Nerf N-Strike Elite Centurion

The Centurion is the blaster Hasbro put a 100 foot number on. People have argued about that number ever since. It is a clip-fed Mega rifle with a bolt, a bipod and a great deal of length. Here is what it actually is, what the 100 feet means, and who should still want one.

The short verdict

• It is the biggest statement in the Mega line. Nothing else in it looks like this and nothing else is this long.
• Clip fed, which is rare for Mega. Six Mega darts in a removable clip rather than a fixed drum.
• Bolt action, and it is a long throw. Priming this blaster is a deliberate movement, not a flick.
• The 100 feet is a manufacturer claim and it is the most disputed figure in the hobby. More on that below.
• It comes with a bipod, which suits it better than it suits most blasters that offer one.

Buy it if you want the presence and you play from fixed positions. Skip it if you are buying on the range figure, because the gap between that number and what you will see is the whole controversy.

What comes in the box

The Centurion is a long, clip-fed Mega rifle. In the box you get the blaster, a bolt on the right-hand side, a shoulder stock, a folding bipod and a 6-dart Mega clip.

That clip is the interesting part. Most Mega blasters feed from a fixed rotating drum. A removable clip lets you carry spares, so you are not pushing darts in one at a time.

There is a tactical rail for sights, and the usual N-Strike accessories from our attachments guide will clip to it.

One correction to our own archive. The old version of this page said the Centurion comes with “an optional scope”. A scope is not in the box, it is an accessory you buy, and describing it as included has misled readers of this page for years.

The 100 foot claim, handled properly

The number on the box is 100 feet, and this page used to repeat it as though it were a measurement we had taken.

It is not. It is a manufacturer claim, produced the way manufacturer claims are produced: fired at an angle, with fresh darts, under conditions arranged to reach the number.

Fired flat at a target, which is how anybody actually uses a blaster, what you get is a fraction of it. That is true of every Elite-era and Mega-era figure and it is not a fault unique to this blaster.

What is specific to the Centurion is the size of the gap. This blaster drew more complaints about missing its claim than anything else Hasbro released in that period. Those complaints came from a lot of people, separately.

We do not have a chronograph run of our own on file, so we are not going to counter the 100 feet with a number of our own invention. What we can tell you is that the disappointment is widely reported and consistent, and that you should not buy this blaster expecting the box figure.

Our old copy also claimed “no other gun boasts that it can shoot up to 100-feet, as this one does”. That was not true when it was written and it is less true now, and it is gone.

For blasters that publish a figure and where that figure came from, see our best Nerf sniper guns guide.

The bad physics this page used to publish

There is one more thing to correct out loud, because it was stated as fact and it is wrong.

The old copy said: “With bigger darts, it is possible to gain more momentum; therefore it is able to fly further.”

That does not follow. A heavier dart does carry more momentum at the same speed. But a bigger dart is also harder to get moving, and it pushes against more air on the way out. Which effect wins depends on the whole system, and it is not settled by the size of the dart.

In practice, across the Nerf lines, the heavier Mega darts tend to hit harder up close and give away distance. That is the opposite of what our old sentence promised.

We are naming it rather than deleting it because a page that quietly removes its own errors gives you no way to judge the rest of it.

Where the Centurion came from

The Centurion arrived in 2013, in the wave that started the Mega line. It was the shop-window product for the whole idea.

Mega needed a flagship. A line built on bigger, louder darts needed one blaster to make the case in a shop. A very long rifle, with a bipod and a 100 foot number on the box, did exactly that.

It worked as marketing and it is the reason the disappointment landed so hard. A blaster sold on a headline figure gets judged against that figure, and this one was.

Our old copy leaned into the same framing. It said “Nerf is making history with its longest-range Nerf gun ever”. It also said the Centurion “is sure to change how people approach their Nerf battles”. Neither was ours to promise, and neither held up.

What did last is the shape. More than a decade later, the Centurion is still what people picture when they picture a Nerf sniper rifle. That reputation has outlived every argument about its range.

The bolt, the clip and the reload

The Centurion primes with a bolt on the right-hand side. Pull it back, push it forward, fire.

It is a long throw, much longer than the bolt on a standard Elite blaster. There is a bigger dart and a bigger plunger behind it. You will feel it after a dozen shots.

