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This is a list of vehicles in the Halo video game series. The Halo games let you drive, pilot or board a variety of these vehicles during single- and multiplayer gameplay, making their manouverability, firepower and speed available to the player. When driving or piloting a vehicle, the game switches to third-person perspective.
In Halo 2, the vehicle system was slightly overhauled, adding vehicle damage and degradation, the ability to recover from a flip, and the possibility to hijack an manned vehicle. Furthermore, each level of Halo 2 contains a significantly higher number of vehicles overall, both due to the addition of damage and degradation which has the effect of each vehicle lasting for shorter periods of time, and the increased emphasis on vehicles in gameplay.
UNSC vehicles
UNSC vehicles do not take suffer damage in Halo: Combat Evolved. This has been changed in Halo 2, where vehicles will degrade when taking damage. Since humans do not possess hover technology, all their land vehicles are wheeled or tracked.
Warthog
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The stands beside a Warthog in a publicity still.
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Warthog is the colloquial name for the M12 light reconnaissance vehicle. The Warthog itself looks like dune-buggy with machine gun mount on a roll bar, rather like a technical. Being the standard vehicle of the UEG armed forces, it is fast and maneuverable, but prone to rollovers during hard cornering.
The Warthog can carry anywhere from 2-5 passengers along with a driver depending on the model. The gunnery position can hold a .50cal (12.7mm) minigun designed for anti-air and infantry supression, a 25mm Gauss gun of moderate anti-armor capabilities, a 30mm anti-armor gun, a 50mm slug thrower anti-infantry gun, a 3 barreled rocket launcher, and a MRLS system. The most common versions of the Warthog use either the 30mm anti-armor gun or the .50cal minigun. The person in the passenger seat of a Warthog rides shotgun, able to use whatever weapons they currently have on them to attack enemies from the Warthog. This is somewhat ineffective, as it is often difficult to aim in a moving Warthog, though experienced drivers can line up shots for the passenger and gunner. The driver has no armaments other than the bumper of the Warthog, which can be very effective as it kills any enemy on foot instantly. Experienced players however, can dodge a Warthog attack effectively.
There are several variants of the standard model including one with a mounted gauss cannon instead of the M41 (added in Halo 2), two versions with two different classes of rocket launchers replacing the M41, and a variant which replaces the M41 with an Ardent V missile rack (in multiplayer).
The M12 and all of its variants are issued with a variety of features, including four-wheel drive, independent suspension on all wheels, emergency brakes, radar, flood lights, and a winch. It is powered by a foward-housed low-profile hydrogen I/C plant. The hydrogen fuel is burned at very high temperature with a synthetic carbon/silicon catalyst to achieve even better fuel consumption. It weighs about 3.5 tons.
In Halo 2, the Warthog has been given a horn to distract, annoy, or warn others. It can be used in multiplayer to tell teammates to get in the gunner or passenger positions. An e-brake has been added as well to let you skid around corners. Also, the Warthog no longer "fishtail" during turns.
Scorpion
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The Scorpion Tank is a heavily armed human vehicle so named for its shape, with its main gun resembling a scorpion's stinger. The tank can hold a total of 6 people: a driver, a gunner, and 4 passengers on the track pods. The driver only drives the tank. The tank commander is also the gunner and controls both the 105mm main gun and the .50cal coaxially-mounted machinegun. The 105mm cannon can fire both HEAT and Sabot type amunition depending on the target. Given that the tank uses an auto-loader and has a small turret the reload time is ~4 seconds per shot. This gun will destroy any Covenant unit in one shot, with the exception of the Covenant Wraith tank, which requires two shots. The .50cal machinegun is quite powerful and capable of tearing through most ground forces quickly. Because it is coaxially mounted it is also highly accurate (The game incorrectly portrays the gun as inaccurate, this is a major disadvantage, but with its infinite ammo and zero cooldown time, the gun can just be fired at all times to pin down enemy units in between bursts from the main cannon.) Passengers of the Scorpion tank can fire whatever weapons they are carrying in the same fashion as the Warthog, but are much more exposed to danger than Warthog passengers.
