How to Kill A Spartan | Lore and Theory 

Rule #1. Make sure there's no boss music

We all know that all you need is an overcharged plasma pistol shot followed by a headshot.

Aa as a soldier: every Army, no matter how powerful, can be defeated in a ambush.

Step 1: Be a Sniper Jackel during the first Battle of Earth and battle of Installation 05 Step 2: Find a good spot to set up Step 3: Wait Step 4: Enjoy a nice refreshing mug of Spartan tears

Spartans are subject to the same rule that applies to real life war today, which is that you're very likely to be killed by something random and completely beyond your control. Even a Spartan as capable as the master chief could have unceremoniously met his end if he'd hit his head on a big rock after jumping from Truth's ship. Or if the Covenant attacked Cairo station before attacking the Malta. Or if he just ran out of time one of the many times that he ran away from something about to explode. The whole "luck" thing always seemed cheesy to me, but if Cortana could really be so sure that it was an intrinsic trait of his, then it really was the most valuable trait a Spartan could possess.

This reminds me of Destiny's Gurdians thing they kinda go after. "Devotion inspires bravery. Bravery inspires sacrifice. Sacrifice, leads to death".

Something to note about an ambush. It's not JUST about catching your enemy unaware, it's about catching your enemy in a trap that you have planned ahead of time. If you are setting an ambush then you probably know what your enemy is packing and have a plan for how to defeat it, much like the insurrectionists using the anti grav plate. With this in mind it shouldn't be surprising that this is how most Spartans die. Their enemies are planning ahead of time to kill them specifically, which can be rather hard to react to.

Remember this, even a grunt has a possiblity to kill a spartan (including you) if they have not only the BALLS, but also the opportunity...

I mean you ever walk around a corner in halo 2 to a raging brute and get absolutely bludgeoned to death. Understandable

From an irl military perspective, I think that this issue has more to do with doctrine and the deployment of spartan teams. How often are delta force, seal team 6, or the SAS ambushed? Never. Nobody should know that they are coming and if they do get ambushed then it is probably because they hung around too long. There are no weapons without weaknesses, so the officers in charge of deploying spartan teams should keep that in mind.

I wish there was a 3rd person headhunters game thats similar to ghost recon, showing true spartan speed and strength being able to overpower almost any enemy but the enemy AI is smart enough to team up and take you down so you have to plan unless your feeling brave, constantly stalked by silent shadow members, different planet biomes as maps, get called demon like a bad ass

no matter how strong the warrior, how meticulous their training, or how durable the armor they wear. they're only human; overwhelm their senses, bury them under might of numbers. in the end it doesn't matter, they're only human, and that is all that's needed.

"How to kill a spartan?" 343 Industries has entered chat

Walk up behind them and hold melee

You forgot the Sangheili Field Marshal that snipped Kat with a Needle Rifle from a Phantom

Could you please do a video on “If Elites/Brutes got the Spartan augmentations”. Would be REALLY cool to hear you theorize about that! Great video as always!!

First, ambushes are easily among the deadliest scenarios to find oneself in during war, because ideally the group performing the ambush have all the cards, while the group being ambushed have none. Second, I recently read The Fall of Reach for the first time, and one point that stood out was the chapter in which the Spartans get their Mjolnir armor, but with the energy shields. Chief takes note that, because of the shielding, he'd subconsciously allowed himself to take chances he wouldn't have prior, noting that it could form bad habits. Much like how in Vietnam, American fighter pilots had become so reliant on missiles and their lock-on capabilities, that many had forgotten how to properly dogfight with guns (in fact, because of missiles, there were some variants of F-4 Phantoms that were produced without a machine gun).

Hmm... What I'd argue when it comes to an Ambush is that the Spartans have _MOTION_ Detectors, if the subject can remain still, or make very subtle movements, the Motion Tracker won't pick up the movements (You can try this for yourself in the games, have someone just crouch and move very slowly towards you from behind. The MT won't see them). The other thing to remember is that in most cases, someone making an ambush always has the "Home Field Advantage", they know the area better than you do, and will exploit that to their advantage.

