Ruwaa-pattern Shadow

Shadow The Shadow is a Covenant heavy ground transport vehicle.

Introduction
The Shadow is a dedicated troop transport, similar to an Armored Personnel Carrier. As such it is not an offensive vehicle. It is slow and cumbersome and possibly lacks the boosting ability of other Covenant vehicles. Although it possesses a powerful defensive cannon the vehicle itself can be easily outmaneuvered by smaller vehicles such as the Warthog or Ghost.

The vehicle itself is almost always driven by an Elite driver and the gunner is likewise normally an Elite. Shadows thus far encountered have been transporting Ghosts and therefore had a crew complement of only two. Infantry transport versions carry a maximum of 8 warriors (dependant on species) although the transport bay is exposed it is unknown if these passengers could lend their own considerable firepower to the Shadow's defense.

Operation
Shadows are the Covenant's main method of moving large numbers of troops around ground based battlefields. They have one pilot, a gunner, and up to eight occupants, depending on the species of the passengers.

The Shadow also doubles as a small vehicle transporter and is outfitted to carry Ghosts. However, their main purpose is to deploy infantry; mainly Elites, Brutes, Grunts, and Jackals; straight into the fight. For point defense, they are equipped with a heavy Plasma Cannon which appears to be of the same design as the Shade turret in Halo: Combat Evolved but fires Plasma bolts identical to those of the Shielded Plasma Cannon in Halo 2.

Unlike the Shielded Plasma Cannon, this mounted plasma version seems to need a period of time to 'cycle up' to maximum firing rate (similar to the M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun on the Warthog). This maximum fire rate is superior to that of both the portable Plasma Cannon and the Shielded Plasma Cannon turret. It can lay down a torrent of plasma fire that is deadly to infantry and vehicles alike.

Through modding(or just paying attention through simple run throughs) the Shadow also has a boost much like the Ghost and Spectre. And often has a hard time stopping after deployed for a few seconds. Akin to the Ghost, it also can pop "wheelies" through the A button.

It is unknown if the Shadow will be in Halo 3 at this point, although in the Halo 3 Beta source code, there is a "shadow.vehi" so it's very possible. The Shadow may even be the Covenant Counterpart to the UNSC Elephant.

Shadow in Combat
The Shadow is a bulky, heavily armored vehicle and as such is able to take an immense amount of punishment before succumbing to damage. The Shadow may exhibit multiple internal explosions that rock its entire chassis or lift it from the floor by quite a distance whilst under intense fire. However, it will continue moving in spite of this.

As a consequence it is advisable to focus all attentions on the driver of the Shadow, after all an Elite can only take so much punishment. Often the gunner must be dealt with first but due to the exposed nature of its position this will pose little problem.

Once incapacitated the Shadow will drop it's load to the ground. Like all Covenant vehicles the Shadow, once taken down, will experience a secondary detonation. This is by far the largest of all such critical damage reactions of any Covenant vehicle, resulting in an immense explosion that has the ability to catapult the vehicle into the air.

In Game Limitations
Unlike almost all other land based vehicles in Halo 2, the Shadow is not a pilotable (Apart from the Turret) vehicle for the player. The Shadow only appears in the level Outskirts, where John-117 must destroy a convoy of them. The Shadows in Halo 2 are always seen transporting Ghosts, never infantry, but the seat bearing Shadows can be unlocked via a modded Xbox. It was discovered to be a drivable vehicle in the Halo 3 beta code, although no Shadows are even seen in the final version of Halo 3.

Character Compatibility

 * Elites
 * Grunts have animation, but it is not used in actual gameplay. Although, they can be seen in Halo 2 E3 2003 Demo.
 * Jackals have animation.
 * Brutes don't have any animations since they don't appear on same map that shadow does, but they were meant to.
 * Spartans have the animation, but the game disables entry into seat without modding the .map file.

Trivia

 * Though rumored to be present in Halo 3, it was instead been replaced in function with the Brute Prowler, which also replaces the Spectre - another vehicle that didn't make it.