Today boys and girls were going to talk about sniping your enemy in the face. I have a few tips to help the newer players to halo as well as a few for the veterans.

Reach

Tip 1- This is common sense but it seems most players have little or none. Never stand still while trying to snipe. This is even more important in Team Snipers games. It is funny when players stand still because they are thinking like a real sniper who would remain very still. Halo is not real life and in Halo motion creates commotion. It is much harder to snipe a moving target so always strafe left to right or some combo of the above when sniping. Common sense is not so common.

Tip 2- When no scoping especially if being shot do not aim directly at the head. When you are shot your reticule jumps up very slightly. So if you have ever been thinking what happened I was right on his head. That is probably what happened. Aim right around the neck when you no scope possibly even a little lower. It is better to get a body shot or obviously a head shot than to shoot over their head. In Reach the hit box on the head is a little larger and this neck shot should put you right at visor level is your shot at all.

Tip 3- Turn off vibration- Vibration for lack of a better word is bad. It makes you panic when your shot and can throw your shot off. Turn it off and you will see improvements in your no scoping and shots in general.

Tip-4- The around a corner snipe- In many situations it pays to run away and plant yourself around a corner. Learn the height that the head should be at. Keep steady and calm when they come around the corner thinking you are weak let them have it. Practice this in a custom on a few maps for a week or so. Many times players will assume you have ran away and not expect you to be waiting to victimize them.

Tip 5- Anticipation- I will use a Halo 3 example here because it still applies. You must learn to think like your enemy. When playing a 1 v 1 on Guardian and you make someone one shot top gold they will usually go to blue to run away. They may go to snipe lift but 90% of player will run to blue. They will then pop out of blue window and try to put shots on you. The smart player will use this time to go top mid or elbow and already have their sniper looking at blue window. The player will pop out look snipe 3 expecting to see you there only to be shot in the face from another direction. This example applies to all maps. Learn what your enemy is likely to do and then cut them off on their route.

Tip 6- Quick Zooms - When zooming in do not just tap the zoom tap and hold zoom. Then when you want to unzoom release. This means you can acquire new targets faster. Normal zooming means you have to zoom in twice to zoom out. This way you zoom once then zoom out.

Tip 7- Reload faster with sniper- This next trick is called a Y-Y. The reason for this is that is exactly what you will do. When you fire all of your sniper bullets the last reload animation is much longer. You will put your clip in then reload and cock back the bolt. You must have a secondary weapon to do this but all you do is hit y twice really fast as your spartan puts the clip in. This will cut out about 2 seconds of reload time. This is crucial in a game where seconds and even fractions of seconds count. Some people consider these tactics halo reach cheats but really you are just playing smart.

Tip 8- Less Right stick- Many times when sniping one of the things that will help you is too strafe into your shot and simply not touch your right stick at all or just a little. Either that or put your cursor in the direction on the enemy and let them walk into your reticule.