How To Deal With Sentinels

Exploration is the core theme of “No Man’s Sky,” but it has its fair share of threats. Sentinels, the mysterious robots commonly seen scanning and patrolling random planets, are very hostile toward players, and they can be a bit of a nuisance to deal with.

Destroying one Sentinel will almost always cause more to arrive, and breaking even more of them will only make them angrier. Eventually, they’ll send in large mechs supported by fighter crafts, and they can all ruin someone’s day very quickly.

Here are some tips on how to fight and survive Sentinel encounters in “No Man’s Sky.”

Multi-Tool Upgrades

An upgraded multi-tool can do wonders against Sentinels in direct combat. At first, players may have to fend stray drones off with just their mining laser, but, eventually, they’ll be able to unlock the Bolt Caster and the rest of the game’s other multi-tool weapon add-ons after reaching the Space Anomaly.

Multi-tool modules can be installed in tech slots to improve the effectiveness of weapons. Try to fit as many upgrades as possible without overloading the multi-tool.

Multi-tools come in a variety of shapes and sizes
Photo: No Man’s Sky

Avoiding Wanted Levels

Sentinels act somewhat like a police force. When witnessed, they will issue wanted levels against players who perform certain acts that go against the law, such as:

• Overharvesting resources
• Killing unprovoked fauna
• Attacking space stations
• Attacking neutral starships
• Destroying planet-side depots and outposts

So long as players avoid doing these while exploring, Sentinels should remain neutral. But note that some drones could immediately resort to violence upon spotting a player, so staying in the vicinity of Sentinels should be avoided entirely.

Hiding

When players have active wanted levels and don’t want to fight Sentinels, it’s best to find or make a safe place to hide.

Sentinels typically don’t enter inside caves or buildings, so try to duck inside of one and wait for the wanted levels to disappear. Alternatively, use the multi-tool to dig a tunnel underground and just keep running until the Sentinels lose interest.

Going into space while active wanted levels are present will cause Sentinel ships to chase the player, making evading detection much more difficult.