There are many common misconceptions about snipers. Let's go through them, shall we?


Anyone who's ever looked at the Upgrade Station can tell you this isn't the case. Snipers have a special upgrade called Explosive Headshot - this is the key to a Snipers' effectiveness in Mann vs. Machine. I'll go into it in more detail in the next section, but to put it simply, it makes lots of bots die.


I do not have the attention span to get 41,258 kills one at a time!


Snipers are actually incredible support classes for two reasons. The first, as one would expect, is jarate. A sniper can easily cover a large group of robots in jarate, making each one take minicrits from the rest of the team (or even the sniper's own explosive headshots!). Jarate can also be upgraded to slow robots, making it just as useful as the scout's Mad Milk.

The second reason is something that Valve, for whatever reason, has never actually mentioned in-game. (No one reads update logs) Any robot killed by a Headshot or Explosive Headshot drops auto-collecting money. If you've ever seen a pile of money with red dollar signs above it instead of green, that's headshot money. When it burns away, it will be added to the team's credits.

This lets snipers collect vast amounts of credits without ever moving.


I collected more money than the scout? Without moving an inch? Aha!


No, snipers can deal insane amounts of damage with fast explosive headshots. Furthermore, a lot of things that other classes may struggle with (such as a giant with ten uber medics) are effortlessly slaughtered by explosive headshot.

And yes, even on tough maps.


178000 damage?! A good sniper carries the team through Ghost Town, not vice-versa.


...Wait, that's not a misconception. That's true. People are jerks.


Syringes graciously donated by a jerk a good and honourable man.


No. Stop. Do not do that. I'll votekick you. A sniper should be focusing on the primary weapon. See the connection between "a sniper" and "a sniper rifle"?

Let's cover the loadout.

Look at that killfeed!

Explosive Headshot is the key to sniper's effectiveness in Mann vs. Machine. To put it simply, when you buy this upgrade, all of your headshots will inflict damage on all robots in a small radius. The damage and radius increases with each tick of Explosive Headshot you buy. In addition, robots that you directly headshot, or robots caught in your Explosive Headshot radius, will be slowed down for a short period of time. This slowdown time increases the more ticks of Explosive Headshot you buy.

That's basically everything you NEED to know, but for interest's sake, here are some more facts that may help. (Credit to sigsegv for finding this stuff out.)


Explosive Headshot damage begins at 150. That means that, with one tick of Explosive Headshot, all robots affected by it take 150 damage. At two ticks, the damage increases to 170. At three ticks, the damage increases to 190.

Charging your rifle does not increase the damage. This means that the most effective way to kill a lot of robots is to maximize the number of your Explosive Headshots: don't charge your shots, simply shoot a lot.

Buying damage upgrades on your rifle also does not increase the damage. This means that damage is not a top-priority upgrade. The 150-190 damage to a large group of robots is much more valuable than doing extra damage to a single one.

Explosive Headshot damage can never crit - if you get Kritzkrieg'd or use a Crit Canteen, it stays at its normal damage. However, it can be turned into minicrits if you are under the effects of a Buff Banner, or if the robots have a debuff on them such as Jarate or Mark for Death.


You'll see explosive headshot kills come up in the killfeed with a blood-drop kill icon. This also means that it will inflict full damage to robots that have bullet resistance, such as Steel Fist Heavies.


Suppose you have Projectile Penetration on your rifle, and get a shot that passes through two giant robots' heads, and they are standing fairly close together. The first shot will inflict full headshot damage (between 150 and 900) to the first giant, and explosive headshot damage to the second giant (between 150 and 190). The shot will also inflict full headshot damage to the second giant and explosive headshot damage to the first giant.


The Sydney Sleeper's stats say it can't get headshots. What it means is that headshots do not do crit damage. If you shoot a bot in the head, you will only do non-crit damage, but the explosive headshot will occur and inflict 150-190 damage to all the surrounding bots.

Likewise, robots who have crit protection (such as Battalion's Backup Soldiers) will also take Explosive Headshot damage.


