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Sentry gun
Gameplay
Inventory Slot Equipment
Equipment Type Portable Sentry Turret
Statistics
Amount 1 sentry
Health 400
Damage 30
Capacity 100 rounds
Other
Internal name sentry_gun
sentry_gun_silent
v·d·e
Description
A sentry gun is a gun that automatically aims and fires at targets that are detected by its sensors. Historically, military sentry guns were used for detecting and destroying short range incoming missiles and enemy aircrafts.

The sentry gun is one of the two deployable traps in PAYDAY 2, with the other being Trip Mines.

Overview[]

The sentry has a radar that is designated to shoot law enforcement only. While the gun doesn't target civilians and heisters, and the latter cannot be harmed by the sentry, it will kill whoever is in the crossfire, including the former. Hovering one's crosshair over their Sentry will display its total loaded ammo as a percentage on the player's HUD, allowing the owner to monitor its remaining capacity. When the sentry gun is out of ammunition, it will tilt down and it's highlight will turn red.

The sentry gun will actively target and shoot at enemies that enter its detection radius and will not switch targets until its current target is dead or no longer near it. The sentry gun will only stop functioning once it runs out of ammo or is destroyed. The sentry gun can be destroyed by being shot too much by police officers, or having explosives like grenades detonate near it. Players can however, "repair" a damaged sentry gun before it can be destroyed by picking it up and re-deploying it. 

A suppressed version of the Sentry Gun can be unlocked with the basic Engineering skill.

Placement[]

As of the skill tree rework, deploying Sentry Guns now costs ammo. The game checks if the player have 30%/25%/20% ammo for both their primary AND secondary weapon. If this check fails, a sentry is not placed. If it succeeds, the sentry is placed and the appropriate percentage is deducted from said player's current ammo (not based on max ammo). This makes it possible to place all 6 sentries if you have full ammo and Third Law basic (25%)[1]. Picking up a Sentry Gun refunds the unit's remaining ammo to the player's inventory.

Upgrades[]

Third Law

Third Law
Technician: Engineer Tier 1
Basic (1 pt): The cost of deploying a sentry gun is reduced by 5%.
Ace (3 pt): Your sentry guns gain a protective shield.
Sentry Targeting Package2

Sentry Targeting Package
Technician: Engineer Tier 2
Basic (2 pt): Your sentry guns gain a 100% increase in accuracy.
Ace (4 pt): Your sentry guns rotation speed is increased by 150%. Your sentry guns also have 50% more ammunition.
Eco Sentry

Eco Sentry
Technician: Engineer Tier 2
Basic (2 pt): The cost of deploying a sentry gun is reduced by 5%.
Ace (4 pt): Your sentry guns gain 150% increased health.
Engineering

Engineering
Technician: Engineer Tier 3
Basic (3 pt): You can now select a less noisy version of the sentry guns, making them much less likely to be targeted by enemies.
Ace (6 pt): You can now toggle AP rounds on your sentry guns, lowering the rate of fire by 75%, but increasing the damage by 250% and allowing it to pierce through enemies and shields.
Jack Of All Trades U100

Jack Of All Trades
Technician: Engineer Tier 3
Basic (3 pt): You deploy and interact with all deployables 50% faster.
Ace (6 pt): You can now equip a second deployable to bring with you. If your deployable is equipped as a secondary deployable, you can only bring half of what you would bring if it was equipped as a primary deployable.
Press X to toggle between deployables.
Tower Defense

Tower Defense
Technician: Engineer Tier 4
Basic (4 pt): You can now carry 1 extra sentry guns.
Ace (8 pt): You can now carry an additional 2 extra sentry guns.

Tips[]

When it is first acquired, the sentry gun is not very effective at killing enemies, as it has poor accuracy, and a small ammo reserve. It is most useful as a distraction at best, as some police will focus their attention on the sentry, leaving the players free to either flank the police or flee the area.

After the sentry gun has been upgraded decently, it becomes a very effective killing machine. It can be used to thin out a large group of police, provide cover while recovering a downed player, carrying bags to the escape vehicle, guard specific points and hostages, or as a general distraction while trying to get from point A to point B.

If a player carrying the sentry is about to get downed, that player may wish to drop the sentry to provide cover for revival.

The bane of the sentry gun, however, presents itself in the form of the Shield special unit. The Shield is fully protected from a sentry's fire while facing it. While Sentry Guns will target Shields last, they will fire at a Shield they have locked on to until they run out of ammo or the Shield dies somehow, so a sentry can easily waste its entire ammo supply on one Shield alone. For this reason, it's best not to drop the sentry if a Shield is around, and players should attempt to flank and kill any Shield that is nearing an active sentry. Alternatively, keep a close watch of the sentry's targeted area and set your sentry to AP (armor piercing) rounds when it's firing at a Shield.

