Sniper has multiple different play styles. There's the Battlements Camper, the guy that stays on the battlements and cleans up house with ease, people who use the Huntsman, and everyone else. Sure, most of the time you'll just have people chilling in your base in CTF, hanging out on the battlements and blasting, and Huntsman users doing... whatever they do (I use the Huntsman, yippee, I can't aim to save my life). Both of these play styles are valid and effective, though. Almost all of them are (except for solo pushing, that's... not smart)! But how do you use them? What do you aim for? How do you really help your team against a push? I wouldn't make these guides if everyone knew. GENERAL PLAY: RIFLE The Sniper's rifle takes many different forms. We've gone over them in Sniper's weapon guide, and we'll go over them a bit here, too, but more on how to use them. STOCK A good choice for any scenario. No downsides mean it's a solid choice for any situation that would call for it. 450 damage on a fully charged headshot, and you can stay hidden while destroying from a distance. When scoped, your crosshair makes a little ball of your team's color where you're aiming. It's visible to all other players, which can give away your position if you're covering a chokepoint or flank route. MACHINA/SHOOTING STAR (Both of these weapons are the same) The Machina has higher damage than Stock, but cannot fire unless scoped. That means that unless you quick-scope (scoping and immediately going for the headshot or whatever), you can't defend yourself with your primary very well. I guess technically with other primaries you only do 50 damage, but shut up, this is my guide. A fully charged Machina shot does 173 body-shot damage, which makes it great for taking out Sentry's. Since Sentry guns don't have "heads", and can't be dealt critical damage, so the Machina is your best option other than an 8-head Bazaar Bargain. Since Sentry guns only have a maximum of 216 health at any given time, a fully charged hit and a normal hit can take out most of a Sentry's health very quickly. Just keep your distance, though. Sniper still doesn't have a lot of health. The Machina also fires tracer rounds, which can easily give you away. BAZAAR BARGAIN The Bazaar Bargain is the ideal weapon for someone that can hit headshots really well. You start with a lower damage charge rate when scoped, but the more headshot kills you coalesce, the faster it will charge, up to 200% faster with 8 heads. It does the same amount of damage as Stock, and is the second-fastest charge speed behind the Huntsman. Headshots are calculated by whether or not your aiming crosshair is located on the enemy gamer's head when firing; if it is, the game will triple its damage and count it as a headshot. Otherwise, it's a body shot or a miss (tut). HITMAN'S HEATMAKER If there's a swarm of enemies approaching, you can take full advantage of the "Focus"'s not unscoping to quickly clean up. I don't have a lot to say. Deal damage, save your Focus for when you need it. HUNTSMAN I've gone over the whole thing with the Huntsman before, but not super in-depth, and since I'm too lazy to give it its own guide, I'll do it here. The Huntsman is not a hitscan weapon, unlike every other primary for the Sniper (barring the Fortified Compound, but it's literally just the same thing), meaning instead of checking to see if you've clicked on the enemy gamer's head, it has projectiles with travel time. The hit boxes are extremely janky, too. How they work is (basically) if you fire an arrow, and the arrow's hitbox collides with an enemy gamer's hit box, it's registered as a hit. If it hits the enemy gamer's head hitbox, it counts as a headshot. Both the arrows and players have hitboxes, players having different segments for the different parts of the body. However, players also have bounding boxes, which keep the player "in bounds", preventing them from falling through the floor, walking through walls, trees, and other stuff, since the bounding box keeps them from doing that. If the arrow's hitbox collides with the bounding box, the arrow teleports slightly forward, and then again to the nearest hitbox on the enemy gamer, which is often times the head, and counts for a headshot. You can also charge while jumping, move faster while charging, and kill. Kill. Kill. (I'll make a better guide for the Huntsman later ig.)
STRATEGY The Sniper can instantly kill almost any class in the game (except an overhealed Dalokho's Bar Heavy), but to deal with a push, do you take out the pocketed Heavy, or the Medic first? Well, because a Medic has 150 health, the same as a quickscope headshot, it's best to take out the Heavy with a fully charged headshot first, then get the Medic as soon as possible before he can retreat. You could also take out the Medic first, and let your team deal with the Heavy, but it's best to take out the damage dealer instantly and then the healer, since the Heavy still has a ton of health. This goes for almost any pocket push, since a fleeing Medic (or really any class except for Scout) is easy to predict and finish off. The Scout might be difficult to headshot, so go for the Medic to prompt him to either retreat, or DIE.
