Ruwaa-pattern Shadow
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The Shadow is a Covenant heavy ground transport vehicle. It is exclusive to Halo 2. Although players are unable to drive it, the turret is usable.
Introduction
The Shadow is a dedicated troop transport vehicle, similar to an Armored Personnel Carrier. As such, it is not an offensive vehicle, and is often slow and cumbersome. However, it possesses a powerful defensive plasma turret, which is used solely for defense, rather than offense. It is placed at its top; the vehicle itself can be easily outmaneuvered by smaller vehicles such as the Warthog or Ghost. Its heavy armor is its best defense against attack and is the reason for its slow speed.
The vehicle itself is almost always manned by an Elite driver and an Elite gunner. Shadows thus far encountered have been observed transporting one unmanned Ghost and therefore had a crew complement of only two. Infantry transport versions are typically able to carry approximately eight passengers, though the exact number varies depending on their species. Although the transport bay is exposed, it is unknown if these passengers could lend their own firepower to the Shadow's defense.
Operation
Shadows are the Covenant's main method of moving large numbers of troops around ground based battlefields. They have one driver, a gunner, and up to eight occupants, depending on the species of the passengers. The Shadow's purpose have gained it the "Covenant Bus" nickname.
The Shadow also doubles as a small vehicle transporter and is outfitted to carry Ghosts. However, their main purpose is to deploy infantry; mainly Elites, Brutes, Grunts, and Jackals; straight into the fight. For point defense, they are equipped with a heavy Plasma Cannon[1] which appears to be of the same design as the Shade turret in Halo: Combat Evolved, but fires plasma bolts identical to those of the Shielded Plasma Cannon in Halo 2, but are faster.
Unlike the Shielded Plasma Cannon, this mounted plasma version seems to need a period of time to 'cycle up' to maximum firing rate (similar to the M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun on the Warthog). This maximum fire rate is superior to that of both the portable Plasma Cannon and the Shielded Plasma Cannon turret. It can lay down a torrent of plasma fire that is deadly to infantry and vehicles alike.
Through modding, the Shadow also has a boost much like the Ghost and Spectre. The Shadow's boost gives it a hard time stopping after deployed for a few seconds. Akin to the Ghost and especially the Spectre, it also can pop "wheelies" through the A button.
Shadow in Combat
The Shadow is a bulky, heavily armored vehicle and as such is able to take an immense amount of punishment before succumbing to damage. The Shadow may endure multiple internal explosions that rock its entire chassis or lift it from the floor while under intense fire. However, it will continue moving in spite of this.
Therefore it is advisable to focus all attentions on the driver of the Shadow. Often the gunner must be dealt with first but due to the exposed nature of its position this will pose little problem (the Shadow's gunner will fire at a slow rate, though if you hop in the gunner seat, the rate of fire is increased dramatically if you continue to fire over a period of time). The turret has the capable and comparable power of a Phantom's guns, but can shoot faster and at a greater rate and distance.
Once incapacitated, the Shadow will drop its load on the ground. Like all Covenant vehicles, the Shadow, once taken down, will experience a secondary detonation. This is by far the largest of all such critical damage reactions of any Covenant vehicle (excluding the Scarab), resulting in an immense explosion. The explosion has the ability to catapult the vehicle into the air, sometimes even culminating in a roll-over.
However, if you simply cannot take out the gunner, all you have to do is charge up to the very back and just fire while pushing against it. This way, you're inflicting heavy damage while avoiding the deadly turret, which can't hit you at this angle.
In-Game Limitations
Unlike almost all other land-based vehicles in Halo 2, the Shadow is not a pilot-able (except the turret) vehicle for the player. This makes it only useful as a placed turret, albeit a very powerful one. The Shadow is exclusive to the level Outskirts, where John-117 must destroy a convoy of them. The turret funtions similar to the Covenant Shade plasma turret, but with one difference: it "spins up" to an extremely high rate of fire when used continuously, similar to the Human turrets.
The Shadows in Halo 2 are always seen transporting Ghosts, never infantry, but the seat bearing Shadows can be unlocked via a modded Xbox. It was discovered to be a drivable vehicle in the Halo 3 Beta code, although Shadows are never encountered in Halo 3.
Character Compatibility
- Elites
- Grunts have animation, but it is not used in actual gameplay. However, they can be seen in the Halo 2 E3 2003 Demo.
- Jackals have animation, but not used in actual gameplay.
- Brutes have animation, but not used in actual gameplay.
- Spartans have the animation, but the game disables entry into the seat (without modding the map file). It is able to be boarded in Halo 2 Vista Multiplayer Mode.
Trivia
- The Shadow was actually going to be in Halo: Combat Evolved as a Covenant version of the Warthog, but was cut when Bungie decided it would be a first-person shooter.[verification needed]
- The Shadow is only seen in the Halo 2 level Outskirts transporting Ghosts in the New Mombasa tunnel.
- In Halo: Uprising, the Shadows were used to take civilian prisoners to the stadium in Cleveland.
- It also made an appearance in the Second Sunrise Over Mombasa story from the Halo Graphic Novel.
- In the level Outskirts, there are a total of 7 Shadows. This could be another '7' reference by Bungie.
- The Shadow is drivable and hijackable if modded. Additionally there are two versions, one which transports Ghosts (seen in-game) and another which transports infantry.
- It was believed that, by landing on the back of a moving Shadow and meleeing the gunner out of his seat, that you could man the turret while the Shadow was in transit with the driver still alive. However, this was found to be false since the option to man the turret only appears if the Shadow's driver is killed.
