As far as I can see, Tartarus is a half-naked ape with barely any armour to generate an invincibility field unlike the Chieftains we see in Halo 3. So canonically where does it come from? Does he somehow extend the effect of his hammer to envelope his entire body?
Some variant of the invincibility equipment item we see in the Halo 3 and ODST campaigns? Sounds like the most reasonable explanation for the condition if you ask me.
It’s simply Overshield on steroids.
But seriously, Brute Chieftain shields have always been extremely tough to break. In Contact Harvest, the combined fire of multiple XBR55s and MA5Bs didn’t even come close to draining it.
This might be a case of attempting to reconcile game lore with extended lore. H2 wanted to have a cool boss fight, so the devs created a mechanic where Tartarus had this impenetrable shield surrounding his body that required a beam rifle to take down temporarily. Then in H3, this shielding became an equipment item that even the player could use. However in H3, beam rifles had no effect. The equipment just had a time limit before it ran out.
My point is that it’s important to remember that game mechanics are meant to be fun, so the Rule of Cool will usually beat what makes sense in the larger context of the extended universe. It’s best to not try too hard to reconcile the two.
> 2535435902217648;4:
> This might be a case of attempting to reconcile game lore with extended lore. H2 wanted to have a cool boss fight, so the devs created a mechanic where Tartarus had this impenetrable shield surrounding his body that required a beam rifle to take down temporarily. Then in H3, this shielding became an equipment item that even the player could use. However in H3, beam rifles had no effect. The equipment just had a time limit before it ran out.
>
> My point is that it’s important to remember that game mechanics are meant to be fun, so the Rule of Cool will usually beat what makes sense in the larger context of the extended universe. It’s best to not try too hard to reconcile the two.
Maybe so. I kinda like the idea of Tartarus expanding the power of his gravity hammer 
I don’t know if an armour is needed or not in lore, maybe it’s enough to just have a shield generator somewhere on your body and it will generate a shield around you. Purely speculations, I have no clue.
> 2533274809226598;1:
> As far as I can see, Tartarus is a half-naked ape with barely any armour to generate an invincibility field unlike the Chieftains we see in Halo 3. So canonically where does it come from? Does he somehow extend the effect of his hammer to envelope his entire body?
There are a few people I see quite often, and you are one of them. I think it is more that h2 wanted a cool boss fight.
I would guess that the shield got added for gameplay purposes in order to make the boss fight into something different than just shooting a space monkey until he dies. However, I’m not impressed with any of the Halo 2 boss fights as they are split into multiple rounds where you cannot harm the boss between any of the rounds.
> 2535469120778295;8:
> I would guess that the shield got added for gameplay purposes in order to make the boss fight into something different than just shooting a space monkey until he dies. However, I’m not impressed with any of the Halo 2 boss fights as they are split into multiple rounds where you cannot harm the boss between any of the rounds.
You know I hadn’t thought of that until you said it. With Tartarus you can’t hurt him when his shield is up, so that kinda counts as the time in between rounds. With Regret, you get booted off his anti-gravity chair a few times before he finally kicks the bucket, so those can be considered rounds as well.
However I will say that the Heretic boss fight is one of the better boss fights in all of Halo. One could argue it’s the best one. Excellent arena to fight in, with moving parts and plenty of open spaces with cover strewn about. Fun mechanic with having to deal with murderous holograms that can actually deal damage to you. And then once you finally take out the main guy, you’re good to go. It felt challenging but not over-the-top ridiculous, which is strange considering H2’s campaign balancing made everything else feel over-the-top ridiculous.
> 2535435902217648;9:
> > 2535469120778295;8:
> > I would guess that the shield got added for gameplay purposes in order to make the boss fight into something different than just shooting a space monkey until he dies. However, I’m not impressed with any of the Halo 2 boss fights as they are split into multiple rounds where you cannot harm the boss between any of the rounds.
>
> You know I hadn’t thought of that until you said it. With Tartarus you can’t hurt him when his shield is up, so that kinda counts as the time in between rounds. With Regret, you get booted off his anti-gravity chair a few times before he finally kicks the bucket, so those can be considered rounds as well.
>
> However I will say that the Heretic boss fight is one of the better boss fights in all of Halo. One could argue it’s the best one. Excellent arena to fight in, with moving parts and plenty of open spaces with cover strewn about. Fun mechanic with having to deal with murderous holograms that can actually deal damage to you. And then once you finally take out the main guy, you’re good to go. It felt challenging but not over-the-top ridiculous, which is strange considering H2’s campaign balancing made everything else feel over-the-top ridiculous.
There Heretic leader boss fight is also split into multiple round on Legendary and Heroic. On Legendary, the fight is split into 4 different rounds and on Heroic, it’s 2 different rounds. At the downtimes between each round, the boss is completely immune to damage and he will respawn the Holograms when a new round starts.
> 2533274809226598;1:
> As far as I can see, Tartarus is a half-naked ape with barely any armour to generate an invincibility field unlike the Chieftains we see in Halo 3. So canonically where does it come from? Does he somehow extend the effect of his hammer to envelope his entire body?
Probably has a shield generator in his sash or as a result of the extremely powerful gravitational abilities of the Fist of Rukt. Even compared to other Gravity Hammers the Fist of Rukt is incredibly unique in design and operation.
> 2533274947805189;6:
> I don’t know if an armour is needed or not in lore, maybe it’s enough to just have a shield generator somewhere on your body and it will generate a shield around you. Purely speculations, I have no clue.
Generally armor is used in order to protect the shield generator itself but its probably not a requirement.
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> 2533274809226598;1:
> As far as I can see, Tartarus is a half-naked ape with barely any armour to generate an invincibility field unlike the Chieftains we see in Halo 3. So canonically where does it come from?
He’s probably hiding it under that skull on his shoulder
Maybe it’s a reusable but more gassy form of the halo 3 invincibility powerup? (In Halo 3 if you kill a cheiftan before it pops its invincibility you can pick it up and it behaves like the cheiftan’s invincibility.)