Novan Leon

The sniper rifles in MW2 operate with the same base damage values and body-part multiplier system that was used in COD4. The primary differences are with the introduction of silencers in MW2, the absence of the "neck" damage multiplier, and the unique handling characteristics of the sniper rifles themselves.

Shared Parameters:

• All sniper rifles do 70 base damage, regardless of range.
• Equipping a silencer reduces the base damage to 50, regardless of range.
• Stopping Power increases damage by 140% (1.4x).

Unique Body-Part Damage Multipliers:

Weapon - Head, Chest, Body, Limbs
Intervention - 1.5, 1.5, 1.1, 1.0
Barrett .50cal - 1.5, 1.5, 1.1, 1.0
WA2000 - 1.5, 1.5, 1.0, 1.0
M21 EBR - 1.5, 1.1, 1.0, 1.0

To get the damage output of each weapon, multiply the base damage (70 or 50) by the body-part area (1.5, 1.1 or 1.0). Multiply the result by 1.4 if Stopping Power is being used, and that should be your final total.

Sniper Rifle Damage Totals:

Weapon - Head, Chest, Body, Limbs
Intervention - 105, 105, 77, 70
Intervention (w/Silencer) - 75, 75, 55, 50
Intervention (w/SP) - 147, 147, 107.8, 98
Intervention (w/Silencer & SP) - 105, 105, 77, 70

Barrett .50cal - 105, 105, 77, 70
Barrett .50cal (w/Silencer) - 75, 75, 55, 50
Barrett .50cal (w/SP) - 147, 147, 107.8, 98
Barrett .50cal (w/Silencer & SP) - 105, 105, 77, 70

WA2000 - 105, 105, 70, 70
WA2000 (w/Silencer) - 75, 75, 50, 50
WA2000 (w/SP) - 147, 147, 98, 98
WA2000 (w/Silencer & SP) - 105, 105, 70, 70

M21 EBR - 105, 77, 70, 70
M21 EBR (w/Silencer) - 75, 55, 50, 50
M21 EBR (w/SP) - 147, 107.8, 98, 98
M21 EBR (w/Silencer & SP) - 105, 77, 70, 70

Since every player in MW2 multiplayer has 100 health (or 30 in Hardcore), you can use the resulting damage values above to calculate the number of shots required to kill an opponent. I went ahead and did the work for you below.

Sniper Rifle Hit Requirements:

Weapon - Head, Chest, Body, Limbs
Intervention - 1, 1, 2, 2
Intervention (w/Silencer) - 2, 2, 2, 2
Intervention (w/SP) - 1, 1, 1, 2
Intervention (w/Silencer & SP) - 1, 1, 2, 2

Barrett .50cal - 1, 1, 2, 2
Barrett .50cal (w/Silencer) - 2, 2, 2, 2
Barrett .50cal (w/SP) - 1, 1, 1, 2
Barrett .50cal (w/Silencer & SP) - 1, 1, 2, 2

WA2000 - 1, 1, 2, 2
WA2000 (w/Silencer) - 2, 2, 2, 2
WA2000 (w/SP) - 1, 1, 2, 2
WA2000 (w/Silencer & SP) - 1, 1, 2, 2

M21 EBR - 1, 2, 2, 2
M21 EBR (w/Silencer) - 2, 2, 2, 2
M21 EBR (w/SP) - 1, 1, 2, 2
M21 EBR (w/Silencer & SP) - 1, 2, 2, 2

Looking at the above data, we're able to make the following observations:

• The Intervention and the Barrett do the same damage, regardless of any attachments or perks equipped. The only differences between these weapons is the Intervention is bolt-action while the Barrett is semi-auto, and their sway and recoil values are different.
• It's impossible to get a one-hit-kill with a silenced sniper rifle, even with a headshot, UNLESS Stopping Power is equipped. Stopping Power cancels out the damage reduction of the Silencer.
• The WA2000 doesn't benefit substantially from Stopping Power (unless you're firing through walls or the enemy has Painkiller activated). The best it can do is cancel out the decreased damage of having a silencer equipped.

Since equipping Stopping Power forces you to lose Cold Blooded, the result is that you can only pick two: Silent, Concealed, Deadly. You can use silencer and Cold Blooded to remain invisible, but you'll struggle more to get kills since even headshots won't kill in a single shot. You can use Cold Blooded to conceal yourself from UAV and air support, and use the default damage to score kills, but firing your weapon will give you away. Or you can use silencer and Stopping Power to silence your shots and give you good damage, but UAV and air support will still pick you up.

The Intervention appears to have the largest amount of reticule sway of all the sniper rifles and has a fair amount of recoil. The Intervention's recoil is partially negated by the fact that it's bolt-action, which delays your ability to fire and allows the reticule to come to rest before firing again. Without Stopping Power the Intervention is a OHK to the upper body (chest) or head. With Stopping Power the Intervention can OHK anywhere on the body except for the arms and legs. Overall the Barrett seems superior in almost every way, except for the loud booming sound the Barrett makes which might attract attention.

