SUPPORT SENTRY X-58 USER MANUAL

Overview

The Sentry X-58 is a large, high-performance, autonomous robot ideal to perform a supportive role in combat. Made by a unique power system, X-58 is capable of speeds up to 12.8 while making precise turns and jumps that don’t vary with the battery voltage. This results in highly consistent and repeatable performance of well-tuned code even as the batteries run low. The robot comes fully assembled with two caterpillar tracks, a photon mine launcher, funtioning telephone, and more, all reprogrammed for vengeance.

Changelog

2018 update: After coming back to the game after several months, this guide is due for some changes. You can expect me to update this guide over the next couple of weeks, adding the missing sections and updating according to the current state of the game.

2019 update: I haven’t played Awesomenauts in forever and am not familiar with the newer ‘nauts. This guide will likely not be updated again. However, it is my understanding that the information you’ll find in this guide is still applicable to the current state of the game. So feel free to enjoy this guide for all it worth 😀

Introduction

I’ll start off by saying I lied to you. This is not the official user’s guide to the X-58. Sorry.

Lesson 1: Never show your true intentions.

But now I’ll be honest with you: this is a highly subjective, in-depth guide about what I’ve learnt by playing Sentry for countless hours and is entirely based on how I like to play. If you have trouble following the strategies laid out in this guide, or feel like you have found a better way of playing Sentry, by all means, follow your heart.

A little bit on my authority as a Sentry player: I started playing Awesomenauts in 2013. I spend a lot of time in League 3, but have been in League 2 for most of this season. Sometimes, I even enjoy the privilege of being in League 1. As I write this, I’ve played over 1000 matches as Sentry with a win% of 64.1% this season. It’s a fact I’ve played this game a lot, and I like to think I’ve gotten kinda good at it. I’ve also used some of this time to converse with the devs.

Below on the left, for instance, I am standing next to Ronimo’s own Fabian “fabinaab” Akker, (we hang out sometimes). On the right I am seen breaking up with Joost “Joost” van Dongen. As you can tell, he is heartbroken. That is the day I swore off playing Lonestar.

There are not very many ways of playing Sentry. You may have heard of Tele-Burst Sentry, a build which prioritises damage on Sentry’s Teleport Beacon to get kills. If this is what you’re interested in, I suggest looking for a different guide, as I can’t help you there. What I will be talking about is building Sentry is such a way that you can:

• Initiate team fights with little risk to yourself
• Help your team secure kills
• Clear droids and push enemy turrets/base
• Have a persistent presence on the map with little downtime
• Maybe learn some life lessons along the way

If this appeals to you, or you have the feeling you’ve already invested too much time into this guide to turn away: be my guest and keep reading.

Abilities and How to Use Them

Every Awesomenaut has four skills: Special Skill 1, Special Skill 2, their auto attack (AA), and their movement/jump. For Sentry these are Black Hole Sun (BHS), Teleport Beacon, Photon Mine Launcher, and Energy Thruster, respectively.

Originally posted by Sentry X-58:

“Diverting auxiliary power to shields!”

When playing Sentry as a support, emphasis is placed on BHS. This ability allows Sentry to tank for his teammates while the BHS charges, absorbing the damage taken (20% is mitigated, 65% is added to the little pink meter). When released, the BHS pulls all enemies it hits into itself, and deals them the absorbed damage as burst after 1.5s.

To use BHS effectively, you need to learn:

• How much damage you need to absorb to maximise damage.
• How much damage different amounts of charge deal.
• To develop a feeling for when to start charging BHS.
• What the area of effect and pulling power of BHS are (and to accurately predict where to fire it according to enemy movement).
• Novel places to fire BHS (e.g. from the Solar Boss area to behind the top turret on Ribbit IV).

You can’t become good at this without practice, but don’t worry, I’ll try and get you some of the way there.

You can use BHS in four situations:

• You have gotten yourself a ticket to the scrap yard but won’t go down without a fight.
• Your team is nearby and you feel the time is ripe to pick a fight with the opposite team and bring home some bacon.
• You had previously charged your BHS at an inopportune time, but can luckily still use it to scare enemies off or maybe draw them closer (this also works with droids (the draw them closer part, not the scare part)).
• You’re clearing droids and need something to speed it up/clear hummingbird droids.

(1): We’ve all been there. You haven’t looked at the minimap in way too long and get ganked. Or maybe a team fight had been going on, and you, being the slow Sentry, got left behind. Don’t worry though, pop BHS and you might still make it out alive!
Take care, especially when on your own, to not give the enemy free damage. That is to say, do not take damage when you could otherwise avoid it. You might develop a knack for standing close to the enemy so you can body block the damage for your team, which is very handy in a fight. When a single enemy shows up as you’re clearing, however, make use of Sentry’s formidable range on his AA and keep your distance.
This also goes hand in hand with Sentry’s interesting mobility, but more on that later.

