TheFatalRecoil

yea im back.. not staying long so enjoy. also it may take a few posts to get the whole thing in here. Bare with me.. The Fatal Guide to Halo 4 V2 For those of you who hadn’t seen the first guide, it was basically just knowledge about the game itself that was previously not widely known to the community, and it also got back to basics. As RAWK had pointed out, it lacked moderate substance, and I made it that way because I figured there was not much I could teach the competitive community in that field. Well I decided to give it a go in another write up, and I tried my best to format it so that it would make the most sense, while also allowing you to improve as much as possible. I’ve been in the competitive scene of halo since late 2004. In those nine years I have acquired a great deal of knowledge tips, and intelligent strategic maneuvers. I still to this day use Halo 2 and 3 tactics as the concept of the game has not much changed. The physical layout of the game continues to change with each new title; however, the game play itself still remains. With the halo community dwindling, and a halo 5 success looking less and less likely, I’ve decided to share with you my encyclopedic knowledge of the game and its affiliated subjects. And on the eve of team throw down, what better time than now? Like I said, I try to keep it simple and as easy to understand as possible. This guide is geared towards all audiences, meaning if you’re a casual player looking to improve your game, look no further. If you’re a competitive player looking to take your game to the next level, this is for you. I’m glad to share my experience with the game to those who are eager to learn and improve, and on that note let’s get right to it. CONTENTS: . Physical Gamming Setup . Mindset/Mentality . Personal Improvement Tips . Starting Game Rush Strategy . In-Game Decisions . Spawn System . Game Physics (includes weapons physics / objective physics) . Communication . Advance Positioning and Setups . Summary ~Physical gamming setup Your physical setup is how you have your Xbox is connected to your TV/Monitor, the condition of your game space (from here on out referred to as Battle-station), controller and all that good stuff. Now you’re gamming setup is just as important as everything else that you put into competitive gaming. Be forewarned, I’m not saying that any of the following listed components are absolutely necessary for gamming. However, they are strongly advised if you’re looking to get every bit of advantage over your opponents. Wired VS Wireless. Wired will always have a speed advantage over wireless, and I mean that in every aspect you could think of. From controllers to internet connections, the wireless connection will always take an extra millisecond due to the fact it has to process the information it’s trying to pass as well as code it for security reasons (networking aspect). If your using wired, it takes out the coding and processing factor and sends the signal on its way right of the bat down the wire, ultimately being received faster by whatever is receiving the signal. So it’s generally best to go with the wired controller and the wired network connection between the Xbox and router/switch. Understandably everyone has their own personal situation; maybe their Xbox can’t reach the router with wires, so your only option is to use wireless. It’s not a major sacrifice to use wireless over wired, but like I said, its generally preferred by the competitive community. Types of TVS/Monitors. There are plenty of types of TVs or monitors to choose from, and recently two new types of technology have become available. I’m talking about Ultra HD TVs and the Organic LED TVs. On top of that you could choose from LCD, LED or Plasmas. It doesn’t really matter what kind of monitor you choose to go with, it’s strictly personal preference. What you need to be looking at when thinking about getting a monitor, is its general specifications. These include its response time, its refresh rate, its contrast ratio and its max resolution. Although most monitors rarely come with a max resolution less than 1920x180p these days. You want your monitor to look as best as possible while running as efficient as possible. You want the response time as close to 2ms gtg (grey to grey) as possible, the refresh rate as high as possible, and contrast ratio at the-highest-number:1. You can find a monitor with similar specs in a 22” TV, as they are the most widely used sized monitors in the gamming community because they contain the specifications listed above. Video Audio Connection. Your video and audio cables are just as important as everything else in your setup. There are about five different types of cables in general use today for simple audio video needs. HDMI/DVI carry high definition signals, and so does your component cables. Those are the red green blue video cables with red and white audio cables. Then you have your standard definition cables which are the composite (yellow red whit), S-video (the cable with the fat round – five pronged video connection with red and white audio cables) and last but not least is the VGA cable (fifteen pronged serial connector commonly used with computers). In order from worst resolution to best, it goes… Composite (YRW) S-video VGA Component (RGB-RW) HDMI/DVI The HD cables have more lag time as they have to process the video signal more than the SD. With that in mind, IF you’re looking for the fastest responding setup, you’re going to have to go with the VGA cable. It has the best quality of video for standard definition cables and the quickest response time of all cables available. The above listed information is strictly personal preference. While VGA has the least lag of all other mediums, it lacks superior quality compared to hdmi/dvi cables. If you have a good gamming monitor you need not worry about lag from cables or their corresponding coding of information. Your gamming setup is your hardware, and is basically, your advantage over others. Some argue that your gamming setup doesn’t improve your game play and is therefore not important. They could not be more wrong. While your setup will not improve your individual game play, it will offer you an advantage that you can use to your favor. ~MINDSET/MENTALITY I said it in the first guide and ima say it now, halo is 90% mental. Halos mental front is like a game of chess, stay a few steps ahead of your enemy while remaining calm. It’s one of the most important aspects to improve on. Not only important, but easy. Like, too easy. Just breathe and think clear thoughts and not irrational dumbass ones that will cost you the game. You have too much to focus on to be frustrated if you want to succeed. I mean seriously if you can’t control your anger then you might as well give up on the game right now, because if you choose to ignore