Spartan Armor Permutations & Weapons - Page 1

Posted 10/20/2007

When I heard you'd be able to customize your armor in Halo 3, I was pretty excited. If there's one thing I never fail to enjoy in any game, it's character customization, even if its entirely superfluous. And you know what's just as good as character customization in video games? Minifig customization in LEGO. So without further ado, I give you... ALL of the Spartan Armor Permutations AND Weapons in Halo 3!

First of all, here's a Mark VI Spartan in green armor...

In other words, the Master Chief. Okay, so the only thing new here is his MA5B... er, I mean MA5C (whatever)... Assault Rifle. To be precise, the MA5C ICWS, according to the manual. It's a bit of an upgrade from my old AR method... also known as: a grey megaphone blaster! But NOW it's a megaphone blaster with the handle cut off and used for a barrel, and a classic space blaster stuck in the back. I actually think it works quite well, personally. And yes yes, I already know there will be alternatives available that don't require customization, but I just like to make 'em myself sometimes, okay?

The other suit of armor available as soon as you play the game is the CQB (Close Quarters Battle) armor, shown here in blue armor, wielding a pair of M6D... I mean, M6C... no wait, M6G... Magnum pistols! Bah, I can't keep up with all these silly little letters and numbers. It's just a bloody pistol and it still isn't much better than the crappy ones in Halo 2, but at least it's shiny again (though my LEGO ones still are not). Anyway, this is my brother Ryan's favorite armor (though he prefers different shoulders), so that's why it's blue. Of all the Spartans I made, I actually think this one turned out the best. I first developed the visor-decal shape with my Yavakaro minifigs for Nova Refuge.

Notice the knife on the chest? Unfortunately you can't actually USE it in the game, much to Ryan's disappointment. By the way, I've noticed a few Halo fans around the 'net in various forums treating "Halopedia" like it's a veritable overflowing font of indisputable and unique information. It's not. Everything there is put there by people like you and me, not Bungie employees. While it's a decent place to find Halo info quickly, there's nothing special there, and there's also a lot of stupid stuff (much like it's far larger cousin, Wikipedia). The CQB article, for example, used to say that the combat knife on the CQB chest looked "rather small". Of course it looks small ON A SPARTAN. Yeesh. It also said they had a T-shaped visor "like the Clones in Star Wars." That line made me want to bang my head on the desk. Man I hate the stupid Clones, and I hate to tell you, but they didn't exactly invent T-shaped visors. In fact, if you look at a history book, you may find that the ancient Greeks had similarly-shaped helmets. Like a certain Greek people called the SPARTANS. Sound familiar?

I'll get back to the idea of making the SPARTANs' armor look like Spartans' later...

The next SPARTAN armor suit you'll earn is the EVA armor, which is unlocked by beating the campaign. It's meant for zero gravity Extra Vehicular Activity, hence the astronaut-looking helmet. Which is naturally perfect for LEGO's own astronaut visor, no cutting required! That's why I made this fellow white. He's seen here holding my newly-decaled Plasma Rifle. And on his back...

The Fuel Rod Gun! Yes, it's called the Fuel Rod Gun in the game, so it's not some new weapon only introduced in Halo 2 called the "Fuel Rod Cannon" like Halopedia would leave you to believe... In fact, other than its strangely out-of-place yellow color, it hasn't changed much since its introduction as a multiplayer-only weapon in Halo PC.

Now, if you beat the game ON LEGENDARY, then you earn yet another suit of armor: the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) armor. This suit is one of the bulkiest in the game, designed to protect the wearer from explosives. For some reason I like the way it looks in brown. Partially because I like to use colors that are rarely used, and partially because it's one of only three colors I had the helmet in. Yes, I could have painted the bottom of the helmet grey or white to match the in-game version better, but I didn't want to. *shrug* Looks better this way anyway.

The EOD suit has really massive shoulder armor, for which I used the BrickForge shoulder pauldrons... although I did made decals too, as you can see here.

