Action Sack

"Santa's got a brand new sack."

— In-game description for Halo 5: Guardians' Community Action Sack.

Action Sack in Halo 5: Guardians.

Action Sack is a playlist featuring unusual and creative game types.

In Halo 3, Action Sack is a social 4v4 playlist that features 3-4 players per team with a max party size of 8. Unlike other playlists it yields no experience points. All DLC maps are required and features many forged maps.

Action Sack made a return in Halo: Reach, even featuring its own announcer line and gametype, but the playlist was removed in the August 2012 update.

Action Sack returned to Halo 4 in March 11, 2013 playlist update, now called Team Action Sack.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection featured Action Sack with games from Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4.

Action Sack returned to Halo 5: Guardians on August 26, 2016, now called Community Action Sack.

Halo 2

Gametypes

• Ninja Assault (1 Bomb Assault) - Bomb Carrier active camo and moves quickly, but is weak. Highest score after four rounds wins. 3 minute round time limit.
• 2 Flag Shottys (Capture the Flag) - Players spawn with Shotguns, but no energy shields. First team to three flag captures wins. Your flag must be at home in order to score. 12 minute match time limit.
• Pit of Joy (Team King of the Hill) - Players spawn with Energy Swords and 4× Overshields. Static Hill. First team to 150 (200 for Halo 3) points wins. 10 minute match time limit.
• Troy (Team Slayer) - Players spawn with Brute Shots.

Maps

• Midship

Halo 3

"Action Sack is back, offering up a whopping 0 EXP and a sloppy mess of crazy social fun."

— In-game description for Halo 3's Action Sack playlist

Gametypes

• Team Rockets (Team Slayer) - Players spawn with Rocket Launchers. First team to 50 points wins. 10 minute match time limit.
• Team Fiesta (Team Slayer) - Players spawn with random primary and secondary weapons. Ammo is no longer infinite (as opposed to the FFA version). First team to 50 points wins. 10 minute match time limit.
• Stab-Out (Team Slayer) - Players spawn with Energy Swords. Highest score after four rounds wins. Players have three lives each. Three minutes per round.
• Grifball - Players start with Gravity Hammers and Energy Swords and attempt to take the bomb in the middle of the map to the other teams "goal". Five rounds and first to three wins.
• Pit of Lies (Team King of the Hill) - Team King of the Hill. Players lose one point per second while standing in the hill, but gain two points for killing a player while in the hill. Outside of the hill, players do 0% damage. Inside the hill, players do 200% damage and have 50% damage resistance. Hill moves once every minute. First team to 10 points wins. 10 minute match time limit.
• Tug of War (Team Slayer) - Players spawn with Battle Rifles. Points are gained by killing opponents, but lost by dying. Bonus points are awarded for killing sprees or eliminations. First team to 25 points wins. 10 minute match time limit.
• Run for Cover (One-Sided VIP) - Appears on a specialized Sandbox map: Zeus. The VIP team spawns on the ground level with plasma pistols, and cannot damage their opponents. Points are awarded every time the VIP reaches an escort point, but are docked every time the VIP dies. Next VIP is chosen at random. Anti-VIP team spawns on the sky floor with Sniper Rifles and Spartan Lasers, and are attempting to stop the VIP and lower the VIP team’s score as much as possible. When the VIPs escorts are nearby, they take on his color (gold) and their move speed increases, lasts for 4 rounds.
• Team Sumo (Territories) - Players spawn with gravity hammers and are invincible. Teams ride into the single territory on Warthogs and must knock their opponents out of the ring. Highest score after seven rounds wins. If a player dies, they respawn inside a box that can't be escaped, but players can still watch other players like an audience.
• Punch-out (Team Slayer)- Teams spawn with Plasma Pistols and must melee the enemy to gain points.
• Team Stickies (Team Slayer) - Weapons do 0% damage. Only sticks count.
• Dodgeball (Team Slayer) - Teams spawn with Plasma Pistols and regenerating sticky grenades, and played on a map specific to this gametype, facing each other across a ditch that cannot be passed, if you are dropped in, there is no way out and you are vulnerable. There is 300% gravity and 4× overshields. Players must stick or shoot (which is unnecessary unless you are to overcharge it to drain their shields) other players to gain points, but simply killing other players will end the round, and killing the last man on the other team earns 5 bonus points.

Maps

• Construct
• Guardian
• High Ground
• Last Resort
• The Pit
• SWAT Stop - Variant of Pit Stop/The Pit tweaked for SWAT gameplay.
• Blackout - Required. Part of the Legendary Map Pack.
• Ghost Town - Required. Part of the Legendary Map Pack.
• Cold Storage - Required. Available on Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Assembly - Required. Part of the Mythic Map Pack.
• Orbital - Required. Part of the Mythic Map Pack.
• Sandbox - Required. Part of the Mythic Map Pack.
• Utah Mambo - Asymmetrical Sandbox ground level variant.
• ¡Sumo Grande! - Symmetrical Sandbox variant in the sky, built for Team Sumo.
• Zeus - Sandbox variant in the sky and on the ground, built for Run for Cover.
• Front Line - Symmetrical Foundry variant, built for Dodge Ball. The only map that has a Deployable Covers in Halo 3 Multiplayer.

