######################### Halo 2 Melee Damage FAQ ######################### By: gmims44 / Hypnotoad XBL: an AmishGuy E-mail: anAmishGuy@gmail.com This FAQ has one very simple purpose, and that's to show as accurately as possible how much damage every melee attack does depending on what weapon you're holding and how you're moving (and now after the April 18 update, which version of the game you're playing). Hopefully if you read this guide you'll be able to use the information here to your advantage in multiplayer. I'll divide this into three sections: I. Melee Damage Values II. Important Details to Note and Frequently Asked Questions III. How I Got These Numbers (boring) ######################### I. Melee Damage Values ######################### The numbers below represent the amount of damage that each melee attack does (to see how I got them, read section III). It takes 6 points to kill, so any combination of melees that adds to 6 or more should equal a kill. Melee damage is different for each weapon depending on whether you're standing still, running, or jumping. In the original version before the update, most weapons did twice as much damage if you were running and three times as much damage if you were jumping, but things got a lot more complicated for version 1.1, so make sure you know which version you have. Basically, if you have XBox Live, you should have version 1.1, and if you don't, then you still have the original damage values. When the disc with the new multiplayer maps comes out in June for non-XBox Live gamers, I'm pretty sure it will have the updates on it as well. The original and updated damage values are laid out as follows, for easy comparison: Weapon Name Original Stationary Update Stationary Original Running Update Running Original Jumping Update Jumping Remember, it takes 6 points to kill, so let's get to it. SMG 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Battle Rifle 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Shotgun 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Magnum 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Sniper Rifle 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Plasma Pistol 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Plasma Rifle 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Brute Plasma Rifle 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Needler 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Carbine 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Beam Rifle 1 2.625 2 3.15 3 3.675 Rocket Launcher 2 2.625 4 3.5 6 4.375 Sentinel Beam 2 2.625 4 3.5 6 4.375 Brute Shot 3.5 4.375 3.5 5.25 3.5 6.125 Energy Sword* 3.5 4.375 3.5 5.25 3.5 6.125 *B button. The lunge obviously does more than 6 points of damage, and though I didn't test it before the update, in version 1.1 it does 7.875 points of damage. Special Melee Weapons ----- Note: Massive damage is most commonly used. The default gametypes and matchmaking games all use massive damage as far as I'm aware. Flag 2 2.625 4 3.5 6 4.375 Oddball 2 2.625 4 3.5 6 4.375 Bomb 2 2.625 4 3.5 6 4.375 Flag (Massive) 3 4.2 6 5.25 9 6.5625 Oddball (Massive) 3 4.2 6 5.25 9 6.5625 Bomb (Massive) 3 4.2 6 5.25 9 6.5625 Here are links to these numbers in chart form: Original: http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/images/originaldamage5du.gif Version 1.1: http://img244.echo.cx/img244/9079/meleedamage117vj.jpg ######################### II. Important Details to Note and Frequently Asked Questions ######################### - The biggest change with the update is obviously the more than 250% increase in damage for the weakest melee attack. The new value of 2.625 is actually more than a player's health can take, so any melee attack on an unshielded opponent results in instant death. - The sword and brute shot, besides being made more powerful, were also brought in line with the other weapons in that they now do different damage based on whether you're standing still, running, or jumping. A jumping melee with the sword or brute shot now does more than 6 points of damage and is an instant kill. - The rocket launcher and sentinel beam no longer kill with one jumping melee after the update. - The default setting for the flag, oddball, and bomb is massive damage, so that's what you'll use in matchmaking and in the vast majority of other games. I don't even know why anyone would ever change it to normal, unless they had just been beaten down by the ball or flag carrier one too many times. - When moving slowly with the flag, oddball, or bomb (such as in matchmaking), you cannot get a running melee, only stationary or jumping. - An overshield adds 7 points to the amount of damage you can take, for a total of 13. Damage resistance doubles the amount of damage you can take to 12, or 26 with an overshield. - From my experiments, I found that even heavily damaged health is fully regenerated within about 5 seconds of the shield having fully recharged, but there is a time in between when it will take less than 6 points to kill even with full shields. - Despite what Frankie said in one of the weekly updates, where you hit someone has no effect on how much damage you do, unless of course it's in the back. Hitting someone on the shin does the exact same amount of damage as hitting them on the head. ########################## III. How I Got These Numbers ########################## Back before the first update, I decided just for my own edification to figure out exactly how much damage melee attacks did based on what weapon you were holding, and whether you were standing still, running, or jumping. What I found was that the method behind melee attacks was actually quite simple. A stationary melee with a weak weapon, such as the SMG, did exactly one-sixth of the damage needed to kill an opponent, and running and jumping did twice and three times as much damage, respectively. From this information, I came up with a point system, giving the weak stationary melee a value of 1 "point" of damage and setting 6 points as the amount needed to kill. Also, from experimenting with the overshield, I found that two swipes of the sword or brute shot did the exact same damage as seven stationary SMG melees, so I gave their melees a value of 3.5. The sword and brute shot also happened to take down each layer of shield perfectly, with no damage to the shield underneath or to health, so I concluded that from melee attacks, shields take 3.5 points of damage and health takes 2.5. With the changes made to the power of melee attacks in version 1.1, things got a heck of a lot more complicated. I almost gave up trying to figure it out, until I started experimenting with the overshield and damage resistance. Damage resistance doubles the amount of damage you can take, so each layer of shield then can take 7 points of damage for a total of 21 for all three shields. I found that with a stationary SMG melee, the 21 hits it took for all three shields before the update was now down to only 8. Dividing 8 into 21 then gave me the new value for the SMG's stationary melee: 2.625. The challenge was then to find combinations of melees that added to 21, always making sure that the shields were completely down but that there was no blood to indicate that health had been damaged, and using the values that I knew to calculate the values that I didn't. For example, to figure out the value of a running melee with an SMG, I first had to find that five running plus two stationary did the right amount of damage, then I simply solved for x: 2(2.625) + 5(x) = 21 5x = 15.75 x = 3.15 And so on until I had all the values for every weapon. ######################### Version History 1.0 - 4/21/05 - Decided to go ahead and make a FAQ out of the charts I had made for the HBO forums. 1.1 - 4/25/05 - Cleared up some of the info on the sword and added links to the charts. ######################### I give permission for this FAQ to be hosted by any site that wants it, as long as the entire document is hosted. If all you want is the charts, feel free to use those too, as long as you attach my name (gmims44 or Hypnotoad) to them. If you have questions about the charts, or my methods, or if you think I've made a mistake somewhere (it's happened many times before), please email me at anAmishGuy@gmail.com before you go post in the forums and tell everyone I'm an idiot.