Cut Halo 4 weapons

This page discusses elements of deleted material and cut content. Some information on the page is sourced from game files and may not be verifiable through external sources. Where possible, such information should be clearly-marked and replaced with a proper external source as soon as one is available.

This article is part of a series on
Halo 4 cut content

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Cut content

Placeholder cutscenes
Cut enemies and ambient life
Cut dialogue
Cut levels
Cut vehicles
Cut weapons
Cosmetics

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Development

Halo 4 development
Concept art
Storyboards
Design documentation
Title Updates

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

v • d • e

During the development of Halo 4, a number of various weapons were concepted and prototyped by 343 Industries for inclusion in the game, though were ultimately cut for various reasons. Some weapons were concepted but never reached 3D prototypes, and others were left in the game files as leftovers from the previous game, Halo: Reach.

In-engine prototypes

Attach beam

The "attach beam" is an early version of the Binary Rifle, and uses an early model of the weapon. It uses the final game's Binary Rifle HUD but the reload sounds and animation of the Sniper Rifle, and an early model of the LightRifle.

With the release of Halo 4 on PC as part of The Master Chief Collection, files for this weapon - now named the "storm attach beam" - were added to the game's shared file directory, allowing them to be spawned in via modding..

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  The attach beam.

Bishop beam

The "bishop beam" is a seemingly-Forerunner beam weapon, similar in operation to the Sentinel Beam and Focus Rifle. It can be found in the files for the level Shutdown. When fired at vehicles, the beam locks onto the vehicle in question even if it outside the player's reticule, and will destroy the vehicle after a few moments of firing.

Notably, the Promethean Watcher enemies were named bishops during the early stages of Halo 4, indicating they may have been intended to use this weapon, akin to the Sentinels and their use of the sentinel beam. This weapon was one of several made available for use in modding, following the release of Halo 4 on PC in The Master Chief Collection.

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  Profile of the bishop beam.

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  The bishop beam lying on the ground.

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  A first person view of the bishop beam.

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  The weapon firing.

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  The weapon overheating.

Burst pistol

The "burst pistol" is a weapon which can be in the files for the Lockup map in Spartan Ops. It can fire a single shot or up to a six-round burst. This weapon is notably similar to the iteration of the Bolshot found in Halo 5: Guardians.

This weapon was one of several made available for use in modding, following the release of Halo 4 on PC in The Master Chief Collection.

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  The burst pistol.

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  Firing the burst pistol.

Disintegrator

Not to be confused with a cut Halo 2 weapon of the same name, the disintegrator was intended to be a Forerunner equivalent to the Spartan Laser. The weapon requires a charge-up before firing, and fires a blue beam. It uses the model of the UNSC Spartan Laser, though is buggy in first-person and has various parts of the geometry rotated in odd directions.

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Early concussion rifle design

Early concepts by Glenn Israel considered a full redesign for the Concussion Rifle first introduced in Halo: Reach. The weapon was given a limited early model pass in early Halo 4 builds, though was ultimately scrapped with the final game weapon consisting of a retexture of the Reach model. Israel's sketches also produced the Plasma Caster weapon design that would ultimately go on to be used in Halo 5: Guardians.

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  Early concept revisions of the concussion rifle for Halo 4. Note the plasma caster in the top right (design #2).

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  Finalised concept revisions of the concussion rifle for Halo 4.

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  The early concussion rifle model in a first-person view.

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  The early concussion rifle model in a first-person view, on the cut remake of Sandtrap.

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  The early, unused, concussion rifle model as held by John-117 on the Sandtrap remake.

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  The early, unused, concussion rifle model.

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  The early, unused, concussion rifle model.

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  The early, unused, concussion rifle model.

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  Reference model sheet for the final Concussion Rifle in Halo 4.

Early Needler design

An unused Needler design can be found in early builds of Halo 4. The design of this iteration of the Needler was developed by artist Can Tuncer for use in Halo 4 - but was ultimately never realised in the final game. It was later taken and expanded upon by Kolby Jukes for inclusion in Halo 5: Guardians, with additional bio-organic detail based on the Harvester Jukes had previously created for Spartan Ops. Ultimately, this design was never realised in either game.

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  The early Needler being held in Halo 4.

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  Kolby Jukes' model of the Needler created for Halo 5, based on Can Tuncer's model for this Needler in Halo 4.

Halo 5 plasma pistol

Found in early builds appears to be a model for the Type-54 plasma pistol, featured in Halo 5: Guardians. The final game of Halo 4 shipped with a Type-25 plasma pistol more similar to that found in Halo: Reach, indicating this may have been cut for time.

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  The Type-54 plasma pistol being held.

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  The Type-54 in first-person.

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  The Type-54 overheating.

Homing rifle

The homing rifle is a weapon found in various Alpha builds of Halo 4. The weapon is fully-modelled and partially animated, with later builds containing a first-person viewmodel. In early builds, the weapon's function varies from firing a single large explosive bolt to firing a handful of smaller shots like a shotgun. Strings in the final game's LightRifle reference the homing rifle, indicating this weapon may have eventually evolved into the Light Rifle.

Some early renditions of the Prometheans wielded the homing rifle.

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  The homing rifle, as held by John-117.

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  The homing rifle, as held by John-117.

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  The homing rifle, as held by John-117.

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  The homing rifle's full model.

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  The homing rifle's reload, as held in third-person.

