Armor abilities

Armor Abilities are exclusive gameplay enhancements featured in Halo: Reach. It 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. 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. 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). During the 2010 Comic-con, it was revealed that both species can use all seven Armor Abilities.

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 also project a hologram that displays the icon of the ability, allowing for quick recognition when switching abilities.

Active Camouflage
The Active Camo provides players the ability to have Active Camouflage for a period of time, similar to Thel 'Vadam's active camo from Halo 2. The Camo depletes faster if you run, so crouching or slowly walking is ideal for a prolonged period of time. Also, when the player moves faster, the camo will not entirely camouflage the player, but when moving slowly or immobile, the Camo will cover the player completely. It also serves as a Radar Jammer, but this jams the player's radar as well those of their enemies. However, the radar jamming effect is only about 25m, letting one know if someone around them is using Active Camouflage. Allies will not be affected. When the player uses the Camo, all sound is heavily muffled, so it is not as easy to notice a grenade or an opponent shooting.

Its pick-up color is cyan.

Armor Lock
Armor Lock 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. 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. Activating the ability can also repel incoming Rockets. It also has the useful ability of being able to push a Falcon out of the sky when standing on it. This also deactivates the vehicle causing it to fall to the ground because of the EMP.The ability can be used by both Elites and Spartans. Both the human version and Elite version of Armor Lock are enabled through an external shielding attachment. The technology was developed for use on Elite combat harnesses, but was adopted for use by Spartan personnel.

This ability also varies with how long the button is pressed: the longer the button is held, the farther the final blast radius will be. This ability not only works against other players, but also against incoming vehicles. Also, if an enemy vehicle hits a player using Armor Lock fast enough, the vehicle will be damaged or even destroyed. Its pickup color is orange.

Drop Shield
The Drop Shield is a spherical energy shield that functions similarly to a Bubble Shield, but it also heals the health (but not the shields) of the players inside it in a manner similar to the Regenerator. It will deactivate if it takes too much damage. The damage is represented in color stages similar to the Deployable Cover in Halo 3. The strength of the shield is approximately 3 times that of a MJOLNIR MK V's energy shielding. Unlike the bubble shield in Halo 3, plasma grenades will stick to the surface of the shield. The Armor Ability is known to be used on the Medic loadout in Firefight and Multiplayer. When deploying the Drop Shield, the player crouches into a stance similar to a Armor Lock, but they extend their left leg out. The player can then move and walk through the shield. Activating the Drop Shield fully drains the Armor Ability meter. The Drop Shield expires and deactivates once the Armor Ability meter is at 2/3 full, unless it is prematurely deactivated from damage.

The Drop Shield's health regeneration also scales with the health recharge of the player. If the health recharge rate is set to 0%, then the shield will not heal the player at all.

Its pickup color is blue.

Evade
The Evade ability allows the player to roll in any direction to avoid danger, breaking enemy lock-ons and tracking in the process. You can evade two times before having to recharge. The recharge time is like that of the Sprint ability. This was a Sangheili exclusive ability during the Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta, but it can now be used by both Spartans and Elites. This is the only ability not available in campaign, developed for exclusive use by Elite warriors.

The Evasion speed scales with the movement speed of the player, so 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.

Its pickup color is purple.

Holographic Decoy
Holographic Decoy is an armor ability that produces an identical holographic copy of the user. It functions by pointing your 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 if it reaches it. If one points the reticule at their own feet, the hologram will stand perfectly still on he player's location. This can be used to trick opponents into thinking the player is the hologram. The hologram will flicker away if it is either damaged enough or if it reaches its lifespan limit (10 seconds). To allies it is a white dot on the radar.

Its pickup color is yellow.

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). The ability varies with how long the button is pressed. If the button is held without releasing, it will deplete continuously, but the player can also use it in bursts which deplete it less than a sustained flight. It is useful for evading vehicles, grenades, and navigating maps. Fall damage still applies to Jet Pack users should they fall from the air.

The Jet Pack scales with the player's gravity, so the less gravity the player has, the higher the jet pack lifts him/her.

Its pickup color is white.

Sprint
Sprint allows the player to lower their weapon and move at an increased speed for approximately 7 seconds. Sprint was a Spartan-exclusive ability during the Halo: Reach Beta. When you use the sprint ability you now pant heavily, and it can be heard by nearby players. It is the default Armor Ability in the campaign. 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.

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

Its pickup color is green.

Tips

 * Hologram is a great ability to use during infection gametypes as it will confuse the zombies.
 * When Playing Firefight, it is often advantageous to have a teammate using the Drop Shield ability. 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 your invisibility to last longer and make it harder for your opponents to see you while you are still moving.
 * When using Armor Lock, most enemies will typically throw grenades at you or sneak behind you and wait for you to finish. The grenades aren't a problem as long as you are in an open area where they will be rejected away, and breaking out of Armor Lock early can suprise your oppenent and allow for a kill.
 * Using Armor Lock right before an enemy vehicle rams you will cause the enemy vehicle to take damage, sometimes enough to destroy it.

Trivia

 * When you set your speed to 300 and set your jump height to 300, and use evade, you will evade really far and fast. You can make it from the Quarry to the Island in Forge World.
 * In the beta, there were some Spartan only abilities like Armor Lock and Sangheili only abilities such as Evade. In the final game, all armor abilities can be used by both models meaning Sangheili can use Armor Lock and Spartans can use Evade.
 * In the beta, a player would experience delayed movement after deactivating Armor Lock. This was fixed in the final game.
 * Armor Abilities function similarly to the Arbiter's Active Camouflage from Halo 2, both HUD indicators are circles and must be recharged before reactivating the ability.
 * Sprint appears to be SPARTAN-B312's signature armor ability, as he/she starts with it at the start of all Campaign missions. It is also the game's default Armor Ability in Campaign.
 * When activating Armor Lock and Drop Shield, players enter a pose similar to that of the Master Chief when activating the Bubble Shield in the Starry Night commercial.
 * In both the Campaign and Firefight high ranking Brutes will sometimes use Armor Lock when under heavy fire.
 * 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.
 * Catherine-B320 is responsible for the creation of the Sprint armor ability.
 * There are a total of 7 Armor Abilities in Halo: Reach, another reference to Bungie's favorite number.
 * Skirmishers have the ability to use the Hologram armor ability.
 * There is an Armor Ability glitch which can be performed in Forge mode. If you activate the Hologram, then enter Monitor mode a split second after, your hologram will generate random armor. For example, it will appear either as male or female, and possess locked armor (and possibly Armor Effects) such as the flaming helmet.
 * Another glitch involving Forge happens when Player A picks up Armor Lock, and Player B is in Monitor mode. Player B will delete all Armor Lock equipment off of the map while Player A is still using Armor Lock. The result will be invulnerability to Player A, even when they are moving.
 * Evade seems to be the only Covenant made armor ability as it is made of purple metal, the Covenants staple metal, and it also as a Forerunner glyph. But it seems that a lot of Covenant can use their own version of UNSC armor abilities, such as the Jetpack becoming an Anti-Gravity Pack if an Elite picks it up.
 * Elites can evade farther and faster than Spartans.
 * 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.
 * Elites use an Anti-Gravity Pack instead of the UNSC Jetpack. The anti-gravity pack is the same attachment that is used by Brute Jet-Pack infantry in past Halo games.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach