Halo: Infinite

[Juxtapose]

Chieftains more than make up for how easily the majority of brutes go down to any precision weapon. You shoot off their helmet, to get another helmet, then you can headshot them. The hammer chieftains are legit scary, I swear it was the final boss, not Harbinger. Due to my pure unshackled autism, I've been making an AI tier list lol. I'd say for the enemies you will run into in terms of difficulty to kill them (on the difficulties I played being Heroic and Legendary), and their ability to kill you, imo it goes:

S+: Banished Hunters
S: Gold Elites, Brute Chieftain Ultras, Classic Hunters
A+: Ultra Elites, Spec Ops Elites, Brute Chieftain, Sniper Jackals (Legendary), Rocket Skimmers (don't see a lot of them)
A: Red Elites, Brute Captain Ultra, Gold Brute Berserker, Sniper Jackal (Heroic)
A-: Elite Minor, Brute Captain, all Brute Stalkers, standard Brute Berserker
B+: Gold and Purple Brute Minors (gold is TECHNICALLY BETTER)
B: Blue Brute Minor, Grunt Ultra, Red Jackal, Skirmisher, Commando and Shock Rifle Skimmer, Sentinel Major and shock rifle Sentinel
B-: Blue and Purple Jackal Minors (purple is technically better), Sentinel Minor
C: every other Grunt rank

Basically I think that the Banished Hunters are god awful and that fight with the two of them in that small room in the Silent Auditorium on Legendary was horrible. Not insurmountable obviously, but I died a lot, didn't cheese it, but on my successful run I really thought multiple times that I got very lucky. Anything in the S tier can kill you in a 1v1 if you aren't on your game. A+ are very dangerous when put with a lot of other units to distract you, and can quickly end you. Same with A tier, but less so, and you will almost always beat them in a 1v1. The B tiers aren't bad by themselves, but could potentially kill you in number. And grunts are grunts. Sniper Jackals and Rocket Skimmers are only as high as they are due to how quickly they can kill you, although if you know where they are, no big deal.

Very cool list, I'll keep this in mind! Interestingly, the Banished Hunters are called Hunter Captains, and I'm surprised I didn't make the connection as they actually first appeared in Halo Wars 2: Operation Spearbreaker under the Hunter Hero, Colony.

The Spec Ops Elites are apparently Elite Zealots, actually. The Gold Elites are apparently Generals. There's another kind too, Gold and Red: Elite Warlord.

Many of the names have changed with the Banished. Elite Minors, for example, are called Elite Mercenaries (which makes sense given that's what they are).

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Very cool list, I'll keep this in mind! Interestingly, the Banished Hunters are called Hunter Captains, and I'm surprised I didn't make the connection as they actually first appeared in Halo Wars 2: Operation Spearbreaker under the Hunter Hero, Colony.

The Spec Ops Elites are apparently Elite Zealots, actually. The Gold Elites are apparently Generals. There's another kind too, Gold and Red: Elite Warlord.

Many of the names have changed with the Banished. Elite Minors, for example, are called Elite Mercenaries (which makes sense given that's what they are).

Right! Me either! I’d love to see Colony come back, what a terrifying boss that would be. Form what I understand, Let Volir is on the Arc still leading the Banished forces Atriox delegated to fight the spirit of fire, so we could maybe see all of them, including spartan red team and Captain Cutter get integrated into Infinite.
And that’s interesting lore about the Elite ranks. I think they only went with the 5 elite ranks we see aside form the Warlord and bosses to keep the Halo CE vibe they were going for. Blue < Red < Gold, then Spec Ops is its own thing, with the Reach Ultra design thrown in for good measure. The Ultras still fit into the CE style ranks because they seem to just take behaviors of the Reds and Spec Ops. They’re a tougher red, but may have different weapons (heat wave / human weapons), but once the shields are down they will attempt to camo up with the sword sometimes and be more like the spec ops. Overall this might be my favorite version of elites to fight in this game. They appear in much smaller numbers and are in general much superior to the brutes, living up to their name.

