Infection

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Description
Infection is a multiplayer gametype in Halo 3. It is the official Zombie mode after its popularity as a custom game in Halo 2.

Objectives
The object of the game is for the Humans and Sangheili to stay "uninfected" as long as possible while the zombies try to kill every living player. The number of players starting out as Zombies, "Alpha Zombies", can be changed in the options and are selected at random from the start. When a zombie kills a "living" player, they are "infected" and they become a zombie. When there is just one living Human or Sangheili left, he/she is declared "Last Man Standing". One way Infection is commonly played is that players will make custom maps with Forge where the living have a strong point equipped with weapons, grenades, equipment and vehicles to defend against the zombies. The zombies may also be killed with a headshot from a precision weapon but are extremely fast. A popular way to play infection on Snowbound is where the humans try to defend the rock that they are at while fending off zombies.

Medals

 * Zombie Killing Spree - Kill five zombies without dying.
 * Hell's Janitor - Kill ten zombies without dying.
 * Infection Spree - Kill five humans without dying.
 * Mmmm Brains! - Kill ten humans without dying.
 * '''Last Man Standing - Be the last human left alive in the round.

Note: Probably the hardest medal to obtain here is the Mmmm Brains medal, seeing as once a human is killed, they become a zombie, thus you have limited chances in even infecting some humans, let alone ten. After ten kills, any killing sprees will receive the usual label such as Running Riot for a fifteen kill streak.

Halloween
On October 31, 2007, a specialized Halloween matchmaking playlist was available, which played this game mode with precisely 13 players (it being an "unlucky" number). This was repeated in 2008.

Double EXP Weekend
On April 10th, 2008, the playlist came back for a Double EXP Weekend as Living Dead, also starting with exactly 13 players. Living Dead also appeared on the weekend of May 22 and on the 28th August. Living Dead is a Double EXP Weekend game with many games. Infection games have also appeared in other Double EXP playlists such as Turkey Day, the 2008 Thanksgiving weekend playlist.

