Vintar BC

Vintar BC
Game ID	wpn_vintorez
Type	Sniper rifle
Ammunition	9×39mm 10 round detachable box magazine

A special military sniper rifle purpose-built for silent, flashless sniping during special operations where early detection of the shooter may be critical. The Vintar BC provides high armor-piercing capability and stopping power, as well as being equipped with an integrated sniper and optical scope. Highly rated by many stalkers despite its small magazine.
― Call of Pripyat in-game description

The Vintar BC is a suppressed 9x39mm sniper rifle featured in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

Overview

The Vintar BC is an automatic sniper rifle with an integral silencer/supressor that uses 9×39mm ammo. It has high armor-piercing ability but its range is actually worse than that of most rifles due to its low-velocity subsonic rounds, which have considerable drop that must be factored in when firing at longer ranges. However, when used within its effective range it is a very powerful and accurate weapon. It is fairly light (as a sniper rifle), easy to handle, has good accuracy and is generally cheaper to maintain and upgrade than the SVDm-2 or assault rifles converted for sniper use. In addition, its 4x magnification scope is superior to those of assault rifles, which only upgrade to 2x magnification. A drawback is its small 10-round magazine, causing the need to reload frequently in automatic fire. Despite these drawbacks, it is arguably the only sniper rifle in the game that can be effective when used properly at close ranges (high damage and high automatic fire rate), and can take down even the toughest enemies rapidly provided one can master its substansial recoil in fully automatic fire.

Appearances

Shadow of Chernobyl

It is an effective weapon for mid-to-long-range sniping due to the good accuracy, although it suffers from bullet drop which renders the weapon not as effective as regular sniper rifles at long ranges. Nonetheless, it uses common ammunition (especially towards the end of the game), making it a good weapon to use at the end of the game.

Acquisition

• In the Freedom base, eastern barracks on the floor. There are 150 rounds of armor-piercing ammo directly above this location in the barracks attic. Sometimes the ammo will fall through the attic floor into the barracks itself.
• Obtained from General Voronin after the player has finished the quest to retrieve the Sniper TRs 301 from a mercenary camp.
• Stash in Lab X-16 - the stash is in the blue powerbox seen whilst descending down the broken elevator shaft at the entrance of X-16.
• Rare stash inside the Military warehouses, at the Freedom's graveyard in a bunker hatch. The stalker with the coordinates is non-specific but will be an expert paramilitary in the area.
• Charon (found in the basement of Monolith HQ) holds this weapon.
• Rarely can be found after destroying one of wooden boxes found on top of Chernobyl NPP. ( It is in a specific wooden cube crate while going through the series of teleportation vortexes. This Vintar came fully loaded with just standard ammunition but it had full condition for me. Also was on Master difficulty from start to present if that might matter. [spoiler]About three teleporters after jumping from the broken pipe path to three separate ledges on the right, to a construction crane, to get to the other side of the pipes, the game places you on a roof in ambush position of three exoskeleton Monolith troops with GP37s.[/spoiler] )

Clear Sky

Scar holding his signature VSS

The Vintar BC remains mainly unchanged from its Shadow of Chernobyl counterpart. Since Loners use it as soon as the game begins, it is possible to make an early acquisition of the weapon as soon as the Cordon, however 9x39 ammo remains uncommon and can be bought only from Mitay and the Loners traders only after joining their respective factions, and looted from Loners wielding the weapon, Duty experts using the Tunder S14 or Monolith experts at the end of the game. With sufficient ammunition, it is a great choice for a main weapon.

