Sentinel

The Sentinel is one of the Ranger's three specialisations. Its job is to find and reach: see what is hidden, act from further away and move quickly across a room.

How it works#

The Sentinel's flex choices are Engulf and Flex Ward. It has no Glide, because Pull already moves it.

Strengths and weaknesses#

• Strong: rooms with quiet fronts, which only Survey shows in time; reading Vessel Margins walls from range; dragging debris in the Quiet Tracts.
• Weak: it cannot hold back a front's damage the way a Ward can. In Claude B's bots, the novice Sentinel failed fewer Gardens rooms than the novice Warden, because Ward needs aiming a round ahead.
• Run upgrades: Quick Survey (Survey becomes a bonus action, radius 5 → 3) and Long Anchor (Pull reaches 5, cooldown 2 → 3). See Upgrades.

In the brain#

Microglial processes move constantly and sample the tissue around them, even when nothing is wrong (Nimmerjahn 2005, in mice). Processes move far faster than the cell body. A specialisation is a play style the same cell adopts at home. It is not a fixed microglial subtype or "M1/M2" state.

Development#

• 27 October (kit v1): Claude B made the Sentinel a starter class around process extension, replacing the legacy Sentinel's Process Dash, Surveillance Sweep and Arrival Focus.
• 29 October (kit v4): Firm Reach was removed; Survey and the Long Reach passive were added.
• 1 November: turn-based version (doc 31), with ranges rescaled for 24 px tiles.
• In the alpha, the Sentinel is playable in every room and in lesson 7b.

See also#

Warden · Coordinator · Kit history · Upgrades

Sources#

1. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/skills/turns/catalog.jscopy
2. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/31-turn-based-encounters.mdcopy
3. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/22-v4-reassessment.mdcopy
4. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/04-classes-and-skills.mdcopy