spawn or a sentry and
dispenser. To get the best results yell MEDIC!, as that will draw attention to your situation and
bring people over to help you.
After that wait around for a while to make sure the coast is clear, then check very carefully for enemy
snipers who may have taken up positions to try and stop you.
=ENIMIES=
1. Scout
2. Soldier
3. Pyro
4. Demoman
5. Heavy
6. Engineer
7. Medic
8. Sniper
9. Spy
One of the great things about Team Fortress 2 is that every class is unique, and thus every class has a
unique playstyle. This means that there should be a unique way to take down each enemy. This section
will provide you with the basics of dealing with your enemies,
1.Scout
Scouts are usually running around the map like crazy people. If you happen to see one running in a
straight line or standing still for some reason go ahead and take a shot. If not, ignore him unless he
gets close to you. In that case pull out your SMG and run to safety.
2.Soldier
Soldiers are fairly slow moving targets. Usually theyre not hard to hit. Your only problem is when
they spot you and try to give you a good ol' crit rocket to the face. Luckily for you, the Soldier has
a fairly short attention span. If you run away and come back he may have forgotten all about you. If
possible, try to catch him while he's reloading or out of ammo. That's the time to show him how
useless that helmet is.
3.Pyro
Pyros used to not pose much of a threat if you were in a good spot because they were a close range
class. Thanks to the update, they now have a flare gun and many of them are now good at harassing you.
Pyros are also fairly predictable. They will run back and forth behind cover taking pot shots at you
with the flare gun. They almost always run in the same straight line left and right. Just put your
happy dot in one spot about head level and when he runs out again give him some discount brain surgery.
4.Demoman
The Demoman is also a fairly slow class. The main thing is to keep distance between you and him. If
he sees you he will rain stickies all over your sniping parade. The Demoman weapons have short clips
with long reloads and high damage. Another important note is they have proportionately large bodies
and small heads, so a bodyshot is usually best unless you can find one standing still stickying an
area.
5.Heavy
These are the "broad side of a barn"'s that you supposedly can't hit. They are by far the biggest
targets and have the biggest heads. If they're moving while shooting it's usually in a straight line
so just wait for them to sidestep into ragdollization. The most important thing to remember is if a
Heavy sees you, do NOT run. He can't do any real damage from far away, but you can. When your
crosshair goes back to your normal spot after he shoots you that's usually where his head would be.
Also, if you see one running away he is either injured or out of ammo. If he's injured you wouldn't
want him to suffer would you?
6.Engineer
Engineers are notorious for standing still and whacking away at their beloved structures. Sometimes
you get an Engineer who grows bored because he put his sentry too far back and isn't seeing any action.
They will then pull out their pistol and force you into a game of peek-a-boo. Remember that this is
exactly what they want so you don't notice the heavy coming up the hill. Don't spend too much time on
him, just remember that nine times out of ten he will run left and right in a straight line, and that
obnoxious yellow hardhat is a great target.
7.Medic
The Medic is the second fastest class in the game, and rarely stands still. The only time they really
stand still is when they are around a corner and think they're ok. All you have to do is remind them
that they're not. The best thing about medics is that you see a big colored beam coming from them
saying "HERE IS YOUR NEXT TARGET". Use him to find other targets, and remind him that he's never
allowed to stand still.
8.Sniper
When you are in a heated face-off with another Sniper, the Sniper will behave the same way the Engineer
and Pyro do: peek-a-boo. You just have to remember to stand your ground and wait for him to walk into
your dot. Snipers move very slow when they're scoped, and they love to stand still. Another important
thing to note is that few of them will expect you to be crouching, so make sure to punish them for
their ignorance.
9.Spy
The Spy loves to backstab Snipers, especially the n00b Spy. Just look for the classic tell tale signs:
Medics not healing, players with your name, people humping dispensers... You know them all. If you
see one uncloaking or disguising, make sure to let him know that you know he WAS a Spy... The hard
way. Also make sure to taunt so he gets angry and switches to another class.
=END=
Well, this is the end of my guide. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If
you would like to add anything I will make absolutely sure to credit you if I put it in this guide.
Feel free to contact me on my Steam account Euchrexking or on these forums.
Happy Headhunting!