Equipment

Overview
The philosophy of equipment is simple: to add a variety to the combat during gameplay without unbalancing the game.

Halo 2
In Halo 2, the only available equipment was Master Chief's flashlight and The Arbiter's active camouflage. Although such equipment could not be collected or spent, they were always available for use (based on charge) being integrated into their respective armor.

Halo 3
In Halo 3, equipment items can be used by both attackers and defenders in both Multiplayer and Campaign. It is not entirely clear which faction, Human or Covenant, manufactures each piece of equipment.

In Halo 2
Campaign only:
 * Flashlight
 * Active Camouflage

In Halo 3
Available in matchmaking and multiplayer:
 * Bubble Shield
 * Power Drain
 * Gravity Lift
 * Trip Mine
 * Regenerator
 * Active Camouflage
 * Overshield

No longer available in matchmaking:
 * Flare
 * Deployable Cover
 * Radar Jammer

Campaign only:
 * Automated Turret
 * Cloaking
 * Invincibility

Custom maps only:
 * Custom Powerup

Trivia

 * In the January 2008 issue of EGM, in an interview with Brian Jarrard and Tyson Green, it was revealed that there was a piece of equipment cut from the final game known as The Vortex. It was said to be deployed the same as a Power Drain, but would instead create a mini black hole that would "suck" in any object within range, and diverting its course into the black hole, and away from your face. It was even able to affect nearby objects such as the Fusion Coil and even other players. The design was cut due to the fact that it was too "expensive" from a networking and performance standpoint.
 * Radar Jammers and Flares are no longer usable in Matchmaking, due to unwanted side-effects including the ability to assist players in jumping to places they should not be.
 * If you have a Radar Jammer (Power Drains and Flares also work), you can look straight down, hit X, and then A an instant later, if you do it right, then you will jump off the equipment, making it useful for getting to high places.
 * In the Forge, you can manipulate the game so that you can spawn equipment continuously. Press the X button (default configuration) on the item, pressing X again and changing the Run-Time Minimum to the same number as the Number on Map while cause the item to spawn immediately after being picked up.
 * In the new 2009 Halo 3 Action Figures wave, there are equipments included, and it should be noted that they all can be moved in some way as if they were activated; for example, the Radar Jammer included with the Olive Security-permutation Spartan has two handles on it that the Spartan can hold as if to be able to deploy the equipment, and these are connected to disk-like parts of the Radar Jammer that, when pulled out, exposes the insides as if it were activated and glowing.