Halo: Combat Evolved/Glitches

Backpack reload
An easy and yet invaluable technique for any Halo player, the backpack reload glitch allows the player to reload it's weapon with the other weapon out. This glitch works as follows:
 * Have the weapon that needs reloading current. (This commonly happens when you were attacking with the weapon and the clip is spent.)
 * Quickly hit the reload button twice, and then switch to your other weapon.
 * The reload animation will continue for the 3rd person view, and you will still hear the reload sound effects. You can fire your weapon while the other reloads!
 * When the animation/sounds are finished, your weapon is done reloading, and will be reloaded when you bring out the original weapon. That is, don't make the mistake of switching back to your other weapon expecting it to be reloaded if it's reload sound didn't fully complete.

Using this technique, you can cycle through two different weapons without ever having to pause to reload, which is what makes it such an essential skill. Works great in cliffhanger close-range situations!

Double Melee
Though a particularly advanced glitch, double meleeing is an invaluable glitch in close combat. It is one that you should both use and be aware of it being used against you. You must have a to do this. When you are within melee distance of your opponent (keep in mind that different guns have different hitting distances AND different melee speeds);
 * 1) Press the melee button once.
 * 2) As soon as your melee makes contact with your opponent, throw a grenade.
 * 3) As soon as you hit the grenade button, melee again.

Throwing your grenade too soon will result in your first melee action canceling out before it has a chance to make contact with your opponent. Also keep in mind that if you execute only one melee successfully, you should back up as your grenade will soon explode.

If done correctly, a significant amount of damage may be done in a very short amount of time. If running forward while successfully completing a double melee, this is enough to kill a fully shielded opponent with full health.

This technique may be countered by ducking before your opponent can execute the double melee. This is not foolproof but will often work, giving you more time to shoot your opponent as their gun reloads. Also, if your opponent executes a double melee but does not kill you, move FORWARD because the grenade your opponent threw will soon explode behind you, and you will not have enough time to back away from it. Moving forward may allow you to escape it's blast radius.

Quick invisibility
After picking up an invisibility powerup, quickly fire one bullet from a non-zoomable weapon (minus the Flamethrower, Fuel Rod Gun, or the Needler). Alternatively, you may shoot one bullet from a zoomable weapon, and then switch to a non-zoomable weapon.

This technique can also be used in combat. If you are shot, or if you yourself shoot while holding a zoomable weapon (plus the Flame, FRG, and Needler) the time before you become fully invisible, and thus harder to hit and see, is significantly longer than if you were holding a non-zoomable weapon. It is performed the same as if you had just picked up the invisibility. Simply switch to a non-zoomable weapon and you will become invisible much more quickly than if you were holding a zoomable weapon. The effects of this technique are best used when a player is backpack reloading or trying to make a quick get-away. Turning invisible quickly is a more potent trick on the Xbox version of Halo as reticule magnetism is severely reduced when a player is fully invisible, making it much harder to hit that player.

Reloading quickly
Reload quicker than usual by hitting the melee button or switching weapons after your new clip has been inserted into your gun. This takes practice so experiment to get a better feeling of when it is okay to melee or switch and when it isn't while reloading your weapon.

Shooting quickly after throwing a grenade
Simply melee IMMEDIATELY after throwing a grenade, and you will save time this way. Although this technique shaves only milliseconds, it is very beneficial especially against skilled opponents. It is a glitch that should be made routine, except of course if you choose to backpack reload.

Throwing a grenade while reloading
Quickly press reload reload and throw grenade after shooting. This will allow you to get a grenade off without hindering your reload time.

Silently switching weapons
While switching weapons the weapon being pulled out will produce a noise loud enough for a nearby listener to pinpoint your location. To combat this melee immediately after switching your weapon. Beware of your melee coming in contact with your environment as this will make noise as well.

Avoid fall damage
Right before your feet make contact with the ground, hold the crouch button for a short period of time. Hitting crouch too early will result in you taking more damage than normal, so it is better to be too late rather than too early in this instance. You may fall a much greater distance and take none or a significantly smaller amount of damage by using this technique.

Grenade jumping
Although not technically a glitch, it should be noted that you may use a grenade's explosion to your advantage. If a player jumps just as a grenade explodes, that player will be catapulted upwards. It can also be done while running and jumping in order to overcome an obstacle. Jumping on a grenade may also surprise many opponents as a vertical climb is not expected. Grenade jumping will also give you a slight height advantage for a short period, making a headshot more likely. You can also use rockets to propel yourself up, but it takes off a lot more health.