(2): This is your time to shine. Get to know what abilities your teammates have that work well with your BHS and position it accordingly and at the right time. Also take note of ways the enemy might escape (more on both in a later section). Trapping more enemies is usually better, but don’t be afraid to focus on the weakest/the biggest threat to your team.
When new to Sentry, it can be frustrating how seemingly easily enemies escape your BHS. This is because when BHS deployed, your target was too far to its edge (or because they used an ability to escape, the only thing you can do to prevent this is take note to only BHS them while their cooldown is still active). To better your chances of keeping an enemy on lockdown, you need to be able to predict their movement. Depending on the mobility of your target, and on the map, this isn’t always easy. Matters are often simplified by circumstance though: you want to deploy your BHS immediately after sustaining the damage used to charge it, meaning you are standing close to the enemy. Remember that after firing, a second press of the Ability button deploys BHS at its current location, and it won’t travel its entire range. This is very handy if you’ve gotten all up in your foes’ faces.

(3): Do this when your charge either wasn’t great to start with or has decayed. Don’t be afraid to ‘waste’ it on droids, as clearing is also important, and the sooner you can spend your charge, the sooner the cooldown starts and you can go tank again. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to stumble upon an enemy ‘naut, and catch them as they’re fleeing from you and a teammate. Never forget what abilities your teammates have. Sometimes the 1.5s BHS lasts for is enough for them to kill an enemy that ran astray, or that you pulled just that little bit far enough from behind their turret. It is, however, very rarely worth keeping a decayed charge around in case this happens.
(A case where this is worth it is, for instance, if your entire team is pushing a turret, and an enemy charges towards you. Since your entire team is there, and their abilities are presumably off cooldown, holding the enemy still for a second could well be all contribution needed from your part.)

(4): Basically used the same way as (3). Just bunch all those droids up and show their robot faces who’s robot boss. When in such a situation, you can also charge BHS from turrets, droids, etc., although this adds less charge per point of damage than otherwise. You’ll develop a feel for when you can and cannot afford taking this extra damage. The dumbest way to die is by tanking too much damage from a turret and dying to a wild Ayla that suddenly appears.

Originally posted by Sentry X-58:

“I’m not going back to plan your eventual demise.”

There is a build with which Sentry’s Beacon becomes a powerful nuke. This is not that build. I always buy the beacon fresh out of the drop pod, but use it mostly for its utility. Place the beacon in a strategic position. This could be:

• A hidden area, such that the beacon provides you and your team vision.
• Somewhere you can teleport to in a pinch while fleeing from the enemy team.
• A place enemy Awesomenauts might pass running away from your team, such that you can intercept them and deal some sweet damage on the side.
• At later stages of the game, next to your base so that you can teleport back if a sneaky Leon has decided to try and backdoor (make sure to place is such that teleporting back damages the offender), or next to the enemy base (if your team makes a kill or two near the centre of the map, it’s faster for you to teleport to their base instead of having to slowly roll all the way over there).

Although you can still use your beacon to do damage to passing ‘nauts, but I do not recommend seeking out situations in which you can do so with nothing but the base damage. This damage is enough, however, to clear a Gnaw nest, if such an infestation has taken place in your game.

When I say I use the Teleport Beacon for utility, I do not mean just for decoration or to simply provide vision. As Sentry, it is your job to take damage. It’s not fun, but it’s true. There will be times you’re low on health. Other ‘nauts might go to the jungle and kill some creeps, but you can leave those for your teammates, they need them more than you do. Teleport back to base by holding down shift and heal there. Now you can teleport back into the fray fully healed and your team will have hardly missed you.
As any other Awesomenaut, it would be extremely unwise to teleport back to base after the enemy team has been wiped. To push without enemy interference is the dream. However, if you’re near death as Sentry, you can pop your beacon down and be back to it in less than 10 seconds.

[cont.]

Originally posted by Sentry X-58:

“Offensive Protocol: S58.471 engaged!”

Sentry’s auto attack is rather different from any other, in that it requires some planning. But don’t worry, if you’re new to Sentry you’ll pick it up soon enough, and if you’re not I’m probably not teaching you anything new in this section.

I find that the trick to successfully using Sentry’s AA is to always be planning. Unless you’re running away from an enemy and can’t afford to lose any velocity, you’ll be wanting to just keep that left mouse button pressed down. Place your Photon Mines over an area you expect an enemy ‘naut or droids to pass through. In the case of droids, turrets, or the enemy base, you can place the mines in such a way that the damage will be dealt, just not right away. Be it by a droid walking through them, setting them off, or when they expire (and automatically deal their damage). This is useful when pushing a turret and expecting an enemy to show up: simply pull them into the pile of photon mines you have accumulated.
Note, however, that as your wave of droids grows weak, it’s better to directly hit the turret, as turrets don’t take damage if they are not targeting anything. So you don’t want your mines exploding once you’ve left.

I myself find it difficult to directly hit Awesomenauts in a team fight, so I aim for spots I’m pretty sure the enemies will come, like directly beneath them or in between two enemies.

Originally posted by Sentry X-58:

“Your refrigerator is running. Why aren’t you?”

Sentry’s mobility has its challenges and its charms.

