Promethean Watcher

Promethean Watcher
Overview
Role:	Defensive sentry Scout
Manufacturer:	Requiem Forge
Width:	127 centimeters (4 ft 2 in)
Height:	127 centimeters (4 ft 2 in)
Mass:	144 kilograms (318 lb)
Armament:	Z-110 Boltshot
Other systems:	Z-90 hardlight shield projector Gravity-displacement beam

The Promethean Watcher is a kind of Sentinel designed by the Forerunners. Watchers are part of the mechanical Promethean forces created by the Ur-Didact near the end of the Forerunner-Flood war as a desperate attempt to combat the Flood. Watchers acted as the primary defensive drones of the Promethean shield world Requiem, where they were first encountered by the United Nations Space Command in summer 2557. Later on they went on to serve under Jul 'Mdama's Covenant, where they remained until late 2558, where they fell under control of the Created.

Overview

Design

Unlike most Sentinels, Watchers lack the typical geometric shapes of their siblings and instead bear more resemblance to the more organic forms of the Prometheans. They are small aerial drone piloted by an conditional combat ancilla rather than the composed essences characteristic of other Prometheans. These ancillas are low-level distributed intelligences based on the Promethean Knight that they originate from. The ancilla is housed in the upper carapace of the construct.

They have a number of appendages, including what appear to be legs hanging below the midsection which serve as stabilizers and two large disks on both sides which provide agile lift systems and a coiled energy expenditure from within them. Most of these segments lack physical joints and are held together by energy fields. Above the midsection there appears to be a head with stylized facial features and also two fins which act as motion curators to control movement. Like the other Promethean constructs, Watchers under the Ur-Didact's control possess orange lighting, in contrast to the blue-lit appearance typical of other Forerunner constructs.

Operation

On the battlefield, Watchers act in a supporting role, assisting Promethean ground units with aerial combat screening and often forcing opponents to engage the Sentinel first. Each Promethean Knight unit carries a single Watcher in the back of their armored carapace, from which the Watcher can be deployed at will.

The Watcher is capable of healing and augmenting damaged allies, providing them with hardlight shields, and can catch and return enemy ordnance, such as grenades, with a gravity-displacement field. They are armed with a built-in Boltshot.

Watchers can resurrect destroyed Knights from the small orb of light they leave behind upon death; however, this can only be performed once for each individual Knight. It is unclear if these tools are the same as the smartmatter loom and reconstitution emitter found on Constructor Sentinels, or something entirely different. They are also capable of summoning Promethean Crawlers to the battlefield by conjuring the Crawlers' forms from raw material in the ground. Watchers are also capable of building focus turrets.

Production notes

During the production of Halo 4, the Watcher originated as part of an early pitch to theme the Prometheans around Chess pieces, with the Knight based on the eponymous piece, and the Watchers based upon (and named) the "Bishop". While ultimately renamed the Watcher in the final game, the remnants of this early idea can be found in-game thanks to its tag in the game files retaining the name storm_bishop, and the existence of the cut "Bishop Beam" weapon. An achievement in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Remove the Bishops From the Board, retains a reference to this name and requires the player to kill 1,000 Watchers in-game.

The existence of the Watchers in Halo 4 was first hinted at in 2011's Halo: The Essential Visual Guide, which first namedropped a "Watcher" Sentinel. They were later accidentally leaked by a McFarlane toy, before being officially revealed in the Halo 4 E3 2012 Stage Demo.

Trivia

	See our gameplay information related to Promethean Watcher on its gameplay page.
	Browse more images in this article's gallery page.

• An outline of the Reclaimer symbol, in reality the Marathon logo, appears on the Watcher's midsection despite Bungie owning the rights to the Marathon franchise.
• Watchers can be assassinated in Halo 4, but not in Halo 5: Guardians.
• Watchers are capable of catching player thrown grenades and throwing them back. They can also, as of Halo 5: Guardians, catch and throw back the projectiles shot by Hydra Launchers.

Gallery

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  Watcher concept art.

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  A 3D model of the Watcher for Halo 4.

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  3D models of the Watcher.

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  A Watcher stored in the back of a Knight.

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  Various views of the Watcher.

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  Render of the Watcher in Halo 4.

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  Alternate render of a Sentinel Watcher with red side-disks.

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  The Promethean Watcher Sentinel during Halo 4's development stage.

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  Closeup of a Promethean Watcher Sentinel inside a Knight.

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  Closeup of a Promethean Watcher Sentinel in flight mode.

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  Closeup of a Promethean Watcher's reconstruction beam.

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  Closeup of a Watcher as it deploys its reconstruction beam.

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  A Watcher reconstructing a Knight.

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  A Promethean Sentinel Watcher in the jungles of Requiem.

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  A Spartan-IV engaging a Knight being shielded by a Watcher.

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  Two Spartan-IVs facing off against a Watcher and a Crawler.

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  A Spartan-IV battling Elites and a Watcher.

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  Watchers during the Mission to Installation 03 in Halo: Escalation.

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  A Watcher in Halo 5: Guardians.

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  An Alpha Crawler being healed by a Watcher on Escape from ARC.

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  A Legendary Watcher on Attack on Sanctum.

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  A Legendary Watcher projects a Z-90 hardlight shield in front of a Mythic Warden.

List of appearances

• Halo 4 (First appearance)
  • Spartan Ops
• Halo: Silentium
• Halo: Escalation
• Halo: Spartan Strike
• Halo 5: Guardians