The (very profitable) Art of Snipe

You might or might not have heard people talking about being sniped or sniping. And you've always wondered what it is (and never dared to ask) or you "kinda know" but are not sure. Well, here's Sniping 101 for you guys. 💪👉

What is sniping ?

You know ? This question is already the source of multiple discussions and people disagree on the definition itself. There are two postures :

• Sniping is putting unsolicited FPs on somebody else's GB (generally a hoodie), which ends up with you making a profit.
• The same as above BUT making a profit is actually not enough to call it a snipe as a real snipe means the GB owner is going to have to spend more FPs than he would have if he hadn't been sniped.

The thing is : who cares ? 😜 The only thing that matters is to make sure you make a profit. Call it sniping, shopping, visiting the hood, call it whatever you want, as long as you make sure you make a profit. This post is about teaching you how to do it !

How do you snipe ?

Generally, people tend to limit sniping to the neighborhood. I don't. I also snipe my Friends. At least the ones who don't complain about it. 😆 I carefully pick my friends so that there are sniping possibilities. I try to keep a balanced friends' list between the ones I can snipe, the ones who aid me, the ones who can help me. 

The first thing to do is to visit your hood's (and/or friends') GB list : you click on the GB icon to display the list :

The list of GBs load up : 

Now, what am I looking for ?

• For low to medium level GBs, I'm looking for GBs that are at least half way completed.
• For high level GBs (above level 30), I check everything.

Here we have a Statue of Zeus that looks interesting, let's check it out :

Oooh ! Nice ! Best case scenario : the player has self primed and nobody else is there !

What do we do now ? Let's check the rewards for 1st spot on his GB :

Because I have an Arc level 80, my rewards are high : the base reward is 60 FPs and the Arc bonus is 54 FPs, meaning that if I lock first, I will get 114 FPs back in the bank when he flips.

Now the question is : is it worth is ? Can I make a profit. Let's calculate how many FPs I need to add to his GB to LOCK THE FIRST SPOT.

In order to lock the spot, I need to add half of the remaining FPs needed to complete the level. In this case, the calculation is : (523-346) / 2 = 177 / 2 = 88.5 FPs. I therefore need to add 89 FPs to lock my first spot. 

It is therefore profitable : I add 89 FPs and will get 114 FPs back when he flips, i.e. 25 FPs profit.

What are my risks ?

The only risk there is in "sniping" is that the player never flips his GB. Your FPs are held hostage for a very long time, sometimes for ever. This happens when :

• The player is actually inactive : this happens a lot with low level players.
• The player is active but this GB is not his priority anymore

However, if you snipe a lot (like Molan or myself who snipe every day), this loss here is compensated by many wins elsewhere. So it's not a big deal.

As a ballpark figure, with my level 80 Arc, I make between 100 FPs on a bad day, up to 300 FPs on a good one. It is VERY profitable (but it takes a bit of time). I go sniping every day, twice a day (morning and night).

The higher your Arc, the more opportunities you will have, of course, since your rewards are higher. In the example above, someone who doesn't have an Arc cannot snipe the GB for a profit since the base reward is 60 FPs and you need 89 FPs to lock...

This is why your Arc is probably the most important GB in your city. Not only it benefits the Guild by adding goods to the treasury every day but it highly benefits you too. Raising your Arc to level 80 should be in your top priorities.

More complicated scenarios : when there are other people on the GB, what are the calculations ? 

Let's take this guy's SMB : 

Is it snipable (by me, with a level 80 Arc) ? Oh yes it is :) Here's how you know :

1) How many FPs are needed to finish the level ? --> 420-404 = 16 FPs.

This means the spot I can lock is 4th, since 3rd is at 17FPs.

2) What are the rewards for 4th (for me, with my level 80 Arc) --> 5 + 5 = 10

3) How many FPs do I need to put to make sure the player currently in 4th cannot pass me ? --> The calculation is simple : [number of FPs needed to complete the level + number of FPs of the player to snipe (in this case the guy in 4th spot)] / 2 = (16+1)/2 = 8.5.

I therefore need to add 9 FPs to lock 4th. I will make 1 FP profit. That might feel like nothing but remember : you get FPs but also medals AND BLUEPRINTS. I need blueprints for my SMB and I will get 2 blueprints with this spot. So hell yeah I'm taking it.

A word of advice by our master sniper : Molan

"When you are considering sniping someone, you should check to see if they are active. I use the Foestats website to see if they are active. Simply pull up the website, find the server you want to check and type in the name of the player. It will bring up the player and if their name is in red, I will probably pass on the player."

This is what he's talking about -->
https://foestats.com/us/us25/?server=us25&world=Zorskog

This tip was confirmed by Forla ingame where she said : "Consulting the Foestats is annoying when what you want is sniping, but it's good advice, I have around 3K Forge Points out on GBs of inactive people.. That's what happens when you don't check the foe stats.. lol :)".

You. Have. Been. Warned. 😂

One last thing...

Remember this too : sometimes you get a lot of FPs in your gauge for several reasons :

• You are collecting your city
• You just got a 20 / 50 / 100 / 200 FP relic or reward from a quest, an event, your Himeji Castle...

Those FPs are in your gauge and you MUST spend them to get the gauge below 10 FPs otherwise it's blocked... the timer stops. Also, if your gauge has reached 100 FPs, you MUST spend them before you can collect more.

If you spend those FPs on snipes... you will get those FPs back in your BANK.

In order to build your bank up, make sure you snipe (or lock 1.9 spots in our 1.9 thread) when you collect. You will be surprised how fast it goes and before you know it, you'll have hundreds of FPs ready to be spent, which will give you greater sniping opportunities, for greater profits.

So, Woodchucks, go and snipe like there's no tomorrow !!

Xylo