The Barrett has moderate reticule sway, a fair amount of recoil, and is semi-automatic. Without Stopping Power the Barrett is a OHK to the upper body (chest) or head. With Stopping Power the Barrett can OHK anywhere on the body except for the arms and legs. The chief negatives of the Barrett are it's length and loud booming sound which might give away your location. The recoil can also be difficult to manage when firing at full throttle.

The WA2000 has very little reticule sway, has very little recoil, and is semi-automatic. Without Stopping Power the WA2000 does the same damage as the Intervention and Barrett (OHK upper body or head), but loses the ability to kill with shots to the lower body with Stopping Power equipped. The WA2000 can place multiple shots on a target with relative ease, making it effective for sniping on the run. It's short barrel length makes it very compact, which might help conceal your location when hiding behind obstacles. It's chief negatives are it's small mag size (6 rounds) which can run out very quickly on the WA2000, and it's large on-screen size which obstructs the right side of your screen.

The M21 EBR is very similar to the M21 in COD4. It has very little reticule sway, very little recoil, and is semi-automatic. Without Stopping Power the M21 EBR will OHK to the head, but requires two hits anywhere else on the body. With Stopping Power the M21 EBR will OHK to the upper body (chest) or head, bringing it in line with the default damage values of the other sniper rifles. It's chief negative is it's low default damage output.

What do you guys think of the rifles? Have any favorites at the moment? What works/doesn't work for you? Let me know.

Also, feel free to reference the MW2 Weapon Chart I put together here.

PS. I wasn't sure whether this should belong in the "guides" section or not, so I placed it here. It's a lot of information but it's not a "guide" persay. Feel free to move it if you need to.

**UPDATE**

I have some new information about the sniper rifles based on my testing, some of which may contradict with some of the things I said earlier:

• The Barrett, WA2000 and M21 EBR all have the same amount of reticule sway, only the Intervention has a higher amount of sway compared to the others.
• The recoil on the Intervention is random, sometimes massive and sometimes minimal, but the bolt-action of the gun delays the reticule long enough so that the recoil becomes irrelevant.
• All semi-auto snipers have the same rate of fire, but the only weapon that can be considered controllable while firing at full speed is the M21.
• The thermal scope is identical to the regular sniper scope, even when used on non-snipers, with the only differences being that the edges of the thermal scope are fuzzy, the reticule is different, and of course the thermal viewpoint itself.
• The Interventions recoil moves randomly, usually in an upward direction, but returns to the natural pattern of the sway by the time the bolt action has loaded the next round. The Barrett's recoil moves in a consistently top-right direction. The WA2000's recoil moves in an upward direction. And the M21's recoil is minimal and remains mostly centered around the natural reticule sway.
• Switch-To Speed (Fastest - Slowest) = M21 , Intervention, Barrett, WA2000
• Reload Speed (Fastest - Slowest) = Intervention, M21, WA2000, Barrett
• Recoil Pattern (Smallest - Largest) = Intervention, M21, WA2000, Barrett

aKa LANCE

Pretty nice guide you got here.

Thought it was worth mentioning that there are seperate damage multipliers for the neck area which you missed out

I'd say the weakest of the snipers is the WA2000 even though I like using it for some reason, because it cannot contend in power for OSK with the Barrett and Intervention, and its spam fire abilites (lets be honest most people who use the WA or M21 spam fire) are outshone by the M21 because it has a larger clip and less recoil making a second shot easier to take. With stopping power on the WA also has no damage advantage over the M21.

The defunct sniper in CoD4 was the R700 and I reckon given time the Walther will go the same way to the extent you will see it far less frequently as there is no real reason to choose it.

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aKa LANCE = Kradiant from CoD4 forums!

So much for username transfer...

MW2 Stats
Best Kill Streak : 34
Best Score: 51-3-7

Novan Leon

Can you confirm the neck damage multipliers? I've done extensive testing and I can't find any instance where the neck has a different damage multiplier than the chest. If you can confirm it, I will double check and update the figures above.

Th3 R3volution

Did either of you read the guide???

Neck multipliers do not exist anymore...

and my fav snipe atm is the barret, but i want to try the wa2000 after reading this guide.

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Dante

Stopping Power does affect the WA2000 when a silencer is attached, a pretty big oversight I feel. Mind amending the wording to include this?

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redrider

why doesnt stopping power affect the WA2000?

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RIDE RED

Olaf Vikingsson

Why don't you read the article and figure it out for yourself? It's already been stated quite explicitly.

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Novan Leon

I thought this was obvious from the article. I already mentioned that Stopping Power cancels out the damage reduction of having a silencer equipped.

I added a sentence to one of the bullet points to help make it clearer.

The Barrett is an excellent sniper rifle, with or without Stopping Power, but it really shines with Stopping Power equipped. Without Stopping Power, I think the WA2000 is better in every respect except magazine size (Barrett = 10, WA2000 = 6).

OneManCannon

Thank you for this. Well worth the read.

