Hi guys, my name's Tim and I go by the username "Likeawhisper" for my Be Gone account. This guide is here to make the most amateur noob into a professional sniper. This guide will only work if you understand what I am saying: please feel free to comment on any mistakes, typos, or contradictory information if you happen to see any.
A short background: Be Gone's sniping methods are very wide. The positioning and technique of your sniping should be very flexible and capable of being executed from any stage. My personal preferences for stages are Pipeline and Timbertown due to the amount of vegetation (I'll take about this importance later) and the size of the map (another important thing). Reading this guide is not guaranteed to make you a professional sniper but if you try hard and do your best (and hopefully have a computer without lag!) this will give you, at worst, information on how to properly snipe.
Offensive Sniping: The Crosshairs[]
Alright, I hope by now all you eager little children are hopping with bloodlust with a sniper in your character's hands.
The Arsenal
Sniping can be accomplished by any weapon. Obviously, you will want to use either the M110 (the sniper rifle) or the M4A1 (the second gun in the list). Both weapons are very accurate and individual bullets are powerful. After careful analysis, I have concluded that the following combinations of upgrades are best. I will discuss the presence or absense of every single upgrade.
M4A1:
ACOG scope: This is a high-zoom scope that allows precision accuracy yet is mobile enough to let you quickly mow a guy down at close range. My personal favorite scope.
Ammo counter: This cheap gadget keeps a careful record of your bullets, an invaluable tool for just $200.
Laser Sight: This will greatly increase your accuracy. A must have.
Extended clip: The bigger the clip the more bullets you can put into the guy.
Recoil pad: Recoil can increase the time between your bursts of fire. Try to lessen this as much as possible.
Explosive ammo: This puts a whopping +10 damage for headshots and +4 for body. This will greatly increase your damage.
The reason why I don't use suppressors is because it cuts down 4 damage from your shots. The whole point of a suppressor is to lessen the sound and to slightly reduce recoil. I say it isn't worth $1,100. Buy the recoil pad instead.
I don't like to use incendiary rounds because a) the damage to a headshot is 6 less than explosive and b) the fire animation that the bullets leave give a hint of where your fire is from, which can ruin the point of concealment.
M110:
ACOG scope: Despite the more powerful 6x zoom scope, all you will need to make accurate shots is the ACOG. This scope doesn't zoom TOO much and is just as effective.
Everything else is the same with the M4A1. However, in this case, you will want a suppressor. If you have purchased explosive rounds, the power-uppage this upgrade gives you will be lessened by the suppressor, but you will have the benefit of less recoil and quieter shots. Buy it for the M110.
Targeting
Unlike real life, snipers do not have hours a day to find targets. In Be Gone the rounds only take a couple of minutes, making it absolutely vital you are able to find targets. The best way is to slowly roam around in a large area, such as a view of the dunes in Timbertown. Binoculars are absolutely necessary, because a scope conceals your vision. For example, close one eye. Memorize how much you can see, and then take a toilet paper roll and look through it. Your field of vision is much smaller, right? Because of that effect, use binoculars to scan around. Once you have found a target, switch to your scope (just need to right click) and then take aim.
The Shot(s)
Once you have a good view on the guy, open fire! With an M4A1 target the neck. You will hit the body and some stray rounds have a good chance of dealing headshots. With the M110, you have choices.
If he doesn't see you
If the guy doesn't know he is in your crosshairs, aim a shot or burst of rounds at his head. With explosive rounds you will badly cripple the guy. Put your crosshairs back in place after the recoil and quickly shoot any area of his body (never the head again unless he doesn't move) to finish him off. Remember, explosive rounds to the head will have left him with health at a max of 20. Just a few more rounds will kill him.
If he sees you
Immediately open fire at any target. If he is running fast, aim for the body. If he hesitates, quickly aim for the neck; you might get a lucky headshot but you will hit him anyways. As soon as you know not a single more round will hit chase him. If you have an MP7 in your secondary switch to this; you will need the fast firing and the rapid-fire. If you have an M4A1 as your sniping weapon get out of zoom and follow the guy. If you see him immediately start shooting.
