Sharpshooter: The Glass Cannon [Autumn 2019]

Sharpshooter is a person who is skilled in precision shooting, using projectile weapons, usually with a rifle but most commonly with a designated marksman rifle or a special application rifle, to shoot at long range targets.

Basics.

Sharpshooter has been added into KF2 in the latest June Update. He's a very strong versatile perk, using High-сalibre carbines, crossbows and futuristic junkpunk to turn ZED's heads into a bloody mess.


Pros:
+ Very high damage output per mag
+ Can be universally good at dealing with trash ZEDs and big ZEDs alike
+ High stun and stumble capabilities
+ Crowd-control capability with cryo-grenades and stuns
+ Great mid-game and end-game arsenal
+ Virtually indispensable on 20+ waves of the endless mode

Cons:
- Low mobility
- Struggles at killing some of the medium ZEDs
- Fragile
- High weapon recoil
- Can be pretty easily overrun by Stalkers or Gorefasts (-fiends) if careless
- Bad starting weapon

Skill Tree: The Torments of Choice

Level 5:

• Sniper - Increases the damage dealt by your sharpshooter weapons by 25% WHEN stationary
  

• Marksman

  - Increases the rate of fire of your sharpshooter weapons by 25% AND Increases movement speed by 10%

As the MK14 is our weapon of choice, you should go with Marksman here; it increases both your single-target DPS and boosts your trash ZED disposal speed, Also, 10% movement speed buff is very valuable - KF2 is all about constant movement, after all.

Level 10:

• Stability - Increases sharpshooter's weapon damage output per shot by 30% WHEN crouching
  

• Ballistic Shock

  - Increases sharpshooter's weapon stun capability by 100%

The only map I think about when I look at the Stability skill is KF-Cube. Most Other maps are much less open. Ballistic Shock, on the other hand, can save your life - it has a 100% chance to stun on headshot for any ZED except the Fleshpound, Hans or Patriarch, disabling all movement and attacks for 3 seconds, allowing you to run away, break through, or finish them off. An extremely viable option against Scrakes.

Level 15:

• Rack 'em Up - each consecutive headshot increases the damage by 5%, with the max amount of 75%
  

• Combat Ready

  Faster weapon reload

Rack 'em Up is rather inconsistent and relies on your having extreme precision skills, Combat Ready being a safer choice, and a quite good one as well. It makes any sharpshooter weapon reload within a nanosecond... well, metaphorically speaking.

Level 20:

• Dead Eye - Increases headshot damage dealt with sharpshooter's weapons by 10% AND decreases recoil by 10% WHEN scoped in.
  

• Always Prepared

  Increases max ammo reserve by 25% and grenade reserve by 1 (for a total of 6 grenades)

Dead Eye is a sensible choice for railgun-only players, but that 10% damage buff is not really crucial, nor is the reduction in recoil, but the additional ammo allows you to be less frugal with your guns and have an overall easier life in those long suicidal / HoE rounds. Furthermore, the 1 additional cryo-grenade lets you freeze 3 Fleshpounds instead of 2 without resupplying.

Level 25:

• Assassin - Sharpshooter weapons knocks ZEDs down on the floor
  

• Ranger

  - Sharpshooter weapons stun ZEDs on hit

Both Assassin and Ranger disable a ZED for 3 seconds, but Assassin makes it really hard for you and your teammates to wipe them out; Ranger, however, makes it completely stationary, exposing its bald twopenny for you to shoot. The choice here is obvious, I assume?

!!!

Going for the right-sided perks increases your personal survivability and makes you more versatile when engaging different ZEDs.

The left-sided perks maximise your damage output, but force you to stay stationary and make you inefficient when fighting hordes of smaller, nimble ZEDs.

Weapons: The Tools of Daredevil

There is only one new weapon for a veteran KF player to discover in Sharpshooter's arsenal, other three having been already seen in the original Killing Floor game. Allow me to introduce:

The Winchester 1894

Damage: Medium
Rate of Fire: Low-Medium
Recoil: High
Mag Capacity: Low (12)
Ammo Reserve: Low (84) - (117 with Always Prepared)
Stun: Low
Penetration: Medium
Weight: Light (4)

Winchester is one of the worst starting weapons in the game, having a high recoil, decentish damage and low mag cap. Discard this weapon as soon as you get enough money to buy an MK14.

