Shade

Overview
The Shade is a Covenant stationary gun turret and anti-infantry weapons platform, manned in third person like a vehicle. It consist of a sturdy three legged base and a floating, mobile, turret-like seat with control systems for its gun. In Halo 2, the Shade was replaced with a new Shielded Plasma Cannon, which has energy shields around it, similar to a Jackal's. A similar gun to the Shade can be found as a defensive weapon on Spirit dropships.

Operation
The Shade gun fires three slow moving, high powered bolts of plasma encased in magnetic fields. The accuracy of a Shades weapon is fairly low, as the bolts of plasma fired can hit anywhere within the aiming reticule. Since it is designed with infantry combat in mind it is highly effective against Grunts and Jackals, and has exhibited limited effectiveness against Elites (especially at dropping their shields). But due to their intelligence Elites can often find cover and escape the Shade's field of fire. It's shots lack the required punch to damage Hunters whose armour and combat shield are proof against it. Lekgolo can easily knock the Shade over with the gunner still inside. It is also fairly ineffective against the Flood, just like all other plasma based weaponry.

The Shade offers a wide field of fire and a 360 degree traversable mount. It is highly effective at combating light infantry, has shown a good ability against light vehicles such as the Ghost and in desperate situations can serve as anti-aircraft defence (a few hits is all it needs to drop a Banshee from the sky).

Shade in Combat
It is possible to snipe a Shade gunner off its turret, but one must aim above the center (which the red reticule usually denotes) and at the user itself, since the Shade protects the user. In Halo: Combat Evolved it is possible to melee attack a foe off of a Shade. The gunner is highly exposed atop the Shade, with cover only available via the gun mechanism itself. This leaves the operator open to flanking maneuvers and attacks from multiple angles. This poses a serious disadvantage to the gunner and as such infantry and sometimes vehicle support are never far away. The turret is not permanantly fixed to the ground, supposedly for movement/deployment purposes. As such explosives are an ideal way of uprooting the Shade and ensuring it is subsequently out of action. If the Shade is turned over, then it is possible to flip it back upright.

Character Compatibility

 * Elites
 * Spartans
 * Grunts
 * Marines (Have animation, but not used in-game. Used in Halo: The Flood)

Related Links

 * Plasma Cannon
 * Shielded Plasma Cannon