Spartans never die, they just go missing in action.

Spartans have the same weakness real life special operations have. Putting a small team up against a larger force somewhat works out if there is a mismatch in technology or training but if the larger force is just as skilled and just as advanced it turns into a slaughter pretty damn quick Plus a larger force can bring more equipment suited to the situation. A good thought analysis would be thinking about how likely a 2 man spartan team would be able to take down a 12 man spartan team if the group of 12 was the ones doing the ambushing.

Trick them into going in a pool ez

I think a fair few of the deaths were lone Spartans, if we look at those specifically we could perhaps say the Spartans weakness is their team training, they arent quite as top tier on their own due to being incapable of watching their own six. But the team takedowns are harder to explain.

During my time in the military (US), this is exactly how we are taught how to fight. Super-soldier or not, if you get caught off guard and the enemy gains fire superiority, you’re dead. Look up the books “One Bullet Away” and “Starship Troopers” both go into incredible detail on the proper mindset to have when it comes to being victorious in battle.

Easy counter, give the Spartans Micro Drones, the size of flies, to go out before them and not be seen, they will have a 360 real time picture at all times!

spartan training should include some oni spook sensitivity training to guess traps. and more king of the hill to solo mass ambushes, as well as unarmored training against armored spartans to simulate overwhelming enemies. spartans are too used to being the big and smart ones, leading to a lacking vigilance to the bigger and smarter fish in the ocean. reinforcing armor against blunt trauma (roll cage), core vital sacrificial plates (allowing for one more misstep) and some oni spook esoteric sensor and ping tech would greatly improve the effectiveness of spartans against overwhelming single, lucky amassed or very sneaky foes. the mjolnir black passive stealth layer should be standard too.

I played Halo CE, and I can confirm ambushes are effective af.

I was going to make a very ""Orignal" and no doubt "'creative"" comment about a back alley Jackal, but when you think about it, that's exactly what they were doing on Halo 2 in that alley. It was a perfect bottleneck ambush with a high power sniper.

An ambush is the only thing possible short of orbital bombardment or equivalent. If the enemy is faster stronger and more resourceful than you, you either throw overwhelming force at it which may not work, or you find a way to negate as many of their advantages as possible. There might be survivor bias (heh ironic) too, in that all the attempted but failed ambushes weren’t logged into the books/games.

Marine here, back in boot camp, during our Crucible, one of the many events that occur is the execution and implementation of an ambush. Being on the receiving side of that, they can happen instantly without any cue there is something about to happen. After this happened, I remember coming up to my Drill Instructor, requested permission to speak to him, and asked if there is anything one can do when an ambush happens. He replied "Nope, best you can do is try to squeeze a round off before you die". A crazy world warfare is. You could be the very best of all, and still, an ambush might be your end.

How to defeat Spartans TLDR: “Bushwack the mfs”

You dont... you pray that something more important happens in another part of the galaxy.

I mean Spartans are all about going head first (normally) so being ambushed sounds about right. I think it’s fair to say it’s a flaw that they could even go into and make into a-bit of story.

that is interesting, could you make a video on how to make up for this flaw, whether its a newer peice of tech that involves a greater sense of awareness or training that makes up for this flaw entirely?

In Halo The Flood, Master Chief almost gets "ambushed" by enemies he had already spotted previously he realizes that it was because Spartans are trained to work as a team covering each others backs and weaknesses, so he worked like that by himself until he realized he was alone and needed to stop fighting as if he was in a team with other spartans or marines whenever he was alone.

+ My respects to the scene with Keyes's speech to Marines... "Now show those scaly bastards: They F...ed with the Wrong Planet!!!"

It’s not really ambushes it’s isolation and bad leadership, Spartans need to stick together and they should have more say so considering their value.

Spartans survive every ambush until they die to one. Its not a flaw - its simply the odds.

