M6G PDWS Magnum
For some, the DMR will remove them a bit too far from the action. In that case, reach for your trusty sidearm. The Magnum is back and better than ever. Give it a quick squeeze and you'll get all weepy with nostalgia for the days of Halo: Combat Evolved. But wipe away that tear. There's no crying in Team Slayer. The Magnum will give you a kill in just five shots ... four to the body, one to the head. It fires faster than the DMR, but it's only really effective at close range, and shooting too quickly will throw off your aim.
It's a bit tricky, but if you can get the pacing down, people will be cursing you for your close-quarters kills. While you're at it, make sure to melee with the Magnum when the opportunity presents itself. In our opinion, it's got the best weapon-melee animation in the entire game.
M90 CAWS Shotgun
The shotgun is one of the few weapons that's good for a one-shot kill -- the catch? You'll have to meet your enemy face-to-face. The close-range effectiveness of the shotgun is balanced by its complete lack of power at medium and far ranges. A small amount of shells means you should aim well or risk getting capped during a lengthy reload.
M392 Designated Marksman Rifle (New)
We personally have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Battle Rifle from Halo 3. Basically, we love to hate it. Yeah, yeah, that probably means we don't know how to use it. But we don't know how to use a curling iron either, but that doesn't mean we need to learn how. The BR is a jack of all trades and master of none. Janky up close and lacking at range. Luckily, the BR is out of Reach in favor of the Designated Marksman Rifle. Oh, yes.
The DMR can be a lean, mean headshot machine if you know what you're doing. It's a bit unwieldy at close range, but at mid-to-long range it's deadly. Like the Magnum, the DMR takes five shots to kill (make sure the last one nails the noggin). And thanks to its dampened recoil, it feels just like shooting womp rats back home. Slow and steady wins the race.
MA37 ICWS Assault Rifle (New)
If Halo: Reach is a delicious home-cooked meal, then the Assault Rifle is the meat and potatoes. It's the go-to gun when you're in close and don't feel confident about your Magnum skills. Not terribly powerful but not particularly weak, the AR is your best friend in a pinch.
You use controlled bursts with the AR for better accuracy, but if you want to go in with your gun blazing, be our guest. Just be warned that the AR in Reach is tilted more toward accuracy than firepower, so you might come up short when the jumping around and shooting starts. Oh, also, it has a really awesome stripe on it.
Sniper Rifle (System 99D Anti-'Matériel') (New)
The Sniper Rifle has received a tech downgrade in its new iteration -- the mini-screen is gone. Nevertheless, two shots from the Sniper Rifle will kill anyone, period. It has essentially infinite range, but a limited ammo capacity, high recoil and slow load time. That doesn't mean that everyone won't run for it immediately, though, since a well-trained sniper will usually make the most kills in any match.
M319 Grenade Launcher (New)
The Covvies don't get to have all the ridiculous fun, though. The Spartans will be rolling into battle with the Grenade Launcher. This sucker fires standard frag grenades, but with a couple added bonuses. First, just like all frags in Halo: Reach, they'll do a small amount of contact damage when they hit an enemy. Probably feels like stepping in front of a ball machine at the batting cage. Thump.
But the Grenade Launcher does another trick, too. Fire it normally to launch a 'nade and watch it bounce around before a timed explosion. Or, you can hold the trigger down when you fire. It'll hang out wherever it comes to rest, waiting for you to release the trigger and blow it. This is great for sabotaging vehicle paths or terrorizing teams at score points in games like Stockpile. As if that weren't enough, these little insta-mines also throw off an EMP blast when they detonate, popping shields as they go.
M41 Rocket Launcher
The Rocket Launcher isn't as easy to use effectively as your average n00b may think. It's slow, clunky and full of death-dealing rockets that deal splash-damage to nearby foes (and you!) as well as killing anything they touch. Aim for the feet.
Spartan Laser
The awesome power of the Spartan Laser is balanced by its three second charge time. Sitting on the trigger and keeping on a bead on your target is tough when you are tracing fast vehicles -- and the Spartan Laser is the best weapon to wield against a vehicle. Many players keep a charge by constantly manning the trigger. Best if you have a good hiding spot or a large gap between you and your prey, the Spartan Laser's pinpoint pulse of death can be widened a bit by turning away just as you fire.