Sarcross

This is well written and planned out. Seems like you've done a lot of work to get to this point. I think this is just personal preference and bias, but I feel that the Intervention is a little bit better than the Barrett. Probably because I like using bolt-actions so much, but I find that I do way better with the Intervention, I get less hit markers and more one shot one kills. This doesn't really correlate with what you said, but I think if a person put the thermal scope on the Intervention, like I do, they'd tend to aim for the upper body more, increasing their HS count and overall kill count.

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Novan Leon

I confess, I use the Intervention and do a little better with it than the Barrett too, but in my testing the results of my cold testing seems to imply the Barrett has more potential. I haven't used the Barrett as much as the Intervention though. Maybe I'm missing something. I love the Intervention, although you might not be able to tell from my post.

For one, I think semi-auto snipers tend to get lazy with their shots, which can hurt them in the wrong thing. It's a psychological thing.

My writeup is based purely on my testing and first 70-90 ranks of play with these weapons, but I never sat down and got personal with a single weapon for long enough to say I'm an expert with any of them. I'd love for people to counter-balance my observations with their own, perhaps more experienced observations.

osktom

HE WROTE IT.
Don't call people out on not paying attention when you do the same thing your self.

I have been using the barret recently and its pretty good, but I think I like the intervention a little more. I unlock the m21 in one level so we will see how that goes.

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jamesooseven

Great work mate. Any chance of an assault rifle guide? lol

Novan Leon

No AR guide, but did you check out the weapon stats chart that I put together? I put a link to it at the end of the article.

Here's the chart. You should be able to pull out the Assault Rifle damage values and do the same thing I did with the sniper rifles.

Red141

Wow! Thanks very much for this. It is well written and informative.

Quick question about your weapon guide... you have silenced damage numbers for snipers and LMG's but not the rest. Does this mean that the AR's, etc. do NOT have a reduction in damage with silencers? Or is it because you haven't been able to test them? Please advise.

Novan Leon

The damage values on the chart are NEAR DAMAGE - FAR DAMAGE, meaning that all weapons do full damage (on the left) at close range and fall off at long range eventually reaching it's minimum damage (on the right).

For a weapon that does 40-30 damage, it will do 40 damage until a certain distance, then decrease gradually to 30 damage at the longest range. The silencers cause this to happen earlier, meaning that your weapon will do 30 damage much earlier. This results in less damage with the silencer except at close ranges.

LMGs and Sniper Rifles are different. LMGs and Sniper Rifles ALWAYS do the same damage at ANY range (hence the 40 - 40), however, silencers on these weapons decrease their damage for ALL ranges, instead of just causing them to do less damage at long range. This is why I included the silenced damage values for LMGs and Sniper Rifles but not the other weapons (example: 40 - 40 normally, 30 - 30 silenced).

I hope this makes sense.

Red141

Yes it does. Thanks.

SgtJoo

How does FMJ factor into it?

Novan Leon

AFAIK, FMJ has no effect on damage. Most of these rumors are based on the silly weapon charts IW puts in the game which are usually incorrect.

neverendr

Excellent post...due to the silly damage bars IW provides ingame I had no idea that sniper rifle damage was reduced by a silencer, though it makes sense that it should be.

G3t P1mp3d

Based on the damage numbers for these sniper rifles, i dont understand why the two most powerful rifles, the Barret and the Intervention, were available from the start.

Why make the M21 requirement level so high when it doesnt even compare to the barret?

Novan Leon

Most of the later-unlocks are the least useful weapons in the game. The Desert Eagle and AK-47 are probably the two most underpowered guns in the game while the best weapons are generally available from the beginning (M4A1, SCAR-H, FAMAS). I believe IW does this on purpose to keep new players on the same level playing field with the ranked ones.

That said, the M21 EBR is far from underpowered. With stopping power it's a rapid fire, low recoil version of the Intervention and Barrett, and without stopping power it's still an excellent 2-shot sniper / assault rifle hybrid. It's also debatably the best sniper rifle to use with a silencer.

RrCoX22

VERY GOOD WRITE-UP!

anyways...
nothing will be able to touch the .50cal I personally believe. I truely with there was more of a benefit/difference with each sniper rifle as the intervention and barrett are practically the same.

I only prefer the .50cal over the Intervention due to semi-auto fire rate. I there's 3-4 people running at me FAST I will be able to mow all of them down with ease. If the intervention is being used might be able to pick of 1-2 and then have to hide since the remaining would be coming to put a cap in my ass

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.50cal Session In Progress...

Wonton

Great analysis, this really taught me a lot! I'm a huge Barrett fan, personally. I typically snipe with stopping power and without a silencer (the deadly, loud, obtrusive sniper :P), which gives me lots of kills, but tends to get me killed a lot. I'm sort of tempted to try the other type of sniping now, maybe with the WA2000. Sitting behind enemy lines with a silencer and Cold-Blooded seems like an interesting idea, too.

xMAKEGIRLSCRYx

I was surprised because in MW1 I hated the M21 and the .50cal with a passion (The M40 and R700 were my choices). However, MW2 is a different story, the .50cal seems personally more useable and the M21 is more powerful than its previous counterpart (correct me if I'm wrong).