I’ve tried to play with sniper rifles for half the game except the reload time, recoil and weapon handling sucks so much that it doesn’t feel enjoyable. I’ve put my points in crit chance and using weapon mods to reduce recoil and increase ammo stuff, but I find myself using sniper rifles less and less. Or maybe I’m doing it wrong lol??
Do you use sniper rifles? Do you like sniper rifles? If you have a sniper rifle build, what cyberwears and weapon mods do you use to make it more enjoyable?
39 Comments
Love sniper rifles, especially Breakthrough. Works great with any tech build
Snipers are not good in cyberpunk and unbalanced. They are really bad at range and dont even one shot on head with some enemys (im not even talking about brutes). sure there are snipers like Overwatch or Hypercritical (not even a sniper but a marksman)
A silenced pistol like Nue is stronger then the SPT grad. Thats just stupid.
Honestly didn’t use snipers/precision rifles as much as I thought I would, never really had a need for long or extreme range weapons in Night City.
Breakthrough is kind of broken, I’d recommend giving that a try (ncpd in 6th territory).
I thought sniper was clunky until unlocking some of the higher level perks (15+). Once you do, it feels like it all comes together.
There are other playstyles I prefer more, but it’s still completely viable on all difficulties
Nah snipers can be realy good, but if you are using them upclose then that kinda misses the point of snipers, with snipers like overwatch you can silently snipe enemies from very far away, snipers do some of the most damage in the game, especialy rasetsu being able to dish out 4k damage if you headshot with the right build, and if you want something quicker the osprey is pretty fun, less of a sniper tho and more of a burst explosive weapon, and the ashura is slow, very slow, and single shot, but you can make the lock on faster with 2 stacks of headhopper and you can easily hit high damage headshots, i would say the rasetsu is slightly better tho. I would say tho most of the time pistols are better, but you have 3 weapon slots anyway, and use what u like
I use snipers with any of my builds since I usually keep my builds all rounders but I use snipers as mainly one shot weapons so judging something like the sandy i shoot any enemies in the way then switch to any other weapon
You need to have Deadeye, as well as the perks that negate damage drop-off from distance, as well as the perk that increases headshot weakspot damage so as long as deadeye is active.
To put it into perspective, Panam’s rifle doesnt even have the silent damage modifier (despite being a silenced weapon -_-) but i can still one-shot headshot brutes during open combat with it.
And oc snipers are clunky, theyre heavy weapons and are meant to be cumbersome. Same for the recoil, especially for the grad. The longer reload speed is there for balance cus of how quickly you can kill enemies with headshots.
Tech snipers and Breakthrough sh*t all over the game and its balance with how OP they are. Especially if you have Bolt-shots and the additional perk where bolt-shots ignore enemy armour entirely. You can legit kill maxtac operatives (or at least drain 95% of their health) with 3-4 bolt shots while deadeye is active. And to add the icing on the OP cake, Breakthrough can shoot through cover regardless of how much you’ve charged it. Regular grad is better for grunts and regular enemies, tech snipers are good for regular enemies (especially if you have chain lightning) as well as bosses.
Overwatch and Rasetsu have their places, I gave up on the rest
I think they’re okay for an rpg focused game but if you’re used to FPS games where the focus is ok shooting, you’ll find a lot of shooting mechanics and responses lacking in Cyberpunk.
Snipers are OP in this game to the point that I had to actively choose not to use them because it was too easy to pick everyone off, even on very hard. You need to actually spec into Cool though (specifically the left Perk tree) since that’s where all of the sniper-related Perks are at.
What snipers are you using? My favorites are Breakthrough, Nekomata, Ashura, Rasetsu, and Osprey.
Source: My last build was a sniper/netgunner
First play through was almost all long range and silenced. This play through is all sharp and stabby things.
Blades much more fun.
“Stick them with the pointy end”.
I would use sniper rifles…if you didn’t get that pistol perk that removed damage fall off. Once you get that, you don’t really need sniper rifles if you can aim decently.
My low level V is surviving just fine clearing Watson on max difficulty with her base level sniper rifle. Boom! Headshot!
Try breakthrough with the “stalker” optics to see enemies through walls and a netrunner build, feels like heaven, cuts walls like butter, good movement, mid reload time and general nice feeling with the right perks
The engagement ranges are too close for snipers to do their intended roles. I like the rasetsu tho, especially at full charge and the bullet flies around.
Step back, and slow down. The snipers in this game are actually fantastic, but you need to be economical with your shots
My only issue with snipers is that if you set the aim down sights sensitivity to low on console it’ll make it so you can’t turn at all
I use sniper rifles, despite not putting any perk points to improve my handling of them. It started when Panam gave me her Overwatch… oh, even earlier, when I beat Buck in a boxing match and took his “O’Five”. They are awesome. Gotta choose the ones that have +300% headshot damage. I currently use a Nekomata, which is a tech rifle and can shoot through walls when charged.
