Firefight

Firefight is a predominantly PvE mode wherein a team of player-controlled Spartans must face off against waves of Covenant NPCs. The Spartans must survive to the end of the game, and in some cases must also defend a set of power generators placed on the map. Players can also join the Covenant team as Elites, adding a PvP dimension to the game mode.

Whereas Campaign is a more narrative PvE mode, Firefight has an arcade aesthetic, with the UI and announcer clearly indicating the match progression.

Overall match flow

When editing a Firefight game variant, it is worth knowing the general structure of a Firefight match, especially in comparison to a standard Multiplayer match.

A Multiplayer match is divided into "rounds." Gameplay begins when the round begins and ends when the round ends. A round may end when a time limit runs out, when the objective is complete, or when the Score to Win is reached.

Firefight matches are divided very differently, and the term "round" has an entirely different meaning. The basic unit of a Firefight match is the "wave:" a period of time which begins when six squads of NPC enemies are spawned on the map (or delivered by dropships), and which ends when those enemies are killed. Each group of five waves is a "round." Three rounds, followed by an optional "bonus wave," form a "set."

The Multiplayer concept of "rounds" still exists in Firefight, but in Firefight, they are called "turns." A turn encompasses an arbitrary number of sets, rounds, and waves. A turn ends when the Spartans are defeated, when the wave limit is reached, or when the turn time limit is reached (though Halo: Reach's UI does not normally allow players to set a turn time limit). Spartans are considered defeated if they are all dead and unable to respawn due to a lack of extra lives, or (when applicable) if their Generators are destroyed.

Match flow details

If Weapon Drops are enabled, then they will occur at the start of each round. Spartans will also receive extra lives at the start of each round after the first.

Each round consists of one Initial Wave, three Main Waves, and one Boss Wave, for a total of five waves. Each wave consists of six squads of enemies, for a total of thirty squads per round.

When a new wave begins, the respawn timers for any currently-dead players will be reset, and the game will select an enemy squad type to spawn. If dropships are enabled, then six squads of that type will spawn aboard them, and the dropships will enter the map to deliver the squads; otherwise, the squads will spawn in a map-specific manner (typically just appearing out in the open, though Corvette spawns them behind locked doors instead).

All waves except for the last wave in a round will end when all but three enemies are dead; the last wave in a round will end when all enemies are dead. (During the last wave in a round, the last five surviving enemies will have their exact locations shown to the Spartan team via waypoints, though those waypoints will not appear until the enemies have landed from their dropships.) If a wave failed to spawn any enemies, whether because the selected enemy squad type was None or because the selected enemy squad type is not supported on the current map, then the wave will end after roughly seven to nine seconds.

Note that if dropships are enabled for a wave, then the end of a wave will always be delayed until after the dropships have fully exited the map.

When a Boss Wave is completed, the Spartans will be awarded extra lives — specifically, one extra life per Spartan; the Hero medal will be awarded at this time, if applicable. All dead players will respawn, and all living players will have their shields fully restored.

When the last round in a set is concluded, Firefight will attempt to begin the bonus wave. Unlike most waves, the bonus wave does not end when the enemies it spawns are eliminated. Instead, the bonus wave will only end when its duration elapses or if all Spartans are dead at the same time. Moreover, if the bonus wave is configured to use dropships, then the dropships will remain in the map, continually spawning and dropping new enemies, until the wave ends, at which point they will depart. Once the bonus round ends, all enemies that were spawned as part of the bonus round will die instantly (though enemies that spawned from map hazards will not).

Examination of map scripts suggests that Sudden Death activates if any generators on the map are still online, with some sort of additional check related to whether they're locked. It also seems as if generators cannot be locked while Sudden Death is active.

Notes

Is it possible to remake Network Test 1?

For those who aren't aware, Network Test 1 was a game variant available to players during the Halo: Reach beta. It resembled a normal Multiplayer mode, but in reality, it was actually a Firefight variant intended to test the game's lockstep networking model. It was effectively a 3v3 PvP-only Generator Defense match. So, is it possible to recreate Network Test 1 in the final game using modded settings?

In the Master Chief Collection build of Halo: Reach, it's possible thanks to a new "Waves" option, which can be used to wholly disable enemy spawning. This doesn't recreate a unique behavior from Network Test 1, wherein its built-in map scripts would force Health Packs to respawn every thirty seconds, but I doubt anyone'll even notice that's gone. An accurate enough recreation of Network Test 1 is possible thanks to 343 Industries' work; case closed.

But... What about prior to the MCC update? Is it possible to remake Network Test 1 in older builds of the game?

Yes, but not very well. Network Test 1 used a map script boolean variable called alpha_sync_slayer to disable the lion's share of Firefight's functionality; in the release version of Halo: Reach, this variable is set to false. This means that it's impossible to disable the normal set/round/wave progression through game variant content alone.

(The same variable also forcibly respawns all Health Packs on the map every thirty seconds, so that's another behavior that can't be recreated.)

Setting all enemy squad types to None and disabling all waves' dropships would be the obvious thing to try, but remember that dead players' respawn timers reset on each new wave. The default respawn time is ten seconds, and empty waves with no dropships end after nine seconds, so any players who die will be unable to respawn until the next round. Leaving dropships on ensures that waves last long enough to allow most players to respawn, although players who die too close to the end of a wave will still have their respawn timers reset one time. This, of course, still means that the announcer will constantly call out new waves, rounds, and sets. It also means that weapon drops will appear much too frequently, as the game engine just blows through rounds literally as quickly as possible.

A less obvious thing to try would be taking advantage of the bonus wave as an arbitrary period of time during which no new waves will occur. However, it is not possible to trigger the bonus wave early, which means that it would take roughly two minutes to even reach it. Moreover, the bonus wave will still end early if all Spartans are ever dead at the same time, even if the Iron Skull is disabled.

Engineers are probably the least obstrusive enemy type, since they have no actual AI implemented and will typically sit motionless on the ground at their spawn point. If they are used, then players can simply ignore them and fight each other.

Teams

Firefight and Multiplayer use the exact same options for teams. However, Firefight's handling of these options is very different.

If teams are enabled, then the only thing they will affect is which set of spawn locations are available to a player. The species that a player spawns as will influence everything else, including which loadout palette they have access to, which pool of lives they use, and their alliance status with Covenant NPCs.

If teams are disabled, then all players will be treated as part of the "defense" team, and will be enemies with Covenant NPCs, no matter what species the players spawn as. However, Elites will neither gain nor lose points for killing Covenant NPCs.

If teams are disabled, or if players are on extended teams such as Team 3, then they will not see a round title card. However, they will still hear a mission briefing voiceover corresponding to whatever faction they are allied with.