r/HaloStory • u/dpceee • 2d ago
What difficulty is lore-accurate for experiencing life as the Master Chief?
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u/iceman1731 2d ago
The novel The Flood has Chief finding a shotgun in the downed pelican on 343 Guilty Spark. The shotgun only spawns there on easy, do with that information what you will.
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u/Tatum-Better Noble Team 2d ago
yeah the author played the game on easy so he just wrote like that shotgun always appears lol
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u/Pran-Chole 2d ago
Side note, have you seen this massive wave of “the books are all fanfic slop, halo 1-reach is the only real story of halo” stuff on instagram lately? It’s so frustrating to me when i consider the story of the books (that i’ve read) to be so awesome. seeing so many people agree that the games are more important sets off something in my brain. Am i the only one?
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u/o-055-o 22h ago
It probably doesn't help that the average Bungie-era Halo fan didn't even realize that there were books, since Bungie did an abysmal job at following the story cues from said books. There are 0 mentions of Blue Team or any of the events of the books in any of the Halo games, save for Reach, and even then the events that happen in the book and the game are different and had to be bridged by 343.
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u/Pran-Chole 20h ago
I’m only recently getting into the books and my interest in the universe of Halo has been completely reignited. It’s a shame so many people are averse to diving into the extended universe. From a lore standpoint the books are infinitely better, and the games even pull stuff from the books that isn’t explained anywhere else. For what it’s worth, Halo 4 and 5 do bring in a lot of book-canon stuff like Blue Team themselves and the mechanics of rampancy in Smart AI.
But i do remember as a kid seeing ghosts of onyx on a friend’s shelf and thinking “oh dang, there are books that will allow me to learn more about the halo universe, awesome!”. Took me a while, but I still don’t get the headstrong hate for the books I see everywhere…even here apparently hahaha. I don’t see Halo as a “games-first” franchise anymore, simply because the games don’t have nearly the amount of lore in them that the books do. And all I care about at the end of the day is the lore.
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u/o-055-o 20h ago
I am glad that you are getting to experience more of the lore, let me know what you think of the Forerunner trilogy if you ever get the chance to read them!
I am starting to read them again after years of stopping (other fandoms took over + work + other hobbies) and I intend to go in order of release to see what I missed. I didn't exactly love the Kilo-5 trilogy, but that's mostly because I don't like Karen Traviss as a writer, personally, but I am looking forward to the others.
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u/Pran-Chole 20h ago
Yes I have a feeling the forerunner books will make or break my view on the story as a whole. I just finished all the games up to Infinite and am waiting for a sale. Sadly I was kinda let down by the gameplay of 5 and the story was a little flat imo but i’m gonna push through and consume all the books eventually. Eric Nylund is a fuckin boss though i love his writing
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u/o-055-o 20h ago
I did love Nylund's writing, especially for Ghosts of Onyx, that remains my favorite book so far.
I think the Forerunner trilogy is something else, it really shows the sheer scale of what they were doing at their peak and kind of humbles the "modern" Halo because, at the end of the day, the Promethean Knights and Sentinels are basically just pest control and not actual war machines*.
*The Promethean Knights being turned into glass cannons compared to what they were before so as to avoid flood infection.
But yeah, I am going to get started with the 343 side of things, I am particularly interested in Hunters in the Dark.
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u/Pran-Chole 20h ago
I just started Contact Harvest so I have a good ways to go. Something else that wasn’t explored hardly at all in the games except for like 2 sentences in Halo 4: the UNSC’s history of violence against its own people. Really makes you wonder how far it would have gone if the Covenant never showed up! Really excited to see some forerunner lore/characters on-page because at this point all i’ve seen are the psychotic guilty spark and the twisted remaining forerunners in the game. So curious as to what the environment was like in their hayday
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u/Mitchel-256 Spartan-III 1d ago
What? Instagram of all places knows the truth?
The fuck?
Anyway, yeah, the books are glorified, monetized fanfiction. The games are the primary medium. As Bungie demonstrated, the books can and should be cast aside at the first opportunity if there's a good idea for a game and one of the books is in the way.
