Ghosts of Halo

The Ghosts of Halo are unidentified and glitched players that spawn out of nowhere on multiplayer maps. They have been seen in Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Such players tend to behave bizarrely and possess odd features. Among other things, they lack visible gamertags, do not show up on the scoreboard, and move erratically. They can be hostile if provoked, though some have been known to attack players for no reason. On some occasions, Ghosts of Halo are also invulnerable.

While sightings of the "classical" Ghosts of Halo—visible but abnormal players—are rare and cannot be consistently reproduced, a unique form of Ghost can be reproduced using Halo: Reach 's Forge.

History
In July 2006, a video was posted on YouTube by a user named "AfRoSaUcE", who claimed that the video was over a year old and was made by Jump Tactic's Anti Noob. The video, taken during an Xbox LIVE multiplayer match in Halo 2's map Lockout, depicts a white Spartan player jumping around and behaving erratically, and scoring kills that were credited to The Guardians; for the sake of brevity, a full description can be found below.

The video quickly became popular, and speculations were raised that it was some form of mod. AfRoSaUcE denied the allegation, insisting that the phenomenon resulted from some kind of a network problem.

Since the video's first appearance, several new videos have surfaced, each depicting characters without gamertags or running animations, and each exhibiting several Ghost-like traits. However, a number of mods have also surfaced, each providing most, if not all, of these exact traits.

A later video shows a Ghost in Halo 3's map Blackout. The video is described further below.

"Supernatural" abilities
Ghosts of Halo often possess "supernatural" traits that the normal players don't have.
 * They may not show up on the scoreboard.
 * Their kills are often credited to The Guardians.
 * They can perform tricks and super jumps with ease.
 * They can teleport to any location on the map at any time.
 * They can be docile or aggressive.
 * They never miss when shooting.
 * In some cases, they are invulnerable. There are videos that show them being killed.
 * Medals are not awarded when Ghosts are killed. For example, meleeing a Ghost to death will not earn players the Beat Down medal.
 * They have unlimited ammo and can switch weapons with extreme speed. However, they still have to reload.
 * They may spawn with any weapons, regardless of the weapon sets on map.
 * They can appear during Forge on Local Play, but have also been sighted on Xbox Live.
 * They have no walking animation, turning, or falling animations, and appear to slide along the ground.
 * They do, however, have a jumping animation.
 * They can play as a Spartan, an Elite, or a Monitor. Spartan "ghosts" are the most common.
 * They can have their own armor color, even during team games.
 * They are known to be transparent on some occasions.
 * They can appear as allies or enemies on the motion tracker. They sometimes also appear as vehicles on the Tracker or they don't appear on the map at all.
 * They can spawn Forge objects and equipment out of thin air.
 * They always stay facing in the direction they were when they spawned. When they fire or melee at players, they "snap" to aim at the victim, rather than turning smoothly like normal players; they sometimes "snap" when throwing grenades.
 * They tend to only face the cardinal directions.
 * They have omnidirectional vision, and do not need to look up or down.
 * They can throw unlimited grenades at any angle—including backwards, allowing them to stick a player standing behind them.

Theories
This is a list of theories to explain the Ghosts of Halo.
 * A hoax, created by the use of Mods and perpetuated by popularity.
 * Extreme lag or some sort of network manipulation/failure, coupled with a player joining the game. That is, the ghost is actually a real player which simply appears glitchy to other players.
 * Possible oversight in map coding, which could explain the spawning of passive ghosts. The Spartan in Autumn is an example of such a technical error, which has been verified by Bungie.
 * Overloading the map can cause "strange" phenomena such as objects randomly disappearing and reappearing; Which players might mistakenly believe was caused by a ghost, particularly if the map was unintentionally overloaded.

Ghost Sightings
This is a list of the verifiable sightings of Ghosts of Halo.

Ghost of Lockout
A video, made by "Anti Noob", uploaded by "AfRoSaUcE", and described earlier in this article, was uploaded to YouTube on July 28, 2006. The video shows two players (Anti Noob and "The Underdogg") playing a custom game on Halo 2's map Lockout over Xbox Live.

In the first part of the video, The Underdogg went to go eat, leaving his controller unattended. Anti Noob decided to "jump around" while he waited. As The Underdogg left, Anti Noob crouched and walked into a wall. As soon as he turned around, he saw that The Underdogg had been stuck with a Plasma Grenade. After the resulting explosion, an unidentified white Spartan glided to the corpse and threw another grenade, seemingly without noticing Anti Noob.

The second, third, and fourth parts of the video all show the "ghost" sticking Anti Noob with grenades, with one part showing The Underdogg also being stuck again.

