Hello fellow Technicians and welcome to my guide on the Sentry Gun. This is my first guide so bear with me as it may not be the best, but I assure you the information inside will be an asset to you!

This guide is written from my personal opinion and experience from over 2,000 hours of Sentry Gun play in multiple games. I guess you can say if a game has a Tech/Engi class with a Sentry I've probably played it before (some maybe too much). I've also logged around 250 hours in PAYDAY: The Heist and over 300 hours in PAYDAY 2. Basically, I know the PAYDAY mechanics a little bit!

In this time I've learned a few things: I play too many games, but also that fundamentally the way to efficently use them are all the same. I guess you could also say I've tried and failed just about every possible method of utilizing a Sentry. I hope my bazillions of mistakes that have shaped my thought process about these fun gadgets will also prove to enhance your gameplay as well.

Without failure, we never learn and I encourage you be creative as well. While using positions and tips I talk about are fine, my hope is beyond that. That you'll be able to come up with this kind of stuff on your own.

What I hope this guide does is demonstrate not only the effectiveness of the Sentry Gun itself, but rather, demonstrate my thought process -- my experience -- with pictures, and in-depth disection of the mechanics and the what, why, and hows. My goal is not to tell you how to play. My methods are far from the end-all-be-all. My goal is to show you how I play and why I play this way so you may take all, or any, of that information and adapt it to your game. I'm not a fan of guides that push one partciular thing or another, and I hope mine is objective and unbiased. I hope it provides a thought framework you can use to determine how to best incorporate not only the Sentry, but your surroundings to your advantage.

What you read will most likely be revised, expanded, or removed over the next few weeks so check back often. Favorite the guide if you like it (it also helps me know how many are probably looking back for new editions). And if you don't mind, please Rate it up or down. I don't mind negatives if you feel it's not good. I just would prefer some feedback in some way shape or form!

Before we start I'm going to be upfront. This guide has grown to be rather large, and if you're looking for some quick guide this is not for you. If you're truely interested in understanding the Sentry Gun , it's utility, it's power, and how to be one hell of a badass criminal then this is for you.

Grab a drink, hit the bathroom, this is going to be long but well worth your time (I hope).

Do you know the one critical thing that seperates the techs that lead people to believe the Sentry Gun is useless and the ones who prove them wrong? Position! Position is key to sentry gun success.

Before we deploy our Sentry Gun we need to meet a few criteria:

• 3 Points of attack at most
  
• Close to our drill
  
• Problematic Objects are nuetralized

Below is my standard bank setup when the vault spawns on this side. You may not at first moment notice exactly what is going on, so let me explain with my terribad MS Paint skills what is really going on in this setup.

• Red (Bottom) = Non-Points of Attack
  
• Red (Top) = Range
  
• Blue = Problematic Objects

Lets look at the bottom red line. Placing the Sentry Gun prior to this notch in the wall will insure you do not attack those along the window (outside units), but can hit the back red line as they creep up (from windows to the right). We may not always be able to board up this first window (or any), but it is prefered if possible to board up the windows.

Lets look at Problematic Objects represented by the blue lines. Badly placed sentries will actually shoot out of the window if you position it up farther than shown (the exact length I cannot be positive) which is why it's crucial to keep it back there.

We have other Problematic Objects (two doors). The door on the left actually breaks into a point of attack, which is why we must be behind them. This position will allow you to only shoot targets entering this left door after they've entered it, meaning you won't waste bullets shooting the pesky cops on the roof stairs or back door area. However, the right door is not going to have as much of a break. It'll shoot anything who steps in view of the door, regardless if they're still in the printer room. Hey, nothing is perfect, but I'm sure you can handle anyone entering from the printer room.

For the record you might be asking why not use the area the medic pack is? Well, you can absolutely use this but you must be aware of the exact spot you place it. The left door, as any bank player knows, has the right corner area where cops sit and shoot from (through the door) making it more than possible to shoot cops that are close but not actually effecting us. It's more forgiving if you use the left side as that becomes not an issue what so ever. For me, I rather not shoot things until they jeprodize my objectives.


While much is out of our view here I did my best to guess where the physical model lines are but I'm sure they're off. You get the idea. I personally sit exactly where you see me most of this map.

