Forerunner automated turret

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The Forerunner automated turret, sometimes referred to as the autoturret and auto-turret, is a Forerunner construct that was used by the military forces of the Ecumene during the Forerunner-Flood war.

Design details
The automated turret is essentially a stripped-down Sentinel in design, with a weapon analagous to a Sentinel beam. They were designed late in the war with the Flood to be easily-mass produced in widely-available Ferrarius Assembler Vats, using easily-obtained frontier resources and lacking most complex components. When deployed, they act as an automatic antipersonnel weapon. It is typically deployed by a user in a single location to act in a defensive measure. The turret hovers in place above the ground and will fire upon any enemy targets that come within range of its sensors. It fires blue, beam-based plasma projectiles that are naturally hot enough to melt steel.

Usage
Automated turrets were a relatively late entry into the Forerunner arsenal during the war with the Flood, and were primarily used to lock down key chokepoints behind the lines. These autoturrets were encountered and used by John-117 during the Battle of Installation 00 and Raid on Installation 08.

Halo 3
The autoturret appears in Halo 3 as a useable piece of equipment. In the initial launch of the game on Xbox 360 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, the turret is only found in the campaign mode in the levels The Ark, The Covenant and Halo. With the changes introduced to Forge via the game's release on PC, the autoturret was added into the Forge inventories of a handful of multiplayer maps as a useable equipment piece.

Campaign
The autoturret appears sporadically throughout the Halo 3 campaign on the levels The Ark, The Covenant and Halo. When deployed, it fights on the side of the Sentinels, targeting any enemies the Sentinels would otherwise target - primarily Covenant and Flood forces. On the final level, however, the player can deploy two autoturrets outside the control room of Installation 08 to assist in fighting Flood. Following the boss fight against 343 Guilty Spark inside the control room, the player can exit the building to find that - like the Sentinels - the autoturrets are now hostile and will fire on the player. Similarly, the turret will fire on Flood forces even when they are allied with the player during the level The Covenant.

When deployed, the turret hovers in place in a stationary position, and cannot move under its own power - requiring it to be placed facing enemies for it to be able to fire. The front of the weapon has a small lens that can rotate to aim the beam slightly to give the weapon a limited cone of fire. When firing, the weapon has a short three-second charge time before emitting an extremely powerful laser similar to that of the Sentinel beam. This beam fires for a short duration, during which time it is able to kill most infantry enemies or strip the armor of more deadly enemies such as Chieftains. The beam has a large knockback effect on flying enemies such as jump-pack Brutes. As it is an AI type, the turret does get stronger as the game's difficulty is raised. When the player is declared as an enemy, the turret is noticeably more powerful, able to acquire targets much quicker and kill the player extremely quickly.

The turret's lack of mobility and slow fire rate make it extremely vulnerable, as it can be quickly overwhelmed by larger groups of enemies - it is defenseless when approached from behind or the sides. The turret has a small health pool, and can be destroyed in a few melee strikes - a potential issue when fighting Flood forms. When meleed, the turret can be sent flying far into the air, resulting in the turret landing in a different place facing a different direction.

Multiplayer
The autoturret was not available for use in Halo 3 multiplayer in either the game's initial launch or launch as part of the Master Chief Collection. However, it was added into Forge as part of the changes brought by the game's release on PC in 2020. Up to 8 autoturret equipment pieces can be spawned on the maps Avalanche, Foundry and Sandbox. In multiplayer, the turret is hostile to all players (including the player/ team that deployed the turret) in the game, and will attempt to fire upon anyone who comes within its range, and can kill a player in around one second. Such kills are accredited to the player who deployed the turret, as are betrayals and suicides.

The autoturret was not intended to combat vehicles, as its main appearances in the Halo 3 campaign are in areas predominantly defined by infantry encounters. As such, the turret has an inconsistent behavior when firing at player-operated vehicles. The Elephant is completely immune to the turret's beam, as with all weaponry, and for the most part the Scorpion tank does not take health damage when fired upon. The Scorpion does lose armor plating from being fired at by the turret, but will only take health damage when fired at from specific angles. Vehicles such as the Prowler are also seemingly immune to the turret when fired upon from the front, though the hovering nature of the Prowler does mean it will be knocked back intensely by the turret's beam. When firing at vehicles, the turret's beam will fire indefinitely without pause.

Trivia
If the player destroys a certain Fleet of Retribution during The Covenant, any auto-turrets deployed by the player will fire at 343 Guilty Spark.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3