this section because you don’t believe me, then just go ahead and quit reading because it’ll mean nothing if you’re not willing to change the easiest thing you possibly could. When you’re angry you focus on irrelevant issues. You were shot through a wall, you were out brred, the other team has host. You tend to linger mentally and it does nothing to progress your gameplay. Teamwork really is murdered by the raging gamer. Take it from me. I’m guilty of losing my cool when im not focusing and when I start to get angry I let my team down and I’d like to apologize to them. I truly do my best to keep it suppressed when it counts. I (like many) use halo to blow off steam. That’s fine but understand there is a time and place for everything. Game battles, local tournaments, or even national championships, is absolutely not the place to lose your cool. If anything do it in your free time when you’re running casual match making. Do not do it during your warm up matches because IT WILL SET THE TONE FOR YOUR SESSION. I find it easy to get rid of mental tension by simple deep breathes. You have no idea how helpful it’s been to keep my mouth shut and my mind focused. It also helps to constantly communicate and listen to your team. Try to preoccupy your mind with what’s important and not let irrelevant thoughts in. its ok to ***** about host here and there but not to let it dominate your thoughts. Even though host can completely dominate the game no matter what you do, move on and forget about it. Halo has an unseen mental front. You cannot let the other team in your head because then they’ve already started winning. No matter how much the tea-bag, beat, or shoot your body after a death. Explain to your team how the enemy is wasting time and doing unnecessary… things. Then laugh as your teammates clean them up and move on. You cannot let your team down more, then when you take your mind out of the game. Trust me, I’ve had experience and it sucks looking back on it. It’s truly unprofessional and it simply will not get you far. If you don’t believe me and fail to take my advice, don’t be surprised when you don’t see any improvement after reading this guide through. Now that your mind is cleared let’s get right into it. Understand that you need to be thinking all the time. From your starting game rush to how you’re going to counter the enemy setup. I’ll be formatting the guide in a way that I think will benefit the reader the most. Starting with personal improvement, team play, and advanced concepts such as game foundations and physics. ~Game improvement tips To be good at halo, you have to master the basics. This includes getting your five shot down, be able to pull off snipes on a regular basis, as well as know the secretes to maneuvering each map. This is the section that will help you master these basic elements of the game in little to no time with simple secretes and general knowledge often over looked. I’m just going to start listing off tips and explaining them in short paragraphs. The 15 second rule. This rule is simply designed to help you keep flowing through the game and not get caught up in extended individual battles. The theory is that if your target is not dead within 15 seconds of the initial shots, then it’s time to move on. This is obviously situational but stands true for about 70% of skirmishes you will experience throughout the game. For example, if you’re trying to make your way to a specific location on the map, and you cross an enemy, you should be able to kill him within 15 seconds and move on, rather than waste time on an inconvenience. Its ultimately a waste of time to chase down a signal kill. This leads me to the next topic. NEVER CHASE. Chasing is a trademark of the noob. You should never have to chase a weakened and fleeing opponent to ensure his death. Never give up your strategic placing for a signal kill; in the long run it’s not worth it. Just call out the opponent to your team and move on to more pressing matters. Sniping; Sniping is a great way to impress players and get instant kills if you can master your aiming techniques. When you’re scoped in and anticipating an enemy to turn a corner, it only makes sense to have the reticule waiting at head level so that you may make a quick horizontal adjustment for the instant head shot. I remember being decent in halo 2 with no scoping, and really stepping my game up in Halo 3 with one of my favorite pro’s sniping tips. I’m referring to Legend Pimps no scoping tips. They helped me improve no scoping and ultimately my sniping game. Tip # 1- When no scoping don't charge your opponent, let them charge you this makes it easier to put your aimer where their head is and get a kill. This way you can aim where your opponent is going to be. Tip # 2- It is easier to no scope when you are on an elevation higher than your opponent such as being at the top of a ramp and your enemy is at the bottom. So when you're below an enemy it may be best to use another weapon. Tip # 3- A great time to no scope/beatdown or no scope is when someone is coming up an airlift and you're waiting on them to come up. The reason this is true is because their body only moves up and down not side to side. This makes it easy to predict where they will be and get a kill. The lift put them in one motion and they always come up the same exact way so just practice this. Tip # 4- No scoping in great for narrow hallways. The reason for this is that there's not that much space for your enemy to go so the probability that you will get a kill is pretty good. Tip # 5- Kind of a no brainer but look for your cursor to go red and shoot. Also if you hit someone once go for the beat down do not try to get another shot off. Tip # 6- No scoping is best done up close because the target is bigger when closer and you can go for the beat down. When sniping regularly (zoomed in) move your joysticks smoothly and observe your opponents movements. When zoomed in, you need to be more focused on smoothly moving your thumbs and not twitching as much. You should also be strafing if you’re not in a secured sniper spot, and even then should be moving slightly to avoid getting shot so easily. You should also be moving your reticule horizontally more often than vertically. Only because your enemies’ heads tend to move left to right and up in down only when they jump. Sniping requires a cool head so being calm will defiantly help. And now that team snipers is an official playlist again you can practice and practice until your heart’s content. Your five shot is your most powerful tool at your disposal, weather you use the br or the dmr, you should be able to pull off AT MOST a six shot most of the game. This requires a special amount of focus that can be turned on and off at a moment’s notice. You need to be able to snap your attention to one focal point instantly while pushing all other