• Challenge: you’re slow as Zork
• Charm: your impressive vertical speed lets you slip away from a lot of damage
• Challenge: your massive hitbox makes escaping past an enemy very challenging
• Charm: your massive hitbox makes blocking an enemy from escaping rather easy

The key to jumping as Sentry and making full use of his vertical speed is slamming that jump button like your life depends on it (and more often than you’d want, it does). Sentry’s jump is somewhat similar to Genji’s, if that’s of any use to you.
Use this vertical speed to get out of sticky situations and to rush to the aid of your allies in the top lane. It can also be used to block most characters from passage if the surrounding terrain allows it. Don’t be afraid to block an enemy from passing behind his turret by taking the full force its bullets. You’re a tank. Just consider if your allies will be able to take your enemy down in the time you can give them, and please don’t jump in front of a turret if you think your health is too low.

An important note that I’m not sure where to leave: When Sentry teleports back to base, he does a little animation of folding himself up. His hitbox does not change. You’ll thank me when you remember to jump over that Rocco’s arrow that looks like it’ll pass right over your collapsed head.

Upgrades and Which to Buy When

Originally posted by Sentry X-58:

“Hardware installation: Successful.”

I promised you a guide about a build, but haven’t even talked about what items to buy or in what order to do so. I’m pretty Zork at this, aren’t I?

Microfilm increased the amount of damage that the shield of BHS absorbs. This does nothing to increase damage, but if you’re having trouble escaping the enemy’s grasp while charging BHS, and dying before being able to harvest the fruits of your suffering, this might be a worthwhile pickup. I don’t really ever buy this item, but if I did, I’d also buy Cyanide Cigarettes.

Cyanide Cigarettes increases the amount of damage you can absorb into your BHS’ charge (i.e. your pink meter becomes longer). This item is essential if you want to deal damage with BHS. In the early stages of the game this item isn’t really useful, as you’ll probably not be taking enough damage to use the extended charge meter anyway, later on buy just a single stage. The last stage is usually bought after your other BHS and AA upgrades.
You’ll notice when you need it: do you often max out your pink charge bar? Get some cyanide cigarettes. Do you often have a weak BHS because you just can’t get the enemy ‘nauts to deal you the burst needed? No need to get these.

Hacking Satellite reduces the cooldown on BHS, so you can start soaking up damage sooner after having fired your previous BHS. I do not recommend ever buying this item. It does happen that you’re stuck thinking ‘If only my BHS was off cooldown right now’, while furiously tapping the right mouse button, trying to start charging. But the opportunity cost is simply too large. Most of your BHS will not be straight after the previous ones, as is, so this item is, IMHO, a waste.

Bug Detector no longer increases the gravitational pull of black hole sun. Back when it did, this item was a must have. Now, it has been given a brand new effect: a DPS to the shield that forms around you while charging BHS. I have not yet had a lot of time to figure out the ins and outs of this new effect, but I will say that, in theory, it synergises well with Night Vision Spywatch.

Night Vision Spywatch increases movement quite a bit while black hole sun is charging. This is very useful, not only to get away in a pinch if your beacon is not available for whatever reason, but also is very useful in a team fight.
Be it to initiate and really get in the enemy’s face, or to catch up with fleeing foes, this upgrade brings a lot of utility for a very good price.
I buy this in over half of my games I’d reckon, usually as the first BHS upgrade I buy.

Disguise Moustache increase the flat base damage of BHS. This ‘flat damage’ is basically the level of charge you get if you do not take any damage while charging or let the charge completely deplete. This item recently got a buff through a price reduction, greatly lessening its opportunity cost. It’s very handy in case you’re having difficulty taking the right amount of damage while charging your BHS. This means I usually pick it up when I otherwise would have picked up a first stage of Cyanide Cigarettes (although I usually get those too if the game lasts long enough, and because of the buff to this and getting rid of the old Bug Detector, I also buy this in games where I have a spare BHS slot left).

I’ll not go into great depth about what to buy for your beacon. There are far better people to give you advice on the beacon than I. If the game drags on for long enough that I start purchasing upgrades for Sentry’s beacon, we’ll be in a stage of the game where I either place it right next to my own base, or next to that of the enemy (only do this is there is still a turret protecting your base). So, I want to inflict damage on whoever is triggering me to teleport to my beacon, which I can do very effectively with Yellow King Pages. Then I buy Ringtone For The Death, as 2s of silence can really do a number on the enemy, and finally Interrogation Answering Machine, because my AA is already maxed out at this point, so bring it.

[cont.]

Not So Serious Tank increases the damage for every photon mine. This is a good upgrade to have, as it lets you kill creeps in just one shot, instead of two, and because more damage is just generally better (there’ll for sure be matches where you notice pulling enemies into a pile of your photon mines deals more damage than the BHS itself). These days I almost always buy this upgrade, although I think it’s largely personal preference. Just as when to buy it, if you do: I usually buy my other AA upgrades first, as they provide more utility, but I know some people like to build in pure damage first.

