Boosting

Boosting refers to using illegitimate means in Halo 3 Xbox Live Matchmaking to gain rewards such as achievements, EXP or medals easily.

Achievement Boosting

There are two main ways to achievement boost. The first is asking other player in a Matchmaking lobby for help. The other is playing a Matchmaking game with a full party of boosters. In Lone Wolves, partying up is done by changing the language of one's Xbox and then setting their Matchmaking preference to "My Language." Some examples:

• Have a player stand in front of you, and splatter them with a Mongoose for Mongoose Mowdown.
• Have a player board your Ghost, then board it back in 10 seconds for Maybe Next Time Buddy.
• Have a bunch of players stand in one straight line, and blast through all of them with the Spartan Laser for the Overkill and Two for One achievements.

Achievement boosting is often used as an easy way to get the Katana chestplate or Security helmet Armor Permutations. However, many players do not approve of boosting, as they see it as a cheap and unfair tactic. Others argue that the achievements are too difficult to gain legitimately. Though achievement boosting is not against the rules, it is often mistaken for EXP boosting by the Banhammer, and in such cases is banned as such.

Achievement Match

An achievement match is a Halo 3/ Halo: Reach match where all players agree to help each other unlock difficult achievements. Such matches, which often take place in the Lone Wolves Matchmaking playlist.

Players will often change their language settings to meet with others who wish to engage in an achievement match, as Halo 3's Matchmaking allows one to filter matches with others based on language settings. Achievement matches are relatively easy to arrange, but microphones are needed to ensure cooperation. It should be noted that not all achievement matches are organized to unlock difficult achievements; many are also done to unlock achievements that give the player Armor Permutations.

Many players frown upon the arrangement of achievement matches, often claiming that such matches are a dishonest exploitation of the matchmaking system. Those who disapprove of achievement matches believe that players who participate in achievement matches lack the skill required to gain the achievements normally. Some even allege that achievement matches are a form of cheating. While achievement matches are not technically considered cheating, they are often mistaken for EXP boosting by Bungie's Banhammer, and in such cases they receive the relevant ban.

EXP Boosting

Experience boosting is usually done in a full party, which plays a matchmaking game and has every player tie for EXP. This is usually done in a double EXP playlist. Medal boosting is usually done alongside EXP boosting: while everyone else ties for second place, one player kills them all to gain medals such as Perfection and quickly end the game. EXP boosting may result in an EXP ban.

TrueSkill Boosting

Skill boosting refers to tricking the Trueskill system by having a player quit hundreds of times in a ranked playlist, usually Team Doubles. This causes the player's Sigma and Mu drop to extremely low values. When this player plays with another player who hasn't played that playlist before, the TrueSkill system's makes the fresh player gain skill very quickly. This is because a player's Mu gain is essentially multiplied by personal sigma and divided by the team's average sigma. The main purpose of this is to gain the rank of General.

Preferred Language Trick

Much of this boosting is accomplished by entering Matchmaking with friends in such a way that is not legitimately possible, such as matching with your friends in the Lone Wolves playlist. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have every person in the party change the language on their console to a language that is native to a country that Xbox Live is not available in; for instance Korean or Russian. After doing this each player will set matchmaking preferences to "Prefer my language" so that Matchmaking will be done within the very few players across Xbox Live that have their consoles language set to what is selected by the boosters. As long as each booster enters matchmaking at the same time there is a good chance most if not all of them will be in the match together. However, as more and more players began to employ this tactic across Xbox Live conflicts have made it rather ineffective, as the boosting players may not all make it into the same game.

Guest Trick

(Usually done with two players) Players sign in as many Xbox Live Guests as they can. Instead of searching for players in matchmaking the server just loads a game due to the players and their guests being the maximum number of party. During the game the players can do whatever they want with the guest such as lining them up and getting headshots, running them all over with a vehicle, or just killing them and getting medals.

Private Chat Trick

This is simply done by asking all the other players to join a private chat. That way, they are able to communicate with each other when playing on Lone Wolves.

Halo Wars

Boosting in Halo Wars is usually done when both players illegitimately gain points by allowing each other to kill their units. To tackle this Robot Entertainment has been removing players from the Leaderboards and banning people from Halo Wars Multiplayer.

Banning Boosters

After Auto-Update 2, Bungie has installed several new methods for banning boosters. The first is the Ultra Ban, which completely bans a player from playing Halo 3 custom and matchmaking games online. On September 26, 2008, 4:58 PM PDT, Bungie activated an automatic tool for dealing with EXP boosters. The first punishment is a two-week Experience ban: a player will be unable to gain EXP. An EXP banned player is put under close surveillance, (this is also called Halo Probation) and any future boosting will result in harder punishment. This tool is called "The gun pointed at the Jerks of the Universe." On March 20, 2009, Bungie again upgraded the banhammer to automatically catch TrueSkill boosters. The first punishment is a week-long console ban from Halo 3 matchmaking, and the further punishments are far more severe.