Halo 4 is the product of years of development by 343 Industries, a continuation of an epic franchise and the start of an entirely new story within the Halo universe. The Master Chief captured the hearts and minds of gamers back in 2001 with Halo: Combat Evolved launching on the Xbox. The series has gone on to influence the entire first-person shooter genre with entertaining experiences, lively weapons, intimidating enemies, and an incredibly popular multiplayer mode. Halo is a standard that has thrived in the gaming industry to such a level that it’s spilled over to a pop culture phenomenon. This guide is another drop of influence and expertise from a rich and extending franchise.

We organized this guide in such as way that you should feel well prepared and eager to play as the Master Chief as he battles a new enemy class or as a Spartan-IV in one of many War Games or Spartan Ops environments. You’re about to launch into an amazing adventure and we want you to be prepared for whatever lies ahead. Reference any of the chapters for reputable strategy from our seasoned authors and Major League Gaming (MLG) professionals.

Master Chief is back…We hope you’re ready!

Guide Overview

The Halo 4 Official Strategy Guide is divided into multiple sections designed to help maximize your enjoyment of the game in both the Campaign and the extensive online multiplayer universe.

Basic Training

The Basic Training section of this book will help reinforce the easy stuff, like movement, aiming, shooting, and surviving. We break down the heads-up display, and go into beginner combat tactics, providing fundamentals that will help you stay in one piece.

Campaign Walkthrough

The Campaign Walkthrough provides a breakdown of the four difficulty settings available for Halo 4 . This includes information about the Skull modifiers that change various aspects of the game. As with every preceding title in the series, Halo 4 is meant to be played on Heroic difficulty, which is the basis for the Campaign Walkthrough. Every major battle is covered in detail, including alternate approaches when appropriate, and specialized tactics for Legendary difficulty. Maps are designed to help players navigate the battlefield and locate important weapons caches that will keep them armed and ready for anything the enemy throws their way. Additionally, the seven Domain Terminals hidden throughout the game are revealed in both the walkthrough and on the relevant maps.

Intel

Every, armor ability, vehicle and enemy type, including their variants are detailed in this section. This is for players interested in learning more about the tools of the trade, how to use them, and how best to apply them against the enemy.

Infinity Multiplayer

This section covers War Games multiplayer, the co-operative missions found in Spartan Ops, and discusses the new features found in the Forge map editor . For tips on how to be a better player on all of the new maps in Halo 4 , we turned to Major League Gaming’s upper ranks of professional players. Marcus “Elumnite” Lovejoy, Michael “Strongside” Cavanaugh, Michael “Flamesword” Chaves, and Brett “Naded” Leonard have brought their unique perspective on what it takes to be a better player. After weeks of intense play, our team from MLG have produced tips that will help you be a better player, from how to hold your controller, to what your mindset should be. We also have put together strategies for the five Spartan Ops missions that will be available on day one.

The Infinity Multiplayer section includes a primer for how to handle the features specific to War Games and Spartan Ops, and also contains breakdowns of all the rewards and unlocks players can look forward to as they increase in rank. The MLG pros include their own breakdowns of every weapon, vehicle, armor ability, Support Upgrades, and Tactical Packages, and even provide their preferred loadouts that they felt were most effective during their time at 343 Industries. Before you even enter the competition, there’s enough information here to help elevate your game.

War Games

Longtime Halo fans know that playing the Campaign is one thing, but it isn’t enough to prepare you for competitive multiplayer. Tapping into the talents of four highly rated Major League Gaming players, the War Games section breaks down the competitive side of Halo 4 . Having spent weeks dissecting the various maps and weapons that will be available on day one, MLG pros will teach those willing to learn about how to be a better player. Read this section and learn the maps, the tactics, and how to dominate using all of the weapons, vehicles, and armor abilities. The pros also explain the XP system, and recommend weapons and custom loadouts.

