Medals

Medals are preset rewards exclusive to Halo 2 and Halo 3 multiplayer that showcase special achievements that a player makes through the game, usually by killing opponents in a special way, a certain number of opponents at a time or in one life, or by achieving some objective.

Halo: Combat Evolved
Medals do not appear in their physical form in Halo: Combat Evolved, but some of their accomplishments are sometimes listed instead. The Announcer will announce Double Kills, Triple Kills, Killtaculars, as well as Killing Sprees and Running Riots. However, none of these medals have physical representations, and Xbox Live has no way of recording them.

Halo 2
Medals make their first real appearance in Halo 2. There are 22 medals available to win, which fit into four general categories; "Consecutive kills" are the streak of medals which acknowledge a number of kills within four second of each other. Double Kills for two, Triple Kills for three, Killtaculars for four, Kill Frenzies for five, Killtrocities for six, and Killamanjaros for seven kills. "Spree" medals are awarded for a number of kills a player achieves without dying. Killing Sprees are given for five kills in one life, Running Riots for ten, Rampages for fifteen, Berserkers for twenty, and Overkills for twenty five. The third Category is "special kills" and these are awarded on the basis of special ways a player kills another player. There is an award for killing players with Sniper Rifles, Plasma Grenades, vehicles, and melee attacks from the front and back. There is also a medal for making Carjackings. Also, there are objective medals available in special gametypes. The CTF gametype has a medal for taking a flag, killing a person who has a flag, and returning a flag to your base. The Assault gametype has a medal for when a player plants a bomb and when they kill someone holding the bomb.

Most of these medals can be viewed in-game when they are earned, and also after the game in the post-game carnage report. Though Bungie keeps a profile of many recent games, there has been no official record for players to keep track of how many medals they have earned throughout their careers. Because of this, sites such as Halo2junk which keep extensive records of player profiles and medals earned have grown in popularity.

Halo 3
With the release of Halo 3, medals have been given a significant overhaul. Most of those featured in Halo 2 have reappeared in their original form, while many others have undergone a complete overhaul, and still more have been created. 42 Medals were introduced in the Halo 3 Beta and 56 were included in the final game. Medals were created for new gametypes such as VIP and to acknowledge special forms of kills, such as the kill with an Oddball or a Flag. Specialized spree kill medals were made to acknowledge kills with certain weapons, such as Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, and Energy Swords. In addition, special medals were created to be displayed only on Bungie.net showcasing certain achievements.

A Medal Chest was created on Bungie.net for Xbox Live accounts. The chest keeps track of all medals a player has won throughout their matchmaking career.