Weapon

The weapons from the Halo Universe, available in Campaign and Multiplayer gameplay, form the basis of First Person Shooter Gameplay within the Halo games.

Overview

The player is allowed to use weapons from many races, such as Humans, Covenant, and Forerunner, often turning the enemy's firepower against them.

Human weapons tend to use bullets, explosives, rail guns, and lasers.Covenant weapons are generally plasma or energy based, with the exception of Brute weapons, which use spikes or explosives. All plasma weapons use charge. All weapons run out of ammunition or charge when used extensively. Covenant weapons typically overheat if fired continuously for long periods of time, which causes your weapon to become temporarily unresponsive.

UNSC Weaponry		Covenant Weaponry		Forerunner Weaponry

Gameplay

An extensive array of weapons is available within the gameplay, with each weapon operating differently. This allows players to take different approaches and sometimes forces a change in tactics depending on the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon. Each player will also find a weapon to suit his or her tastes, in terms of power, speed, range, kickback and/or feedback.

Usage

Halo: Combat Evolved limited the number of weapons players could carry to two (of which only one could be used at any one time), forcing players to carefully select their preferred armament. Players fight with ranged and melee attacks, as well as a limited number of grenades. Bungie refers to the "weapons-grenades-melee" format as the "Golden Triangle of Halo", which has remained fundamentally unchanged throughout the trilogy. The player character's health is measured in both hit points and a continually recharging energy shield. The energy shield absorbs a significant portion of enemy fire until it becomes depleted, after which the player character will sustain damage, potentially causing death.

Halo 2 introduced new gameplay elements, most notably the ability to hold and fire two weapons simultaneously, known as "dual wielding". The health system was altered in this game, with the player no longer having hit points as well as shields. The Assault Rifle was not included in this game.

Halo 3 adds to the series new weapons, and a class of items called Equipment. The Assault Rifle returns in this incarnation, albeit with a decreased magazine capacity, but with more damage per hit.

Halo 3: ODST adds suppressed caseless M7, namely the Silenced SMG and the Suppressed Auto Mag. Also, the game does not contain the Battle Rifle, Equipment, or dual wielding. Halo 3: ODST also marks the return of the Brute Plasma Rifle, replacing the regular version.

Halo: Reach refined many weapons for both Human and Covenant sides, weapons systems were streamlined and most human weapons in particular were designed to fit combat at a certain range which defined there role. Reach also introduced two new weapons mechanics, first is reticule bloom; a part of the a weapons crosshair that indicates how accurate or inaccurate a weapon will be depending on the rate of fire. With semi auto weapons that meant the faster the trigger was pulled less accurate it was, with full auto weapons this means that the longer long the trigger is held down the less accurate the shot pattern will be, short controlled burst can be used to retain accuracy beyond the weapons effective range. The second weapon mechanic introduced was turret overheating, most turrets with unlimited ammo like the machine gun turret and the Warthog turret will over heat after prolonged periods of continuous fire; when a turret overheats it will become in operative for a short time in order to cool down much like many plasma weapon, this makes firing in accurate bursts important. As far as weapon selection goes, Reach is fairly similar to Halo 3 except a few weapons have been added, replaced and removed, the most noticeable removal of all brute weapons except the Grav Hammer and the Spiker.

Aiming

A few weapons as displayed in-game, with icon and name. Screenshots per weapon are when normal, firing, and when in scope/zoomed view. All in Halo 2.

The typical arrow cursor is hidden within gameplay, and replaced with a blue targeting reticule that stays locked to the center of the screen, when in first person and third person views. The reticule turns red when a shot will hit an enemy target, and green for allies.

Many weapons are scoped and have the capability to zoom 2x or 5x into any area, with some long range weapons even capable of reaching up to 10x magnification such as the Sniper Rifle. These always show the reticule and continue scoping after shots are fired.

While wielding non-scoped weapons, the player's armor has the capability to zoom, to a minimal extent. These hide the reticule when in the zoomed view, returning to the normal view after every shot, making them inefficient for sniping. However, skilled players can use this in online gameplay to keep a good eye on enemies or destinations.

Types

The types of available weapons follow the basic standards present in real life, Assault, Battle and Sniping.

Grenades are frequently made available, primarily for anti-infantry combat. Some grenades can stick and some grenades are stronger than others.

