Halo The Master Chief Collection: Halo Reach Anti-Tank Guide

This is a comprehensive guide on the basics of fighting vehicles in Halo Reach. This is going to be assuming two things:

• One: You are playing the Halo: Reach Invasion gamemode, (Typically in the competitive tab) but most of these apply to normal Halo Reach as well.
• Two: You have absolutely NO idea what you’re doing.

Getting that out of the way, this is the comprehensive guide to destroying vehicles (And ensuring yours stay alive.)

Halo The Master Chief Collection: Halo Reach Anti-Tank Guide

UNSC Vehicles

UNSC Vehicles are big, boxy war-machines that have a reliance on group effort, The one exception being the Scorpion.

Going from left to right for this one, I’ll be giving every vehicle a name, and telling how they function and the best way to use them.

1: The Mongoose.
A rapid mobility, four-wheeled buggy with two seats. A driver, and a passenger who’s a gunner.
Lore-wise, it’s meant for recon. Game-wise, it’s used either for harassment or transport. It’s good for getting close to other vehicles and hi-jacking them, (Or straight-up stealing them). Lacks much combat utility.

2: The Warthog. (Chaingun, Rockets, and Gauss.)
The Warthog is a three seat vehicle. One driver, A passenger, and a Gunner. The gunner has 360 degree rotation, and either has a Chaingun, Rocket Pods, or a Gauss Cannon. The Chaingun is hitscan, high-firerate, and high damage. If you’ve got a skilled driver, you can easily take on almost any vehicle in the game with the Chaingun.

The Rocket Pods are useful versus aircraft, and can lock-on to air vehicles for excellent harassment and damage (Assuming they land their shots). Fast fire-rate however on the rockets means you can easily saturate enemies with the stuff.

The Gauss Cannon however combines the strength of both the chaingun and the rockets. Absurdly high damage, Hitscan, and essentially armor piercing, the Gauss-Hog one shots players, and will shred any vehicle, even tanks aren’t safe from the monster of the Gauss Hog.

3: The Scorpion.
The big tank of the UNSC. It’s a heavily armored monster that can one shot all small vehicles, including Aircraft, but will take two or three shots versus another tank. A well aimed scorpion shot can instantly destroy the turret of an opposing tank, whether it’s a Wraith or a Scorpion.

4: The Falcon.
Essentially a flying Warthog with two chaingun turrets. The Falcon shreds enemy players and flying vehicles, and if you’re skilled enough you can terrorize both the Scorpion and the Wraith. The Banshee is your biggest threat, but also your biggest prey. It’s mostly a skill matchup between a Falcon and a Banshee.

Covenant Vehicles

Covenant Vehicles are fast, agile hovercraft. It throws “Team” out the window and prioritizes the individual. To exchange, they’re generally weaker, and have projectile weapons instead of hitscan.
Once again, goes from left to right.

1: The Ghost.
The Covenant equal to the Mongoose, the Ghost is an agile vehicle that’s good for harassment and anti-infantry utility. It’s got one seat, the driver is both the gunner, having access to a double plasma cannon. It’s okay, but it’s definitely not your first choice for anti-vehicle combat.

2: The Revenant.
The Revenant is an okay vehicle. It has a plasma mortar that the Driver controls, while the passenger simply shoots enemies with whatever gun he has at the time. It’s got a booster ability, and has decent mobility, but compared to the Warthog it falls off pretty hard. The Revenant’s plasma mortar has some crazy concussion effect though, so you can flip stuff pretty hard.

3: The Wraith.
The Covenant’s tank. Agile, has a short booster for ramming people or other vehicles, and if in proper hands can be almost invincible. Due to its main gun being a plasma mortar, it struggles versus fast-moving targets because it isn’t hitscan, but dear god it shreds anything that isn’t fast enough to get out of the way of the shot. Huge AOE and extreme damage, but it has a second seat where someone can get on a fast-firing plasma cannon that does good damage and is good for peppering shields. A well aimed shot can disable an enemy tank’s cannon.

4: The Banshee.
The mainline aircraft of the Covenant. It has two weapons, twin plasma cannons (Like the Ghost, but with a faster fire-rate). And a Fuel-Rod Bomb. You can only use one of the weapons at a time, and have to switch to the other to use it. It’s a monster versus most vehicles, and in proper hands can wipe a whole team off the map. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

UNSC Infantry Weapons (For fighting vehicles)

The UNSC (Or Humans, Spartans, etc.) have access to (mostly) hitscan bullet weapons that do extra damage versus health, reduced damage versus shields, and also do good damage versus vehicles, thanks to the hitscan bullets or high-powered explosives.

The weapons will be listed in order of most effective against vehicles from top to bottom, with some having caveats of their own.

1: The DMR.
Your standard precision weapon, semi-automatic and can instantly kill any unshielded opponent with a single headshot. It’s also good en-masse against most vehicles. To put it simply, if your team is concentrating fire on enemy vehicles with the DMR, you’ll be able to chip it down. It works best against light vehicles, aka the Ghost, the Revenant, Banshees, Falcons, Warthogs and the Mongoose.

