A recent ViDoc came from halo with details on the Beta and the Spartan Abilities, and there seems to be some confusion as to what they all do (me and my friends to name a few) So I’m gonna list them and give my best way to describe them, along with how they are meant to appear in a Canonical way.
1. Thruster Pack
If you’ve played 4, you know this Ability, two small retro-rockets give the player a speed boost for a bit to avoid damage or get to an area quick. Now in the Beta, they’ll be more variety in this, not only to speed up but slow yourself down while in the air, allow for sudden stops if you go over the edge or reach an area you couldn’t, which might replace the need for jetpacks.
In halo Canon, Thruster Packs are built into every Mjolnir armor (in the sense of the IVs and in the slight ret-con in Master Chief’s armor in 4) These are built mainly for Spartans to allow go EVA, to maneuver in deep space with ease. in the Beta, we’ve seen the thrusters in other parts of the armor, allowing for sudden stops as mentioned above, armor upgrades seem to have these additional tiny rockers for such situations, perhaps even to replace the jetpack.
2. Ground Pound
As its name suggest, it a Powerful strike down on the hard ground, the purpose of this ability seems to take enemies by surprise and/or take out a small pocket of enemies at once. The ability seems to only take place the moment a Spartan is elevated enough, the Thruster can add to the ability as well for a higher strike. The HUD generates a trajectory target that the player has to aim with like a gun.
For Halo Canon, it could be another tactic taught by the IVs to help take out small clusters of enemies grouped together.
3. Clamber
This is one of the few abilities that doesn’t seem to need a specific button to hit to make it work. This ability seems to be a climbing ability, on the off chance that you miss getting to a platform, this ability lets your spartan reach for the platform and climb over it. best guess this will be the same as the jump button.
no specific reason for this to be Halo canon, the characters, like any other person, should be able to do this.
4. sprint
We all know this ability since Reach
The Spartans can do a fast run for a short amount of time, to get to places faster and to dodge shots. And there have been many players who say it shouldn’t be allowed, but Canonically, this makes sense that the Spartans should be able to run fast, especially in the case of Kelly-087.
But I can see why they complain/whine about it. And there are moments where Sprint is relied too much, so in the 5 Beta, they’ve connected it with your health (which is rechargeable and appears as a secondary bar under the shields) if you sprint and are in low health, it won’t recharge. only time will tell if this stays or not.
5 and 6: Charge and slide
I decide to Join these two together since they are options to chose when Sprinting.
the moment a Spartan reaches top speed, they can do two things: They can either slide to dodge fire, get to cover real quick and/or reach a player for a close up kill, or they can charge at an enemy like a battering ram.
Both cases seem to show the Thruster pack as an aid for these two so Canonically, these abilities are enhanced with the sprint and thrusters as another tactic taught to the Spartan IVs.
And last but not least
7. Smart Scope
Canonically and gaming speaking, this ability has been in halo since day one
hell, its even shown in “The babysitter”
The Spartan is connected to their Gun (through wireless means it seems) and sees through its scope, holographic stats are shown, showing where the bullet will hit and a target’s distance. Now EVERY gun will be linkable and can be scope, but like in classic halo, if you’re hit, you get out of scope, and like classic halo you can still fire from the hip, I.E. no scope, not like other games where it makes you use/hold scope to get good hits
And that’s all the Spartan Abilities and how they work. Hope this was helpful