Dextro Xur-pattern Spirit

Type-25 Spirit
	File:HW-SpiritDropship-Views.png
Production information
Manufacturer:	Assembly Forges
Class:	DX (UNSC designation: "Type-25")
Role:	Dropship, gunship, scout
Technical specifications
Length:	33 meters (108 ft)
Width:	18.1 meters (59.4 ft)
Height:	11.6 meters (38.1 ft)
Mass:	67.9 metric tons (66.8 LT; 74.8 ST)
Maximum speed:	1,099 kilometres per hour (683 mph)
Slipspace drive:	Not equipped
Other system(s):	Tow field
Armament:	One heavy plasma cannon
Complement:	Thirty passengers; Two vehicles;
Crew:	One pilot
Chronological and affiliation
Era:	Human-Covenant War; Great Schism; Post-Covenant War conflicts;
Affiliation:	Covenant; Servants of Abiding Truth; Merg Vol's Covenant; Jul 'Mdama's Covenant; Banished

This article is about the model introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved. For the model introduced in Halo 5: Guardians, see Type-57 Spirit.

"Marines called them Spirits because they were death reincarnate. They'd come out of nowhere, without a word, and just start dropping Covies in our front yard."

— Lieutenant Tara Nguyen^[7]

The Type-25 Troop Carrier,^[4]^[1] designation as the DX-class dropship by the Covenant^[3] and commonly known as the Spirit,^[4] is an infantry and logistical dropship and utility craft manufactured by the Assembly Forges.^[1] The Type-25 Spirit served as one of the primary transport crafts of the Covenant military, though the Type-57 Spirit is now utilized by the Swords of Sanghelios' army and other Covenant remnant factions.^[2]

Specifications

Design details

The Spirit is a moderately large craft, being 33 meters (108 ft) in length.^[1] The dropship is an angular, tuning fork-shaped spacecraft with two parallel personnel bays along the exterior of each "prong". The pilot's compartment is located at the rear, between the twin troop bays. Each of these personnel bays has two doors that open and close vertically; however, they do not close fully and leave a small opening along the length of the bay. Between these extended personnel bays, an energy field fluctuates visibly as it generates the ship's anti-gravity propulsion, similar in appearance to the energy pulse of the gravity lifts the Covenant use to commute between the ground and hovering ships. This same gravity-beam is used to ferry payloads to their destinations. The hull of the Spirit is unexpectedly robust and the pilots are well protected in the dropship's aft cockpit. A Spirit is more likely to survive combat zones that would be considered suicidal for the somewhat more fragile Phantom.^[2]

The Spirit's awkward split-fuselage design and claustrophobic troop bays have proven to be a significant disadvantage for the dropship. The features may make troop and vehicle deployment a difficult and frustrating affair for the pilot, as well as a distressing experience for the Spirit's passengers. These disadvantages proved even more troublesome for its occupants after the United Nations Space Command learned to exploit the Spirit's predictable deployment methodology.^[2]

Crew and complement

As dedicated transports for infantry and vehicles, the Spirit is capable of carrying up to thirty passengers—with fifteen being held in each troop bay. Up to two light-armored vehicles such as two Ghosts, one heavy-armored vehicle such as a Wraith, or other possible payloads such as supply canisters for ground troops can also be carried. As aforementioned, these payloads are ferried underneath the dropship via its gravity hoist.

Ground personnel can also be retrieved to the dropship via the dropship's gravity lift.^[8]

Propulsion

Capable of powered flight and hovering, the dropship appears quite cumbersome and awkward to pilot based on battlefield observations. Despite this, the Spirit has been known to reach speeds of 350 kilometres per hour (220 mph) while cruising and has a maximum speed of 1,099 kilometres per hour (683 mph).^[2]^[5]

While these dropships have life support for use in the vacuum of space, they do not have a slipspace drive. During Operation: FIRST STRIKE, a Spirit was modified with reinforced metal so it could be launched out of a ship already in slipspace. Even with this modification, the Spirit became severely damaged after the exit and was still unable to travel into the slipstream on its own accord.^[9]

Armament

Spirits are armed with a singular rotating, low-mounted heavy plasma cannon, located directly below the cockpit of the dropship.^[5] Though the weapon serves a defensive role,^[2] the cannon is capable of delivering substantial damage to ground troops and vehicles. Unlike the humans' conventional bullet projectiles, the superheated plasma fired from the cannon travels slower, and are ineffective against fast-moving objects. Thus, it is only used as fire support during deployment of troops. Office of Naval Intelligence analysts have determined that the Spirit's solitary armament appears to be a slightly older variation of the cannon mounted on the Type-25 Shade turret.^[2]

Known Spirits

Brilliant Gift – Destroyed inside Infinite Succor during the Battle of Installation 04.

Operational history

T-25 Spirits were used by the Covenant for decades. The crew of the Rapid Conversion used Spirits during the First Battle of Harvest.^[10] Towards the end of the Harvest Campaign Covenant forces used Spirits against the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire. The Covenant also utilized Spirits against UNSC forces and civilians alike during the Battle of Arcadia. During the Battle of the Etran Harborage Covenant forces used Spirits not only against the crew of the Spirit of Fire, but also against the Flood and Sentinels.^[11] Spirits were also used by the Covenant during the Battle of Kholo.^[12] During the Fall of Reach Spirits were deployed by the Covenant against the UNSC.^[13] Spirits attached to the Fleet of Particular Justice were used against the crew of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn and the Flood during the Battle of Installation 04.^[14] After the end of the Human-Covenant War T-25 Spirits were used by Merg Vol's Covenant during the Battle of Draetheus V.^[7] During the Battle of Installation 03 Jul 'Mdama's Covenant used T-25 Spirits against UNSC forces.^[15]

While many ex-Covenant factions started phasing out the T-25 Spirit in favor of the T-57 Spirit the Banished continued to use modified T-25 Spirits. These Banished Spirits had their contragravity system reengineered so the chassis could handle the strain of transporting prefabricated buildings for Outposts.^[16] The Banished utilized many T-25 Spirits against the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire during the Second Ark Conflict.^[17]

Gameplay

Halo: Combat Evolved

A Spirit about to disgorge Grunt infantry in Halo: Combat Evolved.

