Forerunner automated turret

The Automated Turret, also known as the Auto-Turret, is a form of equipment similar in design to a Sentinel.

As its name implies, it acts as an automatic defense system (deployable antipersonnel turret) for the player and is featured in Halo 3. It is so far only encountered on the Halo 3 levels The Ark, The Covenant and Halo; and is not found on any multiplayer maps due to the issue of keeping the game balanced. The auto-turret is dropped in an area where you want to defend, and once deployed, it will automatically shoot at the enemy.

Function

File:AutoTurret1.jpg

An Automated Turret fending off some Grunts.

This small, robotic turret is a piece of Forerunner technology found on the Ark and Halo and resembles a stripped down Sentinel. Its mode of attack is firing a thin, blue beam at its target. This device is extremely adept at destroying Flood of all kinds, but is still highly effective at taking down enemies of all kinds. Its drawbacks are that it takes a long time to find and shoot a target and it will occasionally shoot the player. Its good to deploy when you have many hostiles in the area so you can have added firepower at your side.

Its HUD symbol is a silhouette of the equipment itself, and slightly resembles the symbol for the Power Drain.

The Auto-Turret fires a beam similar in color to a Sentinel Major from Halo 2.

Advantages

• The Auto-Turret has sufficient power to remove a Brute's power armor, kill a Jackal and a Grunt with a single shot & kill a brute chieftain in three shots.

• Even with its poor targeting and low damage resistance, the Automated Turret can still often provide kills without considerable player support.

• Even if its firepower is rather weak, it will distract its enemy to provide valuable time for you to recharge your shields or attack the enemies.

• If you leave them alone and they are still there on the level Halo then they are easy to remove as a single charged blast from a Plasma Pistol. This is generally enough to destroy one and can be done before you enter the turret's range of fire.

• When you melee or shoot the Auto Turret, sometimes, it will quickly fall to the ground, then come straight up to its position again.

Disadvantages

• Due to programming and mechanical issues, the turret has a warm up time of about 3 seconds. The turret also has problems picking out targets, often tracking allies with its targeting system.

• The turret is also easily deflected. Even the slightest touch can send it flying into the air.

• The turret can also damage you if you walk in the beam and sometimes can be knocked away by you or an enemy, whilst firing the beam.

• Because of its slow targeting time, if you come up behind one, it will not turn around. You can then assassinate it, but oddly, either through a glitch or bug, it will not explode, it will simply fall to the ground, disabled. If you look at it, your targeting reticule changes to red, and if the Arbiter is there, he will destroy it while it is on the ground.

• When the Auto-Turret is your enemy, its AI is greatly increased. As with the Marines, it will pick out targets faster, fire more accurately, and will rarely turn away from you on higher difficulties if you are on radar.

• It is rather fragile most of the time, easily being dispatched by enemy forces. It is mysteriously harder to destroy when it becomes hostile.

Trivia

• There are only 7 Auto-Turrets in the Campaign mode, a seven reference.
• On the Halo 3 level Halo, if you have set down Auto Turrets before you go into the control room, when you leave the control room after you have killed 343 Guilty Spark, the Auto-Turrets will start attacking you.
• The blue beam the turret fires is similar to the beam 343 Guilty Spark fires to stun/shock the marine on The Ark.
• On the level The Covenant, if you use an auto-turret during the part where you're allied with the flood, the turret and the flood will try to kill each other.
• In Halo 2, the Sentinel Major fires a blue beam, indicating higher power and damage. The auto turret fires a blue beam, but oddly, it is weaker than the normal sentinel beam. The beam could possibly be blue because it has significantly less power than a red beam.

Images

• Autoturrethud.svg

  The Automated Turret HUD icon.

• Auto Turret 2.jpg

  A closeup of the Auto Turret firing its beam.