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Halo 2 Melee Damage FAQ

by gmims44

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Halo 2 Melee Damage FAQ
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By: gmims44 / Hypnotoad 
XBL: an AmishGuy
E-mail: [email protected]

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)

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 
[email protected] before you go post in the forums and tell everyone I'm an
idiot.