Halo 2 skulls

Summary
A Skull in Halo 2 is an easter egg left in by Bungie to make the game more challenging or interesting, or to unlock potentials that would otherwise remain hidden. There is no information text to wield a skull, as there is with a weapon, but it can be picked up just the same and its effect, ranging from making the game extremely difficult to letting one grenade jump higher than ever before, lasts until the Xbox is restarted (Or in Halo 2 Vista until the game is restarted), but do nothing outside of campaign. These skulls are hidden very far out of the normal path of the level, sometimes even backwards.

Every skull except the Blind Skull is only available in Legendary Difficulty. The Blind skull may be very handy tool when recording video, and, fortunately, is very easy to activate.

There are some discussions saying that activating all skulls will unlock a secret movie at the end like Halo: Combat Evolved (when you complete the last level on Legendary) or bring out more secret-revealing dialogue in the cut scenes. This has never been successfully tested. People curious about these unlocks have found a 15-letter code on the Halo 2 Soundtrack and thought this code was a specific order these skulls needed to be activated to unlock the secrets. This was not the case.

The Skulls are mostly used by players to customize their gaming experience by manipulating the gameplay engines with various skull combinations. The most fearsome Halo 2 players will be playing with skulls like a combination of Mythic and Thunderstorm, which increases enemy armor and shield strength greatly (Ultra Elites even require two overcharged plasma bursts to compromise their shields) and Thunderstorm, changing all enemies to their highest rank; Envy, which allows the Master Chief to use active camouflage technology at the expense of his flashlight; and IWHBYD, which unlocks hidden dialog and causes the AI to interact verbally more often.

Note: These items are not actually part of the Halo universe, but are just tidbits Bungie left in Halo 2.

Anger
Level: Gravemind

Directions: After you save both groups of marines, continue until you reach the first outdoor area with dirt and vegetation. Take a right as you enter this room and run up to the wall past the gravity lift that leads up to the sniper point. Get on top of the wall by going up the dirt mound on your left. Follow the wall, an invisible Gunner (green) Grunt will spawn wielding a Fuel Rod Gun, kill him and reach the floating skull called "Anger". Difficulty: Legendary

Effects: Enemies fire their weapons faster and more frequently.

Status: Confirmed

Trivia: The skull floats above a gravity lift ring. This skull is treated as a "third" weapon rather than a pickup weapon. You can throw grenades (though there is no animation) and switch to primary and secondary weapons (Though there is no side symbol, but a put-away animation).

Assassins
Level: Regret

Directions: Immediately after the gondola ride following the battle with the Hunters, there will be a building with two turrets on it. Enter the building and turn to your right. There will be a box, jump on it. From there jump to the adjacent light fixture, then to the ledge. The ledge leads to the area with the two turrets. Once there use a Grenade Jump to get onto the roof area, then, using Crouch Jumps and grenade jumps, follow the right side perimeter of the building. Once you have gone as far as you can go you will find a small grassy area with two cloaked Elites (that cannot be assassinated) in their "angry stance" and the Assassins skull between them.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: All enemies in game are permanently cloaked. Allies can't see them, so they can't help at all!

Status: Confirmed

Note: This skull also appears on any difficulty, but no elites will be standing there, the flash and name will not appear, and effect will not take place. If you kill a lot of marines they will turn against you and become cloaked.

Black Eye
Level: The Great Journey

Directions: Eventually you have to escort the Sarge who is in a Scarab. Follow him along until you see the huge compound in front of you. Directly above the door that the Sarge blows open with the Scarab is an angled beam. Land your Banshee on this beam and walk to the top of the beam. Look down and to your left and you will see a circular angled wall. Jump onto this wall and walk to the top. Walk straight along the right-hand side of this area. You will have to jump over a small beam in front of you. Continue walking straight until you come to a grassy area. Keep walking up the grassy hill and go until you come to the point where can jump onto the angled support for the tower meets the grass. Jump onto the support and walk up the support. It's a very steep climb, so jumping while you're going up the support speeds up the walk some. At the first landing you will see the Black Eye skull sitting on a glowing white panel on the floor.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: Your shield does not charge normally. To charge your shields you must kill something (enemy or ally) with a melee attack (anything but the Energy Sword). You can charge your shields into the Overshield range by doing this. Also activates subtitles during cut scenes. Additionally, this skull causes the falling snow in the multiplayer level Lockout to disappear.

