Legendary: Difference between revisions

{{Ratings}}

{{Era|H1|H2|H3|HW|H3R|}}

{{Quote|You face opponents who have never known defeat, who laugh in alien tongues at your efforts to survive. This is suicide.|Description from ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'' and ''[[Halo 2]]''.}}

{{Quote|Tremble as teeming hordes of invincible alien monsters punish the slightest error with instant death... again and again.|Description from ''[[Halo 3]]'' and ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''.}}

==Summary==

[[File:TLJ Legendary Difficulty (ODST).png|The ''Halo 3: ODST'' stylization.|100px|thumb]]One must play cautiously and conservatively to succeed. Enemies are extremely strong while you and your allies' strength is extremely low in comparison often leading the player to die frequently. Legendary on ''Halo 2'' can be described as "Trial and Error." Completing the full Campaign on Legendary in all the Halo games unlocks an additional ending to that game's story. ''Halo 2'' is the one exception to this.

In the first Halo game, the differences between Legendary and other settings is relatively numeric. The player does not face unique or different enemies yet they face many more enemies who are tougher to defeat and endure. Many of the same strategies that work on other settings work on Legendary in this game except that the player has to be extremely careful of his/her own weaknesses. This is where the [[plasma pistol|Plasma Pistol]]/[[M6D pistol|Pistol]] combo comes in handy.

*Player [[Shields]] are half their Normal resistance. A few hits from Plasma will often drain them completely.

*Enemy Shield resistance is doubled.

*Player Shields and enemy shields recharge faster - twice as fast as Normal.

*Enemy health is doubled.

*'''Agility :''' All enemies move much faster and will rarely allow a player to stick them with grenades. Elites will often do their dodging maneuver immediately if hit, making it very difficult to make consistent hits on them to drain their shields.

*'''Stealth Elites : '''They are always encountered in packs of four to six with few exceptions.

*'''Allies :''' [[Marines]] are virtually useless. They will constantly get stuck with [[Plasma Grenade|Grenades]] and most are easily killed by the enemy's increased rate of fire. Their returning fire only inflicts minimal damage on enemies. Their AI is increased significantly, still to little effect.

* Zealots appear more frequently throughout the game. Incredibly, it takes 21 shots from a [[M6D Pistol|Pistol]] to remove their shields alone.

**The player does not go through the controls section at the beginning of the level, the game assuming that anyone choosing the highest difficulty level has gone through it before. Instead, they will wake up and leave the cryo section immediately. This also occurs on Heroic difficulty.

**[[Johnson]]'s speech changes in the beginning of the level.

*'''[[The Truth and Reconciliation (Level)|The Truth and Reconciliation]]'''

**Upon entering the loading bay, 4-6 [[Zealot Elite|zealots]] will ambush the player and the marines in addition to the standard waves of grunts and jackals which pass through the hallways.

**The player only has five minutes to get to the [[Longsword]] fighter after destroying the ''[[UNSC Pillar of Autumn|Pillar of Autumn]]'''s engine core as opposed to the usual six minutes. You will get to see the non-canon secret ending.

In one of the [[Bungie]] Updates, [[Frankie]] describes ''Halo 2'''s ''Legendary'' as:

*Virtually every [[Elite]] encountered is a [[Major Elite|Major]]. [[Major Grunt]]s are also far more common.

*[[Ultra Elite]]s are now a very common sight. You will encounter up to four in some parts of the game. They have the most powerful Shields in the game and can survive an astounding four headshots from a [[Sniper Rifle]] or [[Beam Rifle]].

*Enemies are extremely adaptive and intelligent in tactical action. They rarely fall victim to being outsmarted.

*[[Grunt]]s retreat less often when a leader is killed.

*[[Sniper Jackals|Jackal Snipers]] will appear more often than on any other difficulty. One shot from them will kill you regardless of where it hits. You should think twice before sticking yourself out into the open.

*[[Stealth Elites]] appear more often and travel in groups of two to four, usually with one or two wielding two [[Plasma Rifle]]s and the others using [[Energy Sword]]s.

*Both players have "Linked Lives". That is, when one of the players dies, both are sent back to the last Checkpoint regardless of whether or not only one of them died (Possibly to prevent players from easily reaching the status of beating Legendary on their profile or to enhance it with the general knowledge of the above statement).

*One shot from a [[Brute Shot]] will have the same power as a shot of the [[Rocket Launcher]] on [[Easy]] difficulty.

*Shields are 50% their Normal power and a few hits will drain them completely.

*Enemies are several times more resistant to damage. (E.g. You need three body shots or two headshots for a [[Brute Captain]] to take it down instead of one headshot or two body shots with a sniper or beam rifle).

*In Halo 3, the Arbiter is next to useless and will frequently be knocked out for prolonged periods. He will also take cover a lot more and so reduce his outgoing fire.

*Enemies' health varies from being 25% to 50% stronger than on Normal, depending on the mission.

*Enemy units deal much more damage. Up to 50% more than on Normal.

*On ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'', you unlock [[Dare]] for beating Legendary difficulty.

*In ''Halo 2'', Legendary is the only difficulty where you can find the hidden skulls, except for the [[Blind Skull]] and the [[Assassins Skull]]. The Assassins Skull doesn't give you the effect when not on Legendary.

*A similar style was also employed for Halo 3 DLC map packs, albeit with the difference of Battle Rifles, instead of SMGs.