Tactical Vest adds a % of lifesteal to your photon mines. As it’s part of Sentry’s job to take damage, this comes in really handy. I usually piggy bank into this in the first couple minutes of the game. The only times you do not want to buy this are when your team is blessed by the presence of a Voltar, or when the enemy team has a Gnaw and you notice Med-i’-can is enough to keep you in the field (always buy Med-i’-can first if there’s a Gnaw, this will save your life more often when you’re dying of DoT than the lifesteal will, but there’s no shame in picking up Tactical Vest afterwards anyway if you can’t handle the pressure).

Camouflage Tent can make photon mines last over twice as long before detonating on their own. This is can really do a number on the enemy if you’ve been stacking up your mines for a while. IMHO, however, the opportunity cost rarely makes it worth getting. There are situations in which I buy it, when I not need lifesteal, for instance.

Dog Tags increases attack speed. This works really well in conjunction with Camouflage Tent and Drive-Over Skulls to really put pressure on the enemy by just having photon mines everywhere. Buy this if you’d rather forgo Not So Serious Tank. And there are many reasons you might want to do so: Dog Tags is cheaper, doesn’t give as good a bonus dps-wise, but does allow you to cover a greater area and provides an extra margin of error in those situations where every hit counts.

Drive-Over Skulls increase the explosion range of photon mines by 100%. This means the area is increased by 300%. That’s a pretty big deal. This is, in my opinion, a must-have. This is always one of the first three upgrades I buy (together with Starstorm Statue and lifesteal in AA). With Drive-Over Skulls you can do damage a lot more reliably to enemies in your BHS. You can also use this to damage enemies stationed just behind their turret or damage the enemy base by standing on top of it and shooting down. Really, you’re just dealing your damage to a lot more enemies than before.

Counter Intelligence Cross makes is so that photon mines travel towards the nearest enemy target for a limited time before exploding. This greatly increases Sentry’s range, so get this if you’re having trouble getting close to your enemy (be it because they keep their distance or because you’re rather keep yours). Again, I don’t usually buy this item as I prefer to spend my money elsewhere, but I have seen Counter Intelligence Cross being used very effectively and like using it myself, given the right circumstances.
NOTE: Since writing this bit, Counter Intelligence Cross has received a rather substantial nerf. Your mines deal only half their damage once they start homing in. I didn’t buy this before, and certainly don’t do so now.

Power Turbo Pills increase your maximum health. I cannot think of a single Awesomenaut that does not benefit from this. Sentry, as tank, simply cannot afford to not buy these. Not only will you be able to last longer in a team fight, being able to afford taking more damage makes hitting hard with your BHS a lot easier. I usually buy these as my last utility upgrade, after maxing out AA but before maxing out BHS (certainly before buying a second stage of Cyanide Cigarettes).

Med-i’-Can greatly increases your natural regeneration. This is a must when playing against a character that deals high damage over time. However, take care to buy this before considering buying Tactical Vest, in case it turns out you don’t need all that much sustainability at all. Although I often end up buying both of these items.

Space Air Max increase your movement speed. This can be a very useful upgrade to either become beter at chasing/escaping from the enemy or keep up with your team. However, I prefer to use them for the former, rather than the latter, as I think Sentry has plenty ways of escaping as is. You’ll run into trouble when your team consists of a lot faster ‘nauts than you, and they keep running off without you. I rarely buy me some boots, but when I notice I’ll need them, I buy them early in the game, as fourth of fifth item I pick up.

Baby Kuri Mammoth reduces all debuffs. This item is great in the right situation. Sentry, being slow enough as he is, greatly suffers from slow debuffs. Especially considering how often you put yourself into risky situations due to BHS. That’s why I recommend buying this item if you’re facing slow-heavy enemies or enemies that can easily snare you at a moment’s notice. It’s very cheap and only one stage, so just buy it whenever you feel like that time has come.

Piggy Bank let’s you get some extra cash early on in the game. I’m the kind of person to always pick this, because I want my build to take form quickly. There is a rather big opportunity cost though. You’ll want to buy Power Turbo Pills for sure, and often Starstorm Statue as well. So piggy banking will leave you without the freedom of a third utility upgrade (or else no statue, which isn’t a disaster tbh).

Starstorm Statue increases all your damage output by a percentage. This item works really well for Sentry, as it not only gives his AA (which you’re using all the time) a bit of a boost, but it is also a cheap upgrade to his BHS and Teleport damage, the former of which cannot otherwise get a percentile boost to its overall damage. If you decide to pick this item up (as I often do), do so early on.

In all of my games my build is very similar to the one shown below. The only thing that changes a lot is build order. My utility items might change depending op specific ‘nauts in the enemy team (Gnaw, characters that have powerful CC, ….), or because of a specific ‘naut on my team (AKA Voltar).

(http://nautsbuilder.com/#Sentry_X-58/102)

Skins and My Opinion on Them – Interlude

Sentry X-58 has, besides his default skin, two purchasable DLC skins: Giga Sentorii and the newer Specimen X-58. If you’re like me, you want to buy skins for your main character to show others how cool and special you are. However, Sentry’s default skin is already really cool. You might be thinking ‘Are the DLC skins really worth it?’ Well no worries fam, I got you.

