Halo 5 Skull Locations

Skulls are the rarest collectibles you’ll find in the Halo 5: Guardians campaign. 343 Industries hid these items throughout most of the game’s missions, and each one produces a unique special effect when activated, either cosmetic enhancements or an increase in difficulty. We’ll tell you where all of the skulls are located and provide the benefits or consequences of activating them. 

IWHBYD Skull 

While battling your way through Halo 5 Mission 1: Osiris, approach the doors leading into the Forerunner Security station, but do not go inside. Look to the left and jump onto the ledge near this entrance. Move along and you’ll discover the IWHBYD skull near the cliff edge. Activating it causes uncommon dialogue to become more common, while common dialogue is heard less. 

Black Eye Skull 

During Halo 5 Mission 2: Blue Team, head to the Reactor Control Room. When you’re at the entrance to this location, walk left and then up a pathway. While on this path you’ll see a square-shaped unit. Climb onto it and then onto a big pipe along the left wall. Push forward while on the pipe and it takes you to a high ledge towards the back. Jump onto the ledge and then go through a tiny opening to your left. You’ll see a metal shutter in the corner of this area, so smash it with your ground pound and safely fall into the orange room. Walk to the left corner and pick up the skull. Activate the Black Eye Skull and you can regenerate your shield by melee attacking enemies. The shield will not regenerate otherwise. 

Iron Skull

Select Halo 5 Mission 3: Glassed and then Legendary difficulty. Walk into a garage and get inside of a Scorpion tank, then roll uphill to the station gate during the final portion of this mission. You’ll eventually arrive at the Meridian Station Gate. Now’s the time to use the Scorpion to blast the Phaeton from the sky, the one going after the cargo ship. Should you miss, reload from the previous checkpoint.

With the Phaeton destroyed, the Iron Skull appears in one of three places in the garage. The first is between the two yellow containers by a fence. The second is between a few containers covered by a green tarp; get there using the tiny staircase above the garage. The third and final location is the middle of the garage area. You’ll see two moveable crates and the skull could be behind them. Switch on the Iron Skull and you will restart the mission from the beginning after dying, instead of the previous checkpoint. 

Blind Skull 

During Halo 5 Mission 5: Unconfirmed, you’ll discover a passageway leading from the rock quarry into a mine. Jump onto a crate and then jump onto a platform situated between some pipes on the ceiling. Take this walkway into a crawlspace where the skull resides. Activating the Blind Skull removes the HUD (Heads-Up Display) from the screen, along with your hands and weapons, making it difficult to know which gun is equipped and remaining ammunition. 

Return to the Halo 5 Guardians Walkthrough to find very piece of Intel. Unlock Prima’s Halo 5 eGuide for in-depth skull location videos, or get the Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide that comes with a bonus supply REQ Pack and free eGuide access!

Thunderstorm Skull

Start Halo 5 Mission 6: Evacuation and then blast five traffic cones in less then two minutes. Do this and you will receive the skull after finishing the mission. We suggest piloting a Mongoose to achieve the objective as quickly as possible.

Go through the first gate and take out the cone on the left path. Proceed down and into the garage, then blast the second cone by the staircase on the right. Head along the passage and shoot the third cone on the busted bridge. Push forward and you’ll see a big vehicle with six wheels. Go behind it and you’ll discover the fourth cone on the right by a yellow cylinder.  Finally, steer the Mongoose to the left of this path and the remaining cone is near some debris. 

After doing this, play the mission until you make a run for the Pelican. While traveling through a hallway that takes you to the landing pad, look for the skull on the ground. The Thunderstorm skull boosts enemies to their highest rank, making even the simplest opponents difficult to kill. 

Grunt Party Skull

Halo 5 Mission 7: Reunion contains two skulls. To find the first, play until you happen upon some Covenant up to no good. Go right and then through a cave. You’ll discover a singing Grunt sitting on a ledge. Kick this creature to its doom and you’ll receive the skull. With Grunt Party turned on, Grunts killed by headshots burst into confetti, while Grunts not killed by headshots blow up like grenades. 

Cloud Skull

Don’t beat Mission 7 yet! When you reach the end, go to the Forerunner platform and through the Phaeton canyon. When you exit, immediately turn right and pick up the Cloud Skull, which eliminates the motion sensor on your HUD. Now you won’t be able to track enemies.

Mythic Skull

Head into Halo 5 Mission 8: Swords of Sanghelios and leave the ruins above the sinkhole. Climb up the busted pillars and use thrusting and Ground Pounds to leap to each one. The Mythic Skull is on top of one of these pillars to the far left, and doubles enemy health.

Catch Skull 

While on Halo 5 Mission 10: Enemy Lines, go inside of the Kraken. Slip into a Banshee and look for the green tunnels leading to the power core. Fly above these tunnels and look for the Catch Skull on a ledge. This item allows enemies to carry more grenades than usual. 

Cowbell Skull 

During Mission 12: Battle of Sunaion, remain at the busted street where the Warden appeared. Move as close to the Guardian as possible and then carefully fall onto the metal beam. The Cowbell Skull is mixed with some debris, and triples the power of explosions from rocket fire, missiles and grenades. 

Tilt Skull 

Play through Mission 13: Genesis up to where the Warden appears. Go past the bridge and take the path on the right. Climb the rocks and the Tilt Skull is by the cliff edge. This lessons the effect of weapons depending on the target. For example, Assault Rifles don’t weaken enemy shields nearly as much, while Energy-based weapons won’t prove useful against flesh and armor. Promethean weapons, meanwhile, are almost useless when targeting enemy weak points.

Famine Skull 

Roughly halfway through Halo 5 Mission 14: The Breaking, go to where the Warden initially appears and search beneath this platform. There’s an entrance behind the terminal and the Famine Skull is on the ground. Killed enemies and allies will leave behind weapons with small amounts of ammo. 

Tough Luck

To obtain this skull, you’ll need to make it all the way to the game’s finale, Mission 15: Guardians. When you receive the objective to destroy the cores, go right to discover a wrecked Pelican. Move left and up some ice-covered stairs, then collect the Tough Luck Skull from a high ledge. This causes enemies to easily dodge grenades.