The Pillar of Autumn - Space Travel
Go through the level until you reach the part where Cortana says "The Covenant are destroying the lifepods. They really don't want us on that ring." It's right before you enter the first dark tunnel. There are three doors in the room before the entrance to the tunnel. Pick one. Crouch and jump at the top window pane, like you're trying to get through it, and you eventually will. You are now outside. If you have full health, you can fall off and walk around on nothing.

Get into a Pelican in Silent Cartographer
Note: XBOX only, only in Co-op mode.
 * 1) Just when you start the level (when you are able to shoot) turn around and shoot the marines.
 * 2) One needs to stay and watch the Pelicans (as close as possible), the other person goes and kills the Covenant in the area.
 * 3) Foehammer then arrives with the Warthog. The person near the Pelicans jumps into the Pelican closer to the ground.
 * 4) The player with the Warthog nears on the Pelican.
 * 5) You slowly get close to him and push him. (not at full speed into the pelican)
 * 6) You should be able to get inside. Literally. INSIDE. You can touch the medical kits.
 * 7) The person outside kills himself and will appear inside.

Fun inside the pelican
It's not just to get inside, it's also knowing what to do. You can kill one player and run to a corner. If the other player appears on top of the killer you can try to get on top of the Pelican, very hard. Other thing is that there are two glitches you can perform while inside the ship. First kill your partner over and over again. If you look at the floor after this there should be the guns there. Not just there, but floating, spinning around. Kill one person and try to get on top of the other. Once done look around and jump towards the cockpit. then turn around and walk towards the revolving guns. Your partner will see you through the floor and if you touch the guns they will kind of shoot away around ten meters.

Get Past Invisible Walls
Note: XBOX only. Co-op only.
 * 1) Go to The Silent Cartographer.
 * 2) Kill all the enemies at the landing site.
 * 3) After they are all dead, wait for the warthog to be dropped.
 * 4) Get into the warthog with your team mate and drive into the water.
 * 5) Keep driving until you hit the invisible wall.
 * 6) Have one of you two stand as close to the wall as possible.
 * 7) Back the warthog up a little bit.
 * 8) Slowly drive into your friend and push him back.
 * 9) The game should skip for a second, and you can then run past the invisible wall.

If you move the warthog too fast, you will kill your friend. This can be done on any level where there's a warthog and an invisible wall.

Two Betrayals Glitch
Note: XBOX only. When you are going through the Two Betrayals stage, your objective is to destroy all the generators. The moment you or your partner gets close to the last generator, the flood will kill you. Instead, exploit the co-op system to your advantage. Notice that on co-op, when one of you is further ahead then the other player, the lagging player is warped ahead. At the hallway before the last generator, spend a moment and practice finding the warp spot, now when you're sure you've located this spot have one player stand a step away from the spot that will cause the other player to warp. Have the player that will warp go deactivate the last generator. Now as soon as the surge occurs, have the player in the hallway cause the warp and both players can leave relatively unscathed.

343 Guilty Spark - Stay in Pelican
As soon as you gain control of the Master Chief, throw a grenade, and you will stay in the Pelican. You can ride it until it stops, and whenever you want to get out, press the button you would normally use to enter or exit a vehicle.

343 Guilty Spark - The Lone Marine
As soon as you gain control of the Master Chief, run to the other side of the Pelican. Hop on the rock there and from there hop on top of the Pelican. Ride it up as it flies and jump onto the ledge. Head left and you'll find a marine without a weapon standing there.

Hit the Grav-Lift from Both Sides
On Truth & Reconciliation, clear the area right before the Grav-lift without using the camoflauge pickup. Once it's clear grab it and run as fast as possible towards the Grav-left. Ignore any enemies, the point is to get there well ahead of your Marines. Just keep moving on past the Grav-Lift until you hear Cortana request reinforcements. Doing this makes the game think your Marines are all dead and it automatically gives you 5 more Marines. Eventually your first group will catch up and you'll now have up to ten Marines to help fight the waves of Covenant dropping from the ship.

Share a powerup among multiple players
Have each player stand as close as possible to where a powerup spawns, and as it does so, each player will acquire that powerups benefits. This tactic is most lethally used in conjunction with timing powerup spawns, which will be discussed later. This can also be done on the level Rat Race, by standing under where the powerup spawns and then shooting it once.