Composite (or not so composite) Crossbow

Damage: High
Rate of Fire: Single-Shot
Recoil: None
Mag Capacity: Single-Shot (1)
Ammo Reserve: Medium (38)-(43 with Always Prepared), arrows can be picked up and reused.
Stun: High
Penetration: High
Weight: Medium (6)

Crossbow is an essential weapon for when you need to stun a scrake or an FP. Due to its high stun coefficient, it can turn a somewhat dangerous Scrake into a complete twerp in just one headshot; this is harder to pull off with FPs, however. Shot arrows can be picked up and used once again, and again, and again... Do not buy it until wave 6 (If you're running a long game) - it's an overkill until then.

MK14 aka M14 EBR

Damage: Medium
Rate of Fire: Medium-Low (Medium with Marksman)
Recoil: Medium
Mag Capacity: Mediocre (20)
Ammo Reserve: High (160) - (205 with always Prepared)
Stun: Extremely Low
Penetration: Medium
Weight: Weighty (7)

The highlight of the programme! MK14 is a reliable carbine used by many different sharpshooters around the world to clean up hordes of trash ZEDs or finish off the bigger fellas. I advise you to always keep it in your inventory until wave 11. It has high RoF and decent damage per shot with solid DPS. Try to get it as much earlier in the game as you can.

The So-called Railgun

Damage: High-Very High
Rate of Fire: Single-shot
Recoil: None
Mag Capacity: Single-shot (1)
Ammo Reserve: Medium (32)-(41 with Always Prepared)
Stun: High
Penetration: High
Weight: Very Heavy (9)

A pretty remarkable design of this gun does not make it much good. It has very few total ammo and requires around 3-4 shots to put down a single fleshpound. Also, buying this gun makes it impossible for you to buy the MK14 and, therefore, fairly helpless against trash and medium ZEDs in mid-game and end-game. Bosses are immune to it too, so you won't be much of a benefit to your team. Pass it, unless you're playing on KF-Cube with a team of Demolitionists. It's not worth it.

SPX 464 Centerfire
IS A MULTIPERK WEAPON


Damage: Medium-High
Rate of Fire: Low
Recoil: High
Mag Capacity: Low (10)
Ammo Reserve: Low (70)-(98 with Always Prepared)
Stun: Low
Penetration: Medium
Weight: Medium (5)

An upgraded winchester with higher damage output and a red dot sight. In exchange, it has even an even longer reload and even fewer ammo. It also weighs a point more. I wouldn't recommend buying this weapon at all when playing as sharpshooter (unless you're going for MK14+SPX+Magnum.500 combo): it's more suited for the Gunslinger, who can compensate for the sluggishness with his mobility.

The Skull-structor M99 AMR
2500 Dosh?! You bloody jokin' ou me, mate?

Damage: Extreme
Rate of Fire: Single-shot
Recoil: Considerable
Mag Capacity: Single-shot (1)
Ammo Reserve: Low (20) - (26 with Always Prepared)
Stun: Very High
Penetration: Extremely High
Weight: Burdening (12)

M99 AMR is the big and shrewd brother of the railgun. It shoots huge metal tubes, effectively abolishing any ZED's head in a single shot. It's a perfect weapon for sitting-ducks sharpshooters who've want to maximise their damage output. Due to weight, it makes sharpshooter absolutely helpless against anything at close ranges, though.

.500 Magnum Revolver
IS A MULTIPERK WEAPON
Damage: Medium-High
Rate of Fire: Medium (High with Marksman)
Recoil: Considerable
Mag Capacity: Low (5)
Ammo Reserve: Medium (100) - (130 with Always Prepared)
Stun: High
Penetration: High
Weight: Light (3)

.500 Magnum is a solid choice for a sharpshooter, owing to its low weight, decent ammo capacity and damage. It can be used in the same loadout with MK14 EBR and SPX 464 Centerfire, giving sharpshooter a lot of immediate DPS options.

FN FAL
IS A MULTIPERK WEAPON

Damage: Low-Medium
Rate of Fire: Very High
Recoil: High
Spread: High
Mag Capacity: Mediocre (20)
Ammo Reserve: High (200) - (220 with always Prepared)
Stun: Extremely Low
Penetration: None
Weight: Weighty (8)

FN FAL is an MK14 with a full-auto mode. It has a bit more ammo than the latter, but falls flat in most other departments comparatively. In only one scenario can it prove to be a better choice - when spraying into an FP's mug point-blank, hoping for it to die before it rolls you over, or you run out of bullets in the mag, or both.
It's also ill-advised to use it as an assault rifle, since it has much lower ammo capacity than other ARs in the game.

