Halo has been around for years now. Ever since Halo: Combat Evolved was released in 2001, gamers have been able to appreciate this fast-paced first-person shooter from their gaming consoles. If you have never played a Halo game before, there is no time like the present. Halo: Infinite is on the horizon, and The Master Chief Collection is a handy way to play all the mainline Halo games in one spot. Despite major changes to the series over the years, each installment is an action-packed fun-fest that keeps players' controllers glued to their hands.
For many, Halo is a competitive sport, something that they look to excel in, and each time a Halo game comes out, it is a chance for these players to enhance their FPS skills. The people who spend more time playing Halo than sleeping are the ones who usually know everything there is to know about the game. Still, no matter how many times you've played the game, there are probably a few aspects that you might not be aware of, tricks that make playing the Halo games ten times easier. Some of these tricks may seem obvious, but it's the obvious things that go over our heads sometimes. Read on if you want to check out all the ways you can be a better Halo player.
Updated September 19, 2021 by Amanda Hurych: It's an exciting time to be a Halo fan. Halo Infinite's release date has been announced, and the MCC has been receiving regular, seasonal updates. As such, it's the perfect time to brush up on classic Halo tricks. A few of the tips previously listed here were outdated, especially given the changes that have occurred to each Halo game as they have been included in The Master Chief Collection. We have refreshed these handy tricks to better reflect what you need to know to improve your overall Halo skills.
19 Sword Flying
Sword flying is a technique primarily used by speedrunners in Halo 2. It's a bit of a glitch that utilizes the lunge capacity in Halo 2's Energy Swords. If you aim at an enemy with the reticle turned red and press the Switch Weapon button, Reload button, and Shoot button in quick succession, you trick the game into thinking the Sword's reach is far longer than it actually is. If timed perfectly, you gain a massive lunge and boost in speed, allowing you to reach difficult areas or leap over opponents.
18 Don't Sprint When Your Shield Is Down
It can feel second nature to want to run as quickly as possible when your shields are brought all the way down. However, in Halo 5: Guardians, this might not always be the smart thing to do. Shield recharge is decreased when your Spartan is sprinting, meaning it takes longer for them to fill up again if you are actively running. By all means, sprint to a safe location when your shields are down. But once there, consider taking a breather in order to let your shields get back up.
17 Know When To Hip-Hug Your Weapon
It doesn't hurt to take advantage of aiming down the sights of your gun in Halo 5: Guardians. This can give you an edge when firing on mid- to long-range opponents. However, don't use this mechanic when enemy players are close. That's a big no-no. Aim when you have some distance between you and your target. Aiming down sights reduces your field of view and decreases some of your movement, both of which are things you don't want when an enemy is right up in your grill.
16 Time Your Ground Pound
Halo 5: Guardians introduced us to the ground pound. In case you don't know what this is, it's basically an epic melee move where you hover in the air for a moment, aim, and then launch yourself to the ground for a damaging super-hero landing.
That sounds like a powerful blow, and it is. However, keep in mind that ground pounding has you hovering in the air for a good few seconds. This leaves you vulnerable. Time when you use your ground pound so that you are not stuck floating in the air and getting shot like a helpless Engineer.
15 Travel In Groups
It's tempting to try and pull off the lone wolf technique in a Halo multiplayer match. You go off by yourself, pick away at the opposing team, and accrue all these points for yourself. However, if you want to consistently win your matches, it pays to act in the way a wolf pack behaves. Travel together, take down enemies together, and complete objectives together. You may not get as many points to your name, but you will win your matches regardless. Plus, there's nothing like sweeping a map with your whole team by your side.
14 Weapon Switch Instead Of Reloading
Reloading can take longer than a simple weapon switch. So, if you find yourself under attack and you have to change that clip (or cool down that plasma battery), don't. Press whatever button it is you use to switch to your secondary weapon and continue firing. Apparently, the time it takes a Spartan to pull out a whole new gun is faster than the time it takes him or her to reload. Here's hoping that your second weapon is already reloaded.
13 Retreating Is Good
Your Spartan is not invincible. Even if you're playing as the Master Chief, your shields will still go down if fired upon. Halo is not Doom, so you will have to take cover if your shields go down. Never think to yourself that just one more spray of bullets will eliminate whoever you were firing at first. Err on the side of caution. This is the simplest trick in the Halo book. Backing away from a firefight, tossing a grenade, and then moving forward when your shield has recharged is the foundation of Halo multiplayer gameplay.
12 Coordinate Man Cannon Usage
Many Halo multiplayer maps include man cannons or conveyor lifts that launch players across wide distances. Coordinating with your team on an attack plan that has a handful of players approach a position on foot while another group uses the lifts is essentially a pincer maneuver. Any Halo player worth their salt knows where these cannons will launch you and will treat the launch point the same way they'd treat any other entrance or exit onto their position.
