Combat harness

The upper components of the harness in use in November 2552.

The combat harness is the standard armor system used by the Sangheili soldiers of the Covenant Empire and the Sangheilian Armed Forces.

Development and History

The combat harness is worn by the majority of infantry ranks from Sangheili Minor to Ultra and Zealot, with the damage each can take and the armor's shielding increasing in power with rank (with the exception of Stealth Sangheili), and comes in a variety of colors denoting said rank. The armour boosts the strength and speed of the wearer in a similar fashion to the SPARTAN's MJOLNIR powered assault armor, although to which degree is unknown. Some versions have active camouflage built in and others have flashlights, other versions have an energy dagger built into the gauntlet. Its primary emphasis, to be iconic and inflict psychological trauma, can be linked back to the martial/physical pre-eminence of the Sangheili people. This helmet has remained unchanged for eleven hundred cycles, and the thoracic cage has remained unchanged for fifty generations.

Halo 3 armor permutation

Helmet characteristics

Unlock: Starter
The helmet is largely angular, featuring a set of spikes at the rear of the helmet and a pair of cheek guards. It features a metal plate guarding the jaw.

Shoulder pauldron characteristics

Unlock: Starter
The Shoulder Pauldron is a set of overlapping plates that spike both upwards and downwards and to each side.

Thoracic cage characteristics

Unlock: Starter
The Thoracic Cage is made up of a pair of plates over each side of the chest with a gap and a pair of rectangular lights heading downwards on each side.

Changes in design

Halo: Combat Evolved

The armor used by the Elites in Halo: Combat Evolved has a few differences from the armor used in later games, such as some Elites have a "curled back" headpiece, different thigh armors, and smaller shoulder pieces. They also have armor with a three-pronged design. In addition, they have orange glowing sections on their arms and legs, which often give away their position. Their eye color is also the same as their armor color, for example: a Minor with blue armor will have blue eyes.

Halo 2

In Halo 2, there are no curled headpieces and the eyes are not the same color as the armor, rather a dark purple or black color. Also, the shoulder pieces are larger than in the previous game. They also have glowing orange sections on the backs of their legs and on their arms which act as shield indicators, glowing brightly when the shield is fully charged and dimming or going out altogether depending on shield level.

Halo 3

In Halo 3, the Elite's armor is again altered. The armor now includes even larger shoulder pieces, longer and more numerous spikes on the headpiece, and a small tube connecting to each bottom mandible guard. The tube is only included in the Halo 3 incarnation. There is also a horizontal light on the chestpiece. The large orange shield indicators are replaced by two small green lights on the Elite's back and on their chest plate, which are dull when the shield is fully charged and glow bright when the shield is depleted.

Halo: Reach

In Halo: Reach, the combat harness is different from the earlier iterations in a number of ways. The other types are also much more varied, depending on the Elite's rank or specialty. Only the Elite Minors' armor greatly resembles the Combat Harness seen previously. Another addition to the armor is the energy dagger which emits from the wrist gauntlet.

Halo 4

Multiple variants of the combat harness are introduced in Halo 4. There appears to be much less armor covering the bodysuit and the forearms are protected by only the bodysuit or even completely exposed in some cases. Of the variants revealed so far, the bodysuit underneath does not cover the hands at all, unlike certain previous iterations where the bodysuit includes gloves.

Gallery

• 

  Two Minor Elites guarding a Zealot. The Minor Elite's curved helmets only appear in Halo: Combat Evolved.

• MinorElite12.jpg

  A Minor in the combat harness, as seen in Halo 2.

• 

  A Zealot in combat harness.

• 

  A white-armored Elite in multiplayer mode with the combat harness.

• 

  A view of the internal bodysuit of the harness.

• Halo4 Elite.jpg

  The new combat harness of the Elites in Halo 4.

List of appearances

• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
• Halo 2
• Halo 3
• Halo Wars
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo: Reach
• Halo 4
• Halo: The Fall of Reach (First appearance)
• Halo: The Flood
• Halo: First Strike
• Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
• Halo: The Cole Protocol
• Halo Graphic Novel
• Halo: Helljumper
• Halo: Blood Line
• Halo Legends