Like many people, you have been playing Call of Duty Online Multiplayer for months, maybe years. You're probably starting TF2 because your friend wants you to, or because you've heard about it and it's Free To Play! Either way, you come from a background where quickscoping and getting sweet killcams with sniper rifles makes you a god. A background where getting a Tactical Nuke or M.O.A.B. means you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool. AND IT DOES MAKE YOU COOL. So how can you transfer your skills over to TF2 and still be JUST AS COOL? In this guide I will cover all of the bases on how to maintain that Call of Duty Sniping feel while actually sniping in TF2.

Everybody knows that the Sniper from Call of Duty looks like a certified badass, and if you're going to be running around stomping on 12-year-olds in pubs, then you need to look just as badass as you did in Call of Duty. Let's take a quick look at the Call of Duty Sniper just so that we have a decent idea of what we need to capture:



That's one cold ass honky! I couldn't even see him due to all that camouflage! But how can you possibly look THIS FREAKING GOOD in TF2? I assure you, it can be done.

Step 1: Buy "The Anger"

This item will make your character look fearless and 100% Legit. It covers the Sniper's head in a mysterious hood, shrouding his emotions and features, turning him into a phantom killer that strikes unparalleled fear into the pathetic little hearts of his opponents.

But that's not all! You can't have your fantastic hat looking Blue or Red to match the color of the rest of your team! Oh no! You are a one-man wolf pack that rules the battlefield. You are neither Red nor Blue. You would kill everyone if you were not bound by silly game rules. To prove this, you need to paint The Anger A Distinctive Lack of Hue. This black paint will really be the icing on the cake of this beautiful hat and will make you feel like the expert killer that you are!

However, when wearing The Anger, the mouth is covered by a bandanna, but the eyes are left slightly visible behind the Sniper's glasses. An opponent should never be able to see any emotion or even be given any hint that you could be something other than a pure-bred killing machine, so now let's cover up those eyes!

Step 2: Buy the Deus Specs (or the Graybanns if you're feeling hipster and want to stand out)

These classy-as-hell spectacles will keep your opponents from seeing your eyes twinkle as their life ends, and they also have a nifty reflective coating on them to keep the sun away from your eyes. You don't just stop the rays, you send them BACK TO THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SUN because you're so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool. These glasses can be purchased here: Deus Specs, and I'll leave it up to you Graybann'rs to find them on your own. You didn't want my help anyway, did you.

This leaves you with one open Misc. Slot, and one open Action Slot. We'll come back to the Misc. Slot later, but for now, let's focus on the action. The action slot (by default) is triggered by pressing 'H' and, in this case, is going to be taken up by a taunt. This particular Taunt is called The Shred Alert. The Shred Alert forces your freshly slain enemy to watch helplessly as you dominate an EPIC GUITAR SOLO as a reward for another easy kill. It looks something like this:


Now that your Attire is complete, you will look unspeakably amazing! Here's a picture to help you understand how AWESOME you look:


Note: The Mann Co. Store is NEVER the cheapest place to buy hats or anything, really. If you're buying weapons, check out http://scrap.tf/, and if they don't have the hat you want, then it can probably be purchased from http://tf2shop.net/ for a helluva lot cheaper than the Mann Co. Store.

So you're decked out in your proper sniping attire, and you step out of spawn onto the battlefield. But wait! What the hell are you holding in your hands?? Is that.... a STOCK SNIPER?! This will most surely not do. It doesn't even look like a real sniper, does it! Drop that gun like it's crazy hot, son! However, after ditching your primary, there is a dilemma when it comes to selecting a better one.

For simplicity sake, I'm putting a link HERE to the Official TF2 Store where you can buy these items. Note: this is not the cheapest place to buy. I would suggest using Scrap.tf to trade scrap for them.


Coming from Call of Duty Sniping, you no doubt know what these are, but here's a quick re-cap:

"Feeding" with a Sniper refers to filling up the killfeed with your own kills. It shows people how ludicrously large your balls are, and lets them know that you are above God when it comes to taking lives. A player does this by quickscoping opponents in quick succession, filling up the feed. When any player glances at the killfeed and sees that it is filled with only your kills, they know you're an untouchable Grim Reaper.

