Halo 2: The Art of War - The Art of Marksmanship

Added 04/11/2005 by Eisen Feuer

It took longer than expected, but here it is. First off, I must clarify that although this was "advertised" as an instructional video, most of the instruction, for now, is found in this written guide. I have yet to pin down the format to allow more instruction into the instructional video course and still retain maximum entertainment value. But for now, read the written guide, learn and enjoy.

The Art of Marksmanship

marksmanship - (märksʹ man · ship) - the ability to shoot well

A good marksman’s main strength is the ability to perceive where his fired rounds are going to land. With most weapons, such a marksman will not even need the reticule.

POINTING vs. AIMING

There is a fuzzy line between these two forms of targeting, but they are different, and must be used in different scenarios. In real life they are very different, such as the examples of sniping and skeet shooting. When a military sniper is targeting his adversary, he is aiming. It is a calculated and thought-out process that makes the sniper sure of where his shot is going to land. And in skeet shooting, you are using a shotgun, which has a very wide hit area. Coupled with the fact that you are shooting a moving target, there is no time to aim, you just have to point. But in Halo 2, the SPARTAN and Elite Player models are rock solid creatures. There is no error. Where you shoot is where the round lands. Ideally, you would always have time to aim and always have time to wait for that reticule to turn red, but hey, Murphy’s Law happens. If a shotgunner is rushing your position, and all you have that can take him down fast enough is the Sniper Rifle, you are in luck. Enter pointing.

In an extreme environment, such as a S.W.A.T. Team raid, aiming is not an option (unless, say, you are the sniper). S.W.A.T. members point, and they do it darn well. They use a technique that I call snapping, where they have their gun pointed to the ground while working in a human chain or other close quarter situations like a hallway. When an aggressive opponent approaches, and an officer fears for his life, snap! That gun is set in his shoulder like he has been holding it there for a minute and the gun is pointed directly at his opponent by using "the Third Eye".

The Third Eye is a total connection and understanding between weapon and wielder. When a S.W.A.T. member fires his weapon, it is as if he were looking down a straw directly at his enemy. That straw being the sights of his weapon, even though he is not analyzing the position of his sights. So, to parallel this with Halo 2, you need to obtain an omniscient Third Eye in order to rank among the best of marksmen. Your first stop on the journey to obtain your Third Eye is to completely lose your dependency on the reticule. The reticule is limited to the speed of the Xbox (fast, but nowhere near as fast as the Human Brain, even for the slowest of us), and is something that you cannot afford to rely on in the heat of battle.

METHODS FOR PRACTICE

My favorite way of getting used to the Third Eye, and has proven to be the most helpful (I am a testament to my own training program), is playing the campaign with the Blind Skull. (If you know how to get the Blind Skull, skip to the next paragraph) Go to the campaign mission Outskirts. When you crash your Pelican after your encounter with the Scarab, and you round the corner to kill the grunt traveling up the stairway in the hall, stop. Look up and you will see a skylight. On either side of the hall underneath the skylight are two lighting fixtures. Jump onto them and then crouch jump onto the roof in the direction of the courtyard. Now, turn left and go down the dark hallway, at the end of which you will find the Blind Skull, a spotter scope, and some grenades. Pick up the Skull by pressing X.

Congratulations. You can't see your gun or your HUD. So, what do you do now? Play like you usually would, except play with weapons which require a good marksman behind it. Try and complete the whole campaign with just the Sniper Rifle, The Beam Rifle, the Battle Rifle, the Carbine, and the Rocket Launcher. Also, practice with the Gauss Warthog, the Sniper Rifle on wheels.

One way of practicing after you have obtained and trained your Third Eye is to go into Multiplayer at Lockout, Zanzibar, Waterworks, or Colossus in the gametype Snipers. Eliminate all the explosive canisters in the map while timing yourself. Treat the canisters like opponents; relocate if you missed with the Rifle, do not get close or you may be hurt (like a melee), grenade them around corners, and use your secondary if you are passing close by one. If you are having trouble with a particular weapon (like the Brute Shot), equip it as your secondary and use it in medium to short-range situations against the canisters. In the case of Colossus, try and keep any canisters from dropping down the bottomless holes where they all end up.

And of course, play with your friends in a LAN or on Xbox Live. The Blind Skull is a great way of practicing your third eye, and blowing up canisters by yourself is a great way to practice pointing, but in the end nothing can prepare you as well as playing.

