Kind off topic, but I also loved how in Combat Evolved during The Library, Guilty Spark states that Chiefs Mark V armour only ranks as a measly 2 out of 18 in the combat skins guidelines
Humanities peak technology at the time barely even factors in on a cosmological scale
Probably not that much higher, maybe a 3.
Something like the Didact would scale much higher I’d presume, maybe a 16 or 17. A simple splinter grenade was enough to KO him at the end of Halo 4 (Arguably just terrible writing)
Very true. The Mk VI in Halo 3 is the same class as the Mk V. With the added tech from Gen2 and Gen3, I would hope it's a 3, *maybe* a 4 because of the reverse engineered Forerunner and Covenant tech
Now I would actually like to see a scale of how covenant armors ranks. We know from the game that there can be a huge difference in shields and armor plating, considering how tanky higher ranked elites and brutes are compared to basic foot soldiers of their species. Not to forget the very brave random grunt with a shield that is slightly more annoying than a normal grunt.
Not to mention, there are some cool new lore tidbits about some of the armor attachments in halo infinite multiplayer, such as the use of sentinel technology, additionally, I don’t exactly remember which one, but one of the wrist attachments says it’s an attempt at reimplementing Jackel shield gauntlets, which would be very useful as it’s essentially a deployable wrist shield at all times.
I mean… a pulse nade can almost instantly *incinerate* a Spartan and burn holes through vehicles and other materials… the fact that he took one to the chest from inside his armor and all he does is stagger back really says something about the resiliency of a forerunner
I think upper end ratings focus on every inch being armored so that the Flood can’t easily penetrate anywhere. I’m thinking that the Flood can easily penetrate the under suit of the armor worn by Spartans and higher ratings have things like more metal armor, stronger fibers, stronger shields, perhaps gaps protected by energy shields or hard light, nano bots, slipspace or teleporting capabilities, etc. that aren’t used by humans at this time and mostly weren’t on armors used by Forerunners before the Flood.
I always assumed the *top tier* Ultra-advanced Forrunner weapons/armor was stuff that couldn’t last a hundred thousand + years and/or the firing of the Halo array. What was left as sentinel defense tech was meant to last indefinitely, and humanity happened to find it
I mean chief goes from get wrecked by sparks laser to casually tanking a monitors laser in infinite so there's definitely a noticeably higher degree of strength
To be honest it's probably not getting much higher, even basic forerunner civilian armor was more durable than mjolnr, and had many other abilities ontop of that like making the user biologically immortal, interplanetary flight, teleportation etc, the best humanity has isn't even on par with what forerunner civilians get.
Interesting... But I'm assuming Guilty Park's combat skin guidelines are based off of a consistent war against the flood, not covenant as the shielded mjolnir was originally designed for. So really wonder what other combat armor precautions the forerunners took specifically for a war against the flood
There was a terminal in halo 3 where a forerunner is talking about combat skin ratings as a guideline for what to use and when. I think the actual rating for combat skins may be more a way to view them in a specialization role. Like dont wear eva armor when you need eod. Or dont wear light armor when headed to a heavy front line engagement.
This is purely my own interpretation however. And either way mjolnir probably barely holds a candle to what any kind of skin the forerunner had combat or no.
Combat Skin was rated on more than just how well they protected the user such as how good and how long its life support lasted, EVA features, and more advanced stuff like the Didact being able to manipulate gravity using what looks similar to telekinesis.
Seeing as this was Combat Evolved they probably literally meant that Forerunner armor was orders of magnitude more durable than MJOLNIR
[Check out this fight from the show](https://youtu.be/FyCK-oxvhpc?si=5GsMpi5wjVYX2C7Z). The first few moments with the Jackals just tearing through Marines with their energy daggers is terrifying. The show has made the Jackals the scary beasts they were always described in the books
Take note that the scene linked above is a rescored version, with sound effects, music, and dialogue from the Halo games. The TV show likely has completely different dialogue and SFX, and definitely has different music.
I was gonna say… I didn’t think the actor in the show sounded that much like master chief. And I was wondering why the sound effects all sounded exactly like the game lol
I couldn’t get past first 3 episodes of Season 1 but now I can’t wait for the new episodes every week for Season 2
Makes me we wanna go back and try S1 again
But yes it’s not 100% faithful to the games story
If you look at it as an adaption, no. But it isn't. It's its own separate universe. Like the different Marvel comics and movies. Different universes with shared characters, but not 1:1. I personally like it, I just see it as a new universe with new lore to explore, and for me, that's really exciting. But there are some dumb moments, most of them in season 1. Honestly, season 2 has been really good, and the season finale this week has me very hyped for what's coming.
Yeah, the scene where Halsey got a glimpse of the Forerunner structure powering on for the first time and the light bridge forming was pretty cool. The concept of riding along as the humans discover what the Forerunner and Halo really are is fun.
Thank you for this. I found my self not liking season one as much as I thought I would. I figured it was because of all the hate everyone else had for it. I’m loving season two. I’m also not one to hate on games because they’re buggy or don’t work properly. I get that when people spend their money they want something in return they will and should enjoy. I try to enjoy things for what they are. People are so negative when it comes to just about anything in life and it seems like such a shitty way to live.
Its a good show as long you go into it understanding that it is its own thing.
The complaints stem from people wanting a Mandalorian inspired faceless protaganist and/or wanted a live action retelling of all the Halo game cutscenes.
I feel the costumes and acting are pretty decent. The writing has some weakpoints. Season 1 was definitely a feeler, with season 2 finding a pretty decent stride.
Pablo as Master Chief is pretty solid, he definitely has that battle hardened senior enlisted leader feel to him. Anyone in either ground pounding service can attest to that.
I liked it even at its weak points. Im not losing any sleep over any dropped balls.
I like the show, alot. It annoys me that they are doing an alternate version of the story but honestly, that's the magic of television. It has made me want to replay the entire series again though.
I had the same thought. Their not fighting back or taking cover… while the marine AI was always wonky it wasn’t that bad, these guy just exists to show scary covenant but if that was the case why not use civilians.
It makes the Jackals look good by making the humans weak?
First dude: doesn’t even look at them. Second dude, doesn’t have their weapon raised and is just running (there’s no cover and the enemy is in the open, what are you *doing*?). 3rd dude (woman?) also no weapon raised, 4 and 5 just standing there and pre-falling to the attack. 6 and 7 have weapons raised but only respond by looking fearful and getting hit. In all that time multiple people had a shot but didn’t take it. No one even fired a shot or was aware of an enemy with a glowing shield and sword coming their way. Also the alien several times opens up his defense to humans who could shoot it easily but don’t.
You could have done those same 5 seconds with shots bouncing off that shield, with people in cover or at least not running towards a melee enemy while they have no reason to do anything but stand their ground and fire at them. That Jackal could have shown almost perfect shield cover and taken out resisting, capable marines to showcase his strength but instead the humans had to be dummies who don’t even pull the trigger of their weapons.
There was a description of them in the Halo 2 game guide, something like "you could call them elite marksmen but they are just a little too bloodthirsty for that".
They may have hollow bones, as they're slowly evolving into birds from reptiles, but this doesn't mean weak bones. Jackals are consistently shown as incredibly strong and swift creatures.
It should also be noted that, as far as I’m aware, there is actually no canon confirmation that Jackals have hollow bones. I’ve just checked their Halopedia (generally comprehensive and accurate) article, and there is no mention at all of hollow bones being a canon fact.
Plus, given the stats of their height and weight, it would seem to suggest that hollow bones is not the case.
