Weapon skins (Halo 4)

For other uses, see Weapon skins. Weapon skins in Halo 4 allow players to customize the appearance of their SPARTAN-IV's loadout weapons. Weapon skins can be unlocked via progression in Specializations, purchasing specific editions of the game and DLC, and finally, by buying specific figures from Series 2 of the McFarlane line of figures.

Overview
Halo 4 features rudimentary weapon skin customization, with the player being able to simply swap preset patterns on their weapon in the loadout modification menu. However, this will only pertain to personal loadouts. Applying a skin to an M395 DMR and then picking up a DMR placed on the map will not result in the newly picked up weapon possessing the player's skin. However, at the same time, picking up a player's DMR which has a skin applied to it will feature the skin chosen by the player who owned it prior.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection
With Halo 4's flighting and release on PC, the weapon skin system was tuned. The game now allows the player to select a base skin for every weapon, independent of loadout. This selection will override default skins in gametypes like SWAT or Legendary Slayer. Should the player choose to, an override function exists in each loadout to make the skin of that specific loadout operate as it did in Halo 4.

Launch skins
Launch skins refer to the weapon skins that were in the game at launch. These include skins that were unlockable though Specializations, pre-ordering the game, or though special editions. These skins were able to be used in Spartan Ops.

Weapon skins can be unlocked in a multitude of ways, with the most common method of unlocking them being through the grinding of Specializations. For example, upon reaching Spartan Rank 5 within the Wetwork's Specialization, the "Noble" DMR skin tied to it will unlock for the player. Each specialization has one weapon skin tied to it.

Specific editions of the game, such as the Halo 4 Limited Edition also include special weapon skins for buyers. The Limited Edition includes the "Prime" assault rifle skin, specifically. These skins were later made available for buyers of the Halo 4 Game of the Year Edition. The Halo 4 Xbox 360 console includes the "Imprint" lightrifle skin, though this was not made available for buyers of the Halo 4 Game of the Year Edition.

DLC skins
DLC skins refer to skins that were available through the Champions Bundle, or though McFarlane Toys figures. These skins were not programmed into Spartan Ops, so they can not be used in it.

Unlocking skins can also be done by purchasing specially marked figures from Series 2 of the McFarlane toy line launched in 2013. For example, purchasing the Elite Ranger figure will unlock the "Chill" skin for the storm rifle.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection skins
With Halo 4 on the Xbox 360, there were two cut weapon skins which could not be unlocked legitimately, but still exist in the game files. These skins can be used in custom games, through a glitch. Renders of these weapon skins were later discovered in the game files of the "FireFlight", a public test of Halo: Reachs Firefight in the lead-up to Halo: The Master Chief Collections PC release.

During the initial flight for Halo 4's release on PC, the "Blast" battle rifle skin was available as an option. Likewise, a wholly new skin dubbed the "Blood" DMR skin was revealed, featuring a pattern akin to the "Trauma" skin of Halo 4's assault rifle.

With the flight of Season 7: Elite, Halo 4 was subject to another content update, featuring numerous new weapon skins. Of these, "Concrete" was made officially available for the first time, along with another "Blood" skin, this time for the Magnum. Additionally, other skin sets were included, including the skins unlocked via codes exclusive to McFarlane's series of Halo 4 figures. Finally, fully new skin sets were made available, including the "Pixel", "Maw", and "Edgework" skin sets.

Launch skins
Note: All skins in this section are unlocked by default in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Champions Bundle skins
These skins were included in the various components of the Champions Bundle; the Steel Skin Pack and Bullseye Map Pack could be purchased separately though buying the whole bundle included their contents and some exclusive skins. They were not available at launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, but have since been made available for use in the collection as of the launch of Season 4: Reclaimer.

Figure exclusive skins
These skins were made exclusive to purchases of the Halo 4 Series 2 McFarlane figures in the original Xbox 360 release of Halo 4. They became available in Halo: The Master Chief Collection with the launch of Season 7: Elite.

Unused skins
These are the skins that were added to Halo 4 during its 8/19/2013 update but were unusable outside a glitch. They were later made available in the Halo 4 component of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, with the "Blast" Battle Rifle skin being made available as of the launch of Season 4, and the "Concrete" DMR skin being made available as of the launch of Season 7.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection-exclusive skins
These skins are only available in the Halo 4 component of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The "Blood" DMR skin was added with Season 4, while the rest were added with Season 7.

Production notes

 * The Suppressor's Shatter skin was originally a vibrant blue with black stripes lining the weapon. This would be changed so the blue coloration was the weapon's base, slate gray, although the weapon's icon wouldn't be fixed for Halo 4, with the change only being rectified upon the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.


 * During the “What’s Next: Halo 4 Summer 2013″ panel at RTX 2013, 343 Industries' promotional art for the bundle featured the "Bones" and "Striped" M395 DMR weapon skins as part of the content update's bonus content. The "Bones" skin would later be relegated to a code found with the CIO Spartan in Series 2 of McFarlane's Halo 4 line of figures, while the "Striped" skin could be unlocked through earning certain achievements in Halo: Spartan Assault.

Mistakes

 * With the release of Season 4: Reclaimer, and the addition of Champions Bundle content, the newly updated menu features erroneously flipped MA5D renders for the Turbine and Teeth skins, resulting in the charging handle being placed on the wrong side of the weapon.
 * With the release of Season 7: Elite, the Storm Rifle's Chill skin is missing certain textures in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. On the Xbox 360 edition of Halo 4, the weapon's barrel, rotating coil, and small sections of the topside of the weapon are colored mint green. In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, these mint green regions are missing, and are erroneously colored with the weapon's base gray-silver.