Sniper Rifle Sucks

Yes, upgraded C + LB & SS = Hydra's replacement.
However, if you didn't want to waste time or money acquiring Handgun bullets, having the Hydra and Griffon around was pretty useful. I didn't know about the Model Gun until after I'd finished the game and played through again. I still haven't made enough money to upgrade to the Ultima Weapon.

Ice Magic = homing
Blizzard was useful when fighting enemies from afar. You could get the same effects from Vincent's Galian Beast transformation, but if you didn't have any Limit Breakers and didn't want to waste time finding your enemy through the Sight Scope or blasting away at them until you finally dropped them . . . then Blizzard would be for you.
Fire Magic = range
I personally didn't like Fire all that much. Judging by the radius, you could shoot a single soldier and miss his entourage coming up from behind. However, it was pretty useful against enemies who seemed to group together.
Thunder Magic = group
Unlike Fire, Thunder chains to enemies who are a particular distance from each other. Sometimes, there may be some missed stragglers and Thunder does less damage than Fire or Blizzard, but will certainly knock a huge group down, even if they aren't that close together.

Melee was only useful when you rarely felt like saving ammo.

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Yes, upgraded C + LB & SS = Hydra's replacement.
However, if you didn't want to waste time or money acquiring Handgun bullets, having the Hydra and Griffon around was pretty useful. I didn't know about the Model Gun until after I'd finished the game and played through again. I still haven't made enough money to upgrade to the Ultima Weapon.

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No matter what I do to it, I can't even get the maxed out hydra (Giga I think) to be more useful.

I'm using maxed cerberus
Maxed Power Booster
Maxed Long-Barrel
Sniper Scope

Sure, the hydra does a little more damage, but with one bullet a load, the Cerberus wins.

Not to mention handgun ammo is cheap. And it shoots three bullets, I can kill enemies behind each other.

Personally, I only use the Hydra when I absolutely need long-range shooting. I find myself unable to move and aim simultaneously with the Hydra, so I save that strictly for shooting certain memory capsules and eliminating snipers and other enemies that are far away.

Most other situations, I use Cerberus/Ultima Weapon, because I find I have the most mobility while using it. I rarely ever use Griffon, though.

I thought the only reason why it sucked is bc of the slow firing rate( I had mine at S wieght and range and A at power and speed

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Originally Posted by *~Angel Wing~*

Yeah the only time I used magic was against those robot things cuz they're weak against thunder. Other than that I never use it. :p

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Then how did you beat the game without killing those armored soldiers? Or did you just melee them to death? (I'm guilty of doing this a couple of times, lol)

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Originally Posted by Mr. Nosebleed

I think that shot for shot the long barrel pistol is better

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Agreed. If I was within medium range of a sniper, I would use my Powered Cerberus, Nova L Barrel combo. Of course, now I use the Ultima Weapon, but that's just because it rules. The only time that the Hydra comes in handy is if you need to be accurate from a long distance. Because the Hydra has an extremely small amount of recoil, it is easy to shoot a sniper in the head from a very long distance.

Unlike most people, I found the Griffon very useful when met with hoards of enemies. Although, I must admit that if you didn't upgrade it to the Sonic Griffon and couple it with the Gale S Barrel, it becomes rather useless. However, if you did use that combo, you would find that the rate of fire is incredible. 200 I believe, was my speed with that combo. Of course, you can always just use the Blast Machine Gun. That way you can just knock everyone down and keep them down. Quite useful for when you're met with a very large group of enemies, such as the 17 Guard Hounds that attack you when you first get the Blast Machine Gun.

The sniper rifle is good against flying enemys and enimies far away. I had it up to the last and then ha the special equipment that had it having no reload time so I would be hiting around 5 to 6 thousand every 10 seconds. That is against ground enemies flying I do a good 10 thousand quickly you just run out of ammo fast. very fast.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Nosebleed

Is it just me, or does the sniper rifle suck. I can attach a SuperScope and a Power Cross to a pistol with a longbarrel, and boom a stronger gun than the sniper rifle.

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No, you're right. Plus, the Sniper Rifle inhibits your vision if you have the scope on. You can't see around you well enough. And something always sneaks up on you while you're zoomed in. And usually, while you're zoomed in, the guy you're sniping will see you and it's tough to evade him while you're zoomed in.