Lone Wolves

"A mix of Slayer and other Free For All games. Here, you must stand on your own."

- In-game description for Halo 3's ranked Lone Wolf playlist

Lone Wolves, is a Ranked, free-for-all playlist in Halo 3. It is a considerable counterpart of Rumble Pit, which is non-ranked free-for-all. Lone Wolves matches contain six players (will be increased to eight in the September playlist update), and there are no teams. In a recent update, the player count increased from five to six in order to make a few of the achievements easier to obtain. It also added Swords, to the playlist and reduced objective games by a bit making slayer come up more often.

Players typically advance in level by consistently placing in the top three, and drop in level by placing in the bottom three. However, several other factors also affect this, including comparison of the player's level compared to the others in the game (although usually the players are about the same level), what specific place the player came in (1st place will level a player up faster than 3rd), and their Kill/Death spread (for slayer games). On September 16,2008 LW's Player count increases from six players to 8 players

Maps played in Lone Wolves
Note: All maps have equal chance of being selected
 * Construct
 * Epitaph
 * Guardian
 * High Ground
 * Isolation
 * Snowbound (HC) - Shotgun and Spartan Laser removed. Sniper moved to lower caves.
 * The Pit
 * Foundry - Not required. Part of the Heroic Map Pack.
 * Blackout - Not required. Part of the Legendary Map Pack.

Gametypes played in Lone Wolves

 * Slayer (45% chance of being selected) - First player to 25 kills wins. 10 minute match time limit.
 * Slayer BRs (28.3%) - First player to 25 kills wins. Players spawn with Battle Rifles and Assault Rifle secondary weapons. 10 minute match time limit.
 * Oddball (13.1%) - Hold the skull to earn points. First player to 50 points wins. 10 minute match time limit.
 * Crazy King (10.1%) - Stand in the hill to earn points. First player to 100 points wins. Hill traits: Moves to a random location every 30 seconds. 10 minute match time limit.
 * Swords (3%) - First player to 25 kills wins. Players spawn with Energy Swords and no secondary weapon. Player traits: Infinite ammo, cannot pick up weapons or drive/ride in vehicles. 10 minute match time limit.

=Trivia=
 * This is one of the most-played Matchmaking game variants considering the "One versus All" nature and mentality. Lone Wolves is where most hardcore gamers, hone their skills to play against even more serious players.
 * This is one of the only playlists where a player can earn a vast majority of achievements, except for occasional Double EXP Weekends.