The Scorpion weighs 66 tons and moves fairly rapidly; its top speed is between 30-40 mph (again the game portrays the tank inaccurately for game play reasons). It has several layers of armor that cover it; however, it has a "dead zone" immediately adjacent to itself, where it can not fire without injuring its occupants.
Pelican
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The Pelican dropship is a flying transport, which moves human troops and equipment around on the Halo battlefields. It is not player-controllable. It is a helicopter style dropship that uses 8 jet engines on the ends of 4 stubby, asjustable wings to fly. It is known to be normally armed with a nose machine gun, which is sometimes replaced with a 70 mm cannon, rocket pods on the wings capable of firing 6-8 rockets in a burst (this is seen when the Scarab get stuck in the 3rd level, a Pelican attacks it with rockets every once in a while), a rear facing machine gun in the troop bay and whatever weapons the passangers are armed with. It has been known to also be armed with large anti-starship missles. The "HomeFront" Modifaction for BattleField Veitnam has it armed with a nose chaingun and a version known as the "Angry Pelican" Armed with 8 very large missles on a top rack. The Pelican can hold up to 15 passagers and 2 flight crew, though 12 was the designed limit. It can also carry vehicles in the overhanging back section. It can fly in space and in atmoshere.
Longsword
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The Longsword is the UNSC's non-player controllable interception fighter which fights against Covenant fighter and fleet formations and attacks ground targets. It is armed with machine guns and bombs.
Covenant vehicles
The Covenant vehicles take damage seperatly of their occupants even in Halo:Combat Evolved. In multiplayer, however, they are indestructible, even though the occupants can be killed. Land based Covenant vehicles, unlike humans', are capable of hovering and are less prone to uneven terrain, and all appear to run on the 'Boosted Gravity Propulsion Drive'. All Covenant vehicles have a signature purple sheen.
Ghost
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Ghosts are lightweight one passenger reconnaissance and rapid attack vehicles. It is the player-controllable vehicle in Halo: Combat Evolved with the same movement options as those of the normal player: i.e., the only playable vehicle with sidestrafing. The Ghost is equipped with twin plasma cannons that are similar to the Covenant plasma rifle, though with increased damage, faster rate of fire, unlimited ammo, and no cool-down time. This, combined with the Ghost's ability to move quickly and over many obstacles, make it the most manueverable vehicle in the game, although the Ghost can be easily destroyed by any explosive fire, grenades, or a few shotgun blasts.
In Halo 2, the Ghost has been given a boost function to allow for faster movement. The Boost quickly doubles the speed of the vehicle but makes turning more difficult. While using the boost function, the Ghost cannot fire weapons.
Banshee and Seraph
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Golden Banshee Hack
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Banshees are one passenger airborne ground assault vehicles with high manueverabilty and fair speed. Named for the characteristic wail of its engines, the Banshee is the only playable flying vehicle. It is similar to the Ghost, except that its flying lends it more of an attack role as it can evade most fire with its speed and flying abilities. In addition to its twin plasma cannons, the Banshee also sports the Hunter's fuel rod cannon, which has infinite ammunition but a four second cool-down time, similar to the Scorpion's main cannon. The fuel rod cannon is the only player-usable weapon in Halo: Combat Evolved where the projectiles travel parabolically, and as such aim adjustments must be made. The vehicle is only available for multiplayer in the PC or Mac version of Halo, but the Banshee is fairly unbalanced in online games due to its ability to fly and its powerful weapons, making it only defeatable by skilled players or anyone with a human tank, LAAG, or another Banshee.
Like the Ghost, the Banshee acquired a boost function in Halo 2. In addition, it can now perform "tricks", such as a backflip or a barrel roll dodge. While it is now available in multiplayer, its Fuel Rod cannon was disabled for balancing reasons.
One of the more amusing pranks concerning the Banshee was the 'discovery' (http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive6.pl?read=148628) of a yellow Banshee. Normally purple, this specific craft was supposedly more powerful and could be used more easily than the standard. It also had cup holders, fishing equipment, and was supposedly acquired from a gnome in a army surplus store. Despite the increasing obviousness of the prank, many people claimed to have seen and used these craft. The situation did not improve when players modified their game to allow the Yellow Banshees, which fueled more and more belief in the mysterious Yellow Banshee.
