Anti-Sentry Buster strategy

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I will send every damn one of you back to robot hell!
The Engineer avenging his Sentry.
Sentry Buster

This article is about Community Anti-Sentry Buster strategy.

General

  • Sentry busters are not a high priority target and most of the time shouldn't be focused over giant robots and sometimes regular robot unless you're an Engineer.
    • Focus firing on the sentry buster can give the bomb carrier its chance to slip past your defense without anyone knowing and if you kill it right in the middle of a bunch of teammates it forces your teammates to stop what they're doing and run from the buster. In the worst case, more than half of your team will be instantly wiped by a single buster.
  • You can attack the robot from afar, as well as with a melee weapon. It is only dangerous once it is killed or reaches its target Sentry Gun.
  • Never let your guard down. It can use a detour to get to the Engineer buildings.
  • If a Sentry Buster begins to detonate, get as far away as possible. Note that at this point it cannot be affected by knockback.
  • Blast resistance reduce the damage taken from the explosion and gave some possibility of surviving the blast in some cases if you're fortunate and unfortunate enough
    • However, do not upgrade Blast resistance only for this purpose
  • Always listen to the self-destructing sound. If you hear a very loud beeping sound, stop what you're doing and run away from the sound as soon as possible.
  • The explosion of a Sentry Buster also kills its allies. Use this to your advantage if your team is having a hard time dealing with a horde of robot.
  • Unlike giants and many other robots, sentry buster cannot pick up the bomb, runs faster than most of them, and cannot be body-blocked (An act of stopping a robot from progressing forward by standing in its path). Sentry buster simply walks through a player as if they were teammates.
  • There's a long lasting bug where sentry buster truly dies instead of exploding. The sentry buster simply disappears, plays a similar when a giant robot is destroyed (it sometimes plays the self-destructing sound along with the destruction sound, although there's no explosion after the beep). This is usually caused by the slowing effects of some weapons/items such as Mad Milk and rocket specialist upgrade. This makes the sentry buster dies harmlessly.

Leaderboard class scout.png Scout

  • Sentry buster shouldn't be a big threat to the Scout. He can safely escape the buster's explosion with his speed. The Scout should only be dealing with the buster when there's no cash to collect and there's no robot to milk.
    • However, stay alert where the sentry buster were, you may accidentally run into a self-destructing buster right when you're turning around a corner. This may result in you losing most of your overheal
  • Using the Force-A-Nature will knock back the Sentry Buster at close range and will knock you back if you are airborne.
    • Be aware of where you knock the Sentry Buster to. You don't want to knock it straight into your Engineer's buildings and teammates.
  • Sentry Busters are not affected by stuns from the Sandman since they're considered a giant robot, though you can upgrade it so players will do mini-crit damage.
  • Mad Milk will still affect the movement speed of a Sentry Buster if upgraded. A sentry buster coated in Mad Milk gives a maximum of 1500 health points to you and your teammates before dying. If there's no presence of a giant yet, milk the buster.
  • The Fan O'War will allow you to tag the Sentry Buster for mini-crits. Use this to allow the rest of your team to focus down the Sentry Buster, but remember - only one target can be marked for death at any time and the mark will disappear after some time.
  • Sentry buster can give you boost for the Baby Face's Blaster. Shooting them can build your boost back up quickly. Do not, however, follow the buster just to gain boost.

Leaderboard class soldier.png Soldier

  • If the Sentry Buster is too close to you and primed to detonate, you can rocket jump to do an emergency escape.
  • If you have 160 HP or less use Escape Plan to escape faster from the explosion. Although you may take 35% more damage because of mark for death, it's better to take extra damage than losing all your health. Better safe than sorry.
  • If you have a lot of teammates, consider equipping the Buff Banner, Battalion's Backup, or Concheror since sentry buster provides a good source of damage to build up rage.
  • Your Rocket Specialist upgrade is very useful against Sentry Busters. The upgrade allows you to stun and deal maximum damage to it. Keep firing until it is dead, but watch out for its explosion.

