Armor abilities

Armor Abilities are exclusive gameplay enhancements featured in Halo: Reach.

Overview
Armor Abilities feature is a refined version of Halo 3's Equipment feature where instead of being used once, each ability is reusable, with a cooldown time between uses. These can be accessed through each Loadout before a match is started or during your respawn time. For campaign, the player begins with Sprint at the start of each mission, and is able to swap it out at certain locations. Armor Abilities can be dropped or picked up like weapons in Forge and Campaign.

Most of the abilities are enabled by a small device attached to the user's lower back, with each ability having a different color, most likely for friendly forces or players to tell which ability the person in question is using at the time. When not in use, these devices will project a hologram that displays the icon of the ability, allowing for quick recognition when switching abilities.

All Armor Abilities are rendered useless to players when transporting objects such as Flags and Skulls. If players attempt to use an 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.

Active Camouflage
The Active Camouflage provides players the ability of Active Camouflage for a period of time, similar to the Arbiter's active camo from Halo 2. Its pick-up color is cyan.

When activated, the player would achieve invisibility with all sound heavily muffled for 40 seconds. However, this only applies when the player does not move from his/her location, or that the player is walking slowly. If a player runs with Active Camouflage activated, they become much more visible and their Active camouflage would deplete completely in just 15 seconds. It fully recharges from a complete depletion in 15 seconds.

A secondary feature of the active camouflage is its ability to function as a Radar Jammer. A large number of hostile red dots will appear on the motion tracker, randomly moving and changing height. The secondary feature has a radial effect up to 25 meters, capable of disrupting the player's radar as well those of their enemies. Though this feature should not affect allies, it can sometime jam their radars too.

Armor Lock
Armor Lock, sometimes referred to as Armor Lockup, is an ability that provides the player's shield with a massive boost, preventing the user from taking any damage, acting similar to Halo 3's Invincibility, however the player is immobile and cannot act while invulnerable. The technology was developed for use on Elite combat harnesses, but was adopted for use by Spartan personnel. 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 pickup color is orange.

The Armor Lock 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. When deactivated, it sends out an EMP blast to nearby enemies, and pushes them away from the player before emerging. Any Plasma Grenades sticking to the user are removed upon activation. The ability is also capable of repelling incoming explosive projectiles to a certain extent, and disabling, damaging or even destroying incoming vehicles. Armor Lock can be engaged for a maximum of 5 seconds. After a delay of 3 seconds, the ability will recharge for 11 seconds to a fully recharged state.

Armor Lock will not protect you from being killed if you enter an out of bounds zone.

Drop Shield
The Drop Shield is a spherical energy shield that functions similarly to a Bubble Shield, but it also allows players inside to regenerate their health. In Firefight and Multiplayer mode, the Drop Shield is available on the Medic loadout. Its pickup color is blue.

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. While having similar appearance as the Bubble Shield, the Drop Shield is not entirely invincible to all attacks; when the damage reaches a certain threshold, the ability will deactivate and the user will be exposed. The damage is represented in color stages from blue to red, similar to the Deployable Cover. Additionally, unlike the Bubble Shield, plasma grenades will stick to the surface of the shield. The strength of the shield is approximately three times that of a standard energy shielding system. 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 does not actually heal players any faster than normal. Rather, it simply enables you to recharge your health to full at a similar rate to the base health recharge rate. 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 shield will not heal the player at all.

Evade
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, described as a "dummy module" or "terminator plug" whose precise function is unknown. In any case, it appears to enhance the mobility of the wearer and is compatible with both Sangheili and MJOLNIR armor systems.

The ability was exclusive only to Elites in the Multiplayer Beta, but later changed in the final product to be made available to both Spartans and Elites. It should be noted that Elites evade faster and farther than Spartans. Additionally, this ability is not available in the campaign to the player and will remain exclusive for Elite warriors.

The Evasion speed scales with the movement speed of the player; the faster the player moves, the further he/she evades. In any custom game with speed set to high numbers such as 300%, the player will dash forward so quickly that they can traverse Hemorrhage in a matter of seconds. When used against a reasonably flat surface, it is possible to splatter oneself. Likewise, the base settings can be used to do various jumps that occur from impacting an object at high-speed, giving you enough force to lift off the ground.

It is also a good note that Elites grunt when they evade while Spartans do not.

Hologram
Hologram, sometimes referred to as Holographic Decoy, is an armor ability that produces an identical holographic copy of the user. Its pickup color is yellow.

The Holographic Decoy ability is designed to confuse or distract the enemies' attention. To allies, the holographic copy would appear as a white dot on their radar. The ability functions by pointing the targeting reticule at a destination and deploying it like other armor abilities. When activated, the hologram will run in a straight line to the destination and stop once it reaches its designated location. The hologram will flicker away if it is either damaged enough or if it reaches its lifespan limit (10 seconds). However, a new hologram can be produced after just 7 seconds, which would immediately dissipate the old one.