Velociraptors were much smaller than Jackals, and I would still not want to take one of them on unarmarmed and unarmoured.
Everyone laughs at how weak grunts are, but they would 100% beat the shit out of any regular human.
The only reason why they look cute and silly it’s because we play as Spartans or ODST’s.
>Everyone laughs at how weak grunts are, but they would 100% beat the shit out of any regular human.
To be fair, I'm sure they'd be pretty scared of a human on average. Provided it was a 1 on 1. They may be tough but they don't have a lot of back bone on their own.
That really depends.
The covenant grunts are extremely cowardly because they have no reason to fight for the covenant. They’re treated like trash and barely educated. The only reason they are on the battlefield is because they are forced to be there.
Grunts who have a reason to fight or are treated well can actually be quite tenacious. The deacon in contact harvest goes out of his way to attack Tartarus after his huragok friend dies.
The Unggoy Rebellion was so bad that it forced the Covenant to call upon an Arbiter to stop them and it forced the Covenant to change a bunch of the rules and how their military was structured so that the Unggoys didn't get shafted (as much)
A Grunt alone has more mass and harder skin than any regular human, it’s like fighting a chimpanzee but with slightly different anatomy.
If a chimpanzee alone is already 7-8 times stronger than a regular human, i’ll let you guess what happens when a cornered grunt has to fight any regular human.
“You ever see an ungoy? The little covenant guys? They’re 4ft nothing and all muscle. They can rip you in half like a chimp and all they do is run and eat from a nipple. Jaime, pull up the holotape.”
Even ignoring height, they’re more technologically advanced than humans. It’s why the UNSC is consistently losing the war, were it not for Chief’s strategic acts.
Humans didn’t even have energy shields before reverse-engineering the Covenant’s tech
I remember that being a plot point in the Fall of Reach book specifically. Cortana got access to a Covenant ship and found that they had massive knowledge gaps in managing their technology and was using it incredibly inefficiently. If I remember correctly she reconfigured the plasma guns to shoot a high powered beam with surgical precision rather than just chuck blobs of the stuff.
I do recall what you're talking about but I very recently reread fall of reach and I don't think it was that one specifically. Might be the flood or first strike
Same, I've also read contact harvest and ghosts of onyx but those don't involve cortana... my money is on first strike as well cause I'm certain I remember the scene you described
It's not just their religion, it's the Sangheili's warrior code. Their idea of achieving honor through single combat as a secondary objective significantly handicaps them. The Covenant doesn't really use combined arms like the UNSC does. The Wraith is an assault gun that can pull double-duty as artillery. The Ghost is a scout/cavalry vehicle. The Banshee is a light CAS aircraft. APCs and IFVs like the Shadow and Spectre are rare. And the Covenant's primary infantry transports, their dropships, don't typically stick around to support their dismounted infantry.
On the whole it's more like the combat doctrines of mid to late WWI. Heavily infantry focused with vehicles often serving in segregated roles. For us, it was the limitations of our technology, but for the Covenant, it is a choice because the best way to earn honor and prestige in Sangheili culture, is to get on the ground and fight the enemy face to face.
it is interesting that the fact that the convenient are not actually that good at war is basically the only reason humanity lasted long enough to "win" the war.
Yes, they have access to better technology. But the Covenant is imitative, not innovative. They got all their tech from Forerunner ruins. Once Humanity got access to their technology, they quickly improved upon it. Unfortunately they didn't get the access they needed until the end of the war. Don't forget the Spartan-III's, Operations PROMETHEUS and TORPEDO probably gave humanity an extra decade or so by hitting major strategic sites
>It’s why the UNSC is consistently losing the war, were it not for Chief’s strategic acts.
That's reducing the regular person's effort a bit too much, IMO.
Humanity were largely losing because of the disparity in spaceship tech, and the subsequent glassings that followed.
On the ground, Humanity did pretty well everything considered. Strategy, tactics and willpower trumped the tech gap on the ground.
The Sangheili generally considered humanity honorable fighters, and thus, in a sense, held them in higher esteem than the lesser species of the Covenant.
I'm new to the Halo fandom so forgive me if this already exists, but I would love a book from the POV of the Covenant when they first encountered humanity. The discovery of the Great Journey being false by the Prophets, the Elites wanting to offer membership to the humans, etc.
Contact Harvest features the first contact with the Covenant, from their perspective too. Cole Protocol has the comment about humans joining, after an encounter with a Spartan, though has major lore discrepancies. Most books tend to have Covenant POV besides the Fall of Reach, so you can't go wrong.
This, to me, is what makes it even more impressive that the UNSC would consistently *WIN* the ground war against such an opponent. We would just be so outclassed when it comes to space combat that the planet would still be glassed.
Keep in mind nearly every single engagement in the war was a defensive action for the UNSC as well as the fact the Covenant never took time to actually come up with better tactics since they could just mindlessly stomp with reverse engineered forerunner tech.
Makes you wonder if the covenant leadership weren't literal dummies they could have rolled all of humanity in 10-15 years.
>Makes you wonder if the covenant leadership weren't literal dummies they could have rolled all of humanity in 10-15 years.
Could say this about a certain very large Eurasian country that's currently at war as well; there's even a meme about it:
> we're very lucky they're so fucking stupid.
No, I know that. Velociraptors are around turkey size as well, they’ll just fuck you up no matter how big they are. Jackals are essentially advanced raptors, more comparable to the size of a Utah raptor.
Don't grunts alone have the strength of a gorilla with these forearms in the books? I think I remember reading something about them ripping limbs off of humans and the whole alliance eating human meat...
It's absolutely one universe I don't want to live in.
The traveling Halo expo: Outpost Discovery. Did a really good job at giving fans this context with a Covenant height line up: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I-XU4lo-FQs), [Pic 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/izuwqt/irl_height_chart_comparing_all_the_covenant/), [Pic 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/c9byjt/these_pics_were_taken_at_halo_outpost_discovery/)
I mean yeah. Everyone likes to think if shit went down they’d be a Spartan or ODST. But in reality most of us would be that Mark Zuckerberg looking dude getting sworded while running for our lives.
Yeah, tonnage scales like that. I've been up close to an elephant seal and they way 2 tons.
So a hunter with all that armor, the assault cannon amd the shield...yep, sounds right.
A dense colony of worms, with thick armor, and a cannon presumably heavier than a door... And there's almost always a twin? Sounds like a horror movie/game idea
I mean if you read the books the covenant basically kicked the tar out of normal humans. Battles were horrendously one sided and they were basically genociding us. The big battles were fought in space, their ships were better armed, had better weapons, and they would just glass entire planets. We were literally being exterminated. You were lucky if you HAD land battles where you could fight them. Even then, as you saiid....your typical soldier is like...basically a grunt. With primitive ballistic based weapons (ignore the fact most weapons are better than their covenant counterparts in a competitive setting). Grunts are like their fodder race. Jackals have shields. Then you got elites, elites are basically on par with chief in theory, although chief is arguably better trained. Chief's shields were based on adapted elite shielding tech. then you got brutes who are actually much stronger than chief. Hunters which are heavy armored and have fuel run cannons for arms...and yeah.
Honestly, the spartan program did allow them to even the ground fight a little bit WHEN they were available (and because there's so few, they almost never were), but then the covenant would just retreat to the sky and glass planets so how well did that actually work for them?
Like up through the battle for reach, humans were just massacred over and over again. It literally did require the covenant civil war and the flood to create the conditions for peace to be possible. If those things didnt happen, yeah, humans would've been full on exterminated, no doubt.
