Ghosts of Halo

300px|right|Recent ghost of Blackout Ghosts appear spontaneously as indestructible characters that have been seen in multiplayer maps, apparently controlled by no one, and seemingly attack players at random. The "ghost" apparently takes the form of whatever the person's player model is, weapon, and color. Some of them also show an ability to use vehicles.

Introduction
The ghosts seemingly prefer to use plasma grenades to stick in-game players, all of the time successfully sticking them, and having a seemingly unlimited supply of them. Its patterns seem inconsistent, because the Ghost will sometimes ignore players completely, and at other times will aggressively pursue players.

The ghosts do not walk like most players. Instead, they simply glide across the map without moving their legs. They will glide up various ramps and jump off of ledges. The ghosts are sometimes indestructible, impervious even to an assassination hit from behind (probably because he is looking straight at you, even though you do not see it like that). It has been reported that ghosts have been killed.

Most interestingly, the character does not have a gamertag, does not appear on the score screen, and does not have an apparent controller.

Newer ghosts have been spotted, mainly on Sandtrap. Rather then actual players, they are vehicles, mainly Mongooses and Warthogs, but sometimes Ghosts and even a Wraith.

History
A video appeared on Youtube in July of 2006 by a user named AfRoSaUcE who claimed it was over a year old and made by Jump Tactic's Anti Noob. It really was old, first appearing on mythica.org. It quickly became popular and speculation was raised that it was some form of mod. AfRoSaUcE denied the allegation, believing it to be a network problem. (Although, if it was a network problem, there would be slim chances of it actually saying "Killed By Guardians" when a player is killed by it)

Since the video's first appearance, several new videos have surfaced, with characters who do have gamertags, running animations, and the like. However, a number of mods have surfaced with players controlling characters without these which can obviously be see, but not on Xbox Live. Recently a player called Shadow has claimed that it is not impossible for this to occur on an Xbox without any sort of System Link or Xbox Live. His "Ghostly" encounter is as follows:

Other "ghosts" however have appeared on other maps. One such occurrence was the "Ghost of Turf" found and filmed by clan HollywoodHalo. The ghost displayed all characteristics of the Lockout ghost (no Gamertag, walk sliding, no weapon animations). The most interesting thing about this occurrence is that two ghosts appeared. It was this that revealed that these ghosts were caused by extreme lag.

"Supernatural" Abilities

 * Is sometimes invulnerable to attacks.
 * Does not need to look up or down.
 * Does not have the programming to walk
 * Glides across the map jumping from towers.
 * Can perform tricks and super jumps with ease.
 * All grenades auto-stick and can be thrown whilst looking the opposite way.There is no way avoiding them.
 * Can teleport anywhere on the map.
 * Has ability to mimic movements.
 * Takes the shape of whomever it meets.
 * Seems to have a mind of its own.
 * Can be docile or aggressive.
 * Always hits when shooting.
 * Sometimes when killed by them it states, "Killed by The Guardians".
 * Has unlimited ammo (however it does have reloading animation)in all guns and can change guns with extreme speed.
 * During Forge on Local Play, Ghosts are almost always indestructible.
 * Can choose whatever weapons it wants, even if the map has specified weapons sets.
 * Can be a Monitor, Spartan, or Elite.(In most cases it's "playing" as Spartan character)
 * Does not need to turn around to see its target.
 * Sometimes transparent.
 * Can apear as yellow or red dots on your radar, but do not attack.
 * It can throw objects and Equitment out of thin air.

Theories

 * Caused by extreme lag.
 * Caused by standbying.
 * Caused by a network problem coupled with a mod.
 * Created by Bungie to keep the game moving.
 * Bungie hacking into peoples games on live, and using a ghost character to mess with people. This could be explained by the Ghost of Lockout, where the ghost acted human and could be killed. When killed it respawned at a spawn point.
 * A game bot created by Bungie when it was in alpha mode, to practice, but never deleted.
 * Two different online games going on at the same time in the same map, but ending up in the same server.
 * Caused when someone leaves the game (start menu, leave game.), their Spartan 'dies' in game. This may explain why people only see a ghost after the person they were playing with exits.
 * Random, misplaced programming for game that Bungie had put into it by accident such as "Player Throw Grenade", "Player Kill Player", etc.
 * Possibly a misprogramed and discarded anti-cheating program not entirely deleted.
 * Some say it may actually be a ghost.
 * Some mods have reported AI codes in maps, codes similer to brutes.