information streaming through the game on a secondary track for a few seconds. The focal point to which I refer to is your reticule. You will see an a amazing improvement like never before if you can shift your focus to your reticule because that is where your shots will go. One of my best tips I can offer you is to count your shots as you let them fly at your opponent. It focuses your mind to that instant and you tend to do a lot better when you’re paying attention. Count them in your head, one… two… three... four… five. It’s alright if it takes six seven or eight shots to kill someone… at first. You should see improvement over a certain amount of games. My last pointer for five shotting is to shoot four shots to the upper chest and lower chin area and that way your closer to the head when the enemy’s shields pop. Go for four shots to the body and one shot to the head for the quickest kill. Strafing is another great defensive maneuver against enemy fire. Think of playing dodge ball, and the ball is your enemy fire. If you simply move left to right, your attacker will predict your movements with relative ease. Mix in some short strafing with long strafing and ONLY jump when your shields are at one shot, this is because your movement is limited to one vector while waiting to land from a jump. Jumping is usually only good to avoid one shot and the enemy will generally be able to land one or two as your coming down and landing. When faced against a needler you shouldn’t be strafing left to right or jumping. The needles will mimic your moves and find you no matter where you move in such a short radius. The best way to avoid needle fire is to move in one direction either left or right as the needles will chase you and miss if you can keeping moving in that one direction (left or right not both) Gahndi hoping has made its return! It is now as useful as it was in Halo 2. So you should implement that into your strafes. For those who don’t know, Gahndi hopping is when you jump and repeatedly hit the crouch analog stick to give your player an unnatural movement in air that makes you harder to hit. It’s great to use when you’re on your last bit of health and use a jump in place of a strafe. ~Starting Plan Next on your personal improvement list, establish yourself a starting rush plan. If you’ll notice, most great players have their own plan. There isn’t a set plan that will ensure a great start to a game. You need to have your own plan based on your own play style, it should be original. The best plans, however, allow the player to acquire one of two things with a few other collateral objectives resulting from your initial rush. Your plan should (if successful, just because you have a plan doesn’t mean it will work 100% of the time) put in your possession, either a power weapon/power up or a desirable position on the map or even put the enemy at a disadvantage by killing a few of their members. And chances are you’re not the only one in the game that will be charging to a position or weapon. Your teammate or even an enemy may be heading in the same direction, so either way, be prepared to fight off spawn. You should have knowledge of each maps’ starting spawns due to basic gameplay and experience. This in mind you should have an idea of your route, your enemy’s possible routes, as well as escape routes in case things go bad. You should ALWAYS be aware of ALL escape routes available to you. Assume the worst case scenario and be prepared to fight for starting objective, and be afraid to duck out to avoid a death, which you should consider a point for your enemy. You obviously don’t want to give your enemy points, less you wanna run some Halo 3 boosting sessions. Scenario 1: Suppose you gain a power weapon such as a sniper, and your team had a different start plan and they end up on the other side of the map (this is clearly for MM; competitive teams will have this part down). You now have a decision to retreat to your team; due to lack of sufficient cover by map, or you have constant pressure from the other team. Or the other option is to find a power position and hold it on your own. If you think you’re going to get killed and ultimately give up your weapon, then retreat and survive for your team. Scenario 2: You have a power position, but your enemy has power weapons. Your best bet is to hold and not draw attention to your position if you have no support. During this down time assess your enemy. How they react to being fired upon, how they move through the map and what they do upon spawn. All the while inform your team that you have the foundation for a set up. This falls (obviously) under communication. That is a later topic. Scenario 3: Your plan has failed. You’re dead. Just because your plan failed, doesn’t mean you should abandon the thought of a starting plan. You need to keep in mind the game has only started. If you died trying to get a weapon or an area of the map, try to establish yourself and your presence elsewhere in the map. There are infinite scenarios all of which have different outcomes. You have to be prepared for any and all circumstances off starting spawns. While you are executing your plan you should be watching your enemy and taking note of everything they do from strafes, to respawn rush tactics. Be especially watchful of the one who is earning the most kills. Look for weaknesses in the enemy and exploit them as much as possible. Communicate what you learn with your teammates. You can’t focus on your enemy if you don’t have a cleared mind or are preoccupied with unnecessary thoughts. Be thinking of your next move and opening possibilities. Be one step ahead of the rest. In summary, your game plan should be your own and suit your gaming style. Don’t over extend yourself by trying to hold large amounts of the map by yourself. Asses your enemy on every little thing they do. If you gain control of a power weapon, retreat back to your team or a power position on the map. In short, your starting rush should set your team up for the rest of the game by setting the tone amongst the other team and opening doors for the remainder of the game. ~In Game Decisions During any game whether it be competitive or just causal game hour, you’re making decisions that affect the outcome of the entire match. It’s important that you pay attention to the decisions you and your team make, so that you can make the right ones at any given point in the game. These decisions you make range from which route to choose to get somewhere the quickest all the way to what is the best way to defend yourself from an enemy rush. Each has their own level of importance respectively, but all deserve your utmost attention. You start making decisions right when the game starts. In fact your starting rush was a decision that, unlike most others in the game, had the luxury of premeditation in the pre-game lobby. You