Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts guide – The best character skills and perks

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts has several skill groups, each with its branches. Higher tiers would need you to unlock lower-tier upgrades first. Some tiers may offer two perks — and you can unlock both — but only one will be active at any given time. Additionally, tier 1 and tier 2 skills will only cost you cash. However, tier 3 skills require one challenge token to unlock. Meanwhile, tier 4 skills need three challenge tokens. This guide should help you determine some ideal character skills and perks that you can pick so you don’t end up wasting those precious tokens.

Note: These are my preferences towards the endgame. Still, feel free to pick what you want to suit your playstyle. You can also view our weapons, gadgets, and loadout guide. Likewise, for more information about the game, check out our Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts guides and features hub.

Mask skills

Awareness:

• Tracker (T1) – This one’s an easy choice since it lets you spot mines and traps, perfect for sneaking around and using side passages that are filled with them.
• Scout (T2) – Reveals strategic points such as fuseboxes, climbing routes, hidden passages, and vehicle weak spots; another easy choice.
• Cameraman vs. Sapper (T3) – The cameraman perk lets you spot CCTV line-of-sight cones when you ping with your mask. This is one of the easiest ways to (technically) tag CCTVs. The sapper perk lets you hack turrets but only when close to them. It’s useless since you can just use your upgraded drone.

Utility:

• Astro Lens (T1) – Adds continuous zoom and x36 magnification.
• Radio Wiretap (T2) – Listen in on enemy communication; a bit silly but it’s a requirement for a higher tier.
• Environment Chip vs. CBRN Filters (T3) – The former increases the range of your mask’s detection which is great when you’ve got the Target Tracking Plugin skill. The latter just lets you become immune from flashbang or gas effects, and is totally worthless.
• Echolocation vs. Tag Sensor (T4) – Reveal sound sources or reveal enemy sniper line-of-sight. You won’t need either of these.

Scouting:

• Thermal Vision Plugin (T1) – Enable night vision goggles by holding the CTRL button. This one’s perfect. You can easily spot enemies even when your mask’s signal or tagging is being jammed.
• Target Tracking Plugin (T2) – Another immensely helpful skill, this one auto-tags enemies when you ping an area; synergizes with Environment Chip.
• Focused Lens (T3) – Highlights enemies up to 24 meters which is helpful.
• Detector Upgrade vs. X-Ray Vision (T4) – See through obstacles to spot objects you can interact with or enemies; pick the latter.

Suit skills

Marksman:

• Lighter Equipment vs. Kevlar Suit (T1) – The former lets stamina regenerate 50% faster which is a godsend. The latter just adds more armor which isn’t necessary.
• Chest Rig vs. Double Magazine Holster (T2) – Extra sniper ammo versus extra pistol ammo. It’s a sniper game so the choice is obvious.
• Tactical Backpack vs. Extra Compartment (T3) – Get additional deployable items or get an extra gadget that you can equip. Neither are mandatory.
• Special Ammo Holster vs. Ammo Pouch (T4) – The first one unlocks a second special ammo slot for your sniper rifles. Meanwhile, the second lets you carry more special ammo. They aren’t necessities and you shouldn’t rush to grab them.

Infiltrator

• Universal Camouflage (T1) – You become harder to detect which is great.
• Snow Camouflage vs. Woodland Camouflage (T2) – Drones will have a hard time detecting you in snowy or grassy areas respectively. Unlock both of these when you have extra cash and just switch to either one depending on the level.
• Advanced Snow Camouflage vs. Advanced Woodland Camouflage (T3) – Same as above except it also affects regular soldiers. You don’t need to rush getting these.

Soldier

• Fast Access Pocket vs. Extra Compartment (T1) – A couple of extra throwable grenades or an extra gadget that you can bring. The former is more useful.
• Cat’s Grace vs. Carbon Fiber Suit (T2) – Reduce fall damage versus extra armor. I don’t know about you, but sprinting and jumping around can lead to some mishaps. Your character has weak knees, I guess, so pick the cat.
• Ceramic Plating vs. Sprinter (T3) – Do you want extra armor or do you want slower stamina drain while sprinting? The second choice is more helpful in the long run… haha, get it?
• Predator vs. Wraith (T4) – Faster movement while crouched is silly. Get the second one since it means you won’t generate sound while walking or sprinting.

Support skills

Turret

• Booby Trap (T1) – Increases turret range and pressing “J” will cause it to explode, because why not?
• Semi-Auto vs. Silencer (T2) – The turret fires semi-auto so you can hit another target quickly. Then again, the second one lets it fire silently. Since we’re playing a sniper game where you sneak around, then guess which one we’re choosing.
• Extra Target (T3) – Lets you tag up to three targets using the turret. It’s not mandatory.

Drone

• Hack Module vs. Night Vision Module (T1)  – You can already use your NVG if you unlocked one of the mask’s perks, so just pick Hack Module. Go hack some CCTV boxes from far away if you want.
• EMP Module vs. Lure Module (T2) – One lets you fry enemy machine gun turrets or other electronic devices. The other, meanwhile, just has enemies bunching up together. Yeah, pick the first one.
• Tracking Module vs. Battery Module (T3) – The former lets the drone tag faster and the latter lets it fly further away.
• Recon Module (T4) – The same goes for this skill which lets the drone ping and tag everything around it. It works like the Target Tracking Plugin, except from a distance since you’re using a flying contraption.

Gadget skills

Meds

• First Aid Kit vs. Med Bag (T1) – Increase adrenaline shot capacity or medkit capacity. Pick the latter if you’ve got extra cash.
• Adrenaline Rush vs. Fast Access (T2) – Okay, zoomer, run faster after pumping yourself with roids, or use a medkit a lot faster.

Knife

• Swift Gambit vs. Nimble Hands (T1) – Both skills will fire after you melee or “interrogate + kill” an enemy (“V” or “E” respectively). The first one increases movement speed and the second one lets you automatically loot them.
• Combat Awareness (T2) – After you kill an enemy with your knife, you can press the correct buttons to follow up and keep knifing others nearby. This skill makes you feel like Jason Bourne or John Wick.
• Steel Grip (T3) – Allows you to melee kill heavy troopers. Normally, the big dudes would just push you around. Now, you can stab their beefy necks.

Deployable

• Movement Sensors vs. Sensitive Trigger (T1) – Did your enemies say something offensive? It seems your traps got triggered. Anyway, the warning device gadget is useless, so just go with the latter. It lets soldiers trigger your anti-tank mines.
• Proximity Sensor (T2) – Decoy trap will tag enemies. Well, it costs cash only, so buy it if you’ve got some to spare.
• Deadly Formula (T3) – Decoy trap emits gas when triggered. There’s a challenge in the Altai Mountains map where you need to gas enemies, so this skill might help. Then again, you could just use gas grenades or gas mines if you’ve found them.
• Luring Mine (T4) – Speaking of gas mines, this perk lets your bundle of nerve agents attract enemies.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts – Early-game picks

It only takes a handful of missions for you to amass a lot of cash in Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts. And, yes, there’s even a cheese that helps you get more cash down the line. Still, if you’re feeling thrifty, there are a select few upgrades that you’ll want to unlock early on.

Mask:

• Awareness -> Tracker -> Scout
• Scouting -> Thermal Vision Plugin -> Target Tracking Plugin

Suit:

• Marksman -> Lighter Equipment -> Chest Rig
• Infiltrator -> Universal Camouflage

Everything else can be grabbed later in the game when you’ve got more money and tokens. Just keep replaying missions until you can obtain everything you’d want.

That does it for our character skills and perks guide. Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts is available on Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.