I was wondering what everyone's ideas were for a sniper build. Here's mine so far:

Traits: Wild Wasteland (always), four eyes.

Weapons: Anti-Materiel Rifle (long range), fully modded Hunting Rifle (medium range), .45 auto pistol or That Gun, depending on current ammo reserves (close range)

Armor: 1st Recon Beret, reading glasses, Elite Riot Gear, and Elite Riot helmet if I need the extra DT.

That's about it. I've also got the commando perk for when I need to go into VATS, although I'm pretty accurate without it.

So, any suggestions? Anything you'd change?

im not sure Four Eyes may be worth it unless you take it for RP purposes. Read up on it in the wiki, the way it actually works in game versus the way its described in the tooltip is misleading.

Also you may want to consider a suppressed Sniper Rifle in lieu of either or both the hunting rifle and AMR as youll still get the flexibility of .308 reg/AP/HP but also the ability to snipe the whole fight while remaining [HIDDEN] from much closer ranges.

Finally, true blue Fallout fans only load That Gun with .223

I've been looking for a Sniper Rifle for just that reason for a while but haven't stumbled upon any. Oh well.

It would be kind of cool to collect different snipers and display them in the Lucky 38.

its not easy, silent assassin-type or just plain distance-slayer? For me has to be a lightened and suppressed Sniper rifle if we are going for the silent option as I play the hardcoe mode and the weight can be an issue but the Gobi Campaign Rifle looks better next to my All-American. Most of the time I find I cant stick to a pure sniper character though.. Ive come to conclude Im not a sniper, I just wanna be far enough away not to get killed myself (coward?) - I did like Trail Carbine w.Scope but .44s aint cheap or lightweight, I need a rapid fire weapon for Deathclaws and other nasty surprises so pretty much stick to the AA w. Match Load rounds for big stuff, .223s for bugs n tribal types and Im loving the Medicine Stick for medium range - the sight is so much more useful than the Brush Gun and is a worthy investment and again the hand-load rounds make it a giggle. I know this is going to sound lame but I just think the AMR is almost too powerful - lets take out another legion assassination squad with a single explosive round? nah I need to get hurt to be able to use all the food I got lol

A silenced .45 with some hand load ammo is pretty effective at close range without bringing the world to your door (and giving time to clear them with said pistol instead of switching to a rifle) but again I end up taking it out for a couple of days only to drop it back off at one my bolt-holes.
Does having 10,000lbs of gear at my Goodsprings home, 5,000lbs at the Dino-bite Motel and a few more at the Lucky38 make me a hoarder or survivalist? hmm..

God I love the Jury Riggin perk - fix a pool cue with a Throwing Spear - then fix a Super Sledge/Thermic Lance with said pool cue, hey presto, MONEY.. or keep buying service rifles and cheap pistols to fix their expensive brothers... god I need a life.. or a religion... nah just gimme a smoke and a clear weekend with the courier..

For budget reasons, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off...

Well there's cristines COS silencer rifle just north of the prison camp in OWB

Edit: double posted :L

Theres a sniper rifle for free, always, and is not owned in Camp McCarran in the tent LT Gorobets and his squad hang out in on the top rack of one of the bunk beds. Moderate-low condition but still servicable and nothing a couple of WRK cant fix




and Im glad to see someone make the distinction between a Sniper and a long-range rifleman (for lack of a better term) and its something thatll change your loadout and playstyle. I see a sniper as someone with suppressed weapons and high sneak and limited (if any) use of companions and picks enemies off without any retaliation. The rifleman can have companions, doesnt necessarily need a high sneak as long as the first shot is made from [HIDDEN], can use any long range weapon regardless if its silent or not from the scoped laser rifle to the AMR, and picks off the biggest enemy in the pack with the sneak crit and guns down the rest as they close the long distance between them and the shooter (or allows the companions to pick off the rest)

