Weapon types

UNSC weapons and ammunition featured in the Halo Graphic Novel, all based on in game models.

Many different weapons exist across the Halo video games, all of which can be grouped together and classified in numerous ways. The following is an overview of classifications created by or officially recognized by the developers of Halo, and how they affect gameplay.

Weapon Classes

Main article: Weapon class

The weapons tag folder of the Halo 3 Editing Kit.

Weapon classes are the means by which the Halo video games group together different weapons with similar animations. Characters can only hold weapons belonging to weapon classes supported by their own set of third person animations. Grunts can carry pistols and launchers but not rifles, Marines can carry rifles but not support weapons, and so on. Before being introduced in Halo 2 each weapon required its own set of animations per character. As such Grunts in Halo: Combat Evolved could carry plasma pistols and needlers, but not the human pistol. Weapon classes remove this restriction by having these three weapons share a simplified set of pistol animations. Weapons may still posses unique animation overlays such as an adjusted hand position for the SMG's vertical foregrip or the shotgun's staged reload. Halo Infinite formalized weapons classes as information presented by the user interface. In this context the use of weapon classes describes the intended role of a weapon, combining its appearance with its functionality.

Grenade

Grenades are a form of offensive equipment utilized by players and NPCs. Technically not a weapon themselves according to the Halo game engine, grenades are collected similarly to ammunition and powerups, which can then by thrown as projectiles.

Melee

Melee weapons do not possess firing animations and rely solely on melee attacks. There are two subcategories that exist for players, although more exist exclusive to NPCs.

Energy Sword - Swords are melee weapons that can perform powerful lunge attacks in addition to dealing increased regular melee damage via the cutting damage type.
Gravity Hammer - Hammers are melee weapons that create explosions in front of the user without inflicting self harm. The increased physics impulses are also useful for pushing enemies off of ledges, performing splatters with physics objects, and golfing.

Multiplayer

Essentially the same as melee weapons, multiplayer weapons are classified under their own category presumably for organizational purposes. Multiplayer weapons are divided up into two subcategories.

Ball - Spherical multiplayer weapons held with sports influenced animations, and can also be thrown beginning with Halo 4. Originally comprised of just the oddball, the class now includes the assault bomb, throwable fusion coils, and power seeds.
Flag - Pole shaped multiplayer weapons used for CTF gamemodes. Flags are dual wielded with magnums in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians.

Pistol

Pistols are projectile weapons held either one handed or with both hands supporting the rear grip. Despite their appearance pistols can possess any level of destructive capability, from the low damage per shot of the plasma pistol to the explosive power of the target locator.

Rifle

Rifles are projectile weapons held with two hands, one hand supporting the barrel from underneath. It is the most common weapon class and has been divided into numerous subcategories.

Assault Rifle - Mid-ranged weapons lacking scopes, which operate in a niche between tactical rifles and SMGs.
Tactical Rifle - Mid-ranged, headshot capable weapons featuring magnified optics.
SMG - Short-ranged weapons with high rates of fire.
Shotgun - Short-ranged weapons that fire multiple projectiles at once in a spread pattern.
Sniper Rifle - Long-ranged, headshot capable weapons with high power scopes and considerable damage.

Launcher

Also known internally as "support_high" and "missile" weapons, launchers have previously been any weapon carried over characters' shoulders. Halo Infinite now classifies any projectile weapon with explosive damage as a launcher but this does not affect support_high weapons as an animation class.

Support

Also known internally as "support_low" weapons, support weapons are any weapon held in first person down by the character's hips. Support weapon animations are very similar to those of the flamethrower from Halo: Combat Evolved, which may have directly inspired the category. Only two support weapons appear in the finalized games, being the brute shot and sentinel beam. Both weapons, along with the class itself, did not return in Halo: Reach, marking Halo 3 as the final appearance of the weapon class. Later appearances of the brute shot and sentinel beam use rifle animations with overlays positioning character arms to hold the weapons in their typical support location. It is because of this reason that Marines in Halo Infinite are able to use the sentinel beam for the first time.

Turret

Detachable turrets are essentially very powerful support weapons that switch the player camera to a third person perspective, do not count towards the player's weapon carrying limit, and restrict certain actions such as crouching, grenades, melee, and equipment. Because of their similar appearances, turret weapons are often called support weapons as well. The data core and power module featured in Invasion use turret animations, and thus its inherent restrictions, to make players more vulnerable while encouraging cooperative play in escorting teammates to objectives.