The clip is what makes this blaster work. Six Mega darts drop in ahead of the trigger, and swapping a spare clip is far faster than filling a rotating drum by hand.

Mega clips are their own thing. They do not swap with the Elite clips from the rest of the N-Strike line. A bag full of 18-dart Elite clips does nothing for you here.

Bottom line: the reload is the best part of this blaster’s operation, and the prime is the part that sets your pace.

The bipod and shooting from a position

A bipod on a Nerf blaster is usually decoration. On the Centurion it is closer to useful, for two reasons.

The first is weight. This is one of the few blasters heavy enough that resting it actually relieves something.

The second is the way you have to use it anyway. A long bolt-action blaster firing six shots is a blaster you shoot from somewhere, not one you carry around a fast game.

So the bipod matches the blaster’s honest role. Set up behind cover with a sightline, rest it, and work the bolt at your own pace.

The legs fold away cleanly and the mount is solid. This is not the part of the Centurion anybody complains about.

Size, weight and carrying it

The Centurion is long. It is one of the longest blasters Hasbro has put on a shelf and it looks it from across a room.

Here we have to correct the archive again. The old page claimed a “42 inch long barrel”. We cannot verify that figure, and it appears to describe the whole blaster rather than the barrel, which are very different claims.

We do not have a measured length on file, so we are not going to publish one. What matters practically is that it does not fit anywhere convenient, it snags on doorways, and it announces you before you get to a corner.

For scale against the rest of the shelf, our biggest Nerf guns roundup puts the oversized blasters together.

The old page also priced it at “roughly $50”. That was a 2013 figure quoted as current, it stayed on the page for a decade, and it is gone with the rest of the stale numbers.

Mega darts, and why they are here

Mega darts are about twice the diameter of Elite darts, bright red, and they whistle in flight.

On a blaster this size the whistle is the whole personality. A Centurion firing across a garden is audible in a way no Elite blaster is, and that is a large part of why people wanted one.

The practical benefits are real. Big red darts are easy to find afterwards, and six of them is a manageable number to keep track of.

The costs are equally real. Mega darts are dearer, the clip holds six rather than eighteen, and nothing else you own will feed them unless it is also Mega.

Our guide to Nerf dart types covers which dart belongs in which blaster, because getting that wrong is the most common first mistake in this hobby.

Buy the refill packs at the same time as the blaster. Six darts sounds like plenty until the first game, and Mega darts are not something you can borrow off anybody else on the field.

Keep the whistlers separate from your Elite darts too. Mix them in one bag and you will be sorting foam in the dark at some point. In a heap the two sizes are close enough to be annoying rather than obvious.

One last thing about the noise, because people ask. The whistle is loud enough to be a tell. Do your games involve ambushes, or holding a position quietly? A Centurion announces every shot you take, and there is no way to turn that off.

The Centurion against its alternatives

Three ways to think about what else to buy.

If you want Mega darts without the size: the Mega CycloneShock is the six-shot revolver version of the same idea, and it costs and weighs a fraction of this.

If you want a long blaster to work on: the Longshot CS-6 is the modding platform, and the community knowledge behind it is decades deep.

If you want long range from something current: buy on published figures from a blaster still in production, and treat any decade-old claim as history rather than a spec.

Mod potential

The Centurion has a reputation as a blaster people modify specifically because the stock performance disappointed them.

The shell is roomy, which is the one genuine advantage of a blaster this size, and there is space to work with ordinary tools.

The warnings are real ones. A longer, heavier plunger stroke means more stored energy and more load on the catch, and a Centurion is not a cheap blaster to break.

Mega bores are also wide, so the fit between dart and barrel matters more than it does on Elite hardware.

Our Nerf mod guide covers the sensible end of this, and the modder’s toolkit checklist lists what belongs on the bench first.

Buying one used

The Centurion is a used-market purchase now, and it is a big object that has usually lived somewhere awkward.

Work the bolt end to end. It should travel smoothly and lock firmly. A long stroke that feels gritty has usually been apart, and a bolt that will not hold is the expensive fault.

Check the bipod mount and both legs. They fold, so they get snapped, and a Centurion without a working bipod loses the feature that suits it best.

Confirm the Mega clip is included. Mega clips are not interchangeable with Elite clips and they are harder to replace.