"Trickshotting" is pretty easy to figure out. While feeding is going for multiple kills in a relatively normal fashion, trickshotting is going for one kill in the most spectacular fashion imaginable. Trickshotting typically involves jumping off of a high place and doing in air tricks before shooting the enemy prior to landing on the ground. Having said that, flatland trickshots are possible. While not as cool, flatland shots are a great way for beginners to get some practice in and perfect their trickshotting skills before jumping off of Hightower.

So now that you know the only kinds of sniping available to you, you must select the weapon that goes with the style of sniping you chose.

If you selected "Feeding"

If you selected feeding, my friend, your primary weapon is going to be....



While preventing you from noscoping, this beastly weapon will allow you to penetrate multiple enemies while it is fully charged, something that will be necessary during feeding. It charges up while zoomed in, and it charges 15% faster than the normal sniper. This weapon will be your best friend when you are spawn-camping noobs on koth_harvest.

An example of a Machina-wielding sex-god displaying his endless skill in this sick nasty feed:



If you selected "Trickshotting", you jive turkey, then your primary weapon is going to be....



This kick-ass sniper does everything that the stock sniper does, except it looks like a legitimate sniper. Want to no-scope somebody? No problem! Just line up that crosshair and pull the trigger, my friend! Do you love bolt action? Watch as the Sniper calmly pulls back the bolt and loads another bullet, signaling another enemy killed in the COOLEST WAY POSSIBLE.

An example of an AWPer-wielding swag-master halting the world with his awesome:



While the vast majority of your kills will be coming from your primary, we both know that it is better to kill somebody with a secondary than to die trying with your primary. You want to be able to continue with your feeding or trickshotting without having to wait for a respawn timer to run down. If you are a feeder, then your secondary is going to be...

(Woopdy Freakin Doo)


While it may look like some washed-up airsoft pea-shooter, using the SMG is the closest you can get to real CoD gameplay in TF2. Unfortunately, TF2 is designed to be easy enough for a mastodon to play, so your drop-shotting pre-firing skills aren't as useful as they used to be. Even so, this little SMG will be there to save your sorry ass when you go balls-deep into enemy territory and get overwhelmed while stacking the killfeed. Now if you prefer the trickshotting side of things, then your Secondary is going to be none other than...



Yes, this weapon looks a helluva lot sexier than the stock SMG, but it serves a slightly different purpose. While it fires slower and has a smaller clip, that's just fine because you aren't at a disadvantage when engaging your target, so you have ample time to track that sucker and pump his body full with every bullet in the clip. But why would you do that when you can trickshot him? A good question, but I assure you, there is a method to this mundaneness: Upon successfully killing an enemy with The Cleaner's Carbine, it grants you 3 precious seconds of guaranteed Critical Hits. This allows you to hit super-sexy two-pieces, but more importantly, it gives you that reassurance that if you swap to your AWPer Hand and go for a dope trickshot, there WON'T BE A HITMARKER. That slimy toad is dead for sure! The Cleaner's Carbine makes it so that you won't have to guess how much health an opponent has before deciding its a good time to trickshot them. Simply get one kill with it (EASY AS ♥♥♥♥) and then do your YY Fakie-Fakie Ladder-Stall 1080 Cross-Map No-Scope Silent-Shot without getting a hitmarker.


For the types of legitimate sniping, like the ones you will be doing, the choice of Melee Weapon falls squarely on you, the player. So allow me to just point out the possible Pros and Cons of multiple Melee Weapons:

The Frying Pan: The pan makes a literal ♥♥♥♥-ton of noise whenever it strikes anything, and does the same amount of damage as any stock melee weapon, such as the Sniper's Kukri. Also, did I mention it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pan?

