The Fatal Guide to Halo 4

[TheFatalRecoiil]

Recently I’ve been exploring the fundamentals of Halo 4, in an attempt to gain a better understanding of how the game works and in turn provide knowledge to the community. I've spent hours playing the game, testing it in private matches and customs, and researching online for already provided knowledge. The resulting information has been summed up in this one write up. It’s taken a few days and countless hours of gameplay to gather and test the following information. I hope to help the community understand the game as it stands (whether you like the game or not right now matters not, it is what it is for now), and how to use it to improve your overall gameplay. Major contributors to my knowledge and the out come of the guide, wether they know it or not, are Audley Enough, The Halo Council (THC), BBK Dragoon, Greg and Ghostayme.

 

This guide is pretty (but not completely) directed at a "walshy" style gameplay, which is a deep understanding of the game, how it works, and how to use the knowledge to your advantage in game.

 

NOTE* Anything with a (MM) will contain information pertaining to MM mostly, but that doesn’t exclude MLG gameplay information from the article, so keep reading!

 

Contents:

-BASICS

~PHYSICAL SETUP

~MINDSET

~GAME PLAN

~LOADOUTS (MM)

~BASIC GAMEPLAY (MM)

~BRIEFING ON HITSCAN/MELEE SYSTEM

~STRAFE

 

-ADVANCED CONCEPTS

~THE SPAWN SYSTEM

~GAME PHYSICS

 

-SUMMARY

~IMPLEMENTATION INTO GAMEPLAY

~FINAL THOUGHTS

 

 

BASICS:

Not much has changed about Halo's basic gameplay. New features are added, some minor tweaks are made to certain aspects, but the concept has held strong throughout the Halo series.

 

--Physical gamming setup (You don’t need to read this if you have a good setup already) 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. I know most people reading this already have a good setup and a strong foundation of knowledge on this part, but this is for those who just don’t know. First off, you want to have the best setup that you can, and for the most part, this depends on an individual’s personal situation/preference. You don’t need to buy a new TV or switch from wireless to wired, but it’s generally preferred to give your self an advantage of good response time.

 

Wired is preferred to wireless controllers because the response is picked up by the Xbox slightly quicker. Also, an ideal gamming monitor would be around 21.5" to 22", a good refresh rate, 2ms gtg response time, as well as a great contrast ratio. The preferred medium between your Xbox and monitor (Cable), is a vga cable. It is the best quality cable amongst the other options for analog cables, and has the fastest response time amongst all other cables.

 

It’s also recommended that you have a clean battle station. This is completely personal preference, but the theory behind a clean station, is a cleaner set up (or one the player prefers), means a better mentality. Which leads me to my next topic..

 

--Mindset

A Player with a negative mindset, is more likely to perform worse than that of a player with a positive mindset. Halo has an unseen front of mentality that plays a major role in success and defeat. If you’re coming from a fresh loss and your relatively angry, down and thinking that those kids cheated and you’re better than them, etc. you’re probably going to exhibit the same kind of pattern in the upcoming game both on the battle field and mentally. What you need to do is abandon all negative thoughts. Do not think any deeper into any negative thoughts that pop into your head. This in no way will ever benefit you. EVER.

 

What you need is a positive thought process that will allow you to keep focused on what you would like to accomplish. This is truly one of the easiest things to improve upon in halo, it just takes effort to break a bad cycle. Once you stopped thinking about all the negativity in the game you can focus more on what REALLY matters in the game, such as where you need to be at a moment, or what objective you should do next etc.

 

I truly cannot express how important this is. Negative thoughts only blind your logical judgment and cloud your head with unimportant thoughts. You simply cannot improve, without taking this first step.

 

You need a clear mind so that you can focus on things like where your enemy is and where they may be moving, where your team is and where they may be going, the spawn system, callouts, what weapons your team/they have, power weapon drops. There’s a lot you should be focused on at any one point in the game, that you just cannot accomplish if you shut down because your upset at one particular incident. Amongst keeping the current games information racing through your mind, you should keep a positive out look. It really helps a lot if you feel good about your gameplay.

 

--Game Plan

Now that your mind is cleared, you should always enter a game with a pre-meditated course of action. You should never blindly rush off starting spawns. This is because the enemy knows where you spawned,they (assuming they are intelligent) know what your starting options are and where you may be heading, even if you don’t. That’s why you need a plan, something original. It doesn’t need to be clever or outlandishly complex, but you should have an idea of what you want to accomplish that game.

 

Part of having a game plan is knowing your role in the game. If you’re a Main Slayer, then have a plan to be attentive at all times, and generally not fall below a +10 K/D spread. And I hate to say it but if you generally are not going at LEAST +10 (excluding off games), then your not really a Slayer. Your better suited as a support or objective based player. If you are an objective player and you recognize that congratulations for not being that person in denial! Props to you because you have a general understanding of the team structure in halo.

