Sniper rifle

The sniper rifle is a slightly heavier, single-shot firearm in RimWorld which deals a high amount of damage per shot; a long time between shots; very long range and high overall accuracy.

Acquisition

Sniper rifles can be crafted with skill level 7 at a machining table once the precision rifling research has been completed; with 60 steel, 8 components and 45,000 ticks (12.5 mins) of work. Sniper rifles can be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, outlander settlements, or from raider drops:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Mercenary Sniper	99.89%	Normal	70-320%

Analysis

The sniper rifle has the longest range out of all ranged weapons in the game, along with excellent long-distance accuracy as well as a high per-shot damage. Stopping power is also high enough not only to stagger humans, but also slightly larger targets such as cougars and all insectoids. Like the pila and charge lance, the sniper rifle has somewhat of a reputation of maiming or even outright killing its victims.

However, the sniper rifle has a very slow rate of fire, resulting in it having the lowest sustained damage output out of all firearms except the incendiary launcher; it's only on par with higher-tier neolithic ranged weapons like the greatbow. Its accuracy at shorter distances (especially close) is also weak, making the sniper rifle one of the most skill-heavy weapons in the game - even the average shooter will struggle to use the sniper rifle effectively within its optimal accuracy range. Sniper rifles are also somewhat difficult to acquire unless you get raided by a group that solely consists of mercenary snipers.

Given its characteristics, the sniper rifle is undoubtedly very well suited as a medium-to-long distance support weapon, or for field combat (e.g. harassing siege camps) due to its unparalleled range and good stopping power. This weapon's also arguably the best choice for hunting due to its range and per-shot damage, with the only other hunting weapon rivalling it being the charge lance.

On average, the sniper rifle is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 14, then with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Compared to the bolt-action rifle, the sniper rifle trades firing rate and accuracy at shorter distances for additional range, extra damage and improved long-distance accuracy.

Due to this weapon's propensity for blowing limbs clean off targets, it tends to make a poor choice if you intend to take prisoners after a raid, as any survivors are bound to be very heavily crippled.

Melee Combat

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	AP	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS
Overall	-	-	9	13%	2.00s	-	4.50
Stock	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	50.00%	4.50
Barrel	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50
Barrel	Poke	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50

Quality table

Bear in mind these values have been calculated based on the chart from the Quality page, the values might change in the future to accurate values from the game.

Quality	Beauty	Deterioration rate	Market Value	Accuracy (close)	Accuracy (short)	Accuracy (medium)	Accuracy (long)	Damage	Armor Penetration	Melee Damage Per Second	Melee Armor Penetration
Awful	-3	4/day	$265	40%	56%	69%	70%	22	34%	3.6	10.4%
Poor	-3	3/day	$397.5	45%	63%	77.4%	79.2%	25	38%	4.05	11.7%
Normal	-3	2/day	$530	50%	70%	86%	88%	25	38%	4.5	13%
Good	-3	1.6/day	$662.5	55%	77%	94.6%	96.8%	25	38%	4.95	15%
Excellent	-3	1.2/day	$795	60%	84%	100%	100%	25	38%	5.4	16%
Masterwork	-3	0.6/day	$1325	67.5%	94.5%	100%	100%	31	47%	6.08	19%
Legendary	-3	0.2/day	$2650	75%	100%	100%	100%	38	57%	7.42	22%

Graphs

The below graphs assume an unmodified shooter using a Normal quality weapon.

Version history

Old sprite of the sniper rifle.

In early alpha it used to be called the M-24 sniper rifle and had a different sprite.
In Beta 19 it received a great reduction in damage dealt, but fires slightly faster; overall, its DPS was massively nerfed.

Weapons