Bentley's wheelchair

"Sly: The modifications you've made to that wheelchair are incredibly powerful. Bentley: Yes, the upgrades should serve me well in the field. Blasters, mines, all the standard fare."

- Discussing the new wheelchair

A wheelchair is Bentley's primary means of mobility following the events of Sly 2: Band of Thieves.

History
At the end of Sly 2, the Cooper Gang and Carmelita Fox agreed to a truce to confront Clock-La, an amalgamation of Neyla and the body of Clockwerk. Clock-La was eventually rendered unable to attack after Murray pried open Clock-La's beak so that Bentley could remove the Hate Chip. Unfortunately, the beak closed shut just after Bentley removed the chip, crushing him. A distraught Murray freed Bentley from under the beak, at which point Bentley stated that he was unable to walk. After he and Murray helped Sly Cooper escape captivity after the truce, Bentley was checked into the hospital for treatment, receiving a wheelchair in the process. After Sly and Murray broke into the hospital to retrieve him, Bentley upgraded and modified his chair so that he could still be a secondary field agent to the team. He still uses this chair to date, upgrading it further through personal upgrades and ThiefNet.

Uses and Functions

 * Melee: In lieu of the crossbow used during the events of Sly 2, Bentley can fend off enemies up close with a spin attack function built into his wheelchair, referred to as the Wheelchair Spin. In Sly 3, he hopped slightly up into the air, using extensions protruding from his wheels to strike opponents. Unlike his crossbow, it is able to attack enemies behind Bentley. He can also power-up his wheelchair to inflict status effects on enemies such as shrinking them or inducing insanity on them to attack other guards. In Thieves in Time, Bentley attacks by using the wheels similarly to a spinning kick. While this version of the wheelchair's attack is slightly slower than its Sly 3 iteration and lacks the ability to imbue itself with status effects, it has increased range, improving its efficiency. Despite the wheelchair providing a better melee attack than his crossbow, it still deals less damage than Sly Cooper's cane and Murray's fists. In Thieves in Time, it takes six hits from the wheelchair's spin attack to take out a rooftop guard and fourteen hits to defeat a flashlight guard, meaning its attack power is only half as strong as Sly's cane and one-third as strong as Murray's punch.


 * Pickpocket: The wheelchair grants Bentley the ability to pickpocket guards, something he was not capable of doing while on foot. In Sly 3, he utilized the Pick Pocket Pole, a retractable pole with a magnet that allowed him to pickpocket loot or other items from guards. However, unlike Sly, Bentley could not use it with, requiring him to assign it as one of his gadgets (, , or ). It was also slower, since Bentley needed to back away from the guard to pull out the contents. The Pick Pocket Pole is replaced with twin robotic arms in Thieves in Time, thus allowing Bentley to pickpocket enemies similarly to Sly by sneaking up from behind and pressing.


 * Jet engines: Bentley's wheelchair comes with built-in jet engines, replacing his standard double jump. The Hover Pack function allows Bentley to reach higher and further than he normally would on foot. In Sly 3, the hover pack was an upgrade that granted Bentley two extra jumps. In Thieves in Time, the hover pack is built into the wheelchair by default and allows Bentley to hover in the air for a short while. With the Scorching Hover Pack upgrade in Thieves in Time, it can be used to attack enemies underneath Bentley by burning them with the exhaust flame. The jet engines are also used when using the Adrenaline Burst upgrade, giving him increased speed.


 * Bombs: Bentley's wheelchair stores the bombs that he uses during missions. The wheelchair allows Bentley to automatically toss a bomb into their pockets by holding while sneaking stealthily from behind, providing him another way to defeat enemies without alerting them.


 * Dart gun: As he is not able to carry his crossbow with him while out on the field due to being confined to a wheelchair, Bentley built in a dart gun modification into the wheelchair to compensate. Just like in Sly 2, it fires sleep darts, which can put enemies to sleep temporarily, leaving them vulnerable to one-hit KOs from bombs. In Thieves in Time, he can additionally fire explosive, electric, confusion, and shrinking darts. Unlike in previous games, the sleep darts are not available by default, requiring the Sleep Ammo to be purchased from ThiefNet to use; the explosive darts are the default darts here. His darts can also be further upgraded to home in on enemies for better accuracy.


