A Rifleman Guide, by Derpduck

Guide version: 2.2
Gang garrison version: 2.4.5

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Stats
3. Class Matchups
4. Game-mode Specific Tips
5. Game-Play Tips
6. Map Specific Tips
7. Conclusion
8. Change Log

1. Introduction:

Hello, I'm Derpduck, here I will tell you how to play Sniper.
The Sniper is fairly different to the other classes; it is the only true long ranged class. When playing the Sniper, one needs to preserve one's health and land as many shots as possible, because of the low fire rate. A mistake could be costly, don't go charging into a group of people, unless you know what you're doing, sometimes this might mean running away, but it is often better than waiting to respawn.
Each topic is split up into sections; you can find each section by pressing 'CONTROL'+'F' and typing in the section's name. Important stats and information will be bolded so they are clearer. This guide refers to each of the classes by their TF2 names. If there is anything you want me to add that I have missed out or to correct any mistakes then just post here or PM me. Before pointing out any spelling mistakes please read this first, as I use British English spelling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences. I hope you find this guide useful.
-Derpduck

2. Stats:

The Sniper's hit box is 7 pixels high, taller than most classes.
When scoped the Sniper can only jump 6 pixels high, meaning that they can't get over most crates.
The Sniper has 120 HP
The Sniper is the second slowest class in the game and only matching in speed with the Soldier, the Sniper becomes much slower than every class when scoped.
It takes 4 seconds for a sniper to become fully charged once the Sniper scopes.
Un-scoped damage: 35
Scoped with no charge damage (Base Shot): 45
Fully-charged damage: 75

3. Class Matchups:

The Scout:
Priority: High.
Difficulty: Medium/High.
The Scout is the fastest and most agile class in Gang Garrison 2, therefore making the Scout a difficult class to hit as the Sniper. Scouts will often go close to the Sniper try dance the Sniper, to counter this, keep moving away from them, into an area with easily abused terrain, such as crates. Just try to get as far away as possible so you can aim at them properly.

A tactic Scouts use to get the Sniper to miss is delaying their jumping to get you to fire your shot and miss them, giving them a chance to get close and kill you. To counter this, try and predict their movements, aim at their upper body so that if they jump you may still hit them, once they have used both of their jumps they are vulnerable as it is harder to move about in the air, try and hit them once they have double jumped. Don't try and shoot somewhere the Scout isn't, this won't work as the rifle uses hit scanning; it will hit them instantly. Do not let a Scout get close to you, they do 48 damage if they hit you with every bullet from each shot, this will kill you in three shots.

Scouts should be dealt with first in most situations, especially when your team is distracted, as they could easily capture the Intel or CP before someone reach them. Your long range gives the Sniper a big advantage and makes the Sniper an important class for taking out Scouts.

Shot combinations to kill a Scout: There are 2 main combinations of shots I use to kill a Scout, the first one is 3 unscoped shots which totals to 105 damage, the second method is 1 fully charged shot and then 1 unscoped shot which totals to 110 damage.
The Scout has 100 HP.

The Pyro:
Priority: Medium.
Difficulty: Medium.
The Pyro often isn't much of a problem unless they get close to you or land a few flares on you, a good Pyro will use cover and abuse the terrain and use team-mates as meat shields to get to a Sniper. A height advantage will help you greatly as you can shoot at them over certain smaller covers they have, if this is not possible, hit them whilst they are moving from cover to cover, while staying far away.

The Pyro can kill many of the weaker classes in a few seconds, so make sure you don't ignore Pyros and let they get close, even if they aren't much of a danger to you, your team could be at risk if they are left alive.

Shot combinations to kill a Pyro: There are 3 main shot combinations I use to kill Pyros, the first is 1 fully charged shot then 1 base shot which comes to 120 damage, alternatively, 1 fully charged shot then 2 unscoped shots, which is 135 damage, another method is doing 4 unscoped shots which comes to 140 damage.
The Pyro has 120 HP.

