TF2 Sniper Weapons can be played in more than one way. This versatile class offers many different primary weapons and around half a dozen secondary weapons. The Sniper’s weapon loadout is customizable and can be tailored to your specific needs.
Some TF2 Sniper players prefer to use highly modified rifles, while others stick to the default Sniper Rifle. Usually, the more experienced you are, the more you’ll want to stray from the beaten path to get an edge.
TF2 Sniper Weapons
These are the weapons that you can equip as a Sniper and their main characteristics:
Primary Weapon
The Sniper Rifle or the AWPer Hand are the vanilla guns used by this TF2 class. They deal 50-150 base damage and 150-450 headshot damage. The gun charges while zoomed. Headshots result in critical hits. However, you won’t deal random critical hits.
The Huntsman or the Fortified Compound are two weapons that do the same thing but are obtained in different ways. The first must be unlocked, while the second is a promotional item. The characteristics of these bows are very peculiar. First, they transform your character from a Sniper into an Archer, whose attack range and damage are decreased. There are, however, benefits to this build.
Some players love the bow on their Sniper because it makes them better at fighting at close to medium range. But apart from that, you should only equip a bow if you enjoy using the weapon. From an efficiency standpoint, an AWP is a better idea.
The Sydney Sleeper is another rifle that comes with some very interesting features. This is a great gun for beginners who find it difficult to hit headshots because its main nerf is that headshots do not crit. But everything else is buffed to compensate for this.
TF2 Sniper Weapons
The Bazaar Bargain is a rifle that has been modified to have its charge rate increased by 25% up to 200% every time you get a scoped headshot kill. The compensatory debuff or penalty is a -50% base charge rate.
The Machina and Shooting Star are two guns that deal a lot of damage: 50-173 base and 150-518 for headshots. They only fire when zoomed in, and their shots leave a bright, traceable line behind them. This makes the Sniper more vulnerable because it’s instantly obvious to the enemy side where the shot was fired.
The compensatory buffs are considerable: fully charged shots deal 15% more damage and penetrate players, dealing damage to their teammates as well if they’re right behind them.
The Hitman’s Heatmaker deals more quiet shots, and gains focus on kills and assists. When you hit reload, you activate this focus, which means your weapon doesn’t get unscoped between shots. Body shots deal 20% less damage, but that’s a relatively small nerf if you know what you’re doing.
The Classic is a crafted weapon that doesn’t unscope between shots but cannot headshot unless it is fully charged. Other nerfs include a -10% damage for body shots and a trace left by shots behind them.
Overall, this is a fairly risky weapon to use. Other Sniper rifles are much better for beginners. And even if you’re an experienced player, this is one of those Sniper rifles that you should only use situationally, against teams that love playing with lots of Medics and Heavys and hate picking the Spy class. If you’re playing against several enemy spies, ensuring that you’re hard to detect is essential.
Secondary Weapon
The SMG is the most basic secondary weapon you can equip on a Sniper. It deals 8 body and 24 crit damage while firing 24 rounds per second.
Another interesting choice is the Jarate. Enemies hit by it take mini-crits on hit. Each mini-crit constitutes a damage buff of +35%. The Self-Aware Beauty Mark secondary weapon works the same way. Both of these secondary weapons can be used on allies to extinguish flames. Their cooldown or recharge rate is 20s.
The Razorback makes you immune to one backstab attempt. However, it also gives you a -100% overheal penalty. Its cooldown is 30 seconds. The good thing about it is that you don’t need to actively equip it because it works passively if you have it on you.
Darwin’s Danger Shield gives you +50% fire damage resistance and complete immunity to afterburn. All of this is granted to you passively.
The Cozy Camper gives you nice passive bonuses when using your primary weapon. For example, you won’t experience flinching while aiming if your weapon is fully charged, the knockback is reduced by 20%, and you will slowly regenerate your health.
The Cleaner’s Carbine charges a Crickey meter. When charged, it deals mini-crits for 8 seconds. The debuffs are -20% clip size and -25% firing rate. In addition to that, the weapon deals with no random critical hits. This is a good option if you expect to play a lot in closed spaces. If you can maintain a long range, pick the Cozy Camper instead.
Melee Weapon
You can pick a Kukri, a Frying Pan, or other weapons in the melee category. The complete list of melee weapons is this:
- Kulri
- Frying Pan
- Conscientious Objector
- Freedom Staff
- Bat Outta Hell
- Memory Maker
- Ham Shank
- Necro Smasher
- Crossing Guard
- Prinny Machete
- Saxxy
- Golden Frying Pan
- Tribalman’s Shiv
- Bushwacka
- Shahanshah
Some of these weapons have their base or crit damage modified. But you will rarely get to use them.
