They are trained in hand to hand combat and knife fighting, I don’t think they are specifically trained in how to use an old school spear or a sword as there is no realistic scenario in which it might be useful.
Sure, but they're more like lightsabers. Energy swords cut because it's super hot plasma. Actual swords cut because of their sharpness and the energy behind the swing/stab
Energy swords are also designed differently in terms of how they are held compared to real world swords (except for the Pata). That is likely due to the biology of Elites vs Humans and how their wrists are different.
Spartans were trained to fight Insurrectionists, they had no reason to cover melee weapons other than knives and whatever else might be improvised by modern humans
Energy swords are \*supposed\* to be fairly rare. You only encounter a handfull of them in each game, and usually held by high-ranking elites.
Its not like the halo show where every elite seem to have a sword.
Spears might work, since I would expect Spartans to be well trained in use of a rifle with a bayonet if they run out of ammo (and most Marines too for that matter; even nowadays, with the bayonet of limited value, it’s often used as a training tool for aggression; against the Covenant, who soak up bullets and favor close combat, the bayonet would be extra useful, as evidenced by the production of postwar energy bayonets in Halo 5’s rifle variants).
a good example for a bayonet would me for a few of the brute guns like the skewer, brute shot, or the spiker. Master Chief can use the blade from those weapons for melee when playing the games. It just doesn't add any extra damage, sadly.
Why would a Spartan need a bayonet though? Their single punch can smash any human skull, barrel poke would certainly kill any human through blunt trauma as well.
If they used a bayonet it’s like snap on the first use because how hard spartan stabs.
They had 9 years of training and Fall of Reach emphasizes they were taught the bare basics.
I promise, they made the 8 year olds form a shield wall in a random fid and had the instructors run at it and try to break through to teach cohesion or some shit.
There is no way absolutely no goofy shit happened in 9 years of what is basically BCT/AIT with K-12 mixed in.
I don’t really see any reason why they would be trained in spears and so on. They’re not exactly relevant on the modern battlefield, nor the 26th century one.
They would probably be able to figure it out, but I don’t really see any reason whatsoever why they would have been trained on that sort of stuff.
I mean we know Spartans use bayonets and functionally, a spear and a rifle with bayonet are similar, it's still 'long stick with a pointy end.' A Spartan may not know how to use a spear but they'll have underwent bayonet training and that's close enough.
Similar situation with a sword. We know Spartans can be equipped with pattern 2 machetes, it wouldn't be unreasonable for some Spartans to have trained in sword fighting
Spartans are also extremely intelligent. And spears aren’t exactly a complicated weapon lol
So even without bayonet training they could just figure it out.
A modern human today could pick up a spear and be like at least 70% effective as a career spearman.
They weren't trained in weapons that they'd never feasibly use, but if you give a ridiculously strong fella with lightning reflexes and speed a sharp pole, he'll kill stuff with it.
>Or are they just so biologically engineered that they can pick up anything and use it as a weapon no matter what with proficiency?
Doubtful. Spartans are forces of nature, but they are that way because they've been honed to do what they do and do it with nearly perfect precision. Their augmentations just further amplify their skills.
But we've seen Chief handle an energy sword against an Elite swordsman. The elite made a fool out of him and had him dead to rights. So they can't just pick up anything and make it work, not with visible skill anyway. They would still look like amateurs, just 7 ft tall ones in titanium armor.
I mean, a rock in the hands of a Spartan is basically a bullet on its own. They are physically strong and fast enough that anything can be used as a weapon.
So give Chief a titanium rod as tall as him and he would do a fuck ton of damage.
The problem is that Spartans aren't trained with melee weapons, so there is only so much he would be able to do before he gets gunned down.
Unless you are the Fred Sled. Because he likes knives. And being a Sled.
I don't think they have ancient weapon training, but they have great instinct for combat and ultimate control over their own bodies.
They could pick up anything and be able to defeat a master in that weapon first try every time. What they lack in skill they make up for in sheer speed and power, and they learn *very* fast
*some restrictions apply
I was thinking more along the line of human masters. The highest level of elites are beyond anything normal humans are capable of
I'm sure they didn't think to need to train them on old weapons they'd never use since they would just break the spears over enemies' heads. I mean, jerome effectively used a steel chair, and I doubt he had training.
