For more information about other enemies, see Enemies
Sentries are Greater Machines that first appear in the mission [ 5-1: IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON ]. They serve as rank-and-file long distance sniper enemies, lodging themselves into the ground to become completely still while lining up a hitscan shot.
Appearance
Sentries are humanoid-esque robots lacking arms. The plating of their body is green, with their knee joints and feet being a metallic grey. Their upper body consists solely of the barrel of a sniper rifle, with an antenna protruding from the back of it. To the right of the barrel is a small camera with pink lens, most likely the Sentry's eye. A small ammo box is attached to the back of Sentry's hip.
Combat
Sentries will move until they have found a good position, even if they are directly in front of the player, and will then dig into the ground with their legs to charge their attack, which deals 50 damage. While charging, they are completely stationary and a pink laser appears that tracks the player, alongside a high-pitched beeping that will get progressively faster the closer they are to shooting. Just before firing, their antenna and camera light colors will change orange. Breaking line of sight by going behind a wall will also cause the Sentry to cancel the charge, causing it to get up and relocate.
Once they have fired, they will fire a 100% accurate three-hitscan attack, that can pierce up to three enemies or hit the same enemy thrice with infinite range, similar to a Piercer Revolver's piercing beam. However, the player can only be hit by this attack once. This attack can be parried by punching the Sentry itself, moments before they fire the shot, causing it to get stunned.
If the player stays too close to a Sentry for a prolonged period of time while it is not dug into the ground, it will perform a leg sweep that cannot be parried, dealing 40 damage. This leg sweep will also do a considerable amount of knockback. Its antenna and camera light colors change blue while performing the kick.
If the Sentry is not charging its attack and the player stays too close to a Sentry, it will kick the player, doing a considerable amount of knockback and damage. This attack cannot be parried, but does have a considerable amount of start-up and has very poor range, making it relatively easy to dodge. Sentries will not kick the player if they are already dug in and charging their shot.
Hitting a stationary Sentry with any Revolver shot or the Electric Railcannon to the antenna will cancel their attack and stun them temporarily, with a Knuckleblaster punch or ground slam shockwave knocking the Sentry out of its stationary state entirely.
Difficulty Changes
- HARMLESS
- Sentries move and attack much slower than usual.
- They recover from stuns much slower than usual.
- They will not perform their melee kick.
- LENIENT
- Sentries move and attack slower than usual.
- They recover from stuns slower than usual.
- They will not perform their melee kick.
- VIOLENT
- Sentries move and attack faster than usual.
- They recover from stuns faster than usual.
- BRUTAL
- Sentries move and attack much faster than usual.
- They recover from stuns much faster than usual.
- They will aim and fire their hitscan shot twice in a row.
Terminal Data
For more information, see Terminal
TYPE: Greater Machine
DATA:
One of the many war machines created during the Final War. Although there were attempts to find new purpose for them during the New Peace, their streamlined design made them unable to be repurposed until the start of the Hell expeditions.Their extremely powerful legs and feet allow them to dig into the ground, making them immovable by most forces and allowing them to easily line up any shot without interruption.
Despite their size, they were built to be extremely light, which when combined with the power of their legs, allows them to move at extremely fast speeds. Such power and lightness have made their legs one of the most sought after parts by scrapheads.
Most machines will only render a simplified approximation of their visual surroundings for faster processing speed, but Sentries use full renders instead, giving them perfect accuracy even over extremely long distances.
STRATEGY:
- Due to their powerful legs, once they've dug into the ground to aim, they can no longer move.- Once dug in, the only ways to interrupt their attack are: Shooting them with the Electric Railcannon, hitting their antenna with the Revolver, launching them with the ground slam wave or punching them with the Knuckleblaster.
- As long as they haven't dug in, their light weight makes them easy to launch and keep in the air where they are harmless.
- A good way to disable a Sentry for a longer period of time is to shoot nails into them with the Nailgun and then placing a magnet in a nearby wall or ceiling, which will pull them once they've been knocked off balance.
Rending Apart
Sentries by themselves are relatively trivial to dispatch on their own, but are usually spawned alongside other enemies. They can be very dangerous thanks to the infinite-range, 100% accurate hitscan attack they possess. This makes them a high-priority target and one of the best anti-air enemies in the game, especially if there are other powerful enemies like the Mindflayer around.
