Gameplay

Difficulty

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Difficulty is an accessibility option that allows players to select their preferred level of combat challenge from a preset list. It uses a series of multipliers to scale the effectiveness of non player characters (NPCs) and the actions they can perform, in addition to various other potential changes.

Overview[edit]

Easy[edit]

Main article: Easy
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Normal[edit]

Main article: Normal
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Heroic[edit]

Main article: Heroic
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Legendary[edit]

Main article: Legendary
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Automatic[edit]

Exclusive to Halo Wars and true to its namesake, "Automatic" will dynamically scale the difficulty of NPC opponents based on the win rate of the player. Values range from 0 to 200, with 25, 50, 75, and 100 roughly being the equivalent of Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary respectively.[verification needed]

Difficulty-affecting Values[edit]

These are global multipliers of the mainline games that apply to all NPCs. Values under the "Health" section are split between Enemy AI and Friend AI, with Friend values also affecting Player characters. All other values apply to NPCs regardless of allegiance.

Health[edit]

"Scales values for enemy health and damage settings."[1]

  • Enemy Damage - "Enemy damage multiplier."
  • Enemy Vitality - "Enemy maximum body vitality scale."
  • Enemy Shield - "Enemy maximum shield vitality scale."
  • Enemy Recharge - "Enemy shield recharge scale."
  • Friend Damage - "Friend damage multiplier." Appears to go unused.
  • Friend Vitality - "Friend maximum body vitality scale."
  • Friend Shield - "Friend maximum shield vitality scale."
  • Friend Recharge - "Friend shield recharge scale."
  • Infection Forms - "Toughness of infection forms (may be negative).

Ranged Fire[edit]

"Difficulty-affecting values for enemy ranged combat settings."[1]

  • "Rate of Fire" - "Enemy rate of fire scale." Despite the name, this setting actually scales NPC projectile speed rather than weapon firerate.
  • Projectile Error - "Enemy projectile error scale, as a fraction of their base firing error."
  • Burst Error - "Enemy burst error scale; reduces intra-burst shot distance."
  • New Target Delay - "Enemy new-target delay scale factor."
  • Burst Separation - "Delay time between bursts scale factor for enemies."
  • Target Tracking - "Additional target tracking fraction for enemies."
  • Target Leading - "Additional target leading fraction for enemies."
  • Overcharge Chance - "Overcharge chance scale factor for enemies."
  • Special Fire Delay - "Delay between special-fire shots (overcharge, banshee bombs) scale factor for enemies."
  • Guidance vs Player - "Guidance velocity scale factor for all projectiles targeted on a player."
  • Melee Delay Base - "Delay period added to all melee attacks, even when berserk."
  • Melee Delay Scale - "Multiplier for all existing non-berserk melee delay times."

Grenades[edit]

"Difficulty-affecting values for enemy grenade behavior."[1]

  • Grenade Chance Scale - "Scale factor affecting the decisions to throw a grenade."
  • Grenade Timer Scale - "Scale factor affecting the delay period between grenade thrown from the same encounter (lower is more often)."


Disclaimer: below statistics are derived from unofficial tools and may be inaccurate

  • Grenade Detonation Timer Scale - "Scale factor affecting how long grenades will take before exploding." First introduced in Halo 5: Guardians.
  • Grenade Arming Timer Scale - "Scale factor affecting the minimum possible time before grenades explode."
  • Grenade Velocity Scale - "Scale factor affecting how fast grenades are initially thrown."

Disclaimer: end of disclaimer

Placement[edit]

"Difficulty-affecting values for enemy placement."[1]

  • Major Upgrade (normal) - "Fraction of actors upgraded to their major variant when mix = normal."
  • Major Upgrade (few) - "Fraction of actors upgraded to their major variant when mix = few."
  • Major Upgrade (many) - "Fraction of actors upgraded to their major variant when mix = many."

Vehicles[edit]

"Difficulty-affecting values for vehicle driving/combat."[2]

  • Player Vehicle Ram Chance - "Chance of deciding to ram the player in a vehicle." First introduced in Halo 2.
  • Trick Dodge Chance Scale - "Multiplies the chance that a flying vehicle will trick to dodge danger."[3] First introduced in Halo 4.


Disclaimer: all below statistics are derived from unofficial tools and may be inaccurate
  • Vehicle Boarding Chance Scale - "Enables a random dice roll for vehicle boarding (1.0 is the default behavior of no dice roll as long as all other conditions are met)." First introduced in Halo 5: Guardians.

