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Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Oh god, another sniper fanboi trying to throw his crappy version of what he thinks a sniper should do at us". But, I looked through the other guides and found a lot of missing advice, so I figured I'd throw together a great guide that covers most of the bases.


I. INTRODUCTION

The primary role of the sniper is reconnaissance. Too many times people grab a sniper kit and head out to see how many kills they can get in a round. That's not the intended use in any capacity.

The sniper is there to provide intel to the rest of the team as to the location of enemy forces and current situations around areas of interest (capture points in this case).
A sniper should be calling in coordinated support of allied forces. Ideally, the sniper should never fire his rifle.

II. BASICS

IIa. Equipment

Every sniper kit comes with the following:

-1 x knife
-1 x pistol/sidearm with 3 magazines (1 already loaded)
-1 x sniper rifle with about 35 shots total (some rifles have more/less)
-2 x signal smoke grenades
-4 x tripflares
-1 x radio
-1 x GTLD/Binoculars
-1 x Field Dressing

IIb. Necessary knowledge

-Your sniper rifle is zeroed in at 600m, greater ranges will require compensation for bullet drop.
-It takes roughly 5 seconds for deviation to settle completely after moving 5 seconds or more (1 second settle time for every second moving under 5 seconds).
-Settle time between shots is roughly 4 seconds.
-The radio is to help you call for support and to help plot out enemy locations for your team.
-The GTLD is for marking targets for CAS/Mortar support. It also has a rangefinder on it to tell you the distance to your target (for taking a shot or for marking the location of an enemy)

III. TACTICS

IIIa. Cover

Too often in PR, snipers can be found in the highest (and most vulnerable) of tactical positions. For instance, on Muttrah, it's a guarantee you'll find a sniper hiding up in the hills on the outskirts of the city. Places like these are the worst places you could pick to do your job from. The enemy typically always checks there, and your silhouette sticks out like a sore thumb.

Instead, you should be trying to set up your nest inside a secure building if it's available. My favorite buildings to shoot out of are the "T" shaped buildings that can be found on a number of maps. They give you a lot of angles to fire from, you can switch rooms, and they're pretty easy to keep secure. Avoid getting on the roof, as once again it's extremely revealing. And with the addition of deployable mortars, being on the roof of anything is typically a death wish.

You want to get inside a room and be as far back as possible with solid cover around you to limit your enemies' ability to see/shoot you. I would advise against going to the highest floor with cover, as it's also a pretty dead give-away because alot of folks tend to look there. Try the floor just below that one to set up at.

Once you establish a good sniper hide, you need to keep yourself as invisible as possible. Stand as far back from the windows as possible when you can, standing close to a window to shoot out of is a sure way to get quickly discovered.

IIIb. Security

Maintaining a secure hide is essential to staying alive as a sniper. Trip-flares are fairly under-used, but can help save your life if properly deployed. Don't set them in obvious places where folks are going to see them and be able to work around them.

Typically I set one at the top of the stairwells, as people typically run up those without looking. It's best to set a trip flare to at least one floor below you, so when it goes off, you have time to react before the enemy is on you. What I typically do is switch to my side-arm and switch to another room, watching the entrance for the enemy to come in. If the building has multiple levels, but is still able to be scaled via a grappling hook, you'll want to set a trip flare for the floor above you as well.

IIIc. Your squad

Ideally, a sniper should never ever EVER be travelling alone. You should be working with at least a spotter to help you in your job of keeping tabs on the enemy. Most modern snipers in urban environments operate with a security team, which is something you should take into consideration on PR.

A full squad isn't necessary, and can typically get you discovered if one person's lagging behind or does something stupid. No more than four people at the most. The squad make-up would be as follows, in order of priority:

Sniper
Specialist
Medic
Officer

Specialists are invaulable to snipers, they can allow them access to areas that might otherwise be out of reach. They're also handy for making a hasty exit of a building. They're ideal for being part of your security team because they have a shotgun, which is extremely useful in CQC.

Medics are self-explanatory, they keep you alive in the unfortunate incident you're discovered.

Officers can help by setting down rally-points, and helping mark enemy locations without the sniper needing to switch to his radio and fumble through all the procedures there.

Having these others with you can help increase your survivability and mobility. You can typically have the other member(s) of your entourage go in and help clear a building before you go in to set up shop.