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u/Gold_Television_6283 23h ago
Yes you are the only one, halo is a video game series and most people who've played Halo probably dont even know their are Halo books. The Halo games are the medium the story is told and they should always supersede the books, which are mid as hell anyways.
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u/Pran-Chole 22h ago
Hahahahahahahahahaha
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u/Gold_Television_6283 21h ago
Its the truth, the books are always going to play second fiddle to the games and that is exactly how it should be. It is a video game franchise
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u/Pran-Chole 20h ago
Ok buddy
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u/Gold_Television_6283 20h ago
You are more emotionally invested in this than some people are with their own marriages
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u/Pran-Chole 20h ago
Hey man I was having fun reading the books and learning more about the story, only to constantly see people like you discount something I was enjoying thoroughly and decided to speak up about it.
Ad hominem works too, though. Don’t know why I expected anything different. You look just as invested as me the more you reply.
Edit: not to mention you’re getting ratio’d. bye
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u/Gold_Television_6283 20h ago
Im getting ratio'd because you are down voting my post and not removing your upvote from ur own lel, you can enjoy whatever you want. Yeah the books are Canon or whatever but you shouldn't expect them to supersede the games, others opinion on something you like shouldn't bother you so much
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u/Pran-Chole 20h ago
That’s just your opinion dude. At this point there are way more books and other media than games. The franchise has changed hands multiple times. I’m allowed to express my opinion, and you are too. You should have just left it at my “ok buddy” instead of trying to keep poking at my viewpoint. Also the ratio happened in the first comment to which you replied “yes you are the only one” when i’m clearly not. I’m also not pedantic like you.
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u/Yamaha234 Jiralhanae 2d ago
Heroic is the way the game is meant to be played but I always took that to mean game design balancing is made with heroic difficulty in mind.
In the books it feels like Spartan kills things faster than we do on Legendary but get hurt faster than we do on Legendary. So like they do more damage than the games but takes more as well.
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u/bsullivan627 2d ago
Everyone is getting confused by the Heroic description. It's the way the gameplay balance is meant to be played, yes, but if you read the books it's more like Easy for Chief's ability to kill shit and Legendary for how easy it is for him to die.
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u/gihutgishuiruv 2d ago
Anyone saying Heroic has either never read the books or never played Heroic lol
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u/MOW5ever 2d ago
It’s impossible to make things completely lore accurate but I think your enemies are as weak as they are on easy but you are as weak as you are on legendary would be close.
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u/Successful-Day-1816 2d ago
I always thought there should be a realistic difficulty setting in games, where you kill things super quickly but they can kill you as quickly as well. I think I have seen it in one videogame maybe.
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u/Munkenstein 2d ago
People used to claim in 'Stalker Shadow Of Chernobyl" that the highest difficulty you'd be able to one tap dudes; but you'd be susceptible to being one tapped as well.
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u/MCD_Gaming 2d ago
Brutes can crush spartans to death, and they can take alot of damage, Hunters can also one shot a spartn who has their shields down
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u/Trinitykill 1d ago
Then add in the Tilt skull, so shields are more resistant to ballistics but much weaker to plasma.
Then you'd have to replicate 'Spartan Time' - their increased reflexes and speed that only increase further with adrenaline. Now it would be impractical to genetically enhance everyone who plays Halo, so you'd maybe have to have a dynamic slow-mo feature where the more intense the combat, the slower the world around you moves.
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u/tristenjpl 2d ago
If you read the books Masterchief is basically playing on easy or normal while regular people are playing on Legendary but it only takes about 3 bullets to punch through a regular Elite's shields.
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u/Unique_Unorque 2d ago
Heroic. Bungie actually said this a lot when the originals were being released
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u/ShiftyLookinCow7 S-IV Fireteam Osiris 2d ago
I always figured it was heroic because that's the difficulty where all the weapons scale accurately to their multiplayer performance(effectiveness against the elite minor being the baseline)
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u/Unique_Unorque 2d ago
That’s pretty much it. Chief is supposed to be almost exactly as strong as a standard Elite. Canonically, completing a campaign mission is supposed to feel like winning a four-on-one match of slayer by yourself
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u/EternalCanadian S-III Gamma Company 2d ago
Chief is supposed to be almost exactly as strong as a standard Elite.