Status: Confirmed

Blind
Level: Outskirts

Directions: At the beginning of the level, Cortana will ask you if you are alright (depending on difficulty level). When you can move walk straight to the left where you can enter the court yard but don't enter. Kill the grunt around the corner. If you look up there is a ledge above a door. crouch-jump up onto the ledge (this is easier by looking straight up and judging where you are and then jumping) and then crouch-jump, or grenade jump up to your left onto another ledge. Go directly left down a small shaft to find the blind skull along with frags and a scope. Difficulty: Any difficulty

Effect: Your HUD becomes invisible. In other words, you cannot see your weapon (unless it's the Energy Sword, which has a glitchy appearance with this skull), body, shields, ammo, motion tracker, or use your flashlight. However, well experienced players should be able to accurately judge where they are aiming with ease. Also, enemies can still spot you, this skull serves no tactical advantage whatsoever, although hitting enemies with the skull should kill them with only two or three hits. The effects of this skull will last until you turn off the Xbox. Oddly, you can still see the shadow of your weapon, even the blind skull itself.

Extra Information

An interesting possible message left by Bungie is seen in the form of the frags and scope. There are four frags, and the scope, which could be interpreted as "foresight". Also, since the blind skull is available on all difficulties, it is a sort of "trick skull", to make you think you've obtained the skull of the level, since every other level (excluding The Heretic, which is an opening cutscene) has one, obtainable on legendary only. So, it is meant to stop you from getting the I Would Have Been Your Daddy skull.

Status: Confirmed

Catch
Level: Metropolis

Directions: Right after you exit from the underground highway, you'll come to a large open-air circular room with a handful of Jackal snipers and some Elites. The quickest way to get safely to the skull is to get the next checkpoint by jumping into the Warthog and letting the Marine drive you to the next area. Jump out of the warthog and backtrack to the large room, and clear the area. Or you can get your warthog from the bridge and just run right through the platforms and the other part until you reach the place where you find the wraiths attacking the building where the marines are (but you don't have to fight them) and then go back and the enemies will be gone when you go back. You will see a large semi-circular beam going from one of the main platforms that goes from the ground up to the top of the two towers. Do a grenade jump at the bottom of this beam and walk all the way to the top. Jump over to the ledge of the left tower. Walk to the end of the ledge and you will find the Catch skull. The Sputnik Skull may be helpful if you have trouble grenade jumping.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: A.I. will throw more grenades. Also, everybody (allies and enemies) will drop two grenades.

Status: Confirmed

Envy
Level: Delta Halo

Directions: Progress through Delta Halo until you come to an area with a large central structure that has a multitude of columns. This is the area where Cortana tells you that they are all pouring out of the middle. When you first get into this area, you have to go left, and there is a ramp on the left that goes up and then back down. Get on this ramp and continue up the wall until you are on the landing where there will be (or used to be) some plasma turrets. Follow this landing all the way to it's end, and you'll see a door that is blocked off by a large stone. Jump on top of the stone, and jump again to get on a thin ledge. Make sure you're up against the left wall, and grenade jump up to the top of the wall to your left. Once you're on this wall, you'll see that the right wall ends and there is some earth behind it. Jump onto the dirt, and follow the stone wall all the way to the top. When you're on the top of this wall, you can look down towards the center and you should see two cloaked Elites repeating their "angry stance" towards each other with the Envy skull between them. (Note: they will not attack you, even if you shoot at them.)

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: The Master Chief now has an active camouflage device just like the Arbiter's. However, there is no visible timer, so remember: 5 second cloak with 10 second recharge on legendary (the recharge and cloak times are shorter and longer respectively on easier difficulties). To fully exploit the effects of this skull, execute the Permanent invisibility glitch.

Status: Confirmed.

