Halo 4 Grind Guides: Dominion

Now we’re going to take a look at Dominion, Halo 4’s successor to the old Territories mode.

What is it?
Dominion takes Territories’ core concept of taking and holding three different hills, and ups the ante by turning those hills into full-fledged bases. Capturing a base via its central terminal takes a bit of time, but once it’s yours, a base will resupply every 30-odd seconds, dropping in new ordinance and re-establishing any door shields that may have been busted by the enemy’s attempts to enter. Some bases even have turrets you can build and vehicle spawn terminals for your murderous convenience.

What commendations can I work on?
Standard, mode-independent murder counts aside, the vehicles spawned by the bases tend to be mostly Ghosts and the occasional Wraith, so you’ve opportunities to pop those, as well as the Mongeese and Warthogs that are often floating around from the match’s start. The gametype’s own commendations are rather generous, with medals being thrown around left and right for pretty much anything you do regarding a base. Killing enemies in your base or theirs, building turrets, initiating captures, or even just hanging around for captures and resupplies will all need you some points and medals, which in turn go to commendations.

Any other tips?
Don’t get overly defensive. Your score towards victory is based solely on resupplies, with points being added to your team’s score every time one of your bases rolls over. If you just sit and hunker down trying to keep one, you’re going to lose, and quickly. Better to be out there trying to take bases, with one or two people hanging back to guard your other headquarters, because even just counter-capturing briefly can be enough to screw up point accumulation for your foes.

Charged plasma pistol shots and grenades seem to be the most effective methods of dropping a door shield, at least from what I’ve seen.

If all the bases are taken by the enemy, watch out. You’ll get an overshield, along with the rest of your teammates, but you’ll also lose the ability to respawn unless someone retakes a base for your team.

And that’s about it for Dominion. It can be incredibly frustrating at times, but the close matches are fabulously intense ordeals that you’ll find fairly memorable. That, and the handout-fest that the gametype commendation set happens to be can give some nice, early boosts to your experience grinding. Enjoy.