How To Become A Better Halo Player - All About Everything

[Unease Peanut]

Why hello there and welcome to the next installment of “How to become a better Halo player”! I’ll be your trusty guide, follow me through a world of mystery!

 

Before we get things started. Biggles made me responsible for his passionate series dedicated to improve you Halo skills because he didn’t see himself fit to do it anymore. This was already some time ago and I apologise for delaying it for this long. I’ll try my best to give you the best and make you the best you can be!

So… Let’s get to it gentlemen.

 

Make sure you checked the previous instalment made by me down here:

http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/37764-how-to-become-a-better-halo-player-p34nut-edition/

 

And check the box below for some tunes while you read:

 

This edition will be all about everything. We will walk through tips and tricks for all Halo games multiplayers since the MCC (if it decides to work) allows us the frequently switch between all 4 of them and it can become quite confusing since all of them work slightly different than the last one.

 

We’ll begin where at all began

Halo: Combat Evolved

 

 

Halo: Combat Evolved was the very first instalment in an epic journey we know and love. Back in the day Halo CE didn’t even feature XBL support since it didn’t exist yet and relied on split-screen and/or LAN parties to be played with multiple people.

But with the power of technology we can connect to random people or other things.

(On the internet no one knows you’re a peanut)

Halo CE multiplayer has a lot of “features” since it was created in the early days of multiplayer hence the reason you spawn right in front of the guy that just shot you and the Pistol was so powerful that even the UNSC decided to discontinue production of the powerhouse to allow the Covenant to have a fighting chance.

Halo CE is all about map control and if you don’t take control over your enemy they might spawn trap you without even knowing it themselves. At the start of a round it’d be very wise of you to immediately press “Y” (or another button if you chose any of the other weird control settings) to switch to your Pistol since that things can drop anyone with 3 shots on a windy, moonless night and on a range of about 100 meters. Rush to the middle, while throwing grenades and shooting at anything and everything that is another colour than you, since that is where most of the powerful weapons are. Switch out your Assault Rifle, which is only capable of winning a fire fight if you’re within melee range or if the enemy picked up a plasma weapon, for whatever you found and fire it at the enemies that tried to get to it until you get taken down. Which, be warned, is fairly easy even if you hold a Rocket Launcher.

If you fail to get to a power weapon (shame on you) there’s always your trusty Pistol and pocket nukes (grenades) to take down whatever enemy got to it first. I cannot emphasize enough how important the Pistol and grenades are in this game so use them often.

Take note that almost all weapons aren’t accurate to the dot. Even though your crosshair might be on target, the random bullet spread and hitreg might fail you more than I like to admit. There have been hundreds of times where I saw my bullet impact on the enemy but no damage to his shield and health had been put through. If you’ve played Halo CE online I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I would say try to lead your target to prevent this but the random bullet spread of most weapons would make it somewhat useless.

 

A neat little trick I picked up recently, and is very useful, is the so called ‘Pocket Reload’. If you run out of bullets in the gun you’re holding and need to reload, quickly press the reload button a few times and switch to your other weapon. While you hold your other weapon, which allows you to keep on firing, the weapon you put away actually reloads in your pocket. This little trick allows you to keep firing your weapons without losing momentum because of lengthy reload animations.

Another neat little trick is to use grenades to get to power weapons faster. If you bounce a grenade right you might just blow that Sniper Rifle or Rocket Launcher off of its place and into your hands.

 

That’s just about all there is about Halo CE. Feel free to add some of your own tips and tricks for this game in the comments below!

 

Onto the next Halo game!

Halo 2

 

 

A success like Halo CE just screams for a sequel, and we got it. Halo 2, which turned out to be a huge success, was one of the very first games that supported the ‘Virtual couch’ called Xbox Live. And even though the servers on the original Xbox have been taken down we now get to relive the glory days of Halo 2 through the MCC.

Because of the Xbox Live support Halo 2 had a very competitive multiplayer and thus was a little more fine tuned that the previous Halo. Halo 2 introduced more vehicles, boarding them, dual wield and some more toys to play with.

With the precision weapon called the Battle Rifle and a few other precision weapons real skill got involved into killing an enemy instead of holding down the trigger and praying to whatever you believe in that you actually got to kill the thing you were shooting at. But if you’re more of a casual guy that likes to shoot as many bullets as possible in the general direction of your enemy you can now hold another gun in your hands if the weapon type allows it. 2 guns are better than one am I right? More vehicles, both ground and air, got added to dominated the more open battlefields and the Rocket Launcher got a Lock-on function to blow them all up. And all vehicles can now actually be destroyed contrary to Halo CE’s UNSC vehicles.

