Duke Nukem Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The Battlelord Sentry is a smaller and weaker version of the Battlelord that makes recurring appearances in Duke Nukem 3D. It is typically first encountered on Warp Factor, but it may be found sooner if the secret level Faces of Death is discovered.

The Battlelord Sentry has more health and deals more damage per second than any other recurring enemy in the game.

Description[]

The Battlelord Sentry is one of the most powerful, and dangerous non-boss enemies in Duke Nukem 3D. It has masses of health and an arsenal as large as its counterpart. However, it is smaller than the Battlelord, and so is unable to step on foes with its feet when they venture too close, but getting up close to it will cause it to fire its Minigun to cause significant damage as Duke is in range of the Battlelord Sentry.

It has omnipotent accuracy with its Minigun, even over some of the most farthest distances, and the explosive mortars it occasionally fires from its mortar launcher are very dangerous as the mortars themselves can become "land mines" and explode when they are touched. The mortars are very powerful when they connect and will most likely kill at around 45-55 health.

Appearance[]

The Battlelord Sentry is a smaller version of the Battlelord, and is almost visually identical to it (the large bullet-shaped objects protruding its back are colored somewhat differently).

Combat analysis[]

Weapon effectivenesses
Mighty Foot
MightyBootSprite
100 kicks
Pistol
PistolSprite
167 shots
Shotgun
ShotgunSprite
15 shots
Chaingun Cannon
ChaingunCannonSprite
112 shots
RPG
RPGSprite
5 rockets
Pipe Bomb
PipebombSprite
8 bombs
Shrinker
ShrinkRaySprite
1 blast
Expander
MicrowaveExpanderSprite
67 shots
Devastator
DevastatorSprite
30 rockets
Laser Tripbomb
LaserTripbombSprite
10 mines
Freezethrower
FreezethrowerSprite
40-50 shots
Incinerator
Incinerator
Not effective
  • The values given for the Shotgun and the explosive weapons are minimum values only.
  • The Shrinker only affects the Battlelord Sentry near its crotch or feet. This may require disabling auto-aim.
  • The Incinerator deals damage, but if it reduces the Battlelord Sentry to zero health, the Battlelord Sentry becomes invincible.

The Battlelord Sentry is an enemy you would really rather avoid. The problem is that you'll have to fight your way through them, but luckily they are rather rare.

The Battlelord Sentry holds a big silver Minigun with a built-in mortar launcher, just like the Battlelord. The chaingun is more powerful than that of the Enforcer, and is just as accurate (i.e. very). The mortar launcher fires explosive grenades. The Battlelord Sentry uses the Minigun against close opponents, and the mortar launcher against distant opponents.

The mortars are small and round, and are dark grey with a glowing red line around the circumference. A mortar that doesn't hit something will remain on the ground, spinning, and will explode when the player eventually does touch it (or when it is shot). This makes them dangerous even if they don't hit the player when initially fired.

The mortar doesn't have a set speed or range. It can be fired as far as is needed to reach its foe.

All this means that the Battlelord Sentry is very difficult to approach. However, there is no real need to approach it. The Battlelord Sentry is slow-moving, so it cannot easily dodge projectiles like rockets. It is best to be at the distance from the Battlelord Sentry at which it would switch between its weapons, and moving slightly nearer and further from it will cause it to keep switching weapons, so the player can manipulate which weapon it attacks with.

The Battlelord Sentry has a tall sprite, which has the effect of making it difficult to hit with the Shrinker. (try aiming on the ground right next to the battlelord's left foot) Otherwise, the shrinker would be the ideal weapon to use against it, as it only takes one shot to shrink it.

Data[]

Attributes
Hit points 1000
Speed 128
32 (Shrunk)
Pain chance 12.5% (32/256)
Clipdist 80
Scale 40 x 40
Sprites & sounds
Actor tile number 2630/BOSS1
2631/BOSS1STAYPUT
Alert sound bos1rg.voc
Chase sound thud.voc
Action sound bos1rm.voc
Pain sound bos1pn.voc
Death sound bos1dy.voc
Chaingun Bullet Attack
Type Hitscan
Rate 39 shots/second
(6.5 fires x 6 shots per fire)
Damage 6~ (per pellet)
36~ (total)
612~ (full volley)
Actor tile number 2595/SHOTSPARK1
Sound chaingun.voc
ricochet.voc (Impact)
Mortar Attack
Type Projectile
Rate 1.4 shots/second
Speed Varies
Damage 0-50 (blast radius)
Blast radius 2500 map units
Actor tile number 1650/MORTER
1890/EXPLOSION2 (Impact)
Sound rpgfire.voc
bombexpl.voc (impact)

The Battlelord Sentry in other games[]