Originally posted by Sentry X-58:

“I’ve calculated your chance of survival, but you won’t like it.”

Good ol’ telephone/umbrella/murder robot X-58. Playing Sentry with the default skin has such advantages as:

• Answering a call from your chest every now and then.
• Having cool lines (IN ENGLISH, NO LESS).
• I cannot understate how cool Sentry’s lines are. Spam taunt 24/7.
• As you won’t look any different from a new Sentry player, you can hide your power level from your enemies.

Originally posted by Giga Sentorii:

“お前の生存の確率を計算した、答えは気に入らないと思う!”

Giga Sentorii is the combination of the five Galactic Turbodinopowerzords. Here’s some things about playing with this skin skin:

• You play chill tunes from your teleport beacon.
• All the lines you know and love from the vanilla skin are there.
• They’re in Japanese though, so I don’t know what that means for you, but for me that means that I no longer know what I’m saying, and, for the most part, neither does my team.
• Tiny Power Rangers are controlling you from the inside.

Originally posted by Specimen X-58:

*ANGRY HISSING AND GROWLING*

Specimen X-58 is this weird hybrid between a robot and an alien embryo. Don’t question it. Sounds pretty dope, right? However:

• All your lines sound the same.
• They’re not even cool, just hissing and growling.
• Unless you’re into that kinda stuff, you do you.
• Your photon mines look way cooler than with any of the other skins though.
• Intimidate your opponent by having the most expensive skin (thus being really hardcore) and looking scary to boot.

In the end, I play with skins until they start to bore me, and then go back to the default skin. The default skin never bores.

Other ‘nauts and How to Help and/or Kill Them

Playing Sentry, you’ll have to be very aware of what damage your enemies and allies can do and in what kind of time frame to increase the chances of fruitful cooperation. This chapter goes into detail about what to keep in mind when playing with/against the different Awesomenauts.

I find that, more than with any other ‘naut, it highly depends on your enemy’s skillz when facing a Frodgy.
Either you can make use of his short range to easily charge your BHS and catch him on the end of his dash. Maybe he knows to be weary of you, and won’t let you pull him in without his dash being off cooldown. Watch out for such a frog, his tornado is an easy way to charge BHS, but tanking it without your shield is in no way advised.

Having a Frodgy on your team can also go either way, depending on whether or not they understand the concept of teamwork. You could help Frodgy get some mean kills by letting him dash through your BHS or tornadoing all up in there. Or he could constantly be off on his own. If this ends up being the case, there comes a point where it is no longer valuable to keep following him. Frodgy is too fast for you to keep up, better to hang out with your other teammate.

I think Lonestar’s a pretty cool character. He’s good at a lot of stuff and fun to play. When facing him, he isn’t that big a threat, provided you do not take any trinomite to the face while BHS is on cooldown.

When playing with a Lonestar, try to catch the enemies as they get knocked back by his bull. It’s always frustrating when you both get the same idea and a bull knocks your enemies away just as you pop BHS. To avoid this, wait until his bull has either pinned the enemy or is about to despawn before attempting to go in for the catch.

Leon has some pretty good burst, but with your BHS’s shield you don’t care that much about that. Just make sure he doesn’t catch you out on your own. If he can silence you while you’ve wandered off from your team, I don’t like your chances.

Playing with a Leon can be either dope az or pretty frustrating, depending on whether or not Leon is willing to take some risks, or prefers to hang out in invis while watching you fight a 1v2.

Scoop “da woop” of Justice is one of the more annoying ‘nauts to play against, mostly due to his high health and sustainability. Getting hit with his hammer, followed by a whirlwind of swords is not something you want to avoid. Because of his high health and low speed, he is easy to catch, but ultimately difficult to kill without dedicated teamwork.

In theory, Scoop and Sentry could do some nice work together. But because of Scoops slow speed, this can become hard to pull off. Either you or the Scoop can initiate, followed by you charging you BHS and pulling the enemy in. At this point Scoop delivers the burst with Bindings of Justice. What often ends up happening though, is that you’re ready to pop BHS but Scoop is too far away and has already used his hammer. A lacklustre Bindings deals some burst to the enemies as they’re as good as gone, with nobody to chase after them.

I, for one, hate both playing with and against a Gnaw. DoT disheartens me. When facing a competent Gnaw, always get Med ‘i Can. You can use your beacon or BHS to clear his plants.

I don’t have much to say about playing with a Gnaw on your team, as I avoid those situations as often as I can. Try to pull enemies into the range of his plants, I guess. Body block for his plants whenever you’re pushing without any enemies in sight.

Raelynn can do wonders with Sentry, provided you stick closely together and can react properly. Pull enemies into her timerift whenever you can. A common Raelynn combo is timerift -> snipe, so if you’ve bunched up all the enemies into your BHS by the time the Pulserifle is about to go off, ez killz are to be had.

Facing a Raelynn though, oh boy. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but slow does a serious number on Sentry. Your jump, which I, for one, use as my main dodging tool, becomes useless. You’re forced to literally stand there and take it. If you end up in Rae’s timerift without BHS’s shield to protect you, rip in peace. On the bright side, you can use the fact that Rae’s snipe has to charge for a bit to sprint towards her and catch her in your BHS (provided your health allows it and you have some way of finishing the job).