Spartan Ops

In the wake of the events in the Campaign, the UNSC has deployed Spartan-IV soldiers onto a strange Forerunner world. Their mission is to secure its technological riches from the threat of the Covenant. Acting as a continuation of the Halo 4 story, Spartan Ops allows up to four players to take their customized Spartan-IVs into battle against vast numbers of enemies across multiple environments. Each mission plays a part in a larger story that will unfold weekly via free content updates from 343 Industries. Each of the five missions from Episode 1 are covered in this section, with future mission walkthroughs provided in your complimentary eGuide on the Prima Games website.

Appendix

Weapon and Enemy stats, Achievements, Commendations, Medals, Specializations, Emblems, Challenges, Skulls, and Terminals can all be found in the Appendix. This content can found throughout the guide, but this chapter was created for easy reference. This chapter will prove to be very useful and contains some of the most valuable information.

A Brief History of the Human-Covenant War

In the year 2525 on the human colony world of Harvest, a twenty-eight-year conflict between humanity and the alien collective known as the Covenant began. It was the most devastating conflict humans had ever been involved in. In the end, more than twenty billion human lives were lost during the war. Colonies were destroyed, worlds were rendered uninhabitable, and yet, because of one Spartan, humanity endured, survived, and ultimately won.

Halo: Reach

Released: September 14, 2010 for Xbox 360

July 24, 2552. The Human-Covenant War reached toward its climax. The Covenant secretly invaded the planet Reach, the most important world to the United Nations Space Command, its nerve center. The Spartans of Noble Team were sent to investigate a silenced communications relay, only to discover the Covenant presence on the planet, which was hidden by means of sophisticated stealth technology. Over the next month, Noble Team fought valiantly, but was cut down one-by-one in the face of overwhelming odds. Eventually, only Noble Six, the newest member of the team, stood alone in the face of the impending glassing of the world. Before joining the rest of Noble Team in death, the Spartan was able to deliver the AI Cortana to the UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn and the waiting Master Chief. The vessel made its escape from the slaughter, with a Covenant fleet in pursuit.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Released: November 15, 2001 for Xbox

Re-released as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on November 15, 2011

The Pillar of Autumn was unable to escape the Covenant despite performing a blind slipspace jump. As they returned to normal space, they found a gas giant planet called Threshold. Orbiting it was Halo: an impossibly massive ring structure, built by the Forerunners more than 100,000 years ago. The Covenant had beaten the Pillar of Autum to the Halo, and the ship was forced to deploy its Marines and the Master Chief to the ringworld and execute a crash landing. The Covenant engaged the humans in battle throughout the ring, and the Master Chief played an instrumental role in the fighting.

Eventually, he and the AI Cortana discovered that the Halo was part of an array of similar installations placed throughout the galaxy. The Halo Array itself was a weapon of last resort against a virulent parasite known as the Flood, which was sealed on the ringworld for study by the Forerunners. If fired, the Halos could wipe out all life in the galaxy. The Covenant unwittingly unleashed the parasite across the ring, and both they and the humans incurred heavy casualties as a result. In a desperate bid to destroy the Flood and escape the Halo, the Master Chief returned to the crashed Pillar of Autumn and set it to self-destruct. This shattered the ring and seemingly ended the Flood threat. The Master Chief made a narrow escape with Cortana.

Halo 2

Released: November 9, 2004 for Xbox

October 20, 2552. The Master Chief returned to Earth and was decorated as a hero. Meanwhile, the Covenant Elite who led their forces in battle upon the Halo was deemed a heretic by the Covenant leadership. The Covenant Prophet of Regret, on a mission to discover new Forerunner artifacts, stumbled across the planet Earth and, despite being outnumbered assaulted the human homeworld and managed to occupy the African city of New Mombasa. The Master Chief led a successful counterattack that drove the Prophet of Regret off-world and brought the Earth a moment’s reprieve. The Master Chief, along with the UNSC fleet, pursued the Prophet of Regret.

