Halo 5: Guardians has a fantastic classic experience with the Arena mode, but for those seeking something new it offers Warzone. The problem with anything new, especially with something as well-established as Halo, is that it requires a lot of adjusting. To help with that we’ve put together a few tips to get you ready to hop right into Halo 5 Warzone.
There are actually two different gamemodes within the Warzone playlist found within Halo 5. They play quite similarly, so the tips below should apply to them both. However, it’s important to know which type of Warzone you are playing, so you can adjust your straegy accordingly.
The two modes are Warzone and Warzone Assault. Regular Warzone is the one you’ve likely heard the most about, with its massive battlefields, capture points, and AI enemies. Warzone Assault is almost the same, but it takes away the AI enemies and makes the capture points a one time thing. One team plays offense, the other defense.
The defensive team starts the game by owning the two capture points, with their goal being to prevent the other team from taking them over. If the attacking team takes control of the two capture points, the enemy’s core will be open. If they destroy it, they win, otherwise they lose. One important thing to note with Warzone Assault is that you have a set amount of time, but it resets if you capture a point, so if it is running low, but you almost have the point captured, make sure you put everything you can into nabbing it.
In regular Warzone the objective is always fluid. Your team is trying to capture areas, with the owner of the most gaining points with time. However, there’s much more to it. Three capture spots are available, and if one team owns all three they can start attacking the enemy core. This allows for an instant win, making it so you always have a chance at victory. The big difference here though is that there are AI enemies on the map, some of which are worth a lot of points.
Don’t Ignore the AI Enemies
In fact, they may be one of the most important elements to Halo 5 Warzone. Some of these enemies are worth 150 points, making up 15% of the total required score. Even if you own all of the capture points, if the enemy takes out all of the AI, they could easily snag a victory. Watch for the notifications of where enemies will be spawning in, grab a few friends, and head over. The more powerful enemies will take a lot of effort, but with some vehicles or power weapons, and a lot of patience, you should take them down.
Use Your Weapons and Vehicles
This could also be titled, get a bunch of REQ Packs (see here for how to do this). REQ Packs provide the more powerful weapons and vehicles that you’ll need to dominate a Halo 5 Warzone match. Once you have enough points to spend, you can spawn in with a Warthog, Ghost, Banshee, Scorpion Tank, or Wraith. These, along with power weapons like Rocket Launchers and Sniper Rifles, can easily sway the tide of battle. If you’re team is close, and needs that extra push, or if the enemy is sitting outside a capture point in a tank, spawn your own and take them out.
Don’t Use Your Weapons and Vehicles
The flipside to this is that these are one-time use items. If you only have one tank, that’s the only tank you can spawn in Warzone until you are lucky enough to pull a new one out of a REQ Pack. So, the unfortunate truth is, if your team is winning or losing by a significant margin, you probably don’t want to waste these rare items. Hold them for when the game is actually up for the taking. Of course, you’ll need to make sure the other team doesn’t make a big push, if you’re the one dominating the opposition, and take the game away from you. If it starts looking bad, you might want to spawn in a Scorpion and swing things back your way.
Buy REQ Packs
REQ Packs are the most important element to Halo 5 Warzone. They provide the weapons, vehicles, and unlocks that you need to win the battle. This means you’ll want to keep buying them whenever possible (though we don’t condone spending real money on them). Check out our guide for how best to get REQ Packs and use them. Hint: you might not always want to buy Bronze packs.
Work as a Team
It might be easy to get lost in the massive battles taking place in Halo 5 Warzone. 24 players is a bit much for a game like Halo, where killing someone takes a bit of effort. However, those who communicate and work as a team will come out victorious more often than those that don’t. You don’t need to get all 12 players working together to make a difference, just grabbing a nice squad of 4-5 players should do the trick. Move together, firing at the same enemies, and attacking the same capture points, and you can easily make a huge difference in the outcome of the battle.
Work the Objective
Warzone is not Team Deathmatch, there are objectives here and they are much more important than just killing other players. At any one time you should be working to capture a point, defending one that your team already owns, or taking out enemy AI. Don’t run around, taking out random enemies, because they’ll just respawn, and they aren’t worth the time or effort. It’s all about points (or capturing areas if it is Warzone Assault). If you’re not doing that, then you’re not actually helping your team.
Still Play Like it’s Arena
Warzone may be big, but the small battle that you will encounter are still pretty much the same as Arena. check out our guide on how to play that, and you should come away with some insights into why you are dying to so many enemies in Warzone.