IIRC chief's original mission with cortana was originally for chief to like...idk, hijack high charity and kidnap a prophet to try to push for a peace agreement or something. I forget exactly, but yeah. Humanity never had a chance in an all out war vs the covenant.
Yeah you’re right, right before UNSC figured out that reach was under attack, Chief and all the other Gen 2 Spartans were going to travel to high charity to kidnap a high priest as a bargaining chip. Honestly it would be kinda interesting to see how that would play out in an alternate universe where the covenant didn’t find reach so early
The crazy thing is they didn't even know of High Charity's existence yet, they were just going to capture a large covenant ship and *search* for the Covenant 'Homeworld' and then try to capture their leadership.
When you think about it for more than 2 seconds you realize how terrible and desperate of a plan it is because they know nothing about the location of a theoretical Covenant homeworld nor what the covenant leadership structure actually looks like and the UNSC is just shooting a shot into the dark.
Mostly right though a few things are off.
Elites and brutes are below spartans. Only the very top tier of both species (Atriox, Thel ‘Vadam, other zealots and such) approach the level of spartans in MJOLNIR. Their armor isnt as durable, their strength isnt as great, and their reflexes are slower.
MJOLNIR’s shields arent based off elite shields, but are actually reverse engineered from a jackal shield gauntlet and improved.
Hunters are one of the few enemies that can seriously threaten a spartan. But even hunter pairs have been regularly beaten by spartans it just takes a lot of ammo and focus. An injured Owen-B096 in Mark IV defeated two hunters, though the second hunter was distracted for a moment by some civilians. Chief takes down two hunters in FUD also in Mark IV at age 15 and he’d never encountered them before. Will-043 was such a gigachad he fought a pair of hunters in melee combat and killed one by ripping out its worms before he got killed by its bond brother.
And yes, the original mission for Cortana was for her and Master Chief and 24 other Spartan-IIs equipped in MJOLNIR Mark V to hijack a covenant capital ship with the assistance of the refitted Pillar of Autumn, Captain Keyes, and 400 elite ODSTs and another battalion of marines as backup. Specifically they wanted a large carrier like an assault carrier or supercarrier. Then they would take it to wherever the covenant homeworld was (the UNSC didnt even know about High Charity), kidnap a high prophet, and force a peace treaty.
Of course RED FLAG was doomed from the start. Not just because Reach immediately fell as they were setting off, but because the operation was a suicide mission and wouldnt have worked.
I think I remember reading that Elites and Chief were basically exactly evenly matched in terms of strength in hand to hand combat. Chief just had better training and he could do some more outside of the box things like locking the hand of his armour around the Elite's wrist so it was impossible to break free of it.
Not really. The only times elites and spartans are matched physically is a combination of the spartan being injured/exhausted, their armor being damaged, their armor being older (as in not Mark VI and beyond), the elite being a remarkable specimen, and similar things.
For example the elite ranger Chief fights on Gamma Station? That monster was over 3 METERS tall. He’s like the elite equivalent of Shaquille O’Neal. Furthermore, they were fighting in zero-gee which is a great equalizer due to the lack of leverage and chaos, the elite is a ranger (rangers are part of the covenant special warfare group and are more trained), and Chief was only wearing Mark V which provides only a 2x strength boost.
A similar reasoning can be applied to his duel with the shipmaster of the Ascendant Justice in First Strike only more extreme. Chief is so injured and exhausted and his Mark V armor so damaged from fighting on Halo that its a miracle hes walking. And the elite is on the higher end of elites and has an energy sword. The same applies to Chiefs fight with a brute at the end of a book only he’s in even worse physical condition. Halsey herself says he should be in a coma. He hasnt slept in a week except for a few hours caused by being knocked out. And he has everything from broken ribs to torn ligaments and tendons and bruised and bleeding organs. And his armor is so damaged, its shields are basically non-existent (remember the Halo 2 armory rant from the gunnery sergeant?).
Every other time, spartans demolish elites. The 15 year old basically fresh out of training and augmentations Blue Team in Mark IV MJOLNIR take down an entire squad of Silent Shadow elites including a First Blade (aka some of the best of the best of the best), with the only injury being a cut to Chief’s neck. Jai-006 in Mark IV fought the future Arbiter Thel ‘Vadamee to a stalemate in hand to hand, and only retreated because he saw the marine he came to rescue was already dead.
Other examples also include: 12 year old freshly augmented Beta Company Spartan-IIIs in SPI armor (so they dont even have the protection or strength boost of MJOLNIR) were literally shattering the limbs, disarming their energy swords, and cutting elites and jackals in half by the THOUSANDS until the ground had rivers of blood and gore and bodies. Spartan-IV Olympia Vale in her GEN2 MJOLNIR took on and defeated half a dozen former Silent Shadow elites who were wearing advanced Precursor nanosuit combat skins. Spartan-IV Bonita Stone in heavily damaged GEN3 MJOLNIR took on a Banished Brute bloodstar, Jega ‘Rdomnai, got rammed by a speeding ghost, and several other Banished troops and she only lost after Jega snuck behind her and stabbed her. Spartan-IV Theodore Sorel also in damaged GEN3 MJOLNIR took down like a dozen Banished elites and brutes with a SCREWDRIVER, we find his body in Halo Infinite.
In Ghosts of Onyx, Blue Team also made quick work of the elites and brutes they encounter throughout the book. In Glasslands, Naomi-010 in GEN1 Mark VII MJOLNIR uppercuts a brute so hard she broke its spine with that one punch. Jerome took down dozens of Banished elites and brutes in Halo Wars 2 in his hybrid GEN1/2 MJOLNIR.
TL;DR
Spartans are far superior to your rank and file elites and brutes in all aspects (how else would Master Chief kill hundreds in the games). It takes usually a combination of injuries, older and/or damaged armor, and top tier elites/brutes like zealots, chieftains, Silent Shadow, spec ops, and so on to equal a spartan
First strike literally has chief say brutes are bigger, stronger and faster than Spartans in their early armor. Same for fall of reach, it's time to accept that halos just inconsistent
Grunts are 5 feet tall, and super strong because of their home world being high gravity in comparison to earth. The average human (civilian) would probably lose against a grunt.
Yet Sgt. Forge 1v1’d an Arbiter. Mad man
Nope. 1st person is still Spartan view. Look at NMPD HQ, Romeo and Buck are the same size in cutscene. But once gameplay hits, you're towering over Buck. The weapons are also scaled to Spartans, so everything is really small, especially the Covenant weapons
Sizes in-game are hard to figure out because you're already playing as a 7ft tall superhuman. But also the fact that most enemies and allies are in an weapon holding stance that shortens their height. Seeing the hunters in their idle standing pose in Halo 2 and onwards is terrifying.
It also goes to show that the Covenant really shot themselves in the foot with the Civil war between Elites and the Brutes. The Elites were responsible for their amazing battle tactics and ultimately the reason for every victory they've had. Of course the first game the elites are on our side we win the whole war in a landslide.
If the 3 Prophets weren't such asshats and didn't try to wipe out humanity to keep a secret, the entire galaxy would be in a much better state. Just imagine if Humanity joined the Covenant and essentially started a reform, because they're reclaimers of course, and they could bring the galaxy to the state it was before the Flood. They'd probably find Requiem and the Janus Key and get access to all the Forerunner tech in the galaxy, everyone could thrive. But nope, we can't admit that we made a mistake with translation and can't find out out religious base is a lie
It was wild to me when I realized Brutes aren't gorillas with guns, *grunts* are. It's easy to think of them as helpless targets in-game, but in the expanded universe they possess the physical strength to rip humans in half.
