Regicide

Regicide is a gametype for Halo 4. It is a variation of Free-For-All gametype where the leading scorer is declared the "king." The king is identified by a beacon which appears above their heads, and a bounty is placed on their heads. The other players need to kill the king to claim the bounty and earn bonus points. The minimum bounty is 15 points; maximum bounty is 35 points. Surviving as king for 20 seconds awards the Kingtacular medal and an Overshield. Surviving for a full 60 seconds awards the Reign of Terror medal and a Damage Boost. Killing the king is known as a Regicide.

Team Regicide is a variant of Regicide in which both teams have their own kings, and players need to do their part in killing the opposing team's king and protecting their own. It resembles the VIP game types in Halo 3.

Regicide gameplay differs from traditional slayer in two major ways. The first is that players inevitably flock toward the king or kings, making players more likely to encounter one another and speeding up the game. The second is that earning the most kills does not necessarily guarantee victory; a player with the most kills will often lose to a another player who has earned more Regicides.

Tips

Unlike many other gametypes, playing it safe is not a wise strategy Regicide. With other players all heading toward the same location, sitting back and firing into the fray will generally not score enough kills and Regicides to win. Because of the tendency of players to crowd the same location, close quarters loadout weapons such as the Assault Rifle, Storm Rifle and Suppressor are good choices.

Active camouflage is a particularly useful armor ability when not the king, as other players are often too preoccupied moving toward the king to notice they are being snuck up on. Once the player becomes king however, the beacon which appears above their heads makes active camo useless against all but the most inexperienced players.

Defensive armor abilities such as the Hardlight Shield and Regeneration Field are only of use to a king in Team Regicide where there is a possibility of assistance from team mates. In free-for-all a player using a Hardlight shield will likely find themselves shot in the back by another player, and so are only preventing themselves from shooting back. Similarly, a Regeneration field is not capable of recharging a player's shield during a concentrated attack from multiple directions.

Arguably the best armor ability for a king is the Autosentry. Enemies attempting to close with and engage the king are unable to avoid the autosentry like they would in other gametypes. The additional fire from the autosentry can help a king kill multiple attackers before they are taken out.

Trivia

Regicide is also the name of a Foundry map variant in Bungie vs World playlist.