Armor customization (Halo 4)

For other uses, see armor permutations. Armor permutations in Halo 4 allow players to customize their SPARTAN-IV player model. New armor sets can only be unlocked by reaching certain ranks and completing specific in-game commendations, Challenges, or Halo Waypoint goals.

Overview
Unlike in previous Halo titles, players can customize specific armor color skins such as camouflage patterns and other, more ostentatious designs. Players are able to customize the same areas that can be altered in Halo: Reach,with the exception of armor effects. The armor customization of the SPARTAN-IVs aboard the are based upon the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor [GEN2]  model and some variants are upgrades of previous generational incarnations. As stated above, common armor sets can be unlocked by reaching certain Spartan Rank (SR) while rarer and more elaborate designs require specific completions of commendations, Challenges, or Halo Waypoint goals. The release of the Champions Bundle brought an additional four armors and one skin for use by players who purchased the DLC, though said armors will display as default Recruit armor in the Spartan Ops mode.

Unlike Halo: Reach, Halo 4 removes player's option to use Elites in multiplayer, as an emphasis was placed on "Infinity mode" which focuses on SPARTAN-IVs.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection
In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, armor customization is limited to only being able to choose a full set of armor and colors, with no ability to mix-and-match specific armor pieces, much like Halo 2: Anniversary's multiplayer component. This system was employed at launch due to the difficulty of having to run several game engines for customization in the menus, though with the release of Halo: Reach in the collection and the later launch of Halo 3 for PC, the aforementioned games have received full armor customization in the menus' Unreal Engine 4 menu component. With Halo 3: ODST's release, a placeholder Unreal Engine 4 render was added to the game's menu, and a blog post detailing flights stated updated customization for Halo 4 was confirmed for flighting in October, 2020.

Due to The Master Chief Collection at-present only containing the ability to use full armor sets, many pieces of gear from the original game are not available to use including visors, forearms, legs and all armor skins. Additionally, the four armor sets included with the Champions Bundle DLC are not available for use.

Trivia

 * Xbox Live Guest accounts are able to customize their appearance with any and all armor pieces unlocked by their host. This differs from previous titles, in which guests could change their emblem, colors, service tag and gender, but could not customize their armor.
 * Pre-release builds of Halo 4 featured some slight differences in armor texturing, with the neutral white lights present on armor being red. In addition, base armor texturing was also altered for the game's final build.