2: The Grenade Launcher.
An explosive weapon that has two distinct “Grenade” types that functions in a somewhat odd way. When firing the GL, holding the trigger delays the explosion until you release the trigger, but it also turns the grenade into an EMP. This is your anti-tank method (Or anti-vehicle really). If you’re good with aiming, you can consistently and rapidly disable enemy vehicles of any size and type while also damaging the pilot. If you’re lucky, you can even kill the pilot and take his vehicle instead. A smart strategy to use against vehicles, (Especially over-confident banshee pilots) is to close-quarters EMP the vehicle, then hijack it. Or send it hurdling into the abyss.

3: The Rocket Launcher.
Another explosive weapon that does high damage versus both players and vehicles. It can hard-frag almost any player on the ground, and can one-shot or two shot most vehicles. It has a lock-on feature for aircraft effective versus the Falcon, but less reliable versus the Banshee. Everything else is dumb-fire (Meaning no lock on.) Aim well, get to medium-range, or ambush enemy vehicles from, well, anywhere they can’t reach. Two clean shots will instantly kill most tanks, if you’re fortunate. If it doesn’t die, it’ll be severely damaged enough for a grenade or two to finish it off.

4: The Sniper Rifle.
A semi-automatic sniper rifle that, in the halo universe, is basically a friggen anti-tank rifle (With a matching caliber of the Soviet PTRD AT rifle, but that’s besides the point). You have eight rounds in reserve, with four rounds loaded, and thus have 3 magazines. The Sniper will 2 shot players with bodyshots, 1 shot players with headshots, and can kill ANYONE in ANY vehicle. Ghosts, Warthogs, Banshees, Even tanks can’t absorb the penetration power of the Sniper. You don’t get much explosive power, if none at all, but you absolutely can kill any vehicle, from any range, from any height, with no falloff and no spread, you can shut down anyone harassing your team.

5: The Spartan Laser.
The be-all end-all of anti-vehicle warfare. Four shots, short wind-up time, can instantly kill anything smaller than a Wraith or Scorpion, Even aircraft aren’t safe from the Spartan Laser, and if you use the Spartan Laser properly, you can eviscerate the main weapon of a tank or wraith, rendering it almost totally useless while NOT destroying it, an even bigger spit in the face than just blowing it up!

Covenant Infantry Weapons (Against Vehicles)

The Covenant, (Or the Aliens, or the Elites, or the Splitjaws, or the Splitlips, or the Lizards, Or the-)
Okay, okay, you get it. The Covenant weapons are projectile-based plasma weaponry or radioactive needles. You’ll notice that the Covenant weapons aren’t hitscan, and typically the Covenant doesn’t have access to many powerful anti-vehicle options that are fully anti-air, meaning that you’re only going to have two good options for actually dealing with any airborn threats. The rest of their arsenal is pretty good versus ground vehicles, but lacks the overall speed or tracking capability. Once again, I’m going to be listing these weapons in order of general effectiveness, with more caveats than the UNSC weapons, and from Top to Bottom.

1: The Plasma Pistol.
A starter secondary for most classes in Invasion, the Plasma Pistol is a well-rounded semi automatic weapon that does extra damage versus shields due to the plasma it shoots. It has an alternative fire, where one can charge up a powerful EMP blast that instantly knocks out all shields of a player, or in this case, disables a vehicle for a few crucial seconds. It’s not good for raw damage against vehicles, but the EMP function will let you land a grenade or two on any hostile target.

2: The Concussion Rifle.
Featuring no built-in EMP function, the Concussion Rifle works best against light vehicles or aircraft not yet piloted for the fact that it sends them flying around. Flipping over most vehicles is always a good way to kill the crew, as it forces the driver out of the vehicle (and anyone he may be carrying). Very situational, but at least if you get attacked you can spam them with the Concussion Rifle’s infamously terrifying damage output.

3: The Fuel Rod Cannon.
The Covenant’s main rocket launcher, It’s got five shots in its mag, and has two spare magazines. Less overall damage than the UNSC one, but it has much more ammo and can spam vehicles in chokepoints with more room for error. Kills vehicles typically in a single magazine, most small vehicles die in a few hits, but the Fuel Rod is most effective against slow moving targets like tanks or people.

4: The Focus Rifle.
The alien sniper rifle, except it’s not really a sniper rifle and more of a rapid fire flashbang laser. Surprisingly, while it’s not the best versus people, it does surprisingly well versus air-based targets and vehicles. Use the Focus Rifle on the enemy Falcon or Banshee if they have one.

5: The Plasma Launcher.
The Plasma Launcher is like firing four homing Plasma Grenades. They move slower, but hit significantly harder and can lock-on to people and vehicles alike. It’s not the best versus the Banshee, but it does excellently versus tanks and the Falcon. Similar to the Spartan Laser, a well aimed burst of grenades can destroy the turret of the Scorpion, (But not the Wraith, funny enough.) assuming you can bypass the Lock-On.