Sentinel Major

Sentinel Majors are upgraded versions of the standard Forerunner Sentinel, and serve on the Halo Installations. They are more resilient and powerful than ordinary Sentinels, possessing gold-colored armor and deadlier blue Sentinel Beams.

Introduction
Sentinel Majors are similar to a regular Sentinel in basic shape and function. Sentinel Majors, however, are gold in color rather than silver, have stronger blue beams rather than weaker orange beams, are protected by a light energy shield, and fire more accurately. They were only observed on Installation 05 during the Battle of the Quarantine Zone. In the game, they are seen combating Flood and the Covenant.

Sentinels have been known to have been created long before Alpha Halo was ever conceived. They operated automated facilities such as Gas Mines, like the one found on Threshold for untold centuries before the facility was redesigned to research the Flood. Therefore, it is possible that they were only outfitted for combat after the Flood was discovered.

In gameplay, they are often seen hovering around Enforcers whenever the Arbiter combats them. In addition, they rarely travel by themselves; instead, they travel in packs of three to five, as well as "commanding" normal Sentinels.

Function
The Sentinels are the defenders of the Installations and are controlled by the Monitor of the Installation. Their primary purpose is to contain small outbreaks of Flood; however, they can only manage Flood for a short time and in small quantity. Should an outbreak grow beyond the Sentinels' ability to control, Enforcers and Sentinel Majors are activated by the Monitor of the Installation to assist the Sentinels. It is also possible that there must be a massive outbreak, like the one seen on Installation 05, to give reason enough to construct these stronger versions.

In combat, their shields are less powerful than that of an Elite's, and the beam fired is blue instead of orange-red. It is also more powerful, but, as a result,it overheats more quickly and its battery drains faster. You can pick up this beam and the normal beam as your primary and secondary weapons. One can tell the difference between the weapons simply by noting that the stronger of the two is gold in color, rather than silver.

Sentinel Majors can also be seen fixing pieces of Forerunner material, much like the Constructors do. However, this is extremely rare.

Tactics
Individually, their relatively low shielding (as compared to an Elite, for instance) is made up for by their maneuverability. As with Sangheili Rangers, they can easily slice through the air, evading slow-moving projectiles (such as rockets) and coercing the combatant to concentrate on one at a time. The best weapons for them are the Covenant Carbine or the Plasma Rifle. First, the Covenant Carbine has a pretty strong punch and can penetrate the shielding in one or two shots. With an additional two shots, the Major will go down. For the Plasma Rifle, you will have to rely upon its steady rate of fire to wear down the shields rather than take it out decisively. Shotguns and SMGs can also be effective at close range, but otherwise human projectile weapons are highly ineffective. When facing these worthy opponents, be certain to have some cover within close proximity, as these Sentinels travel in groups, and can take your shielding out in seconds. Behind cover, use hit-and-run tactics to evade fire. Be sure to take one out at a time, as a wasted effort will be useless - the shielding will still be there, and you will have to take it out all over again. Once you have taken out the Sentinel, however, you can take its extremely powerful laser, which is another effective weapon for dealing with the remaining Sentinels. The Majors' variant of the Sentinel Beam can also take out the "legs" of an Enforcer in less than five seconds, whilst an ordinary Sentinel Beam takes over double the time. If your shields are down and you are out in the open, crouch (or do something to evade fire quickly) and then activate your active camouflage. Use this time to duck behind cover, and do not fire during this duration.

Trivia

 * When a Sentinel Major's Sentinel beam is dropped, it takes the color of an average Sentinel beam. When picked up, however, the color is gold like a Sentinel Major and the beam is blue.
 * Through the use of modding the map file of the map Quarantine Zone in Halo 2, you will find that there are three types of Sentinels, one being the normal "Grey Sentinel", one being a "Grey Sentinel with shielding", and the last being the "Golden Sentinel" also with shielding.
 * The Sentinel Major Beam does not appear in multiplayer.

Related Pages

 * Sentinel
 * Enforcer
 * Constructor
 * Sentinel Launcher
 * Sentinel Production Facility
 * Sentinel Beam