METHODS OF TARGETING

There are a couple different ways to target your opponent:

Tagging - the most common, just aiming and following your target. Use when you have enough time to watch the reticule go red.

Leading - When your target is at a distance, you need to aim at his future position because the bullet has a short delay at long ranges. This can be done easily by strafing perpendicular to your target.

Clotheslining - With clotheslining, you keep your sights at head level, and fire the instant that your target crosses your reticule. Also clotheslining can be helped along by strafing sideways so you don't need to aim after perfectly positioning at head level. Just remember that your target may choose a different course than you predict, (or jump) so make sure you’re ready to improvise.

Sweeping - When you sweep your reticule across any part of the target at a constant speed, you will notice that when the reticule turns red, it slows down dramatically. This is due to an underlying part of the game's engine called auto aim. When you speed up this process, the reticule still slows down on the target, but the time window in which you have to fire your round gets smaller. This may be the fastest way to eliminate your target, and when mastered, proves to be very reliable. And since the Xbox's underlying operations are much faster than the 30-fps video it is exporting to your screen, some of the animations may go crazy, such as the bullet hitting your target in the head, but the contrail appearing off the side of where the bullet actually landed.

It is widely known, but rarely practiced, so I’ll repeat this one: boost your sensitivity. If you are at a 3, you are way behind in the game. You cannot turn around as fast, and you will die easier because you cannot respond quickly to threats behind you. A good marksman should have a sensitivity around 7; an excellent marksman should be able to easily utilize the extremely touchy 10 setting. If you are currently working your way up the sensitivity scale, take it one level at a time. Boost your sensitivity, and then play 10 games. Then repeat. But, if you hit a level that is so high that you need to warm up just to get used to it, it is time to decrease your sensitivity. Truly, the only people that need this are the people that play in the pro tournaments. But, if you can use 10 just as well as the lower settings, more power to you.

THE ZOOM FUNCTION

In some sniper games, you may have heard people boasting how they sniped someone without a scope, this however, is not a reflection of skill, and the converse is moreover the true statement: try sniping someone that is right in front of you at 10x; not easy, nor smart. A good marksman will use the appropriate zoom level for the occasion, and will zoom in whenever he feels that it is best in order to connect the shot. The increased brightness and clarity from your binoculars or a sniper scope is also a very valuable asset of the zoom function. So, when you believe one of your enemies is camouflaged, whether by his color of choice or in the form of Active Camouflage, you should use your scope to locate him.

WEAPONS FOR A MARKSMAN

A lot of people hate dual wielding for obvious reasons. It's barbaric spray-and-pray philosophy requires little skill. However, there are weapons that do require a good marksman to operate: the Plasma Pistol, Magnum, Needler, Battle Rifle, Carbine, Sniper Rifle, Beam Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Brute Shot, Fragmentation Grenades, and Plasma Grenades.

THE PLASMA PISTOL

Most will refute that the Plasma Pistol requires marksmanship skills in order to operate. Not so. It all depends on the opponent. Due to the heavy onset of people using the Plasma Pistol + (Weapon with headshot bonus here) combos, people have found tricky ways of dodging the painfully powerful ability of the charged plasma ball. Just remember, that just like rockets, you don't have to lock on. It can be defeated by an agile opponent. Get in close and point towards your enemy's future position.

THE MAGNUM

The Magnum is perhaps the most under-appreciated weapon for most veteran Halo 1 Players. It replaced their blessed 3-Hit Wonder Gun. Although it can no longer decimate a shield with 2 hits, it can still kill with one headshot after the shields are removed. Also, the scope isn't gone. If you worked on your Third Eye, you can just use your binoculars as a scope. That aside, the Magnum is a tricky beast to tame. In order to best your opponent in a gunfight, you must keep your sights on the target while firing as fast as humanly possible. It is a difficult task to accomplish while pointing with your gun (Right Thumbstick), so aim with your body by strafing during the fight.

THE NEEDLER

With its new upgrade, the Needler (even when dual wielded) is still not all that powerful. But when used in the correct situations, a marksman can utilize them, and make many an exploding pincushion. In close range fights, aim at your opponent's future position, more than you usually would for any other weapon. For mid-range fights, where the Needler excels, make sure to head your target off, the Needles will seek him out, and more will penetrate your target because you helped the tracking-process. Remember, the Needler is one of the most silent, deadly weapons in the game. You can have your enemy half-dead before he even notices that he is being fired upon.