 

[Marinjuana]

Finished Heroic last night. Quick thoughts on story

Spoiler

I was kinda peeved by the cliffhanger ending, this was a trilogy after all. What's the secret of the Halo, do the writers even know at this point? A lot of storytelling like that these days.

That said.. I loved it. They brought it back to stability after a shaky Halo 5 narrative and it was one of the more enjoyable campaigns overall. Makes me excited for the future of Halo again.

 

[Juxtapose]

Right! Me either! I’d love to see Colony come back, what a terrifying boss that would be. Form what I understand, Let Volir is on the Arc still leading the Banished forces Atriox delegated to fight the spirit of fire, so we could maybe see all of them, including spartan red team and Captain Cutter get integrated into Infinite.
And that’s interesting lore about the Elite ranks. I think they only went with the 5 elite ranks we see aside form the Warlord and bosses to keep the Halo CE vibe they were going for. Blue < Red < Gold, then Spec Ops is its own thing, with the Reach Ultra design thrown in for good measure. The Ultras still fit into the CE style ranks because they seem to just take behaviors of the Reds and Spec Ops. They’re a tougher red, but may have different weapons (heat wave / human weapons), but once the shields are down they will attempt to camo up with the sword sometimes and be more like the spec ops. Overall this might be my favorite version of elites to fight in this game. They appear in much smaller numbers and are in general much superior to the brutes, living up to their name.

I'd love to see Let and the Spirit of Fire crew myself!

For the Elite armour, actually pay attention to the Officers (Red) and Generals (Gold) and you'll see they have their Halo: Reach helmet designs as well.

 

[Juxtapose]

Finished Heroic last night. Quick thoughts on story

Spoiler

I was kinda peeved by the cliffhanger ending, this was a trilogy after all. What's the secret of the Halo, do the writers even know at this point? A lot of storytelling like that these days.

That said.. I loved it. They brought it back to stability after a shaky Halo 5 narrative and it was one of the more enjoyable campaigns overall. Makes me excited for the future of Halo again.

Spoiler

The secret of Installation 07 is that it's the prison for the Endless, Harbingers race, whom we know little about.

The game isn't done yet either, apparently they are going to release expansions.

So technically, there's more of this trilogy to come.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I'd love to see Let and the Spirit of Fire crew myself!

For the Elite armour, actually pay attention to the Officers (Red) and Generals (Gold) and you'll see they have their Halo: Reach helmet designs as well.

I think they made them look closest to Reach elites overall because Arbiter, Rtas, and other Elite protagonists aren't in this game, and with characters like Jega and Chak Lok, they probably wanted to lean in to the more sinister look from Reach. The shark eyes on the Reach elites are terrifying, especially since they are only speaking Sanghelli and not English.

 

[Juxtapose]

Had a tough time against Tremonius last night, surprisingly. I went up against him using a Skewer and Stalker Rifle... not the best load out. The damage the Skewer does is great, but being able to go for a walk, grab lunch, take a leak, and then come back and see it's just finishing reloading makes the weapon horrible except for one-shot kills.

There's also no quick switching with it, which is a pain considering I'm also doing a DOOM: Eternal playthrough, and I was simply getting frustrating by all the things I couldn't do in this boss battle.

Tremonius also had this jet pack charge/pound attack he did not use on Normal (or maybe I simply killed him too quickly on that difficulty) which surprised me, and again had me frustrated at my lack of mobility (i.e. lack of Thrust).

I did eventually get him though, after about a dozen tries and dumping the Stalker Rifle for a Pulse Carbine.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Had a tough time against Tremonius last night, surprisingly. I went up against him using a Skewer and Stalker Rifle... not the best load out. The damage the Skewer does is great, but being able to go for a walk, grab lunch, take a leak, and then come back and see it's just finishing reloading makes the weapon horrible except for one-shot kills.

There's also no quick switching with it, which is a pain considering I'm also doing a DOOM: Eternal playthrough, and I was simply getting frustrating by all the things I couldn't do in this boss battle.

