Background: While thinking about how various fictional universes compare against each other, the issue of unclear scale and power kept popping up. A sudden realization came that Halo has a class of weapons with fully locked in energy output. Class 2 covenant weapons are reported to be in the 100-250kw range. So the idea became that each weapon could be taken and used to get an actual measured output of energy, by counting the number of hits until destruction of a large health-pool item.
Method: Spawn a tank, count the number of shots from a ghost till it explodes, take different weapons and count how many shots till it explodes, compare weapon number over ghost number.
Deviations: Halo 2A and Halo 3 used a warthog since most weapons couldn’t kill the tank.
Known Issues: shots to explode are hand counted so there is a very real possibility of error. Not every weapon was tested. Halo 3 magnum cannot kill the warthog.
Results (shots to explode):
Halo 2A:
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Ghost: 36, - magnum: 216, smg: 311, ar: 170, br: 114, - shotgun: 9, sniper: 27, - fixed machinegun: 17, detached machinegun: 22, warthog chaingun: 72, tank chaingun: 60, hornet: 48, and gauss: 2Halo 3:
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Ghost: 64, - smg: 140, ar: 160, br: 78, - shotgun: 10, sniper: 8, - detachable machinegun: 30, warthog chaingun: 48, tank chaingun: 54, hornet: 38, and gauss: 2Halo Reach:
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Ghost: 370, - magnum: 1728, ar: 827, dmr: 175, - shotgun: 60, sniper: 10, grenade (non-emp) 8, - detachable machinegun: 121, warthog chaingun: 113, tank chaingun: 57, gauss: 5, and falcon: 60Halo 4:
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Ghost: 284, - magnum: 328, ar: 736, br: 570, dmr: 182, - shotgun: 46, sniper: 11, saw: 380, rail: 5, - detachable machinegun: 132, warthog chaingun: 213, tank chaingun: 150, gauss: 3, mantis chaingun: 134Halo 5:
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Ghost: 138, - magnum: 534, smg: 753, ar: 602, br: 582, dmr: 99, - shotgun: 32, sniper: 16, grenade (non-emp): 11, saw: 360, rail: 5, - detachable machinegun: 179, warthog chaingun: 167, tank chaingun: 152, gauss: 6, mantis chaingun: 234, wasp chaingun: 417, - gunfighter: 257, tactical magnum: 254, CE magnum: 186, smg kinetic: 440, ar kinetic: 276, br kinetic: 438, dmr kinetic: 95, - lawgiver: 29, blaze: 26, oath: 29, end of the line: 18, arrow of time: 16, nornfang: 10, pro pipe: 10, appetite of destruction: 409, answer: 87, whiplash: 7, arclight: 4, - oni detachable machinegun: 73, sword warthog chaingun: 115, oni gauss: 5, oni mantis chaingun: 204, Conclusion: Based on the numbers, across the games, among the weakest (the halo 5 smg) is 18-46kw of energy per shot. For reference, the M829A3 ‘super sabot’ clocks in at around 12kw. If the games were to be taken as gospel, then the UNSC has managed to create cartridges that exhibit the power of multiple tanks for even the weakest weapons. There are heavy doubts in this approach but it was interesting to get numbers for these games.