Camping

Camping is the act of voluntarily keeping out of firefights by staying in one place while shooting from a distance or sneaking out from behind a corner to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting player passing by. Camping is rarely performed unless one has a powerful weapon such as the Sniper Rifle, the Rocket Launcher, or the Energy Sword. Although camping is a legal and legitimate strategy, most players complain that it takes away from the inherent fun of the game. It is often stated that it is a "noob" strategy, as it allegedly takes little skill. This is not necessarily true, but it is the general consensus of the video-gaming world that camping is to be frowned upon.

Corner Camping
Many campers rely largely on close-quarters ambushes, or "corner rushing", to take down their enemies. Popular places to corner-camp are usually sharp blind corners where a camper may hide with a powerful short-range weapon (such as the Gravity Hammer or Shotgun) and cut down anybody who turns the corner. Once a corner-camper's location has been determined, however, it is generally quite easy to take him out. The usual strategy for these situations is to throw a grenade into his hiding spot to kill him or at least flush him out. With the advent of Halo 3's Mauler, which spawned rapidly and commonly on numerous multiplayer maps, corner-camping became a severe balance issue, so much so that Bungie removed the Mauler from multiplayer.

Target Camping
In objective games such as Assault, King of the Hill and Capture the Flag, it is relatively common practice for a player to hide out of sight near the objective and target anybody who comes nearby to claim or defend the objective. Unlike most other forms of camping, this is not generally frowned upon and is indeed rather commonplace. Nonetheless, like all forms of camping, it is potentially a somewhat unsporting strategy.

Weapon camping is a form of target camping especially prevalent on smaller maps, in which a player hides near a powerful weapon, killing anyone who arrives to take it. This became a major focus of the Halo 3 multiplayer map Snowbound; players would hide near the shotgun spawn and slaughter all the myriad enemies who attempted to claim it. This became more important than anything else on the map, so much so that Bungie removed the shotgun from Snowbound and replaced it with a Beam Rifle.

Spawn Camping
Spawn camping is the practice of locating a series of respawn points and monopolizing them with a powerful weapon, killing anybody who spawns there while they are still ill-prepared and ill-equipped for a fight. This became unfortunately common in Halo 2's Matchmaking, especially on smaller, symmetrical maps such as Midship and Sanctuary. In Halo 3, the issue of spawn camping was addressed specifically by multiplayer designers, who engineered a complex algorithm to govern respawns. This algorithm not only assured that respawns would take place in a helpful manner, but also reduced the likelihood of respawning at a location with enemies nearby. Although spawn camping remains an issue to some extent, it is far less common.

Another type of spawn camping is to drive a vehicle rapidly around your enemy's base. Although this tactic will allow many players to escape their spawn points unharmed, it will also grant the player a considerable number of kills as they simply run over newly spawned foes. This is not generally considered a serious form of camping, as it relies on motion and has a considerable level of risk involved.

Lift Camping
Lift camping is the practice of ambushing and killing players who are in uncontrollable motion. It takes its name from the Gravity Lift. Players in a gravity lift are unable to control their movement in any way, making them easily predictable targets for campers. On the multiplayer map Lockout, for example, the gravity lift launched players clearly into the open with a loud, recognizable noise in full view of the sniper spawn, turning them into easy prey. This has also become commonplace on the Halo 3 map Construct, where players will camp at the top of the gravity lifts with the energy sword or flamethrower and lay waste to those ascending through the lift. This strategy can largely be undermined by throwing a grenade into a gravity lift before you enter it, although this is admittedly not always practical.