Halo Waypoint

Overview

Halo Waypoint is a downloadable application for the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 developed by 343 Industries. It was released on November 5th, 2009 and serves as a central hub for Halo-related content, including news, exclusive video footage, trailers, and screenshots. It also allows players to keep track of achievements in Xbox 360 Halo games, as well as allowing players to unlock avatar awards for their Xbox 360 avatars and unique gear for use in Halo: Reach.
 
Some Giant Bomb videos have been featured within Halo Waypoint, including "You Say Goodbye, I say Halo" (clips from the Xboxalypse event) and " Ask Me Anything: Reach Beta".

Career

One of the two key components of Halo Waypoint is the Career section, where players track their achievement progress through various Xbox 360 Halo titles, compare their progress with friends, and earn avatar awards and gear for Halo: Reach. The games currently supported are Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach. It is currently unknown if the PC version of Halo 2 will ever be supported.
 
Halo Waypoint does not provide game-specific information for Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach, such as game statistics, armor and emblem used, and matchmaking rankings, which can only be found while playing those games or through Bungie.net.
 

Career Milestones

Along with achievements, players have an experience system that ranks their progress through the games supported. Every 100 "Halo Gamerscore" (gamerscore earned through the games supported) increases the player's Career Level. Using the dates of the achievements earned, Halo Waypoint also includes the specific date they reached each particular level. As more Halo games are released, the maximum Career Level rises. The current maximum level for Halo Waypoint is level 60.
 
Originally cosmetic, Career Levels have been used to gain unlockable gear in Halo: Reach. Increasing the Carrer Level to level 50 nets players a special avatar award.
 

Waypoint Awards

Waypoint Awards are special awards earned by completing groups of related achievements. Each award has multiple "Tiers", which serve to track a player's progress with each award. As more Halo games are released, each Waypoint Award is updated. At the moment, they are purely cosmetic.
 

• Halo 3 A.C.E. (5 Tiers) - All 79 Halo 3 achievements.
  
• High Rating (6 Tiers) - 30 score-based achievements, from Score Attack achievements in Halo 3 to Firefight achievements in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach.
  
• Explorer (7 Tiers) - 32 achievements involving exploration, from finding special skulls to accessing audio logs.
  
• Joint Service (7 Tiers) - All 233 achievements.
  

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  Vehicle Specialist (5 Tiers) - 21 vehicle-based achievements.
  
• Special Weapons (5 Tiers) - 24 achievements involving unique weaponry.
  
• Deadliest Unit (7 Tiers) - 29 achievements.
  
• Warrior (5 Tiers) - 23 achievements.
  
• Team Player (3 Tiers) - 11 co-operative achievements.
  
• Distinguished Service (5 Tiers) - 26 completionist achievements.
  
• Heroism (4 Tiers) - 18 difficult achievements.
  
• Field Ops (4 Tiers) - 20 achievements.
  
• Campaign Veteran (3 Tiers) - 4 achievements that involve completing campaigns.
  
• Halo Wars A.C.E. (4 Tiers) - All 58 Halo Wars achievements.
  
• Halo 3: ODST A.C.E. (3 Tiers) - All 47 Halo 3: ODST achievements.
  
• Halo: Reach A.C.E. (4 Tiers) - All 49 Halo: Reach achievements.

 

Avatar Awards 

Halo Waypoint was one of the first Xbox 360 applications to give avatar awards. The Waypoint Monitor and ODST avatar awards were included in the original release of Halo Waypoint. The EVA Helmet was added on December 2009. The Halo: Reach Beta Hoodie was added on May 2010,
 

• Halo Waypoint Monitor (prop that resembles the 343 Guilty Spark) - Download and connect to Halo Waypoint.

  

• Halo Spartan EVA Helmet - Reach Career Level 50.
  

• ODST Shirt - (Achievement: Tourist) Accessed and downloaded the city map to your VISR in Halo 3: ODST.
  
• ODST Hoodie - (Achievement: Dark Times) Killed 5 enemies while using the VISR mode in Halo 3: ODST.
  
• ODST Helmet - (Achievement: Campaign Complete: Normal) Completed the campaign on Normal difficulty or higher in Halo 3: ODST.
  
• ODST Armor - (Achievement: Good Samaritan) - Killed no Engineers in the city at night during the entire campaign in Halo 3: ODST.
  
• ODST Dare Helmet / Recon Helmet - (Achievement: Vidmaster Challenge: Endure )  - In Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode, on any mission, pass the 4th Set on 4-player Heroic LIVE co-op.

• Halo: Reach Beta Hoodie - Participate in the Halo: Reach beta (can no longer be earned).

 

Halo: Reach Armor Unlocks

Added to Halo Waypoint during the release of Halo: Reach, reaching certain Career Levels and earning certain achievements in Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, or Halo: Reach earns you exclusive armor unlocks for use in Halo: Reach's Armory.
 
Helmet

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  Military Police: Base - Career Level 15. Earn the " The Soldier We Needed You To Be" achievement in Halo: Reach.
  
• Military Police: CBRN/HU/RS - Career Level 20. Earn the " Pink and Deadly" achievement in Halo 3: ODST. Must have Military Police: Base.
  
• Military Police: HU/RS/CNM - Career Level 25. Earn the " Fear the Pink Mist" achievement in Halo 3 and the " A Spoonful of Blamite" achievement in Halo: Reach. Must have Military Police: CBRN/HU/RS.
  
• CQB: Base - Career Level 20. Earn the " Folks Need Heroes..." achievement in Halo: Reach.
  
• CQB: HU/RS/CNM - Career Level 25.  Earn the " Campaign Complete: Heroic" achievement in Halo 3: ODST. Must have CQB: Base.
  
• CQB: UA/HUL - Career Level 30. Earn the " Campaign Complete: Legendary" achievement in Halo 3 and the " Gods Must Be Strong" achievement in Halo: Reach. Must have CQB: HU/RS/CNM.
  

 
Chest

• UA/Base Security [W] - Career Level 30. Earn the " Yes, Sensei" achievement in Halo: Reach.

 

Intel

The second major component of Halo Waypoint is the Intel section, which serves as a base for information, videos, trailers, and screenshots relating to the Halo franchise. This includes fiction on characters, events, and technologies in the Halo universe, information about books and other Halo merchanise, community content and machinima, game strategies, and the Halo Legends anime.