don’t have time to stop and think about your next move less your on respawn, you have three to five seconds to decide what you’re going to do on spawn. That is usually the most time allowed by the game itself for you to use and make decisive decisions, but for the most part the actions you make are based on the principal of an ever changing environment that is the battle field. Like most things in Halo, this requires a cleared and focused mind. This subject more than others because there should always be a constant stream of information flowing through your mind that helps determine what decisions to make. If you’re pissed off or angry at something else, you’re focusing on one thing to much as it is. You need to react mentally to an always changing field of play, which you simply can’t do if you’re aggravated. Your decisions are yours to make alone. I cannot tell you what decisions you should make and which ones you shouldn’t. However I can give you a point you in the right direction as to which decisions make more sense. For instance, your turn a corner to find two enemies. One of them has his back turned to you and the other has you in his sights. You can get the easy kill on the one who is facing the opposite direction, sure. But the smart thing to do would be to take out the player who could cause the most damage to you at that particular moment. Then you scoop up the double kill after the immediate threat has been subdued. That should be a no brainer, but for those who can’t piece it together, you should ALWAYS go for the most immediate threat to you first. Even if he is further away on the map then the one who can’t do any damage to you. Choosing your targets is a major tactic decision you need to master as soon as possible. Do not choose to attack an enemy whose chance of escape is very high. All you’re doing is giving away your position. Halos mental game is a game of chess. Another decision I often find myself making in games I should I stay and fight or duck out to avoid a death. This one is ultimately decided by the circumstances of the situation and where you are on a map. I tend to find myself faced with this one only when I’m being shot in the back and have to waste time turning around to engage. But If I can instantly tell that I’m being shot at by more than one person then it’s a no brainer that I should obviously duck out and get away, or to find help from a nearby teammate. If I do stop to fight, it’s because I strongly feel that I can win the encounter. All your decisions should be made swift and decisively. Never make a decision then second guess it half way through its execution, as you will more than likely falter and fail horribly. Make your moves with 100% confidence and learn from bad ones. You can always go back in theater and watch your game play and analyzed each play you make to see if there was a better option, and you can even go watch players who did better in the game, and see how they react in certain situations. Making smart decisions is something you can really only pick up and perfect with a lot of gameplay and practice. If playing smart isn’t one of your strong suits, make a conscience effort to think, plan, and act accordingly in game situations. This is something that comes with experience and takes time to perfect. Decisions aren’t necessarily pertain only to should I do this or should I do that type of situations. Sometimes it’s a situation where you just have to sit back for a second and asses the game so far. In these types of situations you need to understand the game as it has happened. Have you been successful in slaying your enemy? Are you completing the secondary or tertiary objective? And depending upon the game at hand you should keep in mind that playing passively is not always a bad idea. Let the enemy come to you. Especially if you are losing currently, and they’re feeling aggressive. This can cause the enemy to rush for a short amount of time (assuming they play intelligently) and possibly give up easy kills until they stop and assess the game. When this happens it usually brings the game to a stale mate. Both teams recognize that their rushing strategies have not worked. Both teams begin to conspire to break each other’s setups while taking pot shots to draw each other out. This can be one of the tensest parts of all. The game is winding down, short amount of kills away from the victory and somebody has to do something. It tends to be the team who is down a few kills that tries to beak in and get the needed amount of kills, while the other play defense and their team work is on point for this sole reason. Suppose you’re on the losing team and you’re only down three simple but impossibly difficult kills. Your team could rush one by one and more than likely fall individually, or you could play smart and find the weak points in there set up. Decide as a team when to push and from what angles, who to team shot and who to set aside for the moment and who to take out in the first moments of the push. I know that last section was a little team based but don’t forget you need to have a good sense of individual decision making. Team decision making comes from smart players and really just happens naturally. Understanding when to push as a team requires communication and a constant stream of information flowing through the team. Remember, play smart and don’t make stupid decisions when you know you won’t walk away with any kills and only a death to show for it. This is something that comes with practice and experience. You start to understand the logic behind the average player and then you start to pick up on your opponents’ habits in individual games. The best way to practice this is to be concise about the decisions you make in game and then reflect afterwards in post-game lobby or theatre. Now I’m going to jump into game physics and how the game is designed to play because I feel it necessary for you to understand before engaging in team play. To understand the game completely you must understand this part first. It is the game itself, after all. **SORRY FOR THE FORMAT FAIL OF THE SECOND PORTION. IM WORKING ON IT** ~SPAWN SYSTEM I made a thread some time ago, that linked an article by Audley Enough, in where he explains the spawn system excellently. It pretty much describes how spawn points, respawn zones (RZ), RZ-weak, RZ-anti, RZ-anti weak all interact with each other (amongst other things I will go into) to create the Halo 4 spawning system. The theory is that each element capable of affecting a players spawn is given a value that is added or subtracted on to a spawn point. The Values are as follows: . RZ: +1375 . RZ-W: +100 . RZ-A: -200 . RZ-AW: -50 . Death: -180 . Nearby Enemy: -1950 . Nearby Ally: +275 . Enemy Line of Sight: -340 . Allied Line of Sight: -75 . Enemy Inside Respawn Zone: -175 . Ally Inside Respawn Zone: +275 And