Can I read my way out of Halo mediocrity?

November 20, 2007 3:22 PM

I've played each game in the Halo series, and am a competent online player, but far from skilled (in Halo 3, I'd say I'm a skill rank of ~15). I'd like, though, to be better. Obviously, getting better is primarily a function of playing more. But what's beyond that - more to the point, plenty is out there, what's quality? I'm wondering about tips, methods/innovations, instructional videos or documents that are worth the look, etc.

I can shoot and melee as well as many of my opponents, but I'll occasionally come across folks who aren't just better at those things, but who seem to move more quickly, melee more effectively and from a greater distance, jump higher, and so on. It's not that they're cheating - they just have a far deeper understanding of how to be Billy Badass.

posted by boombot to sports, hobbies, & recreation (16 comments total)

In the context of the matchmaking system, there really isn't any such thing as "getting better", just reaching your peak. Starting out things are easy as you blast less experienced players out of the water, but soon you'll reach your level, where you're matched with equally skilled players and lose about as many games as you'll win. At this point, there's no easy way to significantly boost your skill level.

If you're hell-bent on continuing that upward climb, though, the only solution is to play more. Sure, there are plenty of guides and tips and lists and such out there, but I've encountered enough of them to know they're BS. The best players are able to pour hours of free time into the game regularly, and it's that intimate familiarity with the game's mechanics and the typical behaviors of other players that gives them such twitch-perfect reflexes and superhuman levels of timing and judgment.

You may or may not be able to afford to do the same, depending on your lifestyle, but I'd advise against it even if you could. Halo, like any game, is meant for casual fun with friends, and getting obsessed with it to the point that you're seeking out guides and techniques and routines kinda takes away from that, in my view. Overanalyzing it and spending hours boosting some silly number just turns it into another kind of work. And even if you miraculously became awesome at the game overnight, you'd hit your true skill ranking again soon enough and be back to square one.

So I'd say just sit back and enjoy the game, no matter what number Bungie's algorithm spits back at you. Getting it higher will take weeks of tireless work, and won't make the game any more fun in the meantime.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:52 PM on November 20, 2007

Remember, a lot of the kids who play online have the free time to hang out after school for 4-5 hours PER DAY playing these games, so you couldn't possibly hope to be as skilled as they. just practice enough so you're not target bait every single time.
posted by softlord at 4:04 PM on November 20, 2007

I think that's a great point. But there's a difference, I hope, between giving yourself an hemorrhage screeching at the 14 year old who just fed you the flag he stole and wanting to be better at a competitive thing you enjoy. The number, while perhaps silly, is a good way to measure personal progress. I keep score on the golf course for the same reason.
posted by boombot at 4:06 PM on November 20, 2007

Google for "slicing the pie", "tactical room clear", and "button hook".

Read: http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-a-Building-With-a-Firearm

The best weapon in the game is the battle rifle.

There, I said it. Yes, the MLG people have turned it into an uninteresting weapon, because that's basically all they use. But it's just badass. Learn the pattern and practice it:

Body, body, body, head.

If it takes one more, go for it. Don't listen to smug 17-year-olds who say only shoot for the head--it's stupid advice that has no tactical basis. Their shields will drop all the same when you're shooting center mass. At the end of that third body shot, start sweeping up.

Mastering the BR also teaches you another important lesson: keeping your distance from enemies when you can. You can't be meleed at the last minute if you're twenty feet away. Toss a grenade, start hitting immediately with the BR, and don't move forward unless you have to. Don't even stand still. Ease back while firing. The goal here is to control the situation, and the BR is great for that. If they do breach your comfort zone, whip out your secondary weapon and go to down.

Or just melee the dude. Melee takes practice, and it won't always go right. My best advice is to count to a second or a second and a half of AR fire and then melee JUST before you think you're at the right distance to hit. Chances are you'll hit anyway, because human reaction time is slow and lag kinda eats a few milliseconds here and there anyway.

Move diagonally when approaching an enemy. You would be shocked at just how many people have their look sensitivity set too high, don't understand it, and aren't very accurate when turning.

Speaking of which, what is your sensitivity set to? My standard is 6, but when I go into snipers-only battles, I drop it to 3.

Is someone approaching and you know it? Two people? Don't move. Resist all urges to go ninja on their asses, back up behind that wall there, and DON'T MOVE. Let them come to you. You can see them on your motion sensor, unless they're crouched. If you know where they are, you have a little control over the situation. Getting past level 10-15 is really all about controlling the board, not just being a better shooter.

A BIG NOTE ABOUT GRENADES

Don't throw a grenade in the middle of a firefight. At best, you will kill each other. At worst, you will die. This takes a bit of explanation, because a lot of people will tell me this is bullshit:

Yes, there are times when tossing a grenade in the middle of firing will win you a battle. Statistically? You're better off not doing that unless you suddenly get inspired by the heat of combat and realize you can score a triple kill with zero effort.

Tossing a grenade before you start firing gives you a head start on killing an enemy, especially if you're good with the battle rifle or carbine. But when you throw one during a hail of bullets from your assault rifle, you stop firing for two full seconds while you toss and ready your weapon again to fire. During this time, your opponent is still shooting at you, and probably hitting you. You just might kill him with that grenade, but not before he finishes dumping his clip into you.

It's a big risk, and most of the better players don't take it. It's also really dangerous to throw a grenade right before a reload, for basically the same reasons. You are, essentially, being rained on during an expensive operation (reloading AND throwing a grenade).

