How to master the Sentinel in Apex Legends: tips, damage stats & DPS

The Sentinel in Apex Legends can pack a big punch with his unique “Amped” mechanic. Fighting around this, and knowing how to abuse it, is your key to mastering this gun. We’ve got all the tips you need to know to make it a piece of cake.

The Sentinel in Apex Legends hits hard when it comes down to it, but the sniper rifle does suffer from a low rate of fire. Nevertheless, if you can connect your shots, your team will be thankful for the assist from afar.

If you’re struggling to control the sniper and need a hand, we’ve got you covered, with a guide to all the Sentinel tips and tricks you need to know in Apex Legends.

Apex Legends Sentinel damage stats

There’s two sets of damage stats you need to be wary of about the Sentinel ⁠— its Amped damage, and its base damage.

Ideally, you’ll be charging up your Sentinel with a couple of shield cells before a major fight and firing off your eight charged shots. The 25% damage increase is huge.

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However, if you get caught in a pinch, it can still dish out a decent amount of damage. You might be better off swapping to your secondary though, as the Sentinel really doesn’t deal well with getting caught by surprise. Here’s a breakdown of the Sentinel’s damage stats:

Sentinel attachments

The Sentinel has pretty bare bones attachments, which makes it pretty easy to hunt down. When it comes down to magazines and stocks, the rarer, the better: aim for that Gold mag and that Purple stock to really level up your Sentinel.

For scopes, the longer, the better. Given the Sentinel has a fast projectile speed, you don’t really need to consider bullet drop as much as other snipers. Banging on a 4x-8x ⁠— or if you’re lucky, a 4x-10x Digital Threat ⁠— is the best thing you could do.

You can find a full list of Sentinel attachments here:

Extended Sniper Magazine

• Common: 5 bullets
• Rare: 6 bullets
• Epic: 7 bullets
• Legendary: 7 bullets

Sniper Stock

• Common:
• Rare:
• Epic:

Optics

• 1x Holo
• 1x HCOG “Classic”
• 2x HCOG “Bruiser”
• 1x-2x Variable Holo
• 3x HCOG “Ranger”
• 2x-4x Variable AOG
• 4x-8x Variable Sniper
• 4x-10x Digital Sniper Threat

Don’t forget to charge your Sentinel

It’s easy to forget, but you need to manually charge your Sentinel with two Shield cells to get it amped. The 25% bonus damage is no joke, making it hit hard on body shots, and even harder on headshots.

The Sentinel, while uncharged, is very weak. Yes, it has a few perks, like the high projectile speed we mentioned above, but if it’s not dealing sufficient DPS, you may as well swap for a Charge Rifle, Longbow, or ditch the Sniper completely.

Aim for the head ⁠— it’s so key

Yes, okay, this sounds a bit ridiculous, but it needs to be said. Hitting headshots in Apex Legends can be hard. Snipers like the Sentinel make it easier. However, it’s especially key with this one, because of just how much of a punch it packs.

The Sentinel is a one-shot headshot on some targets, especially low-profile legends. However, it can take up to three body shots to down an enemy. Given its slow rate of fire, you’ll want to dome your enemies if you can.

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Obviously, if you can’t reliably hit the head, aiming for the body is fine, especially while the gun isn’t amped (headshots aren’t one-shot downs for the most part). However, if you have it amped and hit a headshot, your enemies will melt like a hot knife through butter.

Plus, if you hit the headshot, you can then use a secondary firearm ⁠— anything automatic will do, like a R-99 ⁠— to mop up the mess. It’s also handy to have in case you get caught by surprise.