As with Raelynn, good luck if Ayla’s on top of you while you’re slowed. A one-way ticket to the scrapyard. If you manage to catch her just as she exits rage, very good job.

Playing with an Ayla can be fun, but this depends mostly on how good the Ayla is and how you compare to the enemy team, solar- and levelwise. She should be able to rage all over the enemies in your BHS for easy kills.

Clunk is less of a pain to play against than Scoop, as his long range game is less strong. Clunk will move towards to you when using his explode. Use this to charge your BHS and catch him. Don’t worry about his bite too much, just dodge it whenever you can, no biggy otherwise.

When playing with Clunk, nice things can happen, if your timing is on point. I recommend sticking as close to Clunk as you can as you feel an explode approaching. Just when Clunk starts charging up the explosion, launch your BHS to pull your enemies toward the both of you.

If you are blessed enough to have a Voltar on your team, good job, you just won the game. Don’t let your precious Voltar die, you and him are one now. Make sure he never leaves you side. Tank all the damage that would come his way. If your Voltar is good at what he does, he will shoot his drones into your BHS, damaging all its current inhabitants. When pushing, you can periodically tank the turret’s damage to make sure none of your droids die, while Voltar heals them with his Healbot.

Playing against a Voltar is tricky in a similar way to Scoop’s annoyingness. If you can’t manage to kill an enemy purely from BHS/your team’s damage just after BHS goes off, don’t bother. Unless one of your teammates can hunt them down quickly, they’ll be healed by the time you get close. Let them retreat and focus on killing droids.

A Coco can be both a blessing and a curse. Her Ball Lightning can damage all enemies in BHS, but also push them out of it. She can also hunt down enemies well, compensating for your limited mobility.

Playing against a Coco is similar. Slow, ugh. A ball flying towards you faster than you can dodge, ugh. A character way faster than you and with a shredding AA, uuuuuugh. Just don’t let Coco separate you from your pack.

[cont.]

Remember what I’ve been saying about different ‘nauts being annoying to play against? They pale in comparison to Skolldir. Mighty Throw can rip you out of your carefully considered position. Positioning is one of Sentry’s key components, so this is a big deal. And then you’ve got the potential slow too….

Playing with a Skolldir can be pretty chill. Either catch enemies right after they’ve been thrown or in a place where Skolldir can perform his formidable AA.

If you see this Russian space monkey, you might want to get scared. If the enemy Yuri realises the potential of his Time Warp, type GG WP and hope for your teammates to carry you. I have nothing to let you not get destroyed. If the monkey however chooses to upgrade his mines instead, use these whenever you want to charge your BHS with little risk (make sure there aren’t more mines laying there than meets the eye though, or you’ll regret it). I don’t know if you’re familiar with the tradition of catching chocolate eggs being thrown from a church on Easter, but basically just pretend you’re standing there with your little straw basket doing the catching.

A Yuri on your team can be nice whatever he builds, as long as he’s gud. If he builds mines he can drop them on top of your BHS or you can pull enemies into them. If he’s into Time Warp, he can heal you and make your BHS’s cooldown go away in the blink of an eye. With the warp’s added speed you can also get all up in the enemies faces. Good for Yuri for planting mines and good for you for collecting some charge.

My main advice about getting caught in Derpl’s snares, is: don’t. Unless you’re trying to bait the enemy team and have your allies waiting to come to the rescue, avoid Derpl’s snare at all costs. Derpl in Siege Mode, however, is not too scary, provided it has been a fair battle. Use his Nuke or bullets/rockets to charge, and launch it when you think he’ll be wanting to exit Siege Mode, holding him in place for your allies to feast on.

A Derpl on your team is cool for many reasons. He won’t run away from you, his snares give you easy targets for BHS, and if you’re feeling each other well he can send a nuke into your BHS. Depending on what your third teammate is, you might have to say goodbye to your team every now and them to clear the opposite lane. Just do this quickly (preferable without using BHS) and get back to your mates.

Vinnie’s greatest power against you is his Smoke Screen. Knowing who is where is vital for your survival, and if he added a silencing effect he’s not doing you any favours either. Dive shouldn’t be lethal, unless you were in mortal danger anyway.

Vinnie on your team is nice, provided he wait for your BHS to deploy before diving. However, because Vinnie is just a tad faster than you and does require your tanking abilities to prosper, there’s a chance your ally will wander off, you following increasingly further behind, and get himself into danger you cannot shield him from. Just hope he’s better than that.

Genji can counter you pretty badly. His cocoon allows his team to surround you and tear you to shreds with burst damage, especially since your cooldowns get frozen while inside of a cocoon these days. Also, Monarch Blessing can strengthen the enemy team quite a bit, making what could’ve been a triple kil, three enemies in a too good condition with a thirst for blood.

A Genji on your team isn’t ideal either, as he’s too slow and doesn’t have a high enough DPS to complement your own abilities well. Just use your body to block the enemies’ escape after they’ve been cocooned or fire your BHS at them when the cocoon burst open.

