I know I can’t be the only one with this topic poking around in my mind. But why did 343 have to add over 200 Helmets and 200 Armors (400+ both together)? I mean seriously, I have been aiming to get just the standard Fotus Helmet and Fotus Armor (both are under the ultra rare category) and I have a feel I will not be landing anywhere near that armor anytime soon! I missed out on the Fotus Set for Halo 4 cause a code was needed to install it, I didn’t get MCC, but I got Halo 5. And learning that Fotus was added made me absolutely happy. But what mad me mad is that 343 put it behind Gold Packs (I know it’s optional to buy them but I like to earn my Gold Packs) along with 400+ sets of armor! If I had the option to just buy the Fotus Set by itself I would, I have terrible luck with these RNG loot boxes.
The reason I believe that there is so many unlocks is to pad out the req packs so that people are more likely to buy them to get what they want, this makes Microsoft studios happy as they have a constant flow of money which can allow 343 to spend this extra year on development for Halo 6. But that’s just my theory and there’s no evidence behind this 
Just stick to buying Silver packs until you’ve gone through all of the items you can possibly get through those tiers, (Common-Rare), and then start focusing on the Gold packs. Buying the Gold packs early and banking on the RNG working into your favor is a strategy that won’t work, but going through the Req system in this order allows you to sift through the lower ranked items without spending 10,000 Req Points on one pack.
Yeah, Ihope to heck that the same mistake isn’t made again in the next game, getting through the armory in this game was a chore.
> 2533274862813053;4:
> Yeah, Ihope to heck that the same mistake isn’t made again in the next game, getting through the armory in this game was a chore.
From the moment I started to play Halo 5, it took me a solid 8 months to unlock everything. The Silver grind was annoying.
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> The reason I believe that there is so many unlocks is to pad out the req packs so that people are more likely to buy them to get what they want
I think this is exactly right. You’ll have a vanishingly small chance at unlocking the thing you want (and even smaller if you aren’t aware of the silver->gold method) when most of the stuff in the req system is filler garbage such as visors that look practically the same as other visors, armor re-skins, and specific combinations of loadout scopes and attachments.
But as long as that small chance is there, opening a req pack will have a certain amount of excitement, in much the same way as gambling or playing the lottery are exciting, even if you know you most likely won’t win. So it seems pretty obvious that 343 set things up that way so people will be more likely to spend money on packs. The ridiculous amount of armors, which unfortunately includes many sloppy badly-designed ones, is just another consequence of designing Halo 5 around making players want to purchase lootboxes. This is a bad, pernicious thing, in my opinion.
> 2533274949158966;2:
> this makes Microsoft studios happy as they have a constant flow of money which can allow 343 to spend this extra year on development for Halo 6. But that’s just my theory and there’s no evidence behind this
I don’t know why you’re making the assumption that 343 couldn’t spend more time developing Halo 6 if they didn’t have extra revenue from the req system. Either way, I’m sure having that money was nice for them, but that doesn’t make it acceptable for them to make design choices that are detrimental to the quality of their games in order to make players more likely to buy lootboxes.
I’ll still never understand why people are so focused on unlocking a specific armor. Why does it matter so much? Just play and you’ll get it.
its cool that they had a lot of armors and helmets to chose from but maybe not that roundish, ive found many helmets that are round and are big, and not cool looking, but the rest look cool
> 2533274821761464;7:
> I’ll still never understand why people are so focused on unlocking a specific armor. Why does it matter so much? Just play and you’ll get it.
I’m one of those people who cares what my Spartan looks like. It’s difficult to explain it to someone who doesn’t, but I think it’s about identifying with the character you play as. I know there are lots of people who have a “who cares about playing dress up, just give me a gun and let me shoot stuff” kind of attitude, but other people enjoy trying to look good and stylish while they play. This is probably true in any game that has character customization.
> Nate00000000000
> I’m one of those people who cares what my Spartan looks like. It’s difficult to explain it to someone who doesn’t, but I think it’s about identifying with the character you play as. I know there are lots of people who have a “who cares about playing dress up, just give me a gun and let me shoot stuff” kind of attitude, but other people enjoy trying to look good and stylish while they play. This is probably true in any game that has character customization.
I guess you’re right. I really don’t get why anyone should care what they look like. Your enemy sees you for 6 seconds before the battle is over. And even if it lasts longer, they’re not focusing on your armor, they’re focusing on killing you.
I don’t know, it’s always been Red vs. Blue to me, armor customization has always seemed unnecessary.
I got the Fotus armor from the Halo 5 edition Xbox One, however I never really use it because I personally don’t like Fotus. I think most all of the armor in Halo 5 looks stupid, there are a few that look alright, but generally most of the armor in Halo 5 looks dumb in my opinion.
