"Loadouts? In MY Halo?" It's more likely than you think
To the frothing rage of classic Halo purists who like the arena shooter format (me), Halo 4 introduced Call of Duty-esque loadouts and game types that brought such honors as “quickest post-release multiplayer drop-off in franchise history”. However, in its new life in the Master Chief Collection PC release, Halo 4 is the third most populated game for multiplayer matches. In the context of the greater MCC, as something that can be played alongside the classic game modes instead of acting as a replacement for them, Halo 4 serves as a nice spice of variety.
If you decide to jump into this controversial PvP suite, you might need some help figuring out which loadouts are best for you. So I have done a lot of research (i.e. played Spartan Ops missions and looked at YouTube guides, primarily by BBKDRAGOON, Arrrash, and KevinKoolx) to determine what loadouts are the best. You have space for 5 loadouts in the game, so just pop all of these in and give them a whirl. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money (for reading this free article) back!
#1. Arena Champ
This is a loadout meant to help you dominate the Infinity Slayer modes, which can be played 4v4 or Free for All. Slayer in Halo 4 is quite different from Slayer in previous Halo games. In this version, you cannot pick up grenades off the map by default, and you earn ordnance drops of power weapons or power ups via kills and assists. Therefore, this loadout helps maximize ordnance and grenade availability. There are game modes without ordnance, and we will get to those later.
Loadout details:
- Primary Weapon: Battle Rifle
- Secondary Weapon: Boltshot
- Grenade: Frag grenade
- Armor Ability: Thruster Pack
- Tactical Package: Resupply
- Support Upgrade: Ordnance Priority
Loadout Advantages:
- Versatile and effective weapons with high kill potential (charge the Boltshot for a handheld shotgun blast)
- Lots of fun maneuverability potential with Thruster Pack
- Resupply package lets you pick up grenades off the ground, which your character apparently never learned how to do otherwise
- Ordnance Priority helps you get power weapons and upgrades sooner, which can get you even more ordnance faster until you snowball your way to victory (or you just keep up with everyone else who also uses Ordnance Priority)
#2. BIG Champ
This is a loadout to help with Big Team Battle, a game mode that is like Infinity Slayer, but BIG. If BBKDRAGOON and KevinKoolx think it’s necessary to have a separate loadout for Big Team Battle, who am I to argue? And yes if they jumped off a cliff maybe I would jump off it too, Mom.
Loadout Details:
- Primary Weapon: DMR
- Secondary Weapon: Plasma Pistol
- Grenade: Frag grenade
- Armor Ability: Regeneration Field
- Tactical Package: Resupply
- Support Upgrade: Ordnance Priority
Loadout Advantages:
- Tactical package and support upgrade give same advantages as the first build, but BIG
- DMR is the best long-range loadout weapon, which is helpful on the BIG maps you play Big Team Battle on
- Plasma Pistol disables vehicles when charged, and BIG vehicles are more prominent in Big Team Battle
- Regeneration field helps you and nearby members of your BIG team recover from damage, and farther combat distances mean enemies cannot also benefit from your field’s effects
- BIG
#3. SpOps King
This is my preferred loadout for Spartan Ops missions, and is also effective in the ordnance-less objective game modes like Capture the Flag or King of the Hill. In Spartan Ops you will be constantly picking up weapons off dead enemies, and you can even pick up grenades thanks to a miracle from Halo’s God (Chips Dubbo). As a result, this loadout prioritizes combat efficiency over resource management like the first two.
Loadout Details:
- Primary Weapon: Light Rifle
- Secondary Weapon: Boltshot
- Grenade: Frag Grenade
- Armor Ability: Thruster Pack (can be swapped for Regeneration Field)
- Tactical Package: AA Efficiency
- Support Upgrade: Dexterity
Loadout Advantages:
- Fun weapons to start with in Spartan Ops until you inevitably pick up new ones
- Effective weapons in multiplayer matches
- AA Efficiency lets you use your armor ability more often for even more maneuvers with Thruster Pack or more frequent uses of Regeneration Field
- Dexterity lets you reload and swap weapons quickly, which is extremely useful during a pitched battle
#4. Fullest Auto
So far we’ve been dealing with precision weapons, but who really wants to be boring and “accurate” when you can just spray bullets everywhere like that one scene in Predator? This is a loadout for any game mode if you just want to have fun blasting people, though it is best used in games without ordnance.
Loadout Details:
- Primary Weapon: Storm Rifle
- Secondary Weapon: Assault Rifle
- Grenade: Plasma Grenade
- Armor Ability: Thruster Pack
- Tactical Package: Firepower
- Support Upgrade: Dexterity
Loadout Advantages:
- Plasma grenade bounces less than the Frag grenade, and it can flush enemies out of cover so you can shoot at them a whole bunch
- Start with Storm Rifle to rip through shields then swap to Assault Rifle to rip through people in a deadly combination of constant shooting
- Firepower Tactical Package lets you use a primary weapon as your secondary weapon, which means two automatic weapons for you to shoot as much as you want
- Thruster Pack lets you get close to shoot more accurately
- Dexterity Upgrade means you spend less time not shooting
#5. Noobswap
Within the recesses of Halo lore, there exists an ancient and forbidden technique: the Noob Combo. With it, you can cut through Elite enemies on Legendary difficulty, defeat any other player in a second, and get called a wide array of offensive slurs over voice chat that people should really know better than to even think about saying.
The combo is simple: blast a shielded enemy with a fully charged plasma pistol, then immediately swap to a precision weapon and bop them on the head with a bullet. Swear to me you will not use this knowledge for evil.
Loadout Details:
- Primary Weapon: any precision weapon; Battle Rifle is generally regarded as the best
- Secondary Weapon: Plasma Pistol
- Grenade: Plasma grenade
- Armor Ability: Regeneration Field
- Tactical Package: Shielding
- Support Upgrade: Dexterity
Loadout Advantages:
- As stated, Plasma Pistol + Precision combo is a fast and easy way to kill
- Weapon swapping for the Combo made faster by Dexterity
- Regeneration Field starts recharging your shields right away, and Shielding Support Package increases the recharge rate of your shields (though does not affect how long it takes them to start recharging); synthesizing the two gives you rapid healing as you run around charging your plasma pistol
- Makes people real mad at how good you are; bathe in their envy
