Covenant Temple

This article is about the structure built on Covenant occupation citadels. For other uses of "Temple", see Temple (disambiguation).

Three Covenant temples, each in their respective Age.

The temple is a cultural and scientific structure that can be built on a Covenant Citadel. It primarily serves as the Covenant counterpart to the Armory, Field Armory, and War Council structures used by the UNSC and Banished, respectively.

Overview

The temple provides a location within the Citadel for the San'Shyuum to meditate or study Forerunner artifacts; it is also where they make battle plans against humans.

In-game information

Halo Wars

The fully upgraded Temple in-game in Halo Wars.

"Temples allow the Covenant to access advanced buildings, units and technology upgrades."

— In-game description

In Halo Wars, the Covenant Temple costs 0 and 500 to be built; only one Temple can be built at any time. It is the Covenant equivalent to the UNSC Reactor and Field Armory.

The most important function of a Temple is its upgrades that increases the player's Tech level—framed in-universe as the progression of the Covenant's "Age". Much like the Reactor, building the Temple increases the playerls Tech level to 1; unlike the Reactor, however, subsequent Tech levels are increased by purchasing upgrades, with the Temple changing its appearance with each upgrade. If the temple is destroyed, the Tech level returns to 0, though it can be restored to its previous level once another Temple is built.

When the Temple is built, the Leader unit is automatically added to the battlefield. Leader units can be rebuilt if they are killed, and their abilities can be upgraded from the Temple as well.

Name	Type	Cost			Description
		Population	Tech	Resources
All Leaders
Age of Doubt	Upgrade	N/A	0	1,000	Improves all Covenant technology.
Age of Reclamation	Upgrade	N/A	0	2,000	Improves all Covenant technology.
Forerunner Shield	Upgrade	N/A	2	500	Augmented with even more repurposed Forerunner technology, all Covenant shields now recharge much faster.
Medium Turret	Upgrade	N/A	1	500	Upgrades all Turrets to Medium Turrets, increasing their hitpoints and damage.
Large Turret	Upgrade	N/A	2	800	Upgrades all Turrets to Medium Turrets, increasing their hitpoints and damage.
Followers	Upgrade	N/A	3	800	Increase the maximum size of your army by 10.
Arbiter
Arbiter	Leader	1/1	0	400	Leader of the Covenant forces, the Arbiter is equipped with dual plasma swords for uber-melee death.
Fiendish Return	Upgrade	N/A	1	400	The Arbiter reflects some incoming damage back to his attacker.
Vicious Blades	Upgrade	N/A	2	600	The Arbiter reflects even more damage and has stronger attacks himself.
Ghastly Vision	Upgrade	N/A	3	900	The Arbiter becomes permanently cloaked and increases reflected damage even more.
Defiant Rage	Upgrade	N/A	1