A headshot made with a sniper rifle.
A close-up of a headshot in Halo 3. The weapon used was a Sniper Rifle. The remains of the crippled shielding and blood from the exit wound are clearly visible.
A headshot is a tactic used in both Campaign and Multiplayer to score instant kills. This occurs when a bullet or projectile is fired at an enemy's head causing higher damage. This is more effective than the bullet hitting the enemy's body. Headshots are most commonly performed with semi-automatic weapons that have good accuracy such as the following:
Damage
- Headshots do no more damage to shields than body shots.
- The following weapons: M6D, M6G, M6C Magnum pistols, the BR55HB SR Battle Rifle, Covenant Carbine and BR55 Battle Rifle are headshot weapons. Them hitting an unshielded target in the head results in an instant kill.
- Sniper weapons, the Beam Rifle and Sniper Rifle, are very effective headshot weapons. One headshot will normally kill a fully shielded target, but overshielded and high-ranked enemies will survive. Sniper headshots also do some more damage against shields.
List of headshot weapons, with headshot power/effectiveness rating against shielded enemies, and flesh (1 to 10, 10 being the strongest)
- Sniper Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 10 (pure power)
- M6D headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 10 (pure power + fast rate of fire)
- M6G headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 9 (pure power)
- M6C Magnum headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 8 (extremely fast rate of fire makes up for some of the power)
- Beam Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 10 (pure power)
- BR55HB SR Battle Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 8 (power)
- Covenant Carbine headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 8 (fast rate of fire makes up for some of the power)
- BR55 Battle Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 9 (power)
Headshots require a great amount of accuracy, so using weapons that do not aim well (such as the Assault Rifle) is largely ineffective. A one-hit-kill can be made with the Shotgun (body or head), although it is difficult and takes practice.
Headshots are most commonly executed by more skilled players than the average rookie, due to the high level of skill involved in shooting someone in the head while running as opposed to a killing shot to the chest such as the Rocket Launcher would provide.
Note that the Assault Rifle and the SMG don't provide any increased damage for headshots, along with many other fully automatic weapons such as the Plasma Rifle.
When the crosshairs of headshot-capable weapons are over an enemy's head, they turn bright red and a small red dot appears in the middle of the crosshairs.
It is actually possible shoot between the mandibles of the Elite and miss. This can happen but rarely achieved.
Trivia
Some people use the Elite player model in hope that the lowered head stops all headshots from behind, but in reality there is still a small part of head exposed from behind. Also, there is a small spot in the back between the 'shoulder blades' of the model that will sometimes result in a headshot.