The Steyr Scout is a Tier 2 weapon in Left 4 Dead 2. It is a bolt-action variant of the Hunting Rifle, being one of the two bolt-action firearms in the game along with the AWP. Compared to the Hunting Rifle, it has an identical magazine capacity, higher reserve ammunition, and higher damage, but significantly lower rate of fire due to its bolt-action nature.
The Scout's main draw is its impressive accuracy for a sniper rifle: while it shares its accuracy and crosshair bloom with the Hunting Rifle, its bolt-action nature lets the crosshair reset after every shot. This makes it very accurate even when moving, and it has the fastest reload of its type, making it surprisingly capable of attacking while on the move and having the least vulnerability out of all sniper rifles while reloading. In combination with a Laser sight, its accuracy improves significantly to the point it can perform hit-and-run tactics. Thanks to it being bolt-action, it is also very difficult to run out of ammo with the Scout. Despite this, its fire rate is a notable drawback, as the user is likely to get swarmed by a horde and is left vulnerable if they miss their shots. Its additional damage is also not sufficient to make up for its poor rate of fire, giving it worse damage-per-second than a single P220 Pistol; due to this, it is extremely poor against Special Infected up close, and it is the worst primary weapon to use against The Tank and The Witch.
Overall, the Steyr Scout is more suited for long-range engagements that require constant repositioning. Due to its unique traits for a sniper rifle, it is ideal to treat the Scout like a "Special Tier" weapon: depend on your actual secondary weapon (a Melee weapon or Pistol variant) for large hordes, while using the Scout as a "secondary" for stragglers and emergency engagements.
Like all international Counter-Strike: Source weapons, the Steyr Scout was only available in the censored German version of the game prior to The Last Stand Community Update. As of said update, it is half as likely to replace any Tier 2 Sniper Rifle variant spawned. Also, since the aforementioned update, the bots treat the Scout as a regular weapon and thus replace their current tier 1 weapon with it. Zoey and Ellis, being the Survivors who prefer a Hunting Rifle as a bot, will drop their Assault Rifle/Auto Shotgun and pick up the Scout when one is nearby.
Tactics
- At longer ranges, the Steyr Scout is good to take down wanderers (in higher difficulties) due to its high penetration, especially in narrow areas.
- It is very advisable to depend on your secondary weapon, as the Steyr Scout is accurate while moving in medium ranges but is a very poor choice against a horde in close proximity, especially if one misses shots.
- High areas are good for this sniper rifle since the Infected will have more difficulty reaching you and you can shoot them from further away.
- Although its damage is not sufficient enough to make a difference against most Special Infected compared to using a Hunting or Sniper Rifle, the Scout is capable of one-tapping Spitters at very high ranges.
- Along with the AWP, the Scout has the unfortunate quirk of starting a reload much slower when empty, since there is a long pause between the bolt-action animation and the actual reloading animation. To avoid this, it is recommended to reload with one bullet remaining in the magazine, or interrupt the bolt animation by shoving.
- Unlike the shotguns, players can skip the bolt animation by shooting and shoving at the same time to increase DPS.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Very accurate sniper even when moving; accuracy improves significantly with a Laser Sight, making it good on the move.
- Fastest reload speed of all sniper rifles.
- Second highest bullet damage of any non-shotgun/Special Tier firearm.
- Very difficult to run out of ammo due to its bolt-action nature and high reserve ammunition.
- Stays in place while reloading, keeping the flashlight centered.
- Fires faster if the user immediately shoves after every shot.
Cons
- Second lowest rate of fire of all non-Special Tier weapons, which doesn't compensate for its high bullet damage.
- A very poor choice against a Horde.
- Out of all the weapons in the game, it would take the longest to kill a Tank. Even the pistols would do much better. On Normal, it would take 48 seconds to kill the Tank with it. In comparison, the pistols dual-wielded would take 20.
- Lowest damage-per-second of any weapon in the game, including sidearms. A single P220 Pistol deals 75 more damage every second than this weapon when both are fired at their fastest.
