If you’re looking to live out your dreams of being a space sniper, you’ll need a sniper rifle to do it.
The problem is, as of publishing, you can’t just hit your local Live Fire Weapons and buy one.. So, how do you get a sniper rifle in Star Citizen (aside from paying real-world money)?
In the past you could occasionally loot some from crates at some mining & misc outposts, but sniper rifles have been removed as loot from most – if not all – of those.
Instead, you’ll need to hit bunkers.
Hitting bunkers for sniper rifles (and other loot) in SC
You can just accept bounty missions that direct you to specific bunker locations (the ?RT ones will either be a cave or a bunker – check the description); Typically bunkers start with (or have) a 4 letter acronym for (in) a name, so you’ll know if the mission is sending you to a bunker or not. If you’ve never done a bunker mission, note that these are fairly simple as long as you are cautious, and the server FPS isn’t too high. 🙂
I recommend doing bounty missions because this will ensure that the location won’t suddenly end up being a location for someone elses’ bounty.
There are a few things you’ll need: Heavy armor, a large backpack, medpens, and a gun with plenty of ammo (I typically recommend the Gallant rifle). Once you’re kitted up, it’s time to hit that bunker.
If you have a powerful ship, I suggest you approach bunkers biasing your shields forward and take out the turrets so you can park closer (reducing travel time and allowing you to load up your ship with loot faster). Otherwise, you’ll need to make sure you park behind some cover or are around 1.5km away from the turrets so they don’t take you out (you can take a ground vehicle to get to the bunker for now, but note that it won’t always be a safe option).
Once you’re in the bunker, take the elevator down. Once you’re down, clear out the bunker first, doing a double pass through to make sure you didn’t miss any stragglers if you don’t have an enemy counter from the bunker mission (or if it’s bugged and some enemies aren’t accessible). Once you’ve done that, there are 2 ways for grabbing sniper rifles: Checking the ground for them (less likely), and looting the black & red crates.
The black & red crates will contain armor and weapons, and I almost always find at least one sniper rifle on a bunker trip. You’ll want to watch for some other weapons as well, such as grenade launchers and the Scourge railgun.
If you want to make the trip extra worthwhile, make sure to bring a multitool with a tractor beam attachment so you can grab the bodies of the baddies and haul them up to your ship to loot.