Sniper Rifle

Type	Weapon
Uses ammo	Bullets
Damage	185 / 128 Ranged
Knockback	8 (Very Strong)
Critical chance	29% / 19%
Use time	36 Very Slow
Velocity	16
Tooltip	Shoots a powerful, high velocity bullet; Right click to zoom out
Rarity
Sell	20000*2

The Sniper Rifle is a Hardmode, post-Plantera ranged weapon that fires a bullet with extremely high damage and velocity, though at a far slower rate of fire than most ranged weapons, and cannot auto-fire. It also has a "zoom" ability. The Sniper Rifle has a 7.64% / 11.46% chance to be dropped by Skeleton Snipers, who only spawn in Dungeon areas with Slab Walls during Hardmode after Plantera has been defeated.

The Sniper Rifle's "zoom" ability is functionally identical to that of the Rifle Scope, Sniper Scope, and Binoculars. On the DS version, the scope will glitch your sights and make nearby entities vibrate rapidly, possibly causing eye strain.

While the player is holding the right-click button on the Desktop version, the right stick on the Console version, holding tap on the Mobile version, or moving the C-Stick on the DS version (New Nintendo 3DS users only), the screen will scroll temporarily in the direction of the cursor. This essentially extends the viewing range in one direction.

The Sniper Rifle has a base 29% / 19% critical strike chance as opposed to the usual 4% of weapons. On the Old-gen console version and DS version, its use time is 49 (extremely slow).

The Sniper Rifle is the only weapon lacking auto-fire on DS, and one of two lacking auto-fire on Mobile, the other weapon being the Phoenix Blaster.

Its best Modifier is Unreal, but due to its already-high critical strike chance, the Ruthless modifier may be preferred to maximize damage instead.

Notes[edit | edit source]

A demonstration of the Sniper Rifle's zoom on a Target Dummy.

The Rifle Scope or Sniper Scope can stack with the Sniper Rifle's zoom ability to increase zoom, though only slightly. The exact increase depends on your game screen resolution. For example, at 800x600, view is increased by 3 tiles; at 1680x1050 by 7 tiles; at 1920x1080 by 15 tiles.
Musket Balls and Silver Bullets fired from this weapon gain the visual effects (but not damage) of High Velocity Bullets. All other ammo types travel at normal speed, and retain their usual appearance.
It has a surprisingly low sell price for its power and rarity, making potential reforge costs lower.
Zooming will update the Minimap (the same holds true for the Rifle Scope, Sniper Scope, and Binoculars).

The zoom feature on Mobile.

The "zoom" ability works differently on Mobile: It magnifies a section on the screen, but does not let you view targets off the normal view.
The Sniper Rifle's zoom ability is hard to use on the Mobile version, rendering the weapon less useful.
Holding the Sniper Rifle, Binoculars, or any weapon that supports zooming when a Rifle Scope is equipped will change the range at which monsters spawn around the player.

Tips[edit | edit source]

The Sniper Rifle pairs especially well with the following bullet types, as they help to compensate for its low rate of fire:
- Chlorophyte Bullets, as their homing ability will ensure that the Sniper Rifle's powerful shots will land with no aiming required.
- Crystal Bullets, as the shards produced can potentially hit multiple targets, and their vastly increased base damage allows them to contribute more significantly to damage output.
- Exploding Bullets, which will hit multiple targets at once with splash damage. However, the Sniper Rifle's enormous base damage also makes Exploding Bullets far more dangerous to use; one misplaced shot can remove around half of a player's health.
- Meteor Shot, which pierces once, effectively doubling the Sniper Rifle's damage output when used against crowds. Its slow rate of fire ensures that enemies do not benefit from piercing invincibility frames.
The Sniper Rifle's main strengths – damage and critical chance – are boosted even further when utilizing the stealth effect of Vortex armor or Shroomite armor, enabling most non-boss enemies to be killed in one shot.
The Sniper Rifle is useful against enemies that teleport when hit, like Diabolists, Necromancers, and Nebula Floaters, due to the high one-shot damage that would usually kill them instantly.
- Nebula Floaters usually take more shots, but they'd be fought by the player in the open areas. Chlorophyte Bullets are invaluable in this case.
It is possible to achieve over 100% critical strike chance with the following setup:
- Vortex armor in stealth mode – 47%
- Unreal modifier and base critical strike chance – 34%
- Sniper Scope – 10%
- Destroyer Emblem – 8%
- Celestial Shell – 2%

Additionally, utilizing the damage bonus of a banner, it is possible to deal a devastating 2280 damage to an enemy in one hit.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

The Sniper Rifle has the highest base critical strike chance of any weapon in the game, beating the Obsidian Swordfish by 5%. It is also tied with the Revolver for highest ranged velocity. While it additionally has one of the highest base damages in the game, it is still beaten by the Meowmere, Terrarian, Bunny Cannon, Dynamite, and Explosives.
It can be considered a post-Plantera upgrade of the Dart Rifle on the Desktop version, Console version, and Mobile version. It can be considered a Hardmode upgrade of the Musket on the Old-gen console version and DS version.
The Sniper Rifle, Uzi, and Venus Magnum all have the same tooltip.
A Coin Gun using Platinum coins has the same damage per shot, but it fires 5 times faster, making its effective DPS five times higher than that of the Sniper Rifle.