I place my Sentry gun here for a few reasons, most notably because I'm inside here and when it goes off I know to check my Problematic Objects. Keep in mind on a good team where you see other people is never going to be your concern. Techs should not be venturing out; that's not our job. So my focus is securing the immediate area, and often as you see in this game many put bags in here, making it even more improtant to become a safe heaven.

Lets move on. This is what I call a 2.5 point of attack, because of the stairs being a Problematic Object but only the very top (stairs) of it we can negate most of the troops not actually on the very top by keeping the Sentry gun right ouside the door and not on the top of the stairs, which would open us to a full 3 point attack. From here the far right red line would be the line of sight down to the windows cops jump in during assaults, as do snipers aim through them so be careful of snipers when clearing units from that location.

It is VERY important we do not set our Sentry Gun in such a way it shoots at these window cops. It is VERY important we walk out to our gun every half minute or so and look down the right lines and shoot those cops from afar. Most will not even move position until they see you making them not a threat until you feel like dealing with them.

Now the top right blue line is the kitchen type area and it's Problematic because not only will multiple SWATS spawn around there but multiple Specials should be expected throughout as well. Our gun may or may not shoot at those in the kitchen depending their range, which is why it's crucial we come out here and there and pre-clear what we can before it gets in range.

The left blue line is where units may come from if no one is on the balcony (here you see someone is taking care of that making it non-Problematic) and the top left red line is a wall meaning we have no point of attack from there (thankfully) and are safe. However, if the balcony is not guarded we must also look at the top left blue line as well as right red line when going to our gun to check for enemies. Lastly, with addition of Cloakers this bottom blue line Problematic Object is the ceiling vent which cloakers bust out to drop in from. Keep an eye out for it. If possible , ask a C4 tech to put a mine on it :)

After a few rounds on maps with these type of vents in your preferred area you'll get rather used to anticipating and pro-actively being aware of these drop-in spots and keep a constant eye out.

So another one of my favorite maps is nightclub, which is quite peculiar as it used to be my most hated (I got lost a lot, I couldn't see a damn thing). A few play throughs and that flashlight fixed it and made it much more enjoyable. Once we get civs tied up and place our gas cans and get the drills going I'll always come up to this spot:


This area is important for a few reasons, but most noteably the Loot Drop Truck. Whilst the safe spawns are dynamic and it may not spawn up here you're still going to be coming up to toss some bags out and for this reason I setup here. There's limiited points of attack and the Sentry Gun can neutralize every single one, but not just that, it's safest to sit at. There's only a few ways to be hit, all requiring the AI to bottleneck itself here on our stairs which is quite perfect because between the Sentry or your weapons nothing should live too long.

One thing to note here is the yellow box. I put this here because it's important. When using this table over the safe (which didn't spawn upstairs this hiest) somewhere around this area is the area where your Sentry Gun will actually shoot accross the dance floor on to the upper floor on the other side. NOT GOOD!

It took a little tinkering to realize that there was a point on that table I could not cross without the gun shooting accross the dance floor. One Shield unit can drop your ammo to empty long before you can sprint over and up there to kill them. I recommend placing your Sentry gun on the safe unless it's not there. If you want to use the left wall without the safe set it IN FRONT of the table (say in the area between the two windows, against the left wall) or you will not shoot the guys who drop in from the top glass thing, or scale the right windows that look down to the dance floor. Remember, you want to hit every possible entry point you can without opening your Sentry up to too much points of attack or setting it in areas it's likely to be damaged easily..

When you run in to Problematic Objects in your poisition remember very small tweaks in the deployment position can resolve them. The example is something like this table. Using the very [left] edge of the table fixes it. It's also great at shooting Shields when they come in the window. Since I sit in the back left wall (back against wall, pressed up against left wall) I can shotgun Shields who come in and are not killed by the Sentry Gun. I can also quickly dart out the window to kill the snipers once Bain says they're coming, keeping the Loot Truck free of fire for crewmates who always seem to forget about Snipers being there and to inch out to check for them before just going to the window an tossing bags out.

One last reason I love this spot. You never know if the van will spawn out back or out front. So.. by sitting in the basically center of the map it's not more effort to run to either location. I do not have shinobi and I wear a heavy armor so I am rather slow, and if I can spare time I will. Too often I'd be at one or the other location ahead of time only to have to run to the other side... I just sit here and wait. My Sentry lasts long enough, usually, to get the escape so I might as well stay up there.