Look along the length for stress cracks, particularly near the stock joint, because a blaster this long gets leaned on and knocked over.

Ask how it was stored. A Centurion is too big for a toy box. So it lives in a garage, a loft, or leaning against a wall. All three leave marks that a listing photo will not show you.

Then think about shipping before you commit. This is an awkward, expensive parcel. A bargain that turns up with a cracked stock, because somebody posted it in a thin box, is not a bargain.

Buying locally and collecting is genuinely the better route for a blaster this shape, and it lets you work the bolt before you pay.

What is not worth worrying about

Cosmetic scuffs on a Centurion are close to universal and they have no effect on anything. Neither does a missing sticker or a faded orange tip.

A missing scope is not a fault either, because one never came in the box in the first place.

The Centurion is gone, so what do you buy now?

The Centurion is discontinued. Every one you find is the used market.

Start with the honest part. Nothing we can point you at today is a Mega-dart rifle you prime with a bolt, and nothing on shelves comes with a bipod. If you want the whistle, the length and the legs, you want a used Centurion. No new blaster is going to give you that.

Now the part that does carry over. What most people actually liked here was the long build: a stock on your shoulder, a sight on the rail, and a clip instead of a drum you fill by hand.

• The Nerf N Series Shadow Storm comes with a stock, a barrel and a sight in the box. It fires 8 darts in a row from an internal clip and ships with 24 darts, which is 4 Centurion clips worth of foam. Hasbro rates it 8+.
• The Nerf Rebel Ops Deadeye is the closest thing to the sniper shape, with a shieldstock and a scope-barrel. Heads up: it has no steady stock right now, which is why that is a search link and not a product link.

Both give up the thing that made a Centurion a Centurion. They are normal-size blasters firing normal-size foam. You get to move around, and you give up the presence.

One catch before you spend. The Shadow Storm fires N1 darts, and Nerf’s own listing says those work only in N Series blasters. Your Mega whistlers will not feed it, and neither will your Elite darts, so grab N1 darts with it.

Where to buy

As an Amazon Associate and eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Centurion is no longer a current-shelf blaster, so listings you find are the used market. We have not verified stock at the time of writing, so treat every link below as a search rather than as availability.

• Nerf N-Strike Elite Centurion on Amazon
• Nerf Mega dart refills on Amazon, because six darts runs out fast
• The current Nerf Mega blasters on Amazon
• Used Centurion listings on eBay, usually the better hunting ground for a blaster this old, and you can see the bipod in the photos.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Nerf Centurion really shoot 100 feet?

100 feet is the manufacturer claim, measured at an angle under favourable conditions. Fired flat at a target you will see a fraction of it, and this blaster attracted more complaints about that gap than any other of its era. We have no test of our own on file.

How many darts does the Centurion hold?

Six, in a removable Mega clip. Spare clips let you reload quickly, which is unusual for a Mega blaster.

Does the Centurion need batteries?

No. It is spring powered and bolt primed, with no electronics anywhere in it.

Can the Centurion use Elite darts or Elite clips?

No. It is a Mega blaster and it needs Mega darts in Mega clips. Elite clips will not seat and Elite darts will not fire properly from a Mega barrel.

Does the Centurion come with a scope?

No. It has a rail you can mount one on, and this page used to say a scope was included, which was wrong. The bipod is in the box. The scope is not.

How long is the Nerf Centurion?

We do not have a measured figure on file. The 42 inch number our archive carried looks like the whole blaster, not the barrel. We are not going to repeat an unverified claim as a spec.

Is there a modern version of the Centurion?

No, and it is worth being blunt about it. Nothing we can link today is a Mega blaster you prime with a bolt, and nothing current ships with a bipod. For the long build with a stock and a sight, the closest blaster on shelves is the N Series Shadow Storm, which fires 8 darts in a row from an internal clip. It uses N1 darts, so nothing in your Mega bag works in it.

Is the Centurion worth buying today?

As a presence piece, a display blaster or a defensive blaster for a slow game, yes. As a performance purchase, no, and that has been the honest answer since the year it launched.

Centurion or CycloneShock for Mega darts?

CycloneShock if you want Mega darts cheaply and in something you can carry. Centurion if you want the clip feeding, the bipod and the size, and you already know what you are giving up.

It’s Nerf or Nothin’!