Blaze of Glory

This article is about the REQ variant of the M45D Tactical Shotgun in Halo 5: Guardians. For the Halo: Reach achievement, see Blaze of Glory (achievement).

"Advanced technology married to brutal simplicity. Advanced Shotgun with Forerunner mechanism to fire fast-moving hardlight projectiles with extra range and anti-vehicle effect. Reloads with a single shell."

- In-game description

The Blaze of Glory is a special variant of the M45D Tactical Shotgun.

Design details
The Blaze of Glory is a named variant of the M45D Tactical Shotgun, upgraded to use the Kinetic Bolts attachment for extra damage and knockback against vehicles and longer overall range, as well as a quick single-shell reload and a higher rate of fire. It is described as the result of advanced technology combined with brutal simplicity.

The Blaze of Glory's chassis is based on that of the normal M45D, but recolored white with red and dark green stripes decorating the front barrel, main body above the fore-end, trigger area, and rear stock, as well as white UNSC logos above the fore-end and dark green falcon emblems above the trigger area.

Service history
During the raid on Argent Moon in October 2558, Blue Team discovered a copy of the weapon in an area before the catwalk to Argent Moon's Central Control. Since then, the weapon has been integrated into the 's War Games simulations for use by Spartan-IVs.

Halo 5: Guardians
The Blaze of Glory is a special weapon that can be found in the campaign mission Blue Team. This weapon is very useful against the Mgalekgolo pair in the laboratory.

The Blaze of Glory is a Level 4 Rare REQ that grants 100 REQ Points when sold. It operates identically to a normal Shotgun, except with the addition of Kinetic Bolts to augment the weapon with greater overall range (15.45 m (50.69 ft) in hipfire, 26.01 m (85.33 ft) with Smart-Link ) and extra anti-vehicular attributes that include stronger knockback against vehicles. It carries a single-shell reload as well, effectively reducing reload times by 50.5%. These improvements make the Blaze of Glory even more fatal against anything up to 16.95 m (55.61 ft) away than other Shotguns, especially as its knockback allows players to slow down moving vehicles like Warthogs, Scorpions, Ghosts, and Wraiths to facilitate hijacking/ boarding action or even further attacks on the vehicle. In addition, it can even destroy light vehicles in as little as 3 shells. As the weapon is equipped with the Kinetic Bolts attachment, any targets killed with the weapon disintegrate upon death in the same manner as a Promethean Knight. Its closest competitors at close and medium range are The Answer and Didact's Signet.

In tandem with Active Camo, the Blaze of Glory can turn its wielder into a single-unit base assault/defense machine in Warzone as they can crouch-walk close to hostiles and incinerate them with a single shell.

By comparison, the Blaze of Glory is superior over the Oathsworn in every performance aspect, although it lacks the built-in Speed Boost of the latter.

Changes from the M45D Tactical Shotgun

 * Uses the Kinetic Bolts attachment for extra damage and knockback against vehicles.
 * Disintegrates targets when they are killed with the weapon.
 * Greater overall range.
 * Faster rate of fire.
 * Reloads with one shell. Reloading time reduced to 1.93 seconds.
 * When fired in first person, it makes the sound of a zoomed-in LightRifle.

List of appearances

 * Halo 5: Guardians