Of all the level 15 classes in Diep.io, the Sniper was the least loved for quite some time because of its perceived weakness compared to other tanks. It moves and fires slowly with the benefit of having a longer range of sight, and it has some of the most unique level 45 subclasses in the game.
At the time of writing there are nine total tank classes available under Sniper, with six of those being unique level 45 classes that can hold their own in the heat of battle.
This overview guide will cover each of the Sniper’s subclasses, including tips and strategies on playing them well to advance you (or your team’s) score. The eight classes are:
- Assassin (level 30)
- Stalker (level 45)
- Ranger (level 45)
- Overseer (level 30)
- Overlord (level 45)
- Necromancer (level 45)
- Manager (level 45)
- Hunter (level 30)
- X Hunter (level 45)
Assassin (level 30)
The Assassin is the least flashy class out of the Sniper tree, but it certainly has its uses thanks to its super wide field of view. This is a class that can snipe other players from long range, but has trouble in close-range combat.
While this class’s innate penetration and damage are high, you are definitely going to want to invest points into Bullet Penetration, Bullet Damage, and Bullet Speed to not only snipe other players but also to farm efficiently. Your bullets can easily go through food, but more Bullet Penetration means they will go through easier, and you’ll net that score. That said, you should not max your penetration.
Try your best to avoid fast classes while playing the Assassin — this should be easy thanks to its long vision.
Stalker (level 45)
While the Ranger is the more “traditional” upgrade from the Assassin, the Stalker brings something new to the table with its stealth. And the Stalker does pretty well with it thanks to its reasonable innate stats.
The Stalker will stealth when you sit in one spot for a short time, after which you can see other players but they will have a tough time seeing you — you’re not totally invisible, but you mostly are. You become partially visible when shooting once, and fully visible when you decide to move or shoot more than once.
This is a hard class to play well, and you need to put points into survivability stats: Body Damage, Health Regen, and Max Health are your friends. And Reload is your best friend for offense as the Stalker has a slow innate reloading speed.
You spend a lot of time sitting still with this class, but if you love being sneaky and can get into a Body Damage build, you’ll be golden. But there are a lot of ways to approach playing this class and you can build very flexibly based on your playstyle.
Ranger (level 45)
The Ranger is very similar to the Assassin, only with a longer range of vision as well as higher innate penetration and bullet speed.
Playing this class is much like playing the Assassin, and if you find yourself enjoying the Assassin while leveling it’s probably your best bet. Playing it well means you have the advantage over a large portion of other classes because you can shoot at them long before they can see you.
The Ranger’s biggest enemies are fast-reload tanks like the Machine Gun and its subclasses because the Ranger simply cannot fend off mass amounts of bullets at a time. Stay far away from high-reload classes, as well as Stalkers and Assassins — unless you’re confident you can take them out before they can get you.
Overseer (level 30)
The Overseer is the first Sniper subclass that really changes things up, and it only gets crazier from here.
The Overseer spawns drones you can control, which work as your offense instead of the bullets most other classes shoot. You can click and hold the left mouse button to send your drones to your cursor, and click the right to send them in the opposite direction. This is tricky to get used to and separates the good from the mediocre Overseer (and Overlord) players.
Reload for the Overseer and its subclasses affects them different than other tanks. In the case of the Overseer and Overlord, it affects how quickly their drones spawn once destroyed. You can have a maximum of 8 drones at a time.
This is not a durable class and it is not recommended you try a Body Damage build, but you will want some Maximum Health and Health Regen.
Try not to engage rapid-fire tanks closely, as they will destroy your drones with ease.
Overlord (level 45)
The Overlord is pretty much just like an Overseer, but with a higher innate drone spawn rate. The Overlord definitely spawns drones faster than the Overseer.
Much like the Overseer, this class is not durable and can be easily taken down in a one on one fight against rapid-fire and fast-moving tanks — but it’s amazing in every team-based mode (Team Deathmatch, Domination, Mothership) as it can hide behind other tanks and send out its drones to irritate and damage the enemy.
Bullet Speed is a must-have stat for the Overlord because it makes its drones move faster. Do try to max it while you level.
Necromancer (level 45)
If you like the Overlord but want more drones, your obvious class choice is the Necromancer! If you can deal with the hassle of getting your minions.
Necromancer requires you to ram your body into yellow squares to amass your army of minions, which control identically to Overseer and Overlord drones, but there are simply more of them. A lot more. 34 to be precise — provided you’ve maxed your Drone Count stat. (Before you hit 45 this is your Reload stat, which changes at 45 into Drone Count. The minimum minions you can have is 20.)
Playing the Necromancer is very similar to Overlord, but you need some privacy to amass your minions. Try to find your way to an area of the map without any or many players and get to ramming into some yellow squares! In time you’ll have an army of minions you can be proud of, and whomp on some other players with pride.
It’s more important that you keep your drones safe with the Necromancer, so learning to control them well is a huge part of playing the class well.
Also be aware the Necromancer is pretty much made of paper. You definitely want to invest in Maximum Health and Health Regen.
Manager (level 45)
The last drone class, the Manager, mixes it up in its own way by adding stealth and letting you put stats into Drone Health.
Controlling the Manager’s drones is the same as the other drone classes, where you click the left mouse button to send drones to your mouse and the left to send them in the opposite direction. And also like the other drone classes, this control scheme makes this one of the harder classes to play in Diep.io.
This class’s stealth works the same as the Stalker, where it takes a couple seconds to re-stealth after coming up — but stealth is risky, as your drones are always visible. You never want to have your drones hang idly near you, otherwise you’re giving away your position to enemy players.
You are just as squishy as the other drone classes, so try to stay out of close combat and keep your distance from other players. Learning to keep your drones on the move and attacking while stealth takes time. Rapid-fire and fast-moving tanks are your worst enemies.
Hunter (level 30)
Is the Hunter the worst class in the game? At the time of writing, it pretty much is but it now goes into the Hunter X, which is more powerful and you may find it worth the effort.
This class has two barrels on top of one another to shoot two bullets at once, one medium size and one small. Unfortunately its shots aren’t all that powerful and its innate Bullet Speed is quite low.
The Hunter is not great at farming, nor is it good at fighting at close range. It has the benefit of the Sniper’s longer vision, which is a plus, but you’re better off going the Assassin or Ranger for long-range combat.
Unfortunately there really isn’t much good to be said the Hunter. It deals with slow-moving tanks that do not invest much in Movement Speed, but all in all you just go with this tank to get to Hunter X.
Hunter X (Level 45)
The Hunter X takes what little bit of good the regular Hunter has and ramps it up, adding a third barrel to shoot three bullets at a time. This additional firepower is balanced out by the class’s slower innate reload.
This class’s three bullets are all of different sizes, with the first being the smallest, the second being standard (medium) size, and the third being larger and more powerful than the other two. These three bullet fires make dealing with drone/minion classes easy, especially if you invest in Bullet Penetration.
Like the regular Hunter, the Hunter X is good against tanks that move slowly. It can be hard for a slow tank to get out of the way of your three bullets if you practice your aim, and the third powerful bullet really hurts — it’s great for dealing with glass cannon enemies as well.
The Hunter X doesn’t deal well with fast enemy tanks, especially Flank Guard subclasses that specialize in going fast. Try to avoid fast tanks, and learn to predict and shoot slower tanks to make good use of the Hunter X class.
And that’s that for the Sniper and its subclasses. If you enjoyed this guide, check out my Twin tank guide and my Flank Guard tank guide. Happy shooting!