Tremonius also had this jet pack charge/pound attack he did not use on Normal (or maybe I simply killed him too quickly on that difficulty) which surprised me, and again had me frustrated at my lack of mobility (i.e. lack of Thrust).

I did eventually get him though, after about a dozen tries and dumping the Stalker Rifle for a Pulse Carbine.

I lured him underground because it nullifies the jet pack (a 1 hit on legendary RIP), used the pulse carbine for shields, and skewer for health. He is surprisingly tough on higher difficulties. Hyperius and Tovarus are the worst part of the game on my playthrough.

 

[Juxtapose]

I lured him underground because it nullifies the jet pack (a 1 hit on legendary RIP), used the pulse carbine for shields, and skewer for health. He is surprisingly tough on higher difficulties. Hyperius and Tovarus are the worst part of the game on my playthrough.

Ohhh, that's a really good idea, luring him, I mean. I'll try that on my third playthrough.

 

[Juxtapose]

I was playing around in the open world last night, and they really have increased the durability of a lot of enemies from past games. Brute Captains and Elite Officers can now survive a Plasma Grenade, which was always a guaranteed kill in all previous titles.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I was playing around in the open world last night, and they really have increased the durability of a lot of enemies from past games. Brute Captains and Elite Officers can now survive a Plasma Grenade, which was always a guaranteed kill in all previous titles.

I like it, I think it was done because in this game you have so many tools at all times, so they need to be more durable to hard pings at least (instant kills), but they seem to go down similarly from guns.

 

[Juxtapose]

I like it, I think it was done because in this game you have so many tools at all times, so they need to be more durable to hard pings at least (instant kills), but they seem to go down similarly from guns.

I've found them to be more durable to weapons as well. Basically it just means I need to be more cautious and not try to get in the centre of a melee.

Speaking of tools though, I had a very hard time against Chak 'Lok last night. I went in with a Battle Rifle and Hydra, but dumped the Battle Rifle for a Pulse Carbine.

He did not use his lunge attack on Normal, so that was a) new and b) my absolute bane. After about a dozen deaths, I had to walk away and take a breather.

My problem is I'm not using the Grappleshot for mobility as it's not intuitive for me at all. It is in exploration, but not in combat. In a battle, I want to Thrust out of the way (and not just because of DOOM: Eternal, you had Thrust as a base-ability in Halo 5: Guardians and it was essential in Warden battles), and the only thing I naturally want to use Grappleshot for is to close gaps. That's a "me" thing, but it's a very huge negative on the game's early design for me. Especially because of how finiky Grappleshot seems to be in an emergency situation.

I also wish the game would have told you somewhere that Chak 'Loks shields are the only shields in the game that don't recharge! I would have been more patient earlier on had I know that.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I've found them to be more durable to weapons as well. Basically it just means I need to be more cautious and not try to get in the centre of a melee.

Speaking of tools though, I had a very hard time against Chak 'Lok last night. I went in with a Battle Rifle and Hydra, but dumped the Battle Rifle for a Pulse Carbine.

He did not use his lunge attack on Normal, so that was a) new and b) my absolute bane. After about a dozen deaths, I had to walk away and take a breather.

My problem is I'm not using the Grappleshot for mobility as it's not intuitive for me at all. It is in exploration, but not in combat. In a battle, I want to Thrust out of the way (and not just because of DOOM: Eternal, you had Thrust as a base-ability in Halo 5: Guardians and it was essential in Warden battles), and the only thing I naturally want to use Grappleshot for is to close gaps. That's a "me" thing, but it's a very huge negative on the game's early design for me. Especially because of how finiky Grappleshot seems to be in an emergency situation.

I also wish the game would have told you somewhere that Chak 'Loks shields are the only shields in the game that don't recharge! I would have been more patient earlier on had I know that.

