Halo 3 Multiplayer: 10 Tips to help you Rank – Part 1

Please see Part 2 (Tactics) at the end of this article.

So if you’ve been playing alot of Halo 3 like i have, you may not have the easiest time getting your rank up. Whether it’s the team of noobs the matchmaking system has put you on, or the other team of elite ninja’s that dominate your every spawn, getting those 5 or 10 or 20 experience points quickly can be a difficult task.

First, let me run down how the Halo 3 ranking system works. For skill points, TrueSkill uses an algorithm to widen your uncertainty factor (for losses) and narrowing the uncertainty factor for wins. Have a bunch of bad games in a row, your skill stat goes down (uncertainty factor widens). Have a killer session, and your stat skill goes up. You can lose a match and not lose a skill point. You can also win a match and not gain one. Another thing to note, in my experience i never gained or lost more than 1 skill stat per match. You can gain more than 1 skill point – for example if you are 17 and real close to 18, and have a killer game where you come in #1 mvp and get 15 medals, you could jump right to 19. It can go the other way, too..

For your character’s rank, you only gain experience points when your team wins the match in a team based game, or you finish above the last half of the scoreboard in a non-team based game. So for instance, if you are on a Social Rumble match with 5 players, and 4 players tie for 2nd place, all 4 players will get an experience point. You do not however lose exp points for losing a match. The only way you lose exp points is by leaving games, whether it be because you are taking a severe beating and you can’t stand it, or your connection drops.

You do not need skill points until you reach 70 experience points (liutenant). So i would suggest playing games where you can get alot of exp points now and worry about getting those 10 skill points later, when you have 100-140 matches behind you.

So at this time i have around 244 matches under my belt. You can see my bunge.net profile here if you are curious about my stats. Be aware that the website stats lag behind the game stats, so they may not be up to date (See end of Article). I have lost 6 exp points due to dropped connections, all of which came last awhile back when every 3 seconds the game would look for a new host and then drop the match. DDOS?? I should have just stopped playing, but i was an idiot. So here are my tips for easier ranking (more advanced stuff covered in part 2):

1) Stop the drop and roll: during times of heavy traffic on Live, if your connection is good and you are dropped from a game, do not keep trying to play. Instead go find some skulls or gain other offline achievements. If you are dropped from more than 1 match, its not a fluke. Those points that you spent hours gaining can be lost in seconds.

2) Find some good buddies: finding some good players to join up with you and go matchmaking is one of the best ways to quickly gain stat and exp points. This way, you dont have to worry about who you will be grouped with, and if you work well as a team, you can easily dominate and get those points match after match.

3) Hit X to keep it going: if you have just wiped the floor with the other team with those strangers who got grouped with you, tell them to hit X to party up. This way you will keep playing with those gamers throughout the next matches and have a better chance of winning. If it doesn’t work out, just hit B and get out of the group.

4) No veto: If the other team or players are shouting at you to veto the upcoming map, don’t. Chances are it’s a map they are unfamiliar with, and they don’t feel comfortable playing it. Use this to your advantage to help level the playing field between you and the competition.

5) Rumble or Team?: I have been on the losing end of several battles in social slayer. You actually have a better chance doing the rumble pit, because in rumble you only have to be better than 2 of the 5 players, and ties for 1st 2nd or 3rd always give you a point.

6) Bigger is better: you also have a better chance of gaining an exp point while doing a big battle, because there are more people per team and all the winners will get a point. So in smaller team matches your contribution needs to be greater in order to win. In big battles, you may be able to get that point without doing so much.

7) Warm up: I was surprised when i went into a Halo 3 match without warming up first, and i was promptly owned by gamers who imho shouldn’t have done that to me. Going into a local map and just running/shooting can do wonders before entering an actual match.

8] Take your time: Ever wonder why sometimes it seems that, even in 1 on 1 battles, that everyone is against you? Or you get caught in every single crossfire? This is because most maps have a certain area where everyone migrates to, whether it’s on purpose or not, but most likely due to Halo 3’s online system of searching for players to kill. This usually ends up in small quick battles where 3 or 4 players will die almost simultaneously. When you respawn, all those players who died are now looking for someone to kill again. If you are first to arrive on the scene, chances are you will be shooting at the first person you see, while at the same time you are someone else’s target. To minimize this, next time you respawn, find a place to hide for 5 seconds, and then move of. Remember, timing is almost everything.

9) Radar Radar Radar: When you are crouching, you do not show up on enemy radar. Use this to your advantage to camp in areas of good weapons/power ups, and wait until some unsuspecting player goes for them. A simple melee to the back works well here.

10) Know your role: Practice makes perfect. I cannot fly a banshee worth crap. So you won’t find my trying to fly one in an online battle. Make sure you are keeping to the things you are good at. Know where all the spawns, weapons, grenades, pickups, vehicles, swords/hammers, and tactical places are on any given map. I have see players set up a bubble or a regen on Narrows – Oddball and dominate the match because they use certain areas of the map to their advantage. Copying what works well is always a good way to improve your play.

If you just got owned in a match, go into your theatre mode and watch what the #1 player did, and implement their tactics into your gameplay.

Here i have provided some of the things that i have learned, and that have helped me in Halo 3. I still have a long way to go, and it won’t be easy, but if you can help yourself in little areas, it may indeed help on your way to becoming a Halo General.

On to Halo 3 Multiplayer: Tips and Tactics part 2

From now on, I will no longer link Halo articles to my Bungie.net profile, as my stats have been reset over 5 times now. Then I get comments like the ones below, because some people aren’t smart enough to figure out the Bungie.net stats are from weeks ago, and they are not current. So at the end of this article, you can click on my service record thumbnail and view a screenshot of my current service record.