Bushwacka: This one looks decent, and it crits when it would normally mini-crit. It is designed to be used in tandem with the jar-o-piss a.k.a Jarate, but since your Secondary Slot is filled with an SMG, this Bushwacka provides no real benefit. Also, you swing it like a deranged hobo with nothing left to lose.

Tribalman's Shiv: This one is a decent choice if you want to be a jungle-dwelling badass. This thing looks more threatening than a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wolverine and it causes enemies to bleed like a girl on her period. Sure it does less damage, but the bleeding makes up for it. Watch with glee as they run around like a chicken with its head cut off because their screen is flashing red.

Bat Outta Hell: Ever wanted to wield the spinal cord and skull of a deceased enemy as a weapon? Well now you can! Flog more potential spinal cord weapons to death with this skull on vertebra! They're literally getting boned to death which is a temptation that is hard to pass up.

Ham Shank: Beat the meat. And if you get hungry, you can eat it.

Conscientious Objector: This one is a great standard Melee Weapon that can be used in combination with a Decal Tool to plaster whatever picture you want onto the front of the sign. Want your enemies to stare at a pony while they die? Perhaps your more a of a fan of the flaccid ♥♥♥♥? Customize this sign to THE MAX and humiliate your opponents to THE MAX.

The Kukri: Just no.

The Shahanshahanshahashnashnahansha: ARE YOU A CAT (and by cat I mean another word for a cat that gets blocked. Hint, it's also a much-loved word for a much-loved female genital part)? If you just said yes, then this is the melee weapon for you.

There are a crapload of servers out there to hit shots on, but it can be hard to know what servers are going to be THE BEST. I'll try my best to give a few pointers to help you find the right ones, and avoid the bad ones.

1. All-Crit servers are the ♥♥♥♥.. In CoD, most sniper shots are one-hit kills, and if you spend any time in TF2 you will quickly realize that a body shot will only take about a third of your enemies health away. Ain't that some ♥♥♥♥.. All-Crit servers take you back to the good ol' days of one shot kills. Every shot that connects (so in your case, every shot) will kill your enemy. This is especially nice for trickshotting, and eliminates the need for the Cleaner's Carbine. Wanna find an All-Crit server? Just search for cp_orange when looking for a server. They're almost exclusively All-Crits. Not your cup of tea? FINE, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Here's more tips, then:

2. Avoid Capture The Flag and Attack & Defense gametypes all together. They aren't very good for killing a lot of people or hitting a trickshot unnoticed.

3. Payload and King of the Hill are going to be your best friends. On these gametypes, there are a lot of people, and a lot of noobs. It is easy to remain unnoticed up in a high place while waiting for the perfect moment to trickshot. Also, in King of the Hill, the spawns are always set, and often times very easy to camp and pick up epic killfeeds on. Among all of these, koth_harvest is the easiest to spawn camp, hands down.

4. If you played Search and Destroy, then play Arena. Arena is a gametype similar to search in destroy in that once dead, you're dead until the next round. This makes it super awesome when you kill people and rack up a feed, because everybody knows that here your life is actually on the line, and the victory of your team is on your back. To find this game type, you will have to manually search for it in the Servers box on the TF2 main menu.

5. Donator Benefits: Many servers offer donator benefits for people who toss a couple dollars their direction. Things such as third person, extra health, unlimited ammo, etc. Basically, they are such ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sellouts that they'll make you nearly unkillable, all in exchange for McChicken money. Most importantly though, they will give you the ability to add UNUSUAL EFFECTS to your hats so that you can look like you freaking own all of TF2, without having to actually pay for the Burning on your Anger or Villain's Veil. These effects are great for making you look like a frightening monster that delivers death without mercy, remorse, or any sign of stopping. Also, most servers will give donators the ability to change their name in chat to any color under the sun. This gives you the ability to make you look like a certified legit hacker, which frightens children into setting up for your shots (not that you really need them to).

6. Find servers that keep track of points. Servers like this allow you to accumulate tons of points, making you look more legit. When people see you have 10,000 points on a server, they know you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good.

