Pump the trigger of the Assault Rifle as if it were a Battle Rifle, for any enemy outside of ten feet. The jump in effectiveness is crazy.

I hear there is some holy grail about the double melee, aka the BxB combo from Halo 2, that people have found in Halo 3? I know nothing of this, yet I've speculated upon it's existence after witnessing some buffoonery in higher ranking sword matches.

As for tips: besides switching weapons instead of reloading in a face-to-face showdown, the BR is my weapon of choice, with maintaining a medium distance from the target being my tactic of choice.

You mentioned this in the other thread Willer, but maybe some people don't know you should crouch a move if you don't want to show up on the radar. As a corollary, you can set your crouch button so that it's a toggle instead of having to hold it down constantly.

What's the advantage of crouch jumping? Just not being detected?

I'm ashamed to know this, b/c I HATE the sword, but pressing "X" after a lunge will allow you to more quickly give a second lunge, or melee.

I want to kick Bungie in the nuts for having created the sword in multiplayer. It is so gay. But I play Lone Wolves alot, and sword games are all too common.

As for BR, aiming for their body to take the shields down and then the head for the kill is the method that works for me. I live and die by my BR. 3 bursts to will lower shields, and one burst to the melon will result in a kill. I get 4 burst kills all the time.

Also, learn to master grenades. A well-placed grenade at a players feet + one BR burst to the noggin = nearly instant kill.

If you've got the shotgun or mauler (aka mini-shotgun), follow up every close-range shot (you shouldn't be shooting them from anything but short range anyway) with a melee. EVERY one.

Never mind what I said D15AVOW3D, I think you're saying to hit the equipment button to stop the first animation so you can start the second regardless if it's a lunge or melee. I think this might be the fabled BxB that I've heard of. I'll give it a try.

D15AVOW3D, it's not too late to change your name to something less R3T4RD3D (sticks out tongue and waves hands at you).

The best advice I've ever heard for any FPS is to move into the best position for your weapons and the worst one for the enemy's. Pretty much unlocked the entire genre for me.

I tried the sword advice from D15AVOW3D, it doesn't work for me. I can not perform a second melee/lunge any faster by hitting X.

Really, again with the toggle crouch? Do that many people just not use crouch jumping, or is there actually a way to make it work with the toggle crouch?

Now that's just bragging.

The advice may be obvious in hindsight, but it often goes unimplemented. The trick is the ability to recognize when and where individual strategies and mind-sets are applicable, and the ability to switch gears three times in five seconds. You've got to know when to be Batman, when to be Leon, and when to go apesh*t.

For me, my goal is not to win, but to perform. The feedback most appropriate to this goal is not who the announcer says won, but the Kill/Death ratio. You want that sucker high, double digits if possible. To that end, the most important priority is not killing, but surviving. The denominator is more influential than the numerator. This means sticking to defensible positions, having a paranoid awareness of your surroundings, and knowing when you're outgunned.

This requires the giving up of opportunities. The battlefield is essentially an endless buffet of potential engagements. Cherry pick the good ones. Taking an opportunity means exposing yourself, a cardinal sin, so make sure it is worth it. Would victory be a sure thing? How quickly could I be back in cover? It is vital to recognize that you always have a choice. Use it. Most people do not, and chase after every opponent as if delicious candy was going to pop out of their armor. This is ineffective behavior.

After the battle is over, the most important thing is not the points earned, but that you're alive and available to take on upcoming opportunities; but your opponents are stuck watching a respawn counter and are not able to take opportunities. The ten to twenty seconds you've gained by not dying more than makes up for possible kills lost because you decided it wasn't worth it.

A man chooses, a slave obeys.

That would be worthy of a videogame splashscreen or something... if it weren't already talking about video games

Willer... how can you use the laser so damn well?

I think what Danjo is saying is the way Halo should be played, smartly, but it's not the way it IS played in the higher ranks, it's played fast. I know GWJ maybe the wrong place for lone wolf slayer and more for the zombieskate crew (I love me some brains too) but a high K/D spread in the higher ranks will result in a loss. The end result of those matches tends to be everyone having 20 some odd kills and 20 some odd deaths. If you play conservative for just one moment, you may save a death, but you'll be denied that one kill that may keep you in the top half. You have to find people fast and trade your life for theirs ASAP, there's no time for hiding, no time to Cherry pick your battles. I have always strived for that high K/D, but it's of no use in the higher skilled games. I'm slowly starting to hate that about Halo, but I can't stop playing.

I fully submit that my strategy is perhaps not one for moving up ranks. I hate ranks. This is just how I have fun, and in the process usually have a metric sh*t ton of kills. Also, in the first post the request is on how to "not die so much." In hindsight, my response was to say, "try not dying so much," which is an ass thing to say and I didn't mean it like that. A better way of putting it: Don't be blinded by bloodlust.

Soul and Ben Franklin are right, though, a death saved is a kill earned.