Active camouflage

The Active Camouflage power-up is light-bending energy which is stored in a triangular glass case. It is similar to the way a Covenant Overshield function's. When the user break's the active camouflage container, the energy envelop's the wearer and bend's light around the skin, armor, or shielding, conforming to it's user's form, rendering him almost invisible. This effect wear's off as the energy dissipate's.

Function
The Camouflage cover's the entire body. The coverage does not extend to the entirety of the user's equipment. Human weapon's won't give away the user's location as much as Covenant weapons do. Light's like on the Plasma Pistol and Plasma Rifle can be seen, as can the Energy Sword, giving away the user's position. Also, if close enough, the character's outline is seen faintly and look's like a moving silhouette's. Yet it's hard to see the outline and the seemingly "ghost" from a far angle. Even on a scope Like the Sniper Rifle or Battle Rifle it can be hard to see the opponent.

When any projectile's pass through this shielding, it is temporarily deactivated causing the user to become visible. It should be noted that this is speculation based on field reports, and has not been proven because no one has yet captured an intact device.

The technology can be utilized on Human armor system's, such as the MJOLNIR armor, but the UNSC has only developed a rough equivalent, the Camouflage Cloak.

Some Elites have active camouflage generator's, as do some Grunts. The Arbiter has old armor with an old active camouflage generator that need's to recharge after using the camouflage for too long. In Halo 2, it is noted that the Arbiter's armor, while possessing an in-built active camouflage generator, is not permanent until turned off, unlike the more modern generator's used by SpecOps Elites. There is a circle on the player's HUD that show's the amount of time left for both the usage of the active camouflage and the recharging sequence. The Master Chief can gain this ability with the Envy Skull.

When playing as the Arbiter, using any attack will cause the active camouflage to deactivate, and the player must wait for it to recharge before using it again.

Use in Campaign
If the active camouflage is active during campaign, your are completely invisible to the AI enemie's unless you fire your weapon which will deactivate the camouflage for a short amount of time. Though the chance's you get to use the Active Camouflage in campaign aren't very often, other than when you are playing as the Arbiter in Halo 2 and the three level's in Halo: Combat Evolved, Truth and Reconciliation, Silent Cartographer, 343 Guilty Spark, and Assault on the Control Room. In Halo 3, Active Camoflage is a piece of equipment that can be picked up much like the Bubble Shield or other items. What makes this beneficial is the item can be used when needed, not just when available. The user can hold on to it until for example in a situation when he's drastically outnumbered and employ to the camoflage to even the odds or avoid contact all together.

Active Camouflage and Shielding
An odd discrepancy is present in the difference between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 active camouflage. In Halo, Stealth Elites using active camouflage had no shielding whatsoever; furthermore, Elites were the only Covenant to possess it. However, in the last level, a Flood Elite was seen with an Active Camouflage. In Halo 2 active camouflage was seen in use by both Elite's and Grunt's (only in Arbiter level and part of Regret).

In "A Day At the Beach," an Elite Minor is seen engaging his own active camouflage at the expense of his shield's (though when the camouflage seems to be shorted out by the Plasma grenade explosion his shields are reactivated).

It can be conjectured from this evidence that perhaps all Elite armor has active camouflage system's installed, but in all but the highest echelon's of Elite ranking's the power drain deactivate's the shield in favor of the camouflage. Only Ultra Elites and Special Operations Elites seem to have enough power in their armor to run both system's at the same time.

In Halo 3
The Active Camo is no longer contained inside a pyramid. It appear's as a large, glowing sphere with what appears to be containment devices around it in Halo 3 multiplayer. Unlike past Halo games, active camo is not found in campaign. In campaign, Active Camouflage is replaced by the Cloaking equipment, which function's in the same way as active camouflage once used. Melee attack's, shooting, throwing grenade's, and using equipment will negate the effect of the powerup.

The quality of camouflage in custom games may be set to three different settings :
 * Poor Camo: The player has camouflage that might fool a Grunt.
 * Good Camo: The player has camouflage that will fool an attentive Elite.
 * Invisible: The player is perfectly invisible when not shooting.

Trivia

 * By changing the graphic's card settings on Halo PC, active camouflage users appear as a big, single-color figure and are very visible.'''
 * Active camouflage covers the Energy Sword in Halo 3, unlike in the previous games.
 * Active camouflage is similar to the invisibility of the Predator in the Predator series
 * On 343 Guilty Spark if you go right off of the fallen tree towards a small indention in the hill, you will find an Active Camouflage next to a pipeline.
 * Active camouflage generates heat