And of course, that weapon he's using is the now-wieldable Brute Gravity Hammer. Although it has a sweet axe-like blade on the back, you unfortunately can't turn it around and slash with that. In fact, when the gravity hammer runs out of energy, your character decides to simply stab things with the butt of it instead of using either side of the head. How does that make sense? I have no idea.

The only other suit you can earn completely offline is the Hayabusa armor (shown here in dark red as a nod to The Last Samurai... heh). It's unlocked by collecting every hidden skull on the main campaign... although you won't get the katana on your back until you've unlocked EVERY achievement in the game. The Hayabusa (sometimes called "samurai") armor was clearly included in the game as payback to Team Ninja (they're mentioned in the Halo 3 credits), creators of Dead or Alive 4, for including an unlockable SPARTAN-II as a playable character in that game. One of the characters in Dead or Alive 4 (as well as related game Ninja Gaiden) is named Ryu Hayabusa.

Please note that while the Energy Sword shown above is still a playable weapon as in Halo 2, the katana is just there for looks, much like the CQB combat knife. So this photo is just to make you samurai-wannabe kids drool. Personally I'm not all that crazy about the Hayabusa armor since it doesn't fit with the Halo world... If they were going to include medieval/fantasy-styled armor, why not include something that fit better with the Halo storyline?

For example, since the Spartans are called "Spartans," why not include some armor based on the actual historical Greek Spartans, as I mentioned earlier?

Or since the Spartan armor is called "MJOLNIR," the name of Thor's hammer in Norse mythology, how about a Norse Viking style suit of armor, which would be unspeakably awesome?

For more info on these permutation ideas I drew, check out the Halo Fan Art/ Fan Fiction section: http://www.saber-scorpion.com/aaw/halo.php

But anyway, moving right along...

The only other suit you can unlock partially offline is the Scout armor, shown here in light blue. The helmet and chest can be unlocked by earning the Too Close to the Sun and Used Car Salesman achievements. The first of those is really easy to get on the level called "Covenant." Just save some of your Spartan Laser ammo until you've cleared the first beach and the pelican drops off the Warthog and Mongoose. Then when the Banshees attack, blast one of 'em with your laser. The Used Car Salesman achievement is a bit harder, but not too much. My sister Maegan discovered you can actually earn it simply by blowing the turret off a Phantom dropship. This can be done easily when the Phantoms enter the hangar in the Crow's Nest level, either by sticking the turret with a grenade or using the nearby mounted machine guns. Sometimes the achievement won't unlock at first (that happened to Ryan), but keep trying and you'll get it.

Oh, of course he's got a Needler there. They're no longer dual-wieldable in Halo 3, but they actually kick even more butt than ever before, especially on Brutes in single player!

According to a couple of e-mails I've recieved, the Halo 3 strategy guide falsely states that the Scout shoulders can be unlocked by earning the We're In For Some Chop achievement, which can also be done offline. Unfortunately, this is not true. They're unlocked with the Mongoose Mowdown achievement, which can only be done online. This is a shame since it would have made more sense the other way (to have the whole suit unlockable offline), and also since I can't play online and I actually think the Scout shoulders are some of the coolest in the game. GAH!

Yeah, my Covenant Carbine is terrible. I know. Well, I've never seen a really good one, so if you think you can make a better one, I'd love to see!

Oh wait, I forgot ONE more thing you can manage to unlock offline... the shoulders for the Security armor (shown above). They are unlocked when you get around 850 Gamerscore Points in Halo 3... and luckily the vast majority (900 out of 1000) of these points are earned offline. You won't get the HELMET, however, until you have 1000/1000 gamerscore points... in other words, you'll need to unlock EVERY achievement, just like with the Hayabusa Katana. This armor is also known as the Marathon armor, since it resembles the helmet of the main character of Bungie's earlier game, Marathon (a game referenced constantly in the Halo series).

In the above shot, the purple Security Spartan is using two Covenant Plasma Pistols (now with decals too!). The Plasma Pistol is a great weapon since it can take down an enemy's shields in a single charged-up blast, but be cautious: In Halo 3, the weapon's ammo now slowly decreases if you run around with the weapon charging all the time!