Glassing them seems to work, Source "reach"

**Halo 2 Jackal Sniper has entered the chat...**

00s accent is so thicc the auto captions wrote "spaans" instead of "spartans"

Would’ve been funny to have a random cutaway meme with the UNSC/ONI goin “why you still watching?” In the intro lol

"Die? Didn't you know? Spartans never die." -Kurt

I really wish they'd flesh out how Leonidas got back onto the training startion. Unless it was just a fragment left in somones armor. I doubt jun would plug him back in.

Humanity on the 26 century shot themselves in the foot everytime they halved the budget.

@Installation00 Supposition: being "humanity's greatest warriors" doesn't necessarily mean anything. That they're "supposed" to be the best doesn't necessarily mean that they are, or that that means anything. You also forgot Sheila being killed by a squad of Elites, and an unnamed Spartan getting killed by an Elite and a lance of Grunts as early as 2531. The existence of the Hand of Atriox seems to suggest that Spartan-Killing is a matter of preparation, mindset, method of approach, and skill, rather than anything else. I'd say that all of this simply confirms what had always been obvious: Spartans were powerful enough to make a difference, and well-trained enough to almost never be caught unaware or off-guard. But it doesn't matter how good a soldier you are, when your enemy outmaneuvers you and starts a fight on their terms.

When you see Locke and his team whizzing around... you could easily assume = They can just fly off and escape. It's obvious now it's been retcon and that Spartans are back to being a walking tank.

I feel like this is reverse survivorship bias, spartans may get killed or defeated in an ambush but how many more ambushes have they foiled or overcame. If you get ambushed by overwhelming force its hard to fault them when 1/100 finally gets them and the more spartans there are the more likely it is to happen

Great concept and execution for a video.

The one thing that would counter any form of ambush if it’s not already included in a Spartans electronic suite on their suit is if they were to develop a module similar to the one that was developed in the first alien movie that measures disturbances in molecular density or air pressure,so that way if you have somebody sneaking up on you or you have somebody who is cloaked and trying to strike you from behind regardless of if your attention is fully forward facing that system would be able to defend you and give you an advance warning of any potential ambush .

Imagine going through everything it takes to become a Spartan, and your first op is a suicide mission where you die quickly, lol. Don't even get to enjoy being a Spartan lol.

Another great video.

It’s literally impossible to anticipate every possible ambush without having precognition.

“Didn’t you know? Spartans never die” Kurt Trevelyan

Outnumber the Spartans, attack from multiple aspects at the same time and put immense pressure, surprise them and make traps for them if possible. Use far more advanced technology (like the covenant).

Now we’re all gonna be on ONI’s watch list for watching this 😅

Where is the beginning cutscene from? I love halo! And can’t imagine I’m missing out on any kind of halo content

@Installation00 Left out the Silent Shadow ambushing Bianry Headhunters Roland B210 and Jonah B283.

Unless you’re Vannak. Then an Arbiter just casually walks up and stabs you with a needler needle with almost no resistance or assistance.

"Got a job for you 621, this request comes from the United Rebel Front"

Kinetic movement is important for any fire fight as a 0311 if it’s lost you lose where trained to ramp up in ambush push out fire in all directions to suppress assess and kill so makes sense small units that get jumped losing out we have a whole squad with motor or machine gun in our patrol still don’t always come out on top

Interesting theory. I like it.

8:21 Problem of statistics; sudden, short term action that ends as quickly as it arrived. A "blip" is likely, but when and how strong is unknown in advance.

Probably the fact that even though they're Spartans, they don't have complete situational awareness at all times. Cal is a good example of that. She absolutely bodied that brute in a straight up fight, but when attacked fast enough even she wasn't able to react in time. The Spartans either need upgraded armor and sensor packages, or better small unit tactics.

After reading a third of the books, beyond weapons and Mjolnir armor, a Spartans greatest weapon is intel and ambush, despite being 7-ft tall and in heavy amor they are all sneaky and covert. It only makes sense that they too would be subject to ambushes.

Installation00 could you please do a most detailed about the Artemis-class battlecruiser, please.

Man, this is some info we need to keep away from the enemy. Whoever that maybe nowadays.

