Sentinel functions

[Clemm]

The Atlas Rising v1.3 update brought added data about sentinels. Steam user Anga Hakuna has posted view access to his Sentinel tasks Excel workbook about this. It currently lists observed data for drones – Status, Function, Current Subroutine, and Directive. Some seem pretty scary.

[sheralmyst]

Nice list. I have also found some of these to be unnerving. Here is one I don’t see on the list.

[Traveller101]

Thanks for making me notice that every single drone has its own identity somehow!
I will look into it tomorrow to find some cool drone patrols to post here!

Now I feel bad for killing almost 300 drones!
@sheralmyst now I hope I only have killed those sacrificing fanatics…

In Honor!
Traveller101

[Clemm]

Thanks. I’m passing along any new finds.

The same drone appears to have multiple functions and directives. I watched and periodically scanned one for a while. The scan results changed. Now I wonder … is that random or does each change mean something? Also, are the sentinels receiving instructions or is the “logic” built-in?

[sheralmyst]

I wonder as well. The one I scanned was in a system with an Atlas interface so his directive makes sense. I will try to check sentinals more carefully on exotic/rare planets.

[DevilinPixy]

I believe the Sentinel functions to work as follows:

Each sentinel has 1 of 3 states and within this state it picks a random Status, Function, and Current Subroutine, belonging to that state. It finally picks an additional random Directive, which is independant of state. I have created a table below to show the possibilities. Hope it makes sense Spoiler ahead!

Sentinel Functions - Spoiler!

State	Status	Function	Current Subroutine	Directive
	Investigate	Support	Investigate	Directive
	Investigating…	Support Unit	[ Lifeform Search ]	Civilisation Destruction
	Searching…	Rapid Response	[ Anomaly Detection ]	Suppress Sentience
	Inspecting…	Active Suppression	[ Event Processing ]	Locate Beauty
	Scanning…	Anomaly Destruction	[ Trend Analysis ]	Portal Deletion
	Auditing…	Combat Support	[ Boundary Test ]	Lifeform Immobilisation
	Probing…	Breach Repair	[ Waveform Analysis ]	Civilisation Delay
	Reviewing…	Anomaly Repair	[ Preparing Alarm ]	Sow Division
	Analysing…	De-escalation	[ Depth Testing ]	Harvest Data
	Studying…	Counter Attack	[ Temporal Analysis ]	Observe All
	Anomaly Detected…	Advanced Combat	[ Boundary Reinforcement ]	Replicate Sentinels
	Detecting Breach…	Retaliation	[ Safeguard Deployment ]	Sanitisation
	Oversight Initiated…	Rapid Suppression	[ Ocular Testing ]	Spread Decay
	Observing…	Retribution	[ Low Frequency Ping ]	Reinforce Boundaries
	Irregularity Detected…	Anomaly Neutralisation	[ Probability Sort ]	Traveller Detection
	Analysis Required…	Sentience Destruction	[ Data Siphon ]	Sow Discord
	Sensors Deployed…			Prevent Sentience
				Predator Suppression
	Patrol	Patrol	Patrol	Herbivore Protection
	Patrolling…	Ambient Protection	[ Patrol ]	Mineral Protection
	Uploading Report…	Active Patrol	[ Idle ]	Botanical Protection
	Cruising…	Anomaly Suppression	[ Route Optimisation ]	Specimen Collection
	Watchful…	Intelligence Suppression	[ Path Optimisation ]	Specimen Preservation
	Registering Activity…	Field Scout	[ Kinetic Recovery ]	Data Harvest
	Sensors Ready…	Anomaly Hunt	[ Self-Analysis ]	Surveillance
	Patrolling…	Area Suppression	[ Background Diagnostics ]	Lifeform Supervision
	Patrolling…	Boundary Protection	[ Fuel Cell Cleaning ]	Sentience Degradation
	Patrolling…	Boundary Enforcement	[ Defragmenting ]	Delta Wave Detection
	Low Power Mode	Breach Detection	[ Long-Distance Scanner ]	Memory Protection
	Recharging	Anomaly Ward	[ Short-Range Scanner ]	Encryption Block
	Reconnecting…	Passive Enforcement	[ Portal Detection ]	Load Balancing
	Processing…	Oversight Patrol	[ Patrol Iteration ]	Null Checker
	Optimising…	Ambient Protection	[ Distributed Analysis ]	Innocence Preservation
	Awaiting Orders…	Mobile Aegis	[ … /// … /// … /// … ]	Universal Detranslation
				Digital Cartography
	Alert	Guard	Alert	Leyline Mapping
	High Alert	Guard Duty	[ Weapon Deployment ]	Calculate Probabilities
	Combat	Security	[ Active Pursuit ]	Sacrifice to Atlas
	Requesting Assistance	Local Defence	[ Signalling Reinforcements ]	Authenticate Threats
	Engaging	Active Defence	[ Preemptive Destruction ]	Anomaly Spoofing
	Targeting	Escort	[ Target Prediction ]	Data Interception
	Target Acquired	Localised Suppression	[ Ammo Fabrication ]
	Repairing Breach	Sentry	[ Field Suppression ]
	Repairing Anomaly	Active Protection	[ Trend Analysis ]
	Cleansing Anomaly	Guardian	[ Seal Breach ]
	BREACHED	Active Oversight	[ Anomaly Repair ]
	Combat	Local Overwatch	[ RED RED RED ]
	Weapons Deployed	Active Protection	[ A T L A S ]
	Targeting	Area Defence	[ Firing Eye ]
	Combat	Specific Patrol	[ Hardpoint Repair ]
	High Alert	Anomaly Buffer	[ Hunting ]

For full tables of Sentinel data found in the localisation files, see here.

