Halo: Reach Armor

Player customization returns in Halo: Reach, but with far deeper customization options than Halo 3. In Halo 3, unlocking armor permutations involved getting a certain Achievement, or a group of achievements. In Halo: Reach, armor is acquired by purchasing it with "credits" (cR) in The Armory, although some armor permutations may have to be unlocked through Halo: Reach's Achievements, previous purchases, or by reaching a certain rank. Credits are earned by winning or finishing games in Campaign, Matchmaking, Firefight, and Forge, or by completing Achievements, getting Commendations, or completing daily and weekly challenges. In Halo: Reach, there are ten available slots for Spartan armor customization. The ten available slots customizable to Spartans feature the Helmet, Left and Right Shoulder, and the Chest piece, returning from Halo 3. The new slots for customization include Wrist, Utility, Visor Color, Knee Guards, Armor Effect, and Firefight Voice. In addition, the player's helmet can be "upgraded" with various gadgets, known as Helmet Variants. The player will also be able to choose their character's gender, but unlike Halo 3, the Spartan's gender will also be reflected in their body type, instead of just their voice. Additionally, the player's character will also appear in Campaign mode, as Noble Six. In Halo: Reach, players will no longer be able to use Elites as their default player model in Matchmaking, likely for balancing reasons. Instead, Elites will be used in Matchmaking for the new Spartan-vs-Elite gametypes, and will still be able to use Elites in Custom Games, through a "Preferred Species" setting. Elite armor customization in Halo: Reach has been downgraded from Halo 3 to a complete model swap. Elite armor does not cost additional cR, but instead requires the player to reach a certain rank for certain armor; for example, to obtain the armor of an Ultra Elite, the player must reach the rank of Warrant Officer. Additionally, the Limited and Legendary Editions of Reach include exclusive armor permutations/effects for your player character. The Limited Edition comes with the "Sangheili Officer" Elite permutation, while the Legendary Edition includes the aforementioned permutation, along with a Spartan "Flaming Head" effect. A redeemable token that gives the player access to the Recon Helmet is bundled with the game to all sales made on the release date, and with all pre-orders outside of North America. However, if the player is equipped with the exclusive flaming helmet effect, the flames will be visible during gameplay but will not be shown in cinematics. As with Halo 3, every armor permutation in Halo: Reach is purely for aesthetic purposes and do not impact gameplay whatsoever. The last two sets of helmets for Halo: Reach are available through Halo Waypoint only. Using Waypoint will show you how to unlock said armour pieces, which each have a base and two additional styles. The unlocks are linked to overall Halo Career Milestones (linked to universal Halo Gamerscore) and specialist acheivements throughout the Halo game. For example: the Military Police helmet requires the user to have completed Halo: Reach on Normal Difficulty, Stage two of the helmet requires the user to have the A Spoonful of Blamite achievements and Halo 3 Fear the Pink Mist achievement (accompanied by the right Career Milestone award and the base helmet variant).

Trivia

 * There was originally going to be an Arbiter Armor Permutation in Halo 3, but it was taken out before the game ' s release. Bungie, however, did not explain why. Many fans expected it to be released as DLC, but due to the nature of the game that would be impossible.
 * In Halo 3, the neck of an Elite (regardless what Armor Permutation used) is completely immune to any form of damage except for a shot from a charged Plasma Pistol. In addition, the projectile will simply pass through the neck, as though the neck wasn't there, without a blood spatter. This is because both Elites and Spartans have different models but the same hitboxes.
 * Each Elite also has a modified neck, either sleek black or a different model such as scale-like plating at the back of the neck.
 * The armor in Halo 3 was originally planned to be more detailed, with dents and other details in the armor, but this detail was never implemented.
 * Some exclusive Spartan armor permutations for Halo: Reach are available on Halo Waypoint by earning achievements.
 * According to the October 15 Bungie Weekly Update, Bungie has confirmed that once the Halo: Reach community has completed 117 Million Daily & Weekly challenges, there will be more armor pieces to unlock in the armory and the Lt. Colonel rank cap will be lifted.
 * The description of the black visor in Halo: Reach states, "You can have it in any color you want... as long as it's black." This is a reference to a quote made by Henry Ford, speaking about the Ford Model T in 1909.
 * The description of the silver visor in Halo: Reach states "Jumping feet first into hell isn't your job; making sure it's crowded when you get there is." This is an obvious reference to Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.
 * In Halo: Reach, as of 11/10/2010, players require almost 10,000,000 cR to gain 100% armory completion, with all armor pieces, firefight voices, visor colors and armor effects, with Bungie planning more soon. This means that players will be unable to get 100% armory completion until a fair ways into the rank of "Eclipse" or the beginning of "Nova" or higher in the event of yet more armor being released.
 * The total cost of all the armor items in the Halo: Reach armory combined is 9,634,200 cR.