Leaderboard class pyro.png Pyro

  • Your air blast is invaluable, so make sure to face the robot with full ammunition.
  • An easy way to alert your teammates of a Sentry Buster’s presence is to light it on fire and make it more noticeable, as well as damage it.
  • Critical flares shot from the Flare Gun or Detonator and Axtinguisher or Postal Pummeler hits do excruciating damage when used in combination with air blasting - but remember that air blasting is the greater priority.
  • Max out the airblast force upgrade to push Sentry Busters back. If you can, you can knock them into an environmental hazard, such as a pitfall.
  • Although airblasts can save your teammate's lives and time, using them brainlessly creates more harm than helping.
    • Sometimes when sentry busters decided to self-destruct in mid-air it only plays the sound but doesn't play the self-destructing animation. This can be very confusing especially for new players and thus can create an unexpected death.
    • Your team's Engineer should be ready to deal with the buster. Airblasting just to buy him time can ended up making him waste more time waiting for the buster to reach him.
    • A bouncing robot is almost always harder to hit than a robot traveling in its predictable path. Overusing airblast can make it harder for teammates to deal with the buster and a living buster can accidentally block incoming fire for other robots.
  • Due to the sentry buster's large health pool, you can get a considerable amount of Mmmph with the Phlogistinator. Chase them down to get as much Mmmph from them as you can when there's no other way of building Mmmph faster or engaging other robots to build Mmmph is too risky.

Leaderboard class demoman.png Demoman

  • Demoman doesn't profit too much from the presence of the sentry buster and thus they should avoid shooting the buster when there's robots to kill.
  • Shooting grenades at the feet of the Sentry Buster will knock it back.
  • With the Scottish Resistance, you can plant extra stickies near an Engineer’s nest. If the Sentry Buster gets near, detonate them to blast it back or kill it right away. Just make sure not to put them close enough that the robot can detonate.
  • Use the Chargin' Targe, Splendid Screen, or Tide Turner to escape the explosion if you're caught right next to them.

Leaderboard class heavy.png Heavy

  • Stand on the Dispenser and help defend the Engineer with your Minigun.
  • Natascha slows down Sentry Busters immensely
    • The damage penalty can make killing other giant robots harder, however.
  • Sentry buster have a large health pool. You can build a considerable amount of rage from the buster.
  • The Gloves of Running Urgently can be used to escape the Sentry Buster if it detonates near you.
  • The Fists of Steel may provide damage resistance against explosions, but even combining it with maxed out blast resistance barely gives you anymore chance of surviving the blast.
  • The Holiday Punch's critical hit forces to sentry buster to taunt. The animation that the buster was playing was simply an idle buster standing still. This buys your teammate some time to shoot the buster. However, the sentry buster will detonate immediately after a set amount of time without giving any warning and can result in some players dying without them even knowing what happened.
    • When this happens when you're playing as other classes, be sure to back away from the buster when you know it's going to detonate. It's usually enough time for the Medic to get one Ubersaw hit before it detonates without giving any warning sound and animation.