Ghost of Lockout

 * The "Ghost of Lockout" is a mysterious occurrence that haunts the Halo 2 multiplayer map, Lockout. It has been in many YouTube videos, the most famous being the Ghost of Lockout. The Ghost of Lockout seemingly prefers to use grenades and always sticks the player. The ghost seems to slide instead of walking and can throw grenades backwards. This video was the first of many more appearances of the Halo Ghost.

The Ghost of Turf

 * The Ghost of Turf was filmed by Clan Hollywood Halo, this video is rather odd because two ghosts were in it and even more strange because the two ghosts were shooting at each other, ending in one of the ghosts dying. This is very strange because these ghosts are killable while ghosts in other videos are not, and during the video there were two white-armored Spartans that lost connection. Therefore extreme lag may have caused the two players to become ghosts.

Ghost of Beaver Creek

 * On Halo 2 Vista, a lone Elite was waiting for his friend to start a server on a custom map so he could download it. During his waiting, he walked up to the ledge with the sniper rifle and noticed a blue Spartan slide toward him, sword cancel off him, then kill him. The weapons set was human weapons only, and in the history of other players in the server, only the friend who left had blue armor but was also an Elite.

Others

 * There have been several other ghost sightings on other maps such as Ascension, Headlong, Ivory Tower, Midship, Backwash, Containment using a sniper, Burial Mounds, and most likely all the other Halo 2 multiplayer maps.

Ghost of Avalanche

 * While trying to get out of the top of the map in a Hornet, a lone Spartan saw a Banshee outside of the boundary, which instead of firing plasma from the wing tips, it shot Fuel Rod cannon shots.

Ghost of Blackout

 * As soon as April 15 a group of players in Forge posted on several forums that they had seen a black Spartan just like those described in previous stories run from the bottom of the stage (where the shotgun is) into the fan/grav lift and get launched up.  When chased, the "ghost" was nowhere to be seen.
 * Also, the video at the top of the page contains footage of the Ghost, however, it isn't indestructible so it is unconfirmed whether this is a Ghost or not.

Ghost of Construct

 * On March 16th of 2008, two spartans were forging on on this map and found a power drain (activated but not effecting sheilds) floating in the air. Only one spartan could see it in their theatre and in the game. Later in that game they found a random shadow moving through the basement part of the level. A 2D shadow to be exact. As they approached it it disappeared. One of the spartans lost his connection (the one that couldnt see the power drain). But was easily able to connect to the game again. It wasn't until a little more than a month later that the spartan that couldn't see the power drain could finally see it in the other spartan's theatre (he saved the video).

Ghost of Epitaph

 * Two Spartans were playing on a custom map on Epitaph. One spartan had a Spartan Laser and was charging at the other spartan, and when he was about to fire, he got lasered from the side. It said the player committed suicide. The players went to check it out, but no one was there. They were offline.

Ghost of Foundry

 * Players have occasionally reported grenades being thrown during Forge, but no verification has been found. A scream was heard too and another ghost came out of the floor(this is not the same one above)in a local play all they could see the helmet, which was a Mark V. EDIT: Verification has been found by Wizkiller96. On his file share, he has a film clip called ghost grenade, where a grenade pops out of air and explodes. The player (not the ghost) was in monitor form, far away from the explosion.
 * April 15th, three friends were playing infection. A transparent elite appeared and killed all three. A message appeared, saying "killed you". The elite's Gamertag looked like this: 000-1173437/7/074535346264635. Several references in the code are Bungie Day, 343 Guilty Spark's number, and Master Chief's service tag. Upon further xbox live investigation, the gamertag was not found.
 * April 11th, 3 Spartans were playing on a forged map when a Spartan with all orange Mark VI appeared and started attacking them. The ghost did not appear on the player list and the 3 other Spartans had grey and pink colors.  Strangely, the ghost had most of the characteristics of the Ghost of Lockout.  You can see the video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX6Q6E9RdOI
 * A lone elite was forging alone when a plasma grenade spawns out of thin air. Upon further investigation, there was no other person in the party and no evidence of where the grenade came from.
 * Once during forge Gman9091 saw an unknown spawn happen and no one came out, not even a body.
 * There has been one Ghost Moniter siting on Foundary near the vertical pipes near the letters VOI

Ghost of Ghost Town

 * On April 20th of 2008, two Spartans were forging on this so called "creepy" map (on gloomy feature). One deployed a bubble shield and it kept recharging itself (deployed near the pitch black gloomy tunnels). Only one spartan could see it until both watched the Theater.

