Sniper's Camo Cloak Damage Buff Mechanics

Overview

The Sniper's camo cloak is not purely a stealth tool. Every Sniper gets an inherent +25% ranged damage and +25% melee damage buff that applies while their Camouflage or CamouflageMedium status effect is active. The buff is built into the Sniper's base ability. Sniper has multiple class perks that can then stack additional bonuses into that same modifier, or extend how long the state persists.

Base Camo Cloak Buffs

From pc_marine_base_authority.cls:

Both rules use shouldModifyValueFromDescription = True and name a perk-moddable slot (ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_FIREARM_DAMAGE_BONUS for firearms, ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_MELEE_DAMAGE_BONUS for melee). Perks that write to those slots add flat percentage points into the bonus field of the base rule.

Firearm Buff Deactivation

The firearm rule wraps its deactivation trigger in a 0.36s AttributeModifierRuleTriggerDelay. Practical behavior:

1. You activate camo. The buff is live while the status is active.

2. You fire your first shot. Firing triggers the camo ability to deactivate its status effect, and the base rule's deactivation trigger also fires on SHOOT_ENDED.

3. A 0.36s grace window runs. The buff remains technically active during that window, which is why the burst weapons will benefit from from the +25% bonus for all shots of the first burst.

4. After 0.36s the buff ends naturally.

Since the ranged buff deactivates on SHOOT_ENDED , pulling the trigger a second time outside the 0.36s window does not result in the second shot receiving the bonus. So in effect, only shots resulting from the first pull of the trigger or that occur in the 0.36s window will benefit from the buff.

Melee Buff Deactivation

The melee rule's deactivation logic is a AttributeModifierRuleTriggerComposite with two triggers and no AttributeModifierRuleTriggerDelay wrapper:

• Trigger A (ConditionHybrid): fires when the camo status is removed AND you are not currently in MELEE_STRIKE body state. Camo dropping mid-swing does NOT fire this trigger.

• Trigger B (ConditionInvert(ConditionMeleeStrike)): fires the moment you exit the MELEE_STRIKE body state.

The practical implication is that melee has no 0.36s grace window. The buff stays live during the swing animation (Trigger A's hybrid prevents deactivation while striking, and the activation condition is still satisfied). The instant the swing animation ends, Trigger B fires and the melee buff dies. There is no post-swing window during which a follow-up swing could benefit. So in effect, only melee hits landed by the melee attack that breaks camo will benefit from the melee buff.

Cloak Cancelling

If the player triggers a melee attack immediately after their cloak ability, they will perform what is known as a "cloak cancel"; receiving the benefits of the cloak at minimal cost to their ability charge. By initiating the melee attack however, they are only trigger the Melee Buff Deactivation, not the Firearm Buff Deactivation. So if they are running Lingering Concealment, players will still have some time (2 seconds less the time of the melee attack animation) to initiate a ranged attack that will benefit from the Cloaked Ranged Buff. Once that ranged attack is initiated, the buff will expire at the end of the 0.36s grace period or the end of the Camouflage Status, whichever occurs first.

Targeted Shot

Internal name: PveSniperIncreaseFirstFirearmAttackDamageFromCamouflage

type       = "ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_FIREARM_DAMAGE_BONUS"
bonus      = 75
applyType  = "ABSOLUTE"

A passive perk. It writes +75 flat into the ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_FIREARM_DAMAGE_BONUS slot, which the base rule adds directly into its own bonus field.

Targeted Shot does not change the buff's duration or deactivation rules. The 0.36s grace window still applies, and a second shot outside that window deals damage without the +100% buff.

Tactical Ambush

Internal name: PveSniperIncreaseFirstMeleeAttackDamageFromCamouflage

type       = "ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_MELEE_DAMAGE_BONUS"
bonus      = 150
applyType  = "ABSOLUTE"

The melee counterpart to Targeted Shot. A passive perk that writes +150 flat into the ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_MELEE_DAMAGE_BONUS slot, which the base rule adds into its bonus field.

Tactical Ambush does not change the buff's duration or deactivation rules.

Lingering Concealment

Internal name: PveSniperDeactivateCamouflageLaterAfterInterruptedByAttack

type    = "ABILITY_CAMOUFLAGE_INTERRUPTION_DELAY"
bonus   = 2

The perk extends how long the camo state persists after it would normally tear down, by 2 seconds. Because the damage buff is bound to the camo status effect, extending the status also extends the damage buff window by that same 2 seconds.

Practically, this allows all of Snipers primary weapons to benefit from the extended Camo status effect if the player intends on cloak cancelling with melee and then firing a ranged shot. However only one primary weapon is able to output MORE buffed shots with Lingering Concealment compared to without it.

Firearm Impact

The buff still deactivates on SHOOT_ENDED with a 0.36s grace period, so Lingering Concealment does not let you fire any more shots that have boosted damage. Where Lingering Concealment's damage bonus is maximized is with sustained fire within a single trigger hold. The Sniper's available primaries:

The Bolt Carbine SMG is the only fully automatic primary available to the Sniper. It can deliver many boosted rounds during a single held trigger pull before the extended window elapses. The single shot and bust rifles cannot exploit the extended window for extra boosted shots because the bonus is deactivatated after the 0.36s grace period afterSHOOT_ENDED.

The only weapon that benefits from the full 2 second extended cloak window granted by Lingering Concealment is the fully automatic SMG variant of the Bolt Carbine.

Melee Impact

Lingering Concealment cannot extend the buff past the end of your swing animation. Once MELEE_STRIKE body state ends, Trigger B fires and the buff is gone, even if camo itself still has 1.95 seconds left to live thanks to Lingering Concealment. The perk does not let you chain a second boosted swing.

Where Lingering Concealment does help on the melee side is purely defensive: if an enemy interrupts you with an attack while you are cloaked but have not yet swung, camo (and the +175% melee buff with Tactical Ambush) sticks around for an extra 2 seconds, giving you a window to still land your one boosted swing. Without the perk, that interrupt would drop camo immediately and you would lose the buff before swinging.

So for melee specifically, Lingering Concealment is a "save your boosted swing if you get hit first" perk, not a damage-window extender.

Game Files

• ssl\characters\player\marine\pc_marine_base_authority.cls

• ssl\player\perks\ui\ui_skills_library.sso

• ssl\abilities\ability_controllers\ability_controller_desc_camouflage.sso

• ssl\player\perks\perk_server_factory.sso

• ssl\status_effects\status_effect_descriptions\status_effects.sso

• ssl\abilities\ability_controllers\ability_controller_desc_camouflage.sso