 

Whether you’re a slayer going +17, +18 in games, or you held the ball the entire game and no one else touched it at all, you need a plan that best suits your gamming style. I cannot give you a plan it needs to be YOUR plan.

 

--Load Outs

Now that the inspirational speeches are over, let’s move on to elements that virtually affect the game itself. I’m not going to say much on load outs as there is not much to discuss that hasn’t already been made a thread. This subject is totally player biased and I’m not going to say that a certain combination is better than another. It just depends on how you play. Combine your load outs and game plan for maximum effectiveness.

 

--Basic Game Play

This refers to an individual’s actual game play. It covers Positioning, player movement, awareness and ability to put yourself in a situation that benefits the team more than it benefits you. These are all attributes that an individual can improve upon with the right knowledge which I will provide you, and practice, which you need to do.

 

~ Awareness:

Your awareness is a critical part of your overall gameplay. You need to know where the enemy/team is, what weapons your/their team has at its disposal, where your/their team is moving, the map you’re playing on, weapons and their spawn times. You should keep all of this in the back of your mind, which may I remind you, is allot harder to do with negative thoughts. Once again a clear head is essential.

 

~ Movement:

The title says it all, it’s how you maneuver the map. Its preferred if you move with your team, but in halo 4's MM the team is not always as... decent as you’d like it to be I know, I’ve been there. Regardless your movement will ultimately dictate who you run into, what objectives you come upon and all that good stuff.

 

You need to move strategically, meaning don’t just rush off spawn to the nearest battle. It could be a 3v1 against your teammate who is already half dead. You’d just be giving the other team another point. Movement is critical to your positioning. I suggest that you try to avoid as best you can, plain open areas, and places you could be easily ambushed. Stick to moving through well covered areas and let your enemy run through the open as you pick them off from a safe distance.

 

As a new feature 343i included in halo 4, sprint is now part of everyone’s abilities. It lasts for about 7 seconds if you’re not using the perk that allows you to sprint forever and takes roughly 1.3-1.5 seconds to raise your lowered weapon when exiting the sprint. This second and a half could mean the difference on who gets the first shot and in most cases, who gets the kill. I recommend canceling the sprint as you approach a corner, as an enemy may pop out and surprise you as you round it during a sprinting session.

 

A few things you should know about sprinting is that if you jump continuously while you sprint, it will increase the distance covered only by a few paces. It really isn’t worth making yourself more obvious when you’re bouncing across the map for a few meters. Also that sprinting up an incline decreases speed and distance covered compared to a flat surface. However, if you sprint/jump up the incline it compensates that speed and distance without you bouncing dramatically. On the contrary, sprinting downhill, does not increase speed or distance covered compared to flat surfaces. In fact both speed and distance are the same as a flat sprint. which is a small physics bug. Ill

explain those later.

 

~ Positioning

Your positioning is how you strategically place your self in various parts of the map. This is pretty much a no brainer. Don’t position yourself in an area that is prone to enemy ambush. An example of this is the ditch, underneath open ramp on haven. It provides superb amounts of cover for your body, but it is easy for the enemy to simply flank you from above. An example of good positioning on haven would be at the red/blue ramps. They provide multiple escape routes, decent cover, and enemies cannot flank your from behind, left/right (dependent on which ramp you’re at) or from above, like at open.

 

Position yourself where you can lay down fire on the enemy but they can’t lay down suppressive fire on you. And if they can, you want an area where you can easily escape and not be flooded with grenades. The point is to survive while gaining an adequate amount of kills.

 

~Team Benifit

You Should try as best you can to implement the three elements of basic gameplay above, into your gameplay and use it as best you can to help your team win. Because after all that’s why you’re playing right? You want to win. So I would suggest that you put selfish habits behind and work for your team. Even if this means putting yourself in position that is not so very beneficial to your overall stats. That’s what we call taking one for the team. Sacrificing yourself to two players so the flag carrier can score is a testament of a players overall team play.

 

--BRIEFING ON HITSCAN/MELEE SYSTEM

I think you are all aware of the hitscan system, Which at its current standing has some strong bullet magnetism (meaning that if your reticule is slightly off the visible player, you will still land your shots) Ideally the magnets would be toned down by at least 50%. But as wishful as that might sound, it still stands that it’s pretty strong. Use them to Your advantage for the time being.

 

As for the melee system, Bleed through is back! (meaning that if a player has 1/4 shields left, and you melee them, it will not only drain the remaining shields but kill the player, as the damage has bleed through the shielding system to the player’s basic health value system.) I’ve done some testing and if the player carries 1/2 shield value or above, A melee will only drain the remaining shields. If the player contains 5/8ths of the shielding system and is meleed, it will kill them.

 

--Strafe

Strafing has been around since H-CE days and hasn’t much changed. you should be original with your strafe, and constantly mix it up. The only difference with halo 4 and previous titles regarding strafe, is that since the bullet magnetism is so high, short strafing is just as pointless as running circles (less your trying to out burr a really bad kid who has twitchy thumbs). So the long strafe and its variants, are going to be a major advantage in this game.