Famine
Level: The Oracle

Directions: After you get off of the slowly descending elevator, you will come to a hallway where you see a handful of dead bodies. Continue into the next room, and you will be on the second floor of a room that has a lot of glass windows. When you enter this room, look to the right, and find the third pane of glass. It should be to the right of a wall that has some flood guts splattered on it. Shoot out this window, and the windows directly across the room. If you look below you, you will see a platform that has four tall posts. On the far side of the room there is a column that is right in between the two windows on the far side of the room. Turn on your active camo, and jump to the center platform. Jump on either of the posts on the far side of the platform and jump to the column between the windows. Make another jump through the window you shot out, and make a left. Walk all the way to the end and you'll find four Combat Form Elites convulsing on the floor, with the Famine skull in the middle of them. Sometimes, the combat forms nearest to the battle field stands up, but it does not attack.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: All dropped weapons have half ammo. Weapons that spawned on the floor or spawned with are unaffected.

Status: Confirmed

Ghost
Level: Uprising

Directions: Immediately after the armory room that is full of Covenant and human weapons, there is an L shaped room. Grenade jump using a Ghost up to the rafters of this room, and you will find the skull over a doorway. Or, if you are playing co-op, get a box from the weapon room, and have one player stand on the box, then have the other player stand on the first player's head, have player 2 crouch-jump on to the ledge and grab the skull.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: AI characters will not flinch from attacks, melee or otherwise.

Status: Confirmed

Grunt Birthday Party
Level: The Arbiter

Directions: The very first time you get a Banshee, fly down. Below you is a large beam-like structure (not to be confused with the one directly below you that turns and goes vertical) running from the arm of the station you just came out of to one exactly like it on the side opposite. Below this structure are 3 cylinders hanging down, with cylinders of light shooting out of the bottom(And the sides.). They look like they are what keeps the station floating. If this explanation is too vague, they are the absolute lowest parts of the station. Now go to the middle engine and land on the top part of it. This and the other engines connect to the large structure mentioned earlier. The tops of the engines come up to meet the structure at an angle, where this angle is under the connecting structure and coming up to meet it, there is a place to walk (like being under a bridge). Under one side you will see the six Heretic Grunts dancing in a circle around the Skull.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: Headshots turn into Plasma Grenade explosions. You must first take down an Elite's shield for this to work on one. You also need to shoot brutes twice (if they don't have a helmet, you only need to shoot them once) in the head for this to work. You can also give a headshot to a dead body and it will still explode. This skull doesn't affect Hunters, Drones or Sentinels. Keep in mind the Flood's 'head' is actually their sensory antennae, so you need to shoot them in the chest area. Note: you can combine this with the Sputnik skull, this will make the explosions really powerful and amusing. (It is also A LOT easier to obtain with the Sputnik skull.)

Status: Confirmed

I Would Have Been Your Daddy (IWHBYD)
Level: Outskirts

Directions:This is by far the hardest skull to obtain. For the skull to spawn at all, ALL previous checkpoints must be obtained.You CAN progress through the level normally to get IWHBYD, but the easiest way is as follows. From the beginning of "Outskirts", run into the first hallway. A single grunt will confront you. Look overhead. You will see two lights on either side of the hallway. Jump on to one of them, and then crouch jump up to the higher platform. From there turn around and run along the thin ledge to the right of the alleyway below. Across from it, you will see another platform. Jump to it, then Grenade jump onto yet another higher level. From there, look left and you will see a nearby rooftop, jump to it; go to the right and head down that alley, where you'll be able to jump onto the higher rooftop. Head to the top left corner and wait for two checkpoints to pass. DO NOT MOVE FROM THAT SPOT UNTIL THEN! After the second checkpoint when the Pelican leaves, look to the right where the Pelican first spawned, and jump down onto the bridge below. Grenade jump onto the rooftop ahead and run forward until you reach the next checkpoint WITHOUT FALLING OFF THE ROOFTOPS (this might be difficult). Backtrack to where you first jumped onto the rooftop in front of the bridge and head left towards where the Pelican leaves. Run along the rooftops until you reach the flat part of the bridge and jump down. Jump from the bridge into the alley below and run up the cement ramp. Turn right and you'll see some boxes. Jump onto them and get onto the roof to your left. From there, look right and jump onto THAT rooftop. Head to your left. You should be on the OTHER SIDE sniper alley, facing a small bridge where a Jackal Sniper spawns. Head to the right and you'll see two interconnecting balconies. Head to the one furthest from you, and go through the door. If you've done things right, you'll see the skull between a sniper and some ammo. Be warned, the skull will ONLY appear if you've obtained ALL PREVIOUS CHECKPOINTS! There is also a checkpoint IN the skull's room, so run ALL the way into the room. Note: the skull only appears every seven times. If you want to save the skull (in case you fail in the fight with the Elites) You should exit the room and proceed to get another checkpoint. Save and quit. Restart and go back to room with the skull. It will always be there. When you grab the skull, you'll be teleported into the alley. You'll have only a Plasma Pistol, and must fight off seven waves of Ultra Elites (wave one starting with one and so on). Note: this is a LOT easier with the permenant invisibility glitch. If you die in the alley with no checkpoint after the checkpoint in the skull room, there will be several white flashes, you will be reverted to the checkpoint in the skull room, the skull will disappear and will not take effect. Also, if you attempt to escape the alley, you will get teleported to the Elites position and lose all your collected weapons. Once you kill all seven waves, the skull will become active.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: Fight 7 waves of Ultra Elites. The rarity of combat dialog is changed, rare lines become far more common but common lines are still present at their normal rate.