Ghost of Guardian

 * There have been people claiming to have seen a green, transparent Spartan on Guardian.


 * On January 6th 2008, a lone elite was stuck in Guardian next to the active camouflage power-up. He was offline.


 * Two players were playing by themselves in a slayer game, one saw a figure go around a corner. Later the player saw a Spartan with a Rogue helmet slide on the floor and the Spartan stuck him. At the time, they were both Elites and nobody had joined the game.
 * One player in offline forge was standing near the active camouflage like the one stated above, there was only one brute spiker across from the camo. Then the player looked away for a few seconds that seemed like hours, then he looked at the brute spiker again and there were 2. Another two seconds later 2 the 2nd one disappeared. (this may be a multipliying ghost) after exploring the whole map nothing or one was found.
 * On an XBOX Live match, there were five players playing in Rumble Pit, all Spartans. One of these Spartans was moving through the blue room on the map, and was about to jump from that room into the one where the grav lift ends, yellow, near the cloaking. But then the player stopped walking, froze with its shield flaring, and stood there. The player then started moving again and started to shoot wildly around. Suddenly, out of no where, they died. That player says that they couldn't move when they stopped, and that a red spartan was standing on the other door frame, shooting at them. When reviewing the game in threatre, no bullets were fired except for the spartan being attacked, and there was no red spartan anywhere in the game.

Ghost of High Ground

 * On December 6th 2007, a lone Spartan was shot with a laser while going up the beach on High ground. Later viewing of the video showed no laser or player except the Spartan previously mentioned.


 * On March 22nd 2008, two friends were playing forge on High Ground. They were doing system link and hadn't been signed into Xbox Live. One was a blue Spartan and the other was an orange Elite. The Spartan player was walking up the beach when he saw another blue Spartan in the tower where the Spartan Laser is located by default. No other player had joined the game. The "ghost" shot the Spartan Laser at the player on the beach, but missed. When he looked back at the tower the ghost moved down from the tower. After further investigation he noticed the Spartan Laser in the tower was still propped up against the wall. He picked the Laser up and saw it was still at one hundred energy. The whole time the Elite remained in the back of the base and saw nothing of the ghost. The ghost was not found after looking around the level.
 * On Jan. 29 a lone Spartan was in forge mode and had been in it for quite a while - he looked up towards the beach and saw several grenades go off, he could hear someone up in one of the trees, and then heard something like a Spartan Laser shot - except it was hardly noticeable. The Spartan was the only one because he doesn't have Xbox Live and he was never killed.

Ghost of Last Resort

 * A lone spartan was playing on a forge match and began seeing faint enemy lights. Not long after that he was killed by an unknown source.  When viewed in theater nothing could be found.  The player didn't have xbox live.


 * Two friends, both of them Spartans, were forging for a future Machinima series, when without warning, seven Spartan Laser shots attempted to kill them, one player looked past the turbine to see a "ghost" wearing a Hayabusa helmet, EVA shoulders, and a Mark VI chest piece, just like the player who viewed it, straight down to the colors and symbol, looking straight at him, the ghost stood there for approximently 7 seconds before the turbine passed it, and it dissapeared without a trace. It should be noted the ghost wielded an Energy Sword and a Spartan Laser.


 * A single Spartan was in Forge mode. He placed some objects, and changed from the Monitor to a Spartan. He looked at his motion tracker, and saw a red enemy blip. When viewed in Theater, no "enemy" could be seen.


 * Two friends, one elite one spartan, were trying to do the flying crate glitch on the beach, when a frag grenade appeared out of thin air and exploded underneath the two players. No other players had entered the game and both players where in the Monitor mode while the grenade appeared. After further investigation no source of the grenade was found.

Ghost of Narrows

 * There have been many people claiming to have seen a green, transparent Spartan on Narrows.

Ghost of Rat's Nest

 * On April 4th, 2008, a lone Spartan in a forge game was hit by an exploding barrel while riding a mongoose. Although the exploding barrel was already worked into the map, the player had set invincibility on him order to make forging easier. Later, in the same game, he was killed once again in monitor mode (once again, invincible) while away from any kind of danger or edge of the map. During this death, the sound of an exploding plasma grenade was seen and heard, though the replay only saw the player dying without an explosion. Both deaths were counted as "Killed by Guardians" kills.

Ghost of Sandtrap

 * Two spartans were mucking around on forge when a Orange Elite ran across the field and into the ruins. Both of the players followed it but when they got inside the ruins the Elite had vanished without a trace.


