Are you looking to deck out V with the best sniper rifle in Cyberpunk 2077? There are dozens of legendary and iconic weapons to choose from in Night City, and some are far superior to others. In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at the best sniper rifles in the game and compare them to see which reigns supreme.
Maximum Sniper Damage in Cyberpunk 2077
To get the most out of any sniper rifle, you want to make sure you assign your perks correctly for optimal damage. The most significant damage increase you can get comes from the Stealth perk tree under Cool attribute. There are three specific perks to obtain:
- Silent and Deadly: increases damage dealt by silenced weapons by 25% while sneaking.
- Strike from the Shadows: increases your Crit Chance by 15% while sneaking.
- Sniper: increases damage from headshots fired from outside combat by 30%/60%.
Additionally, you can spec into the Assault perks under Reflexes. Here are some excellent perks to boost your damage even further:
- Named Bullets: Increases Crit Damage with Rifles and SMGs by 35%.
- Nerves of Steel: Increases headshot damage with Sniper Rifles and Precision Rifles by 20%/40%.
- Bullseye: Increases rifle and submachine gun damage while aiming by 10%.
- Executioner: Deal 25% more damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns to enemies whose Health is above 50%.
- Long Shot: Rifle and SMG damage increases the farther you are from the enemy.
There are a few other perks that benefit snipers, but these are the main ones to pay attention to at the start. You can one-shot any non-boss enemy in the game with this build utilizing any of the snipers mentioned below.
Best Sniper Rifles in Cyberpunk 2077
Let’s start by looking at all the options. The legendary and iconic sniper rifles in Cyberpunk 2077 are as follows:
- Overwatch (Iconic)
- Nekomata Tech Sniper Rifle (Legendary)
- Ashura Smart Sniper Rifle (Legendary)
- SPT32 Grad Power Sniper Rifle (Legendary)
Overwatch (Iconic)
If you prefer the stealth play and want to one-shot enemies on the highest difficulty, you’ll want to consider Overwatch. The best thing about this weapon is you don’t have to pay a dime for it unless you want to upgrade it to the legendary variant.
Overwatch’s iconic perk grants you a custom silencer on the weapon and also increases the reload speed. The good thing about a silencer is it doesn’t break your stealth, allowing you to take out entire camps without being spotted. The weapon also includes a night vision scope, so don’t worry about slaying in the dark.
To get the Overwatch rifle, you’ll need to play through Panam Palmer‘s quest called Ghost Town. After completing this, you’ll eventually get a call from Panam and another quest called Riders on the Storm. She’ll gift you this weapon for free after completing it. It will be resting on a motorcycle after the mission is complete.
When you first get this weapon, it will be Rare, but you can easily upgrade it to Legendary with the right components. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Rare to Epic: Uncommon Item Components x24, Rare Item Components x39, Epic Item Components x49, Legendary Item Components x1
- Epic to Legendary: Rare Item Components x24, Epic Item Components x39, Legendary Item Components x2
Nekomata Tech Sniper Rifle (Legendary)
Next up, we have the Nekomata Tech Sniper Rifle. You can purchase this and the next two snipers from a weapon vendor. As a fair warning, it costs a lot of eddies. You might need to grind for a while before you can pick it up. It’s a Legendary Tech Sniper Rifle, so you can charge the shot for up to 2.45 times extra damage. Combined with the 3x headshot multiplier, you can easily get 10,000 damage shots with this thing.
Nekomata comes with an E305 Prospecta scope and four empty mod slots. The scope provides 3x zoom magnification and a 0.2 increase for aim down sight speed. Head on down to the weapon vendor at Northside in Watson to pick this up for about 200k eddies.
Ashura Smart Sniper Rifle (Legendary)
The Ashura is a Legendary Smart Sniper Rifle, meaning it can home in on targets with self-guided bullets. It boats high critical hit chance and damage and can ignite enemies to dish out some extra firepower. It does not come with a custom scope like the other three snipers on this list, but the default is good enough. One thing to pay attention to is the 4.6 headshot damage multiplier, which is the highest in the game. It also has four empty mod slots for added customization.
Unfortunately, it’s by far the most expensive sniper at a €$249,429 price tag. You can swing by the weapon vendor at The Glen in Heywood to browse this item and pick it up if you’re flush with cash. If you have the means to run Smart weapons, the Ashura is possibly the best sniper rifle in Cyberpunk 2077.
SPT32 Grad Power Sniper Rifle (Legendary)
Last up is the SPT32 Grad Power Sniper Rifle, which is one you can purchase from the weapon vendor in Arroyo, Santo Domingo. Like the Ashura, this sniper offers a 4.6 Headshot Damage Multiplier, making it one of the best in the game.
The SPT32 Grad also comes with a HPO MK.77 Kanone MAX scope, allowing for 3x zoom magnification and a 0.2 faster aim down sight speed. Overall, this is one of the best feeling snipers in the game, and possibly the most overpowered of the bunch.