Status: Confirmed

Trivia: The skull is named after a Sergeant Johnson quote sometimes heard in Assault on the Control Room: "I would have been your daddy, but the dog beat me over the fence!" Sergeant Stacker also occasionally says this on the Silent Cartographer. The first chapter of Assault on the Control Room is also named "I Would Have Been Your Daddy...". It may also be referred to IWHBYD.

Iron
Level: High Charity

Directions: When you enter the final (the second) Gravity Lift, look up. A skull will pass through you extremely quickly so you must start holding X a bit before you actually pass it to grab hold of it.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: When playing co-op, if either player dies the game restarts you at your last checkpoint. The effect resembles the effect already in place on legendary difficulty.

Status: Confirmed

Mythic
Level: Sacred Icon

Directions: There is a semi outdoor area which has the same type of area right next to it. There is an Enforcer in front of each one. Go past this area and down the piston and you'll be in a very dark and dank Flood infested area. There's a stack of 6 or 7 boxes as you enter the room. Use them to jump up to the landing above. There are a handful of alcoves on your right hand side. The skull is in the third alcove, floating above a dead human Flood.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: Enemies have more health and shielding, and are therefore harder to kill. Note: health and shielding increase more as the enemies rise in rank. A red Grunt will not gain as much health as a white Grunt. Similarly, a blue Minor Elite will gain a small bit of health, but an Ultra Elite will gain a ridiculous amount of both shielding and health, to the point that a Plasma Overcharge won't drop their shields even halfway. Besides that, it also makes your allies gain a small bit of health, and the skull will make allies immune to melees.

Note: For those who like a challenge, combine with the Thunderstorm skull.

Status: Confirmed

Sputnik
Level: Quarantine Zone

Difficulty: Legendary

Directions: At the start of the level, look directly behind you for an Elite. Slightly further to left of it is a tunnel. Enter the tunnel and go near after you exit the tunnel go straight toward the rock wall at the end of the cliff, on the left of the bridge look down it then look left. Hug the wall (Just enough room for you) until you get to the end of the cliff, and you will see the Sputnik Skull floating in the middle of nowhere.

Effect: The mass of certain objects is severely reduced, making them fly farther when smacked with a melee hit, or when they are near an explosion. Weapon damage seems to have strengthened slightly. It also has the added effect of making enemies turn around when you hit them, allowing you to kill them in two hits. With the Sputnik Skull's effect in place, players can reach nearly impossible places and much higher altitudes using grenade jumps. Also, your melee has strengthed force.

Status: Confirmed

Thunderstorm
Level: Cairo Station

Directions: In the large room after the armory, you need to use a crouch-jump to get onto a light fixture on the right wall (right of the room when you enter) and then jump from there onto the higher area. There is a series of diagonal beams. Walk up one near to the end of it and use it to duck-jump onto one of the rails. You can fall between the rails, so be careful. Once on the rail, walk down it until you can jump onto the highest platform. Then melee the trashcan away from the wall a few times, the Skull is right behind it.