What comes to mind is the scene of Chief doing an energy sword duel with Thel 'Lodamee. For Chief to keep up in a sword fight I imagine he was trained.
Own a musket for halo defence, since that is what the UNSC founders intended. Four covenant elites break into chief’s cryo pod room as he cries “what the devil” as he grabs his powdered helmet and Reach rifle. Blow a plasma grenade sized hole through the first alien, it’s dead on the spot with a wort wort wort escaping from its mouth. Chief draws his pistol on the second elite, misses him completely because it’s smoothbore and nails the neighbour’s engineer.
He resorts to the cannon mounted on top of the warthog loaded with depleted uranium grape shot while screaming “tally ho lads” the grape shot shreds two elites in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set pff the alarms of the Pillar of Autumn. Fix combat knife and charge the last terrified elite. It bleeds out waiting for ODST to arrive just as the UNSC founding fathers intended.
While they aren't trained in say spears, they are all very well educated and fairly intelligent so I'd assume they could get a decent proficiency fairly quickly compared to the average Joe.
I mean spears are such simple weapons that even an average Joe could get some decent proficiency extremely quickly.
That’s why they were the staple weapon of humans for thousands of years. They’re just simple to use.
And cheap and easy to make, too. A sword needs to be sharp, hard enough to hold an edge, soft enough it won't shatter in a parry.
A spear is just a small spiky bit of metal stuck on a wooden pole. If it gets damaged to the point it can't be used, forging another spearhead is a fairly simple task as compared to the lengthy process (and material costs) of forging a sword.
>I learned a hundred ways to use sharp sticks as a deadly weapon.
Tedra Grant on the Spartan-IV training, from the Spartan Field Manual.
The same manual also talks about how given the circumstances Spartans face, they will be expected to "expertly wield any and every weapon available to save a life or complete a mission"
In practice, I think the line about sharp sticks is more likely to be about improvised combat and traps than actually just stabbing someone with it, but it's kind of a fun point.
Pretty sure that if you can operate a sword made of plasma, a hammer that weilds gravity, jump out of a space station with a thermonuclear warhead, literally fly it through space and into a covenant capital ship and completely obliterate it. You can operate old weaponry.
They aren't braindead, they can probably pick up most weapons and have a basic idea of how to use them. Maybe not to some expert level, but they have enough strength and speed that it probably doesn't matter.
Red team used and stole spears from the elite prophet guards in the halo wars cinematics, could lead to having had some kind of training to disarm them and handle them against capable elites.
Spartans do use knives at various instances so they are not entirely unfamiliar with bladed weapons.
They probably at least have a basic grasp of certain weapons such as sticks and clubs because those are commonly improvised weapons. So they might transfer over those skills such as swinging a sword like a club. Not the most ideal technique, but it is something useful enough. The Spartans were originally created to deal with human insurrections. In their early missions, they were expected to do infiltration missions, which meant that they would be expected to improvise. So they probably have that level of training.
Spartans also probably train to deal with opposing weapons such as energy swords since they expect to fight Elites at various points. They also have to fight Brutes with spiker bayonets. They seem to be able to take up enemy weapons without too much problem, so they probably have some experience on how to handle them.
Probably not a Xiphos, but we can reasonably surmise that at least some Spartans would be vaguely familiar with human sword fighting. They do use pattern 2 machetes after all and that's effectively a sword. And it'd make sense to at least train in human sword fighting if Spartans are already training in Sangheili sword fighting. Likewise, Spartans use bayonets so we can reasonably surmise they've underwent bayonet training and a rifle with a bayonet is functionally very similar to a spear.
They are trained in hand to hand combat and knife fighting, I don’t think they are specifically trained in how to use an old school spear or a sword as there is no realistic scenario in which it might be useful.
Energy sword tho.
Sure, but they're more like lightsabers. Energy swords cut because it's super hot plasma. Actual swords cut because of their sharpness and the energy behind the swing/stab
Very good point.
Energy swords are also designed differently in terms of how they are held compared to real world swords (except for the Pata). That is likely due to the biology of Elites vs Humans and how their wrists are different.