Many people love to put a gun here on this register counter corner. I used to, but I find because the drills are so far away (even if you sit on the one up the stairs to the left) Shields are a problem. You will get a lot of kills but unless someone is down there to handle the Shield unit more often than not you'll be out of ammo long before one drill even finishes. If your team is solid or you have multiple sentry gun players then go for it. It is a fun spot. And I don't want to say it's bad because there is always advantages to halting the cops before they enter, and this window is one of the main points of entry for them. So neturalizing it (maybe later in the game) is a very valid strategy. I just opt not to use it myself because It offers enemies 4 points of attack!.


What you see here is me deploying both Sentry Guns together, something I will rarely ever do or recommend. However I find it is rather useful on Rats because many players seem to want to go downstairs all the time or whatever it may be and more oftan than not I'm left upstairs to deal with windows, cooking, the left door, and sometimes the stairs at the same time.

We'll talk about the left Sentry Gun first. I sit myself the stair case as you see me here the whole map. It is the best spot for a few reasons. No snipers have line of sight to you being the most important. The left Sentry Gun takes care of things coming up the stairs (as do I) and the right Sentry Gun takes care of the units coming in the back windows. And if any come from the top left door then, by defaullt, they will run accross the room right in to the line of sight to the second Sentry Gun, giving them a double dose of bullets on top of mine; basically, short of Shield overload nothing is living here. Unfortuatnely, it leaves no "Oh ♥♥♥♥" Sentry (more on that later) but it is one risk I will take, because this is more fun.

As we know many maps you won't even need the utility of the Sentry Gun so where you put it can not be an issue. For example on Four Stores or Mall Crasher I have my prefered spots but the reality is they do not matter much. Given enough time you'll realize the real reality is that no map matters where you put it, so long as you can meet the critiera.

So remember, when picking your positions: Less points of attack is best. Defend that Sentry Gun. Keep Drill Running. Pro-active 'route running' will keep would-be problem units from overwhelming your Sentry. When wandering away the second you hear that gun go off run back to it to protect it. That might be a Shield, and 1 second of extra fire is one extra second you will not have anymore.

That's about it for positions. I may add more maps later if people are interested. It boils down to preferance!

You know everything I told you in Sentry Gun Positions #1 and #2? Throw it out the window! No, just kidding, but sometimes our "favorite" spots to play with our Sentry Gun is not available. So we must adapt and find a new spot that will provide efficent results using our available surroundings. This happens a lot more than many may think, but they probably have not thought of using it to their advantage.

With that said, a few key points I want to outline in this section will be:

• Situational Awareness
  
• Utilizing Dynamic Objects
  
• Team Communication and its importance

Let me ask you something point blank. When you're playing a heist do you notice things are slightly different sometimes? No, I'm not talking about the safe spawn locations on Nightclub, or if the Manager has the keycard on the bank -- though those are definitally situational scenarios -- I am more referring to if you noticed a door may or may not be open. Maybe there's a shipping container blocking access to a path.

It is these very minor changes that I find myself often noticing, and then asking how can I utilize this to my advantage. This is situational awareness. When you see something that is not constant and become aware of that fact and start to think about implementing it in to your game play. So lets dive in to this.


So now that we're becoming situationally aware we find ourselves asking how can we utilize this dynamic object -- whatever it may be or landscape it may change -- to our advantage? Well, it's a lot easier than you may think. Lets use some examples.

So I'm on my way to rob my favorite bank and before things go down I find something like this:

For the sake of my arguement, lets assume it's closed (hey random is random and it wasn't in this one!)


You may or may not have the door opened. That's a dynamic object, because it changes and is never the same. Now, I'm curious what you think about this. Do you think nothing of it? Do you start picking the lock? Do you let another person pick it? I am happy, and I move on to the roof.

I'm happy because this door being closed means a few things. The most obvious is by leaving it closed no cops can come in from it. Point of entry denied. Now, as you also know, the bank vault is too a dynamic object. It can spawn in two locations. This allows for interesting things, most notably that if the vault spawns by the tellers, and this door is closed then you don't even need to worry about this whole part of the bank. Some cops will come from the roof and through the printer room (big deal). If the vault spawns by tellers and it's open you will have to actively worry about influxes of cops.

