Halo: The Master Chief Collection - Campaign Tips and Tricks (Halo Reach)

Halo MCC Guides:

What to keep in mind if you plan on playing the campaign on harder difficulties like Heroic and especially Legendary. Halo Reach specifically.

Guide Contents

Tips and Tricks for Halo Reach Campaign

Tips and Tricks for Halo Reach Campaign

Note: Credit goes to Who Knows

Headshots Lead To Success

Headshots are key. Any shot to an unshielded head (so to jackals, grunts that aren’t ultras/white, brutes without a helmet and elites without shields) will kill them in one hit by a precision weapon, AKA a weapon that isn’t fully automatic, such as the sniper rifle, DMR, pistol and needle rifle. Having a precision weapon on you 98% time (probably around there lol) is incredibly important for the quick mopping up of cannon fodder and quick taking down of even tougher enemies.

Elites & How To Take Down Shields

Elites move a lot and pretty unpredictably. They can also be incredibly tough. The DMR can do a good job of taking out red elites, spec-ops/elites that cloak and blue elites if you’re good at hitting all of your shots, but for the tougher ones like the white guys, yellow guns with fancy pants headgear and the purple dudes, you might want to use tougher weaponry like sticking them with plasma grenades, using plasma weapons like the plasma repeater, plasma rifle and especially the plasma pistol with its shield depleting overcharge shot to take them down efficiently.

Don’t Hide Too Often

Despite what the regenerating shield and health may lead you to presume, Halo is not a cover shooter, and even on Legendary staying out in the open is okay if you play it smart and keep in mind where cover is at all times and taking into account which enemies you’re facing. Because enemies have projectile weapons AKA not bullets that instantly hit you, you can dodge them to an extent. Obviously easier to do at range. The moral of the story here is that sitting behind cover isn’t very efficient and isn’t necessary if you’re good.

Hunters

Explosives are the way to go, but shooting them in the back in the orange bit does a lot of damage as it’s their weak spot. Shooting their armoured bit does a negligble amount of damage depending on what you’re using. Good weapons besides explosive weapons to use that do a lot of damage in their back is the needler and needle rifle once it supercombines (explodes), the energy sword, melee attacks if you’ve learnt how to dodge their melee attacks well enough, the plasma rifle and the plasma repeater. They also take a lot of damage from being run over by warthogs, wraiths and ghosts.

Grenades

Elites are harder to stick in Reach than most if not all of the other Halo games thanks to their often unpredictable, fast, almost jittery movement. However, it’s still worth a shot given that it will most likely kill them, take down their shields leaving them vulnerable to a headshot or take down almost all of their shields also making them vulnerable to a few shots from the DMR and because plasma grenades are fairly common. Plasma grenades only stick to what’s biological, not to surfaces. They tend to plummet to the floor instead of bouncing when they hit surfaces. Frag grenades, the Human varient, obviously don’t stick to enemies but bounce a lot better than plasmas making them very helpful for taking out enemies in rough spots or at a distance.

Grunts

Grunts are weak, prone to headshots and easily killable with everything in the game. The ultra/white grunts take an extra shot in the head to kill but other than that they mostly behave the same besides the green grunts with funny masks wielding the insta-killing on direct impact fuel rod cannons. They do differ in health but not by any noticeable amount of you shoot them in the face with a precision weapon, which is how you often will be taking them out. They do like to throw grenades, they can drive ghosts, and they carry either plasma pistols or needlers.

Jackals

Shoot them in their exposed weapon holding hand to stagger them leaving them vulnerable to a headshot. They also like to clumsily dodge grenades and attacks, leaving them vulnerable to headshots. Their shields soak up damage like it’s nothing by anything other than the plasma pistol charge so don’t even bother shooting it. Getting close and punching them is a good idea too. Just don’t punch their shields.

Hijacking

If you see a vehicle, then you can hijack it. Whether it’s a banshee flying miles up in the sky or a guy in a ghost. Get close enough and you can hijack them. The plasma pistol’s overcharge shot is capable of acting as an EMP, disabling vehicles for a bit, often long enough if you’re close enough for you to kick them out of their seats. Enemies don’t tend to hijack although elites can. Hijacking can be risky as enemies are good at boosting into you at the right time and thereby splattering you.

Skirmishers

Skirmishers are essentially more mobile jackals capable of leaping great distances and lacking shields. Prone to headshots, and often wielding needle rifles or precision rifles.

Drones

Unlike in Halo 2 and 3, drones are prone to headshots like other enemies. Shoot em in the face and they’ll literally blow up. Best to shoot them as they fly around and stick to walls that meleeing and grenading is often not a viable option.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection – Campaign Tips and Tricks (Halo Reach)