Leaderboard class engineer.png Engineer

  • Sentry buster are there just because of you and it's mostly your job to deal with them, not your team.
  • It's not your teammates responsibility to kill the buster for you. Do not pick your sentry up and run around the map to buy your team some time to destroy it, most of the time they have more important things to do
  • Put your other buildings far away from your main Sentry Gun. This will allow them to stay intact even if your Sentry is destroyed.
  • As soon as the Sentry Buster comes to your Sentry and starts preparing to detonate, grab your Sentry and run as fast as you can. Note that grabbing a Sentry too late will cause you and your Sentry to be destroyed.
    • Or if you have a bit of a "free time" you can simply grab your building, run to the sentry buster and touch it, then move away from the explosion. This saves you more time because you don't have to wait for the sentry buster to detonate to put the sentry down in your regular spot.
    • If you are standing near an edge, try to fall off it with your Sentry Gun. Note that a horde of other robots may be under the cliff, so plan your retreat.
    • If your Sentry was placed near a corner, pick up your Sentry and run around the corner once the Sentry Buster starts to detonate. The wall will protect you and your Sentry from the Sentry Buster’s explosion.
  • The Rescue Ranger is a helpful weapon in combating Sentry Busters. Provided you have 130 metal, you can easily get away from the Sentry Buster and grab your Sentry using the Ranger's alt-fire when it's arming.
  • There are locations in maps where Sentry Busters will take a while to reach, as they cannot jump. Know those locations so you can stall the Sentry Buster and time your escape.
  • If there is more than one Engineer on the map, you should place your main Sentry Guns away from each other to prevent a single Sentry Buster from destroying all of them.
  • Having only 1 Engineer is advised because the appearance of multiple busters at once may confuse which buster targets which Sentry Gun.
  • Wrangling your Sentry will not shield it from the explosion.
  • Use your Übercharge Canteen to protect you and your Sentry from the explosion as a very last resort. Note that it will not protect your other buildings.
  • Make sure your buildings are not in the way of the path of the Sentry Buster, otherwise they will get destroyed as the Sentry Buster can simply walk through them and trample them no matter how much health they have.
  • When dealing with sentry busters, make sure you detonate them behind the team's defense and not in the middle of a bunch of teammates. Pick up your sentry and let the buster self destruct behind the front line.

Leaderboard class medic.png Medic

  • Because the Ubersaw gives you 25% charge when you score a successful hit against a sentry buster, experienced medics can gain a large amount of charge with a single buster and charge his teammates with uber/crit/mega-heal/resistance quickly. Thus, if dealt with correctly, the sentry buster can benefit the Medic way more than harming him.
    • However, do not chase the buster if you have to risk dying to do it. Remember, dying drops all your charge.
    • It is advised not to attempt this when you already have a shield deployed. Switching away from your Medi Gun disables the shield and it cannot be reactivated until the shield meter completely empties. Balance out the cost to decide whether to build your charge or keep your shield running. Remember, keeping the shield running can save many of your teammate's lives and thus benefits your team more when there's a swarming amounts of incoming projectiles.
  • If you're using the Vaccinator don’t hesitate to use your resistance in dangerous situations on the Engineer or yourself.
  • If you caught the sentry buster right next to you and it's about to explode, popping your uber (canteen if you're using the Quick-Fix or Kritzkrieg) can save you from dying and losing all your charge.

Leaderboard class sniper.png Sniper

The hitscan hitboxes of a Sentry Buster.
  • While it doesn't look like it, Sentry Busters do have head hitboxes that are sensitive to headshots.
    • Upgrading explosive headshot slows the buster if you score a successful headshot. More points in the upgrade means the buster will be slowed more and the slow effect last longer. It will also damage robots around the buster.
    • They're one of the hardest robots to score headshots with due to their incredible speed and their "invisible" head. Focus on slower robots if you're not confident about your aim.
  • The best and most effective means of helping your team would be to throw Jarate on a Sentry Buster. With slowdown upgrade, you can reduce the buster's speed to a crawl and it makes scoring headshots with them far more easier.
    • In particular, the Bushwacka can wreak havoc on a Jarated Sentry Buster.
  • If you're equipped with the Huntsman, remember that you can stun the Sentry Buster with the Skewer taunt but make sure to time the taunt at the right moment. It's more effective if the sentry buster is coated with Jarate with slow-down upgrade.

Leaderboard class spy.png Spy

  • Sapping the Sentry Buster kills most of their speed for a short period of time. Make sure to sap it as soon as your teammates can attack it effectively. Otherwise, save it to sap higher priority targets such as uber medics.
  • Backstabbing the Sentry Buster can be done only with the Armor Penetration, as they are considered giant robots.
  • Remember, the Sentry Buster will explode when its health runs out, so give yourself time to get clear of the blast.
  • Dead Ringer can save you from death by the sentry buster's explosion.