a few things I tested as well . Grenade: -325 . AN enemy with an objective (flag/ball) -2150 . A friendly with an objective +650 . A friendly that is firing a weapon or just threw a grenade +150 . A dropped flag -875 . A loose odd ball -875 Death influence only lasts 7 seconds, after that it’s gone I suggest you go to forge mode and learn where respawn points and zones are placed. This will provide a basic foundation for whatever map you’re on, so that you may add on other influences such as line of sight, player position on map, grenades and objectives to get a strong idea of where your enemy might spawn. You should also go back and review films. Every time you die or kill an opponent, pause the film, fly third person, and study the entire map. After you’re done, make a prediction on where you/they will spawn. This is a big help, trust me. I must inform you that 343i has made it very difficult to create a spawn trap in MM due to the amount of influences on the system. It is difficult, but not impossible. I haven’t seen or created a very effective spawn trap (yet), but I have estimated (successfully) where an individual player will spawn based on my surroundings. I’m damn sure that once MLG tournaments are up and running will see some spawn trapping at events. Things to take into consideration when predicting spawns in MM is that you may not know everything that is happening at a specific moment everywhere on the map. This is called 'Ignorance of Battle-Field'. The best counter measure is to have two or three teammates to run MM with who will call out and pass on information of the game at hand. I’ll get into that in another section. Spawn predicting and trapping is a game of chance, statistics and speculation. But with dedication few are willing to put in, you can indeed master the spawn system, which is no easy feat for the time being. Take note of what affects the spawning system. Things like grenades, any line of sight, player placement on map, and any recent deaths. Keep in mind that even though the exact values are not listed that enemies and allies with objectives affect the system more than one without objectives. And also remember that loose objectives effect zones and spawn points. Keep all of these aspects in mind when predicting spawns. It’s important to note that I’m still unable to produce an 'E' spawn without only using a small number of spawn points. I used a basically forged map, with simply placed spawn points and strategically added zones around the small rectangular map. Me, and a team of three could not get one enemy to spawn off of a spawn point. Even with heavy anti zones and negative influences, we could not produce the effect. That being said, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. There still may be an emergency spawn system that I just haven’t found any proof of as of yet. I will keep testing. At its current standing, the spawn system is proving to be unreliable in consistency. In team doubles I’ve had countless incidents where in team doubles, im spawned across map from my teammate. Other times both enemies will spawn in my setup and get the kill. In my opinion this ruins the game. It doesn’t take any skill to spawn behind somebody and get three shots off before they can even turn around. It’s an easy kill to pick up yes, and neither team can help it. It still stands, in my mind, that the system is flawed and is ruining the game. Like I said it takes little to no skill to spawn behind someone and kill them. ~Game Physics 343 used the Havok physics engine in Halo 4. This is the same engine that was used in every halo game since Halo 2. It features real world physics pretty accurately. 343 have made some adjustments of their own since halo reach. I will be covering the most important aspects of the game of which the engine effects. All in all it’s a good engine and represents real world physics. ~Grenade Physics I put it more work on this subject even after the original guide dropped. I learned a few extra things and got to know where to bounce grenades for maximum affect. I got to know the radius, its value of damage on a player at certain distances, how long it takes to bounce and explode, amongst other things as well. I’m still using the same measurement system from before. And its still made up. I use it for ease of understanding and has absolutely no mathematical truth behind it so quit bitching about geometrics. For those who don’t know it’s based on the giant grid in forge. I made it this way because any one can go into forge and see what I’m explaining with out to much difficulty. 1gu^2 refers to one 2d square on the grid .5gu^2 refers to half of one square And gu^3 simply means the measurement was taken in 3 dimensions. Think 3D It’s not a hard concept to follow and I did come up with the notation above in case you’re wondering why you’ve never seen it. For those wondering a grid unit square is approximately 6 paces by your Spartan. I’m only referring to the frag grenade. A grenades blast radius is 1gu^3 in any direction. A grenades damage value is at 100% at the point of impact to roughly .5gu^3 in any direction. Anywhere between the point of impact and half of a grid unit will deal enough damage to lower a player’s shields completely, from her on out referred to as 100% damage value. From half of a gu outward, the damage value decreases at an exponential rate. In fact, its damage value is less than 15% at 1gu^3. That in mind, let’s jump right in. Grenades fly further, roughly 1gu^2 further, with forward momentum on their side (meaning if you run and throw, it will fly farther). This test was done with me only moving the avatar and not the reticule. Obviously the higher you aim your reticule, the further youre grenade will travel. They fall short if you’re just standing still and throw it though. Even if you just move only two paces it will fly further than not moving those two paces. If you jump and throw grenades, it increases the distance by 1.5gu^2 compared to no movement throwing. This is because it physically moves your reticule upward, and this in turn causes your grenades to fly further. Of course you need to be moving forward while jumping to achieve the max distance rather than just jumping up and down. It takes roughly one second for a grenade to explode after bouncing off the ground, or another surface that is facing upward. But the more you actually play the game and use your grenade bouncing tactic, the more you will develop a feel for the concept. The more you bring your reticule down, the higher the grenade will bounce, it will also loose distance. But in place of lost distance, you can achieve blowing a grenade in your opponents face, causing major disorientation and surprise leading to a one shot put down. Keep in mind that a grenades effect radius is three dimensions and that it converts force from the grenades