Challenges/Halo 4

The emblem for Halo 4 challenges used in-game and on Halo Waypoint

Challenges in Halo 4 were daily, weekly and monthly objectives posted in-game and on Halo Waypoint. A player was awarded a certain number of Experience Points after completing an objective. Players could only view and complete challenges while connected to Xbox LIVE.

Halo 4 challenges were discontinued with the shutdown of Xbox 360 Halo online services on January 13, 2022.

Unlike in Halo: Reach, challenges were organized by gametype. Campaign and Spartan Ops featured two weekly challenges each. War Games featured two daily challenges, two weekly challenges, and one monthly challenge.

Players who completed one challenge were awarded the achievement "The Challenged". Players who completed 25 challenges were awarded the achievement "The Challenger".

Challenges were an excellent way for players to gain bonus XP and increase their Spartan rank. However, in Halo 4 it was much easier to reach the maximum rank than it was in Halo: Reach. Once a player has reached SR-130 they stop earning XP. As such these players received no reward beyond personal satisfaction for completing challenges.

Campaign Challenges

Campaign challenges were far less prevalent than they were in Halo: Reach. Unlike the kill and objective-based daily and weekly challenges in Reach, Halo 4 weekly campaign challenges were only completed by completing campaign levels, typically on a Heroic or higher with specified skulls activated.

Waypoint Challenges

In the months following Halo 4's release there was an additional category: "Waypoint Challenges". These challenges were used for the Virgin Gaming Halo 4 Infinity Challenge. The first twenty players to complete these weekly challenges won prizes as part of the contest. Once the Infinity challenge was complete, Waypoint Challenges were discontinued.

Trivia

• Unlike challenges in Halo: Reach, which used numerous names for similar and even identical challenges, Halo 4 challenges reused the same name every time. For example, every Spartan Ops challenge for killing Jackals was called "Shield Breaker!".
• In the weeks following the game's release, the number of daily War Games and weekly Spartan Ops challenges varied, ranging from two to four each at any given time. Following the completion of the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge this was standardized to two each.
• I Am The 99 Percent, for killing Elites, was a reference to the slogan of the Occupy movement in its opposition to the top 1% earning "elites".
• Destroyer of Grunts was likely a reference to the famous J. Robert Oppenheimer quote, taken from the Bhagavad Gita, and uttered upon witnessing the world's first nuclear test in 1945: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
• The Kingslayer, for earning Regicides, was a reference to the nickname of Ser Jaime Lannister from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.
• Exterminate! Exterminate! was a reference to the catchphrase of the Daleks from the British science fiction television show Doctor Who.
• We Are the Champions was a reference to the classic Queen song of the same name.
• I Would Walk 500 Miles was a reference to the song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers.
• Game Over, Man! was yet another in a long line of Aliens references.
• That's No Moon! was a reference to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.