Multiplayer advice for new players

Games Other Halo
1

This is general mulitplayer advice for the NEW players that are struggling to improve. There are many good Halo players out there and it can be disheartening. The good news is you can and will improve. It just takes practice and being smart about your play. These tips will give you a general roadmap to getting better.

There are exceptions to everything contained here which I originally wrote for H3 and I’m oversimplifying on others but these will get you started to playing better, making it more fun.

If anybody else has tips for new players please leave them in the comments. :slight_smile:

  1. Watch the previous game film.
    What do you think your favorite football team does after a game? That’s right, they watch and analyze the film to death. You should do the same. If there’s a player who owns everybody else in a match watch the game from their perspective. Watch their patterns of movement on the map and which weapons he or she is using which brings me to…

  2. Weapon choice.
    Be strategic about which weapons you’re carrying. I like to carry both a close range and long range weapon. Switch between each as you transition from space to space depending on where you are. For example: Say on H3 Guardian I have a BR (mid-longish range) and a shotgun(short range). If I’m on the elbow I’ll have the BR out but as I transition to OS spawn or up to S3 I’ll switch to shotgun and then back. Always have out the appropriate weapon for the area you’re in. Which is why you should…

  3. Learn the weapons
    You need to know each weapon’s strength and weakness. The DMR is great for long range but not so good up close and personal. A shotgun is great for close range but useless for anything over five feet. But knowing the weapons is useless unless you…

  4. Learn to aim
    If you’re going head to head with another player the faster you can kill them also means less time for him to hand you the dirt nap.

Watch your films for clues to bad habits. If you had an encounter where you got owned watch it from your perspective and focus on where you’re hitting them (or not). Then watch it again from the opposing players side. See where they’re hitting you and where they missed. You’ll often be surprised to see their shields in shreds where if just one more bullet had hit them you’d be the victor. Also, don’t think you have to be at 10 sensitivity. There are really good players that use 3 or even 2.

Part of aiming is learning to lead your shots. One of the worst habits to overcome is to always be shooting behind someone as they strafe. You need to get out ahead of them and aim for where they’re going to be not where they are. This is still important even with Halo being hitscan. It’s especially important for grenades. Once you’ve started to master this you need to…

  1. Learn the maps
    Know where the weapons are, the power ups and when they’re going to spawn. Knowing the map helps situational awareness and getting into the fight. Even before you’re on the map however, you need to…

  2. Make a decision.
    Know beforehand what you’re going to do. Too many people spawn, freeze for a second before wandering around in a circle overwhelmed by choices. Even before the screen comes up I have the thumbstick pushed forward to move. During the countdown I mentally run through where I’ll go depending on my spawn point. Where I’m going also depends on my…

  3. Situational awareness
    Once you’ve started to master the 1vs1 encounter, situational awareness is the difference between winning and losing. Situational awareness means literally “awareness of situation”. Everyone has tasted the bitter fruit of poor SA. Players surprising or assassinating you from behind. People vulturing your kill and you. You can’t eliminate the -Yoink!- being delivered but you can attenuate it by doing the following.

Always glance down at your radar as you move to track other players. To stop being flanked keep your back to a wall if possible and look around you as you move about the map. Don’t race forward down a hall that’s safe run backwards keeping you eye out for threats. Listen to the intensity of weapon sounds. A rocket launcher around the corner from you sounds a lot different than across the map. This information will help you decide whether to engage or back off. Did you know crouch walking takes you off people’s radar? Use that to your advantage. The opposite is also true. Did you see a blip on your radar that disappeared? They’re more than likely right around the corner with a shottie. In short, situational awareness will help you both stay alive and…

  1. Kill other players.
    Well duh, you’re thinking but bear with me. At it’s simplest you win by killing the most people. One of the ways you do that is to start engaging sooner than later. One of the hardest things for me was to stop racing around to get the perfect weapon/powerup. I found myself wasting time while other players were racking up 3-6 kills. Getting into it entails knowing the maps, knowing the paths players like to take and where they engage. You’re going to get this from watching films (notice a trend here), simple experience and keeping an ear out for gunfire. If you’re next to the perfect weapon/power up by all means grab it but don’t waste time racing halfway across the map when someone else has probably already grabbed it.