If you don't have Explosive Headshot, you cannot play sniper properly. It's that simple. In Mann vs. Machine, sniper is a class that annihilates hordes of robots by getting quick headshots and letting the explosion do the rest.

Without it, Sniper needs to attack his enemies one at a time. It's slow and there are far too many robots for it to be an effective option. Even with Projectile Penetration, you'll only be able to kill robots directly behind the one you shot. Explosive Headshot extends out in all directions.

As you can see, the winner is the Hitman's Heatmaker. Focus mode is an absolute godsend. Suppose you're scoping at a giant. If you hit the first shot perfectly, you won't unscope so you can easily fire again in the same place. If you miss the first shot, it doesn't matter; you can adjust your aim quickly without the unscope / rescope animation making you miss exactly why the first shot went wrong.

Is Focus Mode hard to get into? No it is not. Whether by bug or intentional design, the Hitman's Heatmaker no longer requires you to have a full focus bar to enter focus mode. A single assist with Jarate, or a kill in any way (even a random bodyshot) will give you a tiny amount of time of focus mode. Even if it is a bug and gets patched later, three bots killed is easily done with a single explosive headshot.

Is Focus Mode hard to maintain? No. Your focus meter fills even from kills and assists while using it. If you're good at getting headshots and there's a steady stream of bots, you might never have to unscope for the entire wave. In addition, you can use a tiny sliver of focus mode to get an explosive headshot, which will then fully fill your focus meter before the sliver runs out!

If you don't like the Hitman's Heatmaker (perhaps you prefer scoping out after each shot, so Focus Mode isn't for you), the next best choice is the Bazaar Bargain. After that, the Stock sniper rifle.

The two winners are Jarate (or a reskin) and The Cozy Camper. Jarate is my weapon of choice. Being able to inflict mini-crits on a group of robots is amazing, and slowing down bomb-carrying giant scouts will save your team. I throw Jarate whenever I'm on my way to the dispenser, when I'm out of Focus, there's a group of enemies I have a hard time headshotting (such as scouts or soldiers), when I'm on fire, or when I see someone who's probably a spy.

If you find you don't throw jarate very often, use the Cozy Camper. Not being able to flinch is REALLY valuable. It's not versatile like Jarate, but the single bonus it provides is HUGE.

Your choice of melee depends on your secondary. If you're using the Cozy Camper, use the stock Kukri or a reskin. If you're using Jarate, the Bushwacka is the melee of choice. Also, if you have $800 to spare and your team has a Buff Banner soldier, use the Bushwacka with increased melee speed to mow down tanks!


WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WH-

Having a good loadout is only half the strategy of Mann vs. Machine. Knowing how to effectively use your credits is the next step. I am going to assume you're following my weapon choices and have a Hitman's Heatmaker / Jarate / Bushwacka loadout.


Funny... I can't upgrade my chameleon...

These are crucial.

1. 1 tick of Explosive Headshot - This will let you actually function. If you're starting on a 400-credit mission, you still won't be shooting fast enough to be the top damage-dealer, but the explosive headshots will help.
   
2. 3 ticks of Reload Speed - The next priority after base Explosive Headshot is to make those Explosive Headshots FAST. This will cost 750 (total so far: 1100) - that's less than what you start with on some missions, so this is still the early-game set of upgrades.
   
3. 2 ticks of Explosve Headshot - Finish off your Explosive Headshot. Each tick increases the blast radius, so getting the full explosive headshot is crucial. It'll cost you another 700 (total so far: 1800).
   
4. 1 tick of Projectile Penetration - Increase your offensive power! Some may wonder, why max Explosive Headshot before buying the single tick of Projectile Penetration? Well, Projectile Penetration only works in one direction; Explosive Headshot works in a 360-degree radius. Projectile Penetration is still useful as the hordes get bigger, so buy it once you're done with Explosive Headshot and Reload Speed. It costs 400 (total so far: 2200).
   
5. 1 tick of Health on Kill / Slow Jarate - Health on Kill is extremely useful at keeping you alive, and you only need one tick. One tick gives you +25 health per kill, and a good Explosive Headshot can kill 5-10 robots, fully healing you. Slow Jarate is extremely important if the waves contain scouts (particularly giant scouts). You'll be able to get both of these upgrades for 200 each (total so far: 2600).
   