So you've got your swankin' clothing and your ass-hot spankable weaponry and you're ready to get out there and get some sweet kills!... But wait! How will you show them to the world? How can you send a demo to a potential clan if you don't have a way to record each and every second of gameplay?? Leave your HDPVR where it's at, friend, because there is a much better way!

Step 1:
PREC is probably the world's most useful program for TF2. It captures all gameplay that you choose in a pretty low memory format, and allows you to access it at any time in-game through the console.
Note: If you want to capture gameplay from a view other than first person or locked third person, you may have to find servers that support recording.

PREC can be found here[etf2l.org], and there are decent instructions on how to install it on the site, so I'm going to leave that alone. However! I do have a couple basic tips that will help you truly understand the best way to do this.

Step 2:
After obtaining and installing PREC, you will also need FRAPS, which is here[www.fraps.com]. PREC saves demos and allows you to play them back in-game, but FRAPS is what you will be using to record the gameplay to your harddrive.
With FRAPS, after installing it, open it, because we need to make sure that you have the proper MLG-Pro settings.


First, take note of the capture key. You can make it whatever the hell you want (Shift or F2 are not viable choices, I'll explain later), I just pointed it out so that you can remember what it is. The other bit I circled is the framerate you capture in. I can only assume you will be uploading your videos to YouTube, and the maximum frames-per-second that YouTube supports is 30 fps. What this means is that in FRAPS, you should click the little 30 fps button that I circled. This way, you're not taking up twice as much space on your computer for a video that will look the same as one that uses half as much space. UPDATE: YouTube now supports 60 FPS, but I'm too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lazy to re-do the picture and this paragraph, so be warned!. THAT BEING SAID, if you like to use crazy slo-mo in your videos and you have like 100GB of free space on your harddrive, feel free to bump the fps up to 60 fps. Or 120, or 150 if you're a brainless psychopath. This makes it so that when you make a video slow motion, it will still have that 30 fps that YouTube supports, so it'll look smoother than a baby's bottom, despite being slower than a KFC Drive-Thru.

Now that PREC and FRAPS are installed, go ahead and run TF2. After everything loads up, press ` (Not an apostrophe, it's the one next to the 1 key). This is called the console, and it will be your left-hand man when using PREC (we all know what your right hand is for). Once you have the console open, type prec_mode 3.
Like this:


What prec_mode 3 does, is it sets PREC to record EVERY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MOMENT of you playing. That way you don't have to worry about manually starting PREC before you go ♥♥♥♥ on noobs in public lobbies. There are PREC modes 2 & 1, as well. 2 automatically records tournament play, but nothing else. Mode 1 makes it so that you have to manually record everything, which means you would have to put prec_record in the console whenever you join a lobby. 3 is the best choice.

Step 3:
Recording with PREC is pretty straight forward. First, before opening TF2, open FRAPS. Then open TF2. Open the console and type playdemo_YYYYMMDD, the letters being the date the demo was recorded, not the button presses for a trickshot. This drops down a list of all demos recorded for that day and you can use the arrow keys to select the one you want. After finding it, press ENTER. This will play the demo that holds the unimaginably filthy kills that you wish to record.
Once the demo is playing, if you press Shift + F2, this will open up a control box that allows you to control the speed of the demo with a slider, as well as choosing what frame to go to. Once your find your SUPER SEXY SWEET-AS-♥♥♥♥ kill(s), then you can record it with FRAPS by pressing your record hotkey (This is why you don't want your hot key as SHIFT of F2). Press the hotkey again to end the recording, automatically saving the EPIIIIIC clip to your folder destination indicated in FRAPS.

Here is a video where I talk about and show all of the things I just talked about, if you're feeling a little confused (I don't actually know if this will clear anything up or not, but it's the thought that counts, right??):


If you still have any PREC questions or are just interested in becoming a PREC GOD, you can type prec_info into the console, or just refer to the original PREC link to browse the site for help.

