Everything we know about Apex’s new sniper rifle, the Sentinel

Apex Legends’ fourth season hit live servers earlier this month and introduced a slew of new content to the game, including a new bolt-action sniper rifle named the Sentinel.

Respawn Entertainment first revealed the weapon in its season four announcement in January. The Apex developer remained relatively tight-lipped about the sniper rifle but teased its powerful capabilities in the Devstream.

“[The Sentinel] feels really powerful,” Apex executive produced Drew McCoy said. “It’s got that cool animation when you cock it back. It’s a little different than our other sniper rifles because it has a charge mechanic.”

Shortly after the season was announced, a PlayStation blog revealed more details about the Sentinel and its mechanics.

“Fast (for a sniper), accurate, and surgical, the Sentinel lets you remove your enemies from the battlefield with cold-blooded accuracy,” the blog read. “Ideal for medium-to-long range combat, the Sentinel is particularly devastating to shields.”

Since it’s a sniper rifle, the Sentinel uses the newly renovated sniper ammo, which is easily identifiable by its dark blue coloring. The Sentinel can be found in normal loot crates scattered across the map and packs a powerful punch when charged with a shield battery. One hit from a charged Sentinel breaks enemy shields, regardless of where the shot connects.

To charge the sniper rifle, players will need to click on the shield battery in their inventory. It takes a few seconds to charge, but after doing so, the Sentinel’s next shot will be a powerful charged hit.