Rebellion released Sniper Elite 5 on 26 May 2022 and set it in France in 1944, where Karl Fairburne works with the Resistance to unpick a Nazi programme called Operation Kraken across nine campaign missions. The maps are the largest the series has built, and each one hides three workbenches that permanently unlock scopes, barrels, stocks and ammunition types. Axis Invasion drops a second human player into your campaign as a German sniper, which turns a patient stalk into a two way hunt with no warning.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best characters, weapons worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Ballistics and bullet drop
On Sniper Elite difficulty and above the scope stops drawing a corrected aim dot, so you read the wind indicator and hold over by eye. Wind pushes the round sideways, gravity drops it, and both become obvious past roughly 200 metres. Empty Lung steadies the crosshair for a few seconds and burns stamina, so sprinting to a nest and shooting immediately is the most common miss in the game.
X-ray kill cam
Shots that clear a distance threshold trigger the slow motion camera following the bullet through bone and organ. Bones deflect rounds in this entry, so a rib can turn a clean heart shot into a survivable lung hit. The frequency slider in the options runs from every kill down to off, which matters because the camera adds several seconds to every engagement.
Sound masking
Generators, aircraft passes, artillery barrages and alarm klaxons all cover the report of an unsuppressed rifle. Every map seeds these on purpose and War Factory at Martressac is built almost entirely around machinery noise. Fire without cover and the nearest patrols converge on the exact spot you shot from.
Workbench weapon customisation
Each mission hides three workbenches, one for rifles, one for secondaries and one for pistols, and the parts they unlock carry across the whole campaign. Parts trade against each other, so a suppressor buys silence and costs muzzle velocity and effective range. Two builds of the same rifle can behave like different guns once you have most of the benches.
Axis Invasion
A second player joins your campaign as a German sniper fighting alongside the Axis AI, and you get an alert the moment they arrive. Both of you hunt across the entire map with the field telephones as the tool for getting a fix. The whole feature can be switched off in the network settings if you want an uninterrupted solo run.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our Sniper Elite 5 combat guide.
Characters Overview
| Role | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long range marksman | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Silent infiltrator | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Trap and demolition specialist | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Close quarters raider | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Invasion duellist | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our Sniper Elite 5 builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Weapons Guide
| Weapon | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| M.1903 | The American bolt action you start the campaign with, sitting in the middle of every stat with no glaring weakness. | First playthroughs and learning to read wind before better rifles unlock |
| Karabiner 98 | Unlocked in mission 2, Occupied Residence, by killing the kill list target with the chateau chandelier rather than a bullet. | Unsuppressed long range work timed against generators and aircraft |
| M1A Carbine | The quietest rifle in the campaign and the fastest firing, at the cost of stopping power. | Suppressed infiltration runs and defending yourself during an Invasion |
| M1A1 Gov. | Available from the opening mission and the strongest secondary once the workbench parts stack up. | Room clearing and every fight that starts after you have been spotted |
| Welrod | An integrally suppressed pistol handed to you in mission 1 that kills in one hit at contact range and reloads a single round at a time. | Removing one man silently when a melee takedown is not possible |
M.1903: The American bolt action you start the campaign with, sitting in the middle of every stat with no glaring weakness. Its modest muzzle velocity makes it a good teacher because the drop is visible enough to learn from at 200 metres.
Karabiner 98: Unlocked in mission 2, Occupied Residence, by killing the kill list target with the chateau chandelier rather than a bullet. It hits harder than the M.1903 and takes a heavy barrel well, which is what makes the long shots reliable.
M1A Carbine: The quietest rifle in the campaign and the fastest firing, at the cost of stopping power. Suppressed it becomes a stealth tool rather than a sniper rifle, and it will fail to kill on a torso hit at range where the Karabiner would not.
M1A1 Gov.: Available from the opening mission and the strongest secondary once the workbench parts stack up. An extended magazine and a compensator turn it into the answer to any alarm that you cannot outrun.
Welrod: An integrally suppressed pistol handed to you in mission 1 that kills in one hit at contact range and reloads a single round at a time. It exists for the guard who rounds a corner into you, not for firefights.
Full breakdowns in our Sniper Elite 5 weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| The Atlantic Wall | Mission 1 of 9, campaign opener | First rifle, secondary and pistol workbenches, the Welrod, and the introduction to Operation Kraken |
| Occupied Residence | Mission 2 of 9, first indoor heavy map | Karabiner 98 from the chandelier kill on the target, plus Moller's documents |
| Spy Academy | Mission 3 of 9, stealth focused | Intelligence on the Kraken supply chain and three more workbenches |
| War Factory | Mission 4 of 9, industrial | Cargo manifests, sabotage objectives and heavy weapon workbench parts |
| Festung Guernsey | Mission 5 of 9, long range showcase | Stealth plates, the Kraken prototype objective and high magnification optics |
The Atlantic Wall: Colline Sur Mer, the beach and bunker opening that teaches wind, cover and the Resistance objectives. Sightlines run long across sand and concrete, so it is the cleanest place to practise holding over before you own a good scope.
