It probably goes without saying that there are many, many very good guns in Halo Infinite. There are guns for close-range encounters, like the handy Bulldog shotgun. There are guns for long-range encounters, like a pair of sniper rifles and, if the target is slow enough, a few launchers. There are guns to take down shields, guns that specialize in unshielded headshots, guns for disabling vehicles. If you’ve got a problem, Halo Infinite has a gun to solve that problem.
Now I’m asking you to ignore all of them.
As great as the guns are in Halo Infinite, there’s something even better: exploding rectangles. They’re called Fusion Coils, and you’ll see them litter both multiplayer maps and campaign missions. In a traditional first-person shooter, they’d act as your exploding barrel: Shoot it once, and kablooey. That’s fun and all, but it does rely on enemies standing casually next to the rectangle, which doesn’t always happen.
In Halo Infinite, you can walk over and pick up Fusion Coils before tossing them at enemies. This is also pretty fun, but the process is too slow to feel fluid. Try walking over to pick up your desk chair while micro-aliens hurl energy grenades at you. Not ideal.
But the Fusion Coil has a best friend: the grapple. Most people use the grapple in Halo Infinite’s campaign to get around the open-world map after having accidentally spun their Mongoose into a ravine. But it has way more utility than that. Specifically: It can grab Fusion Coils and drag them to you, letting you prep a Hail Mary all while maintaining a dead sprint.
Halo Infinite’s designers have cleverly filled just about every map with a ton of Fusion Coils, presumably for this exact reason. In addition to looking cool, they do tremendous damage, even to armored targets like Hunters. The rocket launcher may have lost a step or two over the years, but these exploding lunchboxes fill that gap with vigor.
Halo Infinite campaign pic.twitter.com/PD2RDfAtN1
— alyssa mercante (@alyssa_merc) December 9, 2021
I’m sad to say that there will be times when you’ve used up all the Fusion Coils in an area. You may think that you should go back to guns at that point, but fight that urge, my friends. The grapple isn’t done yet.
Early on in Halo Infinite’s campaign, you may find yourself wanting to spread out your upgrade points across different skill sets, improving your shield or your radar system, perhaps. This is folly. You should spend every single point you have on maximizing the grappling hook.
The first few upgrades are obviously good, speeding up the tool’s recharge rate and letting you freeze in place enemies that are hooked. But keep going. The third upgrade will give you an improved melee attack when you hook onto a target and punch them as you’re being dragged forward, resulting in a shockwave. Once fully maxed out, this punch lets loose a large electrical explosion, wrecking just about anything within a 20-foot radius of the punch.
It’s even great for tougher enemies like armored Elites with swords, who can be stun-locked and repeatedly punched until they fall down. There is literally no gun in Halo Infinite capable of taking down a single armored target more effectively than the super electro punch — and that’s all without requiring a single bullet.
I’m sure folks will say that shooting guns will make your journey through the Halo Infinite campaign a bit faster and perhaps safer. But more fun? Hell no. Guns can never compete with the holy rectangle and its forever pal, the grappling electro fist.
Source: Polygon