Damage Types

Main article: Damage Types

In addition to weapon classes, weapons may also be categorized by the type of damage they inflict.

Melee Damage

Most weapons are able to perform melee attacks, but for energy swords, gravity hammers, and multiplayer weapons this is their only means of attack. Some ranged weapons also feature increased melee damage, denoted by slow and heavy animations or by featuring blades and bayonets. The only games to feature ranged weapons with different melee damage types are Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo Infinite.

Kinetic

Being comprised of multiple projectile types such as bullets, spikes, and the impact damage of explosives, kinetic weapons are the most common form of projectile damage. Often times kinetic weapons deal consistent damage against a variety of different materials but usually lack the ability to significantly damage vehicles. In Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3: ODST bullet damage is reduced against shields, and in Halo: Reach and the Reclaimer Saga games the sniper rifle deals extra damage against vehicles.

Plasma

Plasma weapons are Covenant or Banished weapons that are very effective against energy shields. While they always deal reduced damage to player health, this trait is not mutually exclusive against other characters.

Hardlight

Hardlight weapons are Forerunner in origin and disintegrate targets upon inflicting critical damage. Their use differs slightly from game to game. Introduced in Halo 4 they glow orange and possess a damage type similar to the covenant carbine, having no bonus against any material but able to destroy Jackal shields and deployable cover. In Halo 5: Guardians they now deal bonus damage to vehicles and Promethean weakspots. In Halo Infinite hardlight is now purple and can kill vehicle occupants without destroying the vehicle itself.

Shock

First introduced in Halo Infinite, shock weapons are extremely weak per shot but can chain damage to multiple targets, as well as EMP vehicles.

Headshot Damage

The Sniper Rifle, a precision weapon, in action during a match of Firefight.

"Particularly useful against delicate equipment—like brains."

— Halo: Reach manual description

Precision weapons, sometimes called "anti-materiel" weapons, are any weapon capable of instantly killing a character upon hitting an area of their body marked as the head. As the name suggests this is the actual head of most characters, although there are some exceptions. Certain enemies such as Drones in Halo 2 or the Warden Eternal are immune to headshots, while in Halo: Combat Evolved the exposed backs of Hunters are susceptible to headshot damage. In all games up until Halo 5: Guardians scoring a headshot on an unshielded enemy with a headshot capable weapon will instantly kill them, regardless of how much health they had remaining. Starting with Halo 5: Guardians weapons with headshot multipliers were introduced, and in Halo Infinite the shock rifle features a headshot multiplier that still applies while shields are active. The term precision weapon is retained to describe weapons that can still kill with a single unshielded headshot. Headshot damage can be applied to kinetic, plasma, hardlight, and shock weapons. Even the impact damage of some explosives cause headshot damage.

Explosive

Explosive weapons are any weapon or projectile that creates an area of explosive damage. Explosives can also detonate other explosive projectiles and are effected by the explosives support upgrade and grenadier armor mod. In Halo Infinite explosive damage can be applied to kinetic, plasma, hardlight, and shock weapons.

Roles

Over the years the Halo community has also created its own terminology based on the way weapons are obtained in multiplayer and their roles within the context of multiplayer gameplay. The following are notable multiplayer weapon terms both created by Halo developers and officially recognized by them.

Loadout Weapon

Main article: loadout

Loadout weapons, also known as "starter weapons" and "initial weapons", are weapons given to players at the start of a match and upon respawning. Loadouts and starting equipment settings always grant at least a primary weapon, and may also contain a secondary weapon, grenades, and/or equipment. Certain gametypes in Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 2: Anniversary multiplayer, and Halo 5: Guardians offer players a choice of preset loadouts, while Halo 4 also allows players to create up to 5 custom loadouts for use in Infinity gamemodes. Of all weapons that have occupied the loadout role the most common have been the assault rifle, magnum, and battle rifle.

Primary

Primary weapons are comprised of loadout weapons belonging to the rifle weapon class. Whenever a match starts or a player respawns, these weapons will immediately be available within the player's hands. An additional primary weapon may also be equipped to any Halo 4 custom loadout given that the firepower tactical package is also equipped.