6. 4 ticks of damage - Now it's time to turn that measly 150 damage per headshot into 300. (Or 450 into 900, if you fully charge the shot). Your explosive headshots won't increase in damage, but 300 damage per shot will annihilate giants. Each one is expensive (400 each!), so you may want to interweave the damage upgrades with charge rate upgrades depending on how many credits you have available. (total so far: 4200)
   
7. 4 ticks of charge rate - At max charge rate, in focus mode, the Heatmaker will get a bit of charge even if you fire as fast as conceivably possible, doing about 350 damage instead of 300. The way damage increases with charge is astounding. You may find that your damage will increase to 500 from charging while your mouse moved from one target to the next! These are pretty cheap compared to damage increase, so as I mentioned above, don't be afraid to buy these before you've maxed out damage. However, I still contend that damage is more important, as most of the time, you'll be firing shots as fast as possible. Each tick costs 200 (total so far: 5000).

If you can't tell what's going on, but your numbers are going up, you've done it right.

These are less important; pick them up if you have extra credits. Some of them depend on the situation or map.

1. 1-4 ticks of increased ammo - All your sniper rifles have the same 25 shots. Generally you'll be running to a dispenser or ammo box several times per wave, and if that's a long journey, it's better to do it as infrequently as you can. Your ammo goes 25->38->50->62 as you upgrade; each tick costing 250 credits. I normally get one tick by the end of a mission, or max it if the team has no engies.
   
2. 1 tick of Health Regeneration - If the place you're standing doesn't have a respawning health kit, 200 credits is a nice and cheap way to recover the damage from a stray bullet.
   
3. 1-4 ticks of Jarate charge rate - If you're standing in a good position to throw jarate, upgrade your charge rate to throw it faster! However, jarate isn't your main asset - if you have a Scout with Mad Milk, slowing giant scouts is more their job than yours due to their mobility. It costs 250 per tick; max it out if you can and feel like it would help.
   
4. Resistances - I basically only buy Resistances at the end of Ghost Town. Max them to survive the final onslaught of crit robots from every class; you'll need them. Otherwise, a tick of Crit Resistance can be the difference between death in one shot and survival; and for only 150 credits, it's hard to resist. (Would you believe that pun wasn't even intentional?)
   
5. Bushwacka Attack Speed - This is only worth purchasing if your team includes a Buff Banner Soldier and you're up against tanks. In that situation, though, be prepared to shock your team as you inflict 195 damage per hit (something like 2.5 times per second) with a weapon that never has to reload! Maxing out attack speed costs 800 (200 per tick), so it's definitely affordable in some missions.

-ACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK

Snipers have no need for such things! ...Most of the time.

1. Ubercharge Canteens - These stop you from dying, but almost as importantly stop you from flinching. If you're in a maelstrom of bullets, hit that H key to keep your shots stable!
   
2. Crit Canteens - On a sniper, this seems silly. And it is. However, if your team doesn't have a Buff Banner Soldier, what are you going to do to a tank? Recent studies have shown that tanks have no heads. I tend to just spam unscoped shots, but the Heatmaker's damage penalty kicks in... unless you're crit boosted, in which case each shot does 150-300 damage depending on your damage upgrades. Don't buy these unless you have to, but don't be afraid to if you do.

This was SUCH A GOOD USE OF MONEY!

I can't believe I didn't use that pun already.

This section is still under construction. I will eventually have screenshots from each map. The main rule of thumb is to get up high and make sure you have a good view of the robot spawn.

The top of the building in the middle is a pretty typical place. There's a big ammo box and medkit right behind you, so it's pretty great overall.


Pretty great.

Coaltown has the single best sniping spot in the game. The center building has two ledges and a large sign. You'll have to crouch-jump to get up there, but standing on one of the lower ledges gives you a perfect view of the robots for quite a long walk. It also makes it tricky for spies to get at you.


I hadn't painted Nikola orange yet!

Mannworks is the WORST map for sniping. There are tons of rocks blocking the view from every angle, the building to stand on is way too close, and there aren't a lot of other high vantage points.

