Headshot

"BOOM! HEADSHOT!!"

- Common Internet saying.



A Headshot is a tactic used in both Campaign and Multiplayer to score instant kills. This occurs when a bullet or projectile is fired at an enemy's head, causing higher damage, which is logical. This is more effective than the bullet hitting the enemy's body. Since the head of a character only consists of a small percentage of their body area, it is very difficult to pull off many headshots unless the player has a good stationary and shielded position. Headshots are most commonly performed with semi-automatic weapons that have good accuracy, and a precision sight, such as a sniper or beam rifle.

Damage

 * Headshots do the same damage to shields as body shots.
 * Any damage to an unshielded head by a headshot weapon is an instant kill.
 * For example, in Halo 3, 12 bullets from a Battle rifle do a total of 72 damage. A player has 70 shield points, so 11 2/3 bullets are used for the shield and the remaining 1/3 bullet does the fatal headshot.
 * A sniper round does ~80 damage, 70 of which is used for the shield and 10 of which go for the body, which means a kill in the case of a headshot.

List of Headshot Weapons
With headshot power/effectiveness rating against shielded enemies, and flesh (1 to 10, 10 being the strongest)


 * Sniper Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 10 (pure power, one hit kill)
 * M6D headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 10 (pure power + fast rate of fire)
 * M6G headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 9 (pure power)
 * M6C Magnum headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemy: 8 (extremely fast rate of fire makes up for some of the power)
 * M6C/SOCOM
 * Beam Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 10 (pure power, one hit kill)
 * BR55HB SR Battle Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 8 (power)
 * Covenant Carbine headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 8 (fast rate of fire makes up for some of the power)
 * BR55 Battle Rifle headshot power/effectiveness against shielded enemies: 9 (power)

Headshots require a great amount of accuracy, so using weapons that do not aim well (such as the Assault Rifle) is largely ineffective.

Headshots are most commonly executed by more skilled players than the average rookie, due to the high level of skill involved in shooting someone in the head while running as opposed to a killing shot to the chest such as the Rocket Launcher would provide.

Note that the Assault Rifle and the SMG don't provide any increased damage for headshots, along with many other fully automatic weapons, such as the Plasma Rifle.

With the exception of Halo: Combat Evolved, when the crosshairs of a headshot weapon are over an enemy's head, they turn bright red and a small red dot appears in the middle of the crosshairs meaning you are pointing at the head.

Trivia

 * Some people use the Elite Ascetic player model in high and blatant hopes that the lowered head stays all headshots from behind, mainly utilized on a Team SWAT game, but in truth and reality, there is still a small part of head exposed from the Elite's posterior and backside. It is simply harder to get a headshot from behind on an Elite. Also, there is a small spot in the back between the 'shoulder blades' of the model that will sometimes produce an actual headshot. It is also far easier to get a head shot on an Elite from the front, as their head is in the "center of their mass".
 * It is actually possible to fire between the mandibles of an Elite and miss. This can happen but is rarely achieved.
 * In Halo 3 campaign or Matchmaking, if you get 10 sniper headshots in one level you'll unlock the Achievement Headshot Honcho.
 * In Halo 3 Matchmaking headshots can be somewhat glitchy especially if you are shooting with the sniper in close range, sometimes you don't have to hit the head (or hit the enemy at all) for a headshot.
 * Sometimes, in Halo: CE, if you perform a headshot on a marine with the Sniper Rifle, the other marines will say, "Nice shot!", but they will still turn against you if you kill too many.
 * The sniper rifle has a slight delay when shooting, so if you are swiping the screen always press the trigger just before their head.
 * Getting a headshot kill gives you more metagame score than a regular kill.