Promethean Knight/Gameplay

A Promethean Knight prepares to defend the jungles of Requiem.

The Promethean Knight serves as a mechanized Forerunner Promethean warrior created by the Ur-Didact for use against the Flood and the player, introduced in Halo 4 and reappearing in Halo 5: Guardians. They direct Promethean Crawlers, regarding them as cannon fodder.

Combat

Knights are always equipped with Forerunner weapons, with the Suppressor and LightRifle being their default armament. Their right arms feature a lethal lightblade, which they can use to engage enemies at close range. They often fight in concert with Promethean Watchers and can even use Equipment depending on their rank.

Gameplay

Halo 4

An enraged Knight tries to kill an unshielded John-117.

Main article: Halo 4

• Knights are equipped with energy shields, much like Elites.
• There are four types of Knights: the standard one, the Lancer, the Battlewagon, and the Commander.
• Knights are capable of teleporting into battle and away from the player.
• Knights can be killed in one shot with the Incineration Cannon or Binary Rifle, although the latter cannot do so on Legendary difficulty.

At range, Knights engage the player with their weapons and slash the player with their lightblades at close range. They often fight alongside Promethean Watchers, sometimes deploying them from their carapaces; the Watchers provide protection with Hardlight Shields and can fight back with their built-in Boltshots and by hurling ordnance back at the players. As with Elites, Knights can handily be defeated with the Noob Combo using the Plasma Pistol, although this only works on either levels with both Covenant and Prometheans or if the player uses a loadout with a Plasma Pistol in Spartan Ops.

Knights can teleport away from and towards the player to confuse or surprise them. They are most vulnerable right after teleporting in and are otherwise invulnerable while teleporting. In addition, Knights can enter a "rage mode" and aggressively charge towards the player.

In addition to their firearms and blade, Promethean Knights can also throw Pulse Grenades. They will point with their blade arm for a few moments before firing the grenade. They are very precise, often nailing the player right in the middle of the grenade's sphere, so one should be constantly moving if they see a Knight prepare to fire a grenade. However, the Knight is vulnerable when it prepares to throw its grenade, giving the player enough time to move away or quickly break its shields.

If a Knight loses its shields, it will likely roar and be enraged, during which it exposes its face. Shooting it there with a precision weapon will kill the Knight instantly. However, unlike Elites, Knights are more likely to fight back at close range with their deadly lightblades, which can prove fatal especially on Legendary difficulty. Destroying the Knight's facial armor will permanently expose its face, which then allows any headshot to kill it, once its shields are depleted. Knights can be splattered with vehicles, though they are resilient targets and may require considerable momentum.

Once a Knight dies, it leaves behind a small ball of swirling light for a brief period of time. A Watcher can come and revive the Knight from this ball of light, so the player should kill the Watcher too. If the Knight is revived and then killed, it cannot be revived again.

Rank-Specific tactics

Knight Lancers are long range specialists among the Knights. They usually wield long ranged weapons, like the Lightrifle, and most dangerously the deadly Binary Rifle, which can instantly kill the player beyond Normal difficulty. Lancers with this weapon will telegraph their attack with the signature laser sight of the rifle, as well as a glowing aura over their head. Lancers always possess an Autosentry, which they will deploy before engaging in combat. Knight Lancers are more skittish than their fellows, and will keep their distance more often, always retreating behind their troops when their shield is depleted while ordering them to charge their target. Lancers are able teleporters, and will often reposition themselves quickly with this ability when their shields are broken. However, they may instead decide to use this skill offensively, and perform a teleporting zig-zag charge towards the player the player. Although it is a fatal attack, the Lancer will be wide open when preparing the attack and after it strikes, which will happen in the position the player was when the charge initiated. A player should finish the Lancer before it teleports back into its lines.

Knight Battlewagons are close combat specialists. They are more resilient than their standard brethren in both shields and health, are armed with close combat weapons, usually the Scattershot, and can use Promethean vision to detect targets through walls. Battlewagons will try to charge the player as soon as they see them. Battlewagons are more likely to dodge attacks, and quicker to melee a nearby player, never stopping a charge once it starts. They can even execute a massive leap attack, at the landing of which they will unleash a devastating strike with their lightblade, which will knock the player away if it doesn't kill them outright. However, Battlewagons lack any of the defenses of other Knights, being incapable of deploying neither Watchers nor Autosentries, and will be easy prey if a player can engage them at a distance.