Cryo-Grenade
Capacity: 5 (6 with Always Prepared)
Influence: Freezes / slows down ZEDs for 3-4 seconds.
Utility Ratio: 3/5

Cryo-grenades are not very useful for breaking through hordes of ZEDs. Despite that, it's very strong against tougher opponents, like Scrake (requires 2 grens) and Fleshpound (2 to 3). The blast radius is short, so it requires getting used to. It really helps when facing big ZEDs alone, freezing them and letting sharpshooter polish them off before his phiz gets flattened.

Additional Notes.

• Killing a scrake is so easy you'll laugh: get a crossbow, hit him in the head, get up close and spray away at his head with MK14. Bon Appétit!
  
• Fleshpound is a difficult one, getting through him unharmed might not always be possible. To maximise your chances, find the longest corridor on the map, and start shooting his head with a crossbow. If you start feeling the smell of burning steel in the air, toss a few cryo grenades, letting you finish the job.
  
• Husk is a free frag grenade: wait for him to begin preparing his fireball attack so that he exposes the fuel tank on his back and then shoot it before he shoots you; it takes exactly 1 shot with any of the sharpshooter's weapons to make it go boom.
  
• Sharpshooter is very weak against bosses on his own. While he can dish out some great damage, the first time he gets focused is usually also his last.
  
• Sharpshooter's weapons can't pierce through the Siren's, Bloater's and Husk's skull for some reason, so it'll take 5/3/4 headshots to kill them respectively, and they'll still be wandering around headless for some time after that. So try to use Crossbow whenever it is possible in these cases.
  
• Sharpshooter is the second greatest perk after Firebug in terms of elbowing his way out of the horde's claws, since he is able to reliably stun any ZED except fleshpound. If you're pinned down and there is a dead-end behind you - do not despair quite yet.
  
• As a mobile Sharpshooter, soloing is not too hard a task, but sticking with your team will actually help. Them, not you, silly!
  
• The song 'Collapsing' is nice.
  
• DJ Scully is a great character

Conclusion

Sharpshooter is a really useful (almost vital) perk, that makes life significantly less challenging for the whole team, but lacks survivability during boss battles.

That's it for Sharpshooter. I hope that helped some of you in some way. Now go and have a sharp shoot out there!

[Konta Fox]

anyone who picks Ballistic Shock instead of Stability is clueless about Sharpshooter

[Guardian_Angel]

Psychic Warlock, maybe, maybe not. I haven't played since the introduction of the predatory weapon MTX.

[Psychic Warlock]

Your guide covers everything sharpshooter isn't

[Eärendil]

Thank you for this well written guide!

[dolly]

this is honestly the best and most informative sharpshooter guide there is /s

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

ReU is b.s. on solo b/c of the amount of zeds that spawn and the spawn rate. Even on HoE. It's more imporant to always have ammo in the chamber vs 5X damage.

[Bottle of Acid]

You should point out in the title and the start that this guide is for solo play as a gimped sharpshooter. Going right instead of left takes away everything that makes a Sharp a monster killer.

I mean... Faster reload over rack em' up? Are you serious? REM is the most important skill of both GS and Sharps. You seem to be trying to play Sharp as a commando. and stating Sharp will be a burden during boss fights is misinformation. Sharps who can hit their mark can deal a massive chunk of damage per shot with full REM and M99 headshot.

You should not be making guides based off the lowest skill demoninator in the playerbase.

[Bottle of Acid]

@ataor I have played both Sharp and GS extensively and I can tell you you are very wrong. Sharp isnt an inferior gunslinger. A full left Sharpshooter in a well coordinated team is much more powerful than a GS due to unlimited range one-shots. A railgun/ EMR plus .500 magnum Sharp is able to handle a lot of situations, with the big gun used on scrake/fp and the magnum for one shotting mediums. The 9mm can be used to deal with trash.

A gunslinger at still needs an average 2 clips of headshots to take down an FP, and is limited by range. Its an easier class to pick up for sure, but Sharp will do much more than a GS once you learn how to play it.

Plus sharp can add a ton of zed-time to a team at perk 25. Each headshot has chance to trigger zt, which is helpful.

[El-Smole]

sharpshooter, crowd control... loooool

[QuantizedAnson]

These guide is better for Solo play as a Sharpshooter in my opinion, because you can keep going kite on ZEDs. What's the point of being Sharshooter if your skilltree and weapon choices is changing it into a less-powerful Gunslinger? Sharp excels in eliminating enemies before the team encounters it.