- "You know, it looks delicate and so you feel like you need to hold it kinda gingerly—but then you see an Elite crack a Bravo Kilos head with one—the things are built tough."
- — Anonymous Serviceman
The Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle,[1] more commonly known as the Plasma Rifle, is a Covenant ground firearm.
Design Details
The Plasma Rifle, like all energy-based weapons used by the Covenant, are directed energy weapons that use superheated ionized gas called Plasma instead of projectile ammunition. The weapon has a power output of 100-150 Kv @ 2~3 dA, and can fire 420 to 600 rounds per minute. Unlike the Type-25 DEP, the Plasma Rifle is capable of semi-automatic, and full automatic fire, this is thanks in part to its dual plasma projector design. Placed atop one another, these projectors fire in a "stagger" taking the slow automatic fire of each individual projector and combining it, this design allows a faster rate of fire and more rounds per second, which adds to the lethality of the weapon. The Type 25 DER is the primary weapon of the Covenant’s officer corps, used by Elites and Brutes, although Jackals have been seen using this weapon. Against UNSC infantry, the Type 25 DER's lethality is considerably greater then it's counterpart due to the fast rate of fire, injuries inflicted to the victim are severe third-degree burns, with the wound being cauterized instantly upon impact. Generally two hits from either a Plasma Pistol or Plasma Rifle will kill light, or non armored targets. Like its counterpart, over extended periods of firing, it can overheat, causing it to become unusable for a short period of time. In the context of the Halo games, all of the plasma weapon's strength and lethality, are compensated for both the sake of ESRB rating, and gameplay.
Advantages
The Plasma Rifle is a close, to medium range weapon, it has a very high rate of fire and inflicts very high shield damage. This weapon can also be used at long range if the user fires slowly and aims carefully by leading the target, but this is usually not as effective compared to using this weapon at short range. Like most other plasma weapons, the Plasma Rifle is very effective at depleting shields, but not as effectively as the Plasma Pistol's charged shot. The Plasma Rifle is also a dual wieldable weapon. The Plasma Rifle is quite easy to aim at short range, so there is a big advantage against Flood Combat Forms because you can aim the Plasma Rifle at the center of the Flood where the Infection Form's sensory appendages are sticking out for an instant kill (like almost all other weapons), but be aware of other Infection Forms, as they can quickly revive the Combat Form if you do this, unless you quickly destroy the body using a weapon such as an energy sword. The Plasma Rifle also has an extremely fast melee attack, making it a good weapon to take out someone's shields, and then quickly finish the job. An easy way to get a kill with a Plasma Rifle is to aim for the head. It will take about 2 shots to take out the shields, then another 2 shots to kill the person if you're aiming at the head, but only two shots at close range. A commonly used strategy is to dual wield Plasma Rifles, then use melee on your opponent. Also,an effective strategy is to wield a Plasma Rifle and have an Assault Rifle or SMG as your secondary weapon, destroy an enemy's shield using the Plasma Rifle then either quickly melee them or shoot them with a solid projectile weapons such as the Assault Rifle for a quick and easy kill. This also works with the Plasma Pistol's charged shot. It is one of the only three weapons that appears in almost every level, in every game, in the Halo Trilogy. Also, the Plasma Rifle, like most plasma-based weapons, does not need to be reloaded, but once it's battery is depleted you will need to find another plasme rifle. If you blast it on “full-auto” without any pauses, you can fire 18 shots. This is more than enough to then switch weapons and finish them off with any other weapon.
In both the Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 campaign, the Plasma Rifle's high rate of fire and moderate damage can be used to quickly neutralize low level enemies such as Grunts, Drones, and Infection Forms. Against enemies with energy shielding, the Plasma Rifle can quickly deplete that shielding and leave them vulnerable to a lethal head shot from an M6 pistol, Covenant Carbine or Battle Rifle, or sprays from an SMG. In addition, the valuable stun effect of the Plasma Rifle often stops or slows down the enemy long enough to prevent their melee. However, the plasma rifle can be ineffective against some enemies, notably the Hunters. Unlike in the previous two games, dual-wielding Plasma Rifles in Halo 3 is a very effective way of combating the Flood in campaign on all difficulties, most especially the shielded Elite, which often proves to be one of the most difficult campaign enemies due to their shields which can easily be depleted using the Plasma Rifle. Arguably, it is more effective than any other dual-wielded weapon. Due to the shield-taking nature of the Plasma Rifle and the armor-destroying capability of the SMG, it is best wielded with the SMG for close-medium range. It is also quite effective when dual-wielded against Hunters in Halo 3. However, you must hit its weak spot, and better weapons are usually available for getting rid of Hunters. It is also good for Ranged Forms in Halo 3. Dual Wielding two Plasma Rifles in the Halo 3 level Cortana is very effective taking out Infection Forms and tearing apart Combat Forms; this tactic is very effective on higher difficulties. Many people have been known to complete Halo 3 using only this combination.
