Sniper Rifle (Fallout: New Vegas)

This sniper rifle is an older model of the famed DKS-501. Still chambered for .308 ammunition, it's somewhat fragile and requires periodic repair and maintenance to keep it in working condition. It can be modded to include a suppressor and retrofitted with Carbon-Fiber parts to decrease its weight.

Characteristics
It is identical in appearance to the sniper rifle in Fallout 3.

Unlike the Fallout 3 sniper, when guns is 100, the crosshairs will not remain still. The sway is minor and slow, even at extremely long range.

Understanding the x5 Critical Chance Multiplier
Along with the Gobi Campaign scout rifle and the Ratslayer the Sniper Rifle has the highest critical chance multiplier in Fallout New Vegas. This increases the damage a weapon does by making it more likely that a critical shot will occur. For the Sniper Rifle this means that, in addition to the base damage of 63 points, an additional 62 points of damage will be done for each critical hit.

If a character with an average Luck of 5 (with no other modifiers) uses a Hunting rifle (Fallout: New Vegas) with it's x1 critical chance multiplier he has a 5% chance of causing a critical hit for bonus damage. Using a Sniper Rifle that same shooter will have 25% chance of causing a critical shot. If a character with a Critical chance of 20% uses a Sniper Rifle then he has a 100% chance of a critical hit. This means he is essentially doing double damage.

If the Better Criticals perk is chosen this gives a 50% increase to the critical damage done and not to the overall damage. This means a 12.5% increase to the overall damage output for an average character and a 25% increase for a character with 20% critical chance.

Your Guns skill has no effect on your critical chance but it does effect whether you land a shot. A critical shot that misses does no damage.

Locations

 * Vault 34 - Two can be found in the Armory (accessed by using the terminal in the Overseer's office)
 * Can be bought from the Gun Runners outpost (though it appears to be only available after level 14 or so)
 * On top of a bed inside the First Recon tent at Camp McCarran, can be taken with no penalty. (It may not be there on the PS3 version of the game)
 * Inside a locked room in a ruined building to the east of Mole Rat Ranch. Upon unlocking the door it will trigger a booby trap
 * Around 3 can sometimes be found inside Gomorrah in the room containing the gun shipments.
 * One can sometimes be found in the basement of Brewer's Beer Bootlegging in the gun cabinet, the key for it is on the table in the other room in the basement, right next to a Big Book of Science, also there can be a sniper rifle in the closet.
 * One can be bought from the arms merchant at the 188 Trading Post at level 14 and higher.
 * One can be found on the top floor of the Atomic Wrangler inside a locked case.

Mods

 * Sniper Rifle Suppressor: Reduces weapon noise
 * Sniper Rifle Carbon Fiber Parts: Reduces weight by 5

Bugs

 * Sniper Rifle Carbon Fiber Parts doesn't actually reduce weapon weight. It weighs the same without and with the mod attached.


 * Noticed that with the Sniper rifle suppressor added onto a rifle it becomes completely useless when the modded rifle is given to a companion (specifically Craig Boone, yet to test other companions) When it is equipped by the companion it looks exactly the same as a regular Sniper Rifle and the sounds are the same as well. This can be particularly annoying when stealth is required.

Variants

 * Gobi Campaign scout rifle

Appearances
The sniper rifle appears in Fallout: New Vegas.