 * Built-in binocucom: The wheelchair stores his binocucom as a function that can mechanically appear on the arm of Bentley's chair. As in Sly 2, it is used as a way to aim and fire darts accurately. When utilizing the Grapple-Cam, Bentley will look through his binocucom to see from the Grapple-Cam's built-in camera. In Thieves in Time, Bentley appears to switch back to a standard binocucom, as indicated by the animation that appears when clicking.


 * Mechanical arm/s: A simple mechanical arm was used in Sly 3 to carry and drop bombs in front of Bentley. In Thieves in Time, Bentley further upgrades his wheelchair to include two robotic arms, using them to toss bombs and pickpocket more efficiently than before. They also appear to be able to respond to mental commands, as they can perform gestures and other movements without Bentley visually doing them or ordering them to.


 * Shield: In Thieves in Time, Bentley can purchase the Throwing Shield upgrade from ThiefNet to allow him to deploy a force field that protects him from attacks and hazards while aiming his bombs.

Limitations
Although the wheelchair and its capabilities do in fact make Bentley significantly more mobile and stronger while operating on the field, he does have additional weaknesses and limitations as a result of being confined to a wheelchair. For one, he is no longer able to sneak across buildings or crawl under tables or tight spaces; this bars him off from accessing certain areas while the latter also eliminates a possible hiding spot from guards. None of the mechanical innovations in his chair grants Bentley the ability to swim, and thus he will still drown upon falling into water much like before.

If Bentley is separated from his wheelchair, he is essentially rendered helpless due to his paraplegia. Octavio and LeFwee took advantage of this by knocking him off of the wheelchair, and his death animation in Sly 3 and Thieves in Time also has him fall out of the wheelchair. Octavio also once held Bentley hostage by picking his wheelchair up, implying that Bentley has to be in control of his wheelchair for it to function.

Trivia

 * In Sly 3 and Thieves in Time, the wheelchair is shown to be practically indestructible or at least extremely durable, as when Bentley dies while out in the field, he falls out while the chair remains unscratched.
 * Bentley's wheelchair appears to have computers and a red button attached to it, presumably used for utilizing gadgets built into his chair. They are no longer present in Thieves in Time, being replaced with an interactive holographic display.
 * When conversing with his teammates through the binocucom in Sly 3, Bentley's image in the binocucom will now show his upper body instead of being close up to his face. This is due to his binocucom being a built-in function in his wheelchair that can mechanically appear on the arm of his chair. This also occurs in Thieves in Time, despite the implication that he is using a regular binocucom.
 * Due to being in a wheelchair, Bentley is the playable character in the transition between Sly 2 and Sly 3 that received the most changes in terms of animations.
 * While standing still, Bentley will look around with a more neutral expression; in Sly 2, Bentley will look around with a more alert and cautious expression.
 * Being in a wheelchair will now cause Bentley to stand diagonally while on inclined surfaces.
 * His previous double jump in Sly 2 has him perform a somersault in midair before being replaced with his wheelchair's jet engines.
 * He receives a new idle animation that has him perform a wheelie with his wheelchair.
 * When activating power-ups in Sly 3, Bentley will press a red button on the arm of his chair instead of pulling the trigger on his crossbow in Sly 2.
 * When knocked back by enemy attacks or hazards in Sly 2, Bentley will tuck into his shell while flying back, sometimes causing him to bounce upwards into the air; in Sly 3, he will simply get knocked back and shake his head upon landing, reducing his vulnerability time.
 * His previous death animation in Sly 2 has him jump up into the air and fall on his back while the one in Sly 3 has him fall onto his stomach.
 * His new death animation when getting crushed has him get flattened, unlike in Sly 2 where he falls over on his stomach.
 * Bentley's new falling animation has him suddenly look down as his wheelchair falls down into a bottomless pit, then tucks into his shell as he follows afterwards, with his helmet flying off in the process; in Sly 2, he flaps his arms before tucking into his shell, plummeting to his death afterwards.