Sentinel Light Rifle

Covenant

* Particle Carbine
* Focus Rifle

Forerunner

* Sentinel Beam
* Sentinel Sniper Beam

Medium Range

* UNSC
	+ M41 Rocket Launcher
	+ M310 Grenade Launcher
* Covenant
	+ Void's Tear
	+ Hunter Beam Cannon
	+ Hunter Fuel Rod Cannon
	+ Brute Shot

The **Sentinel Light Rifle** or sometimes mistakenly known as the **Binary Rifle** is a powerful direct energy weapon wielded primarily by Gold Sentinels or Sentinel Majors and by Promethean Knight Lancers, Soldier Snipers, and Crawler Snipes.

## Overview & Background

The Sentinel Light Rifle looks similar to the Sentinel Sniper Beam, but purple in colour. They are used by Forerunner constructs which must purge Flood forms from a safer distance when the infection levels have evolved to such an extent, that the Flood could reliably take down Forerunner constructs at long range and take significant damage from normal Sentinel Beams.

In terms of function, it handles similarly to the Sentinel Sniper Beam, as they both have two firing modes: the 'shotgun' mode which is done unscoped and could deal with swarms of lesser enemies like Flood Infection Forms whilst conserving ammunition. The 'sniper' mode is done via scoped and fires a singular, devastating beam that lasts until the weapon needs to cool down.

However, this is where the similarities end. The Sentinel Light Rifle's 'shotgun' mode is far more accurate and functions more like a semi-automatic rifle rather than an actual shotgun, this makes the Sentinel Light Rifle much easier to handle when hip firing in close quarters than one might expect. When zoomed, the Sentinel Light Rifle could deplete shields and health at a much faster rate than the Sentinel Sniper Beam, although at the expanse of rapidly consuming ammo. Moreover, the Sentinel Light Rifle could only scope once, whereas the Sentinel Sniper Beam could scope twice.

## Gameplay Information

### Advantages

* When scoped, the beam could strip away the shield and health of even the strongest Covenant forces such as Elite Honour Guards and Elite Ultras.
* When unscoped, its surprisingly accurate beams allow it to be a good medium-ranged weapon in a firefight.
	+ Moreover, when unscoped, the Sentinel Light Rifle use less battery charges than the Sentinel Sniper Beam.

### Disadvantage

* When scoped, the weapon drain ammunition at a ludicrous rate, draining 17 Battery Units in a single turn.
	+ To make matters worse, the weapon is relatively rare in Lumoria, making weapon scarcity and ammo conservation a top priority.
* When unscoped, its low fire rate makes it poor against close-counter firefights. In contrast to the Sentinel Sniper Beam whose large shotgun-like spread can mitigate the low rate of fire.
	+ Furthermore, the unscoped beams bifurcate at longer distances.
* It could only scope at x1, in contrast to the Sentinel Sniper Beam which could scope at x2.

## Trivia

* The Sentinel Light Rifle actually functions like the Binary Rifle, which has led some to mistakenly identify it as such. It also bears the same name as the Forerunner Light Rifle, although the Sentinel Light Rifle does not function like an assault rifle.
* When picked up, the HUD refers them to as UNRECOGNISED ORGANIC PIERCING BEAM, because it may be unidentified by then UNSC.
* Whilst the Sentinel Sniper Beam is strong in both short range and long range whilst weak at medium range, the Sentinel Light Rifle's strength lies in medium-long ranges whilst it suffers at short range. This makes the Sentinel Light Rifle a rough analogue to a Forerunner Battle Rifle/Particle Carbine hybrid in contrast to the Shotgun/Sniper Rifle hybrid of the Sentinel Sniper Beam.

## Gallery

Sentinel Light Rifle.Sentinel Light Rifle scoped.Sentinel Light Rifle fired unscoped.Ditto. Note how the beams bifurcate when unscoped.Sentinel Light Rifle fired scoped.Elite hit by Sentinel Light Rifle.