Sniper Rifles

Sniper rifles are specialist rifles that offer excellent accuracy at long range at the price of a low rate of fire and no burst mode.

It is well worth equipping one or two members of your squad with sniper rifles for missions against the transgenants, regardless of what stage of the game you are at. It is a good idea to get one or two of your squad members to specialise as snipers when they get enough experience to level up.

As sniper rifles outrange Reticulan weapons, it is usually a good idea to equip several members of your squad with sniper rifles for the first stage of a UFO or alien base mission. The best way to deal with a Reticulan with a plasma launcher is to take him down before he can get close enough to fire at your squad. A soldier equipped with a sniper rifle should carry a useful close range weapon (such as the Neostead or the HK MP7) in his backpack and swap over before you begin the second stage of the mission.

The Reticulans have no equivalent to sniper rifles in their arsenal.

The transgenants use sniper rifles at all stages of the game. They occasionally use sniper rifles in early missions, but they will use sniper rifles more frequently as the game progresses. A transgenant with a sniper rifle is one of the toughest problems you will face in a mission. The slow rate of fire of a sniper rifle makes its user vulnerable at close range, but a transgenant with a sniper rifle can shoot at your squad from the other side of the map in open terrain.

Sniper rifles utilise the marksmanship skill.

Remington 700

Weight: 4.0 kg
Ammo capacity: 20 rounds
Damage type: universal

Aimed mode
Max range: 58 metres
Damage: 100
Rate of fire: 0.4 rounds per second

This is the most basic sniper rifle in the game, although the range still greatly exceeds that of human assault rifles.

The Remington is useful against the transgenants and the Reticulans early in the game, although it is ineffective against more advanced Reticulan armour types. If ammunition is in short supply in the early stages of the game, only use the Remington for missions against the Reticulans.

The Remington can sometimes be recovered from the arsenal of a newly captured base from the earliest stages of the game.

HK PSG 1

Weight: 8.1 kg
Ammo capacity: 30 rounds
Damage type: universal

Aimed mode
Max range: 63 metres
Damage: 120
Rate of fire: 0.4 rounds per second

The PSG 1 has greater range, damage potential and ammunition capacity than the Remington. However it is also twice as heavy, so it should not be given to a physically weak soldier.

It is a useful weapon for missions against the Reticulans in the early stages of the game. However, it is not very effective against Reticulan sky or bio armour.

Although the PSG 1 is not as powerful as the Accuracy International, it is still a fairly useful weapon for missions against the transgenants at all stages of the game.

The PSG 1 can be salvaged from newly captured bases from around the time of the appearance of the Area-51 mission.

Accuracy International L115AE

Weight: 6.0 kg
Ammo capacity: 45 rounds
Damage type: universal

Aimed mode
Max range: 71 metres
Damage: 160
Rate of fire: 0.5 rounds per second

The Accuracy International is a significant improvement over the Remington 700 and PSG1, and should be used in preference whenever possible. Range, potential damage, rate of fire and ammunition capacity are all better than that of the Remington and PSG1. Also, the Accuracy International is relatively light for a sniper rifle.

This is the best sniper rifle for any mission against the transgenants at any stage of the game. Although the Barrett and the Falcon have some advantages in missions against the transgenants, it is best to save their armour piercing rounds for missions against the Reticulans.

The Accuracy International performs reasonably well against the Reticulans, but the universal rounds are not very effective against the more advanced Reticulan armour systems.

The Accuracy International first appears midway through the game.

M82A1A Barrett

Weight: 12.9 kg
Ammo capacity: 10 rounds
Damage type: hard

Aimed mode
Max range: 71 metres
Damage: 200
Rate of fire: 0.3 rounds per second

As the Barrett fires armour piercing rounds, it is a highly useful weapon for missions against the Reticulans, even Reticulans equipped with sky or bio armour. It is probably the best sniper rifle in the game for missions against the Reticulans as ammunition is not as scarce as it is for the more powerful ZVI Falcon.

Although the Barrett is useful against the transgenants, its armour piercing rounds should usually be preserved for missions against the Reticulans.

The Barrett first appears midway through the game.

ZVI Falcon OP 96

Weight: 13.4 kg
Ammo capacity: 2 rounds
Damage type: hard

Aimed mode
Max range: 75 metres
Damage: 250
Rate of fire: 0.3 rounds per second

This is the most powerful sniper in the game. It has a greater range than any other weapon in the game (of any type), and the damage capacity is greater than that of any other sniper rifle.

However, it has a very important weakness; the two round capacity. If you scavenge a weapon from the arsenal of a newly captured base, you will only get around ten spare clips regardless of the weapon type or magazine capacity; this amounts to a mere 20 rounds for the Falcon. Scavenging one from the battlefield nets three spare clips at most, which amounts to six rounds. You will hardly ever be able to use this sniper rifle because of the chronic ammunition shortage.

The in game glossary boasts that the Falcon offers one shot kills against most enemies in the game. Although this is something of an exaggeration, the Falcon is still devastatingly powerful when used properly.

The Falcon should be reserved for missions against the Reticulans, and even then it should be reserved for missions that you regard as either highly important or particularly difficult.

The Falcon does not appear until fairly late in the game.