The Soldier:
Priority: High.
Difficulty: Medium.
The Soldier and the Sniper both shoot in straight lines, meaning that most of the places and sight-lines a Sniper can shoot through can be effectively used by the Soldier, a direct hit from a rocket does 55 damage, three rockets and you're dead. Luckily, dodging the Soldier is much easier than the shots of other classes, since the Soldier's shots move slowly... in straight lines, without lag, this is fairly easily accomplished, unless the Soldier is good at placing their shots and abusing lack of air control when launched into the air by a rocket. Keep firing at the Soldier while using crates and hills to dodge their shots.

Generally, the best tactic is to stay far away and harass, or get close to them and dance them, this will make it hard for them to hit you, and even if they do, they will damage themselves. The Soldier has one major weakness: Their reload rate, it's so incredibly slow, once they have fired all four of their shots, they are put at a significant disadvantage, they also have a blind spot in the middle of them, if you stand in there, they will not be able to get direct hits, I personally find this very useful, as I often play aggressively against Soldiers.

Shot combinations to kill a Soldier: There are 3 methods I use, one is doing 2 fully charged shots and then 1 unscoped shot which adds up to 185 damage, another way is doing 1 fully charged shot and 3 unscoped shots which comes to 180 damage, the final way is doing 5 unscoped shots which comes to 175 damage.
The Soldier has 160 HP.

The Heavy:
Priority: Medium/High.
Difficulty: Medium.
Despite the Heavy's high health, when you get your tactics right they are fairly easy to kill. Try to stay as far away as possible, if they manage to hit you, they can do some serious damage. Constantly attack Heavies, you can also kill the Heavy when you are close, but it's very risky and is more the an act of desperation.

Once a Heavy is on low health, they generally eat their Manvich, to avoid dying, you should then get close to them and hit them as much as possible, you can deal more damage than they heal if you land all of your shots.

Shot combinations to kill a Heavy: You can do 6 unscoped shots which does 210 damage, you can also do 2 fully charged shots and 2 unscoped shots which does 220 damage, another way to kill the Heavy is to do 3 fully charged shots does 225 damage.
The Heavy has 200 HP.

The Demoman:
Priority: Low/Medium.
Difficulty: Low/Medium.
It can be difficult for a Sniper to fight a good Demoman well, sometimes it can be easy, cover does not work as well because of the mine's curve and explosive radius. Keep in mind that the damage the Demoman does is currently very low, and that the Demoman works best at medium range.

Getting close to the Demoman can make it really difficult for them to fight you, and cause them to hurt themselves, and once you get far away enough, they cannot hit you. Try to stay out of their range and get above them. Most classes can easily deal with the Demoman, so, focus on more dangerous targets first, but remember that they are still a threat.

Shot combinations to kill a Demoman: One combination is doing 1 fully charged shot and then 1 base shot which comes to 120 damage. Another way you can kill the Demoman is by doing 4 unscoped shots which does 140 damage.
The Demoman has 120 HP.

The Medic:
Priority: High.
Difficulty: High.
The Medic is good counter against the Sniper, if not one of the best, because of the ability to heal their team members and the Medic's auto-heal (+5 HP per second). While the Medic's damage out-put is lower than most other classes, their high clip size means they can continuously fire, do not under-estimate their attacking power.

Without a medi-buddy the Medic isn't too hard to kill, try and kill the Medic as soon as possible, hit them as often as you can, try not to let them get away as they are much faster than the Sniper, and their auto-heal means they can wait in cover whilst they regenerate. When the Medic obtains a medi-buddy, it is very important to kill the Medic. They will try and hide behind their medi-buddy, but they will be exposed more than they realise, a height advantage is very useful here, you have to take every chance to shoot the Medic, focus everything on killing the Medic. Sometimes, it might not be possible to hit the Medic enough before the damage gets healed again, in this case you may have to be more suicidal and run up to the Medic to hit them, killing the Medic will greatly benefit your team.

