Halo: Campaign Evolved skulls

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The skull menu in Halo: Campaign Evolved.

Skulls are a collectible in the campaign mode of Halo: Campaign Evolved.

Overview

The Chief finds a skull.

The skulls are hidden throughout campaign missions; once picked up, the skulls unlock gameplay-modifiers in the menu that either increases difficulty or grants additional perks/upgrades. Halo: Campaign Evolved has more skulls than any prior Halo game, with 42 available for unlock and use. The skulls broadly fall under two categories: 26 Legacy skulls—skulls from the original Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary as well as other ones introduced in Halo: The Master Chief Collection—and 16 new skulls with unique effects, some of which modify gameplay elements to resemble the original Halo: Combat Evolved.

There are 39 collectible skulls to be retrieved across 13 missions; three skulls are hidden in each of the ten original campaign missions, while nine can be found in the three missions depicting Operation: METEORITE. The skulls are in different locations to their equivalents in Anniversary due to the increased number of skulls and altered level layouts.

After players have found two skulls, they will unlock three additional skulls (Adaptation, Reload, and Armistice) as well as the Campaign Remix feature, which allows players to randomise weapon behaviours, enemy placements, player attributes, environmental effects, and more.

A specifically-curated selection of 17 skulls must be found in order to unlock the game's official LASO difficulty. Despite the name, Campaign Evolved's iteration of LASO does not require all 42 skulls to be enabled as unlike prior games many skulls now make the game easier. Details on LASO in Campaign Evolved can be found here.

List of new skulls

Adaptation

"Randomizes the enemy factions present in the mission."

Unlock requirement: Unlock any two skulls.
Effects: Randomises the spawns for enemy AI during campaign levels. Automatically enabled in Campaign Remix mode.

Armistice

"Enemy factions never fight one another."

Unlock requirement: Unlock any two skulls.
Effects: Aligns all enemy AI on the same team, so that Covenant, Flood, and Sentinels do not fight each other (particularly if spawned together via Adaptation skull). Automatically enabled in Campaign Remix mode.

Efficient

"Enemies killed while the player is at full health drop more ammo."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies drop more spare ammunition if killed when the player has full health.

Endurance Spec

"UNSC vehicles cannot be damaged."

Unlock location:
Effects: Changes the UNSC vehicles (the Warthog and Scorpion) so they can't be damaged, mimicking their behaviour in the original Combat Evolved.

Floor is Lava

"Take continuous damage whenever touching the "ground"."

Unlock location:
Effects: The player takes damage when they touch the floor.

Give & Take

"Firing your weapon drains your shield, but dealing damage to enemies recharges it."

Unlock location:
Effects:

Hip Fire

"All weapon zoom functionality is disabled."

Unlock location:
Effects: Mimics traditional Halo gameplay by disabling all weapon zoom functionality.

Johnny Ammo Seed

"When reloading you lose the ammo remaining in the discarded clip."

Unlock location:
Effects: Mimics the reload behaviour seen in tactical shooters, where discarding a magazine also means discarding any remaining rounds in that magazine.

Leadhead

"Headshots no longer provide extra damage or instant kills."

Unlock location:
Effects: Disables headshots.

Magnified

"AR holds 60-round magazines."

Unlock location:
Effects: Changes the magazine and firing properties of the Assault Rifle to mimic the original weapon in Combat Evolved.

Perspective

"Changes the player camera to third-person."

Unlock location:
Effects: Lets the player play in third-person.

The concept of a third-person skull was originally considered for inclusion in Halo 3: ODST.

Pop

"Shooting Flood in their weak point causes them to explode."

Unlock location:
Effects: Makes Flood enemies explode if shot in their weak points.

Reload

"Randomizes the pre-placed weapons for the mission."

Unlock requirement: Unlock any two skulls.
Effects: Randomises weapon placements on a mission. Automatically enabled in Campaign Remix mode.

Speed Limit

"Disables sprint."

Unlock location:
Effects: Disables sprint, mimicking traditional Halo gameplay.

Stowed Reload

"Weapons reload while stowed."

Unlock location:
Effects: Mimics the speedy reload exploit present in the original Halo: Combat Evolved; swapping weapons reloads them.

Temperamental

"Allies will attack the player more quickly if the player kills a friendly."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemy AI gets more aggressive when the player kills their allies.

List of Legacy skulls

Acrophobia

"The Corps: now issues rifles AND wings."

Unlock location:
Effects: Allows the player to fly by holding the jump button.

Angry

"Enemies fire their weapons faster and more frequently."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemy AI becomes more aggressive.

Bandana

"Infinite ammo and grenades."

Unlock location:
Effects: Grants the player unlimited ammo and grenades.

Black Eye

"Your shields will only recharge when you melee enemies."