THE BATTLE RIFLE & THE CARBINE

The Battle Rifle is the most common midrange weapon in the game, and must be mastered. Treat it like the Magnum, aim sparingly. Point it. When pointing, snap it to your target, tag it while firing, and then sweep for the finishing shot(s).

The Carbine is more accurate than the Battle Rifle, and requires that you be rock-solid at tagging. Sweep your final shot for the finish.

THE SNIPER RIFLE & THE BEAM RIFLE

The Sniper Rifle and the Beam are most powerful, most accurate, longest ranged weapons in the game (if only they were the most discreet). The best of marksmen prove themselves with these weapons. Use the following guidelines for these two weapons at different ranges and the correct zoom level that the different ranges demand.

Zoomed Out -

The auto-aim mechanism of Sweeping is not available, because the reticule on either rifle does not turn red when zoomed out. Tagging is difficult because you have to aim quickly at close ranges, so clotheslining your target by strafing is your best bet.

Zoomed In (5x) -

At medium ranges, tag you target if you have time, or sweep at head level.

Zoomed In (10x) -

At long ranges, tag your target and lead just a little bit. At extremely long ranges, lead your target, and make adjustments to your leading distance by strafing. The auto-aim mechanism of Sweeping is not available, because the reticule on either rifle does not turn red at extreme ranges.

THE ROCKET LAUNCHER

The Rocket Launcher requires more accuracy than ever with its newly-weakened proximity damage, and a good marksman should be able to use this incredible killer to its fullest. Sweeping actually does work with rockets, just make sure to sweep in the direction your target is moving and press the trigger an instant after you hit the pull-trigger-now window. This should head your target off pretty effectively.

Rockets don’t always have the ability to track vehicles, and tracking takes a long time to commence. When taking out a stationary turret, camped vehicle, or slow moving tank at closer range, you should immediately head off your target by aiming at its future position. It worked fine in Halo: Combat Evolved, and you can still do it in Halo 2. If you take the time to lock on, you could be dead before the rocket flies, not only leaving your opponent alive, but leaving a valuable rocket launcher in the open and readily available to your enemy.

THE BRUTE SHOT

The Brute Shot is a very misunderstood and under-appreciated weapon on the playing field. Despite being weak in some eyes, a good marksman can turn this hunk of steel into a brutal killing machine. It is hard to teach someone how to use this weapon in script, so let me give you a suggestion: play a Brute Shot only game on a large map like Coagulation or Waterworks, or for smaller games, try Zanzibar. This will allow you to gain a better understanding of the trajectory and timing required to hit your target. Try smaller maps such as Foundation and Ivory Tower to improve yourself at the Brute Shot's ability to bounce rounds around corners. And remember to use the reticule for this weapon, its sights can help you remember the angle needed to hit your target at different ranges.

GRENADES

A good marksman should be very skilled in grenade throwing, and should have the ability to land a grenade exactly where he wants it despite changes in terrain and altitude. Remember the differences in the grenades and know when to use them according to the position of your target. The timer on Plasma Grenades is roughly 2-2.5 seconds after it comes to rest, and the timer on Fragmentation Grenades is 1/2-3/4 second; so lead your target appropriately. Practice bouncing fragmentation grenades off walls and around door-jams into rooms. And of course, practice sticking your enemy with Plasma Grenades.

VEHICLES

Since vehicles have unlimited ammo, many people are not very serious about being good at aiming a vehicle's turret. But, a good gunner is invaluable in situations where you are outnumbered or being painted by a sniper. No real special aiming techniques here, just remember to lead with the slower firing guns, and keep tagging your target until you finish it off with the automatic turrets. Also, keep track of the surrounding terrain so that you can compensate for any turbulence during the ride.

If any of you were wondering why I didn't cover any other weapons, or why I didn't cover exactly how to use weapons to get the kill, that's because that belongs in The Art of Killing.

CREDITS

Thanks to StK (I learned everything from your videos, I study you, don't know if that’s creepy or not...), Clan Panzer Faust, and everyone on my friends list for playing the games with me that I took the footage from. I look forward to answering any questions or comments you may have: eisenfeuer@talkxbox.com. In a little bit, I will compile all of your questions and create an FAQ.

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