You’ve suited up as a SPARTAN-II, the most advanced human weapon in the UNSC’s arsenal. Now it’s time to strap on a different pair of boots. As an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, you’ve been "hand-picked” to suit up and drop feet first into a Covenant occupied New Mombasa. Your chances of making it out alive are slim to none. Sound like your kind of mission?  Good.  Here’s what you need to know:

Unconventional Warfare


First things first, your armor plating did not “just come up from Songnam this morning.” Unlike the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor you’ve become accustomed to sporting, ODST combat gear doesn’t come equipped with energy shielding. Take a hit in Halo 3: ODST and you’ll feel the burn as your stamina and health wear thin. 

When it's the former - your stamina falling to critical levels - your HUD will wash red.  When it does, find cover.  Once you're safely out of enemy fire, you can catch your breath and allow your stamina slowly recover.  Should you choose to ignore your early warning systems, Covenant fire will start chiseling through your armor plating and cut directly into your health.  Once that happens, the only way to recover is to locate health packs as you navigate the city.

Engage the enemy when it’s clear you have the advantage, keep out of direct and sustained fire, and get up close and personal only where there’s no other alternative.

Direct Action


When you absolutely, positively have to kill every Covie in the quadrant…accept no substitutes. In Halo 3: ODST you’ll be getting your fingerless mitts on some specialized tools to tip the balance of the fight a little bit in the UNSC’s favor. Dual-wielding is out, but the pair or armaments outlined below both employ smart-linked scope technology that allows you to stay at range, fire in controlled, accurate bursts, and stick to the relative safety of cover so you can keep on keepin’ on during your stay in New Mombasa.



Not your mother’s M7 caseless, this supressed sub machinegun is a jack of all trades. In short bursts, it’ll take down Grunts and Drones with ease, and as you become more practiced in the field, you’ll learn to strip a Brute of his protective gear, send him into a careless rage, and set him up for the quick kill.


Speaking of the quick kill, the M6C/SOCOM might not be the flashiest weapon in your arsenal (in fact it’s got a matte black polymer finish) but show me an ODST and I’ll show you a soldier that thinks long and hard before swapping this headshot machine out for any other weapon.

Great for thinning the Covenant herd from long range, it also boasts surprising stopping power in close quarters. Though you’ll want to dispose of the enemy's shielding via other, more suitable ordnance to save your automag's precious ammunition, the M6C/SOCOM makes for one hell of a satisfying coup de grâce.

If you liked the M6D from the original Halo, you’re gonna love the M6C/SOCOM.

Deep Ground Surveillance


Long before any shots are fired, you’ll need to assess the battlefield. Using onboard "Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance" technology integrated into your UNSC issue PDA and ODST BIOS, you won’t have any doubts who’s friendly, who’s out to crush your skull under their boot, or how you should best navigate the dark, Covenant occupied city of New Mombasa.

To utilize your VISR technology, including the enhanced night vision module, toggle it on and off by pressing the "X" button.  Don’t worry about equipment, as an ODST you won’t be using it.  If you’re dead certain the area is clear of hostiles, access the PDA functionality by pressing the "Back" button. From your BIOS you can chart your current position on a top down, wireframe map of the city, check out points of interest identified by the City of New Mombasa's AI construct, The Superintendent, deploy your own custom directional waypoint beacons, and review any intelligence and communications data you’ve gathered on the ground.



Equipment Recovery/Capture


In the likely event that you are wounded while operating in the field, you'll be on your own to secure and acquire medical supplies. Your vitality is decidedly human – no enhanced super soldier genetics at play here - and when you become injured by enemy fire (and you will) you’ll need to locate and utilize New Mombasa’s civilian medical kiosks or obtain health packs from other embedded soldiers in the combat zone in order to stop the bleeding and get back into fighting shape.


Since Health Packs can not provide you with a resuscitating effect, we recommended that you avoid sustaining any critical injuries at all costs.  Failure to ignore this recommendation may result in serious personal injury and death.

For more information about what you can expect when you suit up and drop into New Mombasa, check out the Halo 3: ODST Field Guide.  It's been updated with some of the new, technical information from this article, and already includes some of the critical intelligence you'll need to check out before you set boots on the ground.  To gain access, simply click on the image of the Superintendent below.