Easy
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- "Your foes cower and fall before your unstoppable onslaught, yet final victory will leave you wanting more."
- — Description from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Halo: Campaign Evolved.
Easy is the first and least challenging difficulty setting present in mainline games within the Halo franchise. Easy is characterized by lower enemy counts, weaker enemy targeting of players, and the enemy's overall lower resistance to damage than higher difficulty settings.
Summary[edit]
The icon for the Easy difficulty setting is represented by a bare and unobstructed shield, other difficulties are represented by the same shield but with the addition of weapons and skulls laid across it. The shield originally featured the Marathon logo carved into its center, but has since been removed with the release of Halo: Reach. Easy is encouraged for players who are new to Halo and first-person shooters in general, and who want to learn the plot of the games without much challenge from the game's myriad of enemies. The Easy and Normal difficulty options feature additional control mapping tutorials to aid players, such as a look inversion test; these tutorials are skipped on Heroic and Legendary.
Achievements, Challenges, and Commendations will generally not progress on this difficulty. Additionally, collectibles such as skulls traditionally cannot be earned on Easy.
General differences[edit]
Notable differences on this difficulty in general include:
- NPCs deal reduced damage, have lower accuracy, and are less aggressive.
- NPC projectiles are slower with poorer tracking.
- NPCs rarely, if ever, throw grenades or overcharge plasma pistols.
- Low rank NPCs are common and higher ranks are rare.
- Easy otherwise shares much in common with Normal difficulty.
Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary[edit]
Difficulty values[edit]
| Difficulty setting | Easy value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Health | ||
| Enemy Damage | 0.3 | Enemy damage multiplier |
| Enemy Vitality | 0.6 | Enemy maximum body vitality scale |
| Enemy Shield | 0.6 | Enemy maximum shield vitality scale |
| Enemy Recharge | 0.5 | Enemy shield recharge scale |
| Friend Damage | 0.4 | Friend damage multiplier |
| Friend Vitality | 0.8 | Friend maximum body vitality scale |
| Friend Shield | 0.8 | Friend maximum shield vitality scale |
| Friend Recharge | 0.5 | Friend shield recharge scale |
| Infection Forms | -0.4 | Toughness of infection forms (may be negative) |
| Ranged Fire | ||
| Rate of Fire | 0.8 | Enemy rate of fire scale |
| Projectile Error | 0.75 | Enemy projectile error scale, as a fraction of their base firing error |
| Burst Error | 1.25 | Enemy burst error scale; reduces intra-burst shot distance |
| New Target Delay | 1.4 | Enemy new-target delay scale factor |
| Burst Separation | 1.2 | Delay time between bursts scale factor for enemies |
| Target Tracking | 0 | Additional target tracking fraction for enemies |
| Target Leading | 0 | Additional target leading fraction for enemies |
| Overcharge Chance | 0.2 | Overcharge chance scale factor for enemies |
| Special Fire Delay | 1.2 | Delay between special-fire shots (overcharge, banshee bombs) scale factor for enemies |
| Guidance vs Player | 0.5 | Guidance velocity scale factor for all projectiles targeted on a player |
| Melee Delay Base | 1.5 | Delay period added to all melee attacks, even when berserk |
| Melee Delay Scale | 2 | Multiplier for all existing non-berserk melee delay times |
| Grenades | ||
| Grenade Chance Scale | 0.2 | Scale factor affecting the decisions to throw a grenade |
| Grenade Timer Scale | 1.2 | Scale factor affecting the delay period between grenade thrown from the same encounter (lower is more often) |
| Placement | ||
| Major Upgrade (normal) | 0.15 | Fraction of actors upgraded to their major variant when mix = normal |
| Major Upgrade (few) | 0.05 | Fraction of actors upgraded to their major variant when mix = few |
| Major Upgrade (many) | 0.25 | Fraction of actors upgraded to their major variant when mix = many |
General differences[edit]
- Players and NPCs have reduced durability and shield recharge speed.
- NPCs have slower reaction times, do not lead shots, and are less likely to melee.
- Minor ranks have a small chance to spawn as their major ranks.
Specific differences[edit]
- The Pillar of Autumn: A unique version of Johnson's speech plays.[2]
- 343 Guilty Spark: Two additional shotguns are placed.[3]
- The Library: NPC spawn count is reduced down to 75%.[4]
- The Maw: An extra Hunter encounter is present.[5][verification needed]