Your best options are the edges of the map - the hill on the far right has some decent cover, particularly if the bots are focusing on your teammates in the middle or on the building. The far left is also an option. I find that I'm rushing back and forth between the far right and far left - go for the one opposite to where the bots are coming from, and you should be able to get a decent vantage point.


OWL-HEAD SNIPER! COMIN' THROUGH!

There is one tiny platform that's practically decoration, but it's high up enough to be a tempting sniper spot. You need to max upgrade your jump height (I'm told you can actually get to it with 2 ticks by jumping off the nearby crates) to get up there.

This place isn't recommended - it doesn't give you enough space to dodge projectiles, and you need to come down for health and ammo. But I thought I should mention that it exists.


This is how you get to it.


And up!


Still not a great view.

Bigrock has a couple decent spots. You can climb the rocks near the tank spawn by crouch-jumping your way up the steps, and that gives you pretty good view of the robot spawn.


This is the most balanced team.

Over on the left side near the fence, there's another good place to get a view of the bots.


I admit it, I was actually just taking a screenshot of my sheen.


Mannhattan's pretty straight-forward. Stand on the giant platform leading out of the hangar. I stand pretty much on one of the blue arrows.


Engetsu! Go away! I'm taking screencaps!

When if you start losing gates, you'll probably want to stand on the shipping containers.


Hi, medic! Bye, medic!

To get a good ground-level, projectile penetration, you can also stand around Gate B.


Not recommended if Gate B has been taken.


Rottenburg has a lot of rocks, so it's hard to get a perfect field of view. However, there's a reasonable view from the back of the field.


<Insert witty comment here>

My preferred place is on the platform with a medkit. You have a decent view, and you can of course use the medkit to recover from stray fire.


I see you, you invisible mongrels.

There's no convenient ammo kit, though. If your engie has set up near the tank spawn, you can probably run over and get some ammo. Or, there's a medium ammo kit just outside the gate - it's a little faster than going to a dispenser.

Everyone knows to put bullets in robot heads. But which ones?


These are a sniper's favourite enemies. You are much better equipped to deal with them than your teammates. One headshot on the giant should kill all the medics, removing the possibility of an uber giant. It should also fill up your focus meter, letting you start smacking the giant with high damage shots.


Snipers are the best class at dealing with Giant Robots (after Spy). A headshot will do anywhere from 150 (uncharged, no upgrades) to 900 (fully charged, fully upgraded) damage per shot, and the Heatmaker's focus mode can spam them.


This guy gonna die.


Most of the time, bots with medics will be heavies. This means they move slow and are perfect headshot targets - similar to giants, your explosive headshot will also clear out the medic behind them.


Sniper robots hurt. They don't headshot, but they charge their rifles, so they can still kill some classes in one hit. They also spawn in good positions to avoid the fire from your team. But, luckily for human snipers, they stay in one place and have big blue laser sights announcing their positions.


Bodyshotting noob...

There's no secret to this - one quick headshot eliminates a sniper robot and everything else in a small distance.

If a sniper robot has just spawned, and you're at max health, move to an area where it will be able to see you. It will get ready to fire with an uncharged shot that won't kill you. That's your chance to get your headshot. Even if they shoot first, you can just find a medkit / medic / dispenser or recover with Health on Kill or Health Regeneration upgrades.

However, don't get yourself killed doing this - especially against multiple sniper bots. You'll know from experience when to let yourself take a hit and when not to.

Huntsman Sniper Robots are also a high priority. While their bows are drawn back, they barely move, making them great targets. Also, they're a huge risk to your allies since they CAN get headshots.


Who CAN'T get headshots with the Huntsman? Am I right or am I right? I'll be here all week.

One thing to note about Huntsman Sniper Robots - they can tauntkill you, and it's really embarrassing. The animation they play is the standard waving animation, but it functions like the Skewer taunt. Don't stand in front of one while it's taunting!

Luckily this doesn't come up for snipers often.