I'm in the middle of reading Silent Storm and thought back to this video. Even back in basically year one of Spartan Operations Johnson and Crowther already exposed the Spartans weakness to numbers and ambushes. It seems like their training brought them up more as part duelists, part ODST. Where they operate very well with the addition of the shock factor. But being a known factor has led to a glaring weakness pretty much glowing red. Thematically though, it in my eyes lends itself to the saying "No man is an island..." a lone Spartan despite being extremely capable can only do so much. Pg76-78

"Spartans never die, there just missing in action"

Sounds like the successful ambushes were done while they were preoccupied, in a firefight, or dealing with something else, when they are ambushed, would lead them to not see it coming from behind. Also, they have motion trackers, so if the enemy stays still in a dark place, they can still pull off a successful ambush. The issue is they are entering areas that have not been properly scouted prior to going in, or they are the scouts themselves.

Thanks, this will be very useful for later:)

Kate from reach you’d think a EMP grenade was your best friend to complete the task

Haven’t seen the video yet but take a shot when he mentions Linda.

“Sam sacrificed himself to make sure the nukes went off. Also, he couldn’t escape”. In the meantime the pilots who actually had a choice not to go and sacrificed their lives in a nuclear blast so the rest of the mission could happen: “are we jokes to you? Why does no one remember us?”

I'm just curious did ONI not install the overload on the suits Fusion drive or did the UNSC take them out, because when a spartan dies the drive is supposed to go critical and destroy everything within a couple meters

logically speaking their advanced reaction speed goes into overdrive whilst in combat but not out of combat so it makes sense that if you can ambush and kill or incapacitate them before this ability fully activates they lack the speed they need to be the killing machines they normally are

Atriox is such an awesome, intimidating, and perhaps overpowered antagonist. I hope to see more of him and eventually defeated by John-117 in time.

n00b combo does the trick all day

A Ghost splatter should do the trick

I believe it’s in the manner in which they are trained they’re probably never trained in anti-ambush procedures or anything like that the higher-ups really see them as the ones doing the ambush not getting ambushed

Most Spartan IIIs did NOT get shields or Mjolnir armor, thus you really have to remove MOST of the first two companies as they don't really meet the baseline for consideration here.

ambushes typically tilt the relative combat power heavily to the ambusher’s side, even as a smaller force. the element of surprise is crazy effective. in civi terms, ambushes are like getting robbed. the aggressor always has an advantage. spartan or not.

Spartans have been taken down by far less. The single Infection Form that almost killed Chief, and the Zealot that steamrolled and would’ve stabbed Six if not for Kat. There’s a Grunt in the Swords that spars with Elites. Spartans’ strength was always shock, cohesion, and force, but their force has usually been matched and the shock has long since worn off. Coupled with the fact most factions are using each others’ tech, and it’s no wonder the Banished is as strong as they are.

I was under the impression that the second class of 2s were trained as it had been stated Nicole from Dead or Alive was canon but the events werent canon

From what I heard it took 17 years to take out some Spartan 2's(John's generation) and the Spartans after that fell kinda abit frequently

