The Halo universe is full of threats bearing down on the UNSC over the franchise's history, whether it is the parasitic and all-consuming Flood or the newer, more mysterious Endless. A near-constant during that whole time, though, has been the various aliens making up the Covenant and its various splinter factions, such as the Banished. One of the deadliest among the Covenants' forces has been the Elites, which humanity now calls allies, but one Halo Reach player got a painful reminder of how dangerous the Elites are while playing through the campaign.
Halo Reach was originally released in 2010 and is the final Halo game from Bungie before the studio ended its partnership with Microsoft and the series was handed off to 343 Industries. The game serves as a prequel to the original Halo trilogy and depicts the battle of Reach, a planet considered in Halo's lore to be the most powerful military stronghold planet for the UNSC before it fell to the Covenant. Players take control of the Spartan-3 Noble Six who, along with the rest of the Spartan unit Noble Squad, fight against the Covenant's siege of the planet and bear witness to the fall of Reach.
Given the game's place as a prequel, enemy Elites are numerous across the campaign as the Covenant lays siege to Reach. They are commonly seen in the campaign serving as field commanders and infiltration units, with Hunters being the only individual units more powerful than the Elites. Reddit user RaSH_NiSH gives a glimpse of just how strong Elites are as while playing the campaign co-operatively, NiSH's squadmate is killed by another Elite in a single hit after what appears to be a failed assassination attempt.
The one-hit kill means NiSH and his squad were likely playing Reach's campaign on Legendary difficulty. As the name implies, the difficulty is increased significantly as enemies generally hit harder along with several smaller differences, such as increased fire rates on plasma turrets and the stronger Elite ultras and generals being more common.
In a fitting twist, the clip also presents an almost lore-accurate depiction of the Elites at the time of Halo Reach and the larger force invading the planet. The Elite who would later become The Arbiter was the commander of the Covenant force invading Reach, making Elites among the most common enemies in the field alongside the weaker Grunts and Jackals. Brutes, on the other hand, were used as either cannon fodder or mop-up forces due to the race's animosity with the Elites and are only seen in the campaign during the final few missions as Reach is on the verge of falling.
Halo Reach is currently available on Xbox 360 and via Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.