Halo:Reach advice being composed in a Starbucks

So I'm sitting here bored beyond belief in a starbucks listening to some lady trying to compliment a mother of an obviously ugly four year old child who should be helmeted...the mother, not the child. Some how this has prodded me to penning another basic guide to improving you halo game.

This guide will improve your kill/death ratio and hopefully help you win more games by using skills like headshots, cover, flanking, and callouts and basic strategies to follow in the beginning of a game. By the way, the kid's name is Grayson and he is such a happy child. I suppose the one woman call tell this by the amount of drool the poor child has left on the floor under the table at which they are sitting. Don't think I hate kids. I don't. But this woman's voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard to my ears, so i am a bit annoyed.

Step 1: headshots, headshots headshots. In order to have any success at halo you must be able to hit someone's head after their shields have "popped". For those of you who have trouble making these difficult shots, my advice to you is to go into swat matches and practice shooting at noggins. A hint about using the dmr for headshots is only zoom in when your reticle (the crosshairs on your gun) are no longer red. If they are red, you waste valuable time switching to zoom when you could just use the slight auto aim assist the dmr provdes by sweeping the shot at the head. If you play enough swat, and can consistently get as many headshots for as many kills, you're doing well. In other words, if you get 10 kills and 15 deaths, you shouldn't be worried as long as your ten kills were by headshots. Negative kill/death here doesn't matter because you're using this playlist to improve your aim. You should expect to fail for a while until you feel comfortable aiming at the head. Thank the Lord they're gone. Now i can ogle the collegiate girl across the room without distraction.

Step 2: using cover. It is important to keep yourself out of the open in Reach. Sometimes it is unavoidable because you may be forced to run in only one direction to escape certain death from another. But if you limit the amount of times you can be shot by more than 1 person, you improve your chances of surving longer and getting kills, or allowing help to arrive and assist you. If your shields do pop, do not panick and run. Look at your options and choose the safest route out of the line of sight of the opposing player. One trick is to run towards a team mate/s and pull to the left or right at the last second and allow them to rid you of your follower.

Step 3: Flanking is just another way to utilize cover. It is important for you to know where your teammates are when you do this and what their situation is. A good way to know this is to look at their icons above their heads. if you see yellow, then they are shooting someone and you should position yourself in an advantageous position that does not expose you too much and assist your teammate. if your teammate's icon is red it is imperative to ask how many enemies your teammate is facing. if it is 3 or more, and you are the only icon you can identify, you can safely assume your teammate is dead unless he leads some of his attackers towards your position. It would be wise for you to move close to the action, but not to expose yourself to a line of fire. More experienced players will often flaunt this rule and come out ahead, but if you don't feel confident you can help, make certain you won't hurt your chances of winning and play it safe.

Step 4: callouts. Callouts are important because they add extra information your teammates can use to gain better position to make kills. it is important for you to learn as many different call outs as you can. "that thing-a-ma-gig" is not an acceptable callout. "On my X" (the X is the symbol you icon shows when you are dead) is also not an acceptable call out because usually by the time you shout that out, no enemy is at your X. Acceptable callouts are usually said like this, "2 shots on (name of player) @ (certain location) heading to (other location). Another acceptable shout out is, 1 shot left [this means his shields have popped and he only needs 1 headshot to kill him] (player name) on My X headed towards (new location).

If you try to follow these basic rules to playing Reach, I know your game will improve. If you are impulsive, try a little restraint. If you are conservative, try to be more agressive. Test your boundaries and push yourself to find your limits and expand them. Within a couple of months I believe your game will improve.

side note: using radar is just as important. If you find yourself ignoring your radar a lot you will be flanked. A good way to use that radar is to imagine it as a car's rear-view mirror when someone is tailgating you. You don't need to always look at it, but it helps to glance at every 4 or 5 seconds. Don't rely on it too much though because many gametypes, like slayer pro, don't use it.

hope this helps,

Fetal