Bombs are heavy. Carrying the bomb lowers a (non-giant) robot's movement speed by about half, making them easy targets. If a bomb carrier is surrounded by a few of its allies, it makes a perfect explosive headshot target - particularly for scouts or other classes that are hard to headshot normally.

The Bomb Carrier will also power-up every now and then. It taunts while it does this, standing in the same place for a second or so. That makes it an easy headshot. Furthermore, since a headshot does so much damage, the buffs it gets won't make much of a difference. You'll also be far enough away - and hopefully out of the line of fire - that its crit buff won't be too deadly either.

However, bomb carriers are still regular bots, and can be taken out by the rest of your team. If your team can handle the bomb carrier, focus on other incoming threats first.


Of course, you have to shoot these guys sometime! It should be pretty obvious which ones to aim for - focus on the slow-moving ones, and explosive headshot will stun or kill the surrounding robots. You may find that some targets are harder than others for no real reason (I'm pretty inconsistent at headshotting soldiers, myself), so aim at what you know you can consistently get headshots on and let explosive headshot do the rest.

Steel Gauntlet Heavies make great explosive headshot targets. They take considerably less damage from bullets and have a lot of health, so they won't die from a single headshot.


"Shoot me... because I take less damage from your bullets? Did you forget your coffee?"

I'm not crazy. This works in your favour - you'll be able to continuously spam headshots on them and use explosive headshot to kill the surrounding bots. And since they only have melee weapons, they aren't a threat to you!

Even hordes of Steel Gauntlets die to this strategy - explosive headshot is counted as bleed damage, so their bullet resistance only defends them from direct headshots.


Scoutbots are pretty hard to shoot, since they have small heads and move really fast. They are also very easy for your teammates to deal with. A sentry gun will mow them down, your medic's shield will incinerate them, and everyone else will throw bullets or explosions or fire at them until they all die.

(Also see the 'hordes of scouts' section).

Dealing with most robots is fairly straight-forward. I'm hoping that everyone has a basic idea of what to do when you're holding a sniper rifle and you see a robot.


Spoiler warning: they die.

But it's not always this simple!

Late in missions, you may notice that your teammates are so decked out in upgrades that the engineer doesn't even have to deal with sentry busters anymore. Your DPS classes will just turn slightly, throwing tons of bullets, fire and explosions into the busters, blowing them up before the engineer even notices it.


Lazy wankahs.

Sentry busters can actually be valuable to you as a sniper. In terms of game mechanics, a sentry buster is based on a giant demoman holding an Ullapool Caber. It has a special animation that plays instead of swinging the caber, and it has a new model with no arms or head.

But the hitboxes are still there.


Above: game mechanics!

In short, you can headshot sentry busters. It's really hard to do, since there's no visible target. You'll basically be trying to aim for a little above the top spike. So, the question on your mind now is "why do I care?".

Headshots that don't kill bots stun them. In addition to dealing explosive headshot damage to any small bots around the sentry buster, the buster will slow down considerably. This lets the engie safely walk over, blow it up, and walk back without any risk of it following him. It also lets you line up your next shot without much interference.

If you're lucky skilled enough to get a headshot on a sentry buster, you can easily continue spamming shots on it to destroy all the little robots surrounding it.


It's even harder when one hand is on the screenshot key!

On another note, Sentry Busters walk pretty fast - before trying to spam explosive headshots on it, slow it with jarate if you can! It'll make it much easier to get that first stunning headshot.

Scouts move fast, and have small heads. But they also have low health, so all you'll need to do is hit one to kill the horde.

If one's carrying the bomb, this is easy. The bomb slows down its carrier considerably (this does not apply to giants), so aim for that one.


Ignore the killfeed saying I just got a bodyshot. THAT WAS LAG OR SOMETHING.

If there is no clear bomb carrier, my strategy is to rely on projectile penetration. Move to ground level and aim for the largest cluster of heads. Even if you miss the headshot on the first scout, there will be plenty of heads behind the bodyshot. If you get a headshot on any of the heads in that cluster, you've killed the horde.

Of course, scouts are easy for the rest of your team to deal with, particularly if you have an engineer. If it seems too risky to leave your perch, just hurl a jarate or bread monster and let your teammates do the job. A well-placed jarate can fill your Heatmaker's focus with just assists!