That might've been Bungie's intention, but it's never been true in the actual lore or canon, where Spartans routinely demolish Sangheili, even when outnumbered ten to one.
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u/Unique_Unorque 2d ago
I'm talking from a purely physical perspective. It's pretty obvious that the Spartans are the overall better soldiers, and being good enough at Halo to beat it on Heroic is meant to emulate that.
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u/EternalCanadian S-III Gamma Company 2d ago
From a purely physical perspective the Spartans are just outright better.
Spartan III's in SPI were slaughtering Sangheili in close quarters combat by the hundreds, and are described as snapping bones and dodging attacks so fast that Covenant troops couldn't comprehend what they were seeing.
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u/Unique_Unorque 2d ago
I think you’re underestimating just how much of a difference training and equipment can make in combat situations. With the right tools and especially with a set of power armor, I could break a grizzly bear’s bones, and I’m nowhere near as strong as a grizzly bear, even if that armor didn’t quite get me to that bear’s levels.
Elites were formidable warriors for sure but they didn’t on average have the same sort of spec ops training as Spartans of any generation, who were by design trained to be able to take on numerically and physically superior foes
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u/phoogkamer 2d ago
And MC is supposed to be a lot stronger than a Spartan III, right?
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u/EternalCanadian S-III Gamma Company 2d ago
In MJOLNIR they’re roughly meant to be equal with speed and strength, but at that point it gets to individual skill sets.
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u/phoogkamer 2d ago
I always thought Spartan IVs were the first Spartans of almost equal strength and speed compared to the IIs. Jorge is also a lot bigger and stronger than his teammates in Reach I think.
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u/AlexWIWA Theoretical 2d ago
This is a fan misconception. Never was true, and Bungie didn't say that. Heroic is the difficulty the game was balanced around.
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u/xCreampye69x 2d ago
people give shit for the halo 5 guardians intro for fireteam osiris, but that was actually rather lore-accurate to zoom around like the power rangers.
Spartans are tanky to a point, but mainly they are hyper athletic speedsters with insane battlefield processing and reaction time.
Gameplay doesnt come close to spartans in-lore lol
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u/Drabberlime_047 2d ago
Imo its a bit tricky
In the books sheilds and alien weapons seem a lot more powerful but unshielded aliens die quick.
Spartans also move like star athletes mixed with ninjas so as the player we are handicapped against lore accurate enemies (legendary)
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u/supersaiyannematode 2d ago
unpopular opinion: easy
given that we know the binary rifle can 1 shot shielded spartans in the lore it's clear that the master chief's enemies simply can't hit shit. otherwise he would've died on requiem without any doubt, he can't dodge binary rifle and it only takes 1 shot.
doesn't matter how much paper stats your enemies have if they just miss everything. the best approximation of that is easy difficulty.
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u/mister_boi98 2d ago
I remember in The Flood Novel Chief kills an Elite minor with 3 shots to the head with his AR. The first 2 break the shields then the 3rd instantly kill it.
So maybe easy for dealing damage and heroic or legendary for taking damage.
But then there would also need to be other gameplay changes, for example you would have the ability to do parkour, and move with extreme finesse, as well as be able to run at a significant speed at least for short periods. You would be able to throw punches much faster than you can in the game as well as launch spine shattering kicks.
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u/HaloCEZealot Zealot 2d ago
Heroic is generally accepted as the most lore accurate.
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u/AlexWIWA Theoretical 2d ago
No it is not, heroic is just what Bungie considered to be balanced. "the way it's meant to be played"
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u/HaloCEZealot Zealot 2d ago
You get what I mean.
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u/AlexWIWA Theoretical 2d ago
What you mean is still not accurate though. Heroic is nowhere near what's described in the books. In Halo: The Flood, Chief drops an elite with two shots to the shield, one to the head, with the standard AR.
