Sandtrap

"A UNSC battle cruiser looms menacingly over [Sandtrap's] sprawling sand dunes. [Sandtrap] is the largest map ever to appear in a Halo game, so Bungie put a key emphasis on vehicle-on-vehicle combat."

- www.1up.com on [Sandtrap]

Sandtrap is a multiplayer map featured in Halo 3.

Introduction
Sandtrap is a vast desert with rolling sand dunes, the second largest multiplayer map in the Halo franchise, the biggest map being Infinity. It features odd Forerunner buildings and is encircled with a minefield that features vertically-launching mines (similar to the ones in the opening scene of Die Another Day), to prevent players from venturing beyond its boundaries. The September 07 EGM stated that this was the site of a Brute excavation and the UNSC came along and removed them. It has a heavy emphasis on vehicular combat. Every vehicle in the game is on this map. For Example, the bases are the recently confirmed UNSC Elephant. In the skies "ominously hovers" the behemoth of a UNSC Battle Cruiser - an artificial sky. Also, from speculation, you can see what looks to be two towers just like the one on Relic. There is a tower that appears to be the level Epitaph, considering Epitaph is in a desert this makes sense.

History
It was first announced in the June 2007 issue of Gamepro. It may also be the "large map" Bungie sparsely talked about in one of their updates. This was not one of the three maps featured in the public Halo 3 Beta. This map was originally named Shrine, but was confirmed to have been renamed to Sandtrap in the July 13, 2007 Bungie Weekly Update.

Weapons

 * MA5C Assault Rifle
 * Brute Shot
 * Rocket Launcher
 * Spartan Laser
 * Missile Pod
 * AIE-486H Heavy Machinegun (on the elephant)
 * Gravity Hammer
 * SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle
 * Battle Rifle

Vehicles

 * Brute Chopper
 * Warthog
 * Ghost
 * UNSC Battle Cruiser (non-drivable, background scenery)
 * Phantom (Not drivable, seen crashed in video at bungie.net)
 * Banshee
 * Albatross (Not drivable, seen crashed in video at bungie.net)
 * Elephant
 * Brute Prowler
 * Mongoose
 * Scorpion
 * Wraith
 * Hornet

Strategies & Miscellaneous

 * Bungie accelerated the respawn timer for vehicles to 15 seconds. Take advantage of that.
 * Avoid fighting on foot through this large level.
 * If stuck try heading for one of the Forerunner structures.
 * Make sure you have plenty of grenades and explosive weapons.
 * GamePro has stated that Sandtrap "...has few ties to older Halo 2 maps, but it's massive size recalls Relic".
 * At E3, a map was shown on video. It was said by viewers to be called "Sand Trap" — in contrast to having been called "Shrine" before that point — and was labelled "... the largest map ever to be in Halo." The new name of Sand Trap was confirmed in the July 12 Bungie podcast.

Related Links
Videos
 * Gameplay footage