The cannon fodder comic relief units of the Covenant are literally just as physically imposing as a silverback, one of Earth's strongest land mammals.
Brutes are on a whole other playing field.
That's like every sci-fi setting, lol. I can't really name a popular sci-fi setting where the humans aren't plucky under dogs against aliens that are several times stronger and faster. Maybe Star wars, since the galaxy is basically just humans, and aliens are relegated to set dressing, but even there depending on the era, droids and clones are far beyond an average human
Correct me if I’m wrong. But I believe the scale of halo ODST is the same as halo 3. I think that’s a missed opportunity to make you feel like a small human as rookie.
Plasma pistols and rifles are pretty damn terrifying lore-wise. A single shot is basically enough to cook your brain into popcorn and melt away a good chunk of flesh and bone doing so, not to mention the ghastly effects they have on less vital areas...or that the regular issued armor doesn't do much in terms for protection against that particular threat.
The gameplay (outside of legendary) really lets us take that for granted.
I’m 6’3 and was in sports all my life, I’ve been a bouncer and done personal security up to Level 3 and I find this comparison to be, quite frankly, a little terrifying.
I’m 7’8 and was a top tier powerlifter all of my life. Over 360lbs and done personal security up to level 6. Honestly, even I find this a little terrifying.
I mean I’m obviously joking but MC being 6’ 10” and super jacked and having denser muscles along with metal in his bones would have meant he’d be over 300lbs easy. Take Thor Bjornsonn for example. At his lightest a couple of years go he said he weighed 145kg. That’s 30lbs more than MC while also being an inch shorter than MC.
Just a fun reminder that it was an Unggoy named Yull that claimed the first human casualty. He got jumpy at the sight of humans, then pounced on and eviscerated a colonial militiaman during "peace" talks on Harvest.
Oh you don’t need to tell me twice. I stood at the covenant species wall at Halo Outpost. I’m 5”10. A jackal felt intimidating and a grunt felt like a bad time even though it’s short.
Elites and brutes were beyond question. I’d just throw a hundred rounds of my assault rifle at their shins and knees and pray it does something lol.
Hunters? Hell no. They’re so unbelievably massive haha. It was just a poster but the 2D image was enough to be extremely off putting.
I went to Halo Outpost Discovery (the official Halo convention that was run a few years back) and there they had a wall with to-scale illustrations of every species in the covenant that you could stand next to and compare yourself with. Everything taller than a Jackal is fucking terrifying. They also had a life size statue of a Flood infection form, and it was like 30% bigger than the size of my head. Once you put this shit in perspective you start to realize how scary that shit really is.
I have often explained to my friend that halo is actually a horror story/universe. It just doesnt feel like it because youre seeing it from the eyes of a 2 meter unstoppable killing machine.
This is one of those weird things of “because we’re the protagonists, or course we win because this is an action movie” but the covenant would probably body humanity. If we go by numbers the average brute and elite can just bat a person aside and cause fatal damage, even Spartans probably shouldn’t stand a chance considering that there’s a comparable amount of training iirc
Bro I'm 5'6" imma have a hard enough time killing a grunt with a 22. Ain't no way I'm surviving a sangheli elite or a brute. We are not even going to talk about hunters. They hunt tanks. I do not have a tank
I wish MC was still 8 foot. What a monster of a man he would be.
Although thankfully his retconned size means I'll be size accurate when I finally get my MKV armour finished.
Kind off topic, but I also loved how in Combat Evolved during The Library, Guilty Spark states that Chiefs Mark V armour only ranks as a measly 2 out of 18 in the combat skins guidelines Humanities peak technology at the time barely even factors in on a cosmological scale
I think of that line often. I really wonder how Gen3 armor would stack up in that rating system
Probably not that much higher, maybe a 3. Something like the Didact would scale much higher I’d presume, maybe a 16 or 17. A simple splinter grenade was enough to KO him at the end of Halo 4 (Arguably just terrible writing)
Very true. The Mk VI in Halo 3 is the same class as the Mk V. With the added tech from Gen2 and Gen3, I would hope it's a 3, *maybe* a 4 because of the reverse engineered Forerunner and Covenant tech
Now I would actually like to see a scale of how covenant armors ranks. We know from the game that there can be a huge difference in shields and armor plating, considering how tanky higher ranked elites and brutes are compared to basic foot soldiers of their species. Not to forget the very brave random grunt with a shield that is slightly more annoying than a normal grunt.
This raises an interesting point, I have yet to meet shield grunts, why the fuck can't I pick up and use a jackles shield?
Not to mention, there are some cool new lore tidbits about some of the armor attachments in halo infinite multiplayer, such as the use of sentinel technology, additionally, I don’t exactly remember which one, but one of the wrist attachments says it’s an attempt at reimplementing Jackel shield gauntlets, which would be very useful as it’s essentially a deployable wrist shield at all times.
Project CASKLOOM
If we wanted to we could argue thats just how strong promethean weaponry is lol
I mean… a pulse nade can almost instantly *incinerate* a Spartan and burn holes through vehicles and other materials… the fact that he took one to the chest from inside his armor and all he does is stagger back really says something about the resiliency of a forerunner
I think upper end ratings focus on every inch being armored so that the Flood can’t easily penetrate anywhere. I’m thinking that the Flood can easily penetrate the under suit of the armor worn by Spartans and higher ratings have things like more metal armor, stronger fibers, stronger shields, perhaps gaps protected by energy shields or hard light, nano bots, slipspace or teleporting capabilities, etc. that aren’t used by humans at this time and mostly weren’t on armors used by Forerunners before the Flood.
I always assumed the *top tier* Ultra-advanced Forrunner weapons/armor was stuff that couldn’t last a hundred thousand + years and/or the firing of the Halo array. What was left as sentinel defense tech was meant to last indefinitely, and humanity happened to find it
[удалено]
I mean chief goes from get wrecked by sparks laser to casually tanking a monitors laser in infinite so there's definitely a noticeably higher degree of strength
To be honest it's probably not getting much higher, even basic forerunner civilian armor was more durable than mjolnr, and had many other abilities ontop of that like making the user biologically immortal, interplanetary flight, teleportation etc, the best humanity has isn't even on par with what forerunner civilians get.
I wonder what humanity could come up with using the tech from Outcasts
*Current* Humanity. Crazy to think that Ancient Humans were on par with the Forerunners and even better in some areas.
Makes ya wonder what the Hellcat and prefect are rated at, since they are ancient human and forerunner hybrids.
Halo 4 added prefect which is modern human/forerunner hybrid armor. Halo 5 I believe added hellcat which is ancient human/modern human hybrid
I'm out of the loop with regards to more recent lore. What are the Hellcat and Prefect?
armor sets. Prefect is, in lore, based on reverse engineered Forerunner tech, Hellcat on ancient human stuff
Interesting... But I'm assuming Guilty Park's combat skin guidelines are based off of a consistent war against the flood, not covenant as the shielded mjolnir was originally designed for. So really wonder what other combat armor precautions the forerunners took specifically for a war against the flood
There was a terminal in halo 3 where a forerunner is talking about combat skin ratings as a guideline for what to use and when. I think the actual rating for combat skins may be more a way to view them in a specialization role. Like dont wear eva armor when you need eod. Or dont wear light armor when headed to a heavy front line engagement. This is purely my own interpretation however. And either way mjolnir probably barely holds a candle to what any kind of skin the forerunner had combat or no.
