- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Definately play with better players. It will take a good few months (playing around 3-4 hours daily) for a halo 2 noob to become even somewhat decent at halo 1.
Play on XBC. It is not a great judge of skill but it will get you better at strategy and help your pistol/sniper when it comes time to LAN.
If you plan on being even somewhat competitive it is crucial to time the powerups. Most maps have the rocket respawning every 2 minutes with OS or camo every minute. If you dont know these then you WILL lose against a player who is timing. There are a variety of timers available on the internet.
Perfect the little things. Things such as negating fall damage with a well timed crouch or the tombstone jump to rocket on hangem are indespensible tools. Grenade tricks are very useful as well. If you cant contest the rocket for w/e reason then it may be a good idea to try to grenade it to yourself or to grenade sniper to counter it. In any situation knowing the grenade tricks help a tremendous amount. Im sure there are videos available on google or youtube.
Pistol. Like it or not, the pistol is THE weapon to be good with in this game. Practice it and practice it some more. You will very rarely be able to three shot anyone even on LAN. It isnt like the BR where 4shots are not that uncommon. There is less autoaim and magnestism in Halo 1 and the pistol bullets are slower than BR bullets. You have to lead just slightly. If you are new to the pistol then dont try to go for the headshots right off. 2 body shots then a head shot will suffice. If going for all headshots then make sure the bottom half of the reticle is at the top of the targets head. You will get more shots registered as headshots this way instead of having some bullets hit the body.
Develop a good strafe. A good pistol is only half the job in this game. Players move quickly. In halo 2 i guess all the spartans armor got much heavier or their muscles all atrophied or something because there is a very noticable change in pace between halo 1 and halo 2. The spartans in halo 1 have the ability to move very quickly and crouch quickly. Make sure you use this to ur advantage when strafing. Try to develop a style that works for you. Mix it up with long strafes and short strafes to try to throw your opponents reticle off of you. Throw in a crouch here and there as well in case hes going for head shots. Jumps ive found do not work as well because spartans do not jump that high in h1 and when you take your thumb off of the control stick you cant aim at your opponent anyway giving him an easy second to land 2 body shots and kill you.
Use the glitches. Backpack reloading is essential in almost every situation. It ensures that you have a gun out at all times so that you are not left defenseless will reloading. Just press XXY to do a backpack reload. Double melees are often helpful when your opponent has an overshield or is just very close to you. Just press BLB. Be wary of the grenades though.
Just because your reticle is red it doesnt mean that your bullets will always hit. When using a weapon like a sniper, especially on xbc try to run with your target while keeping the reticle over their head or body and this will more than likely nail a hit on him. You cannot just assume the bullets will hit if the reticle is red.
With the plasma rifle, stun-lock a player by shooting at him from a fairly close range then circlestrafe him (while still firing) so he cannot shoot back in your direction.
Its a bit much to ask for a new player to memorize the spawn traps and spawn points but they can be very useful when one does know them. I know ive seen spawn maps of hangem, wizard, and longest, but i dont know about the other maps.
Key is to practice and be patient. It isnt uncommon to play your first game of Halo 1 on xbc and lose 50-0 in a 2v2 game, and odds are you will not score a kill in any 1v1 situation for a while. Do not get frustrated. No one does well at first. It takes practice and time. When you do start to become good at this game though, there is no greater feeling of satisfaction in any other console fps.