Project HAYABUSA



The Hayabusa Armor is a type of United Nations Space Command body armor.

Introduction
The Hayabusa is a powered battle armor system similar to the standard Mark VI MJOLNIR except stemming from Project HAYABUSA as opposed to Project: MJOLNIR. It was developed by RKD, an Earth-based think tank in the year 2536. It was presented to the UNSC Ordinance Committee as an answer to the self-contained powered armor problem. Advanced materials are used in the production of the Hayabusa armor reducing the weight of the, at the time, current generation armor by nearly a third. It is an armor permutation in Halo 3. Bungie has confirmed all of the armor permutations have no effect on gameplay.

Helmet Characteristics
The helmet features a upwards trio of spikes then one to each side and the face plate is fused into a single piece, bearing some resemblance to the armor of the Elites. The top rear of the helmet is pointed. The bottom rear, around the neck forms a sort of neck guard, like that of a samurai helmet.

Shoulder Characteristics
Its shoulders are replaced by three metal plates arranged in an overlapping fashion similar to that of a samurai's.

Chest Characteristics
The Chest plate is much more ornate and thick than that of the Mark VI.

Katana
As mentioned, the Katana is only for looks and is only unlocked after all Achievements have been completed.

Unlock

 * Head: Obtain all 13 skulls.
 * Shoulders: Obtain 9 skulls.
 * Body: Obtain 5 skulls.
 * Katana (Same as Body, but with a sheathed katana on the back): Unlock all Halo 3 Achievements.
 * Flaming Helmet: Bungie Employees only (verified)

Trivia

 * The armor is in fact inspired by Ryu Hayabusa. The helmet is almost an exact copy of the "ninja of the future" costume in Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox. On that game, you have to complete the campaign once and then select a new game while holding a certain button combination to activate the costume. Team Ninja, the developers of Ninja Gaiden, are also mentioned in the Halo 3 credits.
 * This is not the first association between Bungie and Team Ninja. On the latter's Dead or Alive 4, a new character from the Halo universe joined the cast: Spartan-458.
 * If one gets every achievement (1000 GP out of 1000), the player gets a special sword on the back of his/her armor. The sword closely resembles Ryu's Dragon Sword, and is not usable by the player.
 * Hayabusa is Japanese for Falcon.
 * Other similarities to characters or armor based on Japanese culture are incidental.