- Extremely slow reload if reloaded from empty, due to the bolt animation having a fixed pause before the actual reload animation starts.
- Shoving to make the Scout fire faster will quickly cause melee fatigue.
Notes
Steyr Arms Scout
The Steyr Scout with an extended mag.
- The Scout is modeled after the Steyr Arms Scout with a magwell attachment for extended magazines.
- While generally manufactured with a collapsible bipod to mount against flat surfaces, it is never used or deployed in-game.
- Scout rifles come with picatinny rails and receiver mounts for scope attachments, installing them whether onto the receiver or on the top portion of the handguard would depend on the operator's preferences. However, the in-game's depiction of the rifle has shown both variations of its scope attachment.
- The worldmodel for the Steyr Scout appears to have its scope mounted on top of the receiver and the bolt system. However, in its viewmodel and HUD icon, it is in fact attached to the picatinny rails on top of the handguard.
- Some of the errors found in the HUD icon include the missing trigger guard and the magazine protruding down and outside of its magazine well.
- The Steyr Scout is chambered primarily in 7.62x51mm NATO, however it could also accommodate a few other cartridges that are of a different caliber, including the native .376 Steyr. With an extended magazine, the Scout can hold 10 rounds of 7.62x51mm NATO as opposed to the in-game version which unrealistically holds a maximum of 15 rounds per magazine.
- The Military Sniper in real life is also chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO despite dealing lesser damage per shot than the Scout in-game, possibly for balancing purposes due to the latter's nature as a bolt-action rifle with a manual cyclic rate. Otherwise it could indicate that the Scout is instead chambered in .376 Steyr, in which in reality only hold 8 rounds of these cartridges with an extended mag.
- As with the AWP, the Scout's entire bolt system is oriented to the left side whereas no real-life Scout rifles have a variant for left-handed users.
- The Steyr Scout only saw service during the Kosovo theater of the Yugoslav Wars, after which it was then made available to the civilian market for sport shooters and small game hunters, justifying its presence in the Left 4 Dead 2 setting especially after Steyr USA was established a year prior to the events of the early outbreak in Pennsylvania.
- A glitch may occur while firing the weapon. When firing consecutive shots, the next shot can be fired before the breech is closed and locked. However, this is because the bolting animation is calibrated for an attack interval of 1.05s, sharing the interval of the AWP, rather than the Steyr Scout's 0.90s.
Gallery
| Weapons | |
|---|---|
| Primary Weapons | |
| Tier 1 |  Chrome Shotgun /  Pump Shotgun /  MP5 /  Silenced Submachine Gun /  Submachine Gun
|
| Tier 2 |  AK-47 /  Combat Rifle /  M-16 Assault Rifle /  SG 552 /  Auto Shotgun /  Combat Shotgun /  AWP /  Hunting Rifle /  Scout /  Sniper Rifle
|
| Special Tier |  Grenade Launcher /  M60 Machine Gun
|
| Secondary Weapons | |
| Sidearms |  M1911 Pistol /  Magnum Pistol /  P220 Pistol
|
| Melee Weapons |  Baseball Bat /  Cricket Bat /  Crowbar /  Fireaxe /  Frying Pan /  Golf Club /  Guitar /  Katana /  Knife /  Machete /  Nightstick /  Pitchfork /  Shovel
|
| Special Tier |  Chainsaw
|
| Other Weapons | |
| Grenades |  Bile Bomb /  Molotov Cocktail /  Pipe Bomb
|
| Upgrades |  Explosive Ammunition /  Incendiary Ammunition /  Laser Sight
|
| Fixed Weapons |  Heavy Machine Gun /  Minigun
|
| Items | |
| Usable Items |  Explosive barrel /  Fireworks /  Gas can /  Oxygen tank /  Propane tank
|
| Special Items |  Cola /  Gnome Chompski
|
| Featured in both games / L4D1-exclusive / L4D2-exclusive (Counter-Strike weapons / PC-exclusive) | |