Halo: Reach

Gametypes

• Power Slayer - Slayer, players who get kills get temporary power-ups
• Speedpile - Stockpile, flags cannot be dropped, will be collected immediately, and players are able to use weapons, abilities and vehicles normally while carrying flags
• Speedflag - Multi-flag CTF, same flag carrying rules as Speedpile
• HaloBall - Skeeball-type game; hit golf ball to target to score points. Teams are confined to their sides of the court.
• HaloBall Xtreme - Like HaloBall, but with no barrier preventing players from fighting each other
• Hockey - Hit or push golf ball to goals.
• Shotty Snipers - Slayer with Shotguns and Sniper Rifles.
• Splockets - Slayer with Spartan Lasers and Rocket Launchers.
• BOOM! Ball - Hot Potato with Grenade Launchers and infinite ammo.
• Hog Potato - Hot Potato with Warthogs.
• Shotgun Assault - Neutral Bomb Assault with Shotguns.
• Dino Blasters - Elite Slayer with Concussion Rifles with infinite clips and jetpacks
• Rocket CTF - Neutral Flag CTF with Rocket Launchers.
• To The Death! - Slayer with Energy Swords, no shield recharge.

Maps

• Arena Zealot
• Reflection
• Countdown
• Sword Base
• Boardwalk
• Powerhouse
• Asylum
• Uncaged
• Unanchored
• Tempest
• Condemned
• Hemorrhage
• Hockey Rink
• HaloBall Court
• HaloBall Court X

Halo 4

Gametypes

• Binary Slayer - Slayer with Binary Rifles, Energy Swords, reduced gravity and infinitely usable Thruster Packs.
• Team Fiesta - Players receive random heavy weapon and powerup ordnance drops when they spawn, and frequently afterwards.
• Fiesta Classic - Players receive random heavy weapon loadouts on spawn.
• Rockets and Rails - Slayer with Rocket Launchers, Railguns and fast-recharging Jetpacks. (The gametype was temporarily called Rocket Slayer in the first week after the release.)
• Lightning CTF - Capture the Flag with instant-kill Light Rifles, fast respawning and instant flag return on touching the flag. Flag carriers can use their weapons normally, similar to the Halo: Reach Speedpile/Speedflag.
• Mini Slayer - Slayer with Assault Rifle spawns. Players are scaled down in size. This is an "official version" of a popular custom gametype created by modders, and uses player scaling feature that wasn't fully implemented in Halo 4; to prevent most glitches, some of the game features are disabled. (Some glitches remain - for example, players sometimes appear to stretch to their normal dimensions when they die.)
• Paintball - Slayer with instant-kill Type-25 Plasma Pistols, reduced jump height, and one life per round. Played on a custom map based on Forge Island. (Created by petetheduck)
• Husky Raid - Capture the Flag, players get random weapons when they spawn. Played on Meta Raid, a narrow corridor-like map with limited cover. (Created by The Fated Fire)
• Clang of the Hill - King of the Hill with Energy Swords and Thruster Packs. (Created by SNIPE 316)
• Medal Madness - Slayer, divided into 1 minute mini-rounds. A random medal type is chosen, the players get appropriate weapons and gear for getting the medal (for example, Snapshot ⇒ Sniper Rifle and Beam Rifle, Assassination ⇒ Magnum and Active Camo, Double Kill ⇒ SWAT settings). Whichever team gets most of the medals of that type within the round gets a point. 5 points to win.

Halo 5: Guardians

• Battle Golf on Sandtrap Resort
• Crazy King on Blok Pit
• Diminishing Kings on Freight
• Ghost Race on Jungle Rush
• Ground Pound Arena on Pound Town!!! - Free-For-All where players attempt to win with ground pounds, Zubo-pattern beam rifles, and M6H2s.
• Husky Raid on Meta Raid - A variation of Capture the Flag Fiesta.
• Mantis Breakout on Mantis Arena I - A variation of Breakout where players have to use Mantises.
• Minotaurs 0.4 on Minotaurs - A variation of Infection where Spartans flee from the Infected piloting Mantises.
• Paintball on Paintball Junkies - A variation of Breakout with instant-kill Type-54D plasma pistols.
• Rally Hog Race on Alpine Rally
• Rift Ball on Riff Ball - A variation of Grifball with low gravity settings, plasma grenades, and a closing and opening goal.
• Tankworld Elimination on Tankworld - A variation of Breakout where players have to use M820 Scorpions. (Created by Home World Hero. Inspired by tank games such as World of Tanks and Warthunder.)
• Team Sumo on Mongoose Sumo - Teams compete to knock the enemy off the map with M290 Mongooses.