IIId. Taking the shot(s)

As stated before, ideally a sniper should never fire their weapon. However, in the event you need to, you need to follow this motto:

"Don't make shots, take them."

What that means, is to let a shot present itself to you, don't go too far out of your way to try and kill somebody. If you try to make up a shot, you could miss, and compromise your position. Let the enemy wander into a shot where you can effectively eliminate them with the first round.

If you miss, or your target survives the first shot, you can attempt a second follow-up shot at your own discretion. However, if the second shot fails, it's best you don't try another one, as any further shots are going to help give you away if the enemy hasn't already pinpointed your location.

When you take a shot, successful or not, it's best advised you duck down to avoid immediate detection. If the enemy does start to hone in on your location, it's best you go ahead and vacate your hide as quickly and safely as possible.

IIId-1. Hitting a moving target

There are two methods that come in to play when shooting a moving target: Ambush sniping and lead sniping.

Ambush sniping is where you predict your target's movement and place your sights ahead of him. From there you wait for him to wander into the shot, and squeeze the trigger. In my opinion, it is the easiest and more preferred method of sniping. Ambush sniping is also ideal for locking down enemy movement across choke points like alleyways or between any multiple points of cover. This method of sniping is essential when utilizing a marksman rifle, because when you move your sights, it adds a small bit of deviation.

Lead sniping is as it would sound, you get your crosshairs infont of your target and continue to keep them ahead of them as they move.

Hitting a moving target requires you to have a good feel for the bullet travel time between you and your victim. The best way to get a feel for it, is to practice. Launch a solo game and send out rounds until you're comfortable with your shooting.

IV. END

Hopefully this guide has helped teach some of you something about how to more effectively utilize the sniper kit. If there's any questions or concerns, feel free to post them here and I will gladly help address them in any way I can.

Good hunting to you all!

Great guide. I thought I knew everything about the sniper-kit, but obviously I didn't.
If you want to make guides about other kits, I suggest you do, as you explain everything very well.

Well thought out guide, I will have a print out of this on my desk for my next sniper operation

I think a marksman kit is way more useful if you are a sniper in an urban map (Fallujah, Karbala etc.), Because you are able to take out people with a few fast shots then.

3 people follwing the sniper i kinda think its a waste much rather just have a spotter and a sniper. 4 people in total will just blow his cover and the 2 could be used for other roles needed in the game.

Awesome Guide.

RealKail wrote: Ideally, the sniper should never fire his rifle.

SL have GTLD + Radio too...
If you want only camp, and make reconnaissance, better let your team take HAT its much more useful. No shooting sniper its wasted limited kit.

Actually, if you have a nearby crate you only need 2, maybe 3 guys. Sniper, Specialist, Marksman. When a soldier dies, you run and grab a medic kit or an officer kit. Since the sniper kit and marksmen kit usually work best when in a full squad as a pickup and throwaway kit it's important that you can be every squads own sniper in the area, if you have made a sniper squad, which means that you need a good commander which you can talk to, who also talks to the other players.

I was playing a round as a sniper, talking' to the commander and guiding mortar rounds via him on Muttrah city. I called in a mortar strike which took out an AAV and at least 3 other infantry.

A sniper is an important asset to the 'commander', he gives him information and can assault targets if needed, just like a predator drone with its hellfires.
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A sniper also works as a good brake in the opposing teams offence, if you can pickoff a squads officer, medic or maybe even a HAT guy, it will force them to smoke up and revive the guy.

Protip:always have your pistol out if you want to occupy a building.

ghost-recon wrote:I think a marksman kit is way more useful if you are a sniper in an urban map (Fallujah, Karbala etc.), Because you are able to take out people with a few fast shots then.

I believe the deviation of a marksman rifle is effected by stance where a sniper rifle is not. Therefore, firing from windows would heavily favor sniper rifles on an urban map. On a rural map, sniper rifles are still better for dedicated sniping because they can zoom in much farther.

A marksman is better when moving with a squad.

Marksman rifles can be deployed, no loss of accuracy per stance.

At the risk of being a bit contraversial here, is it not better to go sniper on the big hills? Sure, the enemy know you're there, but if you have a medic you could be up there all game and you can effectively see the whole city.

Your post mentions that in an ideal round a sniper won't fire a shot, but then tells us to go and find a hide from which to snipe from (city buildings aren't nearly as good as those massive hilltops for spotting FOB's.