I died quite a few times to him my first time through on Heroic, but did pretty good on Legendary because I had the experience with him. Definitely good call with the Pulse Carbine. I would stick to the outsides of the room, get good at grapple sliding to create distance, use threat sensors a lot, and uses the pulse carbine on his shields. Sticking to the outside is good for a couple reasons. Mainly, because Chak Lok can just leap at you and murder you in open spaces, but the corners of the outside of the room means he doesn't always have a guarnteed clear path to leap at you and one shot you, assuming you create enough distance. Secondly, he may jump right next to the explodable large plasma coils on the outsides of the room, so you could potentially get some big damage on him. He does good damage with his pulse carbine too though, and his AI will switch it up if you create too much distance, but as you pointed out, his shields don't recharge, so you can be defensive. Hydra should kill him very quickly once the shields are down, he is just as weak as any shieldless elite boss in the game.

Definitely will want max thrusters for Jega and Escharum though. Jega especially, because his shields do recharge, so you will need to actually seek him out and stay on him, where as you don't have that urgency with Chak Lok.

 

[Juxtapose]

@Dankster Morgan So what are your thoughts on the Shock Weapons/Grenade?

 

[Dankster Morgan]

@Dankster Morgan So what are your thoughts on the Shock Weapons/Grenade?

I think the disruptor is a smart situational pick up. 3 shots I believe cause dot, 6 will kill with dot, 8 if you're just peppering them. It does group damage too once dot kicks in, and disables vehicles. Good utility weapon, but obviously not a solo performer due to faster killing weapons.

Shock rifle is good, one hit kill to the head, definitely loses deadliness if you can't hit that first headshot. However, still carries between groups and metal objects, which is pretty neat, but situational. I would treat it like a shittier s7 sniper, but with the added bonus of being able to EMP vehicles. MUCH better pick up on BTB than it is in 4v4 imo, but if you're a good shot its a no brainer.

Haven't had a lot of experience with the shock grenades, but it has similar properties to other shock weapons. It's a grenade, it's good. What the Halo 4 pulse grenade should have been.


In Campaign, they are all good. Shock grenade fucks up groups, I almost never pick up the disruptor, but it's fun. Shock rifle, I only ever used in the Escharum boss fight because the room is full of them, and in the first skimmer encounter. It's good against groups of fodder enemies, but once you can req either BR variant, or either of the S7 Sniper variants, it's kind of pointless.

 

[Juxtapose]

In Campaign, they are all good. Shock grenade fucks up groups, I almost never pick up the disruptor, but it's fun. Shock rifle, I only ever used in the Escharum boss fight because the room is full of them, and in the first skimmer encounter. It's good against groups of fodder enemies, but once you can req either BR variant, or either of the S7 Sniper variants, it's kind of pointless.

Cool, thanks for the info. It's specifically Campaign that I play, not multiplayer.

Speaking of which, I still have three 2XP codes for Multiplayer if anyone wants. One per person.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Cool, thanks for the info. It's specifically Campaign that I play, not multiplayer.

Speaking of which, I still have three 2XP codes for Multiplayer if anyone wants. One per person.

I’ll take one!

 

[Juxtapose]

I’ll take one!

Sending you a private message.

 

[Juxtapose]

Making further progress in my Heroic playthrough, as I had a nice chill day yesterday.

Had my first major lag-spike/teleporting in the game, as I was racing through the Forge of Tesh (SP?) in a Warthog and was about to burst through a destructable wall, and then my game froze, and unfroze for a few seconds. That's never happened before, and hasn't happened since.

While battling in the dig site, I had a hillarious physics bug happen to a poor Grunt:

His own dropped Plasma Grenade pushed him into the gravity lift, which you can see in the video but I didn't notice while playing. I thought his body was a new enemy coming to attack me at first!

I also had a bug with Bassus; his cutscene wouldn't play. I went and pushed the button, saw a red blip pop up on my tracker, noticed the cutscene was not triggering, and then BAM, dead. I reloaded my checkpoint and toyed with it a few times, and no cutscene, he just pops in (literally) and immediately starts attacking! After simply accepting the bug, I actually started fighting him, and this time, he only killed me once because of the unreliability of the Grappleshot. The Pulse Carbine drops his sheilds quickly, and a good 4-ish rockets finished him off.

Finished the Conservatory and finally got Thruster, thank god. Now I can actually maneuver instead of relying on the Grapplesh*t, which only decides to work properly when it feels like it. Thrust is now where all my Spartan Cores are going until it's updated.