This also means making do with whatever weapon you find along the way. This epiphany occurred to me after watching a H3 film of a Guardian FFA I played with a level 50 player. He almost never used the same weapon twice. Hammer, BR, needler it didn’t matter. He picked it up and delivered pure killing action on everyone he engaged. I also learned how to better utilize the map from watching him. So, once you’ve found the other players how are you going to kill them? You’re going to…

  1. Practice.
    Get on a map alone or with a buddy and practice. Practice your grenade trajectories, your jumps, aiming, different load outs. Spend a couple hours in custom games using different weapons on another spartan at various distances and parts of the body. Knowing how many shots you need to kill a player can only help you in a game. One final thing you should always practice is…

  2. Mental toughness.
    This means having a positive mental outlook, overcoming challenges and never giving up. You got lag? Down by twenty points? Get over it. As long as the clock hasn’t run out or the guy on top hit the final score there’s time for another kill. I’ve come from being 17 points down to coming in first. I did it by staying focused and going one kill at a time. However, sometimes you just need to…

11.Walk away.
If you’re throwing your controller and screaming like a small child it’s time to take a break. Get up and walk around. Let those cortisol levels diminish.Hell, go outside. Because while it’s a great game I dearly love it’s still just a game.

I hope these tips have helped you think of new areas to practice. It’s like a puzzle. Sometimes you just need that one piece to advance.

-Eric-

2

Don’t start every match by rushing out into the open.

Play campaign on Legendary with skulls on like Mythic, Tilt and Famine.

Wear a mic and use it. Don’t be shy.

Don’t rely on AA’s, Support and Tactical packages to get you out of a jam. They’re there to enhance your playstyle, not to keep you alive.

It’s a team game. Your chances of survival increase when you work with at least one other person.

Forge is a good place to learn maps and practice with weapons, equipment and vehicles.

Don’t quit. Every second you play enhances your skill.

When you watch films of your previous games, watch how everyone else played on both teams. If you are frequently the low score on your team you might find that it’s not entirely your fault.

Learn to be effective without power weapons. I know that’s a hard one because they hand them out like candy in this game, but the loadout weapons are pretty darn good.

It’s a game. Have fun.

3

Tips for new players:

  1. Turn your TV on.
  2. Face your TV.
  3. Profit?
4

Don’t worry about your k/d, just have fun with it!

5

Be aware and try to gain the advantage early. Aiming is not hard at all unless your use to aiming down the sights in a FPS like call of duty or a TPS like Gears of war . Try to shoot first because you die fast because aiming is not difficult like i stated earlier

6

Don’t be thin skinned, if you get an im after the game saying you suck, it’s probably from a moron anyway. Good players are more understanding.

7

The best advice I can give to a new player is to learn from their mistakes.

Whenever you die, realize how you died. Did you walk into an open space and get gunned down? Take a side route. Did someone kill you while camping with a shotgun? Don’t charge in there again in a blind fury, use your awareness and your grenades.

Don’t just go balls to the wall, think about what you’re going to do. Also, positioning is key.

You won’t become an amazing player over-night, but if every time you make a mistake you learn from it, you will get better.

That’s how I did at least.

8

Find your niche.

Some players do not fair extremely well in purely combative gametypes.

For example, I got my girlfriend into Halo, and while she has a pretty poor K/D ratio, her ability to run a flag or hold objectives is outstanding! There are a lot of times where she plays these objective playlists better than me!

Some people are not good at holding the cross-hair on their target in a 1v1 gun fight. If this explains you, but you often seem to land the first shot first, then your niche might be SWAT!

Try a variety of gametypes, and find one you like best and stick with it. Playing these gametypes with confidence will boost your ability to venture into other gametypes with better results in the future!