Combat Skin was rated on more than just how well they protected the user such as how good and how long its life support lasted, EVA features, and more advanced stuff like the Didact being able to manipulate gravity using what looks similar to telekinesis. Seeing as this was Combat Evolved they probably literally meant that Forerunner armor was orders of magnitude more durable than MJOLNIR
And still that one Marine almost made it through the Library.
Kind of nuts as mc in halo 3 craters into the earth and survives lol what does an 18 do fly you into the planet and land you gently on pillows?
Nah I never realized how big Jackals are and now I'm terrified
[Check out this fight from the show](https://youtu.be/FyCK-oxvhpc?si=5GsMpi5wjVYX2C7Z). The first few moments with the Jackals just tearing through Marines with their energy daggers is terrifying. The show has made the Jackals the scary beasts they were always described in the books
Is the show any good? I've heard nothing but complaints.
I'm just going to marathon the action scenes because damn that looked cool. Not going to brave the entire series tbh
Take note that the scene linked above is a rescored version, with sound effects, music, and dialogue from the Halo games. The TV show likely has completely different dialogue and SFX, and definitely has different music.
I was gonna say… I didn’t think the actor in the show sounded that much like master chief. And I was wondering why the sound effects all sounded exactly like the game lol
Yeah. For example there is no Aunty Dot in the show despite you hearing her voice in the YouTube video.
Aw damn, that was why it seemed good.
My thoughts exactly
Show is very different, but I’ve been liking most of season 2
I couldn’t get past first 3 episodes of Season 1 but now I can’t wait for the new episodes every week for Season 2 Makes me we wanna go back and try S1 again But yes it’s not 100% faithful to the games story
If you look at it as an adaption, no. But it isn't. It's its own separate universe. Like the different Marvel comics and movies. Different universes with shared characters, but not 1:1. I personally like it, I just see it as a new universe with new lore to explore, and for me, that's really exciting. But there are some dumb moments, most of them in season 1. Honestly, season 2 has been really good, and the season finale this week has me very hyped for what's coming.
Yeah, the scene where Halsey got a glimpse of the Forerunner structure powering on for the first time and the light bridge forming was pretty cool. The concept of riding along as the humans discover what the Forerunner and Halo really are is fun.
Thank you for this. I found my self not liking season one as much as I thought I would. I figured it was because of all the hate everyone else had for it. I’m loving season two. I’m also not one to hate on games because they’re buggy or don’t work properly. I get that when people spend their money they want something in return they will and should enjoy. I try to enjoy things for what they are. People are so negative when it comes to just about anything in life and it seems like such a shitty way to live.
Its a good show as long you go into it understanding that it is its own thing. The complaints stem from people wanting a Mandalorian inspired faceless protaganist and/or wanted a live action retelling of all the Halo game cutscenes. I feel the costumes and acting are pretty decent. The writing has some weakpoints. Season 1 was definitely a feeler, with season 2 finding a pretty decent stride. Pablo as Master Chief is pretty solid, he definitely has that battle hardened senior enlisted leader feel to him. Anyone in either ground pounding service can attest to that. I liked it even at its weak points. Im not losing any sleep over any dropped balls.
https://youtu.be/SyOAdrxlPVs?si=mox6e0pqOyScLp8N This is what we wanted.
I like the show, alot. It annoys me that they are doing an alternate version of the story but honestly, that's the magic of television. It has made me want to replay the entire series again though.
Humans with Godzilla heads and energy weapons that could cut thru anything you're using... oh and they also tended to eat people... yeah, terrifying.
That clip is terrible. Did those marines forget about their guns? They just stand there.
I had the same thought. Their not fighting back or taking cover… while the marine AI was always wonky it wasn’t that bad, these guy just exists to show scary covenant but if that was the case why not use civilians.
It makes the Jackals look good by making the humans weak? First dude: doesn’t even look at them. Second dude, doesn’t have their weapon raised and is just running (there’s no cover and the enemy is in the open, what are you *doing*?). 3rd dude (woman?) also no weapon raised, 4 and 5 just standing there and pre-falling to the attack. 6 and 7 have weapons raised but only respond by looking fearful and getting hit. In all that time multiple people had a shot but didn’t take it. No one even fired a shot or was aware of an enemy with a glowing shield and sword coming their way. Also the alien several times opens up his defense to humans who could shoot it easily but don’t. You could have done those same 5 seconds with shots bouncing off that shield, with people in cover or at least not running towards a melee enemy while they have no reason to do anything but stand their ground and fire at them. That Jackal could have shown almost perfect shield cover and taken out resisting, capable marines to showcase his strength but instead the humans had to be dummies who don’t even pull the trigger of their weapons.
There was a description of them in the Halo 2 game guide, something like "you could call them elite marksmen but they are just a little too bloodthirsty for that".
Man this looks like dogshit, thank god I didn't watch it. And I love Halo too.
They eat people raw
So do grunts iirc, and I would image brutes might as well.
What?! They don’t cook us before eating? How dare them. I demand to be seasoned
and this is how the covenant were defeated by tape worm.
[удалено]
They may have hollow bones, as they're slowly evolving into birds from reptiles, but this doesn't mean weak bones. Jackals are consistently shown as incredibly strong and swift creatures. It should also be noted that, as far as I’m aware, there is actually no canon confirmation that Jackals have hollow bones. I’ve just checked their Halopedia (generally comprehensive and accurate) article, and there is no mention at all of hollow bones being a canon fact. Plus, given the stats of their height and weight, it would seem to suggest that hollow bones is not the case. Velociraptors were much smaller than Jackals, and I would still not want to take one of them on unarmarmed and unarmoured.
Shit, I don't even want to fight an angry weasel or a cat.
Let alone a suicidal grunt.
Yeah, but if you shoot them in the head just right, they explode into confetti with a satisfying pop.
Trying to fight a Jackal would be like trying to fight a Cassowary or an Ostrich. Go fight one and tell us how it goes. (Don’t actually do that)
I'm gonna have to remind myself to read this next time I play a couple missions in Halo 2 on legendary
Everyone laughs at how weak grunts are, but they would 100% beat the shit out of any regular human. The only reason why they look cute and silly it’s because we play as Spartans or ODST’s.
>Everyone laughs at how weak grunts are, but they would 100% beat the shit out of any regular human. To be fair, I'm sure they'd be pretty scared of a human on average. Provided it was a 1 on 1. They may be tough but they don't have a lot of back bone on their own.
That really depends. The covenant grunts are extremely cowardly because they have no reason to fight for the covenant. They’re treated like trash and barely educated. The only reason they are on the battlefield is because they are forced to be there. Grunts who have a reason to fight or are treated well can actually be quite tenacious. The deacon in contact harvest goes out of his way to attack Tartarus after his huragok friend dies.
They’re usually super young too.
The Unggoy Rebellion was so bad that it forced the Covenant to call upon an Arbiter to stop them and it forced the Covenant to change a bunch of the rules and how their military was structured so that the Unggoys didn't get shafted (as much)
A Grunt alone has more mass and harder skin than any regular human, it’s like fighting a chimpanzee but with slightly different anatomy. If a chimpanzee alone is already 7-8 times stronger than a regular human, i’ll let you guess what happens when a cornered grunt has to fight any regular human.
Hell, ODSTs aren’t augmented. They’re just normal marines in fancy gear.
ODST’s do get slight augmentations, they are basically completely drugged with physical drugs to enhance performance.
Wait Grunts have so massive arms? No wonder they can rip humans apart.
Grunts are absolutely jacked if I recall correctly. Despite being short they weigh as much as a young gorilla.