Another issue with sentry guns is not only do they take the user's ammo but should they be destroyed, players cannot salvage any ammo that was left in said deployables. However, users can simply pick up a damaged sentry and redeploy it to undo any sustained damage before it is destroyed.

Some players may prefer AP rounds over the standard ammo to conserve ammo. The default setting can quickly exhaust the ammo in a sentry gun thus necessitating a refill more than often.

The sentry may be used as a substitute for an ammo bag; it kills enemies without using any of the players' ammunition, and each enemy killed by the sentry drops additional ammunition. This is best used when there is a group of enemies, or on higher difficulties. Using a weapon with a high ammo pickup rate, scour for dropped ammunition, then reload the sentry would be the most efficient tactic. Once you ace Jack of All Trades, you can deploy an ammo bag, which you could use for refilling your sentry.

Beware that, unlike an ammo or medic bag, if you place it on an object that disappears later on, such as on top of the thermal drill on bank heist, it will disappear with the object, so care should be taken on where you put the sentry.

It is also best to equip weapons in which ammo drops can easily replenish their respective reserves. For example, having the OVE9000 Saw or the HRL-7 can greatly hinder ammo management if an ammo bag is not available. As such, anyone with a sentry gun build must carefully choose which weapons to bring in a heist. 

A Sentry is most effective if situated in corners, in or behind enemy pathways where it can have the widest cone of vision while still be able to defend its position. Placing it in a corner next to, behind or in whatever position facing a possible entry point of law enforcers ensures that the Sentry can drop multiple targets in short order with little to no resistance.

If a Sentry runs out of ammo. the only way to refill it is to pick it up and place it back down again. (assuming you have enough ammo to place it again)

Trivia[]

  • The in-game description seems to refer to automated military weapon systems such as the Centurion C-RAM, a radar-equipped Gatling gun emplacement used to shoot down enemy mortar, artillery shells, rocket fire and potentially to a limited extent, military aircraft. In real life, the machinery used to remotely operate these weapons is extremely heavy and also very large.

  • Sentrygun-icon

    old Sentry

    Prior to Update 100, the sentry gun appeared as a motorized Heckler & Koch MP5K stowed in a suitcase with a relatively small drum magazine. It received a total overhaul in Update 100 and now appears as a rigged Kobus 90 on an armored contraption instead, with what seems to be a GoPro camera fixed in front of the SMG's iron sights as a rudimentary targeting system.
    • In the safe house, you can still see the components of the old sentry gun.
    • Upon launch of the game, the Sentry Gun could rotate in quite a wide angle despite being housed in a small tackle box with no visible axis or wheels.
  • Despite being a deployable, it can be listed as one's favorite weapon after a heist. This is the case if the deployable happens to kill more enemies than the player could with their normal weapons.
  • This is the only deployable that will cause NPCs and cameras to be alerted if spotted, even if it does not fire.
    • Still, Sentry Guns will alert guards and civilians in a large radius when they do fire, regardless of if they have a suppressor.
  • Despite having a separate AP ammo box loaded on the unit by default, the Sentry Gun can't actually utilize these special rounds until upgraded with Engineering aced.

Bugs[]

  • The loss of ammo when deploying a Sentry Gun behaves strangely, likely unintentionally. While the minimum ammo requirement for deploying a Sentry Gun is always calculated correctly (30% of maximum ammo by default, or 20% with Third Law basic and Eco Sentry basic), after a sentry gun is deployed the player loses an amount of ammo equal to 30%-20% of their on-hand ammo rather than 30%-20% of their maximum ammo.[1]
  • An "exploit" of using sentries would be selecting double 6 ammo grenade launchers to get your placement cost to 1 ammo and your pickup gain, given the sentry is not empty, will always be at least 1 ammo. It sometimes would give or take 2 ammo but would never take away your last (2/6 to both weapons to 0/6) bullet so you get unlimited redeployments as long as you redeploy before said sentry runs out.
  • If playing with a high latency host (i.e. lagging), one can pick up the same sentry 'twice' before it disappearing. This will in return give the player two sentries instead of one. This process can be repeated as many times as one desires, and its easier if done with a fast weapon switch speed.
    • In addition, the PAYDAY 2 cheater detection will only register if one is carrying more than 4 sentries at once per slot. One can carry 6 sentries if using Jack Of All Trades. Any higher than that will result in being marked for cheats.
  • In certain heists, such as The Big Bank and Border Crystals, if the player deploys a sentry gun on certain handrail sections, the sentry gun won't be deployed and make deploying any further deployables impossible for the remainder of the heist.
    • This can be reset by respawning, either by going into custody and being traded, or leaving the lobby and rejoining if the player is not the lobby host.

References[]

Gallery[]

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