Sniper

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

The sacred weapon of Toth-Mos, first apostle of the god Ashenzari. It grants the wielder a fraction of Ashenzari's own vision, ensuring that every shot will land true.

the +9 heavy crossbow "Sniper"

+27 heavy crossbow (modified triple crossbow; base delay 25)

Heavy brand
See invisible
Never misses

Desirability

Sniper is essentially the dark maul of ranged weapons, with an incredible enchantment, but sluggish delay. At skill 27, you'll have a delay of 1.725 - this equates to a 75% of shooting at 1.7 delay, and 25% of shooting at 1.8. You'll also have a 34.5 base damage enchanted to +27. For damage per turn, it's roughly equal to a +9 branded triple crossbow.

However, Sniper always hits its target; combined with its high base damage, enchantment, and heavy brand, it is capable of inflicting considerable amounts of damage. Once an enemy enters line of sight, a skilled user can still get several shots in before the enemy can engage in melee. Sniper is especially valuable against monsters with high EV and low HP like spriggans or very dangerous opponents with extreme EV like Ereshkigal.

Be wary of using this against especially fast enemies or foes with dangerous ranged abilities, since they'll often get multiple turns per Sniper shot. In dangerous situations, use potions of haste and/or Okawaru's Finesse to speed up your shots as much as possible.

History

• Prior to 0.30, Sniper was a +9 vorpal triple crossbow, with base delay 27.
• Prior to 0.18, Sniper had an enchantment of +15 and lacked perfect accuracy.
• Prior to 0.15, Sniper was a standard crossbow with a +15 enchantment and the vorpal brand, but it was given a slower-than-normal rate of fire.
• Prior to 0.14, Sniper had a +10,+0 enchantment level and the venom brand.