As I mentioned at the very beginning, if PREC just ain't enough for you, or you thirst for a deeper recording experience, you can check out servers that have game recording enabled. Here's a photo that shows how to find servers that support game recording, so that your videos can get taken to the next level:

When in a server that can capture your godly moments of glory, remember that after you die, you have to press F6 in order to save the replay of that life. Now hold on, hold on, I know what you're thinking. You don't ever die, right?? Well, since that seems to be the only way to do it, you may just have to kill yourself on purpose by switching to some other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ class or, if you're a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sick bastard, you can type kill into the console to end your precious life.

So we all know that every super 1337 expert sniper pro has to be in a freakin' clan, right? OF COURSE, YOU DUMB PIECE OF ♥♥♥♥! Finding a clan can be tough, but if you play enough lobbies and add enough people to your friend list, you can convince people to share a clantag with you. Rolling into a lobby with a group of your tightest homies and pouring layer upon layer of ♥♥♥♥ onto noobs is one of the best things out there. All of you sniping. Spawntrapping. Going harder than a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Balls deep into the enemy's anus, wrecking them kill after kill. This is what TF2 is all about, and you need to be a part of it. So let's say you're found a clan, what next?

Step 1: Get a dope-ass name

Naming your clan can be fun. While typically you want it to be 4 letters or less (since that's all that can fit in CoD clan tags), Steam is a bro and does not limit you on your tag length. So you find a good clan name, and that goes in a tag, but then you still have to find a name that truly captures how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great you are at being a BAMF. X's, lower or uppercase, let people know that you mean freakin' business and that you will find them in real life and stab them to death if they shoot you out of the air while you're trickshotting. X's also look cooler than the blood that runs through your veins, so you have to put as many of those into your name as possible. Another great addition to any name is the number 420 or the number 69. The number 420 lets people know you're an awesome dude who gets high all the time but still dominates the battlefield, probably while hitting a 6-foot bong. The number 69 represents the massive amount of hot ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you screw every day, and your favorite sex position. Be sure to swap between upper and lower case letters frequently through out your name to confuse your opponents and to make them realize that your name is as hard to read as you are hard to kill. Your name can be whatever you want, but it still has to be cool. Here are some perfect examples of L3G1T sniper names:

1. [ApEx] xXL3G17XxN0xXSc0p3RXx420
2. [VeRt] YoxMoMMaxXxLiK35x2x69me
3. [Sk1lLz] 420TR1CK5xS0xHOTxXxY0uDIE69

You get the idea. Coming up with one that hasn't been taken can be challenging, but if you add enough X's and swap between letter cases enough, you'll get an original one.

Step 2: Clan $W4G

Your clan has to be matching so that when people see you they know you guys are closer than Eminem and Dr. Dre. One sure-fire way to prove this is to buy the Clan Pride. This is what will fill that empty Misc Slot on your sniper. When the Clan Pride is used in combination with a decal tool it allows you to put any picture on it, more specifically, your clan name or logo. Besides the Clan Pride, you and your team could find another Misc to fill the last slot that could also be cool. For instance,
The Champ Stamp:


This hardcore tattoo let's people know you've dealt with pain before and that you're a bona-fide MAN.
But Since the Clan Pride seems to be the best option, let's move onto the next part.

Step 3: Making A Clan Logo

This can be pretty simple. Basically, just follow these two rules: Make it have the first letter of your clan name, and use sharp lines. A prime example of this is the logo of the FaZe Clan from the CoD community, famous for feeding and trickshotting.

FaZe Clan Logo:


It contains an F and a C, but it has lines that are sharper than the knife I threaten my neighbors with. After creating a bomb-ass logo, use this template to insure that your logo will fit nicely onto the Clan Pride badge. The black areas of the picture will not be seen, only the white.
Pictures are applied to the Clan Pride in your TF2 backpack. You select the Decal Tool and hit the "Use With" button, and then click the Clan Pride, like so:


After you have used the Decal Tool with the Clan Pride, you can then equip it to your sniper:


♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ YOU LOOK SEXY.

