HR: Beta - What You Need to Know

I've flooded the blog with a ton of content about Reach and there's a ton more coming. But this post will give you the high level overview of everything you need to know to get started.

How to get in: Use your Halo 3: ODST *CAMPAIGN* disc. Will be available "late morning" on Monday, 5/3. I will post here on the blog as soon as its available.

Player models: Spartans and Elites are very different now. The game will decide for you which side you will play on. Elites are faster, have better shields, but are a bigger (easier) target to hit.

Health and shields: Halo 1 (or ODST) style "health" is back for Spartans. After your shields are down, you will take health damage. Shields regenerate, health does not. Health packs are wall mounted and can restore your health, but you must hit a button to activate (can't just walk over it). Elites have regenerating health.

Radar: Enemies below will be a darker red dot. Enemies above will have a shadow behind their dot. Active camo has a radar jammer effect and will create lots of fake red dots.

Melee: In general, works the same as it did before. You can now hold melee to do a super cool assassination when behind a player. This takes time and is not an instant kill, which means you can be killed in the process before your target is dead.

Armor abilities: Brand new in Reach. You will have to choose a loadout, and with it, an armor ability at every spawn. Learn the icons so you know what you're choosing. Spartans have: Active Camo, Armor Lock, Jet Pack, Sprint. Elites have: Active Camo, Jet Pack, Evade.

Weapons: No more dual wielding. Learn the icons so you know what weapons you're choosing with a loadout. The biggest changes to your most common loadouts are the Magnum and DMR. Magnum is now the Halo 1 human pistol that pwns face again. DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) replaces the H3 Battle Rifle (BR), but works very similarly.

Gametypes: Reach introduces several new game types. These will be in the Beta:

• Generator Defense: 3v3 Spartans vs Elites. Spartans have 3 generators to defend. Elites try to destroy them. Generators can be temporarily locked down and made invulnerable.
• Invasion: 6v6 Spartans vs Elites. Spartans have a data core to defend, protected by two layers of defenses. Elites try to shut down both layers of defense and steal the core. Each phase of the game lasts 4 minutes and introduces better weapons and vehicles.
• Headhunter: Team or Free For All. Try to collect skulls and bring them back to your scoring zone. Kill other players to collect their skulls. Hold and score 10 skulls at once to get an instant win.
• Stockpile: Team. Try to have as many flags as possible in your scoring zone at the end of each scoring period. Scoring periods end every 60 seconds.