Spartan Abilities

Spartan Abilities are abilities available to all players, featured in Halo 5: Guardians. Unlike their predecessors, Armor Abilities, Spartan Abilities are default abilities that all SPARTANs can use regardless of pick-ups. They do not have cooldown timers, however some certain abilities, namely Charge and Slide, require a certain sprinting speed to be achieved before they can be used.

Thruster Pack
The Thruster Pack ability acts similarly to its Armor Ability counterpart, the M805X Thruster Pack. However, unlike previously, it does not change the camera to third-person, and gives much more speed, albeit without thrusting as far.

Ground Pound
When a SPARTAN is in mid-air, the Ground Pound ability allows them to target a specific area on the floor below them and launch themselves towards it. Upon reaching it, they will smack into it with a punch, dealing area-of-effect damage and instantly killing any enemies they directly on top of. The ability has a short charge time in which the player is allowed to aim, but is also a target for enemies in the vicinity. Only areas below the SPARTAN can be targeted with Ground Pound.

Clamber
Clamber is an ability which allows players to pull themselves up onto ledges they narrowly miss landing on. It is activated by pushing the jump button while facing the object you are clambering onto.

Sprint
Sprint functions similarly to its appearance in Halo 4, however with a few minor changes. Firstly, it is unlimited, and can be used as many times as the player wants, and for as long as the player wants. To counteract this, the player does not regenerate health or shields while sprinting, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Finally, after sprinting for a certain amount of time, the player will reach a maximum, terminal velocity. Once this has been achieved, the player can then use one of the two following abilities.

Charge
Once terminal sprinting velocity has been reached, Charge can be activated, which causes the SPARTAN to lunge forward, and tackle enemies. Charge is a melee ability, and is an instant-kill when activated from behind and depletes the target's shields with a hit elsewhere on their body. It has been described as a 'faster, more risky assassination'.

Slide
Alternatively, Slide can be used. This ability allows the player to slide across the ground, making them harder to hit, and covering a lot of ground quickly. However, they are left crouching. It is useful for offensive use of close-quarters weapons such as the M45D Tactical Shotgun.

Smart Scope
Smart Scope is an extension of Smart-linking, the method by which SPARTANs had previously zoomed in other Halo games. The main two differences between it and smart-linking are that all weapons, with the exception of melee weapons, can scope, and that precision (headshot-capable) weapons now have an animation in which the SPARTAN looks down the sights of the weapon. Helmet zoom has been largely replaced with Smart Scoping, and is no longer present, even on weapons without Smart Scope.

Changes from the Halo 5 Multiplayer Beta to the final game

 * The top Sprint speed has been slightly reduced.
 * For particular control schemes, Ground Pound has been remapped to prevent conflicts with crouch jumping.
 * General tuning and bugfixes have been applied to all Spartan Abilities.

Trivia

 * In order to perform a Ground Pound, a SPARTAN must be a particular distance off the ground. Usually, this is best achieved by jumping off of a high platform. However, it is possible to perform a Ground Pound at reasonably low altitudes, for example by jumping off of the slightly raised platform in Tower Two on Empire.