Acquisition

• Several Veteran Loners commonly carry a Vintar as their faction's primary sniper rifle or a battle rifle.
• Given by Forester as a reward for getting the Compass artifact (he gives upgraded Vintar).
• Sold by Shilov and Thrush when the player joins the Loners faction.
• Very rarely sold by Tooth (one has to have at least neutral reputation to Bandits)
• As Scar had originally stated (his goodies have been scattered around the swamp), his original Vintar can be found in the great swamps, near the entrance to the Agroprom research institute at the northern part of the swamps. The landmark is a couple of derailed train cars and a large cluster of vortex anomalies. Because of the large emission and nature's elements, it's heavily damaged and in need of repairs. It is also empty. Fully repairing it will cost about 9600 rubles.

Upgrades

The Vintar's upgrade tree, like its assault rifle counterpart, combines both assault rifle and sniper rifle upgrade trees. Most importantly it can be upgraded, quite noticeably, into an extremely rapid-firing rifle, allowing a skilled player to make use of it as both an assault rifle and sniper rifle — if one keeps in mind the low magazine capacity. Due to its power, it can also function as a quasi-SMG if one doesn't want to take the time to master the distinct curve of the subsonic rounds. In addition, it is also possible to slightly increase the mag capacity, reducing the need to reload in mid-fight.

Call of Pripyat

The Vintar returns in Call of Pripyat, having received a better damage per shot, but slightly lower fire rate. It is mildly inaccurate compared to the other games without any upgrades but the Vintar BC proves to be valuable when fighting tough opponents and maintaining stealth. However, the SVUmk-2 has an upgrade allowing it to fit an integral suppressor, making it a better weapon for long-range stealth (as it has a better accuracy and scope magnification), although at the cost of firing only in semi-automatic mode unlike the Vintar.

It is now widespread among the stalkers of the Zone, but remains uncommon and is only carried by experts of the Loners, Duty and Monolith factions. A military stalker, Ostrovsky, also uses the weapon. It can be salvaged from a few stashes and bought from traders.

Acquisition

• One can be found atop one of the structures in the Burning Farm anomaly field in Zaton, relatively early in the game, one should be careful as one may die from the intense heat generated by the Burner anomalies along with the anomalies themselves. The landmark here is that it is the only building with a ladder. Coordinates are given after the player sides with Beard in the Transaction mission.
• Owl very rarely has it in inventory after finishing Missing Stalkers mission, handing Compass to Sultan or Beard and getting A Wealthy Client achievement (chances are slightly increased after entering Pripyat).
• Hawaiian may sell the Vintar after getting A Friend of Duty achievement, though at a much higher cost than Owl.
• Used by Sgt. Ostrovsky. It can be picked up near his body when the player is sent by Kovalsky to find the missing recon unit.
• Used by the Monolith Master during the Evacuation.
• Used by the following NPCs:
  • Duty experts wearing Exoskeleton
  • Monolith experts wearing classic Monolith suits instead of the exoskeleton
  • Loners experts wearing a SEVA suit

Upgrades

It is one of the three weapons capable of being upgraded with the useful auto target identification upgrade — letting it work like binoculars, the others being the SVDm-2 and the FT-200M. It can also be upgraded with night-vision, high-contrast, and long-range sights. It also has a few Handling upgrades boosting this already good stat, meaning it can be effective both as a sniper rifle and close combat assault rifle — assuming the player doesn't mind reloading often, as the magazine capacity cannot be upgraded anymore.

Notes

• The Vintar BC is one of the stealthiest sniper rifles in all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games; when shooting from far enough, the target might not react to taking damage from the player (for example attempting to take cover or even getting into combat stance). In other cases, when dealing with a group of opponents, killing one of them (usually with a headshot) will not alert the remaining enemies. These facts can be observed in the demonstrative video.

Video demonstrating Vintar BC's bullet drop and auto-target identification upgrade

Video demonstrating upgraded Vintar BC's bullet drop and auto-target identification upgrade

Gallery

Shadow of Chernobyl

VSSfirst.png

First person view

VSSloading.png

Reloading

3rd person view

World model

Call of Pripyat

CoPVSSfirst.png

First person view

CoPVSSload.png

Reloading

Third person view

Upgrade view