Slugmen

The so-called "Slugmen" are a kind of rarely-encountered Lekgolo gestalt form used as special forces by the Covenant.

Overview
The Slugmen are a type of Lekgolo gestalt form rarely-encountered not only by humanity, but also within the Covenant empire itself. With the Fall of High Charity in 2552 to the Flood, full records of the Slugmen and their role have been lost; surviving records have been able to piece together that Slugmen were a "pruned family" of gestalt forms sporadically assigned to Sangheili military and exploration teams to serve as support infantry and special purpose snipers. In this role, they would replace Kig-Yar personnel.

Equipment
Slugmen consist of what appears to be a small Lekgolo gestalt form resembling the eponymous slug, encased in a powered exoskeleton of some variety. The "head" of the suit resembles that of the Huragok, with two eyes either side for a total of four. When deployed, Slugmen are commonly seen wielding s and Type-25 plasma pistols.

Production notes
The Slugmen were originally created during the production of Halo: Combat Evolved to serve as sniper enemies for the Covenant. During the game's production, Slugman concept art was heavily tied with the development of the Hunters. A look at the concept sketches for the Slugman on the Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition DVD showcased a variety of explorations for the design, titled "Special Purpose Sniper", ultimately progressing more toward the form known today. The model itself was done by Paul Russel, though ultimately cut from the final release of the game.

In 2022, the Slugman model was restored to functionality by the Digsite restoration project, and in 2023 the enemy was included in the Halo Editing Kit for use by modders. To finish off the Slugman and make it useable in-game, the team took inspiration from its in-development name of Sniper (and concept art depicting it wielding the early beam rifle) and made it a scout-sniper similar in role to the Jackals - particularly the Jackal Snipers later introduced in Halo 2. In the official Digsite mod releases, Slugmen wield plasma pistols and particle rifles by default and have no shields - instead serving as agile scout-snipers with reasonable health values. Their AI was created referencing existing Combat Evolved AI behaviours to ensure they fit seamlessly into the original game, based on Plasma Rifle-wielding Elites and Sniper Rifle-wielding Marines. Although they will miss their first few shots, they progressively get more accurate the longer they're on the field, to encourage the player eliminating them early.

Russel's original model was retargeted to use preexisting Covenant animations due to its similar body layout and digitigrade hands; early explorations were done with reusing Elite animations for these reasons, though the final enemy ultimately used Jackal Sniper animations taken from Halo 2 for the Slugman wielding its signature rifles. Due to the art's resemblance to Lekgolo (Hunter worm) forms, the Digsite team (and later official canon) decided to treat them as another form of Lekgolo, with their audio created consisting of processed Hunter dialogue and the signature tail rattle of a rattlesnake.