Subanese crystal

Blamite is a crystalline, high-explosive material used in the ammunition of needle rifles and Needlers. The crystals are mined from veins found throughout the interior of Suban, one of Sanghelios' two natural satellites.

Characteristics
Blamite is one of the few unique ammunition types in Covenant arsenal. When used as ammunition, blamite is capable of two types of damage to a target; penetration, damage caused by the needles impacting flesh and entering it; and the usually-resulting supercombine, the combined explosion of multiple (usually seven) needles wedged in the body. A crystalline projectile can cause fatal damage to its victim—a single shard can cause internal bleeding or strike a vital organ, with untreated wounds resulting in death. The resulting detonation of the shard upon penetration also spreads micro-shrapnel throughout the victim. Depending on the impact area and angle, several crystalline shards can cause amputation of limbs, and impacts to the chest are in most cases fatal; the supercombine properties can easily crack ribs, damage the lungs or heart, and cause severe flesh damage that can be very difficult and often impossible to repair. If enough rounds impact and detonate simultaneously, the unfortunate target can quite literally be blown apart.

While used exclusively in needle rifles and Needlers, the needles behave differently in both weapons when fired upon. Needles fired from a Needler appear to have some sort of "identify-friend/foe" function, as they will track on hostile targets but not allies of the wielder. Needles fired from a needle rifle lack this function, behaving more like traditional projectiles, but are much faster and require fewer embedded rounds to cause a lethal supercombine. The energy cutlass, a melee weapon used predominantly by Kig-Yar, uses a blamite shard as the blade. When thrust into a soft target, the blade will explode violently similar to a Needler shard.

History
Blamite was used by the Sangheili in their early weapon designs, prior to the establishment of the Covenant in 852 BCE. Suban is the only known location of blamite veins, and some believed that the moon is the only world where the crystals exist. Although the crystals had been studied and documented for thousands of years by the Covenant, the properties of blamite remain perplexing to all. However, it is believe that the San'Shyuum may have covertly created highly specialized publications on blamite and its properties, but any such documents would have likely been destroyed alongside High Charity and its vast records complexes in 2552.

Following the Human-Covenant War, Sangheili artisan-armorers garnered renewed interests in discovering the properties of blamite. Many pre-Covenant design patterns incorporating blamite have been uncovered to assist in the research. Human scientists have also began to express interest in the crystals, especially in regards to exploiting the energy-storage properties of blamite. UNSC and Sangheili researchers have since collaborated in an attempt to discover the properties and functions of blamite in Kolaar Manufactorum on Sanghelios. However, the results yielded from the research was listed as inaccessible by the Office of Naval Intelligence. AMG Transport Dynamics Motorsport Manager Erik Burch proposed the creation of an M12 Warthog variant which would have made use of a pair of experimental blamite afterburners, but the project was canceled by AMG's Special Projects Director Tyse Jenkins as he found Bursch's idea too outlandish.

Trivia

 * The name "blamite" originates from Bungie's method of censoring swearing on their forums, which replaces objectionable words with -blam!-.
 * Killing 10 enemies in either Firefight or campaign with a supercombine explosion without dying in Halo: Reach unlocks the achievement, A Spoonful of Blamite.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo 2
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo 3
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * Halo Wars
 * Halo: Helljumper
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Legends
 * Homecoming


 * Halo: Blood Line
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
 * Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
 * Halo 4
 * Spartan Ops
 * Halo: Spartan Assault
 * Halo: Initiation
 * Halo: Escalation
 * Halo: Broken Circle
 * Halo 2: Anniversary
 * Halo: Spartan Strike
 * Halo 5: Guardians