Disadvantages
The Plasma Rifle overheats very quickly when fired in full-auto. The Brute Plasma Rifle overheats much faster than the Elite Plasma Rifle, but does slightly more damage per hit and has a faster rate of fire. Also, the player cannot recharge the Plasma Rifle, so it must be replaced when depleted. When the battery gets below 10%, the Plasma Rifle will begin to misfire, further hampering the operator's use of the weapon.
While extremely effective at depleting enemies' shields, the Plasma Rifle doesn't deal as much physical damage as solid projectile weapons. It will be difficult to finish off an enemy with the Plasma Rifle, unless the shots are followed up with a melee. The Plasma Rifle can kill someone by itself, but it will take a long time. Only when dual-wielding Plasma Rifles can you kill someone within a quick amount of time. This can be avoided by dual-wielding a solid projectile weapon in your other hand, for example the SMG or the Spiker. The Plasma Rifle also runs low on battery life very quickly when in automatic firing mode.
The cloud of coolant released from the weapon partially blocks the wielder's view, obscuring his view of opponents, and leaving him particularly vulnerable to their fire. In addition, the faster you fire, the less accurate the beams become, diverting from the original target more and more.
UNSC Remarks
- “The Type-25 DER has no recoil to speak of; it tears the crap out of shields and you can shoot the thing all day long—it's on the heavy side though.”
- “I realize that it uses a battery instead of a magazine, but nobody has figured out how to swap it or recharge it yet? Don’t we have scientists working for us or something?”
- “It’s got no sight-line, it’s awkward to hold, and if it overheats it’ll cook the hair right off of your wrists.”
- “You know, it looks delicate and so you feel like you need to hold it kind of gingerly—but then you see an Elite crack a Bravo Kilo's head with one—the things are built tough.”
- “Yeah, and I’ve seen some Elites swinging two of them around like it was nothing—scary shit.”
- "These things are huge—but I guess the Elites are, too—so it sorta makes sense."
Changes
Halo: Combat Evolved
The Plasma Rifle in Halo: Combat Evolved is far more powerful and accurate than its Halo 2 and Halo 3 counterparts. Also in Halo: Combat Evolved, the Plasma Rifle fires slightly slower than in the other games. Furthermore, the weapon held a unique ability to stun opponents that were hit by high velocity heated plasma rounds, this effect greatly reduces the victim's ability to move and dodge the incoming projectiles and allows the user to easily hold the opponent in the weapon's firing arc. However, the drawback was that this effect is only felt with continuous fire. While stunned, the weapon will often overheat before the opponent is completely killed because it only takes about 4 seconds of continuous fire for it to overheat. Despite this drawback, the stun ability is a useful and potent feature in the hands of an experienced user. In campaign mode, the plasma rifle is best used against the Sentinels and Elites. Sentinels always have a soft spot to Covenant Weapons and it can be very useful in taking down Elites' shields when rapid firing. The plasma also kills unshielded Elites very quickly, indeed, much quicker than in Halo 2. It should also be noted that this weapon behaved more like a rifle than its successor, having about twice the firing range, and that the Plasma Rifle decreases its accuracy while heating up, becoming even as inaccurate as its Halo 2 counterpart. However, burst-firing the weapon, releasing 2-3 bolts per firing, can counteract this. This will allow the weapon to be used for a longer period of time before it actually overheats, and more accuracy allowing you to hit long-range targets. Also, the rifle was much more bulkier than in Halo 2, like the Plasma Pistol and the Needler with the sound effect of a Plasma Pistol.
Halo 2
Halo 2's Plasma Rifle is not as powerful or accurate as its predecessor and lacks the ability to stun. These drawbacks are compensated by a higher rate of fire and the ability to dual-wield the weapon, allowing it to be paired with a wide variety of other weapons from Halo 2 and creating powerful combination. The changes done to the weapon are directly related to the inclusion of dual-wielding and higher rate of fire. For purposes of balance, the Plasma Rifle, along with many others from Halo: Combat Evolved, was tweaked to better fit the new game's fighting style. The weapon takes an opponent's shields off with five shots, but it takes many more to kill. This version of the Plasma Rifle behaves more as a SMG rather than a rifle. It has medium to low accuracy, and, when dual wielded, if both rifles are fired simultaneously, the accuracy will quickly decrease greatly.
