Playing Sharpshooter in KF2: A Humorous Rant on the Lonely Perk

This page is a translation of a humorous Russian-language essay about the author's experience levelling the Sharpshooter in Killing Floor 2. It is more a rant than a technical guide, but it captures well why the perk feels lonely and what the usual team frustrations are. For practical advice, read the Sharpshooter weapons and builds guide or the Sharpshooter crossbow stun build.

"I was never covered so well, especially from behind"

The Sharpshooter, ready to hide in a corner.

It sounds like a nice idea: hide to the side and drop the big mobs while the team deals with the small meat. The first postulate of Killing Floor, however, is that nobody cares about you: even healing a teammate costs money because the "team" came for fun and your frags.

You choose the Sharpshooter and get a long-range, very single-target weapon with a small magazine and the hint to line them up and shoot the head. Up close you are harmless; at a distance, crouched and scoped, you are the terror of every Fleshpound and Bloat. Your advantage is shooting only at the head, and also you are slightly cold (a pun on a Sub-Zero style freeze effect).

Headshots only.

Meanwhile other perks can shoot the heels without losing perk damage: the Firebug and Demolitionist do not even have to aim, Support can shoot the belly, and even the Commando gets a bonus for knees. Do not look for help from your friend the Gunslinger either: he fires with both hands without caring, and if someone fires at him he turns on a turbo and leaves at full speed.

You are never alone

Somebody is always around you: your eternal friends the Firebug and the Demolitionist, and once everyone suddenly leaves while you aim, behind you there is no cheerful SWAT member but a daring rebel and a couple of big zeds.

The usual situation behind the Sharpshooter's back.

So the only tactic, jokes the author, is to show everyone the finger and run laps around the map to avoid meeting the team, because meeting them means meeting exactly those you were running from. At best your teammates run with you. Hoping for common sense in KF is silly: teammates are usually either lone wolves (who survive any meat grinder, never help and never cover the rear) or just fools running back and forth. The second kind can be organised around you if you run confidently somewhere, with more effect if you can give them a grenade or ammo.

A fight with a big zed begins merrily and ends merrily: the whole squad kills one Scrake with five Commandos, then something goes wrong, and crowds of angry footballers run in and push your blissful team into the Sirens and Fleshpounds you decided not to touch. Or while retreating you meet three or four Husks. "That is team play for you."

Team play, as seen from the Sharpshooter's point of view.

What you really have

Be ready for few frags. The weapon is not automatic, has little ammo and does no area damage: a "hobo class", similar to the Berserker, who needs nothing apart from armor.

Running with the team as a Sharpshooter is a problem, since effective shooting always needs a protected rear. The second KF postulate says that whoever guards your back, monsters appear there anyway. You hold your position while the other flank is in a brawl and of course go help; then they come at your flank, where only the Medic is left. A Medic is ready for such tricks by perk, unlike the delicate Sharpshooter, whose rear is especially painful.

A panic of running and firing in the direction of a zed's pumpkin.

The result is a panicked run and shooting at anything near a zed's head. Using the headshot bonus while stationary and scoped does not work in practice. "So I have been levelling this perk to this day, long and sadly."