You could try to kill their medi-buddy, but your damage can only slightly out-perform the healing, that is if you land every shot as often as possible, it is therefore better to go for the Medic first. If someone on your team is damaging the medi-buddy, you could kill them, it depends on the situation, as the medic will be vulnerable without a medi-buddy.

Shot combinations to kill a Medic: In most cases doing 1 fully charged shot and then firing as many uncharged shots as you can works best, but doing lots of consecutive charged shots is also effective.
The Medic has 120 HP.

The Engineer:
Priority: Medium.
Difficulty: Low.
A good Engineer can be really difficult to deal with, if their sentry is placed somewhere that means you have to get in its range to hit it then you will probably get killed, though this is rare. A sentry can hold back your team if placed well, killing a sentry will greatly help your team, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the Engineer, if every bullet from one of their shots hits you, you take 40 damage, three shot and you're dead, but with a higher clip capacity than the Scout they can afford to miss more, whilst you are distracted by their sentry, they can easily deal with you, so pay attention to where they are.

An Engineer without a sentry shouldn't be too difficult to deal with, but try to deal with an Engineer quickly, before they build a sentry. If one is dropped, shoot at as soon as possible, before it hits the floor as it has 25 HP when it is spawned, so you can kill it in 1 hit. Once it does hit the ground, its HP increases quickly, quicker than you can deal the damage to kill it, unless you had a shot charged up before-hand, if you did not destroy it before it hit the ground, wait until it has fully built, this way it cannot repair itself, then attack it.

Deciding what to kill first, the Engineer or the sentry, can be difficult, if the sentry is posing more of a threat to your team than the Engineer, you should destroy the sentry first, otherwise, the Engineer is your best bet. Jumping up and down on the sentry can stop it from shooting you, but rather than killing the sentry, you should kill the Engineer, especially because they can now deal damage to you easily, as you're not moving very much.

Shot combinations to kill a Engineer: There are 2 main of shots you can use to kill Engies, the first is 1 fully charged shot then 1 base shot, which comes to 120 damage, another method is doing 4 unscoped shots which come to 140 damage.
Shot cominations to kill a sentry: Either do 1 fully charged shot and then 1 unscoped shot which adds up to 110 damage or do 3 unscoped shots which comes to 105 damage.
The Engie has 120 HP.
The sentry has 100 HP.

The Spy:
Priority: Low.
Difficulty: Medium.
The most common counter to the Sniper is the Spy, at first they might seem like a very difficult class to deal with, cloaking, 28 damage per shot with a good fire-rate, and an instant kill stab, but after enough practice the majority of Spies are predictable and easy to deal with.

Often, Spies will try to stab Snipers that are standing still, and if you don't pay enough attention, they will. A few tips to help prevent this: First, constantly check behind you, if there are no enemies aroundy you, fire your weapon, they might be hiding just behind you. Listen out for jumping sounds, if no-one is around and you hear a jump, it is probably a Spy, try to stand in places where the Spy has to jump to get to you, map such as ctf_deco are good for this. If you are going to stay in one area, at least try to move around a bit so that you are harder to hit. Pay attention to the kill-log, if you see a revolver or stab kill from the enemy team, then a Spy is coming your way, also listen out for the sound of the revolver or stab, they are both very distinctive.

Sometimes it is useful to stand on the very edge of an open ledge, so that when a Spy tries to stab you, you can walk off the edge out of danger, jumping to avoid a stab often doesn't work, always move in the opposite direction of the Spy. When a Spy gets hit while cloaked, they become slightly visible and blood comes out of them, this is a big give away for a Spy. Try to avoid going back to the same place if you keep getting stabbed while you're there. When fighting a Spy, try to face them at all times because of their passive invisibility, you could easily lose track of them. Remember, even if you think you are wrong always alert team-mates of Spies, it does help to have a Pyro or a Heavy Spy-checking, it also lets the Spy know you are aware of them.