The Seraphs are the Covenant's standard fighters that are used to fight against UNSC Longsword formations and attack ships. They are shown in Halo 2 and cannot be controlled by the player.
Wraith
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Wraiths are one passenger hover tanks, and are surprisingly manueverable and fast for their size. Their sole weapon is a powerful mortar gun that fires in an parabolic arc similar to the Fuel Rod Gun. These bombs, if they score a direct hit, will often destroy vehicles or kill if the SPARTAN-II is not equipped with an overshield. Other than this, they are fairly vulnerable to very close enemies and can be taken down most effectively with explosive weapons such as the Scorpion's main cannon, the rocket launcher, or the Banshee's fuel rod cannon. When controlled by an enemy AI, the wraith also has twin plasma cannons, which automatically track their targets.
The Wraith also has a boost function, which triples the speed of the craft for about a second. It is very effective in ramming infantry, preventing an infantry from climbing atop the tank and pounding the driver out.
Shade
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Shades are stationary gun turrets capable of rotating 360°, that can be entered like a vehicle and thrown around like one. They consist of a stand and a floating mobile turret-like seating with control systems to its gun. The gun fires three fairly slow, high powered bolts of energy. Also, they are mounted on several of the larger Covenant vehicles as support guns.
Shadow
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In Halo 2, there is a Covenant hovercraft called the Shadow, which is a transportation vehicle with a Shade turret on top. Though the manual says that they are used to transport troops, in-game, they are only ever seen carrying Ghosts in the level Speed Zone Ahead. They move slightly slower than the warthog, and, though you can see an elite piloting them, it is impossible to pilot them yourself. You can, however, use the shade turret that is on top.
Spectre
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Spectres are small troop transport vehicles that appear to serve a purpose similar to that of the human Warthog. Like the Ghost and Banshee, it hovers. The vehicle also has a Shade turret mounted on top. It was introduced in Halo 2.
Covenant Dropship and Phantom
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The standard Covenant dropship from Halo: Combat Evolved looks similar to a fork. It has a shade turret on the bottom. There are rumors that you can enter the Halo: Combat Evolved dropship. Phantoms are a dropship-like aircraft similar to the human Pelican dropship, which replaced the Halo: Combat Evolved dropship and were introduced in Halo 2 Like the Pelican, they are not player-controllable, nor can they be shot down. They are armed with a trio of Shade cannons which can be destroyed.
Scarab
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The Scarab is a Covenant heavy tank that is basically a large building with four legs supporting it. It is armed with a super-powered plasma cannon, which shoots out of a large eye-like opening in its body. It is a plot device in Halo 2, and while it is encountered in-game both on Earth and (used by Sergeant Major Johnson) on Delta Halo, it is not player-controllable. Its plasma beam is available as an easter egg version of the plasma rifle.
Forerunner Vehicles
Sentinels
Sentinels are oddly angular, floating robots built by the Forerunner to contain the Flood. They do this by using a beam of unknown ammunition to destroy the hosts of the Flood. When the Covenant unleashes the Flood in Halo: Combat Evolved, the Monitor of Installation 04, 343 Guilty Spark, teleports the Master Chief to the Library to retrieve the Index. When Master Chief refuses to activate Halo, Spark and his Sentinels turn against him. Sentinels are, of course, not player-controllable.
In Halo 2, the beam weapon the Sentinels use are available to the player either placed in a level or picked up from Sentinel wreckage.
Enforcers
Also called the Sentinel Major, the Enforcer is a larger, deadlier variant of the Sentinels. Able to sustain more damage and fire both energy projectiles and swarms of multi-missiles, they also have the unique ability to lift enemy vehicles with twin grappling claws and crush them. They also have two sheilds covering the nose of the craft, similar to the Covenant Jackal's. Encountered on Installation 05 (also known as Delta Halo) Enforcers seem to protect the Fortress World's most sensitive areas from intruders.
They are often accompanied by packs of Sentinels.
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