Now, regardless whether the vault spawns by the dynamic back door shown above or by the tellers doesn't matter at this point. I'm more interested in another dynamic door. This one right here:



Lets assume this door was open, I do not use the front lobby to put my gun (as shown 2 pictures from now) I must put it here (if vault spawned by tellers) because I will be sitting on the drill then to watch my gun and this right door , not worrying about lobby/left office area. So... this is about what would happen:


Red = Sentry if no security room
Blue = Sentry if security room

If you leave security closed, but put in Red spot, some ass will open it and you will not be able to shoot anything (as this bad pic shows) it's "no good" when opened in red spot, use blue. Why not just use blue anyway? Shields - the closer to wall we can get the more likely they get shot from the side before turning.

I end up like:


Now I know you're thinking it's a damn door who cares. Well you should because a few things are now possible -- situationally -- and these are:

• Back door is closed, Right door is closed
  
• Back door is closed, Right door is open
  
• Back door is open, Right door is closed
  
• Back door is open, Right door is open

Do you see where I'm going yet? Best case: both doors are closed, and remain closed. Worst case: they're both open. I'll show you how something as simple as a door being closed on a part of the map can completely change where I'll put my [main] Sentry Gun.

Assume the right door is closed, and vault spawns by tellers. This indicates it's wise to ignore the back door regardles if open or not so I can play the lobby without flanks from the right door, and I'll be alerted from front door entry by my sentry. Open doors are tricky, and Chains hates tricky!



With the right door closed, I'm only able to be shot from someone coming through printer room or from the left side. I stay ducked down like this to utilize the middle table there to provide me cover from windows and left office area. I do not need to worry as much about my drill by the tellers with that door closed because no cops are coming from that door to break it. They must get through the printer room, or the front lobby to break it.

If you didn't see it (a player spawned on me as I took the picture above, sorry!), I put my gun here.



This spot rocks for two reasons, and I would like you to remember the screenshot prior to this with me ducked down. So now you are in that kind of setup with the gun there and it provides front door assistance but is set in such a way that it only shoots enemies who come in the doors, not who are outside or at the window. It is most important that you are not shooting things that simply do not matter.

You can have 1million cops outside, and it means nothing. The only relevant ones are the ones by your objective. The gun is set with this mind, because it is not shooting out the windows, or accross the street. This is ammo conservation as mentioned in previous chapters. I mentioned front door assistance this means it's still very much your job , not the Sentry Gun, to kill those entering from the front. They will help you, but use your weapons. Again, it's an alarm clock for action not a 5th player. It will last perhaps 2 or 3 minutes if you do not help it kill things. And bank will run you a lot longer than that!

Hey, do you remember about our Problematic Objects? The window it's sitting by is problematic if you have a bad position, but I've nullified the problem by setting it in such a way the window is not ever in the line of sight, but units entering the window are. This is great because a Shield unit entering a window cannot be shielded! Many times this gun setup in a right angle like this will kill the shield before entry is complete ,and if not, you should be able to shotgun him as he enters to assist the gun. So, a good gun deals with Problematic Objects (window, door) but does not get exploited by them. My gun in this position will never once waste a single bullet on a cop unit who is not actually in the bank aka, ones who do not matter.

Okay, cool, so big deal. Bank throws some random doors our way right? Wrong. Wait, no, you're right it does, but it's beyond that and I'll continue more about that in section #2

Lets take one of my favorite heists Firestarter next. I love this, more specifically Day 2, and it is also another hesit that is quite dynamic. The server room door can be in 4 different spots. You saw one such spot (of the 3 upstairs) in an earlier chapter, and generally it will be upstairs. All the door spawns upstairs are in such a manner that a Sentry gun will be able to nullify any point of attack and I'll let you figure out the other two best setups not shown in previous chapters. For now I want to talk about the odd ball, the one downstairs in the midst of plenty of action.

