Cloaking

Cloaking is a form of equipment in Halo 3. It can be found on many levels in campaign, and offers a full Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 style blending ability. Once activated, it has the same basic function as Active Camouflage from the first two games.

One notable difference between Cloaking and active camouflage is that cloaking is equipment, so once it is picked up like the bubble shield, tripmine, regenerator, flare and power drain, it can be used when the player chooses, whereas active camouflage becomes active as soon the player walks over it. Another obvious difference is that the camouflage's cloaking ability increases through Halo: Combat Evolved to Halo 3, where in Halo CE you could see the entire body clearly, where in Halo 3 only a faint shimmer. Also, cloaking has much shorter invisibility span than the active camouflage, only 12 seconds. The symbol for the cloaking on the HUD resembles the active camouflage power-up from the first two games - a triangle with an eye in the middle. Enemies will not notice you while camouflaged as long as you do not do anything to disrupt it such as using a weapon, receiving damage or bumping into them. One tip is that Chieftans can usually, sense your location, and turn slowly as you move and only attack if you get within a few feet.

The cloaking equipment is absent from multiplayer, and even in Forge. The active camouflage power-up appears, as in previous games, as its replacement.

In appearance, it resembles a large deactivated energy sword handle (albeit one that glows and has a slightly bluish smoking effect) when not being used. It also resembles the Invincibility power up. In Campaign, it is first encountered on the second level, Crow's Nest.

The cloaking is often used by brutes on the Halo 3 level The Ark where this makes the levels extremely dangerous for the unwary particularly on the Legendary difficulty as they often come up behind you and kill you before you know they are there.