Popular Custom Gametypes

 * Braaaains: The basic Infection game type, where zombies jump a little higher and run a little faster than usual, but have no shields and have little health. Humans must survive as long as they can. Best on maps where humans can barricade themselves. This gametype is on Halo 3 matchmaking playlist DLC FFA.
 * Cops & Robbers: The Zombies are "Cops" and the Humans are the "Robbers". Cops have to make sure the Robbers stay in jail.
 * Fat Kid: A rather popular infection gametype where the Alpha Zombie is close to invincible but walks very slowly, and the infected zombies are extremely fast but have extremely low health.
 * Bull Dome: The zombie gets in a Chopper and tries to splatter the humans.
 * Ducks: A game type that has 1 Zombie in a closed off room with a sniper rifle. The humans are yellow, like ducks, and have to run up ramps to a teleporter, which leads to the zombie, and try to kill him. The humans have only one life. The zombie's objective is to kill all the "ducks".
 * Predator: A game type where the zombie has active camouflage, is fast, but has extremely low health. Usually, the zombie is armed with an energy sword and a gravity hammer or a spartan laser, with unlimited ammo.
 * Chicken Run: A game type that has 2 alpha snipers in an enclosed room, and 7-8 non-infected people who are yellow like chicken must make their way up levels, using equipment such as bubble shields and deployable covers to shield themselves.
 * Jenga: A game type that has 5 man cannons aimed at a floating tower over the edge of the map. This tower resembles the tower in the board game "Jenga."  The objective of the zombie is to push objects into the man cannon in efforts to knock down this tower and send the humans to their death.
 * Sharks: This is where the players start atop towers above the water. The zombie must knock down the towers in order to get to his prey. You can jump from tower to tower but it requires skill.
 * AVP: Another popular gametype in which the Zombies have no shields and barely any health, and are outfitted with energy swords. The Last Man Standing has extra damage resistance, and if it is played on the special Ghost Town AVP variant, special FX effects orbs will be periodically released to make Ghost Town darker, simulating nightfall.
 * Jurassic Park: A popular gametype played on the larger maps such as Sandtrap and Avalanche where there is either one or two "raptors" that begin. The humans best bet to survive is that they get into a vehicle and drive with one driving and one on turret. Passengers are advised not to go on since they usually get picked off first. Raptors have no shields with 300% speed and 50% gravity. Used with edited down versions of maps where only Gauss Warthogs and/or Mongooses.
 * Zombie Survival: A Halo 3 game created by Chronicler 177 that is similar to Braaaains and Zombies from Halo 2. Humans are Red, have Shotguns and Pistols and normal jump, speed, health and shields. Zombies are Green and have 200% health but no shields, as well as Energy Swords and slightly higher speed and jump. The game is fair and fun among people who have played it.
 * Teacher: A variant in which the humans have one life, no shields, and are very weak while the zombie has normal damage and can only be assassinated. Played on maps where it has been forged to make a class room with desks and doors. The humans must do what the teacher (zombie) says. If they don't they are killed. The students have plasma pistols and SMGs, the zombie has a shotgun and magnum. Very fun if you know the map.
 * Zombie Swat: A game variant in which the Zombies carry energy swords with infinite ammo and have no shields and 10% health. However they do have 300% speed and 50% gravity. The Humans have a battle rifle with 75 ammo and a magnum with 20 ammo. Is played on any map with no weapons. the only way to get ammo is to either betray your teammates or pick it up from their dead bodies. Betrayal does not make them a zombie. The game starts with only 2 zombies.
 * Ghostbusters: A variant where humans have no shields but are invisible, and the zombie is invincible. The humans have plasma pistols or swords, depending on the type you are playing, and the humans have shotguns and pistols, Only the humans can see their allies. The ghosts (humans) must try to assassinate the ghostbuster (zombie) without dying, and the ghostbuster must kill the ghosts to make more ghostbusters. Best played on maps with hiding places, like Hide/Seek Town.
 * Stargate: A variant similar to fat kid
 * Hunter: Hunter is a different way of playing of playing Alpha Zombie and Save One Bullet. In this the Alpha Zombie, or the Hunter, is completely invisible can jump high and travels very fast. He has high health but when you kill him you earn 15 points. When setting up this game give the Hunter a Shotgun or Gravity Hammer for massive destruction. The people the Hunter infects are extremely slow, can't jump high, use only the Energy Sword, and have low health. Whatever you do stay away from the Hunter and kill his minions for fast and easy points. This setting is best for when you are camping out in a small bunker with at least two entrances, one heavily guarded, and one hidden from view like from behind crates or barrels that can be pushed. This is a great game because the Hunter provides a challenge while the other infected players are very weak giving out easy points. All Spartans/Elites use Shotguns and Magnums with limited ammo and with no weapons on the map. They also can only use two fragmentation grenades but they can't pick up any more or do anything to try and get more unless they kill themselves or are betrayed. It is recomended that you keep one grenade in case you need to suicide to escape the Hunter.

