343's Updated Master Chief Armor in REQs/Achieves

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I do not often resort to screaming into the void alongside my fellow humans, but I feel it is worth doing so to revisit a topic that, I believe, has yet to be fully explained or understood: the absence of 343’s updated version of the standard-issue (yes, standard-issue) Spartan armor that The Master Chief wears in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians.

As as far as I can tell, the strongest argument and explanation made in favor of its absence is that, somehow, it is a unique iteration of Spartan armor updated by Cortana while The Master Chief was in cryogenic stasis aboard the damaged frigate, Forward Unto Dawn, and that allowing players to emulate him would cheapen his iconic appearance and his legacy, as opposed strengthening them.

However, as I understand the events surrounding The Master Chief from playing only the games and watching the movie, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, these statements are counter-indicated by the lore therein. We can see in the opening cinematic to the game, Halo 4, during Dr. Halsey’s interrogation that it seemed to be 343’s intention to retcon (I hope I am using the turn of phrase correctly) this new appearance to be the original Mark VI GEN 1 iteration, as opposed to the appearance during Halo 2 and 3, since we see several Spartans wearing it during, that to which I hope I am not mistaken in referring, the Covenant invasion of Earth during the Human-Covenant War. This being the case, The Master Chief is certainly not the only Spartan to be equipped with it’s iconic appearance and I am led to believe, as stated, that this armor, with the exception of the scarring, is not unique nor updated by Cortana, further supported by the fact that Cortana only mentions having updated the suit’s firmware during cryogenic stasis, a much more reasonable feat for a cybernetic entity than having altered anything physically without disturbing stasis, and without mention to any further armor modifications.

Now, in regard to the cheapening of his legacy to allow players to emulate his updated iconic appearance, it feels as though a certain aspect of his greatness is overlooked when making such a statement: The Master Chief is far, far more than a suit of armor. It is not the armor that makes the man, but the man who makes the armor. To say that The Master Chief is nothing more than a fancy suit of armor that, should anyone else be allowed to wear, would make anyone great is far more cheapening of his legacy than to say that there is absolutely nothing special, whatsoever, about his armor and that this individual has become of thing of legend for doing the impossible with what is actually available to any and every Spartan. That, in my opinion, is the nature of his legacy and we should, by no means, be restricted from being able to sport the same appearance as tribute to the man behind the mask.

If you support my statements and agree that wearing Centurian Armor with the Mark VI Helmet is a poor facsimile for this wonderful armor set (take a good hard look at the differences), let us find a way to show 343 that it should be added to the customization options. Also, if there is anything about which I have been mistaken (hopefully about not realizing it has already been stated that it will be arriving in a future expansion >.<), please do clarify my confusion for me. All constructive comments are welcome :D.

2

Great post! You bring up nothing but good points and I hope that 343 can see this light at some point.

3

I guess I’m in the minority, but I prefer the classic Mark VI we have in multiplayer compared to the Chief’s.

I think the only reason people want it so bad is because you can’t actually get it. If it was in the REQ pool with the rest of Blue Team, everyone would be more “eh” about it.

4

The Halo 4 intro reused assets, In canon Chiefs armour is unique.

5

It should be a reward for players who have finished halo 5 solo legendary

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> 2533274844984484;4:
> The Halo 4 intro reused assets, In canon Chiefs armour is unique.

I have heard that canon outside of the game mentions something to that effect. However, as I stated, Cortana admitted to having updated his armor’s firmware in Halo 4 which would still make Master Chief’s armor unique, simply without any regard to the physical appearance, preserving cannon and 343’s intro unless canon otherwise states how she made his armor’s appearance unique. What does the canon say, specifically (a quote or passage would be helpful), regarding the nature of his armor’s uniqueness that differs from the game and why would 343 reuse assets in a manner that went against canon if canon mattered at all in the games? I’m trying to reconcile the differences between the game and canon so that it doesn’t look like everyone is just saying 343i is lazy and paid no attention to coherence, leaving the rest of us with plenty of reason to get to look like a Spartan that, from day one, has seemed to only ever appear in what looked like standard issue equipment.

Although I prefer my version of events that maintain the intro to Halo 4 as not being incoherent and the following will just be for the sake of rebuttal, I have even read a suitable counter to the canonical argument of his armor being unique, particularly in Halo 5, in that it isn’t damaged at the beginning of Halo 5, even though we see the damaged armor being removed at the end of Halo 4. Had it been unique for Halo 4, would it still not be a viable permutation for other Spartans after Cortana’s changes would have been reversed engineered enough for it to be repaired? There just doesn’t seem to be any legitimate reason to maintain that The Master Chief needs to appear any more unique than by the level of his skill, not his armor, especially in Halo 5.

Thank you for the responses, thus far. Further responses would still be appreciated ^_^.

7

The way I see it is that we’ve been able to wear all his previous armor to date so far stop hiding behind canon and lore reasons and just let us wear what we want. Make it the legendary campaign unlock or something.