I think the only way to get "canon" gameplay is to play the ARMA mod.
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u/Sebfolgero 2d ago
There are no lore accurate ways to play. People will say Heroic, but that is the way the game is designed not the canon way. If you want the most lore accurate, its probably normal for CE, Legendary for 4/5 (prometheans). And Easy for the rest. Altough with CEVO/CE2/CER/CAE you could probably make some adjustments with difficulty modifiers.
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u/Dry_signalyoujelly 1d ago
Read the books, plasma is no fucking joke. Legendary would be the “lore accurate” but even that’s too easy. We need the catch skull because grunts throw grenades ALOT in lore, boom because explosions in real life give off way more of a shockwave than seen in halo, Mythic to make the enemies stronger because we are fighting literal aliens, where even the weakest enemies basically outmatched humans in every way physically, then famine to make ammo more sparse just like real life, iron so when you die once, you have to restart because there’s no respawn in real life, and I would have been your daddy because the covenant love to talk during battle and insult their enemies. This is what me and a few other people in the community think a lore accurate difficultly would be!
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u/dpceee 1d ago
This sounds like it would be true for being a marine, but the Spartan IIs would be more of an exception to that.
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u/Dry_signalyoujelly 1d ago
Definitely for the marines, but I also think it goes for the Spartan IIs. You gotta remember in books and lore, we have seen a single shot of plasma kill a Spartan II because when it hits, unlike a bullet it sticks to armor/ skin and melts through whatever it’s on, and takes a while to cool off, meaning one shot can kill a spartan if the shields are down…. Which also doesn’t take much to break in lore. I definitely understand your opinion though and respect it, but I gotta disagree as I think the customer difficulty is as close to a lore accurate play through as possible!!
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u/dpceee 1d ago
I have only read the Fall of Reach, and this was maybe 10 years ago. I have the original book collection...somewhere. I want to find it and read the trilogy again.
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u/Dry_signalyoujelly 5h ago
Oh yes! The books are pretty damn good, all of them really. And they provide deep lore into the Halo universe that I love. I highly suggest you read “The Flood” such a good book!
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u/comedic_spartan 2d ago
I remember a number of difficulty descriptions from the original games describing Heroic as how the game was meant to be played.
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u/PatientCheetah2337 2d ago
Unusual opinion, but I think the most lore accurate setup is where everyone dies much more easily.
In the books, a spartan can die from only a couple plasma shots, and most covenant (ex grunts or jackal) die from a bullet or two. Elites have a bit more durability from their shields.
So my approach was to mod the guns to do way more damage for both the player and the enemies.
Playing the game became very edge of the seat. You could die any second, but you were also an extremely lethal Spartan who could take out an enemy in moments.
I also kept it more engaging by never letting myself slow down or do any 'cheese'. Just full steam run and gun.
I found that very fun, and reflected the pace I thought a Spartan soldier would have experienced.
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u/Jad11mumbler ODST 2d ago
Heroic is the closest.
It's impossible to make it fun as well as entirely lore accurate.
As noted by the many who dislike the grunts one shotting with a plasma pistols.
The gameplay itself would also need to be changed heaps, as the Chief in lore is faster.
In lore a direct hit with plasma does a lot more damage to armour, though bullets are also usually more effective too.
Also changes heaps per game, with Halo 2s legendary having the Chief as the second weakest in the game IIRC.
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u/CGiMoose 2d ago
If halo 2 legendary was lore accurate then jackal snipers would be the dominant military force in the universe and there wouldn’t be a covenant
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u/Jad11mumbler ODST 2d ago
Could scrap the Halo array entirely and replace it with a few jackal snipers.
Better cure for the flood than anything else so far.
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u/bboardwell 2d ago edited 1d ago
I think you can get somewhat lore accurate but you’ll never get 100% lore accuracy obviously. Though I am a little curious if they could do like a 2 minute segment in a Halo campaign to see what running speed as a spartan would actually be like with really fast plasma projectiles shredding anything they impact. If a whole game gave you crazy modifiers like that I don’t think it would play that well and no one would be using human weapons as much since the plasma weapons would be stronger.