As I stated above, the BR is going to be your best friend in this games multiplayer. Whether you hate precision weapons or not you’re going to need something to cover the map and your automatic SMG just isn’t going to cover it. Should the spawn weapon be the SMG I highly suggest that you scavenge around for a BR or another power weapon. In case you can’t seem to find anything try to duals wield SMG’s since that’s going to give you a fighting chance against other people with SMG’s or BR’s. When holding a precisions weapon take in account that the hitreg is still not optimal, so try to compensate a little for moving targets. Especially on hosted connections. Don’t forget that grenades, although slightly less lethal than before, are still a great way to take someone’s shield down before engaging them. Try to practise banking grenades to inflict damage to an opponent you can’t even see yet. A great way to deal with someone camping a room is banking a few grenades in off of walls and doorposts to give you an advantage.

On the more open maps you can usually find a few useful vehicles to rain death upon everything that gets in your way. But if you have access to a vehicle the enemy most likely will have access too, so when you get in one of these death machines keep an eye out for a potential enemy that had the same idea as you and deal with him before he deals with you. These more open maps almost always will have one or two Rocket Launcher spawns and since these can lock onto any vehicle you might want to watch out for that. Keep in mind that you’re all but invincible in vehicles so don’t bum rush the enemy unless you know you can take them on. Hold back a little until you’re sure all of their vehicles are down or not in use and they don’t have weapons to their disposal that can obliterate you before you know it. Try to stick close to cover to let your shield recharge when things get hectic. Keep an eye on your motion sensor for any sneaky bums that will try and board you to proceed and smack the living hell out of your death machine. If you’re driving the vehicle you can always try to run over your opponent but only use this a last resort or when you’re absolutely sure you’re going to hit the guy because trying to run someone over involves you getting real close to the enemy which can allow them to board your vehicle.

If you’re on foot and facing a vehicle I of course advise you to look for a Rocket Launcher ASAP or some Plasma Grenades to stick ‘em with if you’re really desperate. If you’re feeling heroic you can try to bait the enemy vehicle into trying to run you over and allowing you to get close enough to board them. It is hard, but possible.

 

Halo 2 also had a unique set of “features” that can be used to overcome your enemy. The infamous BXR is one of these features. I’m sure you’ve heard of this BXR combo, but what is it exactly? BXR stands for the buttons you have to press (with default controls) to perform an insta-kill move. When holding a BR that has a full clip and the enemy is to close for comfort you can press B to melee the opponent to bring down his shield, quickly press X to cancel the melee animation and R/RT to fire the BR at the enemy’s head to kill him. If done correctly you can kill an opponent in 1 to 2 seconds. This requires a lot of practise to succeed which is why it became a “skilful” feature.

Another thing Halo 2 allowed on some maps were trick jumps. These jumps usually let you take a shortcut or get the jump on an opponent who expected you to come from somewhere else. Most jumps will require you to crouch jump which means you have to hold down the crouch button while in air to let you get on top of high ledges or edges. A good map that features a lot of trick jumps is Lockout where you can jump from the middle platform to the sniper tower or hop from the middle tower on top of the big tower.

Halo 2 also introduced the Energy Sword to multiplayer which features a neat little trick that can take your enemy by surprise. When whipping out your Sword you don’t have to wait for the animation to finish to kill your enemy. The moment you press Y to switch to the sword you can press RT to perform a ridiculous lunge to your enemy if your crosshair was on him. If you’re quick enough you can even kill your opponent without your Energy Sword ever showing. Talk about being a ninja! Remember that Halo 2 doesn’t show your secondary weapon on you character so if you play it well the enemy might not know that you have the Sword on you and will come closer to you. This allows you to punish him for his mistakes by swiftly slicing and dicing him.

Be warned that everyone has access to the features and try to take into account that these can be used against you!

 

Have you got some neato tips and tricks for Halo 2 yourself? Leave them below!

 

Halo 3

 

 

The end to the trilogy we all know and love. And with the raging success that was Halo 2’s multiplayer, Halo 3 got a little more focus on online matchmaking and vast improvements on visuals which were more shiny and polished in comparison to last games gritty looks. And of course some more additions for the sake of balancing. Vehicles obviously returned, now featuring Brute vehicles with sharp edges and rough looks, a Hornet from the UNSC to take on the Banshee that roamed the skies and a small little land vehicle to get you and your buddy from A to B the Mongoose and even deadly when your buddy has a Rocket Launcher.