  • In Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, the sprites are somewhat modified, and the Battlelord Sentry's resolution was halved from its original resolution in Duke Nukem 3D (making it appear more pixelated).
    • It is also the same size as the Battlelord, which means it cannot enter any small spaces. However, its strength, speed and other attributes are unchanged.
    • This is probably a bad usage of CON language to revert the aforementioned halved size of the sprite (and basically misunderstand of how to differentiate between a Battlelord and a Battlelord Sentry).
    • It seems to force the owners to remove some mini-bosses in small areas.
    • It also causes a bug when it is shrunken by the Shrinker.
    • Oddly enough, if any shots damage it, it will be pushed back with considerable force, especially with rockets. This is another possible bad usage of CON language.
    • Battlelord Sentrys are able to step on water surfaces but will completely disappear afterwards making levels like Flood Zone a lot easier. The game will still count them among the enemies you killed.
    • Despite their size, they are still capable of falling into the sewer hole in Freeway. As stated above, they will disappear since the hole leads to a water sector.
  • In Duke Nukem 64, the Battlelord Sentry is modified so that it is unaffected by the Shrinker, but will inflate when killed by the Microwave Expander.
    • Mortars leave smoke trails (like the RPG), instead of the original effect.
    • The Battlelord Sentry, like every other enemy in Duke Nukem 64, has a body that can be hit by any weapon and has a specific strength; in the case of the Battlelord Sentry, it takes half of the damage than the enemy to destroy it.

Trivia[]

  • Despite its prominent role in Duke Nukem 3D it does not appear in Duke Nukem Forever despite the fact its larger counterpart is featured in the game. Instead its mini-boss role now seems to be filled by the Duke Nukem Forever version of the Assault Commander and the gunship.
  • The Battlelord Sentry chaingun weapon is incredibly strong. As such, whenever there are two Battlelord Sentrys in the same room, one can kill the other in friendly-fire with relative ease.
  • A resurrected Battlelord Sentry will have only 10% of its original hit points.
  • Because of the palette usage, the Battlelord Sentry looks somewhat different to the Battlelord, most notably the color of the large bullet-shaped objects protruding from its back.
  • Duke will sometimes say "Die, you son of a bitch!" when defeating a Battlelord Sentry. This is the phrase he uses when he defeats the Battlelord, although in this case he will always do it.
  • The Battlelord will play its dying animation even if it is killed by an explosion or the Microwave Expander.
    • Its corpse can still be exploded, though.
  • The Battlelord Sentry cannot step on any water surfaces, and therefore cannot submerge itself.
    • This behavior was most likely coded to prevent the Battlelord Sentry from walking off the top of the building in the level Flood Zone (as there is water below).
    • It can, however, be spawned underwater.
  • The mortar weapon doesn't have a defined speed or a limit; it is calculated using the player's relative position.
  • There is a bug that causes the Battlelord Sentry to not attack the player after it has been shrunk and regrown. Instead, the Battlelord Sentry will just move around until it is damaged by an explosion; at which point, the Battlelord Sentry will resume attacking the player as normal.
  • A common bug can cause a shrunken enemy to behave like a normal (unshrunken) enemy. Because of the shrunken enemy's small size, therefore, it is difficult to kill.
    • The bug is caused when the enemy flinches after being shot in its shrunken state.
  • It is common in user maps to use custom palettes that were never supposed to be used in the game (especially blue skins for winter-themed levels). A Battlelord Sentry is generated by any palette other than zero. But when a Battlelord Sentry thaws out after being frozen by the Freezethrower, it will show its default palette (21) instead of the one it was set to.
Duke Nukem 3D
Episodes L.A. MeltdownLunar ApocalypseShrapnel CityThe BirthAlien World Order
Weapons Mighty FootPistolShotgunChaingun CannonRPGPipe BombShrinkerExpanderDevastatorLaser TripbombFreezethrowerIncinerator
Items Access CardsHealth ItemsHolodukeJetpackNight Vision GogglesPortable MedkitProtective BootsScuba GearSteroids
Enemies Assault CaptainAssault CommanderAssault TrooperBattlelord SentryCycloid SentryEnforcerFirefly TrooperOctabrainOverlord SentryPig CopPig Cop TankProtector DroneProtozoid SlimerRecon Patrol VehicleSentry DroneSharkTurret
Bosses BattlelordOverlordCycloid EmperorAlien QueenCycloid Incinerator
Editions ClassicSharewareAtomic Edition (Plutonium PAK)Megaton Edition20th Anniversary World Tour
Expansions Duke AssaultDuke Caribbean: Life's A BeachDuke It Out In D.C.Duke Nukem 3D Level Design HandbookDuke Nukem's Penthouse ParadiseDuke XtremeDuke: Nuclear WinterDuke!ZONEDuke!ZONE 150Duke!ZONE IIUnofficial Expansions
Community High Resolution PackMods & Total ConversionsSource PortsSpeedrunningUser Maps
Other Build EngineCheat CodesDifficultyDuke Nukem (character)MultiplayerMusicPortsPrototypesQuotesScrapped Content
Advertisement