Okay, so I was playing this with a tech who had better drill upgrades than me so I let him stay upstairs on the server room and decided I'd be better off babysitting the evidence room which had gold and weapons (or I'd not be down here without the server room). So I pick this spot here:



One pattern you've probably picked up from my screenshots so far is I'm a huge fan of the right angle. It not only cuts off two points of attack instantly to my gun but it allows deployment in areas littered with Problematic Objects without fear of those objects being Problematic. Dog may be mans best friend, but right angles are Sentry Guns :)

Right so you know that tech who would put his gun on the table to my left? I'm not going to hate on him for not knowing better. The spot is valid on occassions. In this heist I'm downstairs due to evidence room, but should the server room spawn down here (crew is active in this area) that table may not be too bad, but the windows are problematic, the evidence room area is problematic, there's a lot of problems.

With this right angle setup the windows are not an issue, because the wall notch blocks the line of sight to the windows for the gun. Who is out the door is not a problem, because it's set in such a way you have to physically enter the door to be shot. This is important because if one thing I can instill in you it's ammo conservation. Look, even the derp techs can put down some serious heat and rack up kills but then their gun runs out of ammo. If you don't have that problem you don't bottleneck your utility like they do.

Right so, another cool thing about this setup is that behind me is a point of entry , but the gun will actually hit it. If I turned around you'd see about 5 or 6 bodies and ammo shells. This is great because my eyes need to be on that window area and what lies beyond the evidence room. That's where most come from, but should I see my gun shooting behind me I'll turn around a send a hello from my locomotive real quick and have a giggle.

But wait, there's another thing going on here. The right angle setup makes Sentry Defense quite a breeze because you're cutting off so many points of attack but also using terrain in a manner that the gun won't shoot until it has to. One thing I cannot stress enough about setting up right angle door guns is it makes the Shield about as useless as you can possibly get it. What I mean is any Shield who comes in a door setup this way will die to the gun 90% of the time before it can turn. When you place yourself in sight (like at this table) the Shield would enter with you already visible and proceed, letting the gun shoot him in the back. Should he turn , that 10%, you shoot him in the back. It's a win win and eliminates the Shield eating ammo. And as any Sentry player knows.... Shields are the devil.

I could go on about more but I actually briefly touched on this in an earlier chapter when talking about Nightclub and the safe not spawning upstairs (taking away my normal spot, making me use the table).

Alright, so now that you're starting to think about Dynamic Objects and how to utilize them lets talk about an extended part of this.


When trying to utilize dynamic objects it's very important to communicate to your team about their importance. Just because your heist spawns with a door closed doesn't mean it will stay that way. Many times I'll see people picking a door lock for whatever reason and I'll talk on the mic or in text and tell them "don't open that door please, it will let cops in later" and they will most likely stop. Some don't think about that, or if they're Enforcers their game play style and what is fun for them may to be open every possible point of entry and just go on a rampage. I love those players, I do, but they can achieve the same thing by focusing on the main entry point and not opening side ones.

So be sure to tell people in the beginning if you notice things to leave them alone. Most will. I find this the most common reason people mess up utilizable dynamic objects such as doors is because when they look at my loadout (armor, sentries, loco, ak 762/jp36) they know I'm going loud. Loud doesn't mean lets be stupid!!!!. Going loud to me means I'm planning on killing a lot of things and I'm not suiciding if an alarm goes off! it does NOT mean I won't prolong the inital assault as long as possible, nor does it mean once I spawn in the hiest I'm planning to mask up and kill stuff. I'm always a loud player, but I bring a silenced JP36 for nightclub, for firestarter day 1&2, for many maps because they will help prolong the inital assault. Prolonging that is important to me because it goes full circle back to ammo conservation.

If I'm on Bank and I'm going loud I still tip toe up to the roof, if doors are closed, so as to utilize them. I mean "Going loud != going stupid" could be a whole other guide but yeah. So if someone is actually nice enough to ask your prefered play style (I'm ususally host) then you can assume they're polite enough to respect something as simple as not opening a door! :)

So remember you're only as good as your team whether you're a tech with sentries or any other class. Help them help you, and most will be happy to, because after all we all want the same thing: to play as much the way we want and to win, and the latter exceeds the former.

So you think you have Sentry Gun Positions down? That's nice, but merely a piece of a bigger puzzle. Position is very important, but so is defense. Our Sentry Gun is very easily overwhelmed, and it can not only deplete it's ammo reserves in seconds (Shields) but it can be broken (Dozers, half dozen swats). So it's as much of our job to protect our Sentry as it is for the Sentry to protect us. I'll now dive in to a few key points about Sentry Gun defense:

• Pre-clear all units possible without taking real damage
  
• No routes that take you too far from the drill or Sentry
  
• Always be on the look out for Shields. If crew is not spotting ask them politely to mark them and tell them how. Many do not even know how or that they can.
  