I admit, I dont know which I like best either

For me I think I would replace the Elite Riot Gear with some light weight recon armor, I would possibly keep an AMR on me but it certainly wouldnt be my primary weapon( far far too loud), I would have something like the Gobi Campaign or Christines COS rifle.
RThen I would have a silenced .45 pistol( for sneaking into casinos ant what not) and this may sound out od place but I would most certainly keep a Riot shotty on me. Yea yea yea I know its not a traditional weapon for a sniper, but the riot shotty can save your life is someone manages to sneak up on ya and all you have are weapons best suited for long/ medium range.

thats alot of weapons and ammo and weight. Recon armor isnt too light either, isnt it 25 weight units? For RP purposes Im keep trying to limit myself to a small melee weapon, a sidearm and a longarm so for example using the Cowboy perk all Id need would be a Hatchet, a .44 pistol and a scoped Trail Carbine and maybe some dynamite thus really cutting down on my weight not only by total weapons carried but by sharing ammo types too. It worked better on paper though since the trail carbine isnt suppressed so I couldnt be a sniper and without Hand Loader and/or a high repair skill I couldnt really make anything like AP ammo for the TC either. The search continues but it bears mentioning

as to the OP I still recommend combining the two roles of the AMR and Hunting Rifle into just the Sniper rifle, though I can understand the BAMF factor for the AMR so as an alternative you may want to keep it and just have something like a marksman carbine (or All American) and That Gun as a bread and butter weapon and sidearm, respectively that share ammo types to boot! The only snag I see could be if That Gun isnt considered an improved holdout weapon. Is it?

Long-range or hard targets: AMR
Medium range or moderate targets: Marksman Carbine/All-American
Sidearm and soft targets: That Gun
Ammo needed: 50 cal and 556 and additional explosives and a small melee weapon.

Ok so now that Im not sleep deprived from playing... I think the majority of us simply do not have the patience for a true sniper play through. But here is my idea of a good but far from perfect sniper type, now I'm all for storing stuff in abandoned homes so this is my leaving Goodsprings to take on the world for a week

Assumes hardcoe mode and all DLC

Sniper Rifle with CF parts and suppressor. 10 clips of each AP, HP and JSP
ALSiD .45 with 5 clips.... but why can I not find a pistol that'll fire .308 rounds..

If youre a Sniper that is it - rifle and pistol, maybe a couple mines to cover yo'ass if youre genuinely taking up sniping positions but come on, we aint are we..

Lucky Shades, 1st Recon Beret, Joshua Grahams Armor or Ulysses Duster because theyre both light and we wont be going toe to toe now will we.
Wasteland Wanderer for the times we gotta cover distances. If non unique clothing then I go for the Vault 34 Security Armor as it's considered light and has a good DT

I feel too much of a gimp in the Space Helmet or All Purpose Science Suit and the Sneak bonus from Recon armour is useless if we intend to be pluggin away at a thousand yards. The Desert Ranger Combat Helmet is weightless and has a DT of 5 plus it looks kinda cool, as does the Armor but the Beret still does it for me as Snipers arent grunts.

I have experimented with sticking Boone further behind and passively using the melee option so that I can use his spotter perk but frankly I prefer Ed-E as my pack mule and just being of the inclination to tell him to WAIT somewhere safe when I intend to engage. Veronica was good for distracting the enemy until I took her out with some tiny tots. Ah well, gotta have consequences, can't just reload life when it don't go your way..

Its actually not too many weapons. I believe just 1 more than what you were aiming for. Really if your tryn to cut down on weight then why not just scrap the AMR all tgether? Its got to be one of the heaviest weapons in the game (even with the perk that cuts heavy weapons weights in half).
Yea it packs a serious punch but by the time you hit lvl 20 there are very few things which you even truly "need" the AMR for.

so erm, too many then lol sorry but is more than the aim not too many.. only 1 too many but still...

totally agree with the AMR though, if weight is that big an issue, dont carry that big a gun and ammo for it is silly heavy but yes i know, realistically so..