OP asks a great question. Not only are there an unnecessarily large number of armors, many of them are the same but painted differently. In my mind, that’s pretty weak. A couple of them are cool, like Venator variants, but most come off as being lazy. Also, so many ugly armors. I’m sure some of it was to fill out REQ system. Hopefully 343 takes our feedback and does armor unlocking better in Halo 6 (achievement based) and gives us more customization options. Only helmet, armor, and visor? C’mon, man! We should be progressing not regressing!
> 2533274904158628;9:
> > 2533274821761464;7:
> > I’ll still never understand why people are so focused on unlocking a specific armor. Why does it matter so much? Just play and you’ll get it.
>
> I’m one of those people who cares what my Spartan looks like. It’s difficult to explain it to someone who doesn’t, but I think it’s about identifying with the character you play as. I know there are lots of people who have a “who cares about playing dress up, just give me a gun and let me shoot stuff” kind of attitude, but other people enjoy trying to look good and stylish while they play. This is probably true in any game that has character customization.
I agree! What’s the old saying? “When you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you play good.”
> 2533274821761464;10:
> I guess you’re right. I really don’t get why anyone should care what they look like. Your enemy sees you for 6 seconds before the battle is over. And even if it lasts longer, they’re not focusing on your armor, they’re focusing on killing you.
This is a big reason why the old pre-game lobbies were such a great thing. You could have a good look at other players’ armor and stances before the match, which made customization that much more meaningful, at least for people who cared about that sort of thing.
> 2535430935441116;11:
> I think most all of the armor in Halo 5 looks stupid, there are a few that look alright, but generally most of the armor in Halo 5 looks dumb in my opinion.
I agree. It’s a damn shame.
If you’re dead set on getting FOTUS you’ll have to go through the grind and unlock Silver packs first. Really wish you the best of the luck with your goal. I got my favorite set when the Reach pack was first released, so was pretty lucky there. Especially when I learned later that you weren’t guaranteed armor or helmets. Could’ve been stuck with weapons and other things.
Yeah, I’m 99% sure that 343 and microsoft deliberately stagnated the req system with atrocious armour, near-identical weapon variants etc and made all of the popular helmets really rare so that people are more likely to run out of patience for grinding req points and start spending money on gold packs to get the stuff they want. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but it’s still really scummy, annoying and absolutely not ‘player-focused’ by any stretch of the imagination.
There are 238 helmets and 229 body armors in Halo 5 Guardians, and more than half of them are just “variants” to one another
> 2535448706146827;12:
> OP asks a great question. Not only are there an unnecessarily large number of armors, many of them are the same but painted differently. In my mind, that’s pretty weak. A couple of them are cool, like Venator variants, but most come off as being lazy. Also, so many ugly armors. I’m sure some of it was to fill out REQ system. Hopefully 343 takes our feedback and does armor unlocking better in Halo 6 (achievement based) and gives us more customization options. Only helmet, armor, and visor? C’mon, man! We should be progressing not regressing!
It really seems to me like a problem of quality vs quantity. If the Req system wasn’t in Halo 5, I have no doubt that 343 would have seriously trimmed down the amount of armor to something comparable to Reach and H4. It’s also because of the Req system we only got Helmet/Armor customization rather than the Helmet/Chest/Arms/Legs/Shoulders system from previous games. I’m at least 95% sure that some form of the Req system will be in Halo 6 but hopefully 343 recognizes the community feedback regarding this and relegates Req packs for things like armor variants/skins instead of the armor pieces, kind of like the armor attachments in Reach I guess.
I would rather have one variant of each piece of armor and their skins in a submenu…
> 2535468002172366;1:
> I know I can’t be the only one with this topic poking around in my mind. But why did 343 have to add over 200 Helmets and 200 Armors (400+ both together)? I mean seriously, I have been aiming to get just the standard Fotus Helmet and Fotus Armor (both are under the ultra rare category) and I have a feel I will not be landing anywhere near that armor anytime soon! I missed out on the Fotus Set for Halo 4 cause a code was needed to install it, I didn’t get MCC, but I got Halo 5. And learning that Fotus was added made me absolutely happy. But what mad me mad is that 343 put it behind Gold Packs (I know it’s optional to buy them but I like to earn my Gold Packs) along with 400+ sets of armor! If I had the option to just buy the Fotus Set by itself I would, I have terrible luck with these RNG loot boxes.
You answered your own question in a way there, OP. Most of the armors in the game are literal trash and filler meant to keep you playing… or spending. You don’t start to get good stuff until you’ve cleared all the Commons to Rares.
The whole point of the REQ system is to keep you coming back to the game. What happens when you open yet another pack and don’t get that cool item you want? You get frustrated and that increases the likelihood of you saying, “F this,” and dumping cash into the game.
Keep in mind though, this is more than likely Microsoft’s BS. Publishers are usually the ones who like building themed casinos. Most developers simply want to make a living by sharing their creativity with gamers.