Warzone in halo 5 Guardians is great fun. It’s also big and very chaotic at times. Warzone isn’t like other games. Normally in games like gears of war, your threats are right in front of you. In Warzone your threats are from a mile away, right up in your face, from below and from above. You could be sprinting across the map just to run into a shotgun wielding spartan. You could be sneaking around the edge of the map and then all of a sudden you have a giant hole in your head thanks to a sniper. You may be on a killing spree and having a great time until a random banshee out of nowhere bombs you from above. It’s not fair at times but hey, that’s Warzone. Now many have talked about some req weapons as rubbish or useless and we at X35 Earthwalker don’t think so at all. Off course there are some req weapons that even we don’t use but we will talk about some of them.

The ‘Needler’ is very underrated. We have hardly seen people use this weapon. X35 Earthwalker said, “The regular Needler is a good gun but the tier 2 ‘hail storm’ is extremely good. It fires faster than normal, with more ammo and the needles track enemies much better. You don’t know how many times I have gotten double and even triple kills with this weapon. There was even a time when I got an overkill on the ‘Spire’ map fighting for control over the spire. You only need a few needles to make them explode and they die fast. I have even got a killing frenzy from using the whole gun and then grabbing another one. You have to be smart though. Don’t just run up to enemies and start spraying, chances are, you will die. You must fire only a small amount of needles for each enemy and change targets fast. If you just run up to one enemy and fire, you will always kill them (unless you miss) but if you run up to two then it can go either way. When it comes to bigger groups… be smart.” 

The ‘Saw’ use to be bad in our opinion and rightfully be ignored by spartans except for the tier 3 ‘the answer’. X35 Earthwalker said, “I never use to like the saw at all. Diamondz L45 and I use to love it in halo 4 but here it is too weak. There were times when I would beat someone using a saw with an ‘Smg’. Like why and how. That isn’t right. Then there was a time where someone with an smg beat me when I had the saw but lately I think the halo 5 update increased it’s power because know it does a great job at destroying shields and applying pressure to vehicles. Just by playing smart and picking my targets carefully, I was able to get killing sprees with the saw. The tier 2 saw ‘appetite of destruction’ is even better. I feel like it does ever so slightly more damage but the extra ammo and clip size does make a difference. When you have that gun do not be afraid to attack light vehicles like ‘wasps’ and ‘banshees’ as the drivers always panic when they receive constant rapid damage. They crash into walls and whatever trying to escape. Never be afraid to use that ammo. By the way, it isn’t a gun that allows you to take on two at once, remember that.”

The ‘Sentinel beam’ has been dissed by almost everyone. No one has anything nice to say about this req weapon except that it is cool because it fires a laser. X35 Earthwalker said, “The Sentinel beam is not that strong at all but it does have one awesome feature that many do not know about. This req is like super effective against the wasp. This makes me so happy as people love to use that thing all the time. When I for the first time used the sentinel laser against a wasp it literally burned up before my eyes. No, it wasn’t a already damaged wasp. It wasn’t smoking or on fire. I am not sure how effective it is versus other vehicles but I believe it’s an anti vehicle type weapon but that doesn’t mean it’s not good against Spartans. When using it on enemy players they tend to panic because of the laser and constant damage. It works pretty much every time. So you literally have to experiment with this weapon.”

The ‘Plasma pistol’ is a powerful weapon that many just seem to avoid using because they most likely believe that another weapon would be better and maybe so but never underestimate this req weapon. X35 Earthwalker said, “The plasma pistol is one of my favourite req weapons because of how good it is and how strategic it is. This weapon especially the tier 3 plasma pistol ‘Void’s tear’ makes everything easier. This finishes enemies so quickly. It is anti-vehicle as it stuns and disables vehicles allowing you to take enemy vehicles. It’s best feature is that you can noob combo enemies. A noob combos is when you use a charged shot to drain a spartans shields and then headshot enemy straight afterwards. This has brought me so many kills before. Matter of fact on the level ‘battle of noctis’ I got so many kills because I would catch many out in the open with noob combo kills. The range of the plasma pistol when using smart link (basically zoom) is ridiculous. You can lock on and shoot enemies from so far away that it’s funny at times. Find the right spot and equip a long range precision weapon and you’ll have a great time.” 

The ‘Gunfighter magnum’ was a cool addition to the load out reqs. The pistol looks different and fires differently. It isn’t the best pistol at all, matter of fact we believe it is the worst load out pistol but once understood and used correctly, it may give you the edge. X35 Earthwalker said, “This pistol does less damage than the regular pistol but it has a much higher rate of fire. This weapon at least gives you more chances to hit that head shot. This gun can actually kill enemies really fast but you have to make sure not to miss any shots though. If all the shots hit, then the enemy drops really fast. It feels like a revolver from an old western movie with a quick draw and reload. Thanks to the high rate of fire the shield of the enemy will fall quite fast meaning it’s good for melee kills. Get sort of close to the enemy and rush them while firing as fast as you can, then when close get your fist into their face. Simple right? At the end of the day you basically just have to practice with this weapon.”