• Make it a habbit to find the enemy within a second or two of hearing your Sentry fire to take them out
  
• Ammo conservation is crucial (see #1, #4)

Get used to finding little paths ("routes") you can "run laps around" to pre-clear units. When determining a route to run keep in mind you need to not be taken very far from your gun or the drill. If you can't restart a drill in 3 seconds, 5 max you're way too far. Yes, I know they usually auto-restart, and even if they do restart you're better off not waiting. On maps like Transport, or Bank Pro/Gold/Deposit where you have much more work to do after even getting the inital objective done you want that inital objective done as quickly as possible so stay close! Repair those drills promptly!

If your gun happens to find a Shield after you leave it and you're too far expect it to be near depleted of ammo by time you return, or worse yet completely empty. No kills are worth losing your Sentry! None. I seriously barely move in the map once I'm setting up on the objective and I top the kills often enough without trying. Cops may be outside but they are programmed to find the drill and break it. That's why you hear "cops have disabled the drill again". So they will COME TO YOU, just be patient! You'll get plenty of action most times.

When clearing out your route if you happen to see a special, out of range, use your best judgement on if you should pursue it. Be sure to spot the Special units, ecspecially if you're going in after one solo. I can't begin to describe how FREAKING ANNOYING it is for people to down to cloakers, not mark them, not tell anyone they're there, then watch a whole team go down to the same cloaker. Oh, and you know none of them say "cloaker!". so... mark the damn units! It will help if no other reason than you go down.

Now, I will chase Tazers mostly , but I am maxed in ShockProof making Tazers a non-issue [for me], but a huge threat to my team. Sometimes you must break even your own rules to nullify a serious threat. I try not to chase Cloakers, because drawing them to my Sentry is best. It provides extra firepower but if I still down it will most likely kill the cloaker letting my teammates safely revive me. Going out of range makes you not only failing to maintain an optimal position but you lose your failsafe of the Sentry providing revive-cover fire, or better yet, killing the Cloaker that downed you. So don't go too far. It will bite you in the butt.

One thing I want to make note of here is simply this: Routes are not meant to be killing sprees! Their primary objective is to find Shields who are going to be coming to our Sentry gun, and if you have ShockProof like me to handle Tazers [within reasonable range]. You're not trying to kill every enemy you see. Don't go run in to groups or anything. I'll pepper what I can with my loco but the goal is to find special threats, and to weaken enemies. Sentry VS weakened opponent = less bullets to kill = ammo conservation

Sometimes we have to leave our favorite little nest we've built. Maybe we must upgrade someone elses drill etc. If you're in a hiest with multiple drills I tend to upgrade others before placing my Main Sentry Gun, so as to avoid not being able to defend it. However, if you have to leave make sure it's only for team benefit, such as upgrading a drill or reviving. Do not go help with a dozer who is outside if you're 20 seconds away inside. Not your job. Too many techs try to be jacks of all trades; sorry, we're not, ecspecially if you've invested in to sentries.

So, to summarize it again lets remember this:

• Run quick routes about every 30-60 seconds (depends map, objective spawns)
  
• Handle Tazers (if possible), but search Shield
  
• Sentry Gun is alarm clock for action, not a 5th player
  
• Sentry Gun is priority after drill, protect it at all cost. You can be revived, it cannot.
  
• Best to think of having one sentry gun, not two. It will make you smarter and better with them

Now that we're thinking not only about where we're placing our Sentry Gun we are also actively thinking about not abandoning it and that it is an extension of our class and self and we should care about it as much as we do our other teammates. I call mine "lil chains" since I often play as Chains. When I hear my gun go off and I'm not right by it I think "nooo! lil chains!!!" and daddy comes to blast anyone trying to mess with my little buddy.

Once you implement some of this very simple and basic game play tactics you'll see immense difference if you're not utilizing such tactics now. Not only will you find yourself getting more from them but you'll develop ways to use the gun to tag-team units and find yourself thinking more about flanking, and other great tactics. Nothing like tricking a shield in to turning so your gun can shoot him in the back!