9

-Don’t start with the Light Rifle, start with BR or DMR
-Try see if you are a good driver or gunner, you don’t want to start driving if you’re bad at it
-If you can, use a mic, communicate
-Have fun, don’t let anyone tell you you’re bad and dishearten you
-Find an armour ability, weapon and tactical package that support the way you play

10

i heartily agree with OP on using the theater and replays to help you improve. you can take a close look at your gameplay noting where improvments can be made and that of good players in the game to pick up tips.

11

My biggest piece of advice (noting that there is a lot of GREAT advice up top) is to experiment with every element of the gamepossible. Having barely any incentive to master each weapon other than a single set of armor, coupled with how many players seem to spam the most easily used abilities, has made Halo 4 MM feel very frustrating to play at times. Use the opportunity to try out different weapons and abilities. Although the DMR Camo combination does many players right, I find it much more rewarding that I have mastered nearly every weapon in the loadouts with only the BullShot left at under master tier. I literally find myself feeling as if players who sit in the same spot with invisibility and the dmr are playing less than me, trying less than me. They usually are. I end up running the whole map, playing my teams positions from all ranges, and changing up my AA according to whatever is going on. In a game as stale as Halo 4, anything to keep it fresh is really vital, and with as many tools as they gave us, there is a lot you can use to soup up your playstyle.

Some great offensive combinations are:
Assault Rifle type weapons and Thruster
Learn to time your thrust so that the enemy ends up without a shot at you either because you are behind cover or are at a stronger angle. I find the storm rifle is the most effective when combined with the thruster because you can cooldown the rifle during your thrust. Couple this with accurate burst fire and strafing and you will be lethal.

Mid Range Weapons and Jetpack(Or Thruster)
Use your jetpack to get above, around, beside, behind, and even underneath (dropping to positions and then jetting up to surprise). The jetpack allows you to utilize a whole different set of movements, so don’t just rocket straight into the air! Use your advantageous movement to get headshots and to distract other players so your team can clean up kills. Both the BR and Carbine are great with this set. The DMR obviously works, but I prefer a closer range weapon so that i don’t have to get too high into the air.

Long Range Weapons and HardLight I call this an Offensive set because I typically push the objective or enemy position and use the hardlight to get the enemy to waste their ammo as well as make themselves vulnerable to my teams’ fire

Some great defensive combos are:
Long range weapons and Regen *Typically if you are in a long range fight, you are holding down a position with other players or you are pushing with others… unless you’re out in the open and then you’re just -Yoinked!-. Having Regen can make your play more consistent, but can also aid your team and bring focus to a certain position. Hardlight works well with Long range weapons as well

Mid Range Weapons and Promethean *Promethean, having such a short range and giving away your position, is a testy AA. It really works best when you are on a team holding down an area so that you can call out a shot, or alternatively if you are a particularly skilled player and can use it to push against less confident players. In either case, Promethean vision allows you to increase your Situational awareness and spread that to your team.

Short range weapons and thruster/jetpack *Although it may seem counter-intuitive to put a short range weapon in the hands of a jetpacker, if you are able to master the jetpack jump (lightly tapping LB to hop from side to side or augment a jump) you can really break up the momentum of a 1v1 and even prove yourself useful if multiple players are coming at you by being a moving target while focusing fire with your team. It can be a risky set, but worth it if you put in the time to master it.

Of course there are many perks and tactical packages that can help out, but those I believe are best suited towards how you believe you will be playing most of the time. If you are in BTB a lot, you may want to focus on Gunner, Wheelman, AMMO and Mobility vs if you are in smaller gametypes where you are more likely to stay put or move more cautiously, having AA efficiency, resupply, grenadier, sensors, or even shielding. Using the requisition, ordinance priority, or nemesis perks are really not that useful. If you score between 150 and 280 points a game, then the ordinance perks will help you out by providing you with a more easily attainable OD, but if you score above that bracket then you are wasting your slot. Also, you can easily enter forge mode and see what weapons are on what random drop hoppers for any gametype on any map. I do this so that I can keep track of what kind of crap the enemy will be throwing my way as I prepare to carbine them all to hell.