The ‘Energy swords’ have been claimed as useless by many which we say is ridiculous, their reason isn’t good enough. Off course if you run across the middle of the map, in the open, you will get gunned down by snipers, battle rifles, dmr’s and more. Use strategy spartans. X35 Earthwalker said, “The energy swords are excellent reqs and very powerful in the hands of a strategic and patient spartan. Just because you have a sword doesn’t mean you have to use it and run around with it all the time. Play normally for a while and wait for the opportunity. I have had multiple moments where I zoom into an enemy base at the right time and get over kills, kiltrocity and other multi kills. Swords naturally give you a speed boost so abuse that ability. Also by using power up reqs you can change the type of attack. Take things slow with active camo or charge through with speed boosts and a overshield. You could do the same with hammers but swords don’t slow you down as much plus swords have the natural speed boost.”

Off course there are some reqs that we truly believe aren’t worth using like a regular boltok and supressor. Their higher tier versions are much better and have low level requirements to unlock so there is literally no reason to use it. That’s a blog for another time though. Over time we will be uploading more clips of game play by X35 Earthwalker and friends on this website overtime so feel free to check them out to see some action. Pretty much every req has some sort of use and never just write something off because others are saying something about it. Be the one who makes it work. That’s what we do but whatever you do… make sure it’s at least the ‘Earth Walk’!

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Warzone and Warzone assault in Halo 5 Guardians is pretty much the most popular multiplayer mode in the game. So far everyone we know likes it and plays it quite frequently. It’s like big team battle but with much more. Two teams of 12 battle it out on a constantly active battlefield. There are A.I enemies that cause trouble but grant points when defeated. There are 3 locations to capture. A big main one that usually is the center of the match and two smaller ones for red and blue team. Capturing these bases will get your team points and it’s an additional place where you can use your reqs (Requesitions).   

Reqs are the main features of Warzone. There are reqs for your armour (power ups), weapons and vehicles. Each one has to some extent the ability to even things up or turn the tide of a battle once used correctly. The reqs are ranged from common to legendary. The reqs also have levels signifying what level you have to be in order to use them. As you kill enemy spartans, A.I and complete objectives you gain points which will allow you to level up. Starting from req 1 which ends at req 9. Also most req cards have tiers as well with tier 3 cards being more powerful than the lower level tiers. Higher level tiers normally have extra abilities. The efforts of your team will contribute to your level as well. For example if anyone kills a boss then, you get points as well. This all adds up. So keep working together, keep slaying and doing well and you’ll get access to the most powerful reqs fast.

Vehicle reqs are most likely considered the most powerful as first of all, they are vehicles meaning, tougher to kill and unlimited firepower. There are so many vehicles to choose from and the choices only get more difficult as the match continues to change and depending on what your enemy has got on their side. You have fast traveling vehicles like warthogs, ghosts and gungooses. Warthogs have a driver, passenger and a gunner. That’s just a regular warthog, higher tier warthogs have a needler gun and shields while the oni warthog has explosive rounds. Heavy killing machines like tanks just straight up kill everything. Higher tier tanks have stronger armour, faster rate of fire and even an experimental laser firing tank. Flying vehicles have the clear elevation advantage combined with mobility. All flying vehicles are pretty much fast, hit hard and leaves quickly. Banshees swoop in bombs and then runs. Wasps are more like support vehicles for foot soldiers laying down light damage. All vehicles instantly gain all players attention (well they should). Make sure to take them out first.

Weapon reqs range from being completely annoying to down right dangerous. Everything from powerful pistols to rockets to sniper rifles. This means that weapons are the most versatile and can there fore change situations the most. For example if you need to clear out a small base owned by some spartans then a plasma caster is create as it can bounce around corners and explode very well. Higher tier plasma casters like the ‘White scar’ can turn shots into mines making some areas unavailable. Rocket launchers can do the job as well. Higher tier rockets can home in on vehicles, fire multiple shots and more. The sniper rifle can one shot spartans from anywhere as long as it hits the head. Req weapons get even better as their are some mythic reqs which are clearly in a league of it’s own. For example the ‘Nornfang’ is a sniper rifle that instantly kills any spartan it hits, even if you hit the toe, that spartan will die. Tartarus’s gavel is a gravity hammer that release shockwaves with each swing extending the range of devastation. Spank prime is a Rocket launcher is the ‘Spanker prime’ which increases jump height, movement speed and shield strength while equipped. There are more and they are all truly worthy of the name mythic.