Shot combinations to kill a Spy: There are 2 ways that I use to kill a Spy, which one you use depends on what you hit them with first, since you will often be hitting the cloaked ones accidentally, the first one is 3 unscoped shots which totals to 105 damage, the second method is 1 fully charged shot and then 1 unscoped shot which deals 110 damage.
The Spy has 100 HP.

The Sniper:
Priority: Medium.
Difficulty: Medium/High.
Snipers can be an annoying class to fight, the out-come is determined by who has the better aim and most health, getting the first shot gives you a really good advantage. Cover is essential when fighting another Sniper, jumping up from behind a crate and shooting a Sniper can surprise them if they haven't noticed you, and you'll be back in cover before they can react.

Going close to a Sniper and fighting them also work well.

Shot Combinations to kill a Sniper: There are 2 main of shot combinations I use to kill Snipers, the first is 1 fully charged shot then 1 base shot which comes to 120 damage, another method is doing 4 unscoped shots which come to 140 damage.
The Sniper has 120 HP.

The Quote/Curly:
Priority: Medium.
Difficulty: Medium/High.
The Sniper is one of the few classes that can shoot through the Q/C's bubbles, making the Sniper a good class for fighting them, but, their small size can make them difficult to hit. Their high health means it can take some time to kill them, they are one of the fastest classes in the game, and with a Medic, they are a scary class to fight. Don't let them get too close or else you will probably get killed.

Keep your distance, their blades can do some damage, the knock-back can mess up your aim a bit, but not too much to stop you from hitting them, keep back-peddling to avoid them, lead them into your team so they can help you, they won't last long against multiple people.

Shot combinations to kill a Q/C: You do 2 fully charged shots which will do 150 damage, or you can also do 4 unscoped shots which does 140 damage.
The Q/C has 140 HP.

4. Game-mode Specific Tips:

CTF:
This is probably one of the most suitable game-modes for the Sniper. Being a defensive class they are well suited to stopping Intel-carriers and generally defending, which makes up for their slow speed, low health and difficulty attacking. Often the best place to go is the middle of the map, as most people pass though one route on the way to the Intel, the middle of the map is often a rather exposed area with little or no cover from above, so try to find an elevated area to snipe from, although while I generally disagree with camping at the base, defending from the area around the Intel can also be useful, but this should only be done when your team has little or no defence, if not then you should support your team by distracting enemies and protecting the person with the Intel, as well as killing the Intel-carrier on the opposite team. On many CTF maps, the Intel room is inside and fairly small, this makes it difficult for the sniper to be effective, so try to avoid staying in places like this.

The Sniper can provide good cover for the Intel-carrier, take out sentries safely and make a good distraction, but they generally shouldn't try to get the inte, making them a useful class on this game-mode, but don't focus on defence too much.

CP:
Snipers can really dominate on CP; they can kill the CP's cappers whilst remaining unharmed. Their main role in this is support; they aren't too good at attacking, though can be rather useful depending on the map; they are more useful for support when defending.

The main thing a Sniper should try to do on CP is kill the enemy's Medic, after that the rest of their team should be easy enough to deal with, though when defending, the Scout should be the second highest priority class. Killing enemies should be your priority, but you should still help to cap the CP if you need to.

Arena:
The Sniper is quite useful on arena due to its high damage per shot. Try and separate from most of your team as soon as you can to attract Spies, and then kill them, and also to make it easier to kill enemies without your team getting in the way. Flank enemies, allow your team to push the enemies to you and kill them.

Attack the Medic first.

Generator:
A Sniper's usefulness can vary on Gen especially with the addition of shields which will regenerate if you don't keep the attack up, I personally don't like playing Sniper on Gen and very rarely do. But their usefulness in defence has increased; this is because the shield reduces damage to the generator, which give the Sniper more time to kill the enemy before they do some serious damage. When attacking try not to go to close to the generator to reduce the risk of being attacked, just find a good sightline to the generator, just try to stay with your team a bit more, are you are more effective when attacking in groups.