If you get killed 10 times on the hilltops by CAS/mortars, I think you'll still be able to see more and aid your team more than if you never die but see less from a city building.

I never play sniper though.

Tried sniper once but could not get a spotter.

I have played Marksmen a few times successfully.

Buildings would be great places, if you could crouch to fire, or move far enough back and still see out of the window. However many windows are either too high for crouching, or not wide enough to allow you to move back in the room and take your shots further back. On urban maps the buildings tend to be close so you can't get a wide field of view (Fallujah works fairly well though).

Over all I agree with Mike, the hills while obvious are a good place. High ground, hard to assault, and offer good cover. It often takes so long to scan for someone in the hills (like Muttrah) that you can shoot the guy looking for you because he has to take so long. Or you can reposition yourself.

It also allows you to see more areas and call in more mortar strikes.

I think the Marksmen kit works best in the city limits and buildings because of the way he is set up. Sniper works best from mountain. Just my opinion.

Very very good guide though. You always need a spotter.

I have played lots of times with a friend ( I was the shooter, he was the spotter with the officier kit ). I remember we have never been seen in the round. While I was taking out the highs targets, he was checking if I hited and if no one was looking at our direction. Plus he had the GTLD and he was able to tell me the range if needed. You really survive longer with a second guy next to you than without ( as long as you move regulary and don't shoot for frags ).
Nice guide, but sniper are always blamed as soon as they open fire. Snipers are a really good element to get down specific targets when you are defending an objective. Another time I was alone but in mumble with two squads, we were defending an objective. They was shooting the grunts and the armored, I was shooting the officiers, gunners and ennemy snipers when needed. Well, that was a nice round

Snipers aren't good in this game, I am talking about the actual players sniping. I try to create a sniper squad VIA VOIP and mumble, man... I think those who actually get the sniper kit should be kicked or not allowed to use the kit.

@Mikemonster : I can tell that I have do both, first in the hill when I wasn't a good sniper, at the begining, then in the buildings ( especially the "T" buildings, I love them ) and I can tell you that I have made many more round without being killed in the buildings than in the hills.

Hills = good for spotting, but also very spotable ( exept if there is a lots of trees around (cf : operation archer ), in this case you can hide youself pretty quickly, and a very looong exit way if spotted.

Buildings = less sight, but lots of cover ( if you are being spot you can change stair so they can think you are more than one in the building ), good and covered exit way.

The buildings also protect you better against the vehicules because when you are spot and shoot on a hill, you'll have to run for a long time to hide youself, and sometimes it is not enought because the vehicule just only to move 50 meters and he can engage you again... This kind of things doesn't happend when you're in a building. If you are spotted, and if you are not killed by the first shots xD, you can run away by several ways, stairs, if specialist in the squad you can use the graplin, you can jump from the first stair ( it will hurt but you'll still alive, it saved my life one time. The guy tried to flank me but I jumped and he realised I was behind him only when I shot 5 pistol bullets in his chest =D ), you can also hide youself in the building and hopping that the vehicule will think he kiled you...

Ironically, people don't bash you for being a "noob" sniper if you are on the insurgent team with a pickup sniper.

I guess they have better things to do like defend a cache instead of wasting their time calling you a noob.

It's probably because insurgency don't really care about snipers. Most people don't know where the kit is. Personally, the insurgency sniper kit is one of my favorite ( retro style xD )

RealKail wrote:-Your sniper rifle is zeroed in at 600m, greater ranges will require compensation for bullet drop.

When will people learn that this is pure legend? The sniper in PR is zeroed in at zero, the bullet starts dropping immediately after it leaves the barrel; in real life and in PR.

It's a different thing in what distance you notice it, I've had to compensate for the drop even below 300m when there has been only a small part of the target visible.

Check the code of the (/any PR-) weapon if you don't believe me.

splatters wrote:When will people learn that this is pure legend? The sniper in PR is zeroed in at zero, the bullet starts dropping immediately after it leaves the barrel; in real life and in PR.

It's a different thing in what distance you notice it, I've had to compensate for the drop even below 300m when there has been only a small part of the target visible.

Check the code of the (/any PR-) weapon if you don't believe me.

Actually, once it hits the 600 meter mark it will start to drop.

Fyi, in manual we shall beleave.
If manual says 600m, it means 600m!
(Even thought I had to adjust for bullet drop before 600m its still a conspiracy)