Medals

Medals are preset rewards in multiplayer or in the campaign that showcase special achievements that a player makes through the game, usually by killing opponents in a special way, a certain number of opponents at a time or in one life, or by achieving some objective. Medals appear in all Halo games except Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo Wars.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Multiplayer medals do not appear in their physical form in Halo: Combat Evolved, but some of their accomplishments are occasionally listed despite this. The announcer will announce Double Kills, Triple Kills, Killtaculars, as well as Killing Sprees and Running Riots. However, none of these medals have physical representations, and Xbox Live has no way of recording them as the game does not utilize Xbox Live.

Campaign medals, awarded for completing certain actions within the campaign, were originally intended to appear in the game, but were ultimately cut before release. They would have been more similar to Achievements rather than later campaign medals.

Halo 2

Main article: List of Halo 2 medals

Medals made their first real appearance in Halo 2. There are 23 medals available to win, which fit into four general categories; "Consecutive kills" are the streak of medals which acknowledge a number of kills within four second of each other. Double Kills for two, Triple Kills for three, Killtaculars for four, Kill Frenzies for five, Killtrocities for six, and Killmanjaros for seven kills. "Spree" medals are awarded for a number of kills a player achieves without dying. Killing Sprees are given for five kills in one life, Running Riots for ten, Rampages for fifteen, Berserkers for twenty, and Overkills for twenty five. The third Category is "special kills" and these are awarded on the basis of special ways a player kills another player. There is an award for killing players with Sniper Rifles, Anskum-pattern plasma grenades, vehicles, and melee attacks from the front and back. There is also a medal for making Carjackings.

Also, there are objective medals available in special gametypes. The CTF gametype has a medal for taking a flag, killing a person who has a flag, and returning a flag to your base. The Assault gametype has a medal for when a player plants a bomb and when they kill someone holding the bomb.

Most of these medals can be viewed in-game when they are earned, and also after the game in the post-game carnage report. Prior to the termination of Xbox LIVE support for the original Xbox console on April 15, 2010, Bungie kept track of the games played and medals earned, though there was no official record for players to keep track of how many medals they have earned throughout their careers. Because of this, sites such as Halo2junk which kept extensive records of player profiles and medals earned grew in popularity. Following the discontinuation of original Xbox online support, Halo 2 service records, both official and third-party, ceased to be updated.

Halo 3

Main article: List of Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST medals

With the release and announcement of Halo 3, medals was given a significant overhaul, more so than Halo 2. Most of those featured in Halo 2 reappeared in their original form, while many others have undergone a complete overhaul, and still more have been created. 42 Medals were introduced in the Halo 3 Beta and 56 were included in the final game. Medals were created for new gametypes such as VIP and to acknowledge special forms of kills, such as the kill with an Oddball or a Flag. Others are for scoring a point in an objective based game. Specialized spree kill medals were made to acknowledge kills with certain weapons, such as sniper rifles, shotguns and energy swords. In addition, special medals were created to be displayed only on Bungie.net showcasing certain achievements.

A Medal Chest was created on Bungie.net for Xbox LIVE accounts. The chest avidly kept track of all medals a player has won throughout their matchmaking and campaign career. On March 31, 2012 Bungie.net ceased updating Halo game stats and player records, transferring all record-keeping responsibilities to Halo Waypoint. Though players can still view their statistics compiled prior to that date, their Halo 3 service record is no longer updated.