Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Sniper Guide Hi, my name is Quadfather and I am a new member to the Gamewinners website. I play Call of Duty 4 on the PC under the name Anarchy Club. I really like to cheat. A few minutes before writing this I cheated my way to a 111 kill streak. My other love in Call of Duty 4 is sniping. I see a lot of awful snipers out there that are too easy to kill and it bothers me. So I wrote this guide to help you succeed as a sniper. I hope it helps you succeed as a sniper and answers most of the questions you might have about sniping in CoD4. Being a CoD4 Sniper Snipers are designed to deliver a single precise shot over longer distances than other weapons. Developing skill at sniping is hard. It takes a lot of patience. You take positions well away from the action and pick off unsuspecting targets. A lot of what you do is waiting for an enemy to pop up. Being able to predict where an enemy will go and how he acts is critical in timing and leading shots. This being said, you should not get discouraged if you are not hitting many shots in the beginning because it takes a lot of experience to predict where people will go. Once you get it down though it s pretty easy because 95% of the players in the game that you will be sniping behave the same. The Perks Here is an analysis of the all the perks in the game and how they can be incorporated, or if they should be incorporated, into your sniping classes. For anyone who doesn t know how the perks work, you equip one perk per type to your class (a total of 3 perks). Perks give you advantages, and as a sniper, we try to make combinations of perks that help us as a long distance killer. Type 1 Perks C4x2: Not really a perk for sniping. As a sniper you shouldn t get close enough to the enemy to use C4 as a trap. Claymores work a lot better for defense as a sniper.
Special Grenade x3: Again, not really a sniper friendly perk. You generally don t have any use for three stun or flash grenades as a sniper because you shouldn t have to clear out any rooms. RPG-7 x2: This could be used as a sniper to take out enemy helicopters from your vantage point, but I don t recommend it because it is extremely easy to follow back to the source (which is you) and as a sniper that is bad. Claymore x2: A great perk for snipers because it can be used to defend yourself against those annoying, SMG carrying, anti-snipers. It is most useful in a stealthy sniper class. Frag x3: This perk is a huge favorite among the run-and-gun classes; however, its usefulness to a sniper is limited because if you are using three frags to attack the enemy, you are too close to the enemy to be doing your job effectively. Bandolier: One of my favorites as a sniper. I don t die a lot so running out of ammo is really annoying. If you are an effective sniper, this should give you ammo for almost the entire game. Bomb Squad: Not a perk that I ever find myself using, but I can understand how some snipers would find the ability to call out enemy explosives useful. Type 2 perks Stopping Power: This perk should be used in almost all of your sniping classes. It will give you one-shot-kills most of the time. Juggernaut: A great perk for assault classes, not so much for sniping. If you are getting shot at when you are exposed, this perk won t save you against enemy rifles or machine guns. Sleight of Hand: Some people will find it useful when using a bolt-action sniper, but if you read my sniper strategy below you will see that the need to reload quickly in not a necessity at all. Double Tap: This perk allows you to shoot twice as fast. If you need to shoot twice as fast with a gun that takes one shot to kill, something is wrong. Overkill: This perk can be useful if you are in a run and gun class. Other people like to pair in up with a shotgun or SMG for extra defense. It can also be used with bandolier. For example: An M21 and an M14 (Overkill) and Bandolier will give you 180 shots with your M21.
UAV Jammer: This perk hides your location from enemies using UAV. This perk is very useful for a stealthy class. It is not very effective in a non-hardcore game because your shots will show up on the enemies mini-map because there is no silencer for the sniper. Sonic Boom: This perk makes your explosions bigger. It is not a perk that should be wasted in a sniper class because you don t need big explosions as a sniper. Type 3 Perks Extreme Conditioning: This perk allows you to sprint for greater distances. Something is wrong if you are trying to sprint while sniping, but it can be useful in the begging of the game to sprint to a spot and set up camp. Steady Aim: Not a sniper perk at all. It was made for machine guns. I really can t see the effectiveness of shooting an M40A3 from the hip. Last Stand: This perk could be used as a sniper, but if you are in a good spot, a pistol won t be effective at long range, and there are other Type 3 Perks that are better for snipers. Martyrdom: You drop a live grenade when you die. You shouldn t be close enough to the enemy to kill them with a dropped live grenade. Deep Impact: This perk allows you to shoot through more walls and stuff. Very useful to a sniper. However you should be focusing on people in the open like in windows or doorways. If you are guessing where they are by shooting through walls, you are a bad sniper. Iron Lungs: This perk was made for snipers, though I only recommend it to beginner and intermediate snipers. This is because new snipers will take longer to find targets by holding their breath. An advanced sniper shouldn t need this perk because he can equip other Type 3 Perks without the use of this one. Dead Silence: This perk allows you to not be heard by the enemy. If you are so close to the enemy that they can hear you, you are clearly doing something wrong. Eavesdrop: This perk allows you to hear what the enemy says. It is completely useless on PC because everyone types chat messages. Nobody uses it on other platforms. It has no use to a sniper. There are better perks out there.