Plasma Repeater (New)
This one's interesting. According to Bungie, the Plasma Repeater is the Covenant answer to the UNSC Assault Rifle and essentially replaces the Covenant Plasma Rifle of old (which never really looked like a rifle to me anyway). Oh, and before you start crabbing at me about "old" and "new," let's get the timeline business out of the way now. The game takes place in 2552, just after the fall of Reach, right before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. So the weapons we're calling "new" are new to the Halo series and not necessarily to the Halo universe timeline.
Anyway, the mechanics of the Plasma Repeater are simple. Fire it too quickly for too long and it will start to overheat, which slows its rate of fire. Hit the reload button to vent it and get back to full speed. It will never stop completely, no matter how hot it gets, but you'll definitely want it operating at full capacity, so keep your eye on it.
Energy Sword
The Energy Sword is a close-range combat staple. Great for stealth kills, you don't want to run up to a firing foe with the sword, despite its crazy-fast kill potential.
Gravity Hammer
You can deal damage to crowds and send people flying with the Hammer, and it's instant death for those pinned under it. That said, the Hammer is slow. Yeah, it doles out death like no other melee weapons, but if you can sneak up on someone you have a much better chance than going all Brute on them.
Plasma Pistol
The Plasma Pistol has some cool hidden uses. When charged, it drains an enemy shield completely and also stalls vehicles -- take advantage of this, it's seriously great for stopping a rampaging Warthog duo. If you hold a charge for too long, you'll lose it and be temporarily stunned. The single-fire shots are extremely lame.
Needle Rifle (New)
The Needler is a classic Halo weapon, and it's back in Reach. But now it has a big brother. The Needle Rifle is a slower, more accurate version of the Covenant sidearm that fires translucent pink shards of crystalline death. The old Needer was a brute-force weapon that was at its most dangerous when it fired full clips of explosiveness into enemies.
Like the UNSC's Designated Marksman Rifle, the Needle Rifle can pull off headshots and long-range kills. But it can also use its little brother's explosive capabilities. Bury enough shards in your opponent, and he'll eventually explode, cursing you as he goes. This one's a bit tricky to get the hang of, especially if you're used to the pace and feel of the single-handed Needler. But it's worth playing with, because the accuracy of a rifle combined with the chaos of exploding crystalline shards is just too much fun to ignore.
Needler
The slightly-homing, rapid-fire crystals from the Needler do extra damage once they explode in your "stuck" opponent. Keep the crosshairs on target and you'll deal exponential damage. This is the ideal medium-range weapon -- it spreads at a distance and takes too long for close range.
Fuel Rod Cannon
The Fuel Rod cannon is similar to the Rocket Launcher -- slightly weaker, slightly faster. Its projectiles are slow-moving and somewhat easy to dodge at great distances.
Focus Rifle (New)
Just look at that gun for a second. If that doesn't look like a dangerous-ass alien weapon to you, then you are going to be useless in an alien invasion. To us, this is one of the coolest looking guns Bungie has ever designed. It looks like a crocodile snout crossed with one of those Dyson vacuum cleaners. Scary stuff, that. But it's not all looks. This thing backs up its evil exterior with some mean machinery.
You know those Forerunner Sentinel lasers from past Halo games? Well, the Focus Beam crosses one of those with the Covenant Beam Rifle favored by Jackal snipers. So it has the accuracy of a sniper rifle, the searing power of a continuous laser beam and, as an added bonus, a bit of a stun effect when it hits. It's truly terrifying to see this beast burning across the map. Great for picking Jet Packers out of the air, though. Flyboys, you have been warned.
Plasma Launcher (New)
Oh, Plasma Launcher. How have we lived this long without firing you? There are going to be a lot of people who claim that the Plasma Launcher is nothing but a noob tube that breaks the game. And you know what? They might be right. But that's what the Halo: Reachis all about ... finding the right balance for multiplayer. But seriously, this thing is ridiculous.
It launches up to four plasma sticky grenades at once, depending on how you choose to fire it. Shoot them off in quick succession to paint a target-rich environment, or hold down the trigger and release it after all four grenade icons light up on the weapon's HUD to nail some poor enemy or vehicle with your entire payload at once. The grenades track their targets ever so slightly, too, so be very, very careful when you see it pointed at you. Better yet, kill the guy who has it and take it from him.
Halo Reach Basics 
