Halo Infinite is Master Chief's upcoming outing, currently in development by 343 Industries. Halo Infinite was supposed to be a launch title for Xbox Series consoles but had to be delayed due to internal reasons.
The Halo games have a rich history of iconic weapons that have evolved considerably over the years. Halo Infinite revealed a few screenshots of how its weapons look in the brand-new Slipspace engine. One of them, the Needler, has been one of the staples of the franchise, and it seems like a great time to recap on the history and evolution of this weapon.
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The Needler has been one of the Covenant's go-to weapons in the game for a long time, as the lore of Halo describes this weapon as one of the few designs that do not require Forerunner technology to function. The shards that the gun fires are said to be extracted from the Sanghelios moon of Suban. These crystals are said to have some mystical properties, which even after millions of years of study, haven't been revealed. The gun is also said to have excellent tracking skills and the capability of the shards to burst on impact makes it the perfect choice for the poorly trained Covenant soldiers. The weapon comes in two variants - a Type 33 and a Type 56. Both of them are mostly similar, except for a few differences in regards to the ammunition capacity and other stats such as the firing rate.
The Needler was first introduced in Halo Combat Evolved, with the Type-33 Munitions Launcher variant, and many consider it hard to use at long distances due to its poor tracking, which is ironic considering the lore. The projectile nature of the gun makes the shots quite easy to dodge following which players discovered that the gun's usefulness was mostly constrained to close range.
Halo 2 made the Needler one of its dual wieldable weapons, and thus, the rendition of this weapon was smaller in size in addition to a multitude of smaller changes that made it the weakest Needler of Halo. The magazine size was increased to 30 and max ammo was bumped up to 90, though. Halo 3 removed the dual-wielding feature and decreased the clip to 19 while bumping the rate of fire to balance things out, and Halo Reach further altered the stats of the weapon by increasing the clip size to 24.
Halo 5: Guardians changed up the model of the gun to a Type 56 one. This model also comes in two variants, the Hailstorm and the Talon of the Lost. The lore states the Talon of the Lost is a more advanced edition of the gun with bullets that leave a lot more impact and can potentially damage vehicles and pierce armor. On the gameplay side of things, much of it remains the same as the gun is still most effective at short to medium distances, containing 22 needles in a magazine with a high rate of fire.
While much isn't known at the time of writing, the screenshots of Needler in Halo Infinite show striking similarities to both the variants, which themselves aren't far off in the first place. A recent update by 343 Industries states that the weapons in the game are supposed to be built around tactical advantages rather than just damage points, which is a strong case for the Type 56 Needler.
Halo Infinite releases fall 2021 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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