As well as being able to drop off a large number of Covenant troops on the battlefield, the Spirit is also capable of providing heavy support in combat thanks to the turret that lies underneath its cockpit. When dropping off troops, the Spirit will be stationary in mid-air for a few seconds, before descending and opening its troop bay doors. In rarer cases, the Spirit may stay suspended in midair; the troops that disembark may actually die from the fall.^[18] Spirits can also deploy Ghosts and Wraiths into the battlefield. Like Pelicans, Spirits follow a set path: they appear from around the background, arrive at the battlefield, deploy troops, take off and disappear around the corner.

The Spirit, including its turret, is indestructible. In addition, its heavy, bulky armor can protect those resting within the troop bay doors.

The best tactic, if on lower difficulty levels, is to attack the vulnerable infantry (shoot or toss a grenade) as they disembark from the Spirit. On higher difficulties, this would be unwise; hiding behind cover until the ship leaves is often the best course of action in this situation. Without cover or good tactics, a careless player might die quickly.

Halo Wars

In Halo Wars, the Spirit only appears in the campaign and cannot be used in multiplayer or Skirmish. It is a fast dropship used to deliver large numbers of troops on the battlefield. Unlike Halo: Combat Evolved, the Spirit is not indestructible: it is advisable that players should eliminate it before the troops it carries disembark. Once the troops are on the ground, it cannot be destroyed.

The preferred units for taking down an airborne Spirit are M9 Wolverines, AV-14 Hornets, and AV-22 Sparrowhawks. Spirits in Halo Wars do not engage enemy targets and are only seen in the campaign, mainly on the mission Dome of Light and Repairs. Spirits in Halo Wars utilize gravity lifts to deploy and pick up troops, rather than the side-mounted troop bay doors as in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: Reach.

Halo: Reach

The Spirit in Halo: Reach behaves similarly to its Halo: Combat Evolved incarnation. One significant change, however, is that of its firing operation, which now matches the behavior of the Phantom's plasma auto-cannon. Instead of simultaneously firing three bolts of plasma, it now sports a weapon similar to the Type-50 Concussion Rifle, which is significantly more powerful but fires only one bolt at a time and at half the speed. It remains indestructible, but its turret can be shot off with enough firepower. In Firefight mode, destroying the turret grants the player who did so a two credit bonus and a kill with whatever weapon they are using (counting towards the specific commendation for that weapon and towards any weapon related sprees).

Halo Wars 2

Spirits in Halo Wars 2 act similar to their Halo Wars counterparts, but will fire at enemies. The Banished are able to use them to drop off troops in both campaign and multiplayer.

Trivia

The Marathon logo can be seen on the front of the cockpit.
The Spirit dropship was erroneously designated as the "Type-28 Troop Carrier" during the development of Halo: Reach; this was soon corrected following the release of the game. This error, however, persists in the 2011 edition of the Halo Encyclopedia.^[5]
The Spirit is jokingly known as the "tuning fork" among Bungie employees due to its shape.^[19] Lorraine McLees described the Spirit as "having the coolest rear-end of all the Covenant ships".^[20]

Gallery

HCE - Covenant ship 2.png

An early form of the dropship for Halo: Combat Evolved.
HCE - early Spirit.png

Early concept art of the Spirit in Halo: Combat Evolved.
Dropship artwork.jpg

Concept art of the Spirit dropship for Halo: Combat Evolved.
A Spirit Dropship with troop bay doors open in Halo: Combat Evolved.
A Spirit Dropship with troop bay doors closed in Halo: Combat Evolved.
An in-game profile view of the Spirit Dropship, with one troop bay door open.
In-game view of the Spirit Dropship's cockpit in Halo: Combat Evolved.
A crashed Spirit dropship in the swamps of Installation 04.
The inside of a closed Spirit from Halo: Combat Evolved.
Concept 3D model of the front end of a Spirit dropship for Halo Wars.
Concept 3D model of the back end of a Spirit Dropship for Halo Wars.
SpiritonBattlefield.png

A Spirit dropship hovers over a battlefield in Halo Wars.
A pre-alpha screenshot of the Spirit in Halo: Reach.
A view of the Spirit Dropship, troop bay prongs facing right, from the Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta.
An in-game view of a Spirit Dropship in Halo: Reach.
Turnaround reference of the Type-25 Spirit from Halo: Reach.
A squadron of Spirits.
A Spirit seen on the firefight level Corvette while deploying troops.
The Spirit Dropship in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
View of the Spirit Dropship's cockpit in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
T-25 Spirits loyal to Merg Vol move in to engage the UNSC on Draetheus V in Halo: Spartan Assault.
A T-25 Spirit during the Terrorist attack on Sedra City in Halo: Nightfall.
Concept art of the Banished Spirit for Halo Wars 2.
More concept art of the Banished Spirit.
Concept art for an alternate looking Banished Spirit.
A Banished T-25 Spirit in the Halo Wars 2 Open Beta.
A Banished T-25 Spirit in Halo Wars 2.
Blitz card of a Banished Spirit dropping off Cannon Fodder.