Round Settings

The round settings page allows you to control which skulls are enabled during a Firefight round, and what enemy types spawn during the round's waves.

Skulls

Skulls are special gameplay modifiers that can be switched on and off. A Firefight round can use any of the game's original Campaign skulls, as well as any or all of three custom skulls with user-configurable effects.

Assassin: An unused skull that has no name or description in-game, and no readily apparent effect.
Black Eye: Players can only recharge their shields by meleeing and assassinating enemies.
Blind: Players have no HUD or first-person view model.
Catch: Enemies throw grenades twice as often, and drop two grenades when killed.
Cowbell: Physics effects are tripled, though physics-related damage is unchanged.
Famine: Dropped weapons lose half of their ammo or charge.
Fog: Players' motion trackers are disabled.
Grunt Birthday Party: When a Grunt is killed with a headshot, confetti explodes outward from the body, accompanied by the sound of children cheering. This explosion can damage other enemies and detonate grenades.
Iron: Prevents killed players from respawning, even if they have lives remaining. This skull should only be enabled for the Bonus Wave. Other waves will not end (in a Spartan defeat or otherwise) if all Spartans are dead but still have lives remaining, which means that enabling the Iron Skull for normal rounds can cause softlocks.
IWHBYD: Rare dialogue becomes more common and vice versa, for both players and enemies.
Mythic: NPC enemy health is doubled. This also includes the health of breakable NPC armor pieces, like Grunt Ultras' helmets.
Thunderstorm: Increases NPC enemy ranks. For example, squads of Grunts will generally consist entirely of Grunt Ultras when this skull is enabled.
Tilt: Weapons' strengths and weaknesses are amplified.
Tough Luck: Enemies dodge dangerous attacks more often, and Grunts are less likely to flee or attempt suicide bombings.
Custom Red
Custom Blue
Custom Yellow: The three custom skulls available for your configuration.

Waves

A Firefight round has five waves: one Initial Wave, three Main Waves, and one Boss Wave. For each wave, the game will select one enemy squad type from those available, and spawn six of that squad.

The following settings are configurable for each type of wave:

Uses Dropships

If enabled, enemies will be transported into the playable space by Phantom or Spirit dropships. If disabled, enemies will spawn inside the map, typically out in the open (though maps like Corvette spawn them in locked areas instead).

Squad Order

Controls whether the game cycles through squad types or picks them at random.

Here's an interesting question: How does "ordered squads" interact with the squad type list when the number of squad types exceeds the number of times that the wave configuration will actually be used? For example, Main Waves typically define five squads, but there are only three Main Waves in any given round. Does that mean that the last two squads will never be used? Well, no. Each set cycles the starting point. Let's use Round 1 as an example, and assume that all wave types are set to use ordered squads.

In Set 1, Round 1 will use: Initial Wave squad 1; Main Wave squads 1, 2, and 3; and Boss Wave squad 1.

In Set 2, Round 1 will use: Initial Wave squad 2; Main Wave squads 2, 3, and 4; and Boss Wave squad 2.

Squad Count

This setting appears to control the number of your chosen squad types that the game engine will pay attention to. The game engine will always spawn only six squads (all of the same type) on the map per wave; it will also always use at least three squad types for Initial Waves and Boss Waves, and at least five squad types for Main Waves. However, if the Squad Count is lower than the number of squad types that the game engine will use, then the remaining squad types will be Brutes instead of the ones you've specified.

As an example, if you set an Initial Wave's first three squad types to Grunts, but you also set the Squad Count to 1, then the game will act as if the squad types that it has to choose from are Grunts, Brutes, and Brutes.

Why Brutes? They're encoded as the number zero, and computers typically use zero to mean a default, or to mean the first thing in a list of possibilities.

Currently, it is recommended that you leave this option at its default for the respective wave type — again, 3 for Initial and Boss Waves, and 5 for Main Waves.

Squad # Type

Allows you to set one of the possible squad types. The available options are:

Brutes: Squads of Brutes.
Brute Chieftains: Squads each consisting of a single Brute Chieftain.
Brute Infantry: Squads of Brutes and Jackals.
Brute Kill Team: Squads of Brutes led by chieftains.
Brute Patrol: Squads of Brutes and Grunts.
Brute Tactical: Squads of Brutes and Skirmishers.
Elites: Squads of Elites.
Elite Airborne: Squads of Elite Rangers with jetpacks.
Elite Generals: Squads each consisting of a single Elite General.
Elite Infantry: Squads of Elites and Jackals.
Elite Patrol: Squads of Elites and Grunts.
Elite Spec Ops: Squads of Spec Ops Elites.
Elite Strike Team: Squads of Elites led by generals.
Elite Tactical: Squads of Elites and Skirmishers.
Engineers: Squads each consisting of a single Engineer. Note that some maps don't support Engineers; using this option on unsupported maps will result in the wave being skipped.
Grunts: Squads each consisting of four Grunts.
Guta: Squads each consisting of a single Guta. Note that no maps seem to actually support this option; using this option on unsupported maps will result in the wave being skipped.
Heretics: Squads of Elites wielding human weapons, varying with difficulty (assault rifle, DMR, grenade launcher, magnum, shotgun).
Heretic Heavy: Squads of Elites wielding human explosive weaponry.
Heretic Snipers: Squads of Elites wielding human sniper rifles.
Hunters: Squads each consisting of a single Hunter.
Hunter Infantry: Squads of Hunters and Jackals.
Hunter Kill Team: Squads of Hunters, Elites, and Grunts.
Hunter Patrol: Squads of Hunters and Grunts.
Hunter Strike Team: Squads of Hunters and Elites led by generals.
Hunter Tactical: Squads of Hunters and Skirmishers.
Jackals: Squads of Jackals armed with shields.
Jackal Patrol: Squads of Jackals and Grunts.
Jackal Snipers: Squads of Jackals with Needle Rifles and Focus Rifles, but no shields.
None: An empty squad. This effectively means that the wave will be skipped.
Skirmishers: Squads of Skirmishers.
Skirmisher Infantry: Squads of Skirmishers and Jackals.
Skirmisher Patrol: Squads of Skirmishers and Grunts.