- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
=SKULL HISTORY=
The first appearance of the hidden skulls was revealed by the user Pirate117 on
the Bungie Forums in a topic titled "HIDDEN ITEM FOUND!!!!" What he revealed
was a secret area in "Outskirts" which contained a pair of scoped binoculars,
four frag grenades, and an Oddball skull that when picked up, it flashed the
words "Blind" on the bottom corner of the screen, and all items from his HUD
disappeared. This was a very significant find, but nobody knew what it could
mean. This caused much excitement on the Bungie Forums, which in turn leaked
into other forums and websites. Some speculated that the skull was for use in
the popular Halo comedy series "Red Vs. Blue" in order to get a full-screen
view of the action, but this "Blind Mode" only worked in single-player, so that
was ruled out. Others believed that this Pirate117 was a Bungie employee who
was setting everyone into the correct direction. Others believed he had
acquired the game before the release date, thus allowing him to have more time
to search for easter eggs such as this.
The conclusion was made that the three items together formed the phrase
"Search For Skulls", each acquiring meaning from the binoculars, four grenades,
and the skull. On a side note, the binoculars zoomed in at 8x instead of the
traditional sniper 10x; this may play an importance in the speculation as well.
It wasn't long before information about other skulls started to form together.
With a boost of confidence, many people began to extensively search all the
levels in Campaign mode, looking for more skulls. It was soon discovered that
most of the skulls could only be found in Legendary, thus scaring away the less-
than-stellar Halo 2 gamers from attempting to help solve this puzzle. With the
miniscule amount of information available about the skulls, some people took
advantage of this and reported legitimate-sounding fake skulls, thus screwing
some people up in their quest for the truth.
Lists began to be compiled, and many others tested the validity of each reported
skull, thus allowing progress to continue at a decent rate. As of now, there
have been fourteen confirmed skull findings, including the original Blind skull,
while there are still a couple odd skulls that cannot be fully confirmed or
tested due to complexities at this time.
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A list of Confirmed Skulls:
=EGATFIBGBCSIMAW=
Envy
Grunt Birthday Party
Assassins
Thunderstorm
Famine
I Would Have Been Your Daddy
Blind
Ghost
Black Eye
Catch
Sputnik
Iron
Mythic
Angry
W ??? WHUPPOPOTAMUS=COW BELL=UN-NAMED
=HEX CODE=
=SKULL EFFECTS/LOCATIONS=
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=ENVY=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Delta Halo
Words on screen: "Envy"
Effect: Active Camo takes the place of your flashlight. The camo acts just like Arbiter Active Camo.
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=GRUNT BIRTHDAY PARTY=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: The Arbiter
Words on screen: "Grunt Birthday Party"
Effect: Headshots makes enemies explode
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=ASSASSINS=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Regret
Words on screen: "Assassins"
Effect: All enemies in game are permanently cloaked.
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=THUNDERSTORM=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Cairo Station
Words on screen: "Thunderstorm"
Effect: All convenant enemies become special ops.
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=FAMINE=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: The Oracle
Words on screen: "Famine"
Effect: All found weapons have less ammo.
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=IWHBYD=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Outskirts (Spawns 1/7 attempts)
Words on Screen: "I Would Have Been Your Daddy"
Effect: AI's and NPC's say different phrases
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=BLIND=
Difficulty: Any
Level: Outskirts
Words on screen: "Blind"
Effect: There is no HUD or weapons on screen.
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=GHOST=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: UprisingWords on screen: "Ghost"
Effect:Unknown. Some reports say enemies take longer to notice you or react to your presence.
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=BLACK EYE=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Great Journey
Words on screen: "Black Eye"
Effect:Your shield does not charge normally. To charge your shields you must melee enemies. You can charge your shields into the overcharge range doing this.
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=CATCH=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Metropolis
Words on screen: "Catch"
Effect: Enemies always drop 2 plasma grenades, and it appears that all enemies will toss more grenades in general.
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=SPUTNIK=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Quarantine Zone
Words on screen: "Sputnik"
Effect: The force of certain attacks and explosions is increased dramatically. The most obvious changes are to frag grenade explosions, rocket explosions, vehicle explosions, melee attacks, and plasma attacks from turrets and vehicles. What this increase in force means is that objects tend to go flying farther, making for some very crazy battles, or for some very nice height when frag grenade jumping. It's important to note that weapon damage is NOT changed. Also, when you melee attack an enemy from the front, you will hit them so hard it will turn them all the way around - giving you the perfect opportunity to get a mortal melee blow in.
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=IRON=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: High Charity
Words on screen: "Iron"
Effect:When playing co-op, if either player dies the game restarts you at your last checkpoint. This effects all difficulties. Normally this only happens on Legendary.
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=MYTHIC=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Sacred Icon
Words on screen: "Mythic"
Effect: Unknown. Apparently enemies have more health, making them harder to kill, but this has not been proven.
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=ANGRY=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Gravemind
Words on screen: "Angry"
Effect: Grunts shoot much faster, and the Angry skull is the only known skull that can be cycled through, allowing you to use the skull as a third weapon.
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=UN-NAMED=
Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Armory
Words on screen: No words appear
Effect: Makes enemies more aware of your location.
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=JNAM ACRONYM=
Information given by Spar10
Also avery high possibility of being correct.
catche002.map file - Skull Order
The following are the seven Skulls related to the hints in the catche002.map file.
ASSASSINS
Hint: Watch your back, the Covenant are having a sale on Active Camo.
Obviously, it's the Assassins Skull. All enemies are camouflaged.
100% Assassins.
JUGGERNAUT
Hint: Brace yourself for baddies with overshields and boomsticks.
It's the Thunderstorm Skull. Overshields and boomsticks? That means the enemies are tough. But that means that the Mythic Skull can also be the one Juggernaut relates to (remember the Flood Juggeernaut? When you obtain the Mythic Skull, killing one of the Combat Forms was like trying to kill a Hunter with an SMG -- on Heroic).
60% Thunderstorm. 40% Mythic.
NOSFERATU
Hint: Sure you're tough, but now you must suck to survive.
Vampires suck blood. Nosferatu was a vampiric creature. Shields don't recharge, so we have to 'suck' shields to live.
100% Black Eye.
SAY WHAT?
Hint: Be poised if other emotional scenes tend to errupt. The only Skulls with names relating to emotions are Envy and Angry, but Envy is connected to MAKEOVER. So Angry remains. However, 'poised' means to stay in balance/steady; when your allies are in battle, they stay calm and steady by making funny remarks... instead of getting all pissed off and screaming.
30% Angry. 70% I Would Have Been Your Daddy.
HUDLESS
Hint: Go commando! Clear your screen of pesky status indicators.
Self-explanatory. 100% Blind.
DISEMBODIED SOUL
Hint: Experience the miserable existence of the Disembodied Soul.
It's the Ghost Skull. If allies and enemies don't flinch, then their 'soul' or 'sense of touch' is disembodied.
100% Ghost.
MAKEOVER
Hint: Who says the Masterchief always has to wear green?
It's the Envy Skull, because MC gets a new 'look' with Active Camouflage -- which only the Envy Skull can give.
100% Envy.
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<Continued>