Secondary

Secondary weapons make up the remaining loadout weapons apart of the pistol weapon class. Secondaries are at the disadvantage of needing to be swapped to after every spawn, as players are unable to equip them to the primary custom loadout slot.

Utility Weapon

Utility weapons are a contentious role, both in terms of their gameplay balance as well as the designation of the role itself. Originating from the Halo community and adopted by 343i, utility weapon now officially describes any starting, mid-ranged, scoped, headshot weapon that remains viable both at close and long ranges alike. While other weapons have utility functions such as the plasma pistol and its ability to emp shields and vehicles, weapons like the battle rifle instead provide players themselves with utility by allowing the user to deal consistent damage across multiple engagement ranges. This ability to contest at any given range has made weapons like the battle rifle viewed as essential in multiplayer. For weapons with alternative utility functions, they have sometimes been described as "specialized" or "specialist" weapons

Dual-wield Weapon

Main article: dual wielding

Introduced in Halo 2, some weapons can be dual wielded to increase firepower or mixed and matched to create deadly combos without the need to switch weapons. While useful in some circumstances dual wielding is not without its drawbacks. Players cannot melee, throw grenades, or switch weapons without dropping the left hand weapon. Dual wield weapons are typically designed to be weak when used on their own, with plasma weapons having a noticeable decrease in power compared to their Halo: Combat Evolved incarnations. Even the stats of weapons are affected when held in dual wield: accuracy is decreased, damage is nerfed, and the dual wield animations use their own set separate from the weapon class, often resulting in longer reloads. In Halo 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary the penalties to weapon spread and dual wield damage are only active when two of the same weapon are fired at the same time. These same penalties are always active in Halo 3 regardless which weapon combinations are held or when they are firing.

Power Weapon

Power weapons, which were previously named "heavy weapons" in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, are any weapon with the potential to kill fully shielded players with a single shot (or extremely quickly in the case of the flamethrower and SAW). Similarly to dual wielded weapons, the advantage they offer is usually offset by a shortcoming. Slow firing speed, lengthy reloads, and limited range are some of the balancing tools used to prevent multiple one hit kills from occuring simultaneously or in quick succession. Due to their desirability power weapons are usually found at a central spawn location on multiplayer maps. Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite further accentuate this by placing these weapons on marked weapon pads.

Weapon Sets

Weapon sets are a custom game option used in multiplayer gametypes to replace weapons spawned on the map. These can be by faction, role, weapon class, damage type, or any other form of organization the developers have made for the game. Some weapon sets also appear as category filters within the forge object library. Below are some examples of common and reoccurring weapon sets.

• Human / UNSC Weapons
• Covenant Weapons
• Forerunner Weapons
• Pistols (Pistol, Magnum, Plasma Pistol)
• Plasma Weapons (Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle, Brute Plasma Rifle)
• Dual-wield Weapons (Magnum, Plasma Weapons, Needler, SMG, Suppressed SMG, Mauler, Spiker)
• Rifles (Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Battle Rifle, Carbine, DMR, Storm Rifle, Light Rifle, Suppressor, Sentinel Beam)
• Sniping Weapons (Sniper Rifle, Beam Rifle, Focus Rifle, Binary Rifle)
• Heavy Weapons (Launchers, Flamethrower, Detached Turrets)
• Power Weapons (Heavy Weapons, Sniping Weapons, Shotguns, Melee Weapons, SAW)

Power Level

Tiers, also known as power level, is a categorization method utilized by Halo 5: Guardians which scales weapons by lethality. This also generally serves as a measurement of desirability, informing players to grab higher level weapons in order to become more effective damage dealers in multiplayer and warzone. Power level is also represented by a point system in warzone. Players can requisition more destruction weapons via the points they have accumulated during the warzone match.

Tier 1

Spartan-II equiped with battle rifle and assault rifle, both tier-1 loadout weapons.

"Basic starter weapons"

— Halo 5: Guardians forge description

• Loadout Weapons
• Plasma Rifles
• Sentinel Beam

Tier 2

Spartan-IV's with various tier-2 and tier-3 weapons.

"More specialized weapons"

— Halo 5: Guardians forge description

• Shotguns
• Plasma Pistol
• Needler
• Melee Weapons
• Grenade Launchers
• Hydra

Tier 3

"Power weapons"

— Halo 5: Guardians forge description

• Launchers
• Sniper Rifles
• SAW
• Detached Turrets

Weapon Variants

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