Melee attacks are always available; if the player is able to get in range of an enemy, that can cause heavy damage. And melee attacks are deadly when you hit an enemy in the back, this will kill every enemy except hunters . Most times, a single melee attack is sufficient to completely deplete an enemy's shields. These are also used to take control of an enemy vehicle, by Melee attacking the craft, then planting a grenade to kill its driver.

Heavy weapons, such as turrets, are also present within Halo levels, either stationary, or mounted on Vehicles. Some turrets can be removed from their stands and used as hand held Support Weapons, but it makes the player move slower and gives the turrets limited ammunition. Only when driving a vehicle and controlling a support weapon does the game switch into third-person view. Some vehicles, such as the Ghost, Scorpion Tank, and Banshee allow the driver to directly control mounted weapons while driving the vehicle. Other multi-occupant vehicles such as the Warthog require the player to remain in the weapon seat to control fire, and driving seat to control navigation.

Explosives and large scale weapons, missiles, Nuclear Weapons, and Halos are usually involved in the storyline of every game, though not usually playable.

Availability

A Covenant weapons cache, holding two Carbines.

Within campaign levels, the player's character (Master Chief, the Arbiter, the ODST squad and Noble 6) usually begins with two weapons, and will always have access to weapons lying around, either near corpses or within weapon caches and stores.

Killed enemies or allies can be robbed of their dropped weapons as well. In Halo 2 and onwards, the player can exchange weapons with allied AI when requested, making it unnecessary to kill them only to use their weapons, although grenades still cannot be traded.

Weapons can be reloaded by collecting ammunition or swapping the player character's weapon with a loaded dropped weapon. If the player is already wielding the same weapon, they can swap if the new weapon is loaded or charged more than the wielded weapon.

Certain weapon types usually have more or less ammunition available. For instance, sniper rifles typically have less ammunition lying around then assault or battle rifles, which are intended as primary/multipurpose weapons.

Common Tips

• Shooting a players' weapon will cause them to take damage, and even kill them. You can also stick their weapon with a grenade in addition to this.
• A good trick to find snipers is to watch for the smoke left behind from the weapon's tracer bullets.
• A tactic to staying aware of enemy campers is to watch for their gun barrels sticking out from behind walls, barriers, etc.
• For Halo Reach, slow down Magnum, DMR, and the Needle Rifle shots for better attack damage. A DMR will produce the same amount of damage as a Magnum, but the Magnum is best at close encounters for spamming reasons (Magnum's reticule bloom is extremely large).
• Simply running towards your enemy and shooting at the same time is not a good tactic. Try strafing too.
• Try shooting the head, not the body when using headshot capable weapons. Conversly, aim for the chest when using strictly close-ranged weapons (Shotgun, Magnum, etc.)
• Shoot at the feet of your opponents with explosives, as a body shot could be easy to evade.
• Snipers that stay in tight spaces will be vulnerable to explosives and grenades due to lack of room to move.
• Fire in short bursts with automatic weapons, such as the assault rifle, as it is a good way to maintain accuracy and overpower enemies from afar.
• While using a rocket launcher attempting to hit the opponent on the head or body is very difficult, always try to shoot nearby objects like the ground or wall so the blast would kill him/her.
• Not every shot you fire as to be to kill. Simply keeping targets under pressure, forcing them to stay behind cover, can be quite effective, especially if you have clever or skillful teammates.
• If you chase an enemy behind a corner, it may not be the best idea to continue pursuing them unless you have a good close-ranged weapon.
• Unless you're hunting down a sniper or camper, if you spot an enemy, then ask yourself, "Did he also spot me?" Chances are the answer is "Yes".

Trivia

• The Marathon symbol can be observed on most if not all human weapons, it is very small and often blends in and is better observed on very zoomed in close up. For example it can be found being on the back of the MA5C Assault Rifle, it can also be found on the Sniper Rifle close to the gun's trigger. They are all best observed in the Halopedia.
• There is a studio called Tactonyx Studios, which has made most Human weapon models: All M6 gun models, the DMR and The M7/M7S sub-machine gun.

Gallery

Most of the usable UNSC weapons and ammunition packages from the Halo series.

A list of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 UNSC weapons.

A list of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 Covenant weapons.

Different types of bullets used by UNSC weapons.

External links

• How to Snipe in Halo 2 is a wikiHow guide that describes strategies for sniping in Campaign and especially Multiplayer.