You will find, however, really good players are extremely skilled with grenades. They tend to get used:

- At the start of the engagement
- When direct, complete line of sight is broken (someone went around a corner, is halfway behind a tree, etc)
- Before treading into unknown space (clearing a room)
- When clearly outgunned (someone got close to you while you were holding the sniper rifle, so you toss one and switch to the pistol)

Frag grenades are basically worthless at face-to-face distances shorter than about two body lengths. Amazing otherwise. Learn how to bounce them around corners and off of ramps, etc., to soften up enemies before unloading with your BR.

Grenades are awesome. Don't use them while you're spreading bullets everywhere and face-to-face with someone.
posted by Mikey-San at 4:27 PM on November 20, 2007 [11 favorites]

I play Halo CE on desktop. What helps is joining a clan, which working out with them.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:29 PM on November 20, 2007

What helps is joining a clan

Yeah, it's extremely difficult to ascend the ranks past a certain point without having a team you know how to communicate with.
posted by Mikey-San at 4:31 PM on November 20, 2007

Know the maps.

Take some time in offline play to walk through the maps. I cannot stress how important it is to know EXACTLY where you are at all times. Being able to make that tricky jump, or knowing which hole to duck into makes all of the difference.

Look at the maps and see where the major killzones are. Every map has a few points where the vast majority of skirmishes take place. Know them inside out, and know where the best positions to fire at that point are.

Know where the best weapons spawn, and be prepared to make a play for them at the start of a round. Being stuck with crappy weapons is a one-way ticket to loserville.

Instead of getting pissed when you're up against some little kid that is just unnaturally good, watch them carefully. See where they hide, which paths they take through the map. As in most fields, you can learn a lot from people better than you.
posted by chrisamiller at 5:00 PM on November 20, 2007

Two quick notes on chrisamiller's post:

- If you want a quick way to see a map's killzones, check out this page on Bungie.net. It's a set of global "heatmaps" for all the maps that show where people are killed the most, and by what weapon. You can also find personalized heatmaps in your stats page.

- If gathering intelligence on your opponents is your thing, use the saved films! They're a fantastic resource. And really fun to play around with, too. :)
posted by Rhaomi at 5:42 PM on November 20, 2007

I want to amend this:

Is someone approaching and you know it? Two people? Don't move. Resist all urges to go ninja on their asses, back up behind that wall there, and DON'T MOVE. Let them come to you. You can see them on your motion sensor, unless they're crouched. If you know where they are, you have a little control over the situation. Getting past level 10-15 is really all about controlling the board, not just being a better shooter.

This should read "DON'T MOVE FORWARD (AND RECONSIDER MOVING LATERALLY AWAY FROM THE WALL)". Sight lines along walls are your friend!

If you're backing up as an enemy is approaching and turning a corner, for example, he knows where you are BEFORE he begins navigating the corner, but doesn't know just how far back you are while turning, because he has to watch the center and side of their screen to navigate the corner without fucking up his aim. By the time his head is around the corner, you're lined up with the wall for a hail of BR fire.

Even if the enemy does know you're moving back and predicts where you are, you're still obeying the "keep a controlled distance" rule.
posted by Mikey-San at 5:47 PM on November 20, 2007

Rhaomi:

Checking out heatmaps totally changed how I perceived threat zones and paths in the levels. Lots of places I thought were good areas to travel through to pick up kills simply were getting me killed way more than I realized.
posted by Mikey-San at 5:49 PM on November 20, 2007

What would be more interesting than heatmaps (which, if I understand correctly, are gross death maps) are net death maps.
posted by Flunkie at 6:11 PM on November 20, 2007

Know the maps.

Yes. Knowing that perfect spot to bounce a nade or get that extra bit of cover can make make or break you.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:43 PM on November 20, 2007

switch to boxer button layout. it puts the melee attack on the left trigger which gives you the twitch reflex ability to instantly kill someone close by, which is one of the easiest ways to kill someone
posted by Large Marge at 6:46 PM on November 20, 2007

Mikey-San mentioned this in passing, but it bears repeating: Tune your controller to your style of play. Don't accept the default stick sensitivity settings -- experiment and figure out what works best for you.
posted by jjg at 8:27 PM on November 20, 2007

Getter better in games is not necessarily a simple linear function of play time. You can easily reach a local maximum by using the same weapon and the same tactics all the time, improving little and never reaching your full potential. I don't play Halo but I know my aiming improved greatly in locational damage stype FPS when I set out to use the weakest, single shot gun (usually pistol) in every FPS I played for 2 weeks, trying to get head shots only.
Sometimes you have to specifically train a certain ability to really improve it, instead of playing "normal" and "fun" games. Want to improve with grenades? Use grenades only. Any other kill doesn't count!
Want to know the maps better? Try to get every power up every time it spawns. Or try to kill every opponent by going around and stabbing them in the back. Like fighting heads on? Try pathological camping for 2 days, just to see what it is like. Dislike a certain kind of gun? Try to use this gun for one week and nothing else. Just step out of your comfort zone, do crazy things, do things you hate, and still try to perform well. You will find you'll become a better and much more flexible player in the end.
posted by Nightwind at 2:12 AM on November 21, 2007

My top three rules for any FPS:
1. SLOW DOWN
2. Know the maps inside, outside, backwards etc
3. Learn how to move - be fluid - be smooth
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 5:51 AM on November 21, 2007