KOTH:
When your team owns the point find a good Sniper spot near the CP and just defend or even stand on the point to block caps and snipe. When attacking, go to a Sniper spot and weaken the enemies a bit and then go onto the CP, though wait for your team as it will take too long to cap on your own.
Pick off Scouts and weaker enemies first.

DKOTH:
Not a great game-mode for the Sniper in my opinion.
Support and defending your own point is the way to go on this game-mode. Play it in a similar way to CTF and Gen. Stay mostly on defence, only try and cap the CP on the enemy's side if you have some team-mates with you.

5. Game-play Tips:

This section covers general tips and information for playing the Sniper and a number of tactics I use.

The Sniper can extend their hearing range by scoping; it allows them to hear noises as if they were at the centre of the screen. This can be used to listen out for on coming enemies that are not yet visible.
Using a damage indicator plugin can be really useful, as it allows you to accurately predict how many more shots and enemy needs to die.
To avoid your shots being blocked by team-mates, go in-front or above them, going above will generally give you an advantage over enemies. Jumping above enemies to take a shot and then using them as meat-shields is also another good tactic.
Try to avoid playing Sniper if there is already one on your team. It does not really help with defence, and they tend to get in the way of each-other. Play a different class that would be more useful for your team, such as the Medic.
Don't always run away from big groups of enemies or Heavy-Medic combos, you should try and kill the Medic first. Obviously if you're going to be overwhelmed and make no difference then don't attack them head-on, but don't always run away.
Don't play Sniper exclusively on defence, it is a support class; move with your team and protect them. The Sniper also works well in offence.
Getting close to an enemy and dancing them can work really well, especially against Soldiers and Snipers. People often find it difficult to hit others at such a close range and are often not expecting it.
Gun-spinning or not constantly aiming at your enemy is something I use; it can help with multiple enemies as they do not know who you are planning to attack. It's also a good way to help you practice aiming quickly if you switch your aim to an enemy out of gun-spinning or aiming away from them and helps to generally improve your accuracy.
Try to focus on one enemy at a time. Go for the enemy that you can kill in the quickest time first, or the one that is listed with the highest priority on the class matchups section. I sometimes don't do this, which results in me dying.

6. Map specific tips:
This section will cover tips and tactics for using maps to your advantage and things specific to a number of maps.

Certain maps are better for the Sniper than other, some the Sniper can be of very little use, and others can be dominated by the Sniper. Play around a bit, find some good sight lines, and figure out which maps are good for the Sniper, and which are bad.
Choosing a good area to Snipe from can be difficult, some maps have clear Sniper tower areas, and others do not. Just because there isn't a big tower to stand on does not mean that there aren't any good places to Snipe from. Many maps have one or two places where the Sniper is able to cover most of the key areas on a map.

7. Conclusion:
You have finished reading my guide. Now what?

Go and play a match with the Sniper, see if this guide has helped you, if not then post here and suggest any improvements I could make as I'm always open to suggestions.

While this guide is outdated it still contains valuable information from one of the best Snipers ever, check out Wherewolf's guide for Sniping: http://www.ganggarrison.com/forums/index.php?topic=13391.0

Thank you for reading my guide, and remember to read future updates.

-Derpduck

10. Change log:

1.0 - Released guide.
1.1 - Corrected things, removed a section and added a bunch of things.
1.2 - Added more detail and corrected things.
1.3 - Changed format slightly, added extra things to class matchups and removed useless things or confusing.
1.4 - Corrected mistakes and added a few new things.
1.5 - Added alternate ways of killing people and more detail in other sections.
1.6 - Added more detail.
1.6.1 - Added comment about haxxy statues.
1.6.2 - Added comment about gun-spinning.
2.0 - Re-wrote the whole guide with better grammar, punctuation, formatting and generally more detail.
2.0.1 - Fix some small errors.
2.1 - Added the how to attack and defend sections.
2.2 - Edited and updated the guide, mostly re-written, some changes to formatting.

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