The Snipetron is the Corpus Rifle that does exactly what it says on the box (i.e., it’s a sniper). Not only does it have the coolest name out of the snipers (it could really only be cooler if it were called Snipey Sniperson, or something equally ridiculous), but it looks interesting and… isn’t terrible. Is it a great weapon? Is it the only sniper you’ll ever need? Read on, for these answers and more, depending on the questions.
How to Acquire
The Snipetron is weird. It used to be available from the Market, but was removed from the game for lore reasons (the Corpus don’t use weapons that fire bullets, you see) – so now it’s only available for purchase from Nakak, and only during the Plague Star event. To acquire the blueprint in this manner requires 3,000 Operational Supply standing and 5,000 Credits.
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Credits 20,000 -
Morphics 5 -
Plastids 900 -
Salvage 1,200 -
Alloy Plate 900
The Snipetron Vandal can be acquired through completion of Invasions – the parts required are the blueprint, barrel, receiver, and stock, but manufacture also requires 25,000 Credits at the Foundry, but note it is locked to Mastery Rank 5.
Stats by Variant
At first glance, the Snipetron looks pretty good – it does a solid amount of Damage, and has a good Crit Chance. However, the Damage it does is strongly tilted toward Puncture, which is at the time of writing one of the least effective IPS Damage types.
This is not a huge issue, given its accuracy, but with its insufferably slow reload speed, it’s not the most ideal Sniper Rifle available to the discerning Tenno.
The Snipetron Vandal variant makes up for some of this shortfall, with better stats overall and much improved reload speed. While the Snipetron is not a bad sniper in reality, the Vandal variant is the better option.
Crit or Status?
Neither the Snipetron nor the Vandal variant really have great Status Chance, so it’s best to build towards Crit Chance to ensure higher Damage output on Crit. Keep in mind that using your scope will increase the Crit Chance further (+25 at 2.5x distance and +50% at 6x distance). That said, the Crit multiplier for the base variant is not amazing – again, it is trumped by the Vandal. Still, you should work to improve the multiplier regardless, as there’s no point proccing Crit if it’s not doing a great deal of increased Damage!
While the Snipetron and its Vandal variant are not the best snipers available, they are pretty good workhorses – the Vandal moreso than the base variant. If you like the silly name, and are a fan of the aesthetic, you wouldn’t be making a bad choice by going with the Snipetron, but don’t think it’s going to be comparable to the big guns when it comes to meta usage.
Greg