I wonder how an ungoy would feel against my Barrett 50 cal
“You ever see an ungoy? The little covenant guys? They’re 4ft nothing and all muscle. They can rip you in half like a chimp and all they do is run and eat from a nipple. Jaime, pull up the holotape.”
It would be a catastrophe to allow them to participate in armwrestling championship.
Jaime bring up that holotape of an ungoy tapping out a bear.
You ever seen a forerunner artifact? Crazy shit. There’s no seams.
They're closer to 5.5 feet lol
Do you think future Joe Rogan would be that accurate?
Roe Jogan 💀
They're beefy lil lads
Even ignoring height, they’re more technologically advanced than humans. It’s why the UNSC is consistently losing the war, were it not for Chief’s strategic acts. Humans didn’t even have energy shields before reverse-engineering the Covenant’s tech
They have access to advanced technology from Forerunners. They themselves do not seem particularly adept at advancing technology.
They're imitative and not innovative.
Johnson put it best in silent storm of they have the technology just no discipline/training in combat
I remember that being a plot point in the Fall of Reach book specifically. Cortana got access to a Covenant ship and found that they had massive knowledge gaps in managing their technology and was using it incredibly inefficiently. If I remember correctly she reconfigured the plasma guns to shoot a high powered beam with surgical precision rather than just chuck blobs of the stuff.
I do recall what you're talking about but I very recently reread fall of reach and I don't think it was that one specifically. Might be the flood or first strike
I think you're right and it may have been First Strike. Those three are the only books I read so it was definitely at least one of those.
Same, I've also read contact harvest and ghosts of onyx but those don't involve cortana... my money is on first strike as well cause I'm certain I remember the scene you described
It's definitely First Strike. Chief and Cortana end up hijacking a covvie ship (The Ascendant Justice) to infiltrate the Unyielding Hierophant.
First strike
I heard the UNSC's vehicles were considered better than most Covenant ones because their religion is holding them back from making them practical.
It's not just their religion, it's the Sangheili's warrior code. Their idea of achieving honor through single combat as a secondary objective significantly handicaps them. The Covenant doesn't really use combined arms like the UNSC does. The Wraith is an assault gun that can pull double-duty as artillery. The Ghost is a scout/cavalry vehicle. The Banshee is a light CAS aircraft. APCs and IFVs like the Shadow and Spectre are rare. And the Covenant's primary infantry transports, their dropships, don't typically stick around to support their dismounted infantry. On the whole it's more like the combat doctrines of mid to late WWI. Heavily infantry focused with vehicles often serving in segregated roles. For us, it was the limitations of our technology, but for the Covenant, it is a choice because the best way to earn honor and prestige in Sangheili culture, is to get on the ground and fight the enemy face to face.
it is interesting that the fact that the convenient are not actually that good at war is basically the only reason humanity lasted long enough to "win" the war.
Sounds like a few thousand years of our existence lol
Yes, they have access to better technology. But the Covenant is imitative, not innovative. They got all their tech from Forerunner ruins. Once Humanity got access to their technology, they quickly improved upon it. Unfortunately they didn't get the access they needed until the end of the war. Don't forget the Spartan-III's, Operations PROMETHEUS and TORPEDO probably gave humanity an extra decade or so by hitting major strategic sites
>It’s why the UNSC is consistently losing the war, were it not for Chief’s strategic acts. That's reducing the regular person's effort a bit too much, IMO. Humanity were largely losing because of the disparity in spaceship tech, and the subsequent glassings that followed. On the ground, Humanity did pretty well everything considered. Strategy, tactics and willpower trumped the tech gap on the ground. The Sangheili generally considered humanity honorable fighters, and thus, in a sense, held them in higher esteem than the lesser species of the Covenant.
Facts. The Elites initially wanted to bring humanity into the Covenant fold.
I'm new to the Halo fandom so forgive me if this already exists, but I would love a book from the POV of the Covenant when they first encountered humanity. The discovery of the Great Journey being false by the Prophets, the Elites wanting to offer membership to the humans, etc.
Check out *Halo: Contact Harvest*, it's a novel that goes over first contact between humanity and the Covenant. Bonus: It has Avery Johnson in it.
Definitely will, thanks for the rec!
Contact Harvest features the first contact with the Covenant, from their perspective too. Cole Protocol has the comment about humans joining, after an encounter with a Spartan, though has major lore discrepancies. Most books tend to have Covenant POV besides the Fall of Reach, so you can't go wrong.
This, to me, is what makes it even more impressive that the UNSC would consistently *WIN* the ground war against such an opponent. We would just be so outclassed when it comes to space combat that the planet would still be glassed.
Keep in mind nearly every single engagement in the war was a defensive action for the UNSC as well as the fact the Covenant never took time to actually come up with better tactics since they could just mindlessly stomp with reverse engineered forerunner tech. Makes you wonder if the covenant leadership weren't literal dummies they could have rolled all of humanity in 10-15 years.
>Makes you wonder if the covenant leadership weren't literal dummies they could have rolled all of humanity in 10-15 years. Could say this about a certain very large Eurasian country that's currently at war as well; there's even a meme about it: > we're very lucky they're so fucking stupid.
Don’t forget three of the Covenant species pictured will happily eat and/or mutilate humans alive en masse. Elites preferred just glassing the planet
In the books, humanity actually bests them in ground combat frequently. But that doesn't do much to stop a glassing.
That's one tall ass marine
I'm gonna guess around the 6ft4in mark with the helmet and armor Edit: I forgot the inches
They look a lot taller than that when compared to the chief, who is supposed to be seven feet tall in mjolnir
I'm the same height as a Jackle but everything else 😬
Absolutely terrifying, right? And with just how much faster and stronger that can be...
We’re also all larger than a velociraptor but what’s that really worth
You forget Kig-yar start at 6ft 3" and Velociraptors are much shorter just longer
No, I know that. Velociraptors are around turkey size as well, they’ll just fuck you up no matter how big they are. Jackals are essentially advanced raptors, more comparable to the size of a Utah raptor.
Horrifying, yes, but I would love to be part of an odst squad.
I'm the same height as the grunt
Just as stocky with massive arms right?
*Looks at thin legs* Sadly yes
Don't grunts alone have the strength of a gorilla with these forearms in the books? I think I remember reading something about them ripping limbs off of humans and the whole alliance eating human meat... It's absolutely one universe I don't want to live in.
Sometimes I forget that Grunts are actually pretty effin big
The traveling Halo expo: Outpost Discovery. Did a really good job at giving fans this context with a Covenant height line up: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I-XU4lo-FQs), [Pic 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/izuwqt/irl_height_chart_comparing_all_the_covenant/), [Pic 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/c9byjt/these_pics_were_taken_at_halo_outpost_discovery/)
I have those saved as well! Pretty sure that's LateNightGaming in the pictures
I mean yeah. Everyone likes to think if shit went down they’d be a Spartan or ODST. But in reality most of us would be that Mark Zuckerberg looking dude getting sworded while running for our lives.
That Elite had enough of his shtoyle and countered with his own shtyole
the hunters would probably weigh north of half a ton Edit - they weight 5 tons… I was way off
I just looked it up. 10,000lbs, so 5 tons... damn
Yeah, tonnage scales like that. I've been up close to an elephant seal and they way 2 tons. So a hunter with all that armor, the assault cannon amd the shield...yep, sounds right.
A dense colony of worms, with thick armor, and a cannon presumably heavier than a door... And there's almost always a twin? Sounds like a horror movie/game idea
Master chief weighs half a ton. Hunters must be massively heavier.