Unfortunately (at least for me), all of the coolest-looking Spartan helmets in Halo 3 are only unlockable online. The first is the ODST helmet, unlocked by completing Basic Training... whatever the heck that means. I wouldn't know. Heh. There is no chest or shoulder armor to go with the ODST helmet, so I just chose to use the EVA armor.

You may notice that some of my Spartans have breastplates (like this guy's, painted dark blue), while others do not. This is because I was only willing to cut SO many LEGO breastplates. I like to make medieval things too, you know. Besides, if the breastplate is left off, then a weapon can be attached to the back, which is also cool.

And now we finally come to possibly the coolest armor in the game - MARK V HELMET OMG!!! I was ecstatic when I heard you could use the good ol' Mark V helmet from Halo 1 in Halo 3, but then I was devastated to learn you could only unlock it online by achieving some kind of UNSC Spartan rank. Gah! Of course, it looks kind of ugly in this game anyway. It looks like Halo 3 decided to take a page from the messed-up JoyRide action figures (which I never bought for this exact reason) with the SUPER-FAT chins and carry that over into the latest game. Come on guys, the chin was nowhere near that massive in Halo 1! Oh well, I still wish I could unlock it... Again, there's no armor to go with it, but it's generally accepted that the EOD chest (which I used above) looks most like the original chest armor from Halo 1. That is to say, way sleeker and cooler than the Mark VI.

Oh, and look - the Spartan Laser! Most of this design is borrowed from 1st-Spartan. The wrench idea was just too good to resist. Of course, I added some decals and a few other changes of my own. By the way, apparently the Spartan Laser is called the WAV M6 GGNR. I don't know about you, but when I see "GGNR," I think of the spear of Odin in Norse mythology, which was named Gungnir. It couldn't be a coincidence (especially considering the name of the Master Chief's armor). Is it also only a coincidence that I had already named a shield-breaker laser in my universe of Nova Refuge the Gungnir? Hmm...

The Spartan Laser is crazily fun to use. First, line up the enemy with the laser sight while the weapon charges...

Then BLAST them away! It'll take down most anything it hits.

However, there's still another online-only helmet that you unlock by ranking up to the Spartan Officer ranks... and curiously enough, it's one of the downright ugliest helmets in the whole game. I give you... the rogue helmet! With Hayabusa chest armor and shoulders. I didn't try too hard on this one because I hate the helmet, so I only made it for that nice sense of completion. Note that I'm still using the LEGO rifle as a crappy representation of the M90A CAWS Shotgun. Meh, the shotgun isn't even as useful in Halo 3 anyway, it seems to me. It hardly even affects the Flood on Legendary now...

But wait, there's ONE more suit of armor! Possibly the most rad-looking armor in the entire game, which I knew would be my favorite from the moment I saw it... the Recon armor! (shown here using two M7/Caseless SMGs) ... And guess what? You can't have it! Nope, Bungie decided to reserve one of their most awesome suits of armor entirely for themselves, those greedy b%^#@s! I'd be mad at them if I didn't feel sure I'd probably do the same thing if I was a game designer. So of course, I'm still jealous. They can also, for some weird reason, wear flaming helmets, although I don't know what good that does them. Oddly enough, the Recon armor is mentioned in the game if you read the descriptions for the pieces of Scout armor available. It's almost like Bungie enjoys tantalizing the community with things they can't have. One employee even hinted that there was "a trigger, but not one your finger can pull," implying that it was perhaps unlockable, before shooting that rumor down a little while later. I guess that means Bungie gives it to select members of the community, but it's up to them, not you.

I'd like to take this moment to note that I'm one of the biggest Halo fans in existence and my Xbox Live account, if I ever get a chance to actually use it, is named "Sabre Scorpion" since some jerk stole my real name "Saber Scorpion." By the way, if any of my readers ever meet that guy who stole the name "Saber Scorpion" on Xbox Live, ask him kindly to give me back my name, or to contact me so we can make some kind of deal... and then you can pwnzorate him and hump his corpse. Or draw a smiley in it with Brute Spikes. For me. What a jerk.

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