[Traveller101]

@DevilinPixy thank you so much for this! That is so interesting now as I learn more and more about the game!

In Honor
Traveller101

[Mad-Hatter]

Thats quite intetesting.
I hadn’t seen all of those.
Busy little fellas…

[Clemm]

This is another interesting take on the sentinel behaviors. Has anyone scanned the walkers or “dogs” yet?

It seems to me that a hierarchy of these would place “Directive” at the top, then Function, then Sub-Routine, then Status lowest.

BTW, Anga Hakuna (Steam) seems to be monitoring this discussion now. His [I assume male] Sentinel behaviors workbook now has an added worksheet (tab) that follows the above sequence.

I hope that future updates to No Man’s Sky will embellish and explain more the sentinels’ role & actions, and expand on past history.

[Polyphemus]

It’s difficult to get a dog or a walker to stand still long enough to be scanned, without them killing you.

It’s possible to make them become passive by hiding in a building for 5-6 seconds, but then their behaviour changes.

Once they become passive, they will always walk away from you. Their only objective seems to be to get far enough away from you that they can despawn (they can’t despawn so long as you are close to them, and have them in sight).

You can follow them for miles, if that’s what you want to do. You’ll need an exocraft to follow a walker - mostly they wander in random patterns, but every now and then they’ll take off in a straight line - and they can walk faster than you can run.

[Clemm]

So go ahead … scan and die several times. Take one for the team!
LOL

[DevilinPixy]

The grouping for ‘Status’, ‘Function’ and ‘Current Subroutine’, depending on what I personally called ‘State’ in my table above, is based on lots of screenshots. These 3 columns are also categorised by their IDs used for them. The only odd ones out were ‘Support’ and ‘Guard’ within the Function IDs, where I expected ‘Investigate’ and ‘Alert’ respectively to match the others.

What actually decides on the so called ‘State’ is unclear to me and I have not (yet) been able to verify how this functions in code. Those ‘Directive’ IDs are not categorised at all, just numbered as one large group. They are also shown last on your scanner view, as well as listed last inside the file. They seem totally random and appear to be the only ones that can show regardless of the 3 ‘State’ groups.

See below images for example where one has the status ‘Patrolling’ and another has the status ‘Auditing…’. Both are different ‘State’ groups, 2 vs 1, while both show the same Directive ‘Reinforce Boundaries’. In my opinion, this makes it unlikely for Directive to be the decisive factor, when this grouping according to the State in my screenshots has not failed me yet. I could be wrong though.

As for the Quads and Walkers, I don’t believe they show anything else besides their name. It would certainly be interesting to see more scan results added in future updates though

[Polyphemus]

I’ve been working on a little video, covering “How to Follow a Walker”. It wasn’t quite finished, but then this subject came up, so I decided to render it out and post it anyway.

Here it is:

Polyphemus Follows A Walker

PS. I normally use Sony Movie Studio as my editor. But for this one, I was experimenting with Openshot - which is a free, open source video editing project. It doesn’t (yet) have all the fancy features of a professional editor, but I think it’s pretty good.

[Traveller101]

I have investigated drones in my worlds so far and as far as I can tell, all drones in ATLAS systems seem to be sacrificing… Odd enough their attack mentality is softer, they seem to be willing to die…

In Honor
Traveller101

[CrossID]

I’m not sure if this is helpful or not but I have a sentinel captured in my base and every scan shows a different result. It’s as if it’s purpose is constantly changing until it observes specific behavior that requires action. I haven’t taken the time to test this outside.

[Oshoryu]

Yeah… I’ll be leaving now.

[zsigmond]

i scan outside ones and they do change per scan
no wonder they are confused

[Polyphemus]

I scanned a Walker. No objectives or functions - just titanium and iron.

[Clemm]

Cute. Sentinel walkers (and likely dogs) as a resource. Thanks for checking. For this particular photo, though it appears that the scanner is focused on the cliff in the background. Note that the scan result shows the overall ID is “Mineral” ?

It does seem odd that since all sentinels were AI created to “protect,” that only one class would have “Directives” and specified actions. We’ll have to check future updates to see if there are changes. Maybe changes will only come with added lore that can be discovered.

[Polyphemus]

Honest, it’s the sentinel. Same here:

The first one was just a nicer picture.