Camo, Energy Sword, and Beam Rifle to receive weapon tunings in Halo 5’s next update

Halo 5 power-up Active Camo and weapons Energy Sword and Beam Rifle will both receive adjustments in the next Halo 5 update. 

Last week, developer 343 Industries said its goals in improving the sandbox were to “revitalize and re-balance the Halo 5 sandbox to a more desirable state” and to “establish/strengthen unique roles for each weapon and reduce role redundancy.”

In this week’s community update, the team confirmed that the Energy Sword, Active Camo, and Beam Rifle will receive a bit of tuning.

A stronger camo

Active Camouflage, often referred to as Active Camo, has been a power-up in Halo ever since Halo: Combat Evolved. Despite going through multiple phases of effectiveness in battle through each game title, its purpose in combat has remained the same—you use this power-up to engage your opponent in a vulnerable position.

Active Camo can, however, also be used as a distraction, such as in a Strongholds game, where you can distract your opponents by attempting to capture an opposing stronghold. This will often incentivize your opponents to come to your location, forcing an engagement.

Although this power-up hasn’t been the most discussed component in regards to adjustments, some fans have addressed their dissatisfaction with camo at it’s current state.

Although 343 wasn’t very specific when it addressed its desire to buff Active Camo, we can assume that one of the following, or even both, could be changed: The visibility of the player who has camo can be reduced even more when that player is shot at, therefore making it harder to engage with the player who has camo. Or, camo’s lifespan can be increased, allowing the possessor to continue using it for an increased amount of time. Either way, both outcomes would severely increase the value of this power-up, especially on a map like Empire, where there are multiple flanking locations.

Less powerful Energy Sword

The Energy Sword is a popular weapon. It was featured in the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign as an enemy weapon, but wasn’t available as a player pick-up weapon until Halo 2. That is, unless you were like one of those clever players that found a mod on the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved that allowed you to use a sword.

The Energy Sword is a close-range weapon that allows you to lunge at opponents near you and instantly kill them with a single press of your right trigger. This makes the sword an easily overpowered weapon if its lunge range becomes too wide. Topped by the sword’s ability to improve the movement speed of the player wielding it in Halo 5, tunings are necessary to reduce its effectiveness in battle, and 343 wants to make these changes.

Reduced hip-fire effectiveness for the Beam Rifle  

The Beam Rifle was introduced to the Halo universe in Halo 2, as the Convent’s take on the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Sniper Rifle. The Beam Rifle shares a similarity with the Sniper in terms of its long-range ability. The Beam Rifle sets itself apart through its ability to shoot at a faster rate than the Sniper, however. This increase in fire-rate comes at an expense as, unlike the Sniper Rifle, this weapon overheats.

The Beam Rifle will receive a bit of a reduction in its effectiveness when shot from the hip (when not scoped in). This tweak should allow the Beam Rifle to maintain its effectiveness in long-range combat, while providing less of an overpowering advantage to the shooter in close to mid-range combat.

These adjustments are still ideas, and the 343 team states that they could be changed prior to their public testing. 343 claims to have 12 more sandbox items to introduce to us before they hit the testing playlist, which is set to be released soon.

Images via Halo Waypoint