Warzone Snipers receive deadly buff with Season 5 update

Luca Di Marzo
Warzone Sniper Operator HDR

Warzone’s Season 5 update includes another buff for the Sniper Rifle class, in what is yet another tweak to the weapon category that could prove to be deadly.

Since the start of Warzone Pacific Sniper Rifles have been a hot topic of debate amongst the community. This has led the devs to implement various changes to Snipers with every new seasonal update.

In Warzone Season 3, many Snipers lost their ability to one-shot kill players. Following this major nerf, Season 4 attempted to rebalance Snipers with noteworthy buffs, and it seems like Season 5 will yet again deliver buffs to the fan-favorite weapon class.

Whether you believed that the Season 3 changes should be reverted, or that the nerfs were warranted, Season 5 should see Snipers return to the fold in a big way.

The devs explained that while they believed Snipers were in a good spot heading into Warzone Season 5, an additional change would see them balanced to perfection: “Snipers are in a good spot, but we’re not done with them yet.”

warzone pacific operator sniper ads

This Season 5 change will come in the form of a reduction to flinch for both heavy and lightweight Snipers:

  • Flinch Decreased on Heavy Sniper Rifles by 11% 
  • Flinch Decreased on Light Sniper Rifles by 40% 

A reduction to flinch will allow adept Sniper players to get their shots off with greater ease. This improvement means that players sniping from a distance should miss fewer shots due to enemies firing at them.

These Sniper buffs combined with the major nerf to Variable Scope attachments could see Sniper Rifles return to the meta in a big way throughout Season 5: “With the rebalancing of some of the Vanguard Optics and a further reduction of flinch, we expect this category of Weapons to be in a solid position going forward.”

Recently, a major complaint from players was that 3-6x Variable Scopes allow Assault Rifles to accurately beam players from incredible distances, which eliminated the need for Sniper Rifles.

With Variable Scopes reduced recoil control in Season 5, the long-range meta should prove to be diverse.


For more, check out how Warzone Season 5 is set to add a Loadout UI toggle feature after player backlash.

Image Credit: Activision

About The Author

Luca is an Associate Editor at CharlieIntel. An accomplished, writer with interests in sports and gaming alike, Luca is focused on Call of Duty and FIFA as a content creator. After earning his BA in English Literature at Concordia University, he began writing for Gamelevate, OddsShark, and H4X. Luca joined CharlieIntel in 2021. You can reach Luca at [email protected], or via X @TheLucaDiMarzo.