Energy swords do have a sharp edge though. You aren’t easily going to cut something with the flat sides of an energy sword.
Yeah but you could melt it lol
For sure. It would just take waaaaay longer than just slicing though with the sharp edge lol
Spartans were trained to fight Insurrectionists, they had no reason to cover melee weapons other than knives and whatever else might be improvised by modern humans
Energy swords are \*supposed\* to be fairly rare. You only encounter a handfull of them in each game, and usually held by high-ranking elites. Its not like the halo show where every elite seem to have a sword.
Spears might work, since I would expect Spartans to be well trained in use of a rifle with a bayonet if they run out of ammo (and most Marines too for that matter; even nowadays, with the bayonet of limited value, it’s often used as a training tool for aggression; against the Covenant, who soak up bullets and favor close combat, the bayonet would be extra useful, as evidenced by the production of postwar energy bayonets in Halo 5’s rifle variants).
343 where the hell are the bayonets ?!
In halo 5
Oh, apparently you're right. Next questions then: 343 where the hell is the Halo 5 PC port ?! And did Infinite not have the budget for bayonets too?
Brute spikers?
Rubicon protocol has a few.
a good example for a bayonet would me for a few of the brute guns like the skewer, brute shot, or the spiker. Master Chief can use the blade from those weapons for melee when playing the games. It just doesn't add any extra damage, sadly.
Why would a Spartan need a bayonet though? Their single punch can smash any human skull, barrel poke would certainly kill any human through blunt trauma as well. If they used a bayonet it’s like snap on the first use because how hard spartan stabs.
They had 9 years of training and Fall of Reach emphasizes they were taught the bare basics. I promise, they made the 8 year olds form a shield wall in a random fid and had the instructors run at it and try to break through to teach cohesion or some shit. There is no way absolutely no goofy shit happened in 9 years of what is basically BCT/AIT with K-12 mixed in.
I don’t really see any reason why they would be trained in spears and so on. They’re not exactly relevant on the modern battlefield, nor the 26th century one. They would probably be able to figure it out, but I don’t really see any reason whatsoever why they would have been trained on that sort of stuff.
I mean we know Spartans use bayonets and functionally, a spear and a rifle with bayonet are similar, it's still 'long stick with a pointy end.' A Spartan may not know how to use a spear but they'll have underwent bayonet training and that's close enough. Similar situation with a sword. We know Spartans can be equipped with pattern 2 machetes, it wouldn't be unreasonable for some Spartans to have trained in sword fighting
Spartans are also extremely intelligent. And spears aren’t exactly a complicated weapon lol So even without bayonet training they could just figure it out. A modern human today could pick up a spear and be like at least 70% effective as a career spearman.
They weren't trained in weapons that they'd never feasibly use, but if you give a ridiculously strong fella with lightning reflexes and speed a sharp pole, he'll kill stuff with it.
*MAXIMUM BONK*
>Or are they just so biologically engineered that they can pick up anything and use it as a weapon no matter what with proficiency? Doubtful. Spartans are forces of nature, but they are that way because they've been honed to do what they do and do it with nearly perfect precision. Their augmentations just further amplify their skills. But we've seen Chief handle an energy sword against an Elite swordsman. The elite made a fool out of him and had him dead to rights. So they can't just pick up anything and make it work, not with visible skill anyway. They would still look like amateurs, just 7 ft tall ones in titanium armor.
I mean, a rock in the hands of a Spartan is basically a bullet on its own. They are physically strong and fast enough that anything can be used as a weapon. So give Chief a titanium rod as tall as him and he would do a fuck ton of damage. The problem is that Spartans aren't trained with melee weapons, so there is only so much he would be able to do before he gets gunned down. Unless you are the Fred Sled. Because he likes knives. And being a Sled.
No, and if all things were equal a skilled swordsman would beat a Spartan on a sword fight.
I don't think they have ancient weapon training, but they have great instinct for combat and ultimate control over their own bodies. They could pick up anything and be able to defeat a master in that weapon first try every time. What they lack in skill they make up for in sheer speed and power, and they learn *very* fast
>They could pick up anything and be able to defeat a master in that weapon first try every time. Thel 'Lodamee begs to differ
*some restrictions apply I was thinking more along the line of human masters. The highest level of elites are beyond anything normal humans are capable of
I'm sure they didn't think to need to train them on old weapons they'd never use since they would just break the spears over enemies' heads. I mean, jerome effectively used a steel chair, and I doubt he had training.