 

Gandhi Hopping has made an astonishing comeback in halo 4. I’m not sure how many people still use it since its death in H3 but it is VERY useful in the game. I suggest you implement that into your jumping strafes.

 

bump for part 2

 

ADVANCED CONCEPTS:

This section covers the more tedious workings inside the game. From spawn trapping to intricate team set up and gameplay. I will try my best to explain each subject both technically, and then summarize it for those who have trouble using the knowledge I provide.

 

--SPAWN SYSTEM

I made a thread some time ago, that linked an article by Audley Enough, in where he explains the spawn system excellently. Here’s the link, http://mtaudleyenoug...pawned.html?m=1 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) has a stronger - influence than a

regular enemy with no objective.

A friendly with an objective has a stronger + influence than a regular

teammate.

A friendly that is firing a weapon or just threw a grenade has less of

an influence than one who is not in combat.

You should also note that the influence of death only lasts 7 seconds.

after that, the influence is gone.

A dropped flag carries a negative value if dropped in a RZ

A loose odd ball carries a negative value if dropped in a RZ

 

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.

 

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 was 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.

 

--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 has 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.

 

~Grenade Physics

I put in major overtime in grenade studying. 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 will be referencing a measurement system I used called the grid unit. This is referring to the grid on forge.

 

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.

 

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 .5gu^3 in any direction. Anywhere between the point of impact and half of a grid unit will deal enough damage to lower a players shields completely. 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). They fall short if you’re just standing still and throw it. Even if you just move only two paces it will fly further than not moving those two paces. There is also a grenade glitch that if you throw the nade, then repeatedly tap the sprint button, the grenade will shoot across the map at an incredible speed.

 

 

Back on topic, if you jump and throw grenades, it increases the distance by 1.5gu^2 compared to no movement throwing. Of course you need to be moving forward while jumping to achieve the distance rather than jumping up and down.

 

It takes exactly one second for a grenade to explode after bouncing off the ground. 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 dimensional and that it converts force from the grenades initial explosion, in the form of movement. meaning if a player is sitting directly on top of the grenade, he will experience a short 'hop' like movement. So compensate for that slight movement by bring your reticule upward after the initial blast. consequently if a player is on either side of a grenade he will take two short paces away from the grenade after losing his shields. 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.

 

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.

 

~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 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 IT’S ON THE SPAWN PLATE. 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 PYSICS

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) equals 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.

 

In my opinion on the subject, 343 should either decrease the spread, or increase the time it takes to continuously fire the DMR. Just to even out the battle field for the weapon.

 

SUMMARY:

I’m aware I haven’t covered every aspect of the game completely. If the feedback on this guide is good, I may cover them all in a second one. In the meantime, if any one has something they would like me to look into and post a write up please feel free to post it. It’s taken me a weeks time to write, edit, and publish this write up. Its taken what seems like forever to test and eliminate what was wrong from right in the gameplay itself.

 

--IPLEMENTATION INTO GAMEPLAY

You won't automatically become better by simply reading this, Not by any means. It takes practice and patience to see improvement. If you can keep a clear head like I suggested in the beginning, you should start to see basic improvements in each game you play. This in turn keeps you optimistic and helps you focus on practicing.

 

It really only requires focus on your part, that and persistence. The theater is a great tool to help you. I know it’s been said multiple times since Halo, but it hasn’t been reiterated a million times because it doesn’t work. Use it! You can look at multiple aspects all at once. It’s beyond useful.

 

There really isn’t much I can do at this point other than encourage practice, clear mindedness, persistence and patience. I say this over and over again because it is what makes the difference between good and great players.

 

--FINAL THOUGHTS

And for my MLG brothers, im aware of the situation regarding the game and events. I’m not going stop playing because MLG won’t host Halo at events. I’m going to keep improving on my game and continue providing the community with any knowledge I can get ahold of.

 

I’m personally upset with 343i that they decided not to implement a ranking system. I understand that people have abused ranking systems before, but why just give up? Why not actually put in work to create a system that is much, much harder to abuse? I don’t understand the logic behind the decision.

 

As far as maps are concerned, I think that 343 is expecting the competitive community to forge maps to its liking while they themselves create maps to the casual players liking. My message to 343i on that subject is that the forging community has limited power when it comes to making maps and we would like to see what 343i could come up with.

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed the read. I’ve put in countless hours in gameplay and writing this, so I hope you put the information to good use. I’m aware I didn’t cover every aspect of the game and depending on the feedback I get from this one, I may cover suggested topics in another guide. If you have a topic you would like me to look into, post it and I would be glad to do extensive work for the Halo 4 community. I truly enjoy this game (more than I did reach)and I will continue to play it. Maybe not as competitively since MLG's announcement but none the less, I will always try to improve my gameplay and also help others as well. Thank you for your time in reading this, I was glad to make the guide and do the work.

 

~Fatal Recoiil

[Mainbrid]

That's a long wall of text