After the Shot
Hopefully you are gazing at the ragdoll effect the programmers created for killed players. If not, you see the guy dashing for cover and makes it. If you killed him, stamp a head on your computer, scratch a tally on your mouse, pat your back, or do whatever you do after you killed a player. Then find a different sniper spot and repeat. If you have missed the guy, you have to take chances. If you position is a corner, stay there. The escaped target will return after a while and will walk right into your waiting bullets. Expect him to appear in a different location, possibly a far-away area with a good view of you. Anticipate where he will go and you must be paranoid to do so.
Defensive Sniping[]
Defensive Sniping is usually associated with camping or offensive sniping. This is not the case. Whereas in offensive sniping your goal to find and kill enemies defensive sniping is to find and kill other snipers with the goal of protecting your teammates. This is can be much more easy or much more difficult than offensive sniping.
The principle is to find out how your enemy plays. Before you snipe play a few rounds by simply observing. Watch for areas that are popular with the other team's snipers. If you want to backstab find out where your teammates like to go to snipe and then switch teams. You have to find out where the snipers populate to truly work well.
Once you have found these areas you enter the next stage, the hunt.
The Hunt
You already know where the enemy snipers are. So what now? Kill them. Find a spot where you can barely see the area. Get rid of a flashlight if you have it. Crouch and train your weapon on the area. Move as little as possible. Use your head; SWAT should crouch in the shadows and Militia should crouch behind structures or inside bushes. Do not forget to look around every few seconds to prevent a sneak attack.
If you don't see a sniper for a good amount of time move somewhere else. Keep still and pay attention
If you do see a sniper go to the next step
The Execution
This is the fun part. You have seen the guy. Nine times out of ten you will see only the guy's head and maybe his upper torso and gun.
You should have a very high-accuracy weapon. Most recommended is a M110 sniper or M4A1 assault rifle.
If you have a sniper rifle line up your crosshairs with the guy's head. A headshot is frightening and takes a good amount of health and courage away from an unsuspecting sniper. Headshots result in massive damage and the enemy's screen will shake and turn red, which will completely disorientate the guy. Take a headshot and immediately shoot at the body. This will kill him. If you have explosive rounds you don't even have to sweat. Take a headshot and the game's programming will do the rest. One shot, one kill.
If you have an assault rifle equip the ACOG scope and line up with the enemy's neck. Pour rounds in. Most of the rounds will most likely miss but a good amount will get body and head shots. Once he ducks quickly reload. If he peeks up again finish him off. However, your best chances are a kill with the first spray. Most likely he will duck and then flee. Don't be discouraged, although you should pay more attention to your surroundings in case of a sneak attack.
Once you see no more players, run! Your shots and your bullet traces (assuming you don't have a suppressor) have just advertised your location to all of the enemy around you. Flee the area, camp for a while and pick off anyone who charges at your old location to investigate. Then run to a different area and resume your sniper overwatch.
Defensive sniping may be boring most of the time but is a vital piece of defense in the game. Here are some situations I remember that I will describe.
Once was when I was on the SWAT team in Timbertown. I had a sniper rifle and an MP7. I got up the house and used binoculars to glance around at those sand dunes at the Militia side. Right off the bat I saw at least two sniper get into position, so I ducked down and jumped off the house. I used the alley at the far right to proceed to the SWAT stairs and stopped. I had options: I could run out and massacre the snipers, which was faster but more dangerous, or I could climb the building, which takes more time but makes me much safer. I, having a sniper rifle, chose to climb the stairs. Once I got to the top I made sure there was no one behind me and then used the sniper to carefully pick off the Militia snipers. Someone ambushed me and I died, but my point is that taking high places and using precision instead of brute force is a much better tactic than rushing in with the Light Brigade and being shot in the face.
Another instance was at the Pipeline. I was on SWAT again with an M4A1. I dashed to the center platform and climbed up. Someone on top of the Miltia house took some potshots at me so I knew I had been spotted. I creeped to the center where the vegetation was and ducked next to it. From there I bought myself a suppressor even though I had been saving for a Recoil Pad and began to pick off one of the snipers. Using bursts I aimed for the neck, even though the guy was taking potshots at my area. I killed him and his buddy was smart enough to run. I took a moment to see where the guy was going and then waited for him to run around before I took him out. The point of this situation is that just a few more seconds of waiting can tell you so much about the situation. Instead of jumping down and hunting the enemy I waited to make sure where he was going before I took action.
This is defensive sniping.