The Classes Classes are combinations of perks and weapons in CoD4. There are 5 standard classes which you cannot change (and which, by the way, are AWFUL). You can also make 5 custom classes in which you can choose the weapons, the perks, and the grenades. Here are some class ideas. *NOTE* I recommend using the Barrett 50. Cal. sniper because it holds the most ammo and does the most damage along with the R700 and the M40A3. I prefer to use a bolt-action rifle because I am originally a Call of Duty 2 sniper, and they only had blot-action snipers in that game. Normal Sniper- Used for most situations including long and medium ranged sniping. Equipment: Barrett 50.Cal. Bandolier Stopping Power Iron Lungs (For beginner to Intermediate Snipers) Deep Impact (For Advanced Snipers) Stealthy- Used for tactical games like Sabotage and especially Search and Destroy. Most effective in Hardcore games due to lack of Stopping Power. Equipment: Barrett 50. Cal. Claymore UAV Jammer Iron Lungs (For beginner to Intermediate Snipers) Deep Impact (For Advanced Snipers) Run n Gun- Used for close quarters combat situations like Vacant or Backlot. Equipment: Barrett 50. Cal. (Acoged) Bandolier Use Overkill perk to attach M60E4 Steady Aim ACOG Scopes ACOG Scopes offer a slightly zoomed scope with increased range (except on snipers where the range is decreased) and decreased accuracy (except on sniper). Many people seem to have trouble aiming with an ACOG because they try to snipe with it. The trick to using an ACOG is to scope in and rapidly move the aim point over the target and shoot. The classic ACOG drift will be nullified resulting in near perfect accuracy. Trying to hold the aim point over a fixed location is impossible. A quick aim and shoot is what is required to succeed with and ACOG
The Don ts of Sniping My Pet Peeve: Don t worry about headshots. As a sniper you will get them. Worrying about headshots will leave you with few kills and no ammo. Getting headshots unlocks cammo for your gun. Trust me; nobody gives a crap about what cammo you have. People judge you by how well you snipe, and if you only go for headshots, people will think you suck. On PC at least ½ the people with good cammo hacked and got it (like me ). Don t snipe from the middle of the road. It s really easy to kill you when you are completely exposed. If you are really good at sniping don t be a jerk about because you got xxx kills and 0 deaths. Trust me you will always be second best to someone because that s how life works. Then you ll really look like an idiot. I will even admit I ve been bested by other snipers. Location Location is the key to sniping. First off, you want to pick three or four spots on a map to choose from in-case others are behind enemy lines. Try to pick original spots because everyone knows the generic, built-into-map locations. People know where these spots are and they frequently check them. One of the most effective ways to find these spots is to watch other snipers and where they go. You can find really cool spots doing that. You ll eventually learn the good spots to snipe from on a map. Tyr not to camp, especially in games that allow killcams. Taking Cover Another key to success is taking cover. It seems obvious, but most people don t have a clue at how to take cover. You have to remember that when lying down, your legs protrude out behind you. Make sure you find cover that covers 100% of your body, not just your head. Make sure that your legs stick out straight behind you and not off to the side and out of cover. Sniping Strategy Now that you know how to tale cover and find good locations, let s walk through a very effective strategy on how to snipe. Once you ve found cover, it is time to set up camp. This means setting up Claymores and getting into a good position to snipe. You should have a general idea of where enemy sniping locations are and where the high traffic areas for enemy infantry are. This is what you look at when you pop-up. After popping up out of cover, scope in and check all the locations known to be enemy inhabited.
Shoot at the enemy (camping enemies should take priority over sprinting and moving enemies). Take only 1-3 shots before taking cover again as fast as you can. This prevents people from tracing bullets back to you. Now that you are in cover, it s time to regroup. Regroup steps: 1) While you are down, wait for your breath to fill 2) Reload 3) Pause the game and check to see where your team, you, and the enemies are When you pop up again, check the areas that were not checked previously. Only check each area once before getting into cover again. The goal is to stay in cover most of the time. It seems stupid, but it will help confuse enemy snipers or infantry looking for revenge, and it helps to not give away your position. It also helps to defuse lethal sniper fights which often result in back-andforth killing. If you do not see any enemies after a few checks, it s time to move to a new spot. Leading Leading enemies is the art of shooting in front of the enemy to compensate for the enemies movement between the times you shoot, and the time the bullet impacts. Lead enemies only if they are sprinting. Leading the enemies is not hard. You only have to lead a small distance, less than a foot. Make sure not to over-lead. If you notice your bullets tailing behind targets, try leading them more. If you are overleading, lead them less. Other Tips Discard your pistol for weapons on the ground when you can. Sometimes you will find a gun that has the same ammo as your rifle and you will get a huge ammo bonus. Don t give up. Remember that it takes a lot of experience especially in knowing the maps and how to shoot etc. You will probably die a lot in the begging until you learn how to snipe and get a feel for it. Remember its just a game so HAVE FUN! Copyright (c) 2008 by Quadfather, and GameWinners.com. All rights reserved. This document may not be duplicated or modified without prior permission.