So it seems there's some people who are curious about what skills are needed for the Sentry Gun and some may wonder what I find useful to play Sentry Tech so I'm including a few things in this section.


First I'm going to say something obvious and honest: all the Sentry Skills are the best way but one writing a guide such as this would be a fool to assume everyone can max them at the time they read this or maybe they really really want some other skill and need points. Of course! So what I can tell you real quick is a few things:

• If you don't have extra ammo it's useless
  
• You may not want/need 2, but you need 300% dmg
  
• Health is great, but defense is better
  
• Rotation is great, right angles are better
  
• Your skill is the biggest factor

With that said, lets dive in to the available sentry skills and what you need , what you don't, and what you can skimp on.

Basic: Unlocks Sentry Gun
Aced: 150% Sentry Health

Obviously we need to get the basic skill to use sentry guns. But lets look at the Aced stats. It provides us 150% extra sentry health. I would say that whilst the health upgrade is not required it's probably for the better to have this. However, I would consider this one particular thing you could skip if you need to for now.

As you continue to adapt your play style to suit your Sentry you'll find that scenarios in which your sentry gun is under direct attack (not shooting at people shooting at you) are uncommon. What it boils down to on this is you. Are you defending your Sentry or leaving it unattended where cops shoot it? You know, cops will always shoot you over a deployable if you're in line of sight. So use this simple mechanic to your advantage. You're the main factor in my opinion, and if you're newer to the Sentry Gun or you are not always using great positions the health is going to suit you more than other veteran sentry users.

Basic: +100% Sentry Accuracy
Aced: +150% Sentry Rotational Speed

Think of accuracy as being interchangable with range. The more accurate the better range. While I wouldn't recommend not getting the improved accuracy as it could prove more of a benefit in a crappy situation or an escape than in a standard heist where you can utilize indoor range a lot more.

In my Firestarter Day 2 Dynamic Positions example that door corner would have a harder time hitting the area behind me that has units coming through without the improved accuracy, but I can easily kill those myself. However, you would not be able to Sentry bag rush the first day as easily without the accuracy (as easily) no matter what you help kill. Accuracy is needed for things like most escapes, Big Oil Day 2, and other open areas.

Rotational speed is your method of tracking. If your gun is too slow it will waste many rounds trying to catch up to a moving target. I think if there's one thing even newer techs can skimp on it's this. Let me ask you a simple question ....

What is the single best way to make rotational speed a non-issue? Cmon ... two words: right angle. Think of it like this. Out in the open you have 360 degrees of rotation. A right angle chops this in half instantly. Now our gun covers at most 180 degrees. Think of it like you've already added 100% rotational speed, because essentially you've created less area it can rotate to making the speed it covers this lesser distance not a big deal.

In school we thought we'd never use math. The reality is that playing a sentry tech requires a little bit of geometry. I mean, the more proficent you become you'll notice you're utilizing far more angles and thinking about that more so than the physical objects in the way. It makes no difference if your right angle is 2 ajoining walls or 1 left-sided wall and an ATM machine which creates the right angle. It only matters you see one. Removing this extra radius that it can even track helps regardless of this skill and I encourage you to utilize them (right angles).

To eleborate a bit further in relation to rotation speed. It's all relative. If for example on Nightclub when I'm up above the dance floor where Loot Truck spawns I almost always shotgun what enters the window before it lands and my gun doesn't shoot but a few times if at all. It's only when I interact with the safe or look out to the dance floor (and they come in the window) that my gun comes in to play. In this type of case the rotation speed borderline irrelevant. Your play style influences so much about your Gun I can't begin to describe or list them all, only hint and try to show examples of the most common most people face. But you can negate the need for a lot of the things if you know what you're doing.

Basic: +50% Sentry Ammo
Aced: Sentry gets protective shield

I'll flat out say it: these are required. Look, you may have the best defense and spot in the world to put your gun but you will never be able to rule out the possability of someone downing in a bad spot, needing it in the clutch escape of running to the van or getting an escape job on a heist. I'll spend this entire guide talking about how to improve the duration your gun can stay alive but what good is that without ammo? No brainer. The shield? Same thing! You can't prepare for outside usage or dropping it when a Bulldozer took out 3 people on a projob. Moving along ... no skimp here!

