Aim assist

A debug view from The Sprint: Sustain, showing the radii of effect for two types of aim assist in Halo 5: Guardians: auto-aim (blue and white) and magnetism (pink).

Aim assist refers to gameplay systems that are designed to make it easier for players to accurately aim and fire at enemies. Various types of aim assist have been seen in the Halo games, and are typically designed to be subtle and difficult to notice, so that when players are able to shoot accurately as a result of them, "it just feels like [they're] that bad-ass".

Types

Multiple types of aim assist are featured in the Halo games.

Auto-aim

Main article: Auto-aim

Auto-aim, also known as bullet magnetism, slightly modifies the direction of shots when they're fired, so that they fire towards the enemy - even if the player's reticle isn't hovering exactly over the enemy. In Halo, the player's reticle will become red when auto-aim is fully engaged, and thus the player's shots will fire directly at the enemy. This only occurs when the player's reticle is close to the enemy, and the enemy is within a certain distance from the player, known as the red reticle range.

Magnetism

Main article: Magnetism

Magnetism, sometimes known as friction, is a type of aim assist exclusively used when the player is using a controller as input. It lowers the player's turning speed while an enemy is within a certain radius of their reticle, allowing the player more fine-grained control of the camera so that they can aim at the enemy more accurately. If the enemy is moving, magnetism will also cause the player's reticle to very slightly follow the enemy, to account for the movement.

Snap-to-target

Main article: Snap-to-target

Snap-to-target is a colloquial name for a type of aim assist used in Halo: Spartan Assault and Strike, which is used for controller and touch screen inputs. As its name suggests, this type of aim assist causes the player's aim to snap towards an enemy when they tilt their analogue stick in that enemy's direction, within a certain tolerance. The player will remain aimed towards that enemy until they move their analogue stick to the point where it is no longer tilting in that enemy's direction, or they release the stick altogether and stop aiming.

List of appearances

• Halo: Combat Evolved (First appearance)
• Halo 2
• Halo 3
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo: Reach
• Halo 4
• Halo: Spartan Assault
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Halo: Spartan Strike
• Halo Online
• Halo Infinite