Knight Commanders are the most dangerous type of Knight. They have the highest health and shield values of any Knight, and fight carefully from a distance, usually fielding the Incineration Cannon, which can instantly kill the player on any difficulty except Easy (on Easy, the player will also be killed if their shields are already down). Knight Commanders tend to fire their Incineration Cannon at the ground, relying on the weapon's massive splash damage, and will even leap backwards to do this on a player that moves close to them. Commanders will also deploy their Autosentries faster and more frequently, and are quick to strike in melee with their blade arms. However, they are also the rarest type of Knight, as they only appear in the missions Shutdown and Midnight, although their appearance in the former mission can be skipped. Knight Commanders are slightly more common in Spartan Ops. Overall, Knight Commanders should be treated as high-priority targets if they have Incineration Cannons due to the large explosion radius of their projectiles and the explosive submunitions they leave behind, which can easily kill an unsuspecting player.

Halo 5: Guardians

Frederic-104 assassinating a Knight Commander.

Main article: Halo 5: Guardians

Changes from Halo 4 to Halo 5: Guardians

• Knights no longer feature energy shields and are now much more armored than before. Instead, they must be shot on the glowing cores at their sides and then the glowing core at their back or their exposed faces to be killed.
  • Their facial armor can be broken off with flurries of shots to their protected faces, after which they can be killed with a headshot.
• Knights can no longer be splattered with vehicles due to becoming much heavier.
• Knights are also no longer capable of throwing grenades.
• Knights can no longer teleport nor summon Autosentries either. In addition, they can no longer be revived by Watchers.
• There are only two classes of Knights normally available: the Battlewagon and Commander.
• Knights are now almost exclusively armed with Scattershots and Incineration Cannons.
• Knights can get stunned if hit with a Spartan Charge or Ground Pound. When stunned, they stop moving and look down onto the ground, shaking their head in frustration.

Despite being more armored, Knights can be considered less dangerous than in Halo 4, as they now lack energy shields and are no longer capable of teleporting nor throwing grenades. In addition, Knights are considerably rarer as Armiger Soldiers mostly replace them on the battlefield.

To quickly kill one, shoot one at either one of its exposed side cores and then headshot it with a precision weapon once it exposes its head and "screams". If the Knight is not killed within this time, it will quickly draw its head back in again, forcing the player to destroy its last core to expose the head a second time. If the player fails to kill the Knight even after destroying the two cores, the Knight's exposed face will remain unprotected, leaving it vulnerable for the remainder of the match until destroyed or healed by a Watcher. However, Legendary and Mythic Knights cannot be killed through this method as they will not expose their face when they scream, forcing the player to destroy both cores to expose a weak point on their backs, which will cause the Knight to suffer more damage when shot from behind. They can still be assassinated, though, albeit only once their cores are destroyed.

In the campaign, players must exercise caution when fighting Knights armed with Incineration Cannons, as they have no qualms about firing charged shots from their weapons, which can instantly kill a player character and make them unrevivable until their next respawn, especially on Normal difficulty or higher.

Warzone and Warzone Firefight introduce Legendary and Mythic versions of Knights, all with significantly more health. The Legendary ones appear as orange with teal highlights, while the Mythic ones are crimson and bright silver with brighter red highlights. Legendary Knight Commanders also appear as bosses, sometimes armed with the River of Light Incineration Cannon that fires seven mortar shots for its charged shot. Mythic Knight Commanders, including Endurance-of-Will, are even more powerful and dangerous, as they can be armed with the deadly Heartseeker, an advanced Incineration Cannon that fires tracking charges, which can especially spell devastating results on players either on the ground on in slow-moving vehicles like Scorpions, even more so with Mythic Knights being able to fire them more quickly than players can. Despite this, Heartseekers when used by Knights have weaker tracking behavior than when used by Spartans, making Mythic Knights' Heartseeker projectiles slightly easier to avoid by comparison if the player is constantly moving around quickly in a fast vehicle. Legendary Knight Battlewagons use the Loathsome Thing, a Scattershot with increased damage, rate of fire, and magazine capacity over the standard model; while Mythic Knight Battlewagons use the Didact's Signet, which has even more damage, stronger homing behavior, and better overall range. Standard Knights also appear as bosses.