Basic: Allows 2 Sentry Guns
Aced: +300% Sentry Damage

This is another non-negoitable skill. While I truely find it unfortunate that dual sentries are lumped with this damage upgrade because I know a many competent techs who can get by (with a good crew) with one gun almost every time. But you can't ignore this damage upgrade. It, along side the ammo upgrade are what make the Sentry Gun. When the original Sentry Gun came out in PAYDAY: The Heist it was a tragic misrepresentation of what it should of been, and they've done a great job in PAYDAY2 making it a non-novelty. But you'll always need a few upgrades to make them even feasable beyond a few heists.


Play around and find out what you can and can't get away with, but be aware you should be maxing them all down the road if you have not yet. There's certainly a few you can skip for now if you have to, and ways to make up for that, but ideally you want them all in the end. Sentry Power!


A few other things I'd like to throw out there are other skills I find best for Sentry Tech. Shockproof (Aced) is my favorite skill. It allows me to break a taze by interacting with the Tazer incapacatating me. Please take note, as far as I know the non-aced version is bugged. So unfortuantely you need to Ace it or not bother. I recommend acing it. Tazers being a non-issue is an extremely useful thing. I also think the 35% damage from shotguns is the second best thing you can get behind Shockproof, but then again I roll with a loco!

If you're more hardcore and are playing lots of PD2 and working on Infamy there's much more things techs can do and achieve. From wearing ICTV to having rather nice stealth abilities on top of full sentries so I'd hate to say pick this or that, but I could never stress enough how much locomotive w/ 35% and shockproof aced excell. I guess my point is Tech has never been better! So do what you want, and keep playing around and find your own things you enjoy and perfect them. Ask yourself how you can make it better or improve it.

Gather round folks, and I'll tell you a tale. I'll tell you a tale of a little ol tech who was in a game many months ago. He was doing his drill, which is a thankless job might I add, when everyone would constantly yell at him. "Why don't you help us kill stuff". As his replies of "My Drill, My Drill, It needs me" fell on deaf ears what came next could be heard by even those in-need of, but without a hearing aid. "OHHHHHHH ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥"

I was taken aback for a second, my [main] Sentry Gun wobbled breifly. I gazed, I gazed a stare at my team. "OHHHHHHHHHH ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" another one said, as he fell down. His orangeish-yellow outlined body twitching as it fired off pistol rounds from bleedout. Apparently someone let loose a Bulldozer!!

So here comes the tech, slow as can be because he prefers the best armor, waddling out. As they lay there endless chants of "Chains, you gotta help me" echoed around. How do I help? I'm about dead myself. "Eureka!", the tech thought "I have that other Sentry Gun still because I so professionally defended and took care of my main!".

Finally, after a lot of stamina depletion he reached the area of interest. He deployed his second Sentry Gun and voila. Bang Bang! Crackle. Snap! KApowww! Bodies fell everywhere, and the "Helping" progress bar reached 100%. As the fallen crew mate he helped up helped the others up he sat back for a brief moment...

Thoughts of glee entered his criminal mind as it quickly turned to thoughts of thankfulness that his mask could conceal his incredibly big smile knowing that because of him, his [main] Sentry positionining and pro-active defense allowed him to maintain his [main] Sentry long enough to not utilize his other one. It allowed him to have it for this moment. His moment of glory, glory and redemption.

That moment is when you silently run to the van knowing without you these guys wouldn't be getting a payday. Hell, they might be arrrested. They won't admit it... there may be no high 5s after the heist, but you know. And they know. They know because they went from "Oh ♥♥♥♥" to loving the Sentry Gun. They will never say they are so glad you had that gun, but know that deep down they do. Sentry Guns shine in a clutch scenario, provided you use them smart enough to allow yourself that backup one, that "oh ♥♥♥♥" one.

That concludes my guide. I hope you made it this far, but more importantly I hope it can help one person out there better utilize my favorite class in PayDay 2 (and I guess, all games).

Remember one thing: Sentries are an extension of ourself as a tech. If you treat it as such (take care of it) then you will get lots out of them. They're not a novelty item they're an incredibly powerful utlity that has endless applications. I hope others will continue to see that and not write them off.