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H4 Warthog 101

Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:02 pm

The Halo 4 Warthog

Much of this guide will resemble the one Louie created for Halo:Reach. It has been updated for Halo 4 and some of it has been written a bit more concisely.

Hog Basics

Hog Vehicle Health

Luv Gunn created an excellent video detailing the health of the Warthog against the BR and the DMR:



The hog will go through ‘stages’ of damage.

Stage 1: Small to fair amount of smoke from the hood.
Stage 2: Body panels start to come off, usually exposing the engine. Be warned, shots taken to this newly exposed area of the hog will be magnified, a well placed sniper round directly to the engine will severely damage the hog.
Stage 3: Warning beeping followed by a flaming engine. This is a warning that it’s time to walk. When the hog is on fire, it’s a ticking time bomb and more importantly a HUGE target. Only a few DMR rounds landed on any part of the hog will send you into a fireball of death.

Handling

E-Brake: Locks the rear wheels, causing the Hog to power slide (left trigger)
Foot Brake: Locks all wheels, bringing the hog to a stop (right bumper on default, A button on Recon)

The Halo 4 warthog drives more like the hog we all remember from H3. Gone is the "floatiness" from Reach. This hog is beefy. It sounds powerful and feels powerful. It again drives like it weighs 3.25 tons. Halo 4 maps are the most technically challenging of all the games thus far. Wide roads and large clearings are gone and have been replaced with narrower paths, blind corners, and extensive cover for enemies. Staying in hog-friendly clearings will lead to a short and unproductive hog run. Get to know the more compact areas of the map where the hog can hide when necessary. Practice approaches to blind corners. Avoiding fire is now just as important as doling it out.

The Turret

Turret Range

The effective range of the turret is at about mid-range. Gunners can pulse -fire to increase their accuracy at longer ranges, but a hog intending survival should work at close to mid range.

Turret Overheat

Another change to the .50 cal is how it overheats. No longer can a gunner be the ‘fire-fighter’ of the past. Short bursts work best ONLY when a target is in sight AND at a shoot-able distance as this will help the driver know when contact has been made. It’s best to keep long range fire-fights to other vehicles as the weaker turret will only alert foot soldiers to your approach. Sneak up on ground pounders and rain death from close quarters to get the most of the hog.

Loadouts and Ordnance

Customized loadouts have drastically affected the way Warthogs can attack enemies. Every person on the enemy team can spawn with a plasma pistol and two or three sticky grenades. Additionally, ordnance drops allow players to spawn any number of shoulder mounted weapons capable of destroying the Warthog. With this in mind, always try to position the warthog in such a way that the enemy has limited angles for grenade throws and always try to position yourself near cover.

Fighting Other Vehicles

The spoiler below contains a brief overview of what to do when encountering other vehicles while running a Warthog. Please keep in mind that these tactics are best used when fighting alone and do NOT have other support available to you. In any situation where other friendly vehicles can assist, bring the battle to those vehicles. Whether it’s the team’s Wraith, a Mantis, or even another Hog, always try to bring the fight back to them for added assistance.

Spoiler: show
Wraith: Wraith fights are typically successful when the Wraith is NOT aware of your presence/position. Try to maneuver behind cover often. Stay behind rocks or hills until it’s time to strike. Attack the Wraith from behind or on its side. The dark areas of a Wraith without armour should be what you aim for when possible with the circular thrust engine exposed in the back being the best choice. You’re either going to charge straight up to the back of the Wraith and spin with it so it can never face you, or you’re going to have to maneuver skillfully around rocks and other cover. A skilled Wraith pilot will be able to lead shots and put them far ahead of the hog, so be unpredictable Straight line getaways aren’t always the best option. Be mindful that it’s far easier for your gunner to shoot up then it is down, same for the Wraith. Using the subtle arch of a hill to your advantage will be well rewarded. Just always remember that you’re a true ‘underdog’ in this battle, one shot landed from the Wraith cannon and you’ll be on respawn.

Scorpion: If at all possible, do not get into a confrontation with a scorpion. Unlike the Wraith, the Scorpion can almost instantly destroy the Warthog just by looking at it. A chain hog can finish off a tank and distract it, but if the Scorpion gets a lock on a Warthog, the hog will more than likely lose.

Ghost: Ghosts cannot win battles against a healthy hog without help. Its bullets are much better suited to breaking the shields of a Spartan then they are taking down an enemy vehicle. Fighting this enemy should prove little problem, just don’t go chasing it into enemy territory as you’ll find they are most times pulling you into a trap. Be careful though, a Ghost coupled with any other teammate (vehicle or ground support) can end a hog’s run pretty quick. Whenever the fight has a Ghost coupled with another form of incoming fire, always focus the .50 cal fire on the incoming fire, leaving the driver to maneuver away/around the ghost. Leave him to last when possible as he isn’t doing much to bring you down

Banshee: With the transition from Reach to Halo 4, the one vehicle who’s received the biggest changes is the Banshee. It can track onto targets with its main cannon. However, the Banshee does not have the benefit of the flipping maneuverability of Reach. The Banshee’s bomb can still blow the occupants out of the hog in one hit, but the Banshee can be shredded quickly by the chain gun.

Mantis: Never assault a healthy Mantis alone in a Warthog. The Mantis is a heavy vehicle. The best ways to assault a Mantis is with the assistance of another vehicle or team support. The Mantis can deal significant damage to a Warthog’s health with its chaingun, and the rockets can destroy or flip the hog. Approach an enemy Mantis with extreme caution.

Warthog: Who doesn’t love a little ‘hog on hog’ action? The losing hog, that’s who. There are a few tricks you should know if you want to come out on the winning end of this battle. Be sneaky. If you can get the jump on the other hog and land first shots you’ll stand a better chance at winning. Remember that the all the hog damage is directed to the driver and that the engine is the weakest point on the hog. Instinct tells you to shoot the gunner first, and this still holds true however most shots will land on the vehicle itself and therefore your focus should be to kill the hog as a whole. Use cover often. Force the hog to continue the chase if he wants to finish the job. Always retreat back to your side of the map so that teammates can assist by DMR-ing the enemy hog. Bumping the enemy hog is still effective but should be avoided as it will cause significant damage to your hog as well. Practice tactical bumping instead. You can overturn or severely alter the course of an enemy hog simply by bumping a corner panel (either front or back) with a reasonable amount of force. Stay close once the hog flips so you can finish the kill more swiftly.



Change Your Hogging Mentality

The key to hogging in Halo 4 is patience and persistence. On many of the maps, there are three or more Warthogs to run. It’s important to remember that your hog will die. Perfections will not come easily and are no longer the goal. The goal now is to become a constant nuisance for the enemy team; one that is constantly picking them off and disrupting their play. The hog needs to be treated like a power weapon. It needs to be driven in such a way as to not lose it, and everyone needs to realize that the damage it can deal is finite, a hog surviving the whole game will be rare.

Remember that everyone in this game can spawn equipped to kill you at a moment’s notice. The goal now is to make that as hard as possible for them while making killing you the priority for the enemy team. A team trying to kill a Warthog is not trying to control key points of the map or attack the rest of your team. Success in this game will come to those who know how to maneuver smoothly and quickly through the terrain. Successful runs will come to hogs always cleaning up the easy kills and picking apart a team. A good rule of thumb for this is:

Minimize the number of enemies that can see you and maximize the number of teammates that can see you.
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