A while ago I made a post like this for halo CE when I beat its legendary campaign, and I’ve since beaten halos 3 and 4 on legendary. Post from before did fairly well so it’d be nice to share what I learned with you lot. This will focus on the weapons individually, not the levels themselves - that’s gonna be a different post. [b]The Garbage Can:[/b] [spoiler][b]Assault Rifle[/b] Nothing wrong with this gun, really, it’s just outclassed by the battle rifle in nearly every way. Does ok damage but the brutes will kill you faster than you can kill them. [b]Pistol[/b] Again, a headshot weapon is always great, but no scope and terrible non-headshot damage coupled with low ammo makes it a no go. [b]Needler[/b] Not a bad weapon again, but it’s terrible vs jackals and you can just headshot grunts and noob combo brutes, as well as flood dying to other stuff easily. Largely outclassed. [b]Spiker[/b] Does great damage vs armour, but most enemies will just die to a headshot anyway or in the case of flood are better killed with other weapons. Ammo is no problem though, so I guess it’s got that going for it. [b]SMG[/b] A worse assault rifle. Never use it. Ever. [b]Sentinel Beam[/b] Very rare and very pointless at the same time. Seriously, there are like 2 tiny situations where you can get it at all, and it does like no damage. [b]Brute Shot[/b] I was very close to creating a “middle ground” category specifically for this and the energy sword, but then I realised that this is just outclassed. It’s the best of the bad weapons, but it’s still kinda bad, so I never used it outside of desperation.[/spoiler] [b]The Good Stuff:[/b] [spoiler][b]Plasma Pistol[/b] Everything in the game works in this gun’s favour. Even though it’s weaker than in halo 2 as far as actual ability goes, the different level design in halo 3 makes this thing S++ tier. Overcharges are cheap, easy to land on a brute, permanently unshield him, and stun him long enough to easily headshot. Ammo is extremely common. You can even just stun the brute and melee him if you’re at close range because melees are very very strong in halo 3 - a brute minor [i]will[/i] die to 2 melees, even on legendary. It even lets you get the anti-air wraith very easily, which is the only reason I was able to do the ark/thecovenant at all. [b]Covenant Carbine[/b] Extremely versatile and capable work horse weapon. Common ammo and high capacity, easy headshots, big magazine, very easy combo with the plasma pistol. You’d be entirely capable of playing through the entire game with only this weapon. [b]Plasma Rifle[/b] Doesn’t do great damage vs. brute flesh, but takes down power armour easily and clears through grunts/jackals/drones like no one’s business because of dual wielding. It’s also the best weapon that I’ve found for killing the ranged pure forms on Cortana. Drops are rather rare outside of Cortana though as most brutes use the Spiker instead. [b]Energy Sword[/b] Cortana: The Weapon. Pretty much unobtainable outside of there and floodgate though, and it sucks at killing brutes anyway. You also can’t get more than one in Halo, so that’s annoying. [b]Gravity Hammer[/b] Great weapon vs flood, just deploy your skill on them when they start to gather. Not bad vs covenant either, but it’s a little harder to get close to them. Important in several complicated jumps and skips if you’re speed running too. [b]Shotgun[/b] Thing itself doesn’t do much damage, but shotgun/melee kills brutes quick, as well as it being good vs the like 3 hunters in the entire game (seriously: 1 pair on the storm, 1 pair on the ark that doesn’t die instantly to the scorpion, and 1 pair on the covenant). [b]Battle Rifle[/b] You know this gun. It knows you. Very similar to the carbine - workhorse, easy headshots, but ammo is a little rarer and it’s less efficient for ammo consumption. It’s iconic for a reason, though, and that’s because it’s very reliable. [b]Fuel Rod Cannon[/b] Slower profjectile and a similar blast radius to the rocket launcher as well as slightly lower damage, but this beast has one thing the rockets don’t: spam. 5 in a mag with 25 reserve ammo is insane for this thing’s relative power, and it’s a lot easier to get your hands on than rockets. [b]Rocket Launcher[/b] Does more damage and travels faster than the fuel rods, but has less ammo and it’s rarer. Still creams through brutes like no one’s business, and it’s better for killing wraiths (although it’s usually best to just hijack the wraith, especially anti-air ones). [b]Sniper Rifle/Beam Rifle[/b] Thing’s lost its touch a little since 2-shot-bodyshot-red-elites-on-legendary from halo CE, but it still kills what it needs to. I’m not that great with it, but I was still only sometimes 1 shotting minor brutes, and the noob combo is better for chieftains. Same goes for beam rifle - it’s a lot rarer in this game as many jackals have carbines instead, and snipers overall are rarer in halo 3, so these weapons aren’t [i]necessary[/i], but they still kill fast, and can form makeshift noob comboes due to their high damage to shields. [b]Spartan Laser[/b] I actually almost forgot this weapon existed and had to write this one in as a n edit. Yeah, it kills crap easy, but you get one in the entire campaign and with those five shots you: kill turret 1 kill turret 2 kill bodyguard 1 kill bodyguard 2 kill the war chieftain melee the odsts to death because they will try and kill the anti air wraith which you of course want to drive Therefore I don’t regard this as an actual weapon for review. It’s more like a one-time objective sorta deal.[/spoiler] I’ll probably do halo 4 next, but I predict it will be just a single long needler/carbine appreciation post. Hope you guys liked this.