Cut Halo: Reach weapons

This article is part of a series on
Halo: Reach cut content

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Cut content

Cut dialogue
Cut ambient life
Cut levels
Cut vehicles
Cut weapons
Cut armor

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Development

Halo: Reach development
Concept art
Design documentation
Storyboards
Title updates
Multiplayer Beta

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To check out cut content for other Halo games, see here!

v • d • e

During the production of Halo: Reach, several weapons were concepted and implemented - though ultimately cut for various reasons.

Human weapons

Civilian weapons

These civilian weapons were conceived by Glenn Israel in 2009 and later modeled for inclusion in-game. These were not intended to appear as useable weapons for any player or character, and instead simply decorative props that could be found in some of the "pioneer" environments in levels such as Winter Contingency and Nightfall.

The weapons remain in the files of the Halo: Reach Alpha build, listed with the following names;

• decor_gun_shotgun
• decor_gun_shotgun_short
• decor_gun_rifle_scopes
• decor_gun_rifle

It is likely these were intended for use by the farmers and Reach militia encountered in the third level of the game, Nightfall.

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  Concept art for the weapons.

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  Concept art for the weapons.

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  The scoped rifle.

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  The scoped rifle's stock.

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  The rifle, without scope.

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  The shotgun.

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  The short-barrelled shotgun.

The shotgun design was later featured in Issue #18 of Halo: Escalation.

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  The Unidentified shotgun is wielded by Holly Tanaka.

Spartan weapons

When exploring designs for Reach, concept artist Isaac Hannaford noted he wished for the game to have depicted more weapons specifically-designed for use by Spartans. In a comment on his blog, Hannaford wrote:

“

I would love to see that too. Belt fed weapons look great in first person. When we started on Reach we had the opportunity to redesign or invent new weapons for the Spartan Arsenal. I wanted to follow up the Spartan Laser that Tom Doyle and I proposed with a few other Spartan class weapons systems. One hope was that a Spartan assult rifle would be equivalent to a .50 caliber machine gun and that their DMR would be closer to a 30mm light cannon. I was never satisfied with how little we did to depict the weight and enormous physical strength of the Spartans in game. I know that we would have liked to, if we'd had the time.

”

Covenant mortar

The Covenant mortar was a weapon conceived by Glenn Israel, though whether it received any 3D development is unknown. Concept explorations posted by Israel showcase a weapon held in a manner akin to the Brute Shot or Pek-pattern plasma cannon, or able to be deployed as a static emplacement. Some of the concepts show some designs more akin to the plasma mortar found on the Wraith and Revenant vehicles. The concept explorations pictured were done in 2009.

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  Israel's concept explorations for the mortar.

Forerunner staff

The object named forerunner_staff can be found in the files for the Halo: Reach DLC tag build. It is unclear as to what purpose the staff would have served, given the game's predominantly-human focus - though it may have been intended for usage on the game's DLC maps.

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  A Spartan holding the staff.