Unggoy Ultra

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Ultra Grunt is a Covenant Unggoy (Grunt) rank.

Rank

The Ultra Grunt is the highest Grunt rank seen so far in the Covenant military. Like Ultra Elites, Ultra Grunts wear distinct white/silver armor.

Ultra Grunts can sometimes be seen commanding lower classes of Grunts in battle, even leading black-armored Special Operations Grunts into combat.

Unlike Ultra Elites, Ultra Grunts do not appear to have any impunity with their command. It is just as likely that two or three will be encountered leading a small group of Grunts, yet the Elites are ultimately in complete command.

Combat

Ultra Grunts usually tend to throw more grenades and fire more accurately than the lower ranked Major and Minor Grunts. They are usually seen with Needlers or Plasma Pistols. They can also take the same amount of damage Spec Ops Grunts do, but they are still vulnerable to head shots (even though it may take more than one).

Background

The purpose of this rank designation has been generally unclear. They were first mentioned in Halo: First Strike, pushing carts of cleaning fluid and implying that they were even lower than Grunt Minors. However, they were also seen inside the Scarab walker in New Mombasa along with high ranking Elites (Minor, Major, Ultra, Zealot). They were also seen throughout New Mombasa and Delta Halo. This led some to believe that they were "technicians" or engineers (Not to be confused with the Engineer species) of some sort, but the production book, The Art of Halo, confirms that they outrank Major Grunts. It has, however, been suggested that white armor actually signifies menial labor, while the more silvery armor means Ultra. Still, there is not a sufficient color difference to make this a significant case. It may simply be that when author Eric Nylund wrote the book, he chose the color white because it was a color not previously seen in Halo: Combat Evolved, and had no idea that Bungie would choose a similar color for the new Grunt rank, or possibly that even though they are high ranking Grunts, they are not free from menial tasks.

Appearances

These Grunts are seen in both Halo: First Strike and Halo 2. They are seen throughout Halo 2, but are far more frequent in the Heroic or Legendary difficulty levels than the Easy or Normal ones.

Halo: First Strike

• Unyielding Heirophant - Two Ultra Grunts were seen pushing carts of cleaning fluid.

Halo 2

• Cairo Station (Heroic and Legendary only) - Seen throughout the level, most noticeable are in the hangars, but also in the commons areas.
• Outskirts Ultra Grunts attacked SPARTAN-117's position in the building near the Pelican crash site.
• Metropolis - Several Ultra Grunts were present on the Scarab command deck, possibly even manning the walker.
• The Oracle - An Ultra Grunt is dropped to help the Arbiter with some other SpecOps forces at the exit of the Flood labs.
• Gravemind (Legendary only) - Ultra Grunts aid the Brutes at the beginning of the level.
• Uprising - If you are lucky, the Grunt assisting you in the turret will be an Ultra. This is very rare, though. On Heroic and Legendary, two Ultra Grunts are present near this turret.
• High Charity - At the beginning of the level, and a few more times throughout the whole level fighting Flood.

Halo 3

Dissapointingly, Ultra Grunts are not in Halo 3. Not only are they not found in the Bungie listings, but they do not appear as a rank when you use the Thunderstorm skull to one up all the Grunt ranks.

References

(For reference [1], click the Thalandyr tab, then hover your mouse over the Grunt specialists and Grunt infantry. You will find that Grunt Ultras are not listed.)