Admiral Swigswag is a cool dude, but just like Genji, it’s a bit too much to have him on your team, unless he invests heavily into damage. How bad he is to play against mostly depends on whom he’s playing with, he makes all the annoying ‘nauts more annoying and the easy peasy ‘nauts are as easy to pick off as they used to be.

Rocco is annoying not only to Sentry, but in general. He can do massive damage up close and constantly harass you from afar. His speed is also too high to keep up with, so good luck catching him without Night Vision Spywatch. If he’s caught you up close while BHS is on cooldown and he’s using his Vengeance, better hope there’s an ally near to come in and save you, because it’s not looking too hot otherwise.

A Rocco on your team is alright if you manage to get a lot of enemies into your BHS, and Rocco doesn’t leave you to fend for yourself too often.

A good Ksenia is any tanks nightmare. She can inflict massive burst damage, and slow you if that wasn’t enough. However, he can often catch her and make her modest health bar work in your favour.

A Ksenia on your team is useful to hunt down those enemies that escaped your BHS with just a sliver of health, or throw all her scissors into an enemy-rich BHS.

An Ix that knows the ins and outs of his trade can negate a lot of your damage from both himself, as well as his allies (e.g. displacing with an enemy in your BHS and negating the damage with Refract, or bonding with his ally and displacing just as the BHS is about to go off will in both cases allow the two of them to get off without a scratch.

An Ix in your team is useful for displacing enemies into your BHS, healing you, and just his general damage output. You’ll notice that Ix can tank a lot of damage for you, but don’t forget that you can tank for him too if the occasion arises.

[cont.]

Ted can be a pain in the ELF is he works together with his team to deal his airstrike’s full damage. Especially because of the different ways he can stun you. I actually don’t recommend catching his airstrike like you might do with Yuri’s mines, except maybe when in a fight, since the damage Ted does is a bit too much to rationalise taking it for free.

Playing with a Ted can work out pretty well if you manage to pull enemies into his airstrike. His shotgun also works together with your BHS really well.

Penny is really fast and can easily escape with a Pounce. Because of her low health, however, if you catch her chargeless, she’s dead. Especially in less open maps you can often catch a Penny that’s put herself in a risky situation and catch her using BHS. You’ll always want to fire BHS at where she’s going to be when it goes off. Especially in the case of Penny can this be tricky, as she can go a lot of ways very quickly. But if you do manage to pull it off, gj, free kill.

I’ve has a lot of luck playing with a Penny on my own team recently. Especially hitting enemies in BHS with an Energy Pulse to amplify the damage they take does wonders. Energy Pulse can also be used to damage enemies in those BHS’s that you shoot behind enemy turrets or barriers to just barely catch fleeing enemies.

Playing against a fellow Sentry is usually pretty relaxing, as you (after some practise) know what’s going on. You’ll be able to predict what he’s doing with his teleport and his BHS. As the enemy Sentry will also be planting Photon Mines all over the place, you can use these to charge your BHS if a fight breaks out.

If you’re playing with a Sentry on your own team, what are you doing? I thought you were Sentry? What’s happening?

As you know by now, slow is the death of Sentry. That’s why a Skree that works well with his team is so deadly. As long as he hasn’t bought slow yet, his totem and Saw Blade aren’t a big threat, unless you find yourself outnumbered.

I haven’t had a lot of luck playing with Skree’s, but in theory it’s a match that could work very well. Enemies are denied passage by Skree’s totem, Skree will probably fire his Saw Blade at them, and this is the moment where you fire BHS. I’m not sure why this rarely works in practise for me. Maybe Skree’s burst just isn’t what I thought it was.

You don’t stand a chance against Nibbs if she catches you on her own, blinks towards you after having bought additional slowing power and melts your face off. So don’t let that happen. If you’re on you own and you see a Nibbs, run the other way.
In a teamfight you should be okay though, Nibbs will either keep her distance or come to close and (hopefully) beaten up by you and your team.

Having a Nibbs on your team is cool for both you, as fire + BHS is just straight deadly. Her Orb of Omicron is good for her to chase enemies and for you to catch up with the now-slowed foe.

Yoolip’s golden move is to grip you while his dinos munch all over you. This will kill any ‘naut pretty quickly. If you see his dinos and Yoolip’s close, don’t be a smartass and try to charge BHS on them. The risk is too great. Maybe go to a stray dino as he’s close to the end of his life to charge.
Be VERY wary of your own effect on his dinos, as BHS’s gravitational pull also affects them. You could, for instance, pull his dinos into your BHS, together with Yoolip, have Yoolip grip you while in BHS, and as soon as BHS explodes, the dinos will rain upon you. This really hurts.

A Yoolip on your team is fun whichever way he’s building him. Either you can get some sweet heals, or killer dinos. You’re also in a postition to tank for Yoolip if he’s gripping one of the enemies, but vulnerable to the other two.

Chuchu can deal some serious damage, and force you into certain positions with his Sticky Bomb. You’ll hate to hear he can also apply some serious slow.

