Sniping

A Marine sniper team in Old Mombasa during the Battle of Earth.

A jump pack Brute is sniped while airborne. The kill is seen through this weapon's telescopic sight.

Sniping is the act of covertly eliminating targets from a concealed or distant position. Snipers often rely on stealth and nearby cover; sniping is rarely performed from an open or conspicuous location. The most popular sniping weapons are the Sniper Rifle, Beam Rifles, and Binary Rifle. Others weapons (such as the Vostu-pattern carbine and the Battle Rifle) can also be used, though they are significantly less powerful and have a shorter range.

Sniping is an essential battlefield tactic in any form of combat. When correctly executed, sniping can inflict not only kills, but also a sense of demoralization and disarray among your enemy combatants. In The Art of War by Sun Tzu, it is stated that one must "attack an enemy when they are disorganized." Sniping can disorganize an enemy, and in a team game, this can make an attack much easier.

Teams

Sniping is effective both in free-for-all and team-based gametypes. If a sniper can find a good location to snipe from in a free-for-all Slayer match, then they can score a large amount of kills before other players are able to counter-snipe. It is entirely possible, however, for a sniper's opponents to temporarily cooperate in an effort to eliminate the sniper. Should a sniper need to retreat or relocate during a free-for-all match, they will not have allies to provide covering fire for them. Because of this, stealth is particularly important when sniping in a free-for-all match.

During a team-based gametype, snipers are extremely valuable. A sniper can potentially keep an entire team pinned down in one spot, and can also limit that team's exits and therefore their offensive and defensive capabilities. In objective-based gametypes, it may be very useful for the enemy team to know where a sniper is—this limits the team's options, making their actions more predictable.

Aside from their role as a useful distraction, snipers in team-based games can also provide very useful covering fire for teammates. Snipers can also act as effective scouts, locating hazards such as enemy vehicles. For these reasons, distance is particularly important when sniping in a team-based match.

Headshots

Main article: Headshots

When aiming for kills, a sniper's goal is nearly always to score a headshot. A headshot, when scored with a Sniper Rifle or Beam Rifle, is instantly fatal (unless the opponent has some form of additional protection, such as an Overshield). Multiple consecutive headshots from Carbines and Battle Rifles are not instantly fatal, but will bring a target down faster. In reality and in Halo, a sniper's motto is "one shot, one kill."

However, all headshot-capable weapons (even the magnum) kill in just one headshot, provided that the opponent's shields are down, or the shot is powerful enough to penetrate the enemy's shields.

Weapon-specific Information

Sniper Rifle

Main article: SRS99 series

The Sniper Rifle is the one of the three main sniping weapons. A single headshot can kill any opponent—even a shielded one (with the exception of Brutes on Halo 3: ODST) – and only one body shot is needed to kill an unshielded opponent. The Sniper Rifle has a slower rate of fire than the Beam Rifle, and needs to reload every four rounds; however, it can hold more rounds.

Beam Rifle

Main articles: Type-50 particle beam rifle, Type-27 beam rifle

The Covenant Beam Rifle is the other main sniping weapon. Beam Rifles are roughly as powerful as Sniper Rifles. They are slightly more powerful, being able to kill Sentinels on Isolation in a single shot, but the difference is negligible when dealing with enemy players. The Beam Rifle has a slightly higher rate of fire and does not need to reload, but is prone to overheating and has fewer rounds.

Focus Rifle

Main article: Type-52 focus rifle

The Focus rifle is a scoped beam weapon capable of continuous fire, being able to kill a fully shielded Spartan in about 1.5 seconds. It fires a continuous purple-tinted beam, but overheats easily due to the continuous fire. It is, however, incapable of performing headshots on other players or enemies.

Binary Rifle

Main article: Z-750 binary rifle

The Binary Rifle is a scoped beam weapon used by Forerunner military forces, capable of killing with a single shot regardless of where it hits, making it more powerful than the Sniper Rifles and Beam Rifles. The Halo 4 version fires single shots that deal extreme damage with a downside of extreme accuracy loss when hipfired. The Halo 5: Guardians rendition of the weapon fires concentrated beams of energy that are fatal if they hit for most of the entire time they are fired, but lack the accuracy penalty when hipfired.

Covenant Carbine

Main articles: Type-51 carbine, Type-57 carbine

Neither the Vostu-pattern carbine and Mosa-pattern carbine, the Battle Rifle, nor the M'tara-pattern focus rifle are considered sniping weapons, but they can be used as such. Both weapons are headshot-capable, and both possess scopes that allow for long-range battles.

LightRifle

Main article: Z-250 lightrifle

Like the Covenant Carbine, the LightRifle is not considered a sniping weapon, but can be used as such. It is capable of headshots and possesses a scope that facilitates long-range battles. The Halo 4 rendition of the LightRifle fires in three-round bursts when hipfired and powerful single rounds when scoped in, while the Halo 5: Guardians rendition always fires single shots but fires wider, more powerful rounds when scoped in.

Magnum

Main article: M6 series

This weapon was not designed as a sniper, but due to its high accuracy, power, and range, it can be used for sniping in a similar way as the Battle Rifle.

Battle Rifle

Main articles: BR55 battle rifle, BR85 battle rifle

Like the Carbine, the Battle Rifle is not explicitly intended for sniping. However, it is scoped and headshot-capable, able to bring down a fully-shielded player with four headshots.

DMR

Main articles: M392 DMR, M395 DMR

Like the Carbine, the DMR is not explicitly intended for sniping, but is scoped and headshot-capable, able to bring down a fully-shielded player with four headshots.

Rocket Launcher

Main articles: M41 SPNKR, M57 Pilum

The Rocket Launchers have a scope, but are fairly poor weapons for sniping. The rockets that they fire are painfully slow, visually obvious, and generally easy to avoid. Sniping with a Rocket Launcher is only feasible when performed by a player with an incredible gift at leading targets, and against a player whose line of sight precludes them from seeing the rocket.

Spartan Laser

Main article: M6 Spartan Laser

The Spartan Laser, introduced in Halo 3, has a relatively long range. Its scope is between the Battle Rifle's 2× zoom and the Sniper Rifle's 5× zoom, and it is certainly capable of killing an opponent in one shot. It has the disadvantage of being highly noticeable; it emits a red tracking laser for four seconds before firing, and its profile is rather conspicuous when being held or when being carried on a player's back.

Incineration Cannon

Main article: Z-390 incineration cannon

The Incineration Cannon, introduced in Halo 4, has a relatively long range. It behaves much like the Rocket Launcher, but the projectiles not only move much faster, but are also capable of much more damage, as they leave behind explosive submunitions upon impact. The Halo 5: Guardians version of the weapon is one of the least ideal choices for sniping, due to its greatly reduced effective range.

Advanced Tactics

Reconnaissance

Snipers are particularly useful when keeping a team coordinated. A sniper with a headset can report back to his team, relaying information on the locations of enemies, enemy vehicles, what weapons an enemy team is using, and other hazards. A sniper with a good position can survey the entire battlefield, searching for important events and observing them in detail with a scope.

Movement

When acting as a sniper, keep moving—especially in a free-for-all or Slayer game. In a free-for-all game, snipers don't have any allies that will provide covering or supporting fire; once a sniper is found, they have almost no hope of making it to safety without being seen or followed. This problem is compounded by the fact that many sniping wea