Halo Infinite introduced a slew of new equipment pieces for players to experiment with, such as the Threat Sensor, the Repulsor, and the Drop Wall, but none made a bigger impact with fans than the Grappleshot. It featured heavily in the Halo Infinite multiplayer trailer that dropped at this year's E3, which also showed off a few unique ways that players could employ the Grappleshot. For instance, players can hijack an enemy vehicle simply by grappling onto them, making the Grappleshot a useful counter to flying opponents.
Primarily, though, the Grappleshot allows players to traverse around the maps quickly, swinging from place to place, and also enables players to pick up distant objects like the Gravity Hammer or fusion coils. As players have continued to experiment and find new uses for it, a sort of Grappleshot meta has risen in Halo Infinite. While all of the new equipment additions are fairly innovative, the Grappleshot by its very nature boasts huge gameplay implications for Halo Infinite that have never been seen before in the franchise.
Halo Infinite: A Mobility Tool Where Movement is Paramount
Halo Infinite is difficult to define in simple terms; while it bears plenty of similarities to the best arena shooters, it also has a unique blend of power-ups (or lack thereof) and weapon choices that place it in a camp all by itself. With that in mind, positioning is arguably a more important factor in determining the outcome of each fight in Halo Infinite than in most other shooters. The reasoning is simple: In Halo Infinite, shots are best aimed at the torso until shields are broken, so any position that presents less of the body and more of the head — a harder target to hit consistently — is actually going to be advantageous until shields are down.
The Grappleshot, which allows players to traverse maps more quickly and get to more difficult areas, is arguably the best equipment in Halo Infinite for multiplayer encounters. It may not offer protection like the Drop Shield, or an idea of enemy position like the Threat Sensor, but what the Grappleshot does offer when used correctly is a statistical advantage in a heads-up fight. This won't make all the difference when the gap in shooting ability is too wide, but it's a good place to start.
Halo Infinite's Grappleshot Shines in Objective Modes
It was a surprise to fans when Halo Infinite launched without a dedicated Slayer playlist, and the result was that players who typically avoided objective-based game modes were forced into rotating through matches of Oddball, Capture the Flag, Domination, and the like. Luckily, even players who were unfamiliar with the modes had a saving grace in the Grappleshot.
While it is effective in just about any mode in Halo Infinite, the Grappleshot is a different beast altogether in objective modes. This is because Halo Infinite typically limits the mobility of any player actively playing an objective. For example, players cannot sprint while holding the Oddball. The Grappleshot is the best option to gain a bit of reprieve from these mobility limitations.
Since the Grappleshot can be used to pick up every objective (except for the initial flag pickup), it can significantly speed up objective captures. If a flag-carrying teammate dies in a dangerous spot, another player can simply grapple it up to a higher ledge and away to safety. In a Halo Infinite Oddball match, the carrier could create significant distance between themselves and the enemy by dropping the Oddball momentarily and grappling it after sprinting to their next location. Even in modes like Domination, players can use it both offensively and defensively to cover more of the map, meaning that they will be fighting together as a team for almost every engagement that breaks out.
Halo Infinite is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
