Some Good Mods for Sentinels

I’ve mentioned a few times that Sentinels are better than Kubrows and Kavats. The reasons are obvious. Sentinels don’t run face first into danger, they are far easier to maintain, they are cheaper to make, you can give them different weapons and they don’t need to be fed. But Sentinels have the added bonus of also having more initial polarities than companions too. Which means you can squeeze more mods on your floating buddies.

But what mods should you use?

Before we start, when companions, it matters where your mods go. For mods that make your Sentinel actively do things (like shoot enemies), you need to put them in the order at which you want them to prioritize abilities. So if you want your Sentinel to shoot enemies more than do defensive actions, you want to put your shooting mod in the first slot. Passive mods like Vacuum can go at the end, and will be done, well, passively.

Well, of course, Vacuum has to be among your mods. Vacuum’s so damn useful. Yes, Warframes have an innate 3m vacuum now, but 3m is fucking tiny and hardly noticeable. Vacuum just works so much better, dragging things to you then dropping your loot on your head.

Up next, it’s worth having a Regen mod. Regen allows your Sentinel to respawn with some life when destroyed, and will spawn with a brief bit of invulnerability. This is good because at high levels, Sentinels can die pretty easily. Primed Regen allows for your Sentinel to respawn up to 3 times, but it’s expensive to both obtain and level up. Like Vacuum, Regen is a passive mod so you can stick it wherever you want.

You’ll also want some survival mods. Funnily enough, some Sentinels, in particular Carrier Prime and Helios Prime, have more effective health than some Warframes. My own Carrier Prime boasts a good 900 health and about 200 armour, which is more than my Volt Prime has. Then again, Volt makes up for that by having 1100 shields. It’s worth remembering that Sentinels can’t easily be healed, so you want armour to make sure their health lasts longer.

After that, you’ve got a couple of options. Do you want your Sentinel to shoot at things or do you want it to be a utility object?

Personally, I find Sentinels as offensive weapons to be awkward and not worthwhile. Not only do you need to mod and forma a Sentinel’s weapon separately from the Sentinel itself, but you’ll also need extra weapon mods, since you can’t use the same mod in both a normal weapon and a Sentinel weapon. Plus, Sentinels with guns tend to shoot at enemies while you’re downed, attracting aggro and getting themselves killed. When it comes to the actual Sentinel weapons, Deconstructor Prime, Helios Prime’s weapon, is the best but it can only be used on Helios. Artax, the Taxon’s weapon, is the weakest, but it does have a good bit of utility as it slows down enemies greatly.

Utility mods tend to come in various flavours. Medi-Ray and Shield Charger are both incredibly useful mods. Medi-Ray will heal you briefly, while Shield Charger regenerates shields and also gives you and nearby team mates extra shields for a short amount of time. Sanctuary will create a shield around you that absorbs a set amount of damage as you revive other players, which is useful in low levels but in Sortie-level missions, the shield will most likely be instantly destroyed.

Sentinel-specific mods tend to depend on what you want. Shade’s Ghost, which makes you invisible when near enemies until you fire your weapon; and Carrier’s Ammo Case, which converts unused ammo you can’t use into ammo you can use; are both incredibly useful. Wyrm’s Crowd Dispersion might not be as useful since most Warframes have a way to get out of sticky, crowded situations.

The Sacrifice mod will kill a Sentinel to revive you. This mod should be avoided unless you have a maxed Primed Regen. It’s generally easier to either wait for a team mate to revive you or to just revive yourself – this will also revive your Sentinel if it dies.

The best mod though is Guardian. Guardian will automatically refill your shields if they are drained, once every 30 seconds. The instant replenishing of your shields means that your health won’t be nearly as badly damaged as it would be without Guardian. It’s basically a mini shield-gate and has saved me from certain death more times than I can count. Guardian also makes Hijack missions far easier, as it activates when your shields are drained completely, essentially doubling the time you can stand on the objective.

Just remember that Sentinels require two slots, one for their weapons, and one for the Sentinels themselves. Luckily, you start with four Sentinel slots and four Sentinel weapon slots, so there’s plenty of space to experiment.