HINF:Pulse Carbine

Pulse Carbine
Gameplay role
Faction:	Covenant, Banished
Weapon tier (?):	Pickup weapon
Weapon class (?):	Assault Rifle
Effective range:	Close to medium
Counterparts:	Human (UNSC) Assault Rifle Commando Banished Needler
Gameplay stats
Damage:	Low
Damage type (?):	Plasma
Projectile speed:	Low
Rate of fire:	Medium
Variants and attachments
Halo Infinite variant(s):	Rapidfire Pulse Carbine

"Acquired from the independent artisan-armorers of Qikost, the Pulse Carbine fires controlled bursts of plasma with moderate tracking properties. Best used at short-to-mid range."

— Description

The Pulse Carbine is a Covenant assault rifle first introduced in Halo Infinite. Effective at close to medium ranges, it fires a burst of five projectiles which are capable of homing onto targets, dealing moderate plasma damage on impact.

Universe and lore

Main article: Erudo'ma'keth-pattern pulse carbine

The Erudo'ma'keth-pattern pulse carbine is a weapon developed by the and used by the military forces of the Covenant empire. After the empire's fall, production of the weapon resumed by the Elite Lodam Armory, and is now used by post-Covenant factions including the Banished.

Gameplay

Counterparts

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  Assault Rifle
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  Needler
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  Sentinel Beam

Campaign

The base Pulse Carbine and the Rapidfire Pulse Carbine in Halo Infinite.

The Pulse Carbine is a weapon commonly utilized by Elites and Brutes during the Infinite campaign. Functioning akin to a Needler, the Pulse Carbine is a ranged-shield shredder, being able to home in on enemies from further ranges than the former, while dealing damage comparable to an MA40 AR with each burst. Like most weapons, the Pulse Carbine can be restocked through ammunition boxes and through other dropped Pulse Carbines.

The base variant of the Pulse Carbine is one of the few weapons that is unable to be unlocked through Valor, or spawned at a Forward Operating Base; despite this, the Rapidfire Pulse Carbine variant is able to be.

Multiplayer

"Burst-firing plasma weapon effective at close to medium range. Projectiles track targets."

— Weapon Drills description

In multiplayer, this weapon functions near identically to its campaign counterpart, although it has a much higher damage output relative to higher difficulty AI present on Heroic and Legendary. Like the Needler, the Pulse Carbine's projectiles will home in on enemy targets when they're aimed at, however, while the Needler's tracking is indiscriminate, the Pulse Carbine's projectiles will track specific parts of an enemy's body when aimed at. This turns the Carbine into a functional precision weapon, with a single burst being enough to effectively deplete another player's shields and two having the potential to kill outright if the player aims at the head. Assuming good accuracy, the Pulse Carbine can kill in ten rounds fired between two bursts.

Like the Needler, these projectiles will track an enemy through walls provided they were fired upon achieving a lock, and they will also effectively ignore their strafes and crouches at range. The lock of the Pulse Carbine also doesn't require direct aim at an enemy, providing a generous area around the enemy for the user to aim around. While the Pulse Carbine's projectiles can reliably track and kill at extended ranges, the weapon's close quarters ability is hindered as the slower projectiles are both easier to dodge, as well as harder to achieve a lock with.

Like the other plasma weapons present in Infinite, the Pulse Carbine features a venting system that allows the player to immediately vent the heat generated by the weapon during an engagement. If the player doesn't do this and keeps firing the weapon, it will overheat in a conventional way, forcing the player to wait until the weapon cools down before it can be used again. Additionally, the Pulse Carbine features a 1.40x scope; like all other weapons featuring this zoom range, this scope doesn't suffer from descope when the player takes damage, making ranged engagements easier.

The Pulse Carbine is a pickup weapon that can be found on certain weapon pads. Whether or not the Pulse Carbine spawns is up to chance, as its weapon pads may offer an MA40 AR instead, depending on the random weapon pad configuration generated at the start of the match. This weapon may also be spawned with in unique modes such as Fiesta or Banished Slayer.

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  A Spartan wielding a customized Pulse Carbine on Live Fire.
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  A first-person view of a customized Pulse Carbine during a gunfight.