Which is better, the Hard Target, or the MagSniper?
This is deeply in "it depends" territory.
Taken from my "main" character, level ~200 with all applicable skills.
I've often carried both of them. :-)
Both
- Forget range, if it renders, you can kill it
- Massy. Around 11 kg (about 24 pounds for the savages out there)
- Difficult to use in chaotic close fighting
- Fantastic damage from Concealment (relevant to crits below)
- Range is around 200-222, slightly better for Hard Target
- They seem to always hit
Hard Target
- Tricky for general close fighting due to small magazine
- Unless you switch between several :-)
- Good for close and medium-range stealth work due to Suppression
- Especially at Extreme difficulty
- Might want a lower Scope
- Also consider a Starlash
- Limited by mag size unless you find one with Shattering
- …which allows Large Magazine instead of Penetrator Rounds
- …and is better than Extended Magazine, which precludes Instigation
- Good at medium range for common Scopes
- Good at long range with longer Scopes
- Base damage is 673 (480 unmodded), crits over 30,000
MagSniper
- Poor for general close fighting due to shot charge time
- Useless for stealth, so commonly has hi-mag Scope
- Okay at medium range
- Good at long range
- Fantastically higher damage when charged
- Its larger mag is usually irrelevant at its best range
- Base damage is 1130 (876 unmodded), crits over 50,000
Selection
Often, if one even has both weapons, only one will have some key booster
like Instigation, in which case selection tends to be easy.
If you can easily carry both, go right ahead,
with the Hard Target set up as Suppressed if it all possible.
In some situations, both guns' ammos can be in short supply,
which can be a solid reason even by itself to double carry.
Otherwise, assuming
- You want a solid sniper weapon
- You can switch another weapon quickly that suits short range combat
- Your two weapons generally have the same perks
Take the Hard Target if:
- You plan on sniping, but at shorter ranges (in stealth)
- Inside structures and starships, e.g.
- You want extra punch for stealth attacks
- Common on Extreme difficulty
- You're low on 6.5 mm MI Array rounds
- You have teleporting enemies that it can kill in one hit at range ‡
Take the MagSniper if:
- You expect to have many long-range sniping opportunities
- Probably not on ship boardings, but great for outdoors
- You prefer massive damage and fewer shots per target
- You're low on .50 Caliber Caseless rounds
- You have teleporting enemies that it can kill in one hit at range,
but which would be harder to take down with the Hard Target ‡
‡ On Extreme (and higher through NG+) difficulty,
Vortex Horrors are typically beyond even the MagSniper one-shotting them
unless you crit,
and those are at about half the usual damage.
I'm also pretty sure one of them killed me during my Moon Form once
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