I’d shit myself if I heard that Brutes got deployed.
The real question is, if one of them knocked a slice of pizza out of your hand after a night out on the beer are you letting the hands go?
This is the kind of mentality that kept humanity going during those dark times
Absolutely fucking not. That pizza was MINE.
I mean if you read the books the covenant basically kicked the tar out of normal humans. Battles were horrendously one sided and they were basically genociding us. The big battles were fought in space, their ships were better armed, had better weapons, and they would just glass entire planets. We were literally being exterminated. You were lucky if you HAD land battles where you could fight them. Even then, as you saiid....your typical soldier is like...basically a grunt. With primitive ballistic based weapons (ignore the fact most weapons are better than their covenant counterparts in a competitive setting). Grunts are like their fodder race. Jackals have shields. Then you got elites, elites are basically on par with chief in theory, although chief is arguably better trained. Chief's shields were based on adapted elite shielding tech. then you got brutes who are actually much stronger than chief. Hunters which are heavy armored and have fuel run cannons for arms...and yeah. Honestly, the spartan program did allow them to even the ground fight a little bit WHEN they were available (and because there's so few, they almost never were), but then the covenant would just retreat to the sky and glass planets so how well did that actually work for them? Like up through the battle for reach, humans were just massacred over and over again. It literally did require the covenant civil war and the flood to create the conditions for peace to be possible. If those things didnt happen, yeah, humans would've been full on exterminated, no doubt. IIRC chief's original mission with cortana was originally for chief to like...idk, hijack high charity and kidnap a prophet to try to push for a peace agreement or something. I forget exactly, but yeah. Humanity never had a chance in an all out war vs the covenant.
Yeah you’re right, right before UNSC figured out that reach was under attack, Chief and all the other Gen 2 Spartans were going to travel to high charity to kidnap a high priest as a bargaining chip. Honestly it would be kinda interesting to see how that would play out in an alternate universe where the covenant didn’t find reach so early
The crazy thing is they didn't even know of High Charity's existence yet, they were just going to capture a large covenant ship and *search* for the Covenant 'Homeworld' and then try to capture their leadership. When you think about it for more than 2 seconds you realize how terrible and desperate of a plan it is because they know nothing about the location of a theoretical Covenant homeworld nor what the covenant leadership structure actually looks like and the UNSC is just shooting a shot into the dark.
Mostly right though a few things are off. Elites and brutes are below spartans. Only the very top tier of both species (Atriox, Thel ‘Vadam, other zealots and such) approach the level of spartans in MJOLNIR. Their armor isnt as durable, their strength isnt as great, and their reflexes are slower. MJOLNIR’s shields arent based off elite shields, but are actually reverse engineered from a jackal shield gauntlet and improved. Hunters are one of the few enemies that can seriously threaten a spartan. But even hunter pairs have been regularly beaten by spartans it just takes a lot of ammo and focus. An injured Owen-B096 in Mark IV defeated two hunters, though the second hunter was distracted for a moment by some civilians. Chief takes down two hunters in FUD also in Mark IV at age 15 and he’d never encountered them before. Will-043 was such a gigachad he fought a pair of hunters in melee combat and killed one by ripping out its worms before he got killed by its bond brother. And yes, the original mission for Cortana was for her and Master Chief and 24 other Spartan-IIs equipped in MJOLNIR Mark V to hijack a covenant capital ship with the assistance of the refitted Pillar of Autumn, Captain Keyes, and 400 elite ODSTs and another battalion of marines as backup. Specifically they wanted a large carrier like an assault carrier or supercarrier. Then they would take it to wherever the covenant homeworld was (the UNSC didnt even know about High Charity), kidnap a high prophet, and force a peace treaty. Of course RED FLAG was doomed from the start. Not just because Reach immediately fell as they were setting off, but because the operation was a suicide mission and wouldnt have worked.
I think I remember reading that Elites and Chief were basically exactly evenly matched in terms of strength in hand to hand combat. Chief just had better training and he could do some more outside of the box things like locking the hand of his armour around the Elite's wrist so it was impossible to break free of it.
Not really. The only times elites and spartans are matched physically is a combination of the spartan being injured/exhausted, their armor being damaged, their armor being older (as in not Mark VI and beyond), the elite being a remarkable specimen, and similar things. For example the elite ranger Chief fights on Gamma Station? That monster was over 3 METERS tall. He’s like the elite equivalent of Shaquille O’Neal. Furthermore, they were fighting in zero-gee which is a great equalizer due to the lack of leverage and chaos, the elite is a ranger (rangers are part of the covenant special warfare group and are more trained), and Chief was only wearing Mark V which provides only a 2x strength boost. A similar reasoning can be applied to his duel with the shipmaster of the Ascendant Justice in First Strike only more extreme. Chief is so injured and exhausted and his Mark V armor so damaged from fighting on Halo that its a miracle hes walking. And the elite is on the higher end of elites and has an energy sword. The same applies to Chiefs fight with a brute at the end of a book only he’s in even worse physical condition. Halsey herself says he should be in a coma. He hasnt slept in a week except for a few hours caused by being knocked out. And he has everything from broken ribs to torn ligaments and tendons and bruised and bleeding organs. And his armor is so damaged, its shields are basically non-existent (remember the Halo 2 armory rant from the gunnery sergeant?). Every other time, spartans demolish elites. The 15 year old basically fresh out of training and augmentations Blue Team in Mark IV MJOLNIR take down an entire squad of Silent Shadow elites including a First Blade (aka some of the best of the best of the best), with the only injury being a cut to Chief’s neck. Jai-006 in Mark IV fought the future Arbiter Thel ‘Vadamee to a stalemate in hand to hand, and only retreated because he saw the marine he came to rescue was already dead. Other examples also include: 12 year old freshly augmented Beta Company Spartan-IIIs in SPI armor (so they dont even have the protection or strength boost of MJOLNIR) were literally shattering the limbs, disarming their energy swords, and cutting elites and jackals in half by the THOUSANDS until the ground had rivers of blood and gore and bodies. Spartan-IV Olympia Vale in her GEN2 MJOLNIR took on and defeated half a dozen former Silent Shadow elites who were wearing advanced Precursor nanosuit combat skins. Spartan-IV Bonita Stone in heavily damaged GEN3 MJOLNIR took on a Banished Brute bloodstar, Jega ‘Rdomnai, got rammed by a speeding ghost, and several other Banished troops and she only lost after Jega snuck behind her and stabbed her. Spartan-IV Theodore Sorel also in damaged GEN3 MJOLNIR took down like a dozen Banished elites and brutes with a SCREWDRIVER, we find his body in Halo Infinite. In Ghosts of Onyx, Blue Team also made quick work of the elites and brutes they encounter throughout the book. In Glasslands, Naomi-010 in GEN1 Mark VII MJOLNIR uppercuts a brute so hard she broke its spine with that one punch. Jerome took down dozens of Banished elites and brutes in Halo Wars 2 in his hybrid GEN1/2 MJOLNIR. TL;DR Spartans are far superior to your rank and file elites and brutes in all aspects (how else would Master Chief kill hundreds in the games). It takes usually a combination of injuries, older and/or damaged armor, and top tier elites/brutes like zealots, chieftains, Silent Shadow, spec ops, and so on to equal a spartan
First strike literally has chief say brutes are bigger, stronger and faster than Spartans in their early armor. Same for fall of reach, it's time to accept that halos just inconsistent
Imagine being confronted by a pack of space gorillas with guns. Terrifically terrifying.