What comes to mind is the scene of Chief doing an energy sword duel with Thel 'Lodamee. For Chief to keep up in a sword fight I imagine he was trained.
And now I have the image of master chief speed loading a musket in my head.
Thanks, I hate it. xD
Own a musket for halo defence, since that is what the UNSC founders intended. Four covenant elites break into chief’s cryo pod room as he cries “what the devil” as he grabs his powdered helmet and Reach rifle. Blow a plasma grenade sized hole through the first alien, it’s dead on the spot with a wort wort wort escaping from its mouth. Chief draws his pistol on the second elite, misses him completely because it’s smoothbore and nails the neighbour’s engineer. He resorts to the cannon mounted on top of the warthog loaded with depleted uranium grape shot while screaming “tally ho lads” the grape shot shreds two elites in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set pff the alarms of the Pillar of Autumn. Fix combat knife and charge the last terrified elite. It bleeds out waiting for ODST to arrive just as the UNSC founding fathers intended.
>Or are they just so biologically engineered that they can pick up anything and use it as a weapon no matter what with proficiency Yep.
While they aren't trained in say spears, they are all very well educated and fairly intelligent so I'd assume they could get a decent proficiency fairly quickly compared to the average Joe.
I mean spears are such simple weapons that even an average Joe could get some decent proficiency extremely quickly. That’s why they were the staple weapon of humans for thousands of years. They’re just simple to use.
And cheap and easy to make, too. A sword needs to be sharp, hard enough to hold an edge, soft enough it won't shatter in a parry. A spear is just a small spiky bit of metal stuck on a wooden pole. If it gets damaged to the point it can't be used, forging another spearhead is a fairly simple task as compared to the lengthy process (and material costs) of forging a sword.
>I learned a hundred ways to use sharp sticks as a deadly weapon. Tedra Grant on the Spartan-IV training, from the Spartan Field Manual. The same manual also talks about how given the circumstances Spartans face, they will be expected to "expertly wield any and every weapon available to save a life or complete a mission" In practice, I think the line about sharp sticks is more likely to be about improvised combat and traps than actually just stabbing someone with it, but it's kind of a fun point.
[IRL: Filipino Military Sword training](https://youtu.be/HRwl5p-3PdQ?si=19cQ6hNezigWiDXZ)
Pretty sure that if you can operate a sword made of plasma, a hammer that weilds gravity, jump out of a space station with a thermonuclear warhead, literally fly it through space and into a covenant capital ship and completely obliterate it. You can operate old weaponry.
They aren't braindead, they can probably pick up most weapons and have a basic idea of how to use them. Maybe not to some expert level, but they have enough strength and speed that it probably doesn't matter.
Red team used and stole spears from the elite prophet guards in the halo wars cinematics, could lead to having had some kind of training to disarm them and handle them against capable elites.
Spartans do use knives at various instances so they are not entirely unfamiliar with bladed weapons. They probably at least have a basic grasp of certain weapons such as sticks and clubs because those are commonly improvised weapons. So they might transfer over those skills such as swinging a sword like a club. Not the most ideal technique, but it is something useful enough. The Spartans were originally created to deal with human insurrections. In their early missions, they were expected to do infiltration missions, which meant that they would be expected to improvise. So they probably have that level of training. Spartans also probably train to deal with opposing weapons such as energy swords since they expect to fight Elites at various points. They also have to fight Brutes with spiker bayonets. They seem to be able to take up enemy weapons without too much problem, so they probably have some experience on how to handle them.
No but if you know how to shoot 1 weapons of every type you could figure it out
Probably not a Xiphos, but we can reasonably surmise that at least some Spartans would be vaguely familiar with human sword fighting. They do use pattern 2 machetes after all and that's effectively a sword. And it'd make sense to at least train in human sword fighting if Spartans are already training in Sangheili sword fighting. Likewise, Spartans use bayonets so we can reasonably surmise they've underwent bayonet training and a rifle with a bayonet is functionally very similar to a spear.