initial explosion, in the form of movement. This is a great example of real world physics. Meaning if a player is sitting directly on top of the grenade, he will experience a short 'hop' like movement, or he will side step to the opposite direction of the initial explosion. So compensate for that slight movement by bring your reticule upward after the initial blast. These are not drastic movements but they exist. Use this information as best you can. Like all other weapons, the grenade will slow the enemies sprinting ability pretty drastically if he runs right into the grenade itself. Take advantage of the initial flash from the blast (rhyme!) as it tends to blind your target for a split second. However this split second is enough to shock and disorient the player giving you extra time to reload if you need to or even get away if you one shot and feel that you can’t survive for long. Another interesting fact is that when a player is physically hit with the grenade itself it will take down a players shield slightly. The closer you are when you throw the grenade the more shields it will take down. When the grenade hits the player it generally (90% of the time) just drops to the ground. The other 10% is unpredictable. This holds true if the player is actually moving, though the bounce off the player is more noticeable. Statistics do not change during movement on either player’s part. You can shoot grenades both out of the air or on the ground. Makes for a neat little make shift mine on the battle field. If you can master shooting grenades out of the air you truly are the best halo player to have ever lived and need not continue reading. ~ODDBALL PHYSICS This is an interesting newly tweaked physical aspect of the game. 343 introduced the new physics for the oddball in the game and it has completely changed the game of oddball. Its physics are pretty interesting and worth understanding to predict what the ball might do during a certain situation. What you first notice is that the balls gravity is not in any way related to the players’ gravity. Its gravity influence is independent by all means. I wasn’t able to compare the gravity of the ball to any version of a players’ gravity. The little gravity that the ball experiences, makes it that much easier to play the ball and adds a new spin on the game, passing. This works great with a decent setup between you and your team. You can shoot the ball with any weapon or grenade to make it move slightly or shoot it across the map, depending on each weapons strength (measured by the shields it takes down with each shot). Grenades are very effective at getting it out of a general area if placed correctly. If the ball is sitting precariously on a ledge you can shoot it from a distance to knock it over. However, the most effective way to get the ball away from enemy controlled areas is the rail-gun. This is completely mind blowing if you haven’t tried it. Shooting the area just in front of the ball with the rail gun will literally knock it out of the map. By far the most effective way to move the ball without actually touching it. YOU CANNOT SHOOT, GRENADE, OR RAILGUN THE BALL IF ITS ON THE SPAWN PLATE. It’s important that you understand that. ~FLAG PHYSICS Not much to say here. I debated whether I should even put this section in but the more information the better. so in a short summary, the player doesn’t lose any speed, one hit melee and five shot pistol is added to compensate for the loss of flag running. The flag itself independently has a massive amount of gravity acting on it. So when dropped it will short bounce half a pace before coming to a complete halt. It cannot be affected by grenades, or weapons of any sort. ~BR PHYSICS I’m putting this section in to explain why it fails at long range, and ultimately explain how the gun itself works compared to the DMR. First, we all know that on BR burst contains three shots. In Halo 3, that burst contained one hit damage value. Even if the game showed only one of the three burst shots landed, you would receive full damage. It’s not like that in Halo 4. Each round form the burst carries a damage value, that once all three rounds hit, equals the damage value of one DMR shot. So one physical round from the BR equals 1/3 the damage of one DMR round. Three physical rounds (one burst) equal one DMR round. Got it? Good. Now, 343i implemented a real world physics engine in the game. With that in mind let’s actually take a look at the BR spread. It increases with range, because (basic geometry says so) if two vectors (in this case three) have the same starting point, but travel in different directions, the more distance they cover, the more distance between the two vectors. That’s basically how the BR works, except that there are three independent vectors (the actual rounds). The further the shots have to travel, the more they veer away from each other giving us the insane amount of spread that takes away the BRs efficiency at long distances. ~HIT SCAN The hit scan is like that of halo 2 and halo reach, it’s an instant hit as soon as you pull the trigger on your enemy the damage will be dealt instantly. This wasn’t the case in halo 3 where you would need to lead your shots and damage was not instantaneous. Many players prefer the instant damage over leading your shots. No matter your preference it doesn’t appear that leading your shots will be making a return in halo 5 or any other future titles. Bullet magnetism is also an attribute of the hit scan system. It’s also referred to as the hit box or hit section. If you define it as bullet magnetism it simply means that even if your reticule is slightly off of your opponent, you’ll still inflict damage because the magnetism pulls it in. or you could simply view it as the hit box being too large. Doesn’t matter how you choose to view it, the fact remains that your reticule could be slightly off the target and you will still inflict damage. This excludes the br… kinda. Let me elaborate. As I explained earlier it relies on three individual shots to land that are all on separate but close vector trajectories. Bullet magnetism affects the individual round and not the burst as a whole for the most part. It really depends on the situation and a lot on the range at which your enemy is. ~Communication To be a successful team, you all need to communicate. Even if it’s just a random on MM. Communication is key to successful team work and makes for a great team. You should communicate everything you see while listening to your teammates call outs. I feel it necessary to remind you that your communication will falter and fall apart if you start to get aggravated. Your team will fail if one of you loses your cool. The foundation of any communication is an understanding of the map itself. Your team should have a system of map locations with specific names and identifiers. It