Cut Halo 4 weapons

This page discusses elements of deleted material and cut content. Some information on the page is sourced from game files and may not be verifiable through external sources. Where possible, such information should be clearly-marked and replaced with a proper external source as soon as one is available.

This article is part of a series on
Halo 4 cut content

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Cut content

Placeholder cutscenes
Cut enemies and ambient life
Cut dialogue
Cut levels
Cut vehicles
Cut weapons
Cosmetics

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Development

Halo 4 development
Concept art
Storyboards
Design documentation
Title Updates

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To check out cut content for other Halo games, see here!

v • d • e

During the development of Halo 4, a number of various weapons were concepted and prototyped by 343 Industries for inclusion in the game, though were ultimately cut for various reasons. Some weapons were concepted but never reached 3D prototypes; others were left in the game files as leftovers from the previous game, Halo: Reach; and some were prototyped and eventually adapted into the next FPS game, Halo 5: Guardians.

In-engine prototypes

Attach beam

The "attach beam" is an early version of the Binary Rifle. It uses the final game's Binary Rifle HUD but the reload sounds and animation of the Sniper Rifle, and an early model of the Lightrifle.

With the release of Halo 4 on PC as part of The Master Chief Collection, files for this weapon - now named the "storm attach beam" - were added to the game's shared file directory, allowing them to be spawned in via modding.

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  The attach beam.

Bishop beam

The "bishop beam" is a beam weapon of apparent Forerunner design, similar in operation to the Sentinel Beam and Focus Rifle. It can be found in the files for the level Shutdown. When fired at vehicles, the beam locks onto the vehicle in question even if it outside the player's reticule, and will destroy the vehicle after a few moments of firing.

Notably, the Promethean Watcher enemies were named "bishops" during the early stages of Halo 4, indicating they may have been intended to use this weapon, akin to the Sentinels and their use of the sentinel beam. This weapon was one of several made available for use in modding, following the release of Halo 4 on PC in The Master Chief Collection.

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  Profile of the bishop beam.
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  The bishop beam lying on the ground.
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  A first person view of the bishop beam.
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  The weapon firing.
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  The weapon overheating.

Burst pistol

The "burst pistol" is a weapon which can be in the files for the Lockup map in Spartan Ops. It can fire a single shot or a burst of up to six rounds. This weapon is notably similar to the iteration of the Boltshot found in Halo 5: Guardians.

This weapon was one of several made available for use in modding, following the release of Halo 4 on PC in The Master Chief Collection.

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  The burst pistol.
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  Firing the burst pistol.

Disintegrator

Not to be confused with a cut Halo 2 weapon of the same name, the "disintegrator" was intended to be a Forerunner equivalent to the Spartan Laser. The weapon requires a charge-up before firing, and fires a blue energy beam. It uses the model of the UNSC Spartan Laser, though is buggy in first-person and has various parts of the geometry rotated in odd directions.

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Early concussion rifle design

Early concepts by Glenn Israel considered a full redesign for the Concussion Rifle first introduced in Halo: Reach. The weapon was given a limited early model pass in early Halo 4 builds, though was ultimately scrapped with the final game weapon consisting of a retexture of the Reach model. Israel's sketches also produced the Plasma Caster weapon design that would ultimately go on to be used in Halo 5: Guardians.