Seriously this is the problem with making MP canon. They lose out on the ability to do things that are really fun and clever because “only the chief can have this armor” and “elites can’t have Spartan abilities”

It’s been really old for a really long time now.

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> 2533274844984484;4:
> The Halo 4 intro reused assets, In canon Chiefs armour is unique.

Yea because of nanobots ex-machina.

9

sigh all this time and resources spent on useless armor and helmets. I think it would have been better spent on a better UI.
Do I notice or care about what armor/helmet you’re wearing while playing a match? No.

10

I want chief’s armor as well, but I also want to correct you. The opening of Halo 4 was not canon, but was simply a video meant for new players to grasp what happened without reading book or anything else. In reality if any of the stuff from the opening happened the Spartans, elites, marines, and everything else would look like classic versions of the models.

11

Even stranger is that Chief’s armor has been what we had to use from the very beginning in Multiplayer in each game pre-343i.

Why his armor has been locked from us is quite beyond me. I understand it but I don’t get it, you know?

12

Yeah totally agree OP, really want chief’s armour so bad. However another alternative is that the Centurion armour (Fred’s) is fairly close in terms of design so I’m rocking that currently

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> 2533274831961512;8:
> > 2533274844984484;4:
> > The Halo 4 intro reused assets, In canon Chiefs armour is unique.
>
>
> Yea because of nanobots ex-machina.

What if that was actually a flashback to when Chief was on the battlefield. Given the conversation line that was going on it is possible that is what really was going on there.

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CANON IS that Master Chief was issued A NEW armor in Halo Escalation.
The armor he is wearing is GEN2 MARK VI MOD - same looking armor but truly GEN2.

Also, opening of Halo 4 was just to give players back story. They didn’t make Mark IV models yet, so it was just generic Chief’s armor. Nothing more.

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trust me, i really want Chief’s armor as a Recon 2.0 between both mcc and h5. but some of the far more difficult achievements from campaigns, like solo. tims. score and the sub 3 hour. ALL need to be done, and 3 lasos of the 5 from mcc. super super difficult pretty much, but totally doable. and a time commitment, you have to earn it! not be given it

should not be allowed as an rng req armor in my opinion. that way it will retain that iconic like stature it has, but ANYONE is potentially allowed to unlock it with either patience, or some help and grinding!

16

I don’t know exactly where but 343 said that the Spartans all wearing it in the prologue is all retconned. 343 just didn’t want to make 2 separate pieces of armor for the prologue (the mk.v and the mk.vi) as making it would be a waste for such short footage of either one. So in the one wear he gets cortana and was fighting alongside the other Spartans was mk.v and the one where he fights the chieftain is the mk.vi one( although in game it isn’t canonicaly speaking it is)The one he wears in halo 4 was changed by cortana. She didn’t want to remove the scar because it would just be a waste of resources for such a small thing. And the one he has in h5 is a new set that he got from the unsc. The reason that nobody has it was because it was specially made for him just like jun had his original armor remade to a gen 2 version just for him. (although the UNSC saw how great it was and provided some Spartans to have a set too).

17

I can’t remember but in one of the books, (one of the earlier books written by Joseph Staten) it explains that mjolnir armors have some sort of ability to rebuild itself over time if damaged, or requested, like in the firmware. It really bugs me that I can’t figure out which book it is now, and what exactly it states.

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> 2533274923200414;16:
> I don’t know exactly where but 343 said that the Spartans all wearing it in the prologue is all retconned. 343 just didn’t want to make 2 separate pieces of armor for the prologue (the mk.v and the mk.vi) as making it would be a waste for such short footage of either one. So in the one wear he gets cortana and was fighting alongside the other Spartans was mk.v and the one where he fights the chieftain is the mk.vi one( although in game it isn’t canonicaly speaking it is)The one he wears in halo 4 was changed by cortana. She didn’t want to remove the scar because it would just be a waste of resources for such a small thing. And the one he has in h5 is a new set that he got from the unsc. The reason that nobody has it was because it was specially made for him just like jun had his original armor remade to a gen 2 version just for him. (although the UNSC saw how great it was and provided some Spartans to have a set too).

Mark IV you mean.
The cutscene was all about Insurrection and mostly the beginning and during the Human-Covenant war.

It was all Mark IV’s time as it was issued since 2525.
Mark V was in 2551 and was quickly replaced by Mark VI in 2552.

Aaaand Mark VI was also quickly replaced by GEN2 in 2553 with the Spartan-IV program and creation of Spartan branch.

//meaning Mark IV was used for almost the whole time, Mark V and VI were issued only at the end of the war.

19

There’s too many Marks in the Halo Universe!

See what I did there ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)?

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> 2535460810182211;19:
> There’s too many Marks in the Halo Universe!
> See what I did there ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)?

Or rather in the REQ system?