Helldivers 2 Sentry Stratagems: Placement Over Power

The three families

Gun sentries — machine gun, gatling, autocannon — fire at whatever is closest. They excel against swarms and against medium armor if the caliber is right. They also run dry, which makes ammo modules worth more than damage modules for them. Explosive sentries — mortar and rocket — engage at range and can fire over obstacles. The mortar is the best anti-swarm tool in the slot and the worst thing to stand next to. The rocket sentry answers single heavies. Control pieces — the EMS mortar, the Tesla tower and the shield relay are not damage at all. They buy time, and time is what a squad actually needs when a breach opens on top of an objective.

Placement rules that hold on every map

Point the sentry’s back to a wall. A turret that can be flanked dies to the first patrol that walks behind it, and a turret with its back to terrain only has to cover a half circle. Put it downhill and slightly behind the line. Sentries shoot what they can see, so a turret on the ridge line silhouettes itself against the sky, draws every shot, and blocks your squad’s fire. Do not put it where you are standing. Mortar and explosive sentries will kill you, and the death reads as a random explosion.

The module that changes the ranking

Sentry health and sentry ammo both come from the Robotics Workshop, and both change which sentry is correct. A machine gun sentry with more ammo holds a corridor twice as long; a gatling sentry with more health survives the charge that would have ended it. The ship module order covers which of those modules to buy first.

When not to bring one

On missions that move constantly — retrieve-and-upload chains, escort routes — a sentry is a stratagem you leave behind. On Illuminate maps where units fly and shield, the plane of attack changes and a ground turret covers less than it looks like it does. Bring a sentry when the mission asks you to hold a point. Bring something else when it asks you to walk.