scout rifle

Scout Rifles

scout rifles

Scout Rifles are a primary weapon class, available only to Infiltrators. Semi Auto Scout Rifles are precision weapons with good mobility, and they focus on taking out enemies with several headshots at medium-long range. Full Auto Scout Rifles are medium range ambush weapons, and handle like weak Assault Rifles. 

Despite looking different, Scout Rifles are perfectly mirrored between factions. 

You can find general tips on using PlanetSide 2 weapons in the Gunplay Guide and some Infiltrator-specific tips in the Infiltrator Guide.

Semi Auto Scout Rifles

SA Scout Rifle Mechanics

Scout Rifles follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons. Semi Auto Scout Rifles are overall similar to Semi Auto Sniper Rifles, but with these differences:

  • Deal less damage per shot, and require more bodyshots. However, they still kill most targets in the same number of headshots.
  • Higher effective Rate of Fire.
  • Larger magazines and faster reload. 
  • Can mount Flash Suppressors.
  • Higher Projectile Velocity, much better ADS Moving and Hip Fire accuracy.
  • Less Vertical Recoil.

SA Scouts suffer from the same Tap Firing Issues that plague Semi Auto Sniper Rifles, albeit to a lesser degree:

Refire Time: 0.235 seconds.
Cone of Fire Recovery takes: 0.25 seconds after a shot

Recoil Recovery takes: 0.243 seconds.
With Compensator: 0.225 seconds.

Source of the numbers: Toolbox. Assuming no Forward Grip.

To put it into words, it takes SA Scouts longer to recover CoF Accuracy than to move crosshair down after a shot. If you fire while the crosshair is moving, or right after it stopped moving, CoF will not have time to recover, and your shots will have reduced accuracy. 

It also means the Compensator is a trap certification and it should be avoided. 

HSR-1

AF-6 Shadow

Nyx VX31

– 30 m/s Velocity, no bullet drop

DAMAGE 334 @ 15m – 280 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE 255 RPM
240 RPM when Tap Firing
VELOCITY 570 m/s
AMMO 12 / 84
RELOAD TIME 1.95 sec / 2.4 sec
UNLOCK COST 1000Certification Pointsor 699 Daybreak Cash

Scout Rifles are great precision weapons for close to medium range, but can be hard to use due to requirement to consistently land multiple headshots.

Nyx has 30 m/s lower velocity, but doesn’t have any bullet drop, and is considered one of the few weapons where this trait is actually useful. It gives Nyx the ability to snipe stationary enemies even at extreme ranges. 

You can find some tips on how to play with a SA Scout Rifle in CQC Sniping Guide by Davregis.

Scout Rifles play a bit differently to CQC Bolt Action rifles, but only in the way you move and fire. Both reward hit and run play and quick headshot takedowns. If you can’t reliably get your headshots – avoid 1v1s and float around a fight, using cloak to find and pick off stragglers and wounded enemies.

– Unknown redditor

NS-30 Vandal

DAMAGE 334 @ 15m – 280 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE 255 RPM
240 RPM when Tap Firing
VELOCITY 520 m/s
AMMO 15 / 90
RELOAD TIME 2.6 sec / 3.5 sec
UNLOCK COST 1000Certification Pointsor 799 Daybreak Cash

Semi-Auto

NS-30 Vandal is a cross faction scout rifle. It is very similar to faction-specific SA Scout Rifles. In many cases, it has slightly worse base stats:

  • Has a Recoil Angle
  • Lower Velocity
  • Longer Reloads

However, it has a larger magazine, and most importantly – it has 0.75x ADS Movement Speed Multiplier, which arguably makes Vandal the best SA Scout rifle, as it often operates at ranges where having higher ADS Speed gives a crucial advantage. 

Vandal is the best SA Scout for leveraging their main advantage over SA Sniper Rifles: mobility and ADS accuracy.

Full Auto Scout Rifles

FA Scout Rifle Mechanics

Scout Rifles follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons. Full Auto Scout Rifles are overall similar to Assault Rifles, but aside from low damage degradation, they have absolutely unimpressive stats. 

SOAS-20

AF-18 Stalker

Artemis VX26

– 20 m/s Velocity, no bullet drop

DAMAGE 143 @ 10m – 125 @ 60m
RATE OF FIRE 652 RPM
VELOCITY 530 m/s
AMMO 24 / 240
RELOAD TIME 2 sec / 2.64 sec
UNLOCK COST 650Certification Pointsor 499 Daybreak Cash

Low damage output, average recoil statistics, small magazines and bad Hip Fire accuracy make Scout Rifles exclusively a medium range ambush weapon. In order to succeed with a FA Scout Rifle, you have to rely on your proficiency as an Infiltrator, and use Cloak and Motion Detection tools to your advantage.

Artemis has 20 m/s lower velocity, but doesn’t have any bullet drop. Artemis is also incredibly silent when used with a Suppressor.

NSX Tomoe

DAMAGE 112
RATE OF FIRE 750 RPM
VELOCITY 520 m/s
AMMO 22 / 286
RELOAD TIME 2.1 sec / 2.9 sec
UNLOCK COST 1000Certification Pointsor 799 Daybreak Cash

NSX Tomoe

Auto

NSX Tomoe is a cross faction automatic scout rifle. It has a slew of unique features:

  • Low bullet damage without any damage degradation.
  • Increased headshot multiplier, to ensure that despite low damage per shot, Tomoe kills standard infantry in 4 headshots at all ranges.

Overall, NSX Tomoe is a unique case of an automatic precision weapon with high Rate of Fire. Tomoe’s weaknesses include horrible Hip Fire accuracy, low damage per magazine and long TTK with bodyshots. 

Tomoe kills very fast with headshots at medium range, but suffers whenever it’s not possible to easily get multiple headshots.

You can learn more about Tomoe in its Highly Technical Weapon Guide.

It’s worth noting that Tomoe doesn’t count towards Scout Rifle Directives, and instead counts for Nanite Systems Exports directives. Kills with Tomoe will count as Scout Rifle Kills for Infiltrator Directives, though.

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