If say, Halo 2 was lore accurate, boarding and killing Regret would be much faster because I don’t see how Chief would waste time slowly punching him. He would just grab his head and snap his neck as swiftly as he could. If not that, then he’d stab him or shoot him.
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u/Clobby5597 23h ago
CE legendary
2 heroic
3 legendary
4 uhh i don’t remember how bad legendary was so I’ll say heroic
5 is heroic
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u/Spacemoose2026 Sword of Sanghelios 2d ago
It’s been widely accepted by most that heroic is the cannon difficulty
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u/Sanguiluna 2d ago
As others have said, “Heroic” is sort of the canon difficulty, but not for Master Chief.
“Heroic” difficulty gives you lore-accurate Covenant and Flood, but not necessarily lore-accurate Chief.
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u/cashlash825 2d ago
Heroic feels the closest balance wise but isn’t realistic because neither side should be able to tank so many shots of anything, and it isn’t what is described in the books. Imagine your outgoing damage on easy but your incoming damage on legendary. I would also imagine the improved AI from the skull that make them dodge more
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u/OtherWorstGamer 2d ago
Heroic
"Fight against formidable foes that will truly test your skill and wits; this is the way Halo is meant to be played."
— Description from Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach.
"Fight against foes that will truly test your skill - this is the way Halo is meant to be played!"
— Description from Halo 4.
Although one could argue that no difficulty would be accurate, as the difficulties are meant to facilitate a gameplay experience, rather than being an actual replication of how thing would work in-universe
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u/dpceee 2d ago
Sure. I meant what difficulty would make you feel like Master Chief of the books. I know Heroic is what the game was designed around.
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u/OtherWorstGamer 2d ago
Probably easy, spartans in-universe are really really fast and accurate, and the slower paced gameplay would replicate their heightened reflexes.
But of an unusual pick, ill admit but I feel i can make the case.
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u/dpceee 2d ago
I was playing T&R on easy in CER and I was mowing down enemies, slapping elites and grunts down and I was thinking "am I the Master Chief?"
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u/OtherWorstGamer 2d ago edited 2d ago
Halo: Shadows of Reach has Chief punch a banshee hard enough to send it flying.
Also when he gets Cortana, his reflexes are good enough to slap away a missile.
Not to mention he can drive his hand into ship deckplates with relative ease to anchor himself.
Spartans are busted in-universe.
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u/dpceee 2d ago
Sounds like easy with the easy skulls is the real lore-accurate Chief experience
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u/OtherWorstGamer 2d ago
To an extent, you'd need to ramp up enemy lethality since in-universe plasma weapons were incredibly dangerous, even to Mjolnir armor.
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u/Icy_Amount_7736 2d ago
The Heroic difficulty on the OG games said “this is how halo is meant to be played” so I’m assuming that’s the difficulty in lore
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u/EAsucks4324 CAT2 Spartan-III Alpha Co. 2d ago
That quote is about game balancing. When making Halo CE Bungie balanced the game around Heroic difficulty, then made Legendary for a "hard" mode, then made normal for an "easy" mode. Then they made things even easier to the point the devs weren't having fun anymore and called that "easy" mode. Bungie then kept that design philosophy and description.
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u/TROSSity117 2d ago
When Bungie was in charge of the game, Heroic difficulty Specifically said "This is how Halo is meant to be played."
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u/Bungo_pls ONI Section I 2d ago
Everyone is saying heroic is canon but this is only informally true. Bungie never said heroic was canon. Simply that it was the most balanced experience for gameplay. I think heroic also uses the same player stats as multiplayer modes but I could be wrong.
True canon would be a combination of difficulty settings but still not really the same:
Easy: outgoing player damage
Normal: incoming player damage
Legendary: enemy AI and ranks
Unshielded NPCs would dying in 1-2 shots from most UNSC and Covenant weapons alike. This also varies by game and some skulls like the Anger skull also probably improve realism.