The Prophet of Regret discovered a new Halo, also known as Installation 05. During these events, the disgraced Elite commander was named an Arbiter, a representative of the will of the Prophets, and was unleashed against the Covenant heretical rebels who wished to be free of the Prophets. The Arbiter, betrayed by Tartarus, the leader of another Covenant species known as the Brutes, eventually joined forces with the Master Chief after many battles and more shocking revelations. Halo 2 also contained the Flood parasite, but it was no longer merely hordes of mindless souls absorbed into the collective. Rather, this Flood had central mind, a Gravemind. Worse yet, the Covenant, now led by the Brutes, intended to fire the Halo Array to initiate the Great Journey, as their religion demanded. They were now at open war with a significant Separatist movement, led by the Elites. Ultimately, the Master Chief and the Arbiter prevented the firing of the Array, killing Tartarus in process. Unfortunately, Cortana was left behind on the Covenant mobile homeworld of High Charity, where the Flood Gravemind resided and was beginning to expand its already countless army.

Returning to Earth aboard a Forerunner Dreadnought controlled by Covenant loyal to the Prophet of Regret, the Master Chief prepared to finish the fight.

Halo 3: ODST

Released: September 22, 2009 for Xbox 360

During the Prophet of Regret’s invasion and subsequent retreat from New Mombasa on Earth, the UNSC deployed its elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers into the war zone. One team was in mid-drop just as the Prophet’s assault carrier executed a slipspace jump in the Earth’s atmosphere. The Rookie of this team, separated from his comrades, fought his way through New Mombasa alone for several hours before reuniting with his squad and encountering a member of another Covenant species, the Huragok. The new alien signaled its willingness to work alongside its UNSC captors out of hatred for its Brute oppressors.

Meanwhile, the Covenant occupation of the Earth continued, and the excavation of New Mombasa revealed an enormous Forerunner installation that had been dormant for millennia.

Halo 3

Released: September 25, 2007 for Xbox 360

November 17, 2552. The Master Chief returned to Earth and joined up with UNSC survivors and the Arbiter, who leads the Elites, which have now fully turned against the Covenant. After a series of battles, the combined forces struck at the Forerunner artifact found buried underneath the city of New Mombasa, where the Prophet of Regret had landed the Forerunner Dreadnought. The artifact produced a massive slipspace portal through which the Covenant retreated. Simultaneously, a Covenant cruiser filled with the infectious Flood crashed into the African city of Voi.

After the immediate Flood threat to Earth was contained, Master Chief learned that Cortana left a message aboard the crashed ship. She described a solution to the Flood that did not involve firing the Halo Array: Beyond this portal was the Ark, a massive Forerunner facility located outside our galaxy. A combined UNSC-Elite task force, including the Master Chief and the Arbiter, left Earth through the portal to pursue the Prophet of Regret to the Ark, thereby beginning a desperate fight to prevent the Array from being fired.

After many battles, the Arbiter ultimately had his vengeance against Truth. Meanwhile, the Flood crashed the mobile homeworld High Charity into the Ark, and threatened to overwhelm the forces gathered there. It was discovered that the Ark facility manufactured Halo rings that later dispersed themselves to key points within the galaxy, and that it was currently crafting the replacement for the destroyed Installation 04. The Master Chief saw this as an opportunity to destroy the Gravemind. To fire the replacement Halo, he first had to retrieve Cortana from the Gravemind’s clutches. Fighting their way to the Halo’s control room, Cortana used the Activation Index retrieved from the first Halo to fire the weapon.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter raced to the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn in an attempt to escape the Halo’s firing and the destruction of the Ark. Unfortunately, the slipspace portal collapsed mid-jump, sundering the frigate in half. The forward half, containing the Arbiter, made it back to Earth. The aft of the vessel, containing Master Chief and Cortana, was left stranded in an unknown part of the galaxy.

With rescue unlikely to be any time soon, the Chief prepared to enter cryosleep, knowing that he might drift for years. Cortana activated a beacon, advising him that it might be awhile before anyone responded, to which he replied, “Wake me, when you need me.”

On Earth, the Arbiter, his Elites, and the surviving UNSC forces mourned the apparent loss of humanity’s greatest hero.