Of course stealth works for any playlist… as does AC, but I feel that that combination really breaks the game, and I advocate it as little as possible. If I wanted to battle people I could barely see who have fun sitting in one position for extended amounts of time I would just plad CoD.

And as stated above, HAVE FUN! I have taken about a week’s break and played FarCry 3 just to get a breather.

12

> Don’t worry about your k/d, just have fun with it!

this, and don’t let anybody call u ‘‘power weapon noob’’ or something like that

if they die many times with ur strategy they are stupid

13

Just use the dmr lol

14

> My biggest piece of advice (noting that there is a lot of GREAT advice up top) is to experiment with every element of the gamepossible. Having barely any incentive to master each weapon other than a single set of armor, coupled with how many players seem to spam the most easily used abilities, has made Halo 4 MM feel very frustrating to play at times. Use the opportunity to try out different weapons and abilities. Although the DMR Camo combination does many players right, I find it much more rewarding that I have mastered nearly every weapon in the loadouts with only the BullShot left at under master tier. I literally find myself feeling as if players who sit in the same spot with invisibility and the dmr are playing less than me, trying less than me. They usually are. I end up running the whole map, playing my teams positions from all ranges, and changing up my AA according to whatever is going on. In a game as stale as Halo 4, anything to keep it fresh is really vital, and with as many tools as they gave us, there is a lot you can use to soup up your playstyle…

Your whole reply was AWESOME! You filled in a gap for my post of different AA/loadout possibilities. Very thoughtfully written.

15

Advice for new players: Play a different game.

16

Stay with your teammates.

17

Or like every other terrible noob

primary- DMR
secondary- boltshot
nades-plasma
aa-jetpack/camo
tac package-grenadier
support-explosives

this right here made Halo 4 really bad

please dont use the above loadout and you will make the game more enjoyable

18

What a great thread. As a new player I must say I totally respect those of you that take the time to offer advice. Well done.

19

> -Don’t start with the Light Rifle, start with BR or DMR

Why? If a newbie can bypass the noob weapon and get up to the LightRifle quickly, it’s 2x more rewarding than the DMR.

-1. Don’t start with the DMR. Start with the BR, and then move to the LR. If you want to, moving back down to the DMR is easy.

-2. Avoid the Carbine until the update in June AND until you can handle the BR.

-3. Precision weapon skill levels required are:

LR
Carbine
BR
DMR

The DMR is OP, so if you are a CoD noob, go for it!

20

Great thread!

What has been said in the OP and by some others in support or addition to, is quite true.It does work!

How do I know?

Halo Reach was my first Halo game.After 14000 Halo Reach MM games I was a KD 0.45 overall and KD 0.43 MM. My highest spree medal was a Killing Spree (had sixty only); had a handful of triple kills; never used power weapons nor vesicles, other than the Ghost; I was a horrible player.

When Halo 4 was launched, I started out much the same. By the time I was SR130, I was a KD 0.57 overall and Slayer 0.61. I was then given the Halo 4 Guide Book and also stated watching videos. If someone had a lot of kills with a particular power weapon, I’d go off and watch what they did. If someone had a lot of kills, I’d go off and watch what they did to get them.

As a result, my overall KD is now positive at 1.26 and Slayer 1.74 (was at a high of 2.01) even so, KD is not important other than for Slayer game types and, IMO, is irrelevant in objective game types; I’m positive 8000 kills. I’ve almost mastered UNSC weapons and doing well at the other two (Covi & Forerunner). I can use all weapons and vehicles, other than the LAAG, competently.

The advice given in OP actually works and does bring results; you will become a better player. I was often laughed at and abused in messages and in voice chat as being the worst or near to worst Inheritor on Halo Reach. That doesn’t happen in Halo 4!

The biggest tip, though, I can give. Believe that you can do it; practice until you get it right and use variety of weapons and load-outs to suite any given situation. Many do not like the saying “adapt to the situation” but, that is what I do and it does bring success. Now success means different things to different people but, I believe I’m successful and that is all that matters.

Best of luck to all new players and those longer term players, like my self, who want to improve. Actually, luck won’t have anything to do with it, as you will discover…you’ll be making it happen!