Unggoy Ultra

Unggoy Ultra is the highest known Unggoy rank.

Roles and responsibilities
Rarely seen, the Unggoy Ultra is the highest Unggoy rank seen so far in the Covenant military. These Unggoy, like their lower-ranking cousins, appear in groups. They are very intelligent, making as few tactical errors as Sangheili Majors although that doesn't make them perfect. They usually display even more bravery in combat than Special Operations Unggoy, and are more often used for specialized attacks, rather than generic military operations. Unggoy Ultras can sometimes be seen commanding groups of lower class Unggoy in battle, and are even seen leading black-armored Special Operations Unggoy into combat.

Organisation
Unlike Sangheili Ultras, Unggoy Ultras do not appear to have any immunity with their command. It is just as likely that two or three will be encountered leading a small group of Unggoy, yet the Sangheili or Jiralhanae during the Great Schism, are ultimately in complete command; similar to the way that even low-ranking San'Shyuum outrank Sangheili Ship Masters.

History
Unggoy Ultras fought over the course of the Human-Covenant War and later the Great Schism, including the Fall of Reach, Battle for Earth, and Battle of Installation 00. While many allied with Sangheili rebels during the Covenant civil war in early November 2552, others remained loyal to San'Shyuum and the new Jiralhanae leadership ruled by the Prophet of Truth.

In the post war period, the rank of Unggoy Ultra has been used at least once by Jul 'Mdama's Covenant. Multiple Unggoy Ultras belonging to the Banished led by War Chief Escharum took part in the Battle for Zeta Halo in 2560 against the Master Chief and the UNSC remnants on Zeta Halo. Unlike their Covenant Countparts, the Unggoy Ultras now outrank low ranking Sangheili and Jiralhane, but are still subordinate to Jiralhane Captains.

Equipment
Like Sangheili Ultras, Unggoy Ultras wear distinct white/pearl-like or lilac armor. Unggoy Ultras are seen with several armor variants, one as a standard armor, with the exact same use with the main combat harness most other Unggoy infantry ranks are seen with like Minors and Majors alongside specialized Heavies, and the other one is with a cylindrical methane tank as well as a completely enclosed helmet, which enables the Unggoy to operate in vacuum areas. The said helmet would fall off after being shot at, saving the Unggoy from one single headshot. Another similar chassis of this harness was used by the Banished during their conflicts on Installation 07 although it has some additional protection, including both in arms and legs. Unlike other Unggoy ranks, Banished Unggoy Ultras were known to also have personal energy shield, similar to Unggoy Bodyguards who also wear white-colored armor in Warzone in UNSC's War Games simulations and making them the strongest regular Unggoy troops. Whenever if it was already once used by the Covenant earlier is unknown as it may have apparently never been seen used during the Great War.

Another armor variant for Unggoy Ultra is a Ultra-class variant of the regular Special Operations Unggoy combat harness and is equipped with an active camouflage generator. This harness variant was used by the Covenant Unggoy Ultras to lead lower-ranking Special Operations Unggoy, including during the Raid on the Threshold gas mine.

Gameplay
Grunt Ultras fire their weapons at a higher rate and usually throw more grenades, being far more accurate and deadly at a greater distance than their lower ranked brethren. They also wield Needlers with greater frequency than their inferiors, though it is still common for them to use Plasma Pistols. Ultras can take the same amount of damage Special Operations Grunts do (more than three times as much as an Grunt Minor can), but they are still vulnerable to headshots. Like Special Operations Grunts, Ultras are rarely caught sleeping on duty. They still panic if they know that they are being overwhelmed, but are more likely to go suicidal than flee - especially if one of their comrades was killed by a grenade.
 * In Halo: Reach, Ultras wear a helmet that protects them from one headshot from any weapon weaker than the Sniper Rifle. Starting from this game, they will overcharge their Plasma Pistols.
 * In Halo Infinite, there are two varieties of Ultras. The first type wield Plasma Pistols or Needlers, and have no shields, while the second type always wield Disruptors and have shields, half as strong as an Elite Mercenary's. They will keep their shields deactivated while not engaged, and quickly turn them on when they sense danger. Note that, despite wearing an armor almost identical to the one from Reach, their helmets are only cosmetic, and Ultras still take one headshot to kill.

Production notes

 * If one plays Halo: Combat Evolved with an unsupported video card, but has at least 32 megabytes of video memory, all armor colors will be white, with some exceptions such as the Mgalekgolo, which has led to some fans thinking that all the Unggoy in Halo: Combat Evolved are Ultras. However, white is the basic color of all models in the Halo: Combat Evolved engine. The models are rendered with no specific color until they are selected by an algorithm that determines which Unggoy variant to spawn, determined by the difficulty level (meaning higher difficulties are more likely to spawn Unggoy Majors) or colored by the actor variant and shader tags within the level/map cache file. There is a degree of randomness involved, as the player might notice an Unggoy Minor in one location die, then realize that it changes to an Unggoy Major. This is most noticeable when viewing maps with SparkEdit, a modding program. It renders all models based on their constituent bitmaps; the game engine adds the lighting effects and determines which variant to spawn when that part of the level is played. In SparkEdit, all models, except Mgalekgolo and Marines, have white armor, including Spartans.
 * The Unggoy Ultra in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST have been erroneously referred to as SpecOps Unggoy on Bungie.net. The game files, however, correctly lists them as Ultras. The distinction between the Ultra and SpecOps Unggoy were clarified in Halo 3: The Official Strategy Guide and the Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition), both of which labelled the Unggoy in lilac armor as Unggoy Ultra, and the Unggoy in jet-black armor (which went unused in both games) as SpecOps Unggoy. The McFarlane Halo 3 SpecOps Grunt action figure also correctly depicts SpecOps Unggoy in jet-black armor rather than the lilac armor.
 * In Halo: Reach, Ultras have a cylindrical methane tank and a full face mask. The shape of the methane tank appears to have been influenced by early concept art for Halo: Combat Evolved, and designs later seen in the Halo Graphic Novel, Halo: Uprising, and Halo Wars. They have been nicknamed "Keg Grunts" by Bungie due to the shape of the methane containers.
 * During the development of Halo: Reach, concept art of the Unggoy had inspired designers to give face masks to 80% of the Unggoy, and Bungie design lead Sage Merrill had set weapon damage to reflect the Unggoy's well-protected armor. Thus, a majority of enemy Unggoy required two headshots to be killed, creating an "unfun" experience as described by design lead Lars Bakken. Consequently, a change was made to remove the masks from almost all Unggoy units, with only Ultras retaining the mask in the final release.

Trivia

 * In all games, if the Thunderstorm skull is activated, all Unggoy will be upgraded to this rank.
 * In Halo 2: Anniversary, two variants of the Unggoy Ultra are seen. The first bears a white-coloured standard combat harness, while the second is equipped with a white-coloured variant of the Special Operations combat harness (due to a typo in the code).

List of appearances

 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Legends
 * Origins
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo 2: Anniversary
 * Halo: Spartan Strike
 * Halo Infinite