You've got your clips! You've got your $W4G, and you've got your clan, and they've got your back! YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING SOMEWEHRE IN LIFE. But don't go telling Mom yet, because you can take it up another notch. First things first, if you're going to be posting your content on YouTube, it's gotta look hotter than Emma Watson. Here's a few pointers on making a perfect video to help promote you and your clan.

1. Get an intro with a 3D title that lasts longer than the actual video. THAT'S RIGHT. If you were planning on using 5 clips in your episode, THINK AGAIN YOU QUEER. 1 clip is the most you'll ever need, unless you managed to get your hands on a long enough intro.

2. It doesn't matter if people can actually see what you do in the clip. You need to put as many video effects onto your clip as humanly possible. This shows people that you care about your video and that you know how to edit better than Michael Bay. After placing the clip into the video and syncing it with the music once, put it in again, but slower this time, with a huge-ass bass explosion when you fire your shot(s).

3. Pick a song that objectifies women and celebrates the perfection that is the "rap game". When putting the song into your video, it doesn't matter where the song starts or ends. Just pick wherever you want, and it'll be cool. If you decide against perpetuating rap stereotypes and feel like another genre of music, then you will have to go for Dubstep. If there's no swear words then by golly there's gotta be huge bass for you to sync your shot with.

Here is a video of a regular clip, and then that clip edited like it should be:


Last but not least, every famous sniper in the history of EVER has a Twitter. How are you going to do open lobbies with fans? How are you going to talk about your day? How are you going to talk ♥♥♥♥ to other snipers? Twitter is the only answer. In fact, Twitter is the only place that you will even communicate with anyone. After making your Twitter, be sure to fill it with intelligent and thoughtful posts. Here is a prime example of what your Twitter feed should look like:



Now it's finally time to go find Mom and show her why it's okay that you spend all day in the basement. TIME TO MAKE HER FRICKIN' PROUD.

You're perfect. You'e famous. You're cooler than Macklemore and Ryan Lewis put together. Things can't possibly get any better, can they? CAN THEY? Well, my friend, THEY CAN.

Another thing that will really help you humiliate kids on the battlefield is to spam a bind after you kill them. A bind is a message that will automatically enter itself in chat, so that you don't have to. Bind refers to this message or these messages being bound to a certain key so that all you have to do is press the key and it sends up a career-ending diss into chat. Spamming a bind while taunting is a 100% Money-Back guaranteed way to make a child or a even a grown man cry with frustration. Here is a gif of me taunting and spamming a bind:



It's a gorgeous thing to behold, that is for certain. But how can you get binds?? Easy! Just download {LINK REMOVED}this .cfg file, and then go to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\cfg and drop it in there. The file I have has it bound to the key R, but you can edit the file to make it whatever you want, or to change the binds. My bind script contains somewhere around 40 different messages that rotate, so every time you press R it displays the next one, and cycles through them. So if you do it more than 40 times, it will start over. Here is a picture of the file, pointing out where to change the keybind, and where the actual messages are in case you want to change them:


The messages are pretty easy to spot and pretty easy to edit. I've circled the "r" key at the bottom, so you know where to change it. Don't forget that after editing it, make sure that the file is saved as a .cfg, or else it wont work. If you're smart enough to figure out the pattern of the code, feel free to add more!

Viola! Feels just like you're back on the Black Ops II battlefield hitting cross-map spawnshots on Drone, doesn't it! It's like you never even left! Your friends are happy that you're playing a game with them, and you're happy that you don't have to lose all your weapons when dealing with prestiging and all that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! But most of all, you're happy that you can edit your classes in-game. Like seriously Activision. It's not that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard to do. Step your game up before EA and Valve finishing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on you.... ANYWAY

Now that you feel at home again, go get out there and hit some sexy clips for me. Record them. Post them online. Shamelessly self-promote them on Twitter and Facebook. Get famous. Because we all know that Sniping + Self-Promotion + ????? = Profit.

Now it's up to you to figure out what those question marks stand for, so get out there, spam some binds, have some fun, and don't look back!














(and love the haters)