Vehicle Teleporting
Note: PC/Mac only.


 * 1) Search for servers, and join the one with the worst ping you can find. Make sure that the level supports vehicles. The higher the ping and the more players it has the better your results will be.
 * 2) Find a vehicle and stand near it.
 * 3) When the game starts to suffer from the lag press E when you can enter a vehicle, but immediately pull away and go do something else. If the game puts you inside the vehicle immediately, hop out and repeat until it stops responding to activation. You can then run away and do something else.
 * 4) When the host system catches up with the flow of instructions it remembers that you activated the vehicle and so dutifully puts you in it, regardless of where you currently are in relation to the vehicle.

Depending on lag you may be able to kill someone or even grab a flag before the server catches up with you. Note that if someone else occupies the same seat you activated you won't be teleported. If you keep failing you may need to find a server with more players or an even worse ping. Vehicle teleporting is generally considered to be cheating, but it isn't predictable enough to be very useful. This problem was never patched. It may work with all vehicles, but the Warthog gets the best result.

Getting on Top of Sidewinder
Create a new multiplayer gametype in which your shields and life are the maximum they can reach. After creating this go into the gametype and also go into the level Sidewinder. When you are in the level get a rocket launcher and plasma grenade, and travel to the Blue Tower Base. Go to the top of this base and then go through the teleporter. When on the other side keep walking until you are around the bend. When you get to the end of the bend there should be another room with a teleporter in it and from the outside there is a border to the room in which you can jump on (looking at the room from the outside!). It may take a few tries but you will get up there (you can also take a vehicle up there with you for easy access to the top of the border). Once you make it up onto the border go to the end of it and looking down slowly walk backwards and get a grenade caught on your foot. As soon as you get the grenade on your foot shoot the rocket launcher down at your feet. The lift should send you flying pretty high. When you first start flying through the air push both joysticks in the direction of the wall that you are attempting to get upon. This may take many tries, although it is very frustrating once you get the hang of it, it can be much fun.

Ghost Sliding
It works on any level with a ghost. While riding a ghost, strafe to the right. If you hop out, the ghost will push you. This is useful for pushing you through doors where you aren't supposed to be. For instance, at the end of Attack on the Control Room, there is a door that’s closed until you push a button. After opening, enemies will come and attack you including one with a sword. The sword guy gets annoying on harder difficulties. Instead of opening the door by pushing the button, strafe with the ghost and hop out before hitting the door. If done right, you will be pushed through the door into the next room with a bunch of frozen enemies. Punch them, slap them, shoot them, do whatever you want with them they won't move. This is just of one of many examples of what you can do.

How to get a Banshee into a Cutscene
Note: Co-op only. On the level assault on the control room, at the last open area, when you come out onto a bridge and there are some grunts, some elites and two banshees; run really quickly to one of them while your partner kills the covent. Get in and fly to the really big door that is the beginning of the last part of the mission. Your partner can kill himself and respawn there for the sake of speed. Open the door and kill all the covenant until you get to the last door (the one before the final cutscene of that level). While one person opens the door the other should fly at it with the banshee (this takes timing, get a save point before you try it), and start from there again if you mess up. If done correctly the banshee will be in the cutscene as it starts. If you are really lucky then the banshee may run over MC during the cutscene!
 * No Enemies At Assault On The Control Room Note: Co-op only. On the first bridge, have one person go to the lower floor. Jump off onto the wall/cliff and land on the side. Then have the other person die. Wait for the other person to get teleported. Bring the second person to the lowest part of the cliff and make sure he can die in one punch. Have the first person run to him and hit him while moving and then jump off of the cliff, staying by the wall. You will be moving to fast for the other person to be respawned. But if you do it right, you will hit a cliff lower than the one you were at, and for less than a second, you will be alive (although you aren’t able to notice by watching you fall). At that time, if you did it right, the second person should be respawned at the lower cliff. Then wait for the first person to respawn. Go to the lowest spot on that cliff by the trees where the marines are (at the lower level). At the lowest spot at the cliff, fall down. Make sure you stay by the wall. This may take a few tries, but if you do it correctly, you will be alive, probably with no shield and one life bar left. Then go to the door, and get the checkpoint. At that point, there will be no enemies, marines guns, or ammo. But there will be blood (where there would be ammo from dead marines) and transportation. There will be no more enemies for the rest of the level.

