Magnetism

This article is about camera magnetism. If you were looking "bullet magnetism", a related concept, see auto-aim.

A debug view from The Sprint: Sustain, showing the radius around the reticle where magnetism first takes effect (outer pink circle) and where it is at its strongest (inner pink circle).

Magnetism is a gameplay system in place in the Halo first-person shooter games designed to help players target enemy combatants more easily. It is only enabled for players using controllers - those on mouse and keyboard are not affected. Magnetism slows the player's turning speed while an enemy is within a certain radius of the reticle, making it easier for the player to make fine-grained adjustments to ensure they hit the enemy with their shots. It also partially accounts for any movements the enemy makes, for instance if they're strafing, by moving the camera subtly so that the reticle ever so slightly tracks the enemy.

The magnetism radius varies depending on a number of factors. Each usable weapon has a different magnetism radius, and for weapons that can zoom in, the radius is reduced when zoomed to match the magnification of the screen. Additionally, magnetism is reduced for enemies that are a large distance away from the player, and beyond a certain distance (defined on a per-weapon basis) stops applying at all. In some games, there is also a second, larger radius around the reticle, within which magnetism will be enabled but at a weaker strength that ramps up as the enemy gets closer towards the inner radius, where magnetism is guaranteed to be at its strongest.

The goal of magnetism, combined with auto-aim is to make first-person aiming with a controller easier and more accessible. However, aim assist, unlike magnetism, also applies to players on mouse and keyboard.