All these new vehicles look so nice, and even better when they explode! Hence the introduction of the notorious Spartan Laser (or ‘Splaser’ if you will). A shoulder fired red hot laser that makes up for its long charge time with blowing almost everything up in a single zap, infantry and vehicles alike. But this is not the only weapon that got introduced. Brute faction weapons with the same sharp edges and rough looks you’d find on the vehicle are now available in both single handed and dual-wield. Use a watered down version of the Fist of Rukt known as the Gravity Hammer to hulk smash everyone who came to close out of the park. Dual-wield Maulers at the same range to pump their faces full of whatever that thing fires out of its barrels. The Brute Spikers are useful in… well… not that useful, but very painful looking as it shoots spikes!

If shooting isn’t your strong point then maybe throwing is. Halo 3 introduced next to the classic frag and plasma grenades the brand new Brute Spike grenades that stick like a Plasma grenade, but also shoot spikes upwards that bounce around in a room for some nice splash damage ricochet. Or you can burn your opponent to a crisp with the Incendiary grenades that set your enemy or a particular area on fire. (I didn’t mean to set the world on fire)

Halo 3 also introduces equipment that could be picked up and thrown down for yourself or throws at the enemy to give you the upper hand, some even useful against vehicles! Others… not that much. Believe me, I tried throwing down a Bubble Shield down to avoid the bumper of a Warthog in the early days and let’s just say that my face is now a bumper sticker. Yeah…

That being said, each piece of equipment only works in the correct environment. Very much like weapons you should choose wisely when to use or swap it. Like I said above know what your equipment does and play accordingly. If you have a Tripmine you could try to take out a Warthog with it by throwing it down in front of it, or if you have a Grav lift throw it down at a location where it benefits both you and your team by turning it into a shortcut into lets say the enemy base.

 

Halo 3 of course came with its own features. The most profound one is lead or l33t shooting. This mechanic, which was intentional or not… still unclear to me, requires you to shoot in front (or anywhere depending how the player moves) of an enemy to hit him rather than straight at him. What confuses me the most about this is that your shots still seem to hit when shooting straight at the enemy, but they deal no damage. Only when the shields flare up you know the shot hit and dealt damage. So if you’ve ever wondered why you were shooting at a moving enemy but he wasn’t receiving any damage, now you know why. (I know I wondered that for a while)

Halo 3 doesn’t have much in terms of glitches you can exploit. Just keep in mind that melee is a very viable option to use. When an opponents shield drops below 50% an uppercut to the face can knock him out cold. Let the running at each other whilst spraying AR’s and beating each other down commence! It is always preferred to try and kill the opponent before he gets within melee range as it greatly reduces the chance of beating each other down and trading kills. The BR still remains one of the most powerful weapons that you can use at it is just a great all-round weapon so try to get used to using it.

Halo 3 now also shows you secondary weapon on your character, so if you are going up against someone who clearly has a Rocket Launcher (or any other power weapon for that matter) strapped to his back you might wanna back down a little, or make him your primary target out of a bunch of others since taking him down will work to your advantage. Whatever you decide is best! Keep in mind that again other can use this same strategy against you so try to play it safe when holding power weapons to prevent you losing it and the enemy team gaining it. There’s always the chance that you’ll lose it no matter how safe you play it so use call-outs to notify your team that a power weapon is on the ground near your corpse or that the enemy has acquired it. (this goes for all Halo games by the way)

 

If you have any tips and tricks yourself, again leave them down below!

 

Now… Last but not least

Halo 4

 

 

This is the first Halo game made by 343i alone. And it shows since it’s alot different that the previous Halo’s. And with alot I mean ALOT! Halo 4 went on with the idea of loadouts and armor abilities introduced in Reach, only now you aren’t restricted to the AR with the Jet pack or the DMR with Sprint. You can customise your own loadout however you so desire and choose your very own armor ability (don’t worry about Sprint because it’s standard equipment now). Pick your very own Primary weapon, Secondary weapon, Grenades, Armor ability, Tactical Package and Support Package to suit your playsyle. On the Xbox 360 you had to unlock these things one by one. But don’t worry, the MCC has got you covered. Everything is unlocked from the get go!

Take a look at the all new Promethean weapons that each have a secondary feature added to them. The Boltshot Pistol that functions as a pocket Shotgun, The Lightrifle that shoots 3 shot bursts when unzoomed but a lazer beam when zoomed and the Supressor that…well… supresses?

