Sentry Buster

Sentry Buster
300px
Basic Information
Health:	2500
Speed:	187%

“

Essentially a bomb on legs, the Sentry Buster will detect any sentry that’s dealing sustained damage to the Robot Horde, then initiate its deviously complicated protocol: run at the offending sentry and explode. — Mann Vs. Machine publicity blurb

”

The Sentry Buster is a specialized robot that appears in the Mann vs. Machine mode when a Sentry Gun has dealt significant damage (3000 damage or 15 kills by default) to the robot horde. It appears as a large pair of legs similar to a Demoman robot, but with a large pressure mine for a torso.

Once deployed, a Sentry Buster will make a beeline for an active Sentry Gun, but never a disposable Sentry . Upon reaching the target, it crouches and begins beeping. During this time, the Sentry Buster cannot be destroyed. A few seconds later, it detonates in a massive explosion guaranteed to level the offending Sentry and just about anything else within a three-Teleporter radius. Sentry Busters will behave in this way even if the target Sentry Gun is being hauled by its Engineer. It will, however, stand still for a few seconds to detonate once it gets close enough, allowing the Engineer to run to a safe distance while hauling his Sentry Gun.

If a Sentry Buster encounters an Engineer's Dispenser or Teleporter on its way to an Engineer's Sentry Gun, it will destroy the building in one hit before continuing on. If the Engineer has a Sentry Gun and disposable Sentry Gun deployed, the Sentry Buster will go for the large Sentry Gun, even if the Mini-Sentry is doing more damage. If the Sentry Gun is destroyed before the Sentry Buster can reach it, the Sentry Buster will run to the spot where the Sentry used to be and detonate.

As Sentry Busters take time to arm themselves, attentive Engineers can haul their Sentry out of the blast zone before it explodes. They are unlikely to have enough time to move a second building out of the way. Sentry Busters can be destroyed before they reach their objective, but this is not a simple task, with the Sentry Buster boasting 2500 health. If an Engineer hauling his building can outrun a Sentry Buster, the Sentry Buster will chase the Engineer indefinitely without detonating.

If there is more than one Engineer with a Sentry Gun on the field, multiple Sentry Busters may spawn at once, possibly with multiple Sentry Busters every sub-wave.

Destroyed Sentry Busters, whether by themselves or by the players, leave no money.

Elimination

As an Engineer, the Sentry Buster will target your Sentry Gun if it is doing sufficient damage to the robots. To avoid a Sentry Buster, either kill it before it gets close or wait for it to activate, then run. However, once killed, it will detonate anyway. If you are not able to see it, listen for a distinct clockwork style beeping sound giving away its position. To guarantee yours and your Sentry Gun's survival and destroy a Sentry Buster at the same time, fill your Canteen with an Übercharge buff, and deploy it when the Sentry Buster crouches. Another idea is to use an Instant Teleport buff to allow it to start detonating, then teleport to your base hurriedly. If you have a teleporter a small distance away from where your sentry was, you may even be able to get back to the front lines almost seconds after detonation.

Sentry Busters can be airblasted by Pyros and sapped by Spies to slow them down, and they are not immune to status effects like Jarate. Use those to your advantage.

Related achievements

Mann vs. Machievements

Ctrl + Assault + Delete Destroy a sentry buster before it reaches its target.

Real Steal As an Engineer, escape with your sentry as a sentry buster is about to detonate.

Update history

August 15, 2012 Patch (Mann vs. Machine Update)

• The Sentry Buster was added to the game.

August 17, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Sentry Busters picking disposable buildings as valid targets.
• Fixed an instance of the Sentry Buster sound looping endlessly.

Bugs

• It is possible for a wave to end without killing the Sentry Buster, in which case it will disappear and cause its beeping sound to loop.

Trivia

• The Sentry Buster is considered to be a giant Demoman with the Ullapool Caber. As a result, it shares animations and hitboxes with the giant Demoman robot (resulting in having invisible arm and head hitboxes) and appears to be holding the Ullapool Caber in first-person view to spectators. Defenders will also occasionally announce its presence as a giant robot instead of a Sentry Buster. As voice responses do not appear to be disabled for the Sentry Buster, it will use the giant Demoman robot's voice clips when speaking.