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  The homing rifle firing in first-person.

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  The homing rifle reloading in first-person.

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  The homing rifle reloading in first-person.

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  An early Promethean holding the homing rifle.

Hunter LMG

Using the model of Jorge-052's machine gun from Reach, Etilka, the Hunter LMG fires a bolt similar to those fired by the assault cannons of the Hunters. When held by the player, the player uses the weapon in third-person similar to other turret weapons, indicating this may be an early version of the assault cannon weapons featured in Halo 5: Guardians - notably the Beserker's Claw and Wicked Grasp. This weapon can be found in the files of the Fortress map in Spartan Ops.

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  Jorge's machine gun as seen in Reach.

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  The Hunter LMG on the ground.

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  Holding the Hunter LMG (The invisible player model is a side-effect of the methods required to get the weapon to spawn).

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  Firing the LMG.

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  The explosion created by the bolt.

Mortar launcher

This weapon bears heavy resemblance to the Fuel Rod Gun used by the Covenant. It is shoulder-mounted and reloads in a similar manner, and appears to fire blue plasma mortars with a heavy arc into the distance, not dissimilarly to the fuel rod variant predominantly featured in Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer, or the original flak cannon cut from the game's 1999-era builds. The weapon can fire several times in rapid succession, with each shot draining the charge bar a little. The charge system works akin to other plasma weapons, with paced shots allowing the charge bar to recharged while rapid spam quickly depletes the bar and requires a reload - six shots can be fired rapidly before reload is needed. This weapon has several similarities to the Tufasumo-pattern plasma caster featured in Halo 5: Guardians, and may be a conceptual predecessor.

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  A side view of the mortar being held.

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  A front view of the mortar being held.

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  The mortar in first-person.

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  The mortar firing.

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  The mortar reloading.

SMG

Found in Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 is a concept design for the M7 SMG previously featured in Halo 2 and Halo 3. A 3D model for this iteration of the SMG is present in the Halo 4 Alpha, though lacks dedicated animations or a first-person viewmodel, indicating it did not get too far along in development.

Unlike the SMG found in Halo 2 and Halo 3, the Halo 4 design lacks the side-mounted magazine characteristic of the M7 and instead replaces it with a magazine located inside the grip of the SMG - more akin to traditional modern equivalents. Although this model was scrapped, these design cues can be found in the multiplayer rendition of the SMG featured in Halo 2: Anniversary (which was built atop the Halo 4 iteration of the Blam engine), albeit with adjustments such as the traditional magazine placement. Nonetheless, the carryover of these design cues makes it likely that the Halo 2: Anniversary multiplayer SMG reused elements of the Halo 4 SMG iteration.

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  Concept art of the SMG.

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  The model of this SMG design in the alpha.

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  The model of this SMG design in the alpha.

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  John-117 holding the model of this SMG design in the alpha, in a lighting test map. Note the lack of dedicated animations.

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  The magazine inside the SMG.

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  The SMG model later used in Halo 2: Anniversary's multiplayer component bears extremely heavy resemblance to this design.

Stasis rifle

The "stasis rifle" appears in the game files of Halo 4, unused on the Two Giants Spartan Ops map, among others. The weapon fires a green projectile which creates a purple sphere upon impact with geometry - similar to that of the regeneration field ability. The field appears not to damage players or vehicles, but does slow them as they walk through it - though crouching while in the field does not apply this effect. It can also scare Covenant out of turrets, as if it was a harmful projectile.

This weapon was one of several made available for use in modding, following the release of Halo 4 on PC in The Master Chief Collection.

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  The stasis rifle.

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  The untextured stasis rifle lying on the ground.

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  The stasis rifle generating a stasis field.

Concept-only weapons

Early light rifle design

Early in development, the design that would ultimately be used for the Light Rifle was originally intended to be the Binary Rifle. In these early stages, a unique design was concepted for the Light Rifle, which ultimately went unused.

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  The unused concept.

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  Ingame version of the unused concept

Halo: Reach leftovers

Halo 4 was built on the engine previously-used for the creation of Halo: Reach. Due to this, many aspects of Reach are left in the game files of Halo 4. In some cases, such as the Scorpion tank, the Reach model was re-textured and fully-integrated into the game. However, several weapon models from Reach remain unused as leftovers within Halo 4's game files.

DMR

The M392 DMR from Halo: Reach remains in the files of Halo 4, found in the files for the multiplayer map Harvest. The weapon model in the files is known as xsr_proto. This weapon was one of several made available for use in modding, following the release of Halo 4 on PC in The Master Chief Collection.

The loadout menus of both Halo 4 and The Master Chief Collection incorrectly use the M392 icon instead of that of the M395 featured in-game, despite the icon being used in pre-release footage.

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  The M392 DMR in use in The Master Chief Collection on Forge Island.

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  The M392 icon in the menus.

Energy sword

Found in the files of the Harvester Spartan Ops map, or Halo 4 on PC, this is the leftover of the energy sword as found in Reach. The model is missing most of its visual effects and HUD.

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  The energy sword in use in The Master Chief Collection.

Target locator

The model of the H-165 target locator from Reach can be found in the files of the Quarry map. The weapon functions exactly as it did in Reach, though does not call in the artillery strike. This was likely used to test the H-295 target designator used to call in MAC strikes from the Mammoth in the Reclaimer level.

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  The H-165 in use on Forge Island in The Master Chief Collection.