If eliminating it is not a viable option, then it is best to keep it from firing while focusing on other enemies. Since Sentries have no offensive or defensive capabilities in the air, and are susceptible to knockback while not dug in, explosives or projectile-boosted Shotgun shots are good methods of knocking them in the air, and at closer ranges, ground slams or Knuckleblaster punches will send the Sentry far away in the air. A wackier method of temporarily disabling a Sentry is to attach a magnet in the wall or ceiling, then fire at the Sentry with a Nailgun, causing it to be helplessly thrown around by the magnet. Despite all of this, Sentries are immune to fall damage.
Should a Sentry dig in, preventing it from firing or anticipating for it should be of utmost importance. The easiest way to do so is to take cover or break line of sight, forcing the Sentry to relocate. If it is not an option, then at long ranges, an Electric Railcannon shot can cancel the Sentry's attack while dealing significant damage. The Malicious Railcannon can also gravely injure and interrupt the Sentry, with the added benefit of knocking the Sentry high into the air. Or, if one is confident about their aiming skills, then one can attempt to interrupt the Sentry with a Revolver antenna or camera shot. Marksman Revolver ricoshots are not as viable at longer ranges, since there can often be other enemies in the way. At mid-range, an S.R.S. Cannon Rocket Launcher cannonball can be used to interrupt the Sentry. If at close range, one can also anticipate for a parry, which will stun and deal a lot of damage to the Sentry.
If it is not possible to interrupt the attack, then one can attempt to dash through the attack, though this has strict timing. Taking cover behind enemies is also an option, though remember to take cover behind at least three enemies or an enemy higher than 10 HP, due to how a Sentry's hitscan attack works. This also helps quickly dispatch fodder or heavily weaken some enemies or outright kill them, which includes other Sentries.
There are multiple ways to kill a Sentry very quickly. A Shotgun parry from a double-pump charge with the Pump Charge Shotgun will instantly kill it. The same can be done by combining a Knuckleblaster punch with a single-pump charge parry from the Pump Charge shotgun, as well as a double parry. If the arena geometry is favorable, the Sentry being stationary while charging up can make them a great target for the Sharpshooter Revolver. The Sentry being stationary also makes two charged Freezeframe Rocket Launcher rockets a good way to instantly kill it without having to worry about placing a magnet on them. The S.R.S. Cannon Rocket Launcher can be used with a point-blank range punch to kill them instantly. Finally, the Alternate Shotgun can gravely injure a Sentry with a fully-charged hit.
Similarly to a Malicious Face, a Chargeback can be performed on a Sentry's hitscan shot by precisely tossing a coin into the shot's path as it fires, causing it to reflect towards the nearest target, instakilling a Sentry should it be targeted. This Chargeback is much easier to perform and is slightly more practical, as Sentries are always accurate and their attack is telegraphed by a laser tracking the player. Chargebacked Sentry shots deal 43 damage, which instantly kills all non-boss enemies in the game, except for Sisyphean Insurrectionists.
Patch History
| VIOLENT NIGHT Update (2023/12/20) |
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|---|---|
| Back to the Cyber Grind Update (2023/04/27) |
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| Wait of the World Update (2023/03/17) |
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| Patch 11b (2022/08/29) |
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| ACT II Update (2022/08/16) |
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Trivia
- If the player moves at very high speed or is doing a ground slam, the Sentry can miss at certain angles, likely due to rounding issues. However, this usually requires long distances for this to work.
- The Sentry's Terminal entry states that most machines only render a "simplified approximation of their visual surroundings". Not only does this state that Sentries have the best eyesight out of all of the Machines, but this also implies that the retro-style graphics of the game may be the canonical way that V1 perceives the environment around itself.
- The Sentry currently cannot be gibbed by any means. The only "gib" it drops is the small ammo box from its hip.
- The gib itself is bugged, and does not render at certain angles.
- The Sentry is referred to internally by the name "Turret".
- Sentries, Malicious Faces, V2, the Flesh Prison's eyeballs, Guttermen, and Big Johninator are currently the only enemies in the game to use hitscan attacks.
- Looking closely at the Sentry's feet both in concept art and in-game shows that it has paw-like plating on its feet, akin to the Swordsmachine.
- Due to its similar appearance, it is assumed that a Swordsmachine's legs are salvaged from a Sentry.
- This also makes it the only machine that was known to be scrapped by a Swordsmachine to make an appearance.
- The Sentry and Drones are confirmed to have been made by the same manufacturer, due to similarities in their designs.[1]
Gallery
