Legendary

The Legendary difficulty level icon.

Legendary is the highest and most difficult setting of gameplay on Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and soon to be, Halo 3. It is regarded as a challenge for even veteran players, as allies are frequently useless except for diversions, and overwhelming enemy firepower and superior numbers often force one to play cautiously and conservatively. The enemies' strength are extremely strong, and you and your allies' strength are extremely low. The intelligence, enemy accuracy, and enemy numbers are most realistic on Legendary, although strength for all characters is most realistic on Normal.

In Halo: Combat Evolved

In the first Halo game, the differences between Legendary and other settings is relatively numeric. The player does not face unique or different enemies, they just face more enemies who are harder to defeat. Many of the same strategies that work on other settings work on Legendary in this game, except that the player has to be extremely careful of their own weaknesses.

General differences

• Master Chief's Shields are half their "Normal" power. A few hits will drain them completely.
• Enemy shields are double their normal strength.
• Extremely weakened health meter. One melee from an enemy in front of you will drain 6 hit points.
• Enemy health meters are double their normal strength.
• Elites- Twice as many Elites appear as on the "normal" setting. Major Elites are encountered at a ratio of about 1 of every 3 Elites encountered. An area that had two Minor Elites in Normal mode will have 4-5 Elites in Legendary, with 1-2 of them being Majors.
• Grunts- Twice as many Grunts appear as on the "normal" setting. Around half of the grunts encountered are Major Grunts.
• Grenades- Enemy Grunts and Elites throw grenades frequently, much faster and almost always accurately.
• Firing Rate- all enemies fire their weapons much faster and more accurately.
• Agility- all enemies move much faster and will almost never allow a player to stick them with grenades.
• Stealth Elites are always encountered in packs of 4-6.
• Flood around 90 percent of Flood are armed. Their melee attacks will drain shields completely. Many more of them wield shotguns than before.
• Allies- Marines are virtually useless. They will constantly be stuck with grenades, and are easily killed by the enemy's increased rate of fire, while inflicting minimal damage on enemies.

Specific differences

• Pillar of Autumn (Level)- The player does not go through the controls section at the beginning of the level. Instead, they will wake up and leave the cryo section immediately.
• Pillar of Autumn (Level)- Johnson tells the marines in the opening cutscene that the covenant will not get their hands on earth, that they will not give them halo, whether it is God's own anti son-of-a-b***h machine, or a giant hoola-hoop. What they will give the covenant is a facefull of lead, and a pool of their blood to swim in.
• Truth and Reconciliation (Level)- During the fight in the grav lift room inside the ship, the player and allies will be attacked by 4-6 Zealot elites with Energy Swords.
• 343 Guilty Spark (Level)- The Shotgun is no longer available early-on in the game. The only way to pick it up is to kill a Combat Form with one.
• The Maw (Level)- The player only has 5 minutes to get to the Longsword fighter after destroying the core, instead of the usual 6.
• The Maw (Level)- A short cutscene is shown after beating Legendary where Sergeant Johnson fights a Stealth Elite for a rifle, then they embrace as the nearby ship explodes. And to make the scene more humorous, the elite grabs Sergeant Johnson's butt.

In Halo 2

In Frankie's Bungie Updates, Frankie describes Halo 2's Legendary as:

A whole new sick twist on game difficulty. Legendary includes bizarre stuff like perma-death for co-op players — meaning that you can't hopscotch like you can on other difficulty levels. Once a player dies on Legendary, both players are hurled back to the last checkpoint. It's brutal. Also, that place where you encountered two Grunts and a flowerpot on Normal? Well now they're Hunters, high-ranking, sword-carrying Elites, and they're all PMS-ing. Seriously, sticking your head around a corner on level two can get it shot clean off.

General differences

• Extremely weak Health Meter.
• Enemies fire at a much faster rate and fire more accurately.
• Shields are 50% their "Normal" power. A few hits will drain them completely.
• The Arbiter's active camouflage lasts only five seconds and takes ten seconds to recharge.
• Enemy Shields and health are almost double their "Normal" power.
• Virtually every Elite encountered is a Major Elite. Major Grunts are also far more common.
• Ultra Elites are now common sight, you will encounter up to four in some parts. They have the most powerful shields in the game, and can take four headshots from a Sniper Rifle or Beam Rifle
• In Halo 2, Elite Zealots now appear as enemies when playing as Master Chief. They always wield swords and will annihilate all the Marines with ease.
• Enemies are extremely adaptive and intelligent in tactical action. They are very difficult to kill.
• Grunts do not retreat when a leader is killed.
• Hunters are encountered far more often. Their Fuel Rod Guns are often one-hit kills.
• Marine allies are virtually useless, as they are easily overwhelmed by weak enemies like Grunts.
• Although Marines are useless, when playing as the Arbiter, the Elites and Grunts are far stronger and tend to throw grenades more often.
• Melee attacks on you are usually one-hit kills.
• Enemies normally have upgraded weapons. For example, Brutes that usually had Brute Plasma Rifles now usually have Carbines and also have the deadly Brute shot equipped.
• Enemies will often notice you sooner.
• Sniper Jackals will appear more often then on any other difficulty. One shot from them will kill you regardless of where hit, so you should think twice before sticking yourself out into the open.
• Stealth Elites appear more often, and travel in groups of 2-4, usually with one or two wielding dual Plasma Rifles, and the others using Energy Swords.
• Elite Combat Forms will sometimes have Active Camo.
• Almost all Flood Elites wear shields.
• Sentinels are normally the Major version, with blue Sentinel Beams and Energy Shields.
• All of the skulls except Blind, which can be found on any difficulty, are only on legendary.
• Co-op- when one of the players dies, both are sent back to the last checkpoint regardless of whether or not only one of them died (possibly to prevent players from easily reaching the status of beating legendary on their profile, or to enhance it with the general knowledge of the above statement).

Related Links

• Easy
• Normal
• Heroic