 * 2 players in an offline match had an encounter on Sandtrap, where they claimed to see a transparent yellow Spartan with a Spartan Laser by the outer wall. They were riding a Mongoose past when they caught a glimpse of it and were soon after destroyed not by the deadly mines, but by a blast from none other than a Spartan Laser. On another occasion, in an online battle, 3 players claimed to have seen and been killed by a Spartan with a Spartan Laser. With further investigation conducted by the players, there was no Spartan or weapon that the laser beam had emanated from.


 * On December 9th 2007, a lone Spartan was seen in an Infection gametype on Sandtrap. The Spartan had a mind of its own and could cut people off in a Warthog. The video was reviewed and a Spartan was found all gold with a katana, EVA head, and security shoulder pads.


 * On Martin Luther King Day 2008 A lone Spartan was playing on Alpha Zombie in Sandtrap when he found an Overshield in the sky dropping things like the game was forge. At first it seemed fun even though the Overshield dropped an equipment case on him, but then the Overshield dropped a medical crate on him and it killed him and all it said was Killed by the Guardians. Investigation revealed nothing: however he did notice that normal Overshields contain floating red items and a white glow inside it but the ghostly Overshield did not. (This could be the an "Orb" ghost of halo 3 like the ones stated in real life)


 * 2 players were together in a game of Sandtrap in forge mode, making weapons. And all of a sudden, an orange beam shot from the sky and nearly hit both of them. The orange beam appeared to be similar from the orange beam that shoots from a sentinel beam. The orange beam shoots for about 2 seconds then stops, and then shoots again. The beam also shot through a wall. On closer inspection on theater, you get to see where the orange beam came from. It comes from a sort of floating object up high in the sky. The object looks like a gun that has not been fully designed. It is 2D and has nearly no detail. It looks similar in shape to a sentinel beam. There was no 3rd player. Only those 2. This beam has been discovered to be the beam that triggers the Mines outside the map; the Origin comes from one of the 6 spires while the ending is where the mine spawns.


 * In the second round of the match, an orange Spartan with an EVA helmet, Hayabusa shoulders, and EOD or Hayabusa chest plate ran across the map to the outer area of the map and through the barrier seconds before the match ended.


 * A lone Elite was forging on top of the big ruins, when a Warthog without driver splattered him. Nothing was found afterward.


 * Also in another game 2 spartans were playing tower wars and one of them were killed by a brute shot. But the other player was on the smaller tower and he was forging at the time and there was no possible way of a brute shot killing him because he was out of range. When it was checked in theater it revealed a 2D flying brute shot at extreme speeds flying vertical and it fired but the projectile came out of the ground and killed him. Later in the game the other player was shot by a spartan laser, in theater it showed 3 lasers coming out of the ground and 2 of them aiming at the second tower to the Aegis Fate and the other laser was aiming at the player.


 * Once in a off-line Forge match, Mongoose's began spawning from mid air where no one had placed them. then when the host stepped under them it said "Killed by the Guardians".


 * One Spartan was scouting his own version of Sandtrap when he saw the items he had placed in the Elephants falling out of thin air in the middle of the map. When he looked for the Elephants he found one of them with everything in it but when he looked for the second, there was no trace of it. Also, the boundary lights were missing and ocasionaly large "friendly lights appeared on his radar. Viewing a saved film showed that there was no visible source. The player was not in Forge at the time or in Xbox Live.
 * A lone Spartan was forging offline when he saw something fall from the sky. It was only a glimpse. In Theater the things are actually some Mongooses spawning in Mid-Air. When he looked around him there were also 2 Scorpions and a Wraith falling from the sky. There was also a small orb looking like a Monitor, but it disappeared after 3 seconds.


 * Two Spartans were playing splitscreen offline slayer on a forged Sandtrap one player was in a mongoose driving by the minefield the other player was on top of a tower via a banshee.As soon as the player in the mongoose was sniped by the other player an explosion suddenly threw the player off the tower. Investigation in theater revealed that a mine from the minefield suddenly spawned behind the player on the tower who was nowhere near the minefield.


 * Two Spartans and an Elite were overloading Sandtrap with land mines offline in forge when one player went to check if the minefield was off two mongoose's fell right where the player was standing and when viewed in theater the mongoose's spawned out of thin air.


 * One Spartan was setting a pair of Wraiths, when, while setting the 2nd Wraith, the 1st was flung across the map, and was also damaged; but before it hit the ground. The player didn't have XBox Live.