If you do jump down off your perch, make sure it's far enough away...

Tanks are big, and scary, and don't have heads. So what are you going to -


CK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WH-

Oh right. I think I've covered this already.

But, in the off-chance your team has no Buff Banner soldier, you'll have to rely on the rifle. Generally a sniper should focus on the bots instead of the tank, especially if there are giants or hordes of easy targets, but that doesn't mean you have to avoid the tank at all costs.

If you don't have any focus, just keep pumping unscoped shots into the tank.


pew pew pew pew pew

And if you do have focus... well, you should probably save it for something with heads. But it WILL do a decent amount more damage to the tank than unscoped shots, since it's charging as you reload.


PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!

It's important to note that sniper rifles do the same amount of damage at any range (obviously - what good would it be if you had to get close?). So no matter where you are on the map, if you can see a tank, fire a couple bullets at it on your way to do whatever it is you're actually doing.

So, you've decided that you don't want to be a sniper. But someone else on your team has! There are a few tricks to playing well with sniper buddies. Keep them in mind, and everyone will be happy.


Happiness in TF2 translates to hats and dancing.


As mentioned earlier in the guide, robots killed by a headshot or explosive headshot drop money with red dollar signs, which collects itself when it would normally expire. This means you can safely ignore it - don't run across the map to collect it if you have more important things to do in your current location, such as throw milk or collect OTHER money.


I call it 'red money', but from a distance, it can be hard to tell.

However, you still can collect the red money, and it will still give you health. Just keep an eye out.


Every now and then, a pyro decides to stall a giant robot by continuously airblasting it into the air. In some situations this can be helpful, but it's normally a waste of ammo. It's even more of a waste of ammo when someone 200 yards away is trying to make a precise shot.


I actually headshot it and killed it a tenth of a second after this screenshot... but that doesn't mean this is okay!


It's pretty normal for demomen to put a huge pile of stickies near the front of the map, detonating it underneath the robots' feet. And this is great - as long as it actually kills the robots. If you don't put enough stickies or they're in a bad location, they won't kill the robots; they'll just scatter them so far away that your sniper can no longer kill them all with one explosive headshot.


Spies and Snipers tend to compete over targets - especially when there's a giant robot with a bunch of medics. Spies tend to deal with this by sapping the group of medics and stabbing them one by one. This is slow and uses up your sapper meter.

So, let the sniper get a headshot on the giant. All the medics will be cleared, and you can focus on spamming backstabs on the giant like Valve intended.


A sniper who stays scoped in for the entire wave may not notice where a Sentry Buster is when it leaves their line of sight. If you're carrying a sentry gun to tag a buster, do try to avoid getting it to detonate right beside the sniper.

Also, try not to make the sentry buster detonate in a location where the smoke will blot out the sniper's view of everything.


Expanding on the point from above, dealing with this sort of situation is a sniper's speciality. If a giant with some medics appears, do not start attacking immediately. Let the sniper shoot the giant a couple times, which will clear out all the medics without any fear of them ubering. Once the giants are dead, you're free to attack the giant to your heart's content.


There's a jerk of a soldier to the left...


Seriously. Don't do it.


OH COME ON

I hope to expand this guide as Team Fortress 2 and Mann vs. Machine continue expanding. However, there's still more to cover.

I intend to make sections for the sniper's role on a team (basically covering what a sniper should prioritize, what the other team members can do to avoid interfering with a sniper, etc.) and how/where to snipe in different maps and missions.

But I'd also like to hear from the community. What other sections can I add to the guide? What would you like to know?



Thanks for reading, and good luck not getting vote-kicked!

Thank you to the official Team Fortress 2 wiki for most of the non-screenshot images, and to anyone who appeared in any of the screenshots.

Special thanks to EngetsuGray and Pope Pan, who appear a lot in the screencaps. (In Engetsu's case, a lot of his pictures are what you shouldn't do. That was just for convenience - he's not a noob.)

Also thanks to The Medic from The Daily SPUF[blog.spuf.info] for letting me use a picture.