I am having a host of troubles with Brute Chieftains still. They take several attempts and seem more durable than Bassus, even when using Power Weapons! If they're equipped with Shrapnel Turrets...

 

[Juxtapose]

Had a funny bug yesterday. I went to the Spire and was ready to battle the two Hunters. Earlier I had seen them in the distance but when I got there, nothing!

I had three Marines with Rocket Launchers with me, and as I was looking around, I started hearing a muted weapon firing sound effect. I hear one of my Marines scream, and he's dead, body gone, just his Rocket Launcher lying on the ground.

I'm tossing Sensors everywhere and running around trying to find what I assume to be the Hunters, and another Marine just drops dead.

At that point I figure game bug, the Hunters are invisible and stuck or something, and say nuts to it and head up the grav lift abandoning my last Marine.

 

[Juxtapose]

@Dankster Morgan I took on Hyperius and Tovarus last night. I found an AI exploit for Hyperius:

Bate him to the back left area of your crashed Pelican, his Chopper can't seem to get up the little hill and he'll become "stuck" there. I was riding on a Ghost through this for extra speed. With him stuck, I was able to mow down his shields in a few seconds. When he abandons his Chopper, he also does not come up the hill, and stays around his Chopper, allowing you to hit him freely and deplete his health, and to back behind the Pelican to recover your own shields (he will be attacking you with his Ravager).

I toyed with this a few times and found it worked constantly.

I was, however, very frustrated to find that the game does not checkpoint you when you kill him, so if you die to Tovarus (as I did at one point), you get to do it all again.

 

[Plays2_MX]

Had a funny bug yesterday. I went to the Spire and was ready to battle the two Hunters. Earlier I had seen them in the distance but when I got there, nothing!

I had three Marines with Rocket Launchers with me, and as I was looking around, I started hearing a muted weapon firing sound effect. I hear one of my Marines scream, and he's dead, body gone, just his Rocket Launcher lying on the ground.

I'm tossing Sensors everywhere and running around trying to find what I assume to be the Hunters, and another Marine just drops dead.

At that point I figure game bug, the Hunters are invisible and stuck or something, and say nuts to it and head up the grav lift abandoning my last Marine.

I had a bug days ago when doing the grapple hook + punch combo against 1 Hunters and somehow I got clipped under the floor.

I'll do a legendary run eventually when 343i releases DLSS or FSR in this game so that I can play at 4k 60fps and when they fix the characters lip-synch animations (They look to run at 30 fps and it's accentuated even more when you play at 90+ fps)

 

[Juxtapose]

... and when they fix the characters lip-synch animations (They look to run at 30 fps and it's accentuated even more when you play at 90+ fps)

This is an acknowledged bug by 343 Industries, and they are indeed working on a fix.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

@Dankster Morgan I took on Hyperius and Tovarus last night. I found an AI exploit for Hyperius:

Bate him to the back left area of your crashed Pelican, his Chopper can't seem to get up the little hill and he'll become "stuck" there. I was riding on a Ghost through this for extra speed. With him stuck, I was able to mow down his shields in a few seconds. When he abandons his Chopper, he also does not come up the hill, and stays around his Chopper, allowing you to hit him freely and deplete his health, and to back behind the Pelican to recover your own shields (he will be attacking you with his Ravager).

I toyed with this a few times and found it worked constantly.

I was, however, very frustrated to find that the game does not checkpoint you when you kill him, so if you die to Tovarus (as I did at one point), you get to do it all again.

That’s a good one! On legendary I stayed up high and lured Tovarus and he died pretty easy to the pulse carbine for shields and rockets for health. Then it gives you a checkpoint when you kill a brother. Then one mag of hydra blows up the chopper, and sometimes the explosion kills Hyperius too, so I kept reloading till the chopper blew him up. On legendary he seemed way more keen to use his sniper rifle than on lower difficulties. Screw whoever thought he should have a sniper

 

[Plays2_MX]

Spoiler

Got a couple of deaths ending up like this lmao.