Halo 4

Four years have passed since the Master Chief and Cortana went missing in action. Fans who finished Halo 3 on the Legendary difficulty discovered that the story was far from over, as the ruined portion of the Forward Unto Dawn drifted toward a mysterious planet during a bonus cinematic. The Master Chief and Cortana now face a new threat that has been building throughout the entire series on data terminals hidden throughout the games, and in books written by numerous authors. Some questions may be answered, but more will undoubtedly replace them. The Forerunner world of Requiem awaits.

Characters

The Master Chief

Official Designation: Master Chief Petty Officer John-117

Abducted at age six for the SPARTAN-II program, John was subjected to harsh training and extensive physical enhancements as he grew. He survived the harsh regimen, and would be fitted for the Mjolnir combat armor system. As a Spartan, John’s physical abilities far exceed that of any normal human: He was a new kind of man for a new kind of war. His exploits against the Covenant eventually propelled him to the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer. In 2552, the Master Chief and his AI partner Cortana discovered the first Halo installation, the Flood, and ultimately unlocked the means to humanity’s salvation.

All Spartans are known for their ability as combatants, but the Master Chief is known also for his considerable luck, as he has survived some of the bloodiest and most costly battles of the Human-Covenant War. After sleeping four years adrift in space, his luck will be sorely tested on Requiem.

Cortana

Official Designation: CTN 0452-9

A “smart” Artificial Intelligence, Cortana was born via the scanning of a flash cloned brain of Dr. Catherine Halsey. One of the most important figures of the Human-Covenant War, Cortana was paired with the Master Chief. The Spartan acted as her protector and partner throughout the initial Halo incident, and the two formed a close bond through combat, though it was strained when she was left behind on the Flood-infested High Charity and interrogated by the Gravemind. Ultimately, the two were reunited, and using the knowledge gleaned from the first Halo, destroyed the Ark, the Flood, and ended the war between humanity and the Covenant. She has maintained a vigil over the sleeping Master Chief for the last four years.

As a “smart” AI, Cortana has an effective lifespan of seven years before degrading into rampancy. Cortana has been in active service for eight years.

Captain Andrew Del Rio

A 30-year veteran of the UNSC Navy, Captain Del Rio garnered a reputation for bringing his ships home during a war where whole fleets were nearly annihilated by superior Covenant numbers and technology. This made him a prime candidate for command of the newest vessel in the UNSC fleet, the Infinity . Having come across the Forerunner world of Requiem, Captain Del Rio’s reputation and his command will face their greatest challenges yet.

Commander Thomas Lasky

A career soldier who almost wasn’t, Lasky became dedicated to service in 2526 during the Covenant offensive against the Outer Colonies. His lengthy career as a pilot and naval officer was distinguished enough to land him a post aboard the Infinity as its Executive Officer.

Commander Sarah Palmer

One of the earliest recruits to the new Spartan-IV program, Palmer served twelve tours of duty during the Human-Covenant War as a UNSC Marine. Her combat skills and natural leadership ability were a natural fit for the role of Commander of all Spartans assigned to Infinity .

Dr. Catherine Halsey

The “mother” of Cortana and the key brain behind the Spartan-II and MJOLNIR programs. Halsey is considered to be one of the most valuable assets to the UNSC, and is in no small part responsible for humanity’s victory over the Covenant. Despite this, her achievements have been clouded by her questionable ethics. In the aftermath of the war, Halsey continued her research into Forerunner artifacts before being transferred to a new posting at the behest of ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence). The Master Chief believes he can save his AI companion so long as he is able to find Halsey because she is Cortana’s creator.

Dr. Sandra K. Tillson

Dr. Tillson is a lead researcher assigned to Ivanoff Station, near Gamma Halo (Installation 03). She is one of the many scientists that the UNSC has tasked with learning about the Forerunners’ massive ringworlds, as well as any artifacts discovered within. The discoveries Tillson and her associates have made are revealing the locations of other Forerunner remnants throughout the galaxy