does not have to be the common system that most players use, it could be one that your team has made up. So long as you all understand what each other mean when you say something like cuts or blue drop or box. If you don’t understand each other your team will be in complete chaos and will likely fail. Now that your team has a system of universal callouts between each other, call out everything you see; where your enemy is, where they were, and where they’re heading. Communicate what weapons they have as well any objective or power position they are near. There is so much that needs to be communicated the easiest way to inform you of all of them is a list. What to communicate: . Where your enemy is . Where they are coming from . Where they are heading . What weapon they have . What objective are they near . What position they may be going for . Speculation as to what routes they may be taken once out of your line of sight. . What weapons you have . When you picked up power weapons . If you are dead . How many of your team is dead . How many of enemy players are dead . Inform your teammate that you are near them . When to push . Where to push And over all, anything that you feel important enough to communicate. Communication falls under the mental game of halo. It is important that you never break communication; in other words, never stop talking to your team. In return you are focused, your team is focused and you are fighting as one unit rather than four individual players. Your team should work as one to succeed. For instance, if you hear a call out that there is a player underneath your position giving your teammate a hard time, don’t just ignore it. Do the sensible thing and help your teammate survive and eliminate the threat. When you can work as one with constant callouts you can control larger portions of the map. ~Advanced Positioning / Team Setup Positioning is all about location, location, location. A strong position is the foundation of team based setups. Having a setup is a great defense strategy for putting an area of the map on lock down and holding it for the remainder of the game or until when you see fit. Keep in mind you can’t just setup where ever you like (with success), certain parts of the map make that general area a strong hold for a reason. Certain parts of maps contain strategically valuable areas, such as high ground and mass amounts of cover for you while leaving your enemy in the wide open. Here’s a list of a few reasons you may choose a specific location over others to hold and defend… High Ground: The area has an elevated section giving you the strategic option of raining shots down on your enemy and forcing them to shoot upwards at you. Weapon Spawns: The area of the map gives spawn to a sniper, rocket launcher or has an abundant supply of other weapons ammunition. Field Of View: The area gives you and your teammates a great view of the map, leaving very few routes for your enemy to sneak up and penetrate your setup from. Power Up Spawn: Over shield, or active camo spawns nearby. Spawn Trapping: The area gives you view of enemy spawn points making them easy targets for your team to pick off. A strong hold could have more than one reason to hold down, but the point is that it gives your team a strategic advantage over the enemy. If you plan to have a setup you need to be sure that your team understands this (this goes without saying for professional teams) because your choosing the strategy of defense. You cannot have half the team playing defense and the other half leaving the setup to rush in for kills. Your team would never last a game doing that. Before I begin describing how your team should run a setup, you need to know where the enemy can come from and where you can escape to if need be. Be aware of all entry points, and find all the lines of sight that will allow you to view other parts of the map. Recon is a major advantage, to know where your enemy is and where they’re going is almost overpowering in itself. Be aware of entry points as I said, and stay attentive to every route that you can duck out of if your teams’ setup has failed. You MUST know what your defending to adequately defend it. Come up with original ways to duck out of cover or to move about the setup efficiently. Basically, know thy area of thy map inside and out. That in mind an ideal setup will have one power up/weapon spawn in or very near it in its extra territorial jurisdiction, supply the team with a vast amount of cover (in other words is large in size), provides you with a superb field of view, is far away from enemy spawns so that they are not spawning inside or to near your setup, and offers multiple options of retreat. I must emphasize that spawning and field of view are essential in deciding where to pick a setup. Power weapons and power ups are definitely preferred but are not absolutely necessary. If a setup doesn’t provide many ways to escape, understand that you are pretty much choosing to defend the site until you are dead, as you probably cannot escape very easily. It’s important that your team try to die as little as possible. With each death it’s like the other team is tearing away at your wall layer by layer. This requires constant communication when engaging in combat. If your teammate is about to be killed tell him to duck out and replace him as quickly as possible. If you can’t take his place then try to get a sighting on the attacking enemy and lay down fire on him as well. Your teammate may die but at least the odds are evened by having one down on each time at the same time. There is also no guarantee that you will respawn in your setup. Its very well possible to experience an e spawn away from the action. If this occurs make your way through the quickest route to help defend your setup from the outside. Then hurry and quickly get back to your defensive position. Teams usually setup where a major spawn area is to avoid e spawns. In your set up, you should always be moving, at least strafing. In other words, NEVER just stand still. This should already be understood, but it’s always a good reminder. As far as player placement inside the setup, you should have your main slayer covering the main points of entry into the setup. The more probable route the enemy will try to come through, he is your first line of defense. Support Players should be moving throughout the entire setup fluently offering back up and general support to anyone who needs it. If it’s an objective game other than flag, your objective player should either be in the hill or holding the ball with one support player nearby. If you’re playing a slayer game, you should have one support player on the highest ground or watching the map from some other area. He shouldn’t be moving like the other support players; he should be in the general area that will give him a good view of the map. Positioning