So, you wanna make more heads pop, do ya? Welp, lets get you started. It's actually pretty easy, if you think about it. Just make sure you follow the following rules:

What's that you say? You say I said this guide was for all characters? I did, indeed! but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use Zer0's cheap-ass ability "B0re" to highlight enemy critical points first!

Well, that and he also has certain other skills that will come into play later, but that one is key here.

Not all enemies have their head as their weakpoint, just most of them. Hell, some enemies even have multiple weakpoints. Most loaders have their limbs as crit points, as well as their "eye". The scorpions from the new Hammerlock DLC have their stingers (and their ass). It's a good idea to play through as Zer0 at least once, and write down or memorize what enemies have crit-points and where.

Once that's done, transfer some low-level snipers over to shared storage, pick a new character, and have some bloody good fun.

Now this should be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obvious. As Marcus said in the first game: "What good is a gun that doesn't shoot where you point?" Take all those badass points you earned playing as Zero, plop em into gun accuracy, and watch the heads fly. Also, most characters have COMs that add points to your gun accuracy - sometimes at the cost of something else, but not always. USE THEM.

The stated accuracy of your gun is also important. In general, you don't want to use a sniper that has less than 95%, no matter how powerful its other stats are.

Now, this doesn't always mean a scope with high zoom. "Good" in this case means "fits the situation"

If you've got enemies close to ya, you just want a normal zoom: enough to show you their heads, but also lets you see if their buddies are coming after you. It doesn't matter if you can see in your targets ear if his buddy smacks you upside the head. If there's a lot of distance between you and your targets, THEN you bring out the high-powered scope, and pick them off while they run at you and try to shoot you with their stormtrooper accuracy.

Dahl makes some DAMN fine equipment. Their assault rifles, pistols, and SMGs are hard to match for accuracy and damage, and the three-round burst makes it even better.

Not so, sadly, for their snipers...

The point of effective sniping is to kill the enemy in ONE shot. If you're doing it right, those Dahl snipers essentially use three shots to do the same damage as any other sniper can do with one. Yes, if you miss the critical point of an enemy with the first shot from a Dahl, you CAN do more damage overall; however, there are two problems with this: You're more likely to actually hit the crit-point than miss, so you're wasting ammo as it is anyway, and even that first shot can cause the enemy to move, wasting those other two bullets. Dahl just isn't worth the investment for their snipers. Carry an smg or assault rifle for backup, but don't bother with their snipers.

Now this may not apply if you're using Maya or Gaige, as they get bonuses for elemental tech, but Zero, Axton, and Salvador don't get those bonuses unless (a) someone on the team is playing as Maya or gaige and (b) that person is using a "team elemental damage/effect chance up" COM, or (c) you're using one, which you souldn't because you SHOULD be focusing on accuracy.

You should only use elemental tech sparingly, as non-elemental snipers do more damage, and shields REALLY screw up elemental damage here: Using a fire elemental weapon is good against flesh, but don't work so good on shielded enemies. Same with Corrosive on armored enemies. With that, you might think "what about shock weapons? they're GREAT against shields!" Here's my reply:

"Yeah. Great on shields, but holy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell do they suck against everything else."

Y'see, killing an enemy's shield is about all shock damage is good for, unless you have the right elemental bonuses from Maya or Gaige. Yeah, you'll take out the enemy's shield in one shot, but they'll have almost a full ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ health bar after that. Meanwhile, your buddy using a non-elemental sniper took out his target's shield AND health in one shot. Unless you've got the right bonuses, just stick with Jakobs (high damage, tendency to have critical bonuses) or a non-elemental Hyperion (high accuracy if you're patient enough to aim down the scope for a few seconds) or vladof(high fire rate, but lowest accuracy [average of 95, lowest 90], so not really reccomended).

Now slag is a special case: it doesn't do anything on its own, but will enhance a following shot. My take is that slag rifles are PERFECT for fighting badasses or armored opponents with high health and/or shields - especially when in a group - but not much else. What's the point of slagging an enemy to do in two shots something you can do in one?