Yeah, Four Eyes is out right bad for a trait, it effectively make you start with one less point in SPECIAL and for Perks.

.308 HP is a bit of a joke, before GRA anyways, but against Cazadors it is RoF > DPH.

I would go for Light Armour instead of Elite Riot too; Ulysses' for crit, Vault 34/SM Reinforce for DT, and Joshua's for balance; before that Gecko Leather Reinforce is really good.

AMR does have the ultra powerful explosive rounds, it would be your boomstick instead of your bread n' butter; Hunting Rifle is a bit slow when you need the extra kick in medium range, but it would do before you get your self a fully upgrade sniper rifle.

Marksman isn't that great on player imo, but excellent companion weapon.

Pistol....if you are looking at hideout weapons, .45 is the king.

Yeah, I'm not really a pure sniper. I keep a few pistols on me and don't always snipe. I save sniping for when i'm pretty far away because ammo is scarce for the AMR.

Fully modded AMR (GRA), Sleepytyme for close range, Assassin Suit, and of course, the Sniper perk.

for RP purposes I hope?

I wonder which would be best damage-wise Sniper with increased chance to hit the head or Center of Mass with greater damage to the torso?

With all the other options out there, I'm not sure the AMR really lives up to the hype. I get more and cleaner kills with All American.
Chowder, I know you are on PC so you might look into http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/39651. Want a silencer on your Gobi Rifle? No problem. Want to go the Quigly route and scope your Medicine Stick? You can do that, too.

I don't know, I just like shooting the heads. Can't say I can find any of the enemies' heads after the fight is done.

Dunno about him, but my sniper gets the Sniper perk for when I end up getting charged by the rest of the group after picking off the first target. Sure, you could run off and sneak back again and again to keep picking the rest off, but I'm too lazy for that, most of the time. I'm really lousy at getting headshots (or even body shots, for that matter) on running mobs that are bobbing and juking around over uneven terrain, so that is where the Sniper perk in VATS comes into play. They will quickly close the distance into VATS range, and the extra hit % from the Sniper perk allows you to start getting 95% hit chances more quickly for headshots, and with enough attack power for two VATS shots with a sniper rifle (I deliberately build for that), I can easily get in two more headshot kills before they get within shotgun or pistol range. Works a charm, for me. Might as well put that AP to good work for you.

Thank you so much for posting this. I'll definitely get that.


Well, the thing about the Sniper perk is that the 25% is multiplicative, not additive. So if you had a 20% chance of hitting an enemy without the perk, WITH the perk you'd have a 25% chance, not a 45% chance.

Still, I might take the perk. I'm level 11 so far so I've got about 20 perks left to go. We'll see.

this is what im saying about Sniper and Center of Mass. Wouldnt Center of Mass allow you to aim in VATS for the torso (giving you a much higher chance to hit from farther away) with bonus damage to boot? But does it outweigh the baseline damage bonus of shooting the head and the increased (though not by much) chance to aim for the head that Sniper gives you?

Headshots give an extra 2x damage bonus in VATS with ranged weapons, whether it is a sneak shot or not. Anything that helps you get more/easier headshots is a bonus. The torso always has a higher base percent chance to hit it than the head, anyway. So taking a perk that gives you a slightly higher percent chance to hit the torso is unnecessarily redundant, for the most part. CoM = +15% chance to hit, Sniper = +25% chance to hit. You can take Center of Mass and get a little more chance to hit something that's already completely easy to hit and gives no bonuses, or you can get Sniper and make getting 2x-damage headshots as easy as getting torso shots... it's a no-brainer, really.

Negatory good buddy

Center of Mass is +15% damage not to hit

regardless, 15% isnt too hot anyway and certainly got nothing on +100% for an additional headshot

Meh. If I had a memory, I'd be dangerous. But yeah, same effect in the end- ho-hum vs. yeah buddy!

it does beg the question though, what the hell is the point of Center of Mass? The only thing I can think of is for those three people out there that try to hit targets from very far away in VATS