inside the setup itself can make or break it. Amongst having your team strategically placed based on player ability, you need to also place yourself in a part of the set up so that you can have tactical line of sights. A line of sight is a little different than a field of view. A line of sight gives you a straight look at a strategic area of the map that you and your team don’t control. It also should provide you with an obviously greater amount of cover than a field of view. Keep in mind that not all line of sights give you the luxury of shooting at a target that you can see. Some are just little nooks and crevasses that allow you only to peak through. Some even make it to where you can’t be shot at. Even though the enemy is shooting at you, the way the map is designed you won’t be taking any hits. Their few and little but they are indeed there. Spawn blocking is a great tactic, especially on smaller maps. What it is, is a player stays on a specific part of the map to block enemies from spawning on that part of the map. Its derived from spawn trapping but this strategy is used when there is a spawn area near a team’s setup. So what the team does is move a player to lock down that part of the map. A great example of this is in Halo 3’s Guardian. When teams would setup at snipe, they would send one player to sit top tree. This accomplishes three major objectives. First, that player would make it impossible for the enemy team to spawn on green, which gives easy accesses to snipe. Second he could put sufficient fire on enemies behind blue glass that a player from snipe three could not reach. Last, you force the enemy to make a rush attempt from bottom mid because rushing top mid is almost impossible. The only other option is to rush from blue lift but the audio from the lift would make it apparent that the team is rushing, taking away the element of surprise. Spawn blocking also makes spawn trapping much easier. It eliminates another section of the map that the enemy is not spawning at. So by process of elimination, you can start to more precisely calculate where your enemy is spawning. This in turn strengthens the setup because knowledge is another form of defense. Knowing where your enemy is, what they have at their disposal and your knowledge of how they react to certain situations throughout the game enables you to act accordingly when a problem arises. This falls into the category of assessing your enemy and how they respond to every little thing that could happen in the game. Like I stated before, this will help you predict your enemy’s’ movements allowing you to stay one step ahead. And knowing where your enemy is going to strike allows your team to adjust and strengthen wherever it is you think the enemy may attack. This kind of predicting will never be 100% accurate and it’s important not to weaken certain aspects of the setup based on speculation. This concept comes with experience and plenty of practice. Trapping an enemy is a great way to gain a few extra kills. Some calling luring the enemy and some call it trapping. They’re both the same thing. It consists of one player other than the main slayer to leave the setup for a small time (don’t stray too far out) basically its peaking the enemy’s interest. It causes them to either chase or run out in the open allowing your team to get the kill. The reason your slayer doesn’t go out is because there is that possibility that the one leaving the setup will die due to a couple of reasons. Besides getting your team a few kills it also makes the other team wait and recalculate their strategy due to the recent death. This (if successful) offers an abundant amount of information itself. You can see how your enemy is reacting to this situation. If the player really chases and is desperate for the kill, it shows that this player doesn’t have a great decision making attribute. He should be considered the weak link. Keep In mind that this is only true if the plan succeeds. IF he is the one with most kills for that team and he does this, this speaks a lot about the team itself. Pay attention if you can to the other teams reaction to the situation. If they all team shot the bait without giving up cover, this just says they won’t fall for it, at the moment. If one rushes and dies and the others sit back and do nothing for the moment, then it shows that the target is indeed the weak link. The last scenario is that the target dies, and then they rush your setup with only three people up, this team should be easy to out maneuver and should be a pretty easy game. Your team needs to choose their targets wisely now more so than ever. You are defending your territory and need not over extend your reach to the other side of the map. You need to be weary of whom to shoot at for the sake of ammo. Don’t shoot put pot shots on an enemy for no reason. You should only do this if you’re trying to make them fall back away from any strategic advantage they may be going for or if you know that you’re only making it easier for a teammate to kill them and their death is imminent. If it’s an easy kill then definitely go for it but like I said don’t put pot shots on your enemy if your whole team is locking down your setup unless you’re preventing them from getting and objective. This is especially true if your enemy doesn’t know where you are and you need to remain hidden until they decide to rush. Shooting at unnecessary targets is a waste of ammo and only gives away your setup and in turn gives your enemy knowledge they don’t need. Take into account your enemy’s chance of escape. If they’re high, then your team need not worry about it. Like I said, halo’s mental game is a chess game. When holding your setup, realize your enemy’s intention and adjust accordingly. Meaning you should strategically adjust your player placement (if that’s what the scenario calls for, could be one player adjustment to the whole team adjusting). Knowledge of what your enemy will do next gives you a few seconds to move and prepare yourself. Holding a setup doesn’t just happen. You need to be attentive at all times and never get caught slippin. Even though you’re playing defense, you must act accordingly and with precision. ~Summary I hope this guide helps all players on some level. I put in allot of hours into the guide and the work for it. I’m always happy to help improve the players of the community in any way possible. Use this information as a foundation for your improvement. With an understanding of the game you can move on and learn to adapt to play better than most others. Of course all this info is useless unless you practice. Don’t practice wrong tactics that won’t improve your game. Practice what I’ve taught you and I guarantee you will see an improvement in your game play or your money back. By the way ima need 5 dollars from all who’ve made it this far. ~Fatal Recoiil.