Halo 2 skulls

The Heretic Grunts dancing around the Grunt Birthday skull on the level The Arbiter.

Skulls are gameplay modifiers included in the Halo 2 campaign to modify gameplay experience or difficulty. Bungie first introduced skulls to the Halo series in Halo 2, and they have been included in every game since.

Skulls are collected by picking them up, as the player would a weapon, though there is no information text to wield a skull. Skulls' effects are only found in the game's campaign.

In the original Xbox game, once a skull is collected it is immediately activated (with the exception of IWHBYD); this activation is denoted by a white flash and a loud "whoosh" sound. The skull's effects then last until the console is restarted. The same is true of Halo 2 for Windows Vista, though the effects last until the game is restarted. In order to reactivate the skull, the player must find and collect the skull again.

In Halo: The Master Chief Collection the skulls are present, however they are not activated when they are collected (though the flash and "whoosh" are still present). Instead, skulls must be selected from the pre-game menu before beginning the level. The skulls are unlocked by default (along with a number of new skulls) and do not need to be found before they can be used, however each skull unlocks an achievement when collected, providing players motivation to seek them out.

Background

Every skull except for Blind and Assassins can only be found on Legendary difficulty (though on other difficulties the Assassins skull will have no effect). The Blind skull may be a very handy tool when recording video on the original Xbox, and, fortunately, is very easy to activate.

The skulls are mostly used by players to customize their gaming experience by manipulating the game-play engines with the various skull combinations. Each skull has various effects: Mythic increases enemy armor and shield strength greatly (Ultra Elites even require two overcharged Plasma Pistol bursts to compromise their shields); Thunderstorm changes all enemies to their highest rank; Envy allows the Master Chief to use Active Camouflage technology at the expense of his flashlight; and IWHBYD unlocks hidden dialog and causes the AI to interact verbally more often.

Campaign order

1. The Heretic: N/A
2. The Armory: That's Just... Wrong
3. Cairo Station: Thunderstorm
4. Outskirts: Blind & I Would Have Been Your Daddy
5. Metropolis: Catch
6. The Arbiter: Grunt Birthday Party
7. The Oracle: Famine
8. Delta Halo: Envy
9. Regret: Assassins
10. Sacred Icon: Mythic
11. Quarantine Zone: Sputnik
12. Gravemind: Anger
13. Uprising: Ghost
14. High Charity: Iron
15. The Great Journey: Black Eye

List of known skulls

This section is about the skulls in the 2004 game. For the skulls introduced in Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Eye Patch, Fog, Jacked, Masterblaster, Recession, So... Angry, Streaking, Swarm, They Come Back, Bandanna, Bonded Pair, Boom, Feather, Grunt Funeral, Malfunction, Piñata, Prophet Birthday Party, and Scarab skulls), see MCC:Skulls.

Anger

The Anger skull floating on the wall surrounding the first Valley of Tears in Halo 2.

Level: Gravemind

Difficulty: Legendary

Effects: Enemies and allies fire their weapons faster and more frequently.

Directions:

1. After saving both groups of Marines, the player reaches the first outdoor area with dirt and vegetation.
2. Take a right as entering the area and run up to the wall past the Gravity lift that leads up to the Covenant watchtower.
3. Get on top of the wall by going up the dirt mound on your left.
4. Follow the wall and an invisible Unggoy Heavy will spawn wielding a Pez'tk-pattern fuel rod gun. Kill him and reach the floating skull called "Anger".

Trivia: The skull floats above a Gravity Lift ring. This skull is treated as a "third" weapon rather than a pickup weapon. You can throw grenades (though there is no animation) and switch to primary and secondary weapons (though there is no side symbol, but a put-away animation).

Assassins

The Assassins skull flanked by two invisible Sangheili in Halo 2.

Level: Regret

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: All enemies in game are permanently cloaked. Allies can sometimes see them but mostly they can't, so they can't help much.

Directions:

1. Immediately after the first gondola ride (following the battle with the Mgalekgolo), you will arrive at a building with two turrets on it.
2. Enter the building and turn to your right.
3. Jump on the cube structure, then jump to the adjacent light fixture, then to the ledge. The ledge leads to the balcony with the two turrets.
4. Once there, use Grenade Jump to get onto the roof area. Then, using Crouch Jumps and/or Grenade Jumps, follow the right side perimeter of the building.
5. Once you have gone as far as you can go you will find a small grassy area with two Stealth Elites holding Energy Swords (one can be assassinated, the other cannot) in their "angry stance" and the Assassins skull between them.

Note: This skull also appears on any difficulty, and even on co-op play, but no Elites will be standing there, the flash and name will not appear, and the effect will not take place. If you betray two Marines in a row, they will turn against you and become cloaked.

Black Eye

The Black Eye skull on the top of the control room in Halo 2.

Level: The Great Journey

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: Your shield does not charge normally. To charge your shields you must kill something (enemy, ally, or turret) with a melee attack (anything but the Energy Sword). You can charge your shields into the Overshield range by doing this (one kill will charge 100% of your normal shields). Also activates subtitles during cut scenes. Additionally, this skull causes the falling snow in the multiplayer level Lockout to disappear.

Directions:

1. Progress through the level until you need to escort Sergeant Johnson's Scarab, to Installation 05's Control room.
2. Directly above the door that Johnson blows open with the Scarab is an angled beam. Land your Banshee on this beam and walk to the top of the beam.
3. Look down and to your left and you will see a circular angled wall. Jump onto this wall and walk to the top.
4. Walk straight along the right-hand side of this area.
5. You will have to jump over a small beam in front of you.
6. Continue walking straight until you come to a grassy area.
7. Keep walking up the grassy hill and go until you come to the point where can jump onto the angled support for the tower meets the grass.
8. Jump onto the support and walk up the support. It's a very steep climb, so jumping while you're going up the support speeds up the walk some.
9. At the first landing you will see the Black Eye skull sitting on a glowing white panel on the floor.

Blind

The Blind skull, four grenades, and a spotting scope in Halo 2.

Level: Outskirts

Difficulty: Any

Effect: Your heads-up display becomes invisible. In other words, you cannot see your weapon (unless it's the Energy Sword, which has a glitched appearance with this skull), body, shields, ammunition, motion tracker, or use your flashlight. Muzzle flare from weapons though, are still visible.

Directions:

1. Immediately at the beginning of the level, go through the door and kill the Unggoy there.
2. Backtrack and right above the first door you came through there is a light.
3. Crouch Jump onto that and either Crouch Jump or Grenade Jump again (Crouch jumping is easier), and you should be on the roof (or you can get the Sputnik skull and only use one grenade).
4. Look for a space between the two buildings, and go into it, at the end there should be four M9 fragmentation grenades, a spotting scope, and the skull in front of them.

Note: An interesting possible message left by Bungie is seen in the form of the frags and scope. Since the Blind skull is available on all difficulties, it is a sort of "trick skull", to trick players into thinking they have obtained the skull of the level, since a skull is obtainable in every other level (excluding The Heretic, which is an opening cut-scene). So, it could be here to divert players from finding the IWHBYD skull. Alternatively, the scope is meant to stand for the word "Look" and the four grenades stand for the word "For" which could make the message "Look for Skulls" ("Skull" is in reference to the Blind skull).