I love using the vanilla nekomatas you can get off random gangoons. Depending on how you use them, they can be super satisfying. Especially for clearing out a perimeter before you go in for CQB
I usually use scoped pistols instead. Seem to work better for me.
Honestly it’s my opinion that sniper rifles are strongly underrated in the Cyberpunk community. *Especially* tech snipers such as Breakthrough. When you can kill most enemies by clicking on their head one time, you’re holding a damned good weapon.
If you find them clunky, I’d suggest practicing using them alongside a time-slowing cyberware. Sandevistan is best but if you want your OS slot for something else, kerzenikov works well too. Just practise taking your time with shots while time is slowed. You’ll get faster & more comfortable with it in time.
Snipers are my favourite weapon class, and I’d argue are the second best type, right behind pistols.
First off, snipers are pretty weak in this game. Silenced pistols are just better in every single way, and most snipers aren’t even silenced.
Nekomata, the non iconic version of breakthrough, is an exception. Granted, it’s not silenced – but it really doesn’t matter when you’re hitting for 5000 damage a shot through walls.
it is only available late in the game (due to requiring wallpuncher from phantom liberty and the gaki scope) but it is insanely powerful. With some tech weapon perks, it can shoot bolt shots WITHOUT charging the gun.
Current build is based on only sniper rifles, even at close range.
Entire focus and deadeye skill tree, emergency cloaking also pretty vital
Kerenzikov, falcon sandevistan, optical camo and tyrosine injector are the primary, defenzikov also pretty useful
all cyberware to additional crit damage, sneak damage and headshot damage
Start combat by doing a takedown, refresh the tyrosine injector buff when necessary by activating optical camo, leaving combat with emergency cloaking and doing another takedown.
ads first to go into focus and dash for kerenzikov
pretty enjoyable so far, can oneshot most enemies at max difficulty, if not, 2 shots
Have to try this build with other sniper rifles, but so far overwatch is good
this is only my second build so im not good at min maxing
They clunk. They bore.
I think rasetsu is a fantastic rifle. Once it’s maxed out you can take out crews of 3 with one shot allot of times. It’s a beast, but gotta have the tech perks to make it really work well
I hated using sniper rifles because as soon as I shot someone from really far, they always spotted me somehow.
Rule of thumb for any weapon in the game: if it feels weak, your build isn’t correct for it. Every weapon can be absolutely busted if you build for it and adjust your play-style accordingly. Google different builds for specific weapon setups.
If you’re using them like sniper rifles they’re fine. If you’re trying to run in, using them as close/mid-range weapons and quick scoping everyone, I can see why they feel clunky.
I’ve always thought sniper rifles were a bit meh, the game’s just not optimized for them
I absolutely love snipers but I love them in every game I play. lol most of the time even when I’m not putting points into cool I end up using snipers and pistols. If you like the idea of being able to one shot people with headshots than snipers are your friend, you just have to be ready to switch out to a closer range weapon once the enemies start sprinting towards you. I suggest having the sniper (or your longest range weapon in the first slot of your weapon wheel and plan it out for the natural flow you would have in a battle. Long range -> mid range -> short range -> melee (fourth slot assuming a cyberware melee)
I really like snipers, EXCEPT the lack of silencing on them. There’s one ‘silenced’ sniper in the game, but the silencing on it doesn’t actually work (or at least it didn’t for me), so after a while I found myself just using the pistol and shooting people from close range
some are, like the O’Five is supposed to be the biggest one, and it affects your movement and reload is the slowest. But that red iconic one which i think is the only one now which can shoot through walls, you can even sprint with, despite being the same size in game. My Sandevistan build V has the ability to use pistols, so I use Jackie’s pistols, Problem Solver, and mostly O’Five and Panam’s rifle.
I just want a stealth sniper but the only one with a silencer is Panams, but it does less damage than basically any handgun. It’s pretty annoying how limited weapon builds are.
On top of that, sniping in this game also just feels bad imo, so I will just use a pistol as a sniper instead lol.
Yes, sniper rifles are clunky. They’re sniper rifles.
Only real time I used them was the Overwatch (Panam’s sniper), and it was because I have an aggressive stealth build and it 1 shots most enemies to the head
There’s nothing like head shotting goons with a pistol john wick style. Sniper rifles doesn’t have that badass factor nor places where you’d use them except to take out gangs on the street
Everytime I use a sniper. Doesn’t matter how far we’ll hidden or the attachments I have. One shot and everyone knows where I am. I for sure am not sniping correctly
There isn’t a lot of long range combat in this game. Tech sniper rifles give a unique playstyle because you can tag people on cameras then assassinate them through the walls.
Also, if you have bolt, the tech one you can charge from hip fire becomes a pretty great lightning cannon, although the tech double barrel is the same trick done better
First playthrough I used sniper build as I always used Sniper builds in Mass Effect. Felt more immersive when I moved away from them on subsequent builds