Grunts are 5 feet tall, and super strong because of their home world being high gravity in comparison to earth. The average human (civilian) would probably lose against a grunt. Yet Sgt. Forge 1v1’d an Arbiter. Mad man
I can take them.
In a fight, right?
... Right?
This makes me wonder... In H3: ODST is the camera lowered to more resemble the height of an ODST vs Grunt?
Nope. 1st person is still Spartan view. Look at NMPD HQ, Romeo and Buck are the same size in cutscene. But once gameplay hits, you're towering over Buck. The weapons are also scaled to Spartans, so everything is really small, especially the Covenant weapons
Gunts in the lore are quite dangerous.
You know what's even more terrifying? Sangheili are as strong as augmented Spartan IIs.
Sizes in-game are hard to figure out because you're already playing as a 7ft tall superhuman. But also the fact that most enemies and allies are in an weapon holding stance that shortens their height. Seeing the hunters in their idle standing pose in Halo 2 and onwards is terrifying.
Who did that elite design? Much better than cea or h2a imo I miss the cat like elites
[Abimael Salazar.](https://www.artstation.com/abisv) He made the Elite, Brute, Marine, and Chief I used. He has some other amazing Halo models as well
It also goes to show that the Covenant really shot themselves in the foot with the Civil war between Elites and the Brutes. The Elites were responsible for their amazing battle tactics and ultimately the reason for every victory they've had. Of course the first game the elites are on our side we win the whole war in a landslide.
If the 3 Prophets weren't such asshats and didn't try to wipe out humanity to keep a secret, the entire galaxy would be in a much better state. Just imagine if Humanity joined the Covenant and essentially started a reform, because they're reclaimers of course, and they could bring the galaxy to the state it was before the Flood. They'd probably find Requiem and the Janus Key and get access to all the Forerunner tech in the galaxy, everyone could thrive. But nope, we can't admit that we made a mistake with translation and can't find out out religious base is a lie
Meanwhile, Astra Militarum: "First time?"
It was wild to me when I realized Brutes aren't gorillas with guns, *grunts* are. It's easy to think of them as helpless targets in-game, but in the expanded universe they possess the physical strength to rip humans in half. The cannon fodder comic relief units of the Covenant are literally just as physically imposing as a silverback, one of Earth's strongest land mammals. Brutes are on a whole other playing field.
It would honestly suck facing these guys but i’d still rather be a Marine in Halo, than a Guardsman in 40K!
Lucky for us grunts are way too cowardly for their own good, literally just yell at them like your mom yelling at you for leaving the dishes dirty.
That's like every sci-fi setting, lol. I can't really name a popular sci-fi setting where the humans aren't plucky under dogs against aliens that are several times stronger and faster. Maybe Star wars, since the galaxy is basically just humans, and aliens are relegated to set dressing, but even there depending on the era, droids and clones are far beyond an average human
Correct me if I’m wrong. But I believe the scale of halo ODST is the same as halo 3. I think that’s a missed opportunity to make you feel like a small human as rookie.
Plasma pistols and rifles are pretty damn terrifying lore-wise. A single shot is basically enough to cook your brain into popcorn and melt away a good chunk of flesh and bone doing so, not to mention the ghastly effects they have on less vital areas...or that the regular issued armor doesn't do much in terms for protection against that particular threat. The gameplay (outside of legendary) really lets us take that for granted.
The brutes are even bigger in the TV show. Now thats a scary mother fucker
Being a human in the real world is already very terrifying. The covenant ain’t got shit on taxes and student loan debt.
Grunts do NOT skimp on forearms
I’m 6’3 and was in sports all my life, I’ve been a bouncer and done personal security up to Level 3 and I find this comparison to be, quite frankly, a little terrifying.
I’m 7’8 and was a top tier powerlifter all of my life. Over 360lbs and done personal security up to level 6. Honestly, even I find this a little terrifying.
it is funny how you're heavier than master chief without armor.
Fast food is sturdy in America
I mean I’m obviously joking but MC being 6’ 10” and super jacked and having denser muscles along with metal in his bones would have meant he’d be over 300lbs easy. Take Thor Bjornsonn for example. At his lightest a couple of years go he said he weighed 145kg. That’s 30lbs more than MC while also being an inch shorter than MC.
2nd pic looks like it came out of halo 3 anniversary
Correct it would be
Just a fun reminder that it was an Unggoy named Yull that claimed the first human casualty. He got jumpy at the sight of humans, then pounced on and eviscerated a colonial militiaman during "peace" talks on Harvest.
That’s because it is
The Average grunt is already 5FT tall compared to a normal human
the fact master chief is like 7ft tall and 1k lbs is even more wild
Humanity have better science and AI from what I know. I'm just tryna think what humanity has on the covenent.
Johnson was human, dude gave zero fucks about size. A rocket makes everyone an inch thick goo in the end.
Oh you don’t need to tell me twice. I stood at the covenant species wall at Halo Outpost. I’m 5”10. A jackal felt intimidating and a grunt felt like a bad time even though it’s short. Elites and brutes were beyond question. I’d just throw a hundred rounds of my assault rifle at their shins and knees and pray it does something lol. Hunters? Hell no. They’re so unbelievably massive haha. It was just a poster but the 2D image was enough to be extremely off putting.
I went to Halo Outpost Discovery (the official Halo convention that was run a few years back) and there they had a wall with to-scale illustrations of every species in the covenant that you could stand next to and compare yourself with. Everything taller than a Jackal is fucking terrifying. They also had a life size statue of a Flood infection form, and it was like 30% bigger than the size of my head. Once you put this shit in perspective you start to realize how scary that shit really is.
Yeah but that super soldier sure fucked those aliens up.
I'd just start going fisticuffs with Jackals.
What separates us from them? ....One finger
I have often explained to my friend that halo is actually a horror story/universe. It just doesnt feel like it because youre seeing it from the eyes of a 2 meter unstoppable killing machine.
I'm never not uncomfortable about the fact that Hunters are canonically a hive mind of worms shoved into that suit.
The Elite's always claimed Chief was a demon meanwhile the average UNSC grunt was expected to fight the equivalent The absolute giga Chad UNSC again
Elites so hot
You’re terrified because they tower over you, im terrified because im a little bitch even though im almost a spartans height.
And that marine is even pretty tall for an average human, if we're comparing to Chief who is supposed to be over 7 feet tall.
Fun fact every alien there can rip a man apart with their bare hands
I’d rather be a human in Halo than Warhammer 40K. Haha
I’m sure a grunts grip strength has to be legendary! They should be able to just grip a human arm as hard as they can and break it.
This is one of those weird things of “because we’re the protagonists, or course we win because this is an action movie” but the covenant would probably body humanity. If we go by numbers the average brute and elite can just bat a person aside and cause fatal damage, even Spartans probably shouldn’t stand a chance considering that there’s a comparable amount of training iirc
Bro I'm 5'6" imma have a hard enough time killing a grunt with a 22. Ain't no way I'm surviving a sangheli elite or a brute. We are not even going to talk about hunters. They hunt tanks. I do not have a tank
I wish MC was still 8 foot. What a monster of a man he would be. Although thankfully his retconned size means I'll be size accurate when I finally get my MKV armour finished.
Yeah? It's nothing compared to 40K.
Humanity barely survived. They didn't really win as much as the covenant lost the war
You should see the size of an infection form next to a normal human
Entire Halo Lore is basically a r/HFY story.
The fact that a single grunt could easily rip a normal unarmed human apart is absolutely terrifying.
Look at the big juicy grunt head. Sniper’s dream.
Where is that Master Chief model pulled from?