 * On April 18th 2008 two Spartans, TymeDaHog and Jay Jay Chubb, were scouting a custom made map in an offline game when a yellow Spartan Laser beam killed TymeDaHog, after reviewing in Theater, the beam came from the edge of the map.
 * A Spartan was forging on Sandtrap and pulled off the elephant glitch. He activated the message and returned to where the Scorpion but it was gone and the turret was sticking out of the ground.  He turned around to see a Scorpion spawn outside the boundaries of the map.  The player was offline.


 * In an invite-only Infection Match, four Zombies were spying on the Last Man Standing when they heard the sound of someone getting into a Warthog, when one Zombie turned around he saw a driverless Warthog heading straight for the four of them. The Warthog continued to follow and Splatter the players until few minutes before the game ended. The map was a Custom Gametype with only Elephants and Mongooses.


 * On April 27,2008 two friends where playing forge Sandtrap ghost hunting when a mongoose was spotted on radar being moved like that of a monitor but with a much brighter light.


 * On April 27,2008, a player, cras777, was setting up a Race Track for his friends, once he got his Xbox Live Gold again. He had set up anything he could find and while walking past fusion coils, 4 Ghosts(vehicles)came through walls, from north, sounth, east and west, with no signs of drivers. They were incredibly fast, without boost, they came in to attack him, cras777 jumped out of the way, and the Ghosts blew up, seperating into numerous parts. He relaxed. He was then stuck on his arms, left leg, and face. The player had no Xbox Live Gold at the time.


 * One spartan was playing an offline forge session and then before the player editied the map inn any way a mongoose fell out of the sky and killed him. The description of death said "killed by the guardians".
 * A lone spartan was forging on Sandtrap and pulled off the elephant glitch with the help of a scorpian. He activated the message and returned to where he had put the scorpian but it was gone.  All that was left was a turret sticking out of the ground.  He turned around to see a scorpian spawn in the minefield outside the boundries.  He hadn't overloaded the map.  He was offline.

Ghost of The Pit

 * A ghost was seen on The Pit. The only two players were trying to overload the map with trip mines. One player's Xbox 360 crashed forcing him to leave and reboot. The second player turned and saw a new third Spartan phasing out of active camo and was stuck with a plasma grenade in the face. All this time the third Spartan was looking away. The second player's system then crashed too.

Ghost of Valhalla
Investigation revealed no image of the actual ghost in Saved Films.
 * On March 8th 2008 during a CTF match on Valhalla several Spartan laser shots were fired even when there was no one there.
 * A supposed ghost haunts the crashed Pelican, walking around it, holding an Energy Sword.
 * There have been several sightings and deaths caused by a ghost on Valhalla in a Ninjanaut gametype. A transparent Spartan with an Energy Sword appeared and killed everyone within the map. Only Swords and Assault Rifles were available in the game.
 * On March 31st 2008 a phantom "friendly" contact showed up on radar. Only one person was playing on a closed match. Video was viewed by the player and someone else.
 * On April 4th, 2008, a lone Spartan in forge mode was placing trip mines in close proximity to the Pelican, was suddenly killed by the "Guardians" when a nearby plasma grenade exploded. Further investigation revealed nothing, but a Spartan dying. Oddly, he died a good one to two seconds before the mines exploded.
 * A spartan was trying out a new map variation which had a wraith in it and he went over to a grav lift and all of a sudden a frag grenade went off on the wraith. Luckily, the spartan was not killed or even damaged. Review on theater has shown nothing other than a frag grenade spontaneously spawning in mid air.
 * On April 13th 2008 two Spartans, TymeDaHog and Jay Jay Chubb, were forging in an offline game when a large friendly blip flashed three times on both radars, even though they were on opposite teams and were not moving.
 * Two players were forging offline, when a steel standard Mark VI Spartan appeared out of nowhere ran past the players, jumped, and disappeared. When the players looked in theater mode, the game lagged when the ghost should have appeared. The spartan had a default AR, and his gamertag was full of random numbers, apparently coding of some sort.
 * On April 15th a lone Spartan forging placed 20 trip mines by the crashed pelican. A little while later a shot was heard and the mines exploded and the Spartan saw a figure in Hayabusa armor runaway from the scene.  A search turned up nothing.  Further investigation from the theater turned up no results but the exploding mines

Related Links

 * Edgework Entertainments Forum
 * The Unofficial Halo 2 Boards
 * VG Cat Forum
 * Ghosts in Halo 3
 * Ghost of Ascension