Sentry guns

Sentry Guns

How do sentry guns work?

Sentry guns are indestructible objects in space to protect a region around a protected object - usually a station or stargate. They are placed around these objects to provide pressure on aggressors and make gate camps more difficult. [1]

The region protected by a sentry gun is tied directly to the protected object, not the sentry gun in question. Sentry guns come in pairs that are normally quite far apart.

In 0.5 space and below, sentry guns have a maximum range of 150km from the protected object. In 0.6 space and above, they monitor a range no less than 150 km from the object being guarded. However, Concord has boosted key sentries to have a much greater range. No details regarding maximum sentry range in secure space are to be made available to prevent outlaws from carrying out raids in secure space.

Sentry Aggression

Sentry aggression is tracked per protected object (gate or station), not per system or faction. This aggression can always be obtained by attacking the sentries or the protected object, but is most commonly obtained by having a Global Criminal Countdown (GCC) in high or low security space.

Each sentry gun individually switches its target every 30 seconds and chooses its next target from the list of aggressed players and their owned items (usually drones and fighters) within range of the protected object. Aggression lasts 15 minutes and is renewed upon selection. This implies that the first aggressed player within range will always draw fire from all available sentry guns, but that all sentry guns will not necessarily shoot the same player after that.

Each sentry gun fires every 1.75 seconds and deals 56 EM, 56 Explosive, 98 Kinetic, and 98 Thermal damage per hit.[2][3] Ignoring resists, this equates to 308 volley damage and 176 DPS per sentry gun. Additionally, sentry guns are unaffected by transversal and sig radius and are therefore particularly deadly to frigates.

Tactics for Dealing with Sentry Guns

High Security

Sentry guns honor the rules of war and will not attack anyone aggressing valid war targets, unless they would otherwise attack that player (generally because of a GCC). If you have sentry fire in high sec, you either have CONCORD aggression or aggression towards the faction navy. While a GCC guarantees you will lose your ship, the faction navy can be withstood with some work and a large tank.

Buffer tanking

Buffer tanking sentry guns is a tactic usually adopted by small gangs. The general idea here is to kill whatever is on the gate and leave before being destroyed. This can be somewhat risky as the aggressor must contend with 352 DPS on top of whatever the target retaliates with.

Sniping

Sniping is a tactic usually adopted by medium sized gangs. The general idea is to attack targets at the protected object (usually a gate) while outside of the attack range of the sentry guns. While this removes sentry guns from the fight, it also places the majority of the gang outside of tackle range and introduces a strong vulnerability to being probed out and attacked by close range fits.

Active Tanking

Active tanking is a common close range tactic adopted by gangs of all sizes, but is usually restricted to HACs, Battlecruisers, Battleships, and gangs with Logistics Ships. This works best with larger gangs to split the sentry aggro with. Common counters involve retaliating with the assistance of the sentry guns and tackling the aggressors while sentries finish them off.

I think a bug caused the sentry guns to shoot me. How do I get my ship back?

First, ensure that you understand the rules of aggression and what causes a Global Criminal Countdown. If you have read the above and are sure that your loss was caused by a bug, please file a petition and include the following:

• The system and stargate/station where this happened
• Names of all involved parties
• The time and date when this happened
• What ship you were flying at the time

GM's will investigate your claim but please note that they can't replace any items unless they can fully verify from the logs that a bug caused the loss.