Armor abilities
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Armor abilities are gameplay items introduced in Halo: Reach, and featured in Halo 4, Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike. Similar to the equipment of previous games, armor abilities are reusable pickups that grant a player various support abilities. They were replaced in Halo 5: Guardians by the universally-available Spartan abilities.
Universe and lore[edit]
Armor abilities the form of modular plug-in modules developed by the United Nations Space Command, Covenant, and Forerunners. They are generally mounted at the base of a given soldier's back, and tweak their power armor's performance or enable the suit to interface with new hardware. For the UNSC, armor abilities are used by MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, while for the Covenant, they are used on Sangheili harnesses or Jiralhanae armor; Forerunner armor abilities are used by Promethean Knights.[1]
In the case of MJOLNIR armor, attaching and using alien-derived plugins is relatively trivial and something that can be accomplished with a software patch administered by a suit's Smart AI.[2] Armor abilities attached to a MJOLNIR suit sync with a Spartan's neural network to improve their armor's abilities or even integrate new components. As of 2552, the UNSC had yet to fully explore Covenant plugin modules, though suspected they worked similarly to their own designs, using dummy modules or terminator plugs.[1]
Gameplay[edit]
Armor abilities are an alteration of Halo 3's equipment. Instead of being single-use, each ability is reusable, with a cooldown time between uses. In Halo: Reach campaign, the player begins with the sprint armor ability at the start of each level, and is able to swap it with other armor abilities they may come across. In multiplayer, armor abilities can be chosen through loadouts before a match is started or during a player's respawn time. Armor abilities can be manipulated like weapons in Forge.[3]
Most armor abilities are enabled by a small device attached to the user's lower back, with each ability displaying a different color. When not in use, these devices will project a hologram that displays the icon of the ability, allowing for quick recognition from a distance or when switching abilities. When players are killed, the armor abilities will not be dropped.
All armor abilities are rendered useless to players when transporting objects such as Flags and Oddballs. If players attempt to use an armor ability, the object simply drops out of their hands. In custom games, the cooldown time can be altered and the ability to use armor abilities while holding objectives can be added.
List of armor abilities[edit]
| Armor Ability | Effect | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Active camouflage provides players temporary invisibility for a duration of 15 seconds, similar to the Arbiter's active camouflage feature from Halo 2.[4] Its pick-up color is cyan and fully recharges from a complete depletion in 15 seconds. When activated, the player becomes invisible, with all sound heavily muffled for the duration of the effect. The ability loses its invisibility effect when the player moves at a certain pace: if the player starts running, they become more visible. Active camouflage also includes a Radar jammer function where it will spawn a multitude of false dots on players' motion trackers within 25 meters. | |||
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Armor lock, sometimes referred to as Armor Lockup, is an ability that overcharges the player's energy shield, preventing the user from taking any damage. This ranges from repelling incoming explosive projectiles and removing Anskum-pattern plasma grenades to disabling, damaging or even destroying incoming vehicles. However, in doing so, the player is immobile and cannot perform any act. Once depleted, the armor ability discharges a short-range EMP blast effect and pushes players away from the user. Armor lock can be activated for a maximum duration of 5 seconds. After a delay of 3 seconds, the armor ability will recharge for 11 seconds to a fully-charged state. The armor ability varies with how long the ability is used; the longer the player activates the ability, the farther the final EMP blast radius will be. The technology was first developed by the Covenant for use on Elite combat harnesses, but was adapted for use by Spartan personnel.[5] In Halo: Reach, the ability is usable by the Spartans, Elites and Brutes and is enabled through a shielding attachment found behind the user's armor. Its pick-up color is orange. | |||
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The drop shield provides players a spherical energy shield that also regenerates their health. In a way, it functions similarly to a bubble shield,[6] a deployable cover and a regenerator. While having similar appearance as the bubble shield, the drop shield is not entirely invincible - the strength of the shield is approximately three times that of a standard energy shielding system - and will deactivate when the damage reaches a certain threshold. The damage is represented in color stages from blue to red, similar to the deployable cover. Additionally, unlike the bubble shield however, plasma grenades will stick to the surface of the shield.[7] The Drop Shield does not regenerate players' health any faster than normal. Rather, it simply enables the player to regenerate his/her health to full at a similar rate to the base health regeneration rate. Thus, the faster the player's base health regeneration is, the faster the Drop Shield regenerates it. If the health recharge rate is set to 0%, then the armor ability will not regenerate players' health at all. The drop shield expires and deactivates once the armor ability meter is at 3/4 full, after 15 seconds, unless it is prematurely deactivated from damage as previously stated.[8] A new drop shield can be deployed 20 seconds after the first one was deployed, giving a 5-second window where the player is exposed. Damaging a drop shield will not reduce its lifespan unless it is completely destroyed. Also, a damaged drop shield will, if no further damage is done, repair the damage and return to full strength. The drop shield is available on the Medic loadout. Its pickup color is blue. | |||
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The Evade ability allows the player to roll in any direction to avoid danger, breaking enemy lock-ons and tracking in the process. Players can evade two times before having to wait 4 seconds for the ability to recharge. Its pickup color is purple. The Evade ability is provided by a "plug" attached to an Elite's armor, desc |