A Chuchu on your team is great. His Sticky Bomb reaches its full potential when it detonates in the centre of a BHS full of enemies. Having his turret near you as you do your thing is also a game changer.

A Lux on their own is nothing to be scared about, although they are very potent in a teamfight.

Similarly, Sentry and Lux on their own don’t make a strong combo. They can net deal some serious damage, but won’t be great at netting kills or pushing for extended amounts of time.

Maps and Some Thoughts About Them

There are at the time of writing 5 competitive maps in-game.

Ribbit is the map with the solar boss. You might remember this map from ’12 Reasons Why I Hate Yuri’, and ‘The Jump Boosters Want to Kill Me’.
I think this map gives a rather neutral experience when playing Sentry. You play in very close corners, so the enemy has few places to go. But on the other hand, the same is true for you. Watch out for Skolldirs and Derpls on this map, the proximity of the two frontward top turrets really plays to their advantage in the early game.

I usually place my beacon in one of the hidden areas in the centre of the map, and hang about my team, shooting mines all over the place. A good place to do this is just above the platform above the top-lane hidden area.

Something that I don’t like as much about this map is how close everything is to each other vertically. It limits you from using Sentry’s jump to its full potential, and makes going bottom/top or top/bottom without using the booster pads somewhat of a chore.

Also, don’t bother with the Solar Boss too much, it’s generally not worth the time in Sentry’s case.

AI Station is a very tall and wide map. The middle section is great for Sentry is three ways:

• When there’s a fire roaring between top and bottom lane, you can use this to charge your BHS (taking very little damage), and have a reasonably charged BHS to surprise your enemies with once you reach the bottom.
• There are few things more enjoyable than trapping an enemy in BHS while there’s fire charring their bodies.
• When the fire machine is off, you can move to the top lane quicker than most ‘nauts.

The two sections on either side of the incinerator are also nice and open, but have booster pads to get to any corner quickly. When on the enemy side, you can use these to get away from the enemy for just long enough to teleport to your beacon. I usually place my beacon near my bottom turret or near the creeps up top.

On the humming droids: place your mines in their path while moving away from them to kill them without taking any damage. Use your own humming droids to damage enemies in your BHS (they have low health, so you’ll need to take a few hits to protect them).

The middle section of Sorona is very open in a way quite different from AI Station 205. There’s a hidden area in the centre of the map, I recommend putting your beacon in here for visibility, but be cautious when teleporting to it. You can do some fancy tricks combining your teleport and BHS to pull/lure enemies under the platform and quickly pressing the button to kill them. As cool as pulling something like this off is, there are other ways of killing enemies, and the worm can feed off other things. Like droids!
I usually keep the fight on the top lane, so to prevent the other team from pushing our bottom lane, feed all droids to the worm. You get some neat solar with little risk, since you can teleport to safety.

Fights often move towards either of the creep areas on the top layer of the map. Whatever side you’re fighting on, this is a good spot to use your BHS and predicting abilities to catch enemies just as they come flying off the boosters at the map’s centre.
Another place this works is the top lane. Enemies using the boosters will land on the edge of the platform. Fire your BHS when you can tell on the minimap that they’re approaching.
Just like on other maps, catching enemies in front of your own turret and pulling them back from behind theirs is a solid strategy. I end up doing this more here than on other maps because of how the front turrets are placed near both creeps and a booster pad.

Aiguillon has all the features Ribbit has that I like, but none of the bad ones. It’s easy to move from one lane to the other, but difficult to move side to side when there’s a big ol’ Sentry in the way. I can hardly count how many times I’ve caught an enemy frantically jumping up and down in the bottom lane. You can also shoot your BHS into the bottommost hidden area before going in yourself when chasing an enemy. Overshoot your BHS slightly to the side opposite to which you’re entering.

About the invisibility: Let one of your teammates take it. Only take it yourself if to deny it from the enemy, or if you have a fresh, fully charged BHS.

THIS SECTION IS OUTDATED AS THE MAP HAS SINCE BEEN CHANGED
The newest map, Starstorm Station was met with some controversy, as it so strongly favours certain characters. Sentry is unfortunately not one of these ‘nauts. That is not to say, however, that Sentry performs poorly on this map. Simply that other ‘nauts perform better.
The centre bottom lane is very tall, which Sentry can use to his advantage. On a good day you can jump from the bottom to the top lane, but don’t bet your life on it.

I also find Sentry isn’t awful in jukes that happen at the very bottom of the map. If you let the fight drag on long enough without letting the enemy use the teleporter entrance, I like your chances of shoving them off into the abyss. Don’t ever attempts this with enemies like Lonestar or Penny though.
Another thing to do with the portals is to place photon mines around the exit portal when you see teammates chasing enemies downward, or you otherwise have a suspicion that a wounded enemy might come through.

Conclusion

I know you’re supposed to have a conclusion, but not what goes into one. So…. here’s a bunny:

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( – -)
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Seriously though, I hope this guide was helpful. If you’ve read through all of this (or just a bit, idk) and have some feedback, go right ahead and leave a comment, I’ll get around to reading it.