Longsword II 203 ERSR

The Longsword II 203 ERSR is a weapon in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Overview
The Longsword II 203 ERSR is a modified version of the Longsword 202 ERASER, designed to provide better ergonomics and performance, at far longer ranges than its predecessor.

It boasts incredible damage, and even without upgrades, a crotch shot from 90 meters is enough to kill a metro cop with a single regular bullet. Despite the damage numbers, armor piercing rounds are still required to defeat helmets and properly armored opponents without wasting too much ammunition. Mankind divided's sniper rifle has a very fast rate of fire, a harsh (but predictable) recoil, and essentially infinite range. The downsides to such a weapon are many, however. Only three sniper rifles are available before you head off to Golem, and the majority of ammunition, particularly the ever-useful armor piercing variety, must be bought at a premium from merchants. It also has by far the longest dry reload animation of any weapon in the game, a very small magazine size of only five rounds, and it's tied with its non-lethal sister rifle for 'biggest inventory item in the game.' By default, it has incredibly poor handling, meaning unless you've spent praxis on cyber weapon affinity, and lots of crafting resources on upgrades, you must pick a sniper spot, and do your work from there. In many ways, this rifle is comparable to a bigger, meaner, more expensive, and far more specialized version of the SB-762 Battle Rifle.

While it features some rather impressive bloom, not to mention the lack of a reticle, bullets generally go where you think they will, provided you don't move. It goes without saying that the addition of a laser sight makes it into a far more versatile weapon.

Tactics
There really are only two practical ways of using the sniper rifle. Either use it for makeshift sniping when you come across it (it's typical to find them with full magazines and about 10 spare rounds), or build Adam around its use. With all three branches of cyber weapon affinity maxed out, Adam wields this massive rifle like it's a toy gun, and the addition of a laser means you can effectively use it as a melee weapon. Like the 10mm pistol fired on automatic, sniper fire breaks the morale of all but the bravest of enemies (armored cops, shadow op elites), and even they will eventually take cover if you inflict enough casualties on them.

While the range isn't actually infinite, in practice, it might as well be. Fully upgraded, it boasts a higher rate of fire, bigger magazine, more controllable and predictable recoil, far superior damage, and a much clearer scope than both the battle rifle and combat rifle, without the long downtime between shots of the lancer. For this, however, you must pay a fee, and that fee is that the sniper rifle cannot be fitted with a silencer.

Assuming you dedicate yourself to be 'the big gun guy,' it makes for a very nice companion weapon to either of the revolvers, as they too benefit greatly from the cyber weapon affinity upgrades, and it's much faster to switch to your revolver rather than reload this thing in mid combat, especially if you committed the sin of depleting your magazine. Standard ammunition for this weapon is actually very useful, as it packs more than enough punch to kill almost every lightly- and unarmored enemy in the game in a single crotch or stomach shot, and anyone without a helmet in a headshot from any range. Fully upgraded, it takes two bodyshots to kill a black armor cop. Occasionally, they require a third shot (due to .416 normal rounds not doing neutral damage to hard targets), which isn't much of a concern due to them being largely incapacitated from the first bullet's impact all the way to the last. However, a single armor piercing bullet to the crotch or stomach at pointblank is enough to leave them at critical life (very similar stopping power to the .357 magnum's AP rounds), and will sometimes kill them outright. Pure human enemies who survive a shot from the sniper rifle are always sent reeling for quite some time, and if shot up close, occasionally fall over as if you'd hit them with the PEPS aug.

A crackshot with a fully upgraded rifle can quite easily mow down whole squads of badguys before they can even react. Doubly so if you happen to have the focus enhancement aug. It can be argued that a properly upgraded sniper rifle does the 'silent long range takedown' role far better than the lancer, despite not actually being silent, simply because its armor piercing rounds always kill any and all human sized opponents with a headshot, and the rate of fire is orders of magnitude beyond the lancer's capabilities, to the point where you can assassinate the typical 4 man police patrol before they notice they're under fire.

However, the 14 inventory slots this weapon commands to even carry, the 4 slots to have both types of rounds, not to mention the very expensive ammunition, the crafting components necessary to make it truly excellent, and the six praxis points needed to wield it properly...are a fairly steep price, all things considered, and many players will find that a battle rifle with a 4x scope is cheaper to maintain, easier to acquire, and less expensive in the long run. Still, don't count this one out until you've tried it.

It's also worth noting that, without rhino dermal armor, and playing on GMDX difficulty, enemies wielding this weapon can inflict up to 90 damage to Adam per hit. Thus it's highly recommended that you neutralize and any all snipers you see before they see you.

A fully upgraded sniper rifle, tagged with all the necessary augs, is as close as the game allows you to get to 'the one and only gun you'll ever need.'

With the exception of the classic diamondback, because revolvers are just cooler.

Tips

 * As stated, the sniper rifle isn't compatible with silencers.
 * For truly lethal silenced sniping, players may wish to consider the Lancer, or the nanoblade experimental aug instead.
 * If the player has the Micro-Assembler augmentation unlocked, dismantling the Sniper Rifle will yield 70 crafting parts.
 * Maintaining the weapon is a problem in and of itself as sniper rifle ammunition is very hard to come by during gameplay, even more so than the already-scarce 7.62mm rounds for the battle rifle. .416 ammunition boxes are second only to .357 magnum ammunition in rarity, and have a huge price tag.
 * A large amount of ammo can be purchased from Golem city's totally french shop keeper, and more can be stolen if you break open his display cases. The ARC base itself holds a significant hoard of ammunition, as well, plus quite the force of snipers.
 * The sniper rifle has a very lengthy and arduous dry reload animation, that will almost certainly get you killed if you deplete your magazine in a battle. Make a mental note to always reload when you chamber the last bullet, not after you fire it.

Trivia

 * If left idle for too long, Jensen will start fiddling with the rifle scope's magnification adjustment knob, though this does not affect the zoom level when aiming back in later.

Renders
Снайперская винтовка LONGSWORD II 203 (ERSR)