The final part of the video shows Anti Noob fleeing from the ghost. When Anti Noob was eventually cornered, he decided to hide behind a fusion core. The ghost glided past him. When Anti Noob shifted to the side to check whether the ghost was still there, he saw that the ghost was right behind the Core. Panicking, Anti Noob backed up behind the Core, accidentally knocking it over. Once again, the ghost stuck Anti Noob with a grenade.

In the video's description, AfRoSaUcE speculates that the "ghost" was a third player that had been affected by a network glitch. He states that such a network glitch would have prevented Anti Noob and The Underdogg from witnessing all of the hypothetical third player's actions; the third person would have seen himself walking, but the other two players saw him slide. The glitch also gave this hypothetical third player invincibility; some attribute the perfect grenade sticks to the glitch, but (assuming that the "network glitch" explanation is correct) the third player could have just been an expert with grenades.

Ghost of Turf
The Ghost of Turf was filmed by a clan known as "HollywoodHalo". This video is notable, as it shows two Ghosts, each firing at each other (and one of them dying). This contradicts other videos, which show invulnerable Ghosts.

Prior to the Ghosts' appearances, two players (white-armored Spartans) lost connection. The Ghosts seen in this video may have been the result of a network glitch—two ordinary players, glitched off of the scoreboard and probably unaware of their own ghostly appearances.

Ghost of Blackout
On April 25, 2008, another YouTube video was posted. This video depicted a ghost on Halo 3's multiplayer map Blackout. Though the ghost was not invulnerable, it did lack a walking animation, gamertag, and scoreboard entry. It appeared to toy with the players; this helps support the theory that the ghosts are actual players, playing as ghosts either via network issues or mods.

Ghost of Sandtrap
Another ghost is discovered on Sandtrap. It takes the form of a pink Spartan carrying a Battle Rifle. Its appearance was short and it merely just stood still for a few seconds. Such a ghost is explainable by the theory that the game coding had a technical glitch and spawned a spartan "bot".

Other ghost appearances
Numerous unproven stories of Ghosts in Halo 3 have been told. Valhalla and Sandtrap are supposedly major hot-spots for "ghost activity". On Valhalla, there is rumored to be a Spartan with an Energy Sword that haunts the downed Pelican; this Ghost is the most popular ghost next to the Ghost of Lockout, and it has been the target of many ghost hunts. On Sandtrap, it is said that an orange or yellow ghost haunts the map with a Spartan Laser. The Ghost of Sandtrap is the third most popular ghost.

Minor ghost appearances or "poltergeists" (objects appearing out of nowhere and acting on their own) have also been witnessed. These minor accounts are most likely the results of random and irreproducible glitches; they could also very well be hoaxes.

"Classical" ghosts
Nine days after the game's launch, a video was uploaded to YouTube. It claimed to depict a ghost in Forge World, but was revealed to be a hoax.

No other sightings of "classical" Ghosts of Halo have been reported and verified in Halo: Reach.

Reach-specific ghosts
In Halo: Reach, an additional form of ghost can be produced by severely overburdening the game engine in an already laggy environment. Under the right conditions, one or more players may manifest as "ghosts".

The Ghosts of Halo in Reach differ significantly from those seen in past games. They appear on the scoreboard, but are shown as dead. Actions taken by a ghost occur like they should; they can fire shots normally, occupy vehicles, and so on. However, the ghost itself is entirely absent on others' consoles; they do not appear on the motion tracker when on foot, and ghost-occupied vehicles are displayed on the motion tracker as if they were moving of their own accord.

(In fact ghost-occupied vehicles act as if they are not occupied at all. Other players see vehicle-entry prompts even when a ghost is occupying a seat. Furthermore, the vehicle will not show pilot-related animations; a Falcon, for example, will fly around with its cockpit open and the propellers not spinning.)

False sightings
Many bizarre phenomena are attributed to Ghosts of Halo. Most such events, however, are simply the results of random (or even well known) glitches. In some cases, they may be deliberate hoaxes and/or mods—in fact, nearly everything on this list can be imitated in Forge or with Active Camo.

The following events are not related to sightings of classical Ghosts of Halo:
 * Vehicles moving by themselves.
 * Random grenades, explosions, weapons fire, vehicle fire, equipment activation, and Wraith mortars.
 * Blue flashes, similar to Plasma Grenade explosions.
 * Spartan Lasers firing from out of the ground or from midair.
 * Random fires from incendiary grenades that seem to have been thrown from thin air.
 * Random props moving.
 * Ghosts with turning animations or walking animations.
 * Ghosts that show up on the scoreboard.
 * Players that occasionally slide for split seconds.

Trivia

 * The Ghost of Blackout has been featured as a key story piece in a few machinimas.
 * In Halo PC, when playing online, occasionally a player will spawn and not move; they will also be invincible, though they still flinch when fired at. However, they do not always keep their own color, and show up on the scoreboard.