Occupied Residence: A chateau map where the objective is intel from Abelard Moller's office rather than a body count. Interiors are tight and stacked vertically, so the vents and shimmy ledges matter more than the rifle for most of the run.
Spy Academy: Beaumont-Saint-Denis, built around eavesdropping on meetings instead of ending them. You need to reach listening positions and stay undetected long enough for the conversation to finish, which punishes aggressive play more than any other early map.
War Factory: The Martressac plant, where machinery noise masks gunfire almost continuously and the objectives involve sabotaging production and lifting cargo manifests. It is the best map for an unsuppressed rifle in the whole campaign.
Festung Guernsey: An island fortress with the longest uninterrupted sightlines in the game and a prototype at the centre of it. Patrol density is high and the cliffs limit your escape routes, so plan the exit before you take the first shot.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Binocular tagging is not cosmetic. Marked soldiers stay visible through walls at short range and their icons show which way they are facing, which is how you spot the two man patrol that would otherwise walk into your nest ninety seconds after you settle.
- Bodies are evidence. Drag every kill into a bush, behind a wall or off a rooftop, because a discovered corpse raises the alert state of the whole zone and starts sweeps that will find your firing position.
- The three workbenches in each mission are permanent unlocks, not consumables. Skipping them in missions 1 to 3 leaves you fighting Festung Guernsey with the stock M.1903 configuration and no reason for it.
- Empty Lung drains the same stamina bar as sprinting. Arrive at the nest, wait for the bar to refill, then take the shot, because a shot fired at low stamina wanders far enough to miss a head at 150 metres.
- Alarm boxes are worth a detour. Disabling them before you start shooting stops a spotted kill from summoning reinforcements from across the map, which is the single biggest difference between a five minute recovery and a lost run.
- Suppressors cut effective range roughly in half. A suppressed Karabiner 98 will wound rather than kill at distances where the unsuppressed version is a guaranteed one shot, so pick the mission plan before you pick the barrel.
- The kill list target in each mission has a special elimination method attached to it, and the chandelier in Occupied Residence is the clearest example. These unlock weapons, so read the target card in the pause menu before you set up a shot.
- Vertical traversal was added in this entry for a reason. Climbing pipes, shimmying ledges and using ziplines lets you reach firing positions the AI does not patrol, and most maps have at least one roof route around the main gate.
- In Axis Invasion the German AI is on the invader's side, so you cannot rely on soldiers reacting to them. Treat every unexplained soldier death as your own problem and assume the invader is closer than the last ping suggested.
- Save your rifle for the kill list and let the M1A1 Gov. handle everything after an alarm. The campaign gives generous SMG ammunition and stingy rifle ammunition, which tells you what the designers expected each gun to do.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Firing an unsuppressed rifle with no masking sound running. One report brings the nearest squad to your exact position, and Sniper Elite 5 tracks that position accurately enough that staying put is fatal.
- Leaving workbenches unfound. Players who rush the campaign reach mission 7 and 8 with stock weapons, then blame the ballistics for shots that a heavy barrel and match ammunition would have made.
- Treating suppressed weapons as silent at any range. The suppressor drops the noise radius, it does not remove it, and a guard 15 metres away will still turn toward the shot.
- Sprinting into a firing position and shooting immediately. Stamina governs Empty Lung, so the crosshair drifts hardest in exactly the moment most players want to shoot.
- Ignoring Axis Invasion settings on a first playthrough. Learning wind, drop and patrol routes while a human sniper hunts you is a different and much harsher game, and the toggle exists in the network options.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many missions does Sniper Elite 5 have?
Nine campaign missions, running from The Atlantic Wall through Occupied Residence, Spy Academy, War Factory, Festung Guernsey, Liberation, Secret Weapons and Rubble and Ruin to Loose Ends. A separate DLC mission, Wolf Mountain, sits outside that sequence.
Can I turn off Axis Invasion?
Yes. The network settings let you play the campaign fully offline or with invasions disabled, and there is no story or unlock penalty for doing so.
Which difficulty should a first playthrough use?
Marksman gives you the corrected aim indicator while still enforcing bullet drop, which is enough to learn the maps. Sniper Elite and Authentic remove the aiming help and expect you to read wind speed and range yourself.
Does the campaign support co-op?
Two players can run the whole campaign together with shared ammunition and item management, healing and a simple order system. Survival mode separately supports up to four players, and the adversarial multiplayer supports sixteen.
What is the fastest way to unlock better weapons?
Find the three workbenches in every mission and complete the special elimination on each kill list target. The Karabiner 98, for example, comes from dropping the chandelier on the target in Occupied Residence rather than shooting him.
More Sniper Elite 5 Guides
- Sniper Elite 5 Best Builds
- Sniper Elite 5 Tier List
- Sniper Elite 5 Walkthrough
- Sniper Elite 5 Beginner's Guide
- Sniper Elite 5 Tips & Tricks
- Sniper Elite 5 Weapons Guide
- Sniper Elite 5 Combat Guide
- Sniper Elite 5 Boss Guide
- Sniper Elite 5 Maps & Locations
- Sniper Elite 5 Crafting Guide
- Sniper Elite 5 Classes & Characters
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