Why Gaige and not Maya? While yes, Maya has some bonuses for all elemental damage, Gaige has a whole tree dedicated to shock damage. It actually makes shock weapons feasible throughout the whole game. If you're using a Little Big Trouble build (which I actually suggest), go to town with shock. Below are two good such builds at lv. 50:

This first one focuses more on Best Friends Forever, but gets most all the important skills from Little Big Trouble, except the slag explosion and Make it Sparkle


While this one grabs as much from LBT as it can while getting some essentials from BFF


Even if you're not planning on focusing on little big trouble, I REALLY reccomend grabbing the Electrical Burn skill, which makes electrical damage worth it for Gaige.

"But Friday! We're playing a videogame! this isn't real!" Yes, and? How fast and hard you're breathing still affects how steady your hand is. While related to the next section, your breathing does get a special mention here. If you're breathing is erratic, your hand may just get the jitters too. If your hand gets all shaky, even a little bit, then your bullet goes off the path. Which makes you miss.

Well, that and controlling your breathing can help you reduce your stress, which I'm assuming is part of why you're playing a violent game (to work off some stress with gratuitous violence). Stress is no good when trying to perform precision activities, so any technique (including playing the game in the first place) is a good thing. Plus, according to the Harvard Medical School Family Health guide[www.health.harvard.edu], breath control also helps reduce stress levels, so it's a win-win here: less stress and more headshots!

So, you've missed, and now they're running at you, or shooting at you. Welp, if you've got enough distance, and/or your team is more into close combat than you are, you've still got time to blast their head off. Just stay cool, control your breathing, take aim, and make things go pop. Even if they DO get close, you've got more than one weapon slot, so keep a shotgun or something there. There's no shame in having to go close quarters if you need to. It just means you need practice.

Or maybe they're shooting at you. No worries, just keep staring down the scope. They're unlikely to actually hit you at range. Of course, if you're close, they can still hit you, but again, stay calm. You can just get behind some cover, aim down the sights, and STILL make things go pop. Or you can just break out a turret, or gunzerk, or phazelock, or summon your robot, or go all stealthy. You have a backup plan if things get too messy. Keep calm and fight on.

Having trouble getting headshots in a certain area? Dust off that Zer0 I had you play as before, go into a lower level area (or the same area), and practice there. Or go to a lower level area with similiar enemies. Just be sure to steady yourself, control your breathing, and stay calm, and you'll be able to snipe pretty much any enemy in the game down in one (or two) hits.

Badasses have a LOT of health and defense. You WILL NOT, unless you have an uberpowerful sniper (and even then you may not be able to), just oneshot them. Keep your distance from them, stay calm, and give 'em a few more headholes while they run at you, or shoot at you with slightly better than stormtrooper accuracy.


Bosses, however, are a different beast entirely. These. you probably don't want to snipe at, unless (a) it's alone, and (b) you're not. I CANNOT recommend solo-sniping most bosses in this game, save Wilhelm, who you can pelt with a decent caustic sniper in the face a few times and he'll blow up quite nicely. Switch to an assault rifle or something for these guys.

I will say, though, that some bosses - like bnk-3r - have points in their fight where they CAN be sniped for massive damage pretty easily. That's another reason for rule 1. Have Zer0 scan them for their weakpoints, find when those weakpoints are most vulnerable to counterfire, and blast 'em then.

"But Friday! all of these are pretty much just common sense (well, except for the Dahl one, and that thing about elemental tech)!"

Yeah? No ♥♥♥♥. Yet you didn't think of any of 'em before you came here, did ya? Sniping in games is nothing BUT common sense; Focus, calm, and accuracy. At least I'm not charging you for this ♥♥♥♥, unlike that "life coach" you hire and those "self help" books you have all over the place.

What, you're angry? Well then get out there and blow some bandit heads off! That's why I wrote this ♥♥♥♥ down!