Rad Labs Meduza HEL Auto Sentry

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The Rad Labs Meduza HEL Auto Sentry is a tool that deploys a fully autonomous tripod-mounted perimeter defense system (also known as a sentry gun) which holds a large amount of ammunition and can be placed on the floor or on objects depending on the tactical situation. The Sentry Gun is able to identify friend from foe, which allows team mates to walk safely within its cone-like range, as long as there are no enemies detected in it. However, if an enemy comes within range, the sentry will fire regardless of player presence and damage allies if they are in the way. Use with caution.

Prior to ALT://Rundown 6.0, the Meduza's sole gimmick was its mildly-impressive 8x stagger multiplier. However, with the release of ALT://Rundown 6.0, the Meduza was reworked - sacrificing ~100 bullets from its total ammo capacity for the ability to fire penetrating rounds (able to penetrate through the first enemy/prisoner in the line of fire to also hit the first other enemy/prisoner standing behind them). This has the advantage of potentially doubling the effective damage output of the sentry (potentially allowing it to be somewhat more effective against swarms of enemies), but, due to the lower ammo capacity and unchanged firing rate, it will burn through refill packs even faster than it previously did.

The cone of the Sentry Gun has 3 colors that visually communicate the status of the gun to the players:

* Green: Sentry is active, ammunition is available, and scanning the area for targets.
* Red: Sentry has identified an enemy/enemies and is engaging the target(s).
* Grey: Sentry has run out of ammunition and is in idle mode. All functions ceased until further action is taken. Additionally, the Sentry will emit loud beeping sounds as well.

The Auto Sentry variant uses a fully automatic firing mode.

While the Auto Sentry's damage leaves a lot to be desired, it really shines in its ability to stagger enemies, its high fire rate means that it can shoot many enemies in quick succession, mixed with its medium range means that if it is placed in a good spot, eg: a long hallway, it will have time to shoot many enemies before they can reach your position, which will slow them down to either allow you to finish completing scans, or just a longer amount of time to shoot them before you have to move back to another position. Because of its range and fire rate it is a good idea to place it facing where the enemies are coming from to prevent friendly fire - but at least it can shoot through one player and still hit an enemy standing behind them.

Compared to the Burst Sentry, the Auto sentry uses tungsten bullets like the HEL Autopistol for an increased stagger effect(and piercing rounds) but deals lower damage in return. Combined with the huge ammo capacity it can delay parts of incoming waves or help stagger larger enemies to support the team. Might act as a replacement for C-Foam in situations where normal doors are either unavailable (e.g. destroyed) or cannot be kept closed with C-Foam (e.g. being kept open and preserved for use during a later alarm).

It was released as a rundown-specific tool in the Rundown 004 / Contact update.

## Pros

* Adds direct (although low) firepower to the team.
* Takes advantage of the sleeper's weak points if shooting their heads.
* Great ammo capacity.
* The gun's targeting scanner can warn on where enemies are coming from.
* Constant rate of fire.
* Good range.
* Excellent at staggering enemies.
* Great at keeping Chargers and Big Chargers at a distance to prevent their hard hitting melee attacks.
* Piercing rounds potentially allow it to be more efficient when stalling swarms

## Cons

* Requires constant tool resource packs to upkeep.
* If enemies are moving side-to-side the sentry has issues hitting them, resulting in ammo inefficiency.
* Can only shoot targets which are in front of the gun.
* Abysmal damage, requiring a *lot* of ammo to kill a single target

## Trivia

* The name of this sentry, 'Meduza', is presumably a reference to the intended use case for this tool. Whilst tool's namesake could easily stop any would-be attackers by automatically turning them to stone as soon as they gaze into her eyes, the Meduza can (in theory) similarly immobilize attackers, albeit through the less impressive method of 'stunlocking them by firing a steady stream of high-stagger tungsten rounds at them'
	+ However, the 'tungsten rounds' approach does have the advantage of not requiring the target to gaze upon the sentry - very useful considering that most types of enemies (besides one) don't even have eyes to gaze at it with!