11 Boost Slide
Halo 5: Guardians upped player mobility in ways unseen in previous Halo titles. Clambering onto ledges became a thing, as did boosting and ground-pounding, and the boosting in particular allows for extra spurts of speed when players need it. One trick Halo 5 players should master is the boost slide. You start with a full-out sprint, then you boost for an added burst of speed. Immediately after that, you crouch to go into a slide and press the jump button to continue on your way. This gives you maintained speed and makes you a harder-to-hit target.
10 Get The Covenant Before They're Dropped
In any Halo game mode where you have to fight the Covenant, like in Firefight or Spartan Ops, keep those plasma grenades handy. When the Covenant dropship makes a swing toward the ground, prepared to drop Covenant forces, toss a grenade in there right as the doors open. The blast will successfully eliminate any unlucky aliens in the pod. This saves you and your fellow Spartans the hassle of having to clean up those guys once they have already landed.
9 Listen To Spartan Chatter
Pay attention to the ambient sounds of your Halo game! The background chatter of your Spartans in Halo 5: Guardians is quite useful. They will call out enemy positions regularly, so even if your friend fails to warn you that foes are coming up on the right, maybe their Spartan character will.
8 Dual Wield In Close Quarters
Dual-wielding is invaluable at close quarters. Specific Halo games (we're looking at you, Halo 2) allow players to pick up two weapons at a time, one in each hand, for added firepower. Two weapons firing at the same time packs quite the punch; dual-wielding decimates an enemy's shield in seconds, making a win a sure thing. Plus, nothing makes you feel tougher than dual-wielding a pair of SMGs.
7 Take Care Of Vehicles First
In large multiplayer maps, vehicles are added into the mix. They provide an extra layer of strategy when it comes to tackling an enemy team and collecting power weapons becomes even more important. The last thing you want is for the enemy team to have a Warthog or a Banshee running rampant on the map. As soon as you see a vehicle on the map that is not your own team's, do whatever you can to get rid of it. Take it, blow it up, or Spartan Laser it down. Just get rid of it.
6 Good Old Crouch Jump
Since mobility became an important factor in multiplayer in Halo 5: Guardians, learning how to crouch-jump has been brought back into the spotlight. Additionally, Halo 5 gave Spartans the ability to clamber onto ledges.
A simple button press allows your Spartan to clamber onto ledges that might not otherwise have been reached. If you combine the reach that both clambering and crouch-jumping gives you, even higher heights can be attained.
5 Sneak Below Radar
Ignoring your radar is a mistake newcomers to most FPS games make. Frequently seen in a corner of a player's HUD, it tracks the motion of friendly and enemy players around your character. In Halo (and in most other shooter titles), crouching can hide you from an opponent's radar. Learn how to fool other players' radar awareness by crouch-walking when you want to flank somebody. Keep an eye on your own motion detector while you're at it, though.
4 Don't Forget Equipment And Special Abilities
Halo games like Halo 3, Halo Reach, and Halo 4 came with special power-ups, whether they were equipment you could pick up on the map or abilities you could select in your Spartan's loadout. Don't forget to utilize these items and abilities in a tactical fashion. You can use them to set up traps, assist allies, escape from enemies, or deal a ton of damage. Plus, in combination with each other, equipment can be one hilarious and devastating distraction. (Try using a Trip Mine with a Gravity Lift in Halo 3.)
3 Hit The Reload
In Halo: Combat Evolved, when you reload your weapon, it takes away from precious time when you could be firing at an enemy. A quick solution is to hit the melee button when you are reloading your weapon as it will cause your weapon to be reloaded in half the time. The one weapon it fails to do this with properly is the shotgun. Instead, your shotgun will remain partly loaded with however many shells you managed to jam in before hitting melee.
2 Zig Zag All The Time
In order to shoot an enemy Spartan down, you have to lower their shields and then aim for the head. After that one quick headshot, your foe should be down. Conversely, that is all that is needed to bring you down as well. As such, you always want to be on the move. When walking from one area to another, move your Spartan from side to side so that you make for a harder target. Try to avoid jumping away from enemy fire because the arc of your jump can be easily predicted by an expert player.
1 Control Power Weapons
As soon as you begin a Halo multiplayer match, you and your team members should try to fight for control of those power weapons. Even if you're not that good with a sniper rifle, you holding onto that sniper rifle means that the enemy team won't have it. Coordinate with your fellow members and snatch those weapons away from the grubby hands of your opponents. Part of controlling the map is controlling those weapons, and in Halo, controlling the map is everything.