No Flood or Sentinels Attack On The Last Level
Note: Co-op only. As you reach the part where you would go to the armoury and then go and blow open the ports, have your friend stay outside in the corridor. Then when you enter the armoury or the Exhaust area the floor and the Sentinels will not appear. This allows you to blow open the Ports and Run through the door towards the grav lift. Your friend will then teleport to you near the Grav Lift. Voila a major hassle avoided.
 * Disappearing Flashlight - Whenever you pick up a camouflage and you try to use your flashlight, the light from the flashlight won't shine.
 * Three Guns on the First Level - Towards the beginning of the game, there is a way to bypass the two weapon limit and carry three weapons at once. On the first level, make your way to the bridge. After speaking with the captain, quickly run out of the bridge before the chapter name disappears. If you were fast enough, the checkpoint at the door will not trigger. Now run to the mess hall and get your Assault Rifle and another weapon. Now, run back to the bridge and trigger the checkpoint. When you go back towards the mess hall, the pistol will appear in your hands, and you will be carrying three weapons instead of two. Each gun reloads and exchanges normally. Note: This only lasts for the first level.

Top of Silent Cartographer
There are a few way to reach this area:
 * Get a Warthog and do the Warthog jumping trick with an overshield to fly yourself over on top of the island.
 * Get a Warthog through the tree barrier and park it to the left of the last big rock up the small hill. Then, pick up an overshield and go back to the Warthog. Get on top of the Warthog and throw a plasma grendade on the Warthog. Wait 2 seconds and jump. The blast should throw you up onto the top of Silent Cartographer.
 * Go past the tree barrier to the Hunters. Kill 1 and pick up the overshield. Make the remaining Hunter fallow you to the big rock where the last trick was performed. When the hunter slashes you on the second slash you will go up. Jump at this time and the Hunter will hit you up onto the top of Silent Cartographer.
 * Go past the tree barrier, kill all enemies and Hunters, and pick up the overshield. Get a fragmentation grendade and jump on top of the rock, where the last 2 tricks were performed. throw the grenade straight down and time it so the blast will throw you on top of the Silent Cartographer.
 * In Co-op get a Warthog through the tree barrier and make your partner get into the gunner. Park the Warthog where you did in trick 2 and aim the gunner to the smallest part of the ledge. Make the driver get out and jump on the gunner's gun. Run and jump off the gunner and you should be able to reach the top of Silent Cartographer.

Unlimited Camo Trick
Select the "Assault on the Control Room" level on any difficulty in Co-Op mode. Next, skip to the part where there are two tanks, and a banshee flying over you just before a cave. You'll notice a cloak to the right of the tunnel next to some ammo. Keep Player 1 by the cloak, and have Player 2 beat the entire part just before you trigger the "Rolling Thunder" loading zone after the bridges. Now have Player 1 actually go cloaked and at that point Player 2 should walk through and trigger the "Rolling Thunder" loading zone. Player 1 will be spawned all the way down by Player 2 and for the rest of the level be cloaked without it ever wearing off. The only way it will wear off is if Player 1 (not 2) dies.

Unlimited Rockets
Select the "Assault on the Control Room" level on any difficulty in Co-op mode. Next, skip to the "Rolling Thunder" loading zone after the bridges part. Have Player 1 fire a rocket in any direction. Now, at the same exact time, Player 1 should reload the rocket launcher and Player 2 should walk through the loading zone. Player 1 will now have unlimited rockets until the end of the level. This trick will wear if it Player 1 dies, reloads, or switches weapons.

Weapon Switch
You need two controllers for this. Choose Campaign, select any level on any difficulty. Using either controller, choose what weapon you want to change. Remember what weapon you chose. Now cross a checkpoint. Save and Quit, and grab the other controller. Use the same profile you used and go back in that level. Now get a different weapon. After you do, cross another checkpoint. Save and Quit. Use the first controller you used in the beginning. Chose the same profile and level. The second weapon now has the same skin as the first weapon. It still has the same characteristics. Example: you changed the skin of a Rocket Launcher to an Assault Rifle, but it won't shoot as fast as an Assault Rifle does.

Weird Ending
At the ending of Assault on the Control Room before going straight to the control for the cutscene, after opening the doors use the ghost to go through the control room by first opening the door to the control room and get back to the ghost and ride through the cutscene, the Master Chief will get run over by the ghost and you'll see a weird ending with the Master Chief stuck on the ground but still talking with Cortana. This glitch works with single or co-op, just that one of the player have to use the ghost through the cutscene.