KF2 Sharpshooter Guide: Skills, Weapon Stats and Tips (2019)

Sharpshooter shoots at long range with high-calibre carbines, crossbows and futuristic junkpunk weapons, and it was added to Killing Floor 2 in a June update. This guide is a player's take from autumn 2019 on how to build and play it. See also the Sharpshooter perk page and the Sharpshooter 101 EBR and crossbow guide.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Very high damage output per magazine.
• Good against trash and big ZEDs alike.
• Strong stun and stumble, plus crowd control with cryo grenades.
• Great mid and late-game arsenal; close to indispensable past wave 20 of Endless.

Cons

• Low mobility and fragile.
• Struggles against some medium ZEDs.
• High weapon recoil and a bad starting weapon.
• Easily overrun by Stalkers or Gorefasts if careless.

Skill tree

The Sharpshooter skill tree.

Level	Choice A	Choice B	Author's pick
5	Sniper: +25% damage while stationary	Marksman: +25% rate of fire, +10% movement speed	Marksman, for the MK14
10	Stability: +30% damage per shot while crouching	Ballistic Shock: +100% stun power	Ballistic Shock; Stability only makes sense on open maps like KF-Cube
15	Rack 'em Up: +5% damage per consecutive headshot, up to 75%	Combat Ready: faster reload	Combat Ready, safer
20	Dead Eye: +10% headshot damage and -10% recoil when scoped	Always Prepared: +25% ammo and +1 grenade	Always Prepared, which gives a third cryo grenade
25	Assassin: weapons knock ZEDs down	Ranger: weapons stun ZEDs on hit	Ranger, because a stunned ZED stands still

Ballistic Shock gives a 100 percent chance to stun on headshot for any ZED except the Fleshpound, Hans and the Patriarch, disabling movement and attacks for 3 seconds, which makes it very viable against Scrakes. The right-hand skills raise survivability and versatility; the left-hand skills maximise damage but make you stay still and are poor against hordes of fast small ZEDs. A reader later argued Stability is the better level 10 choice, so treat the picks as opinion.

Weapons

Winchester 1894. Medium damage, low-medium fire rate, high recoil, 12 rounds and 84 in reserve (117 with Always Prepared). One of the worst starting weapons: drop it when you can buy the MK14.

Winchester 1894.

Composite crossbow. High damage and stun, high penetration, no recoil, one shot per load, 38 reserve (43 with Always Prepared), and arrows can be picked up and reused. Ideal for stunning Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Not worth buying before wave 6 in a long game.

Crossbow.

MK14 EBR. The star of the arsenal: 20 rounds, 160 reserve (205), medium damage with a fairly high rate of fire, little stun. The author keeps it in the loadout until wave 11 and recommends getting it as early as possible.

MK14 EBR.

Railgun. High to very high damage, single shot, 32 reserve (41), very heavy at 9 block weight. It needs 3 to 4 shots for a Fleshpound, bosses are immune to it and buying it blocks the MK14, so the author says to skip it.

Railgun.

SPX 464 Centerfire (multi-perk). Upgraded Winchester with higher damage and a red dot, but a longer reload and less ammo (10 rounds, 70 reserve). Better suited to Gunslinger unless you run an MK14, SPX and Magnum .500 combination.

SPX 464 Centerfire.

M99 AMR (Skull-structor). Extreme damage and very high stun and penetration, single shot, 20 reserve (26), weight 12 and a high price. It removes any head in one shot but leaves you helpless at close range.

M99 anti-materiel rifle.

.500 Magnum revolver (multi-perk). Medium-high damage, 5 rounds, 100 reserve (130), weight 3. A solid sidearm that combines well with the MK14 and SPX.

.500 Magnum revolver.

FN FAL (multi-perk). An MK14 with full-auto: very high fire rate, 20 rounds, 200 reserve (220), weight 8. Mostly worse than the MK14, but useful for point-blank spraying at a Fleshpound's face.

FN FAL.

Cryo grenade. Five carried (six with Always Prepared). It freezes or slows ZEDs for 3 to 4 seconds in a short radius. Weak for breaking hordes but strong on big ZEDs: two for a Scrake and two to three for a Fleshpound.

Cryo grenade.

Tips

• Scrake: crossbow to the head, then close in and spray with the MK14.
• Fleshpound: find the longest corridor, shoot its head with the crossbow and toss cryo grenades if it closes in.
• Husk: wait for it to start its fireball so the fuel tank on its back is exposed, then shoot it; one shot of any Sharpshooter weapon makes it explode.
• Bosses: strong damage, but the first time you are focused is usually the last.
• Sirens, Bloats and Husks have skulls Sharpshooter shots will not pierce: roughly 5, 3 and 4 headshots, and they keep wandering for a while after.
• Sharpshooter is second only to Firebug at escaping a horde, because it stuns every ZED but the Fleshpound. If pinned in a dead end, do not give up yet.
• Soloing is not hard for a mobile Sharpshooter, but staying with your team helps.

Conclusion

Sharpshooter makes life far easier for a whole team, but it lacks survivability in boss fights.