Jet Pack
The Jet Pack ability allows players to maneuver in mid-air, with the use of portable jump-jet (UNSC) or an Antigravity Pack (Covenant). Its pickup color is white.

The Jet Pack ability varies with how long the ability is used. The longer the player activates the ability, the longer the player would be able to remain in the air but at the consequence of having the ability depleting faster. Thus, it is recommended that the player use the ability in bursts, which would deplete the ability less than a sustained flight. Additionally, fall damage still applies to Jet Pack users should they fall from the air. The Jet Pack ability is a useful tool for evading vehicles, grenades, and navigating maps.

The Jet Pack scales with the set gravity; so the less gravity is set, the higher the jet pack can lift the player.

Sprint
The Sprint ability allows the player to lower their weapon and move at an increased speed for approximately four seconds. It is the default Armor Ability in the campaign and its pickup color is green. When activated, the player's character model will pant heavily. Canonically, the "Sprint" function operates by bypassing the safety limiters of the MJOLNIR actuators and "muscles", allowing better performance at the expense of heat regulation, overheating the user if used for prolonged periods. Though used at times by most of Noble Team, it was developed by Catherine-B320. It takes four seconds to fully recharge from any level of depletion.

The Sprinting scales with the player's movement speed, so the faster he/she moves, the faster he/she sprints.

Tips

 * Hologram is a great ability to use during Infection gametypes as it will confuse the zombies.
 * It is often advantageous to have a teammate using the Drop Shield ability in both Firefight and standard Multiplayer modes. This is due to the fact that this ability will heal wounded teammates without wasting health packs.
 * When using Active Camo, try "crouch walking." This will allow the invisibility to last longer and make it harder for the opponents to see the player while you are still moving.
 * When your Energy Shields are low or completely depleted, use Armor Lock until your Energy Shields recharge as much as they can before you exit Armor Lock. This will ensure that a sudden ambush after a battle that left your shields depleted will not overwhelm you.
 * Active Camo can be useful during Generator Defense matches. While enemies are focused on the generators, one can sneak up on each one and assassinate or stick them.

Miscellaneous

 * There are a total of seven Armor Abilities in Halo: Reach, another reference to Bungie's favorite number.
 * Before, it was previously thought that each species can only use certain armor abilities (Elites were thought to be the only ones able to use Evade, and Spartans were the only ones thought to be able to use Armor Lock and Sprint). In the final product, this is not the case as both species can use all seven Armor Abilities.
 * In the early stages of the game development, Elites using the Armor Lock ability were shown with a red aura instead of blue, while Spartans had a large and bulky attachment to their backs. However, these changes were erased before the game was released, so now both Elites and Spartans use the same blue armor lock.
 * Skirmishers have the ability to use the Hologram armor ability.
 * Armor Abilities will change form depending on whether a Elite or Spartan is using them. That is, Elite will have Armor Abilities made from purple metal, while Spartans have Armor Abilities which appear dull silver and rectangular. If a player drops an Armor Ability, it will take the form of the way it appeared on the players back. The only exception is Evade, even if a Spartan drops it, it will still appear like a covenant ability. This is odd as while on the Spartan's back, it can clearly be seen to share a design to other Spartan Armor Abilities (dull silver and rectangular).
 * In canon terms, the Armor Abilities have only been seen in use during the Fall of Reach, due to the fact they were introduced in Halo: Reach as a gameplay element. As Reach was the UNSC's primary military complex, prototype technologies such as Armor Abilities may have been developed and tested exclusively on the planet, thus explaining their absence in the other games. In addition, other Halo games occur in the time period after Reach falls, having John-117 as the only Spartan working alongside regular UNSC forces with limited military assets due to the Fall of Reach. Halo: Reach is centered around a Spartan team on a UNSC fortress world, with support and equipment more readily available.
 * Noble Team (aside from the player) can be seen sprinting or using Armor Lock without the required attachments. Likewise, Brutes and AI Elites use their Armor Abilities (Armor Lock or Evade) without the necessary external attachment. Brutes aren't even wearing any sort of Energy Shielding that could be supercharged with Armor Lock.
 * If one were to use Hologram and walk into the projection, they would notice that no matter what helmet they are wearing, the inside of the helmet of the hologram will always be the same. One can see this at the beginning of every campaign game on Noble Actual when Noble 6 puts on his helmet. This was likely done to save time and only program one interior for every helmet.
 * Elites grunt when they evade, but Spartans do not.

Glitches

 * Armor Abilities are often used to produce glitches. A few examples of Armor Abilities-related glitches are the Armor Permutation Glitch and the Infinite Armor Lock glitch
 * Holograms cannot use the mechanical lift on Reflection or the large tubular gravity lifts on Spire, even though they are affected by all other kinds of gravity lift or human-made lift, such as man cannons or the air lifts on Reflection.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach