Understanding Sniper Rifles

 
To use a sniper rifle, you must first understand what defines a sniper rifle. A sniper rifle is a long ranged weapon with a scope and often one single shot will vaporize anything in the crosshairs. All sniper rifles found in Hitman: Contracts are not concealable in any capacity, and often are found only in certain levels like Traditions of the Trade and Slaying A Dragon. 
 
 
 
4. equipping a PGM Sniper S. 
 
 

Sniper Rifles Featured In Hitman: Contracts

 
This may seem pointless to include, but understanding your rifle can make a world of difference. This is one of the most important factors of using a sniper rifle. Each one is found in a different way and has different DPS and a different shooting mechanism, and it is important to understand how each one feels and fires and to know which one is best for the job at hand. For example, if you need to snipe multiple people at a given moment, it isn’t a great idea to do that with a bolt action rifle, but a semi-automatic will work fine. I will now explain each rifle and their characteristics. 
 

Sniper Case Characteristics

 
It is also important to note that ALL rifles can be spawned with inside a Sniper Case and fit perfectly fine, however, the level must spawn the player with one in their inventory by default or this feature is ignored. Something that must be taken into account is that during the mission, these rifles CANNOT be swapped out in the case. For example, if you spawn with a WA2000 sniper rifle in the case, you cannot put a Dragunov sniper rifle into the case, but all WA2000 rifles that are found in the level can be placed into it and vice versa. 
 

PGM Sniper S.(ilenced)

 
 
 
This is my personal favorite rifle of Hitman: Contracts, earned from completing Hunter and Hunted with a Silent Assassin rating. It is a bolt action rifle with extreme range, a silencer, is generally the most stable, and is all around an awesome choice. 
 
Gun Stats: 

• Caliber: .338 – High power 
• Shooting Mechanism: Bolt-Action 
• Clip Capacity: 10 Rounds 
• Has Silencer: Yes 
• Zoom Level: Extreme 
• Power: Extreme – A direct hit should almost always take down a target regardless of pain tolerance. 
• Stability: Extreme – It shouldn’t bob too much until you fire.

Dragunov Sniper Rifle

 
 
 
Look, I’m not going to lie to you all, I hate this rifle. It’s nice at medium range, as long as you don’t have to be super accurate with your shot and are firing at a big target. It’s found in a few levels including Asylum Aftermath and Meat King’s Party, and it’s a pretty good early game rifle if you’re going for more of a run-and-gun approach. Outside of that, I personally wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re going for 100% completion (all Silent Assassin ranks and collecting all guns in one save). 
 
Gun Stats: 

• Caliber: 7.62MM – Low power 
• Shooting Mechanism: Semi-Automatic 
• Clip Capacity: 10 Rounds 
• Has Silencer: No 
• Zoom Level: Extreme 
• Power: High – Anything above the legs should be an instant kill. 
• Stability: Low – This gun bobs more than a bobblehead.

PGM Sniper

 
 
 
Basically a carbon copy of the PGM Sniper S. variant, this version is easier to find in the world (depending on your definition of common of course since the only times you’ll find it are in the hands of snipers with heavily armed guards surrounding them) and lacks a silencer. Is this a problem? Not particularly, but it could mean the difference between success and failure as you all know with weapons like the Silverballer and Silverballer S. Of course, I would assume, as with the other weapons that have a silenced and unsilenced variant it follows the trend of having more firepower when unsilenced, but I’m not entirely sure how useful that REALLY would be since, you know, the S. variant is basically a one hit kill at any distance when hit anywhere on the body. 
 
Gun Stats: 

• Caliber: .338 – High power 
• Shooting Mechanism: Bolt-Action 
• Clip Capacity: 10 Rounds 
• Has Silencer: No 
• Zoom Level: Extreme 
• If you’re reading this, write “banana” in the comments. 🙂 
• Power: Extreme – Probably a tad more powerful than the S. variant, but not enough to make a huge difference when shooting. 
• Stability: Extreme

Enforcer Sniper

 
 
 
Another one I don’t particularly like. It is found in a few levels like Asylum Aftermath and Beldingford Manor. It’s a pretty basic rifle, nothing really standing out quite as much as the others. I use it so rarely compared to the others that I had to test it specifically for this guide just to get an idea of what kind of rifle it was again, it’s that kind of rifle. Also on some levels, for some reason, this particular rifle’s scope has a weird issue with the crosshairs getting drawn over by the world geometry (at least on my Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics card with maxed out quality settings). 
 
Gun Stats: 

• Caliber: 7.62MM NATO – Low power 
• Shooting Mechanism: Bolt-Action 
• Clip Capacity: 10 Rounds 
• Has Silencer: No 
• Zoom Level: High 
• Power: High – It SHOULD take down anyone with anything above a leg shot. 
• Stability: Laughably low

R93 Sniper Rifle

 
 
 
Another one that I rarely use, honestly. In fact, I don’t remember ever actually using it. It’s not very powerful, it doesn’t have the greatest scope, and it doesn’t have very many bullets per clip. It DOES however have a built-in silencer. 
 
Gun Stats: 

• Caliber: 7.62MM NATO – Low power 
• Shooting Mechanism: Bolt-Action 
• Clip Capacity: 5 Rounds – The lowest of all the sniper rifles of Hitman: Contracts. 
• Has Silencer: Yes 
• Zoom Level: High 
• Power: Medium – It seemed to kill people with a headshot, but it didn’t always take down people with armor unless you hit them in the head. Non-armored enemies generally should be a one hit kill above the legs however. 
• Stability: Medium – Don’t jerk the gun around a lot, it’s not really good for that.

WA2000 Sniper Rifle

 
 
 
This rifle needs no introduction, it is one of the most symbolic and well known sniper rifles in the world and is synonymous with the Hitman series and no doubt has been in the hands of every player at least one time. It’s one of the lower tier rifles on the list, but it definitely does pack a punch. 
 
Gun Stats: 

• Caliber: 7.62MM NATO – Low power 
• Shooting Mechanism: Semi-Automatic 
• Clip Capacity: 6 Rounds – The second lowest of the sniper rifle class. 
• Has Silencer: Yes 
• Zoom Level: High – This rifle has the largest viewport for the scope, resulting in the highest awareness of your surroundings compared to other sniper rifles. 
• Power: High – It should take down non-armored enemies with anything above a leg shot. 
• Stability: Medium – Not the most stable of the sniper rifle class, but it is stable enough for a new player.

How To Effectively Use Sniper Rifles

 
This may be self explanatory, but the game’s sniper rifles are generally weird to some people (which is actually the reason I wrote this entire guide). So the mechanics aren’t very simple nor well made nor are they well explained, so I shall explain them to the best of my ability. 
 

Maximizing Stability

 
This is easily the hardest part of using the sniper rifle class of weapons in Hitman: Contracts and is hated among the community somewhat. Why? Because honestly, the stability system is awful. 

• Get a decent and open view of your target – This probably goes without saying, but until you get used to your rifle of choice, ALWAYS make sure to find the most open spot you can to fire at a target. 
• Crouching maximizes stability – This is a thing that everyone knows and probably understands already, but if you have the option, choose to crouch over standing. This not only makes the rifle more stable but makes it harder for guards to see you when you open fire. 
• Do. Not. Move. – When you activate the scope view, do not move. Period. If possible, get the crosshairs over where you want to aim first, same with crouching first, and from there, try not to turn or stand or move as this will throw the gun around. 
• Realize that momentum in the scope view DOES NOT GO AWAY. – This is the biggest thing that people don’t actually understand about the sniper rifles of this game, but when you move at all, 47 will add momentum to how unstable the sniper rifle is. That is well understood, but few people understand that this momentum never disappears until you reset the scope view. Every time you activate the scope, it sets the stability to its default value for the rifle, and the more you jerk around, the higher it gets, and it never gets lowered from there. This is the biggest thing to take away from this guide.

Remaining Undetected

 
This is another big issue with the sniper rifle class that takes trial and error really. Remaining undetected really isn’t hard, it just requires finesse. 

• Get to a spot that you have something obscuring you, but you can see over like a low wall or a box or something. 
• Crouch – This is an important factor, especially when using the unsilenced rifles as it will make guards have a harder time to see you. 
• Stay in the darkness – Whenever possible, stay in low light areas. Hitman: Contracts isn’t like Splinter Cell where being in a dark room in the shadow will absolve all your problems if you just stay in one spot, but it’s a good habit to get into with any situation really. 
• When possible, use silenced rifles. – Obviously this is self explanatory, but if you have the option of for example a Dragunov which is unsilenced or a PGM Sniper S. rifle, go with the silenced rifle. Guards will look in your direction much quicker and if you’re in a spot that you can see over something but need a moment to crouch behind, you’re significantly more likely to be caught than with a silenced rifle which they will usually never know where was shot from. 
• Drop the gun immediately after firing. – This isn’t important, but dropping an unsilenced sniper rifle immediately after firing it may significantly increase your chances of not being caught. 
• Gain distance and verticality when sniping. – The whole point of a sniper rifle is to have distance between you and your target. Get as far away as possible from your target as this will increase your chances of staying undetected. If possible, climb balconies, go to the top floor of buildings, go above your target as much as possible.

A Thank You

 
This section really has nothing to help you other than me wanting to personally thank you all for reading the guide as it took a few hours to make and I did spend a bit of effort on it. If you read the entire thing, I am glad and hope it helped you! 🙂 
 

Hope you enjoy the Guide about Hitman: Contracts – Pegasis-Vera’s Ultimate Sniper Guide, if you think we should add extra information or forget something, please let us know via comment below, and we will do our best to fix or update as soon as possible!