Unlock location:
Effects: The player's energy shields only recharge when they melee enemies.

Blind

"HUD and weapons do not appear on screen."

Unlock location:
Effects: Disables the HUD and first-person weapon. This is distinct from the disable HUD option in the settings menu, which still leaves the weapon on-screen.

Boom

"Explosion radius is increased by 2x."

Unlock location:
Effects: Doubles explosion radius.

Catch

"Enemies throw and drop more grenades."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies throw and drop more grenades.

Cowbell

"Mass of all objects is reduced, making them more easily displaced."

Unlock location:
Effects: Objects weigh less, meaning they are flung further when moved.

Eye Patch

"All auto-aim is disabled for all weapons."

Unlock location:
Effects: Disables auto-aim.

Famine

"Weapons dropped by enemies contain half the ammo."

Unlock location:
Effects: All weapons dropped by enemies have their ammo reserves halfed.

Fog

"Motion tracker is disabled."

Unlock location:
Effects: Disables the motion tracker.

Foreign

"Players cannot use weapons from another faction."

Unlock location:
Effects: The player can only use human weapons (the Assault Rifle, Magnum, SMG, Battle Rifle, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Frag Grenade, and Rocket Launcher).

Ghost

"Enemies no longer flinch when taking fire."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies do not flinch when being shot.

Grunt Birthday Party

"Grunt headshots produce legendary celebrations."

Unlock location:
Effects: Grunts explode in a celebration and confetti when they die to a headshot.

Grunt Funeral

"Grunts die in a blaze of plasma."

Unlock location:
Effects: Grunts die in a Plasma Grenade explosion when killed.

Iron

"Dying in co-op resets you to your last checkpoint. Dying in solo restarts the level."

Unlock location:
Effects: Dying in co-op resets you to your last checkpoint. Dying in solo restarts the level.

IWHBYD

"It would have been your dialogue."

Unlock location:
Effects: NPCs play humorous dialogue more often.

Malfunction

"Upon respawn a random element of your HUD no longer appears."

Unlock location:
Effects: Elements of the HUD are randomly disabled upon respawn.

Mythic

"Enemies have increased health."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies have increased health.

Piñata

"Punching enemies makes them drop inert grenades."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies drop Plasma Grenades when melee'd.

Recession

"Every shot expends twice the normal amount of ammo."

Unlock location:
Effects: Every shot expends double the normal amount of ammo, effectively halving each weapon's magazine or battery capacity.

That's Just... Wrong

"Enemies have increased awareness of the player."

Unlock location: On the level 343 Guilty Spark, kill the Paranoid Marine early in the level. He drops the skull upon death.
Effects: Enemies are more easily able to detect the player.

They Come Back

"Flood Combat Forms reanimated by Infection Forms are much more dangerous."

Unlock location:
Effects:

Thunderstorm

"Upgrades the rank of most enemies."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies are promoted to higher ranks.

Tilt

"Enhances both positive and negative damage multipliers."

Unlock location:
Effects: Plasma weaponry becomes more effective at damaging energy shields and less effective at damaging health, and ballistic weapons experience the inverse.

Tough Luck

"Enemies always go berserk, constantly dive out of the way, and rarely run away from a fight."

Unlock location:
Effects: Enemies dodge out of the way of attacks more often.

Visual modifiers

The NightVision and Spore Visibility Visual Modifiers in action.

Additionally listed in the Skull menu are a new category, Visual Modifiers. These optional skulls are unlocked once Campaign Remix mode becomes available and can apply visual overhauls while playing the game. Only one Visual Modifier can be used at a time, and only in Remix mode.

Default

"No visual modifiers."

Unlock requirement: Default.
Effects: Default effect with no additional modifiers.

Nightvision

"Nightvision is always on."

Unlock requirement: Unlock any two skulls.
Effects: The entire level is blanked in a night vision effect like the one normally available for the Sniper Rifle scope. Enemies are outlined similar to VISR in Halo 3: ODST.

Spore Visibility

"Level visuals are blanketed in a heavy Floodified fog."

Unlock requirement: Unlock any two skulls.
Effects: The entire level is blanketed in Flood spores, reducing visibility at medium-long range.

Gallery

Icons

• 

  Skull.

• 

  Locked.

• 

  Revise (unused).

Miscellaneous

• 

  A Halo Studios developer texturing a skull in Substance Painter.

• 

  The high-poly ZBrush sculpt for the skull asset.

• 

  Artwork promoting skulls in Campaign Evolved.

• 

  Icons for all the skulls in Campaign Evolved.

• 

  Third-person view as enabled by the Perspective skull.

• 

  The Master Chief looking at the Grunt Funeral skull.

• 

  An Unggoy is killed with a headshot while the Grunt Birthday skull is enabled.

• 

  First-person view of John-117 holding a skull.