Plasma Rifles are also the basis for several other weapon systems, including the Twin Plasma Cannons on Ghosts, Halo 2 Wraiths, and Banshees. The weapon is not to be confused with the Brute Plasma Rifle, which is a faster, red version of the Plasma Rifle.
Aesthetically, the Halo 2 Plasma Rifle appears slightly larger the the CE model. It gains small "fins" to the rear of the weapon, or at least they are now visible to the player whilst firing.
Halo 3
In Halo 3, Plasma Rifles are made even more powerful than their Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2's counterparts, like most of the new weapons in Halo 3. They have the same overheating rate as their predecessors, yet they fire as fast as the Brute Plasma Rifles in Halo 2. Their bolts are graphically redesigned to have a more vivid look. The bolts seem to travel faster than those of its previous versions, reducing the need to "lead" or "direct" the shots at mid to long ranges. This may be because the Plasma Rifle is the signature weapon of the Elites, and following the Covenant Civil War they were free to tamper with the workings of their weapons, whereas before it was considered "perfect", due to the Covenant reverse-engineering it from supposedly "flawless" Forerunner technology.
After a few shots, the weapon becomes very inaccurate to fire, so you may want to consider shooting in short controlled spurts and bursts. Also, unlike in previous games, the Plasma Rifle is very effective against the Flood, even more so than its human counterpart. It takes 18 plasma bolts to kill an enemy with normal shields in Halo 3, but one shot to the Infection Forms roosting in the Flood Combat Forms will instantly kill it. This makes it effective against shields and semi-effective for flesh, making it a much more formidable weapon then its previous version. The weapon also gets a slight graphical overhaul, making it slightly more detailed and polished.
Tips And Strategies
The Plasma Rifle has limited uses in Multiplayer but is still a useful weapon, especially if dual-wielded and/or if playing on a close-quarters map. In Halo 2 and Halo 3 Dual-wielding increases the combined rate of fire and damage. Although its range limits the weapon to close quarter and medium range fire fights, if used properly a player can quickly dispose of a far away enemy but if it's possible you should get in close. It is also advisable to carry a mid to long range weapon such as a Battle Rifle or Sniper Rifle for backup against targets outside of the Plasma Rifle's range. It has the fastest melee attack of any weapon except for the Energy Sword, and it's melee is also powerful. In Halo 3, this weapon can easily overpower an Assault Rifle if the melee is used in conjunction well with the energy shield depleting shots, allowing an easy take down, however at medium range the Assault Rifle is likely to overpower the Plasma Rifle. The reason for the Plasma Rifle's superiority is the fact that it is more accurate than the Assault Rifle, and yet it inflicts a similar, if not larger amount of damage. This weapon is also very effective on overshields. It is also very useful to wield with a human weapon such as the SMG or magnum.
- If you're in close combat with someone and you have the Plasma Rifle, you should fire at them, take out their shields and melee them to kill them. This works well when faced with an opponent wielding bullet-based weaponry, as their shields will probably fall faster than yours, unless you are unlucky enough to be caught by surprise.
- Killing with the Plasma Rifle is not an easy task when faced with armor, so most of the time you should take out an enemy's shield with it, then melee them.
- In Halo 2 and 3, dual wielding in conjunction with a weapon that does high flesh damage (i.e. SMG or Mauler) can be very effective if the Rifle is first used to deplete the target's shields, then the additional weapon is used to finish the kill.
- In maps with the Plasma Rifle, you should go to secluded places that many people walk by. The people walking by most likely won't see you; you can take out their shields easily with the Plasma Rifle and then melee them to death.
- In Halo 2, if you pull the trigger fast enough repeatedly, you may increase the rate of fire. Doing so allows you to fire faster than the weapon's automatic rate of fire. This is obviously most useful in multiplayer.
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, it is a good idea to carry a Human weapon as a secondary. Using the Plasma Rifle until it overheats to drain an opponents shield and then shoot them with your secondary. An M6D Pistol is best used for secondary but an Assault Rifle works well too.
