SRS99C-S2 AM sniper rifle

Advantages
The sniper rifle is designed to be used at medium to long ranges, and is equipped with a scope for precisely this purpose. With its 2x and 10x zooms (5x and 10x in Halo 2) and the ability to penetrate Covenant shields, the sniper rifle is useful against most distant enemies. By far, it's most useful purpose in campaign mode is taking out the higher ranking enemies in a group to destabalize their squad's discipline and moral (which makes combating a larger force much easier). A headshot against any Covenant infantry except a Zealot (Gold) Elite, Hunter, or Brute results in an instant kill; Hunters fall from one shot to their unarmored torso or neck, and many Brutes must be shot twice in the head to get past the protective helmets they often wear. When playing in the highest difficulty, Legendary, this is only true for Minor (blue) Elites; the Majors (red) will take two shots to the head, and the Zealots will take three. Also when the night vision function is turned on, by pressing the flashlight button (this is exclusive to Halo 1), one can see an invisible (cloaked) Elite very easily. When playing online, some players use the sniper rifle to great effect when camping. For example, skilled users may crouch inside a confined hallway and fire without the use of the scope from close range, resulting in many instant kills.

Disadvantages
Like any weapon, there is a need to lead targets if they are at extreme distances. It is hard to use at short range because its aim is so precise and it's ammo volume is so small; with only four shots, there is no room at all for error. It also has a steeper learning curve than most weapons, taking significant practice to master. Ammunition for this weapon is scarce and, because of that, it is not good practice to waste the ammo on "lesser foes" such as Grunts and Drones. It is highly ineffective against all forms of Flood and against Sentinels. The only way that the sniper rifle can be effective against the flood is if you fire at thier arms, which will fall off leaving them harmless. The bullets leave a strong visible trail that can reveal the shooter's position to others. The rifle also performs poorly against virtually all vehicles (unless a "weak spot", such as the ghost's fuel cell, is shot).

Influence
The sniper rifle appears to be heavily inspired by (if not directly copied from) the Barrett .50 caliber rifles (most notably the Barret M82 )and the South African NTW-20. Many of the features present in the Halo version are included in both weapons, such as the recoil-dampening piston, the general look of the receiver, the magazine placement, muzzle brake, and many other attributes.



Appearences
The sniper rifle was featured in both Halo 1 and Halo 2. The original Halo's sniper rifle had a digital radar-like view which was green. In Halo 2, the view was replaced with a visual image of the sniper's scope in real time. This weapon will return in Halo 3. How it behaves and other features have yet to be uncovered.



Effective Against

 * All Covenant
 * Elites: One-hit headshot, Gold Elites two-hit headshot, white elites 3-hit headshot. (Note: varies dramatically according to difficulty.)
 * Grunts: One-hit kill if headshot or bodyshots on yellow grunts on "Easy".
 * Drones: One-hit kill in all cases.
 * Jackals One hit kill for headshots and shots through the pistol opening in the shield
 * Hunters: Aim for weak points on abdomen or neck (note: neck shots sometimes do not register)
 * Brutes: 2 shots- one to knock away a helmet and one for a kill shot.
 * Humans / Spartans (Multiplayer: Head shot is always effective unless overshield is present on a Spartan or a Elite).


 * NOT effective against ANY Flood forms in Halo 1. This is most likely due to the fact that their flesh and bone is less dense than that of humans or Covenant. In Halo 2 a shot to the 'heart'(where there are tentacles pretuding out of the chest) of any flood warrior will kill them.

Super Sniper
On the level Truth and Reconciliation in Halo:Combat Evolved, the Master Cheif stars out with a MA5B ICWS Assault Rifle and this sniper rifle. However, this sniper rifle starts out with much more ammo then normally allowed. It has 64 rounds avalible. But once the player has used up ammo down to 24 rounds, it changes back to normal ammo capacity. This suggests that the Master Cheif either made some special modifications, used some EB Green to tape a little extra on himself, had a "full combat load" as described in Halo: The Flood, or that the marines kept giving him extra rounds. Other than this initial extra ammo the "super sniper" gun itself doesn't appear to be special in any way.