Alternate Directions:It is possible to Grenade Jump up to the platform if you can't stay on the rails.The Sputnik Skull helps a lot here, but its possible without it.Just get on the ground near the platform the skull is on and Grenade Jump. You also don't need to melee the trashcan out of the way,but meleeing it out of the way reveals a interesting hidden object.Near the skull is a burning cigar that looks like the type of cigar Sergeant Johnson is seen useing.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: All Elites (Except Ranger, Honor Guards, Stealth, Councilors, Zealots and Spec-Ops), Grunts (Except Gunner and Spec-Ops), Jackals (Except Snipers), and Brutes (except Honor Guards) become their highest rank. All Covenant Flood forms have shields and all Sentinels are golden and have shields (Except for those in The Arbiter and The Oracle).

Status: Confirmed

Unnamed skull
Level: The Armory

Directions: At the beginning of the level, after you power your shields for the first time, Sergeant Johnson shows up on an elevator. Wait in the room until the Sarge starts berating you, telling you to get into the elevator. You MUST wait for him to say "Would it help if I said please?" (this takes approximately 4 min. 40 seconds.) Once he says this, get in the elevator, and go down to the tram. Get on the tram, and face towards the INSIDE of the building. Press up against the glass doors towards the inside of the building. You should hold X down, and you should pick up the skull. It's on a stack of crates, near the end of the tram ride.

Difficulty: Legendary

Effect: The Unnamed Skull strengthens the Artificial Intelligence of both allies and enemies. Enemies will notice the slight shimmer of active camouflage, your characters shadow (whether playing as Master Chief or The Arbiter), the sound of you reloading your weapon, taking out your weapon, footsteps, ect. All computer controlled characters have better accuracy, and will no longer blow themselves up with a Rocket Launcher, Fuel Rod Cannon or Brute Shot. Status: Confirmed.

Trivia

 * The file in the H2 code nicknames the Unnamed skull 'Whuppopotamus', although no name for the skull appears in-game. It has been called the "Monkey Skull", Hide-and-Seek Skull," "Please Skull," "Find Me Skull," and "Cowbell Skull", though. But still nothing official. Cowbell is also the name of a skull in Halo 3.
 * The skulls are used to vary the game a little bit, and the effect of them will go away once you turn off your Xbox, or go to the dashboard on your 360 (or, in Vista, quit out of Halo 2.)
 * The IWHBYD skull is actually easier to complete with the Envy skull and activating the permanent invisibility glitch, especially against the 7 waves of Elites
 * The Unnamed Skull and the Sputnik Skull are the easiest to get because you don't have to fight any hostiles to get them.
 * The Blind skull is the only skull that does not only appear on the Legendary difficulty.
 * The Assassins skull is found in any difficulty except it won't give you the effect, but it could still be used as a melee wepon.
 * There are numbers found on top of every skull you find.
 * Rumors say that you can get the name of the Unnamed skull to appear.
 * There is a small symbol on the back of each skull. For the oddball, it is a miniature "bullseye."
 * Only the Sputnik, Angry, and Mythic skulls are found floating in mid-air.
 * Only the Grunt Birthday Party, Famine, Envy, and Assassins have characters around them that relate to name/effect.
 * Some elites in the seven waves of Ultra Elites you fight are wielding SMGs and Battle rifles.
 * The Cowbell Skull practically has the same effect as the Sputnik Skull from Halo 2 (explosive force increased), it has just been renamed.
 * In The Halo games (2&3), when you pull RT you drop the skull.
 * A skull's melee power is the same as firing a shot gun.

Campaign Order

 * 1) The Heretic: N/A
 * 2) The Armory: Unnamed Skull
 * 3) Cairo Station: Thunderstorm
 * 4) Outskirts: Blind & I Would Have Been Your Daddy
 * 5) Metropolis: Catch
 * 6) The Arbiter: Grunt Birthday Party
 * 7) The Oracle: Famine
 * 8) Delta Halo: Envy
 * 9) Regret: Assassins
 * 10) Sacred Icon: Mythic
 * 11) Quarantine Zone: Sputnik
 * 12) Gravemind: Anger
 * 13) Uprising: Ghost
 * 14) High Charity: Iron
 * 15) The Great Journey: Black Eye