Vidmaster Challenges

The Vidmaster Challenges are a series of 7 achievements available for Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, four in Halo 3 and three in Halo 3: ODST. Three of the Vidmaster Challenges on Halo 3 do not reward the player with gamerpoints, but if all Vidmaster Challenges are completed, then the player will be rewarded with Recon armor for Multiplayer use. The Vidmaster Challenges for Halo 3 did not ship with the original game, but became unlockable with the Title Update 2. The achievements are widely considered very difficult aside from Lightswitch, Brainpan and Seven on Seventh. Thus rendering Recon armor to still be difficult to acquire.

Road to Recon!
Aside from Bungie's approval, the only way to unlock the Recon Armor Permutation is to complete all 7 of the Vidmaster Challenges. Once one has completed all of the Vidmaster Challenges, they'll have the ability to unlock it by going to their Halo 3 Service Record on Bungie.net, logging into their Windows Live ID and clicking "unlock my recon."

Halo 3

 * Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch: "Get the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system."
 * Vidmaster Challenge: Annual: "After 9/25/08, complete Halo (Final level) on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts."
 * Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7: "Enter into a ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month."
 * Vidmaster Challenge: Brainpan: "Find all the hidden skulls on the Mythic maps."

Halo 3: ODST

 * Vidmaster Challenge: Endure: "In Firefight, on any mission, pass the 4th set on 4-player Heroic LIVE co-op."
 * Vidmaster Challenge: Deja Vu: "Complete Coastal Highway on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and no 'Hog or Scorpion."
 * Vidmaster Challenge: Classic: "Finish any Campaign level on legendary solo without shooting or throwing a grenade"

Trivia

 * The "Annual" achievement started on 09/25/08 because that was the one-year anniversary of Halo 3's launch. Annual could have actually been completed before 9/25/08, as some players did it the day before due to time zone differences.
 * The Vidmaster Challenges concept spawns from Bungie's Marathon series, where players who wished to prove they were the absolute best had to complete insane challenges such as playing through the game without the use of any health items, using no weapons except fists, or beating it on the highest difficulty setting. Those that succeeded made videos to mark their achievement, thus spawning the term "Vidmaster."
 * A mere week after ODST's release, over 60,000 people gained Recon Armor from completing the challenges.
 * These particular achievements, if hacked, will not allow players to unlock Recon Armor. The only way to get Recon Armor through these achievements is to unlock them the proper way.

Related Pages

 * Halo 3 Achievements