Tactics

 * A good advantage on Infection is to go to a complicated stage on Forge, and put in a lot of one hit kill weapons, more so headshot weaponry like Battle Rifles and Magnums. Put the weapons in a room with only one entrance. Zombies normally cannot pick up weapons. Obviously a good choice for balanced games, because giving the living overpowered weapons against unshielded zombies is fun for everyone.
 * If you are making an Infection game, try to make it very balanced. For example, give the zombies 200% health but no shields and only slightly higher speed and jump. In turn, give humans Shotguns and Pistols with limited ammo. Also, when making Forge maps, if you make a hiding room for humans don't make it impossible for zombies to get in, i.e. a narrow choke point. Instead, give the room two entrances the humans must work together to guard. Also, another fun thing to do is put breakable or movable items such as barrels and palettes in front of doors to barricade them.
 * If you are making a one-shot kill game (zombies have 10% life and no shields but run fast), a fun and fair thing to do is to give them guns like Assault Rifles instead of energy swords.
 * When Forging on a certain map, a good tactic is to put teleporters in the map. One in every corner will confuse the zombie, and sending him to different places where they don't want to go can throw them off, giving you enough time to kill the zombie when when it walks by below you.  Usually while the zombie is wandering around you should hide, and when you can see it from your hiding place, shoot it.
 * Infection is based on the fan-made Halo 2 gametype "Zombies". This game relied on honor rules, as it was an altered version of Team Slayer.
 * In Halo 2, the most popular map for Zombies is Foundation. A good Zombie tactic on Foundation is to enter the game with an Elite player model, and walk backwards into a room so that the humans have a harder time shooting you. This works best if a large group of humans is hiding in one room, and a large group of zombies is trying to enter.
 * Regular zombies use Energy Swords, and cannot pick up weapons. With a Energy Sword a zombie cannot hit you without getting extremely close to you.  So its a good idea to get high range weapons in your possession.
 * If you are playing as a zombie, it's a good idea to put on Active Camo, so you can sneak up unnoticed or stalk them from behind, making sure they don't see you.
 * Yet another tactic that the "living" use is called "baiting". The human players gather in a small, confined space; preferably one with only one opening. Whenever the zombies' attacks lull, the humans send out a freelancer, known simply as "bait". The "bait" will attempt to lure the zombies closer to the human stronghold, where an unhappy death awaits any undead". Because hiding in one spot the entire game is fun for the humans, and getting constantly killed by the humans is entertaining to the zombies.
 * For games with regular damage and shielding, get a Shotgun, dual Maulers, Sniper rifle, or Beam rifle, then get in a room with one exit. Stand next to the door and shoot any undead that look in the room. Put the snipers at head level. It is suggestible to get some grenades and, if possible, a trip mine. The trip mine will keep zombies from entering the room, they cannot shoot it and only way to get in is to have one die again.
 * Try to not use Gravity Hammers or Energy Swords when possible, in most types the zombies have one or both of these weapons and such close range combat would result in you being killed often. A Shotgun or dual Maulers is a better choice in this game.
 * If you are playing on any of the LEVELS map also known as Chubby Stadium, you should watch out if you are on a turret in the hallways because the Gravity Hammer can travel through walls and kill you.
 * Sometimes it is a good idea to commit suicide if your group is under assault by a large zombie hoard. Especially if their are only 2 of you left. Try not using spike grenades to kill yourself so the explosion won't hurt your team mates. Any other grenade is preferable. In fact, kill yourself all the time. The zombies will never catch you. Who cares about points when you can be Last Man Standing?
 * In Jurassic Park it is advised that once you are either last man standing or are down to two people left on Sandtrap that you go to the elephant and hold up in the "cockpit"
 * In infection, sometimes it helps to betray a teammate. If a teamate of yours is cornered by zombies, and he wants to be the last man, betray him! he will not become a zombie! Make sure he knows why you betrayed him. If you don't, he will get mad. If you do, he will most likely say thanks.

Trivia

 * There is an Infection medal called MMM... Brains!, this refers to the classic Zombie horror generality, in which Zombies feed on Human brains and other parts of their body.
 * In Matchmaking, Infection can be played in the DLC FFA playlist, and it also appears as a Double EXP weekend now and then.
 * The Infection gametype is the most popular gametype in custom games as it can only normally be played in custom-made games.
 * It has been suggested that Bungie make the zombies a Flood Combat Form. The idea was rejected by Bungie, who said that it made the zombie less "creepy."
 * "Infection" is based on the popular custom gametype in Halo 2 known as "Zombies". Zombies was based on Team Slayer, with the Red team being Humans and the Green team being Zombies. The Humans could only use human weapons, and the Zombies could only use Energy Swords. The game began with just one or two Zombie players, who would attempt to hunt down and kill the Humans. When a Human was killed by a Zombie, they would have to change teams and become a Zombie. Since there were no facilities in Halo 2 custom games to limit what weapons each team could use or to force players to switch teams upon death, Zombie gametypes relied on Honor Rules.
 * Many people have made machinima using the Infection Gametype.
 * You can change around the weapons equipment with zombies giving them the ability to use shotguns, as in the "Cops and Robbers" variant, along with any other weapon available.
 * Suicide will not make you a zombie, you will only spawn as a human/Elite. However, if you take damage from a Zombie and then commit suicide, fall to your death, get betrayed, or get killed by the Guardians, you will become infected.
 * New achievements are made just for infection on the Mythic Map pack.

Related Pages

 * Infection Settings
 * Alpha Zombie
 * Hide and Seek
 * Save One Bullet