Power up reqs are personal upgrades to your armour but are temporary. These are speed boost, over shields, active camo and damage boost. Speed boost increase your movement speed, reload speed and weapon switch speed. Over shields adds an extra layer of shields just like in previous halo games making you harder to kill. Active camo, camouflages your spartan making them near invisible but the fast you move the more visible you become. Damage boost increases the damage of your weapons, melee and vehicles. The scariest part is that each of these can stack to make them more effective, except for active camo and over shields. If you combine three speed boosts, you become super fast. your slide ability is drastically enhanced. You literally become lightning. Damage boost combined will really increase damage to the point where things just kill too fast. So imagine combining certain vehicle and weapon reqs with these armour upgrades. A sniper rifle with damage boost can become like a home made nornfang, able to one shot anyone it hits. An energy sword combined with speed boost makes a lightning fast swordsman. It’s up to you to create new combinations. 

Some reqs are outshined by others. For example there is no need to use a supressor when you could have a plasma pistol to take down shields or a open hand or closed fist bolt shot. They all kill faster than a supressor, even the higher tier one. You don’t A whip lash railgun almost always trumps any other req card in most situations at level 4. Who get a sentinel beam when the blood of suban kills faster and better. A rocket almost always wins. A appetite for destruction saw gun can’t stand up to any of the rockets, even at mid range. Some higher tiers of weapons are not that better at all. For example the hail storm (tier two needler) is better than the tier 3 needler (talon of the lost) in pretty much every way. The hail storm fires faster moving needles at a faster rate which track and home in better than talon of the lost. Most players we have asked can’t even figure out why talon of the lost is the tier 3. Even to this day even X35 Earthwalker doesn’t know why. This is something that needs to be sorted out though. Some req items aren’t that useful at all but that’s just some. We at X35 Earthwalker encourage all gamers to try them all and see what works best for them.

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The halo 5 ‘Monitor’s bounty’ came out on the 8th of December 2016. The big update on halo 5 is so far excellent. ‘343 Industries’ has done a lot of things right with this one indeed. Let’s start with the Warzone updates. The fact that they finally added difficulty modes that we can choose for Warzone firefight makes a big difference. There is now ‘heroic’, ‘legendary’ and the terrifying ‘mythic’ firefight modes. ‘Heroic’ is much easier and allows for casual games in your fight against both covenant and Prometheans alike. ‘Legandary’ is the mode we all know and love. Mythic is the mode that spartans have learnt to fear. It’s basically legendary but they have added some skulls from campaign mode into this, which makes all the difference here. In round one of firefight the skull tough luck is activated which means that all enemies will continually dodge grenades and don’t run away. Round two has tough luck and black eye which means that your shields never recharge until you melee an enemy (good luck doing that on legendary). Round three has tough luck, black eye and thunderstorm which means that all enemies have been upgraded. For example casual blue elites get promoted to red or above elites which have more shields and at times better weapons. Round four has the previous skulls plus catch which means that the enemies are now grenade happy, constantly using grenades. Round 5 has all the previous skulls plus mythic which increases the health of all the enemies, including the bosses!

We must say though that mythic firefight is really hard and creates a good challenge. Two team mates and I had tanks (one of them was a Hannibal scorpion) and were hitting the grunt mech boss hard and it was doing very little. Most likely because of the mythic skull. X35 Earthwalkers first attempt at this was a fail.

We was also very glad to see the grenade launcher from halo reach show up to warzone. This weapon makes handling those vehicles easier as when you hold the trigger and then let go, it becomes an emp grenade disabling all vehicles it hits. This weapon is also great for harassing enemy bases as you can bounce shots around corners to hit hiding Spartans who think they can recharge their shields. Not gonna happen. The second tier grenade launcher aka ‘Pro pipe’ is really cool and it adds more skill to the weapon. It has an enhanced bounce trajectory. Basically the grenade bounces towards enemies after hitting a wall or the ground. The sentinel beam from halo 3 is something I wanted for a long time in Warzone and it’s finally here, dishing out laser burns and death. I hope they bring a level 2 and 3 tier sentinel beam as the current one just makes enemies panic (as it should).

There is now also the Oni and Hannibal wasps (tier 2 & 3 wasp vehicles) which so far the most popular things that I see in the skies of Warzone matches. They aren’t too tough and just add more variety to the game. The designs look very nice, easy to identify them and there upgraded weapons look deadly enough. We like them, especially destroying them. We haven’t tried the anti-air wraith yet but seen it in action a bit. I hope the fuel rod shots home in on air. It looks vicious though and truly hope that it can clear the skies.

The update also brought in character voices like the monitor, grunt and buck from halo Odst. Basically when you have spartan Palmer doing announcements like a base has been captured or a boss appear, you can unlock and choose what voice you want. It’s a nice addition and idea (personally I just want the monitor voice).

They split up the game modes in arena into two groups: social and ranked. This makes things better, especially for newer players. Both have different types of game modes. So go take a look.

I must say though that even with all these added features and improvements they forgot to make the one thing that is truly needed.  A feature that allows us to sell multiple req cards at once instead of one by one which gets annoying as it is long. Please can this get changed.

Overall we are happy with this big update and want to see more in time. Keep up the good work 343 Industries, you are doing a great job. For more information check out the link below:

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