Cover[edit]

"Difficulty-affecting values for cover and bunkering." First introduced in Halo 5: Guardians.

  • Hide Time - "Scalar for time spent in cover."
  • Shield Fraction Hide - "Scalar for what percentage shield left before entering cover behavior."
  • Cover Vitality Threshold - "Scalar for what percentage vitality left before entering cover behavior."
  • Bunker Open Duration - "Scalar for how long to stay open while bunkering."
  • Bunker Closed Duration - "Scalar for how long to stay closed while bunkering."

Global Kung Fu[edit]

First introduced in Halo Infinite.

  • Max Attackers

Threat Tokens[edit]

  • Max High Tokens
  • Max Low Tokens
  • Max Engagement Tokens

Grenade Tokens[edit]

  • Max Grenade Tokens
  • Min Grenade Tokens
  • Grenade Clump Threshold
  • Grenade Token Cooldown

Effectiveness Tokens[edit]

  • Max Effectiveness Tokens
  • Weapon Fidget Chance per Second

Co-op Difficulty Values[edit]

First introduced in Halo: Reach.

Vitality[edit]

"Scale values for enemy health and shield settings."[4]

  • Shield Recharge Delay - "Multiplier on enemy shield recharge delay."
  • Shield Recharge Timer - "Multiplier on enemy shield recharge timer."

Movement[edit]

"Scale values for enemy movement properties."[4]

  • Grenade Dive Chance - "Multiplier on enemy grenade dive chance."
  • Armor Lock Chance - "Multiplier on enemy armor lock chance."

Evasion[edit]

"Scale values for enemy evasion settings."[4]

  • Evasion Danger Threshold - "Multiplier on enemy evasion danger threshold."
  • Evasion Delay Timer - "Multiplier on enemy evasion delay timer."
  • Evasion Chance - "Multiplier on enemy evasion chance."

Shooting[edit]

"Scale values for enemy shooting settings."[4]

  • Burst Duration - "Multiplier on enemy shooting burst duration."
  • Burst Separation - "Multiplier on enemy shooting burst separation."
  • Damage Modifier - "Multiplier on enemy shooting damage modifier."

Projectile[edit]

"Scale values for enemy projectile settings."[4]

  • Projectile Speed - "Multiplier on the speed of projectiles fired by enemies."


Disclaimer: all below statistics are derived from unofficial tools and may be inaccurate
  • Grenade Throw Chance - "Scalar multiplier on chance AI will throw grenades." First introduced in Halo 5: Guardians.

Other[edit]

"Other coop difficulty values."

  • AI Upgrade Additional Chance - "Additional value on chance AI will upgrade (in addition to normal chance)."

Threat Tokens[edit]

First introduced in Halo Infinite.

  • Max High Tokens
  • Max Low Tokens
  • Max Engagement Tokens
  • Max Grenade Tokens
  • Max Effectiveness Tokens

Other Differences[edit]

Map Squad Counts[edit]

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Map Scripts[edit]

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Character Values[edit]

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Projectile Values[edit]

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Skulls[edit]

Main article: Skulls
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Scoring[edit]

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Production notes[edit]

[5]

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External links[edit]

Sources[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Halo: Combat Evolved Editing Kit, game file tags\globals\globals.globals
  2. ^ Halo 2 Editing Kit, game file tags\globals\globals.globals
  3. ^ Halo 4 Editing Kit, game file tags\globals\globals.globals
  4. ^ a b c d e Halo: Reach Editing Kit, game file tags\globals\globals.globals
  5. ^ Halo: Combat Evolved: Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets, page IX: "Before we implemented difficulty levels into Halo, we were balancing the game on the equivalent of Heroic level. From there we made "Normal" difficulty as easy as we could and still have an element of challenge. Next we made "Easy", which is what we call Grandma Mode. Finally, we added Legendary difficulty mode, which is what we wanted to be a challenge for us. Completing the game on Legendary difficulty is truly an accomplishment and rewards the player with an additional scene in Halo's ending." - Chris Butcher

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Difficulties in Halo
Halo 3 - Easy Symbol.png Easy • Halo 3 - Normal Symbol.png Normal • Halo 3 - Heroic Symbol.png Heroic • Legendary2.png Legendary • The Mythic difficulty icon for the Mythic Map Pack, cropped from this image. Mythic • GASO rank icon GASO
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