- On Legendary on Cortana in Halo 3, it is useful to dual-wield Plasma Rifles and pick off more distant Pure Flood forms like the Ranged Forms, who can shoot you from a long distance. By flicking on your binoculars, and looking at it just below the center, you will see a few red numbers indicating their distance. Opening short bursts of fire will kill them easily, as they will flinch and cease fire when being shot.
Trivia
- In the Halo Trilogy the Plasma Rifle fires two bolts per battery, though they do the same damage as one shot.
- The Plasma Rifle is a rifle in name only; as such there is an ambiguity in its correct designation as a semi-automatic gun.
- The Plasma Rifle in Halo 3 can be an extremely effective weapon in CQB situations, draining the opponent's shields quickly and leaving them open to a melee.
- The Plasma Rifle is mostly used by Brutes and Elites, it can also be wielded by other species, such as Grunts, Humans and Jackals, if given to them.
- In Halo 2, the Brutes normally wield the Brute Plasma Rifle, except in The Great Journey when a vehicle is driven by a Brute. Also in the level Sacred Icon (level) you can see that a few dead Brutes have a Plasma Rifle beside them showing their use of the normal standard Plasma Rifle instead of the more powerful Brute version.
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, if your character remains idle for a minute, he'll inspect the weapon on both sides, in Halo 2 he'll open the cooling vents, in Halo 3, he'll pull on the top.
- Like most Covenant weapons the Plasma Rifle has no sights. It appears to rely entirely on the user's HUD reticule for aim assistance.
- In Halo 3 multiplayer, with no damage modifiers on, this weapon has the 3rd lowest shot damage difference between single and dual wield the Plasma Pistol has no difference in shot damage and the Mauler takes only one more shot to kill dual wielded then when single wielded from 2x overshield or more. At normal shield the shot difference is only two shots (eighteen single, twenty dual), at 4x overshield the difference is only three shots (thirty-two single, thirty-five dual).
- There is some controversy over whether the Plasma Rifle is a counterpart to the Assault Rifle, because both have at least 400 shots and are referred to as "rifles," or the SMG because both can be dual-wielded and are roughly the same size.
- In Halo 3 the Plasma Rifle has a style pattern, this is best seen in well lit areas.
- The Arbiter in Halo 3 is usually dual-wielding Plasma Rifles. He can also melee with them and not drop one.
- In Halo 2 there is a Brute version of the Plasma Rifle, but it is replaced with the Brute Spiker in Halo 3.
- In all of the Halo games, if your Plasma Rifle is running low on energy, (less then 10% battery) when you fire it, then it will occasionally splutter and refuse to fire. This may be due to the fact that the power cell is unable to focus the remaining energy into plasma.
- There have been model plasma rifles made by toy companies for laser tag. There is also a Plasma Pistol, both of which use the same targeting frequency and are compatible. The rifle has autofire, but "overheats" after 20 rounds and the player must close the thermal vent and wait for it to "cool off".
- If you listen closely, the Plasma Rifle has a slightly lower tone than the Brute Plasma Rifle. This may be due to fact that there's slower and less heated plasma output running through the regular Plasma Rifle that creates the "Electric whistling" sound. The hotter and faster the plasma is, the more high pitched it becomes.
- The Plasma Rifle becomes extremely fast and accurate when tapping RT repeatedly at rapid speeds, enabling you to fire like the Elites on Legendary.
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, the Plasma Rifle has two shots per charge, totaling 200 shots. In Halo 2 and 3, it has four, totaling 400 shots.
- Modified Plasma Rifles appeared in Halo: Cole Protocol. They featured ammo readouts with Arabic numerals and were sold to Humans from Kig-yar blackmarkets. They were seen as a heresy among the rest of the Covenant.
- If closely observed while firing, one may see that the area from which it's plasma rounds are fired alternates between two possible sections with each shot.
- Plasma Rifles are much rarer in Halo 3 then the other games, possibly because they are much more powerful then the other variants. It could be because the Plasma Rifle is a Sangheili weapon, and the Jiralhanae prefer to use their own weapons like the Spiker or the Mauler instead of weapons like the Plasma Rifle or Energy Sword.
- In Halo 2, if you look carefully at your allies while playing as the Arbiter, their Plasma Rifles are in "overheat" mode.
- In Halo 2 the plasma rifle is given a sound change from Halo CE, in Halo CE it sounded like a rapid firing plasma pistol.
Gallery
A Plasma Rifle.
Two Plasma Rifles in Halo 3.
- 1211411036 Plasmarifle.jpg
A plasma bolt fired from a Plasma Rifle.
A SPARTAN-II welding two Plasma Rifles.