The one thing to take into account on a lore level is that the motion trackers are shown to not have any sort of IFF reading capabilities at least as of Mk.4 and 5 in literature. For Mk.6 and 7 I don't personally know of any lore that states of any change in that respect. But I distinctly remember a passage in The Fall of Reach where blue team was on a mission and the wind blowing through the forest surrounding them caused a plethora of contacts on the detection interface. And even if there is an IFF reading capability, there's no telling if that "Unaligned" ping is inconsequential noise, an animal, or an enemy. Even with the training and drilled universal thought of "Trust your instincts, senses and experiences most. Equipment can break, or fail." into the spartan 2's in particular. You sit with a piece of tech/equipment long enough and don't keep that mentality, you can have all the best senses in the world and then still be taken off guard. When it comes to the first Spartan encounter (Before the oddity of things that Halo Wars was when depicting spartans) with brutes in first strike, it wasn't a full ambush. It was an underestimation of the strength and durability of them. Chief almost being choked out as mention, and Grace actually being killed in that fight. Spartan 3's were made as disposable "Super soldiers". Augments to their systems that let them keep fighting far after mortal wounds would have put others into shock or straight up unconsciousness until the "Battle high" drops. Disposable heroes with augments that helped, but no shielding, comparatively little armor assist for further strength and reflex enhancement. More comprehensive but ultimately lesser quality armor plating. The only edge against any "Spartan" armor (Though not actually of the program in the slightest anyways.) was it's photoreceptive camo system. Spartan 4's may have had onboard dumb AI's to help on the battlefield but even they are fallible. More so than smart AI's which even with Cortana, we see have the very human trait of being able to overlook something, not take something into account, figure that something is not of consequence. Dumb AI's are analytical machines with pre-programmed personalities that only can attain potential True free thinking if their databanks and system are large enough and rampancy begins. Think the AI that ran Tiara station over Harvest. Anyone can be taken by surprise, be distracted, overwhelmed, outmatched by initial underestimation. Also Red team by description is a team of rehabilitated washouts that were able to go through the failed portions of their augmentations successfully a second time. Perhaps to a lesser degree than the rest of the non washouts. That said if you've stuck with me again. Outside of overwhelming force and extreme tight and appropriate tactics, an ambush is your best bet at taking down your enemy. Even the ultimate professional will ultimately be on the back foot until there's a lull where they can fully collect themselves, no matter how well steeled your mind is. Surprise is surprise.

The reason mostly is lack of support. That's why the "ambushes" are successful.

In summary. A weakness of us Spartans is getting jumped

"How to kill a spartan" 1. Have paramount make a live action series of them

Simple, plot

Spartans never die, they're just missing in action.

Most spartan 11’s sent to reach died defending the generators when a covent ship glassed the base. I think no more than 4 died from the jump

To be fair to them, the ambushes that killed the Spartans are only the ones that worked. Spartans were always meant to be offensive powerhouses, not defensive, and they prove that by being eminently aware, prepared, and competent as aggressors. They successfully evade or counter a threat nearly every time they’re given the slightly opportunity to do so, and the very nature of an ambush removes that ability. Getting crushed by a brute in a confined space is about as inevitable as getting hurt from a fall at terminal velocity, and an ambush removes all opportunity to respond to that danger.

One of the things that us military does differently than some of allied forces is when ambushed they are trained to not hold position but instead charge forward because of the unexpected action. Spartans were either kidnapped or saved turned into Spartans or you had the Gen 4s. Gen 4s are a standard soldier with armor. Gen 3s are more ruthless and reckless than the Gen 2 while the Gen 2 was taught your team is important and you can sacrifice yourself. Instead of training to hold the line and be unkillable they were shown they had weakness since the beginning this does limit them. They were also broken humans mentally as the augmentation did a number on the mind

How hard is it to kill a spartan? 343: Super esay barly an inconvenience.

I think it’s a testament to the general quality of Spartans that a large amount of the single deaths are from ambush.

You know what is funny about ambush tactics being used to beat Spartans? Spartans should be masters of ambush tactics since that was what they're originally made to do. Also that time that blue team got captured and Kurt rescued blue team? that only happened because the rebels got more or less enough intel on what Blue Team is and made the necessary adjustments, otherwise I think their mission would have gone off without a hitch.

Innies are having a field day with this.

I would definitely be an ODST but would love to be a Spartan.

i never knew what happened to those spartans in Infinites campaign, you know in Halo CE when the Flood were unleashed we got that cutscene of Chief watching what happened there through that video he grabbed off the marine, the Weapon should of channeled what they saw to Chief to give us a sense of these warriors going down and gives insight of what we are going to face from the brothers to Jega like come on 343i

So, what I'm getting here is that one angry Space Marine dropping from orbit right on top of a Spartan is GG for the Spartan. Then again, I guess an angry Marine dropping in with a jump pack is GG for just about anyone within chainsword distance.