Don’t worry about the weapons you know and love like the AR and BR, they’re available to you as well. Get enough kills and you’ll receive an ordnance drop that let’s you choose between 3 weapons, power ups or those damn grenades no one ever goes for as they’re worse in any way compared to your other choices (or re-roll if you have the right Tactical Package on you).

Halo 4 also had vehicles, although less than previous titles. The very new addition is the Mantis. A giant mech that had both a machine gun, rocket pods and an energy shield. It also comes with a stomp feature that lets you stomp anyone that dares to stand in your way, although don’t use it too much as it makes you a sitting duck for 5 seconds due to cooldown.

 

Halo 4 is the first Halo that had sprint available to everyone. Love it or hate it you have to deal with it. Sprint lets you move around faster at the cost of being able to fire or do anything else other than jump and look around, so don’t sprint unless there’s no one around as a potential opponent will always get the first shot off (if he’s not sprinting as well). However, it’s a very viable option to be used to run away from danger, keep in mind though that you’ll run slower when being hit by an enemy to a point where it might even be better to just walk normally and try to deal as much damage to your assailant as possible in the few seconds you have left to live. Be that action movie hero!

This Halo is also the first to have a decent hitreg as the bullets hit where you fire them instantly (hallelujah!). So don’t bother leading your targets if you don’t have a weapon that fires slower projectiles.

You have armor abilities and “perks” in your loadout now so make use of them if the playlist allows you to use your own loadouts. If you like traversing the map quickly then build your loadout around that, if you like vehicular battles more pick the abilities that make you have the upper hand in those. You have 5 loadout slots to work with so make ones that cover every situation!

Other than what’s listed above Halo 4 works pretty much the same as the last games. Map control and teamwork are still key.

 

That’s all I have on Halo 4, again feel free to leave any tips and tricks you have on Halo 4 down below!

 

And that’s it folks, all the basic information you need to get around the 4 different Halo games included in the Master Chief Collection.

Again I sincerely apologise for the long timeframe between this episode and the last, I’ll try to do better with the next!

Thank you all for reading!

[Snipe MD]

The half-dozen other halo games not for Xbox one are, of course, negligeble.

[Unease Peanut]

The half-dozen other halo games not for Xbox one are, of course, negligeble.

 

 

 

This edition will be all about everything. We will walk through tips and tricks for all Halo games multiplayers since the MCC (if it decides to work) allows us the frequently switch between all 4 of them and it can become quite confusing since all of them work slightly different than the last one.

 

 

I did think about including all the major Halo games (only Reach is missing now by the way) but the article is already longer than I wanted it to be.

[Sikslik7]

 

The half-dozen other halo games not for Xbox one are, of course, negligeble.

 

The games addressed in this specific article are also available on other consoles, and most of the tips are useful for each specific game, not MCC only. The only first person shooter from. The Halo series not noted in this article is Reach. Therefore 4 of 5 major titles are noted in this article. Each of these is a breif overview, but all are relevant to the old version as well.

[rrhuntington]

People try taking on vehicles way too much in games. I see people all the time just standing in the middle of the roads trying to dodge and throw grenades and they just end up getting mowed down. I do it a lot too. I guess we feel we are more powerful than vehicles and that's just not true, except for maybe Halo 4 and H2A MP. Getting to a new position and trying to shoot it from a distance or waiting until you have the capable opportunity to Hijack or get an explosive to kill it is the best course of action.

 

You ever seen two Competent people on Standoff get an a warthog and mow down every one on the enemy team over and over? Because I do, every time I play standoff.

 

Oh and good tips Peanut, I would also recommend tricking people with movement when they attempt to chase you. Saves shields if you keep telegraphing fake movements like moving back and forth from a usually obvious position. Like teasing which side you will run when you are really just buying time, using your motion sensor to your advantage.

[tjdudegaming]

Thx for the help

   ~TJ

[superintendent]

will anyone be doing a halo reach edition in the future? 

[Unease Peanut]

will anyone be doing a halo reach edition in the future? 

 

I could, but dedicating an entire episode to Halo: Reach alone is a bit much don't you think?

[superintendent]

I could, but dedicating an entire episode to Halo: Reach alone is a bit much don't you think?

true.... but then how shall we incorporate it into another post? 

[Witherleader]

Okay, so for this amazing Witherleader (XBL) technique, you want to - A. Get a plasma pistol - and B. Get a spray weapon (my personal favourite is the AR) or a headshot weapon. Now, when enemy is in sight, you want to charge your plasma pistol, and then obviously shoot at the enemy. Now, with the (AR) spray them down to hell, or with the (DMR) get a headshot!!!! Simple as that!! Hope you enjoy this really easy tip!