Covenant Vehicles

Originally by: Matthew Rorie (Updated by: Andre Segers)

Ghost

This small, one-passenger craft is a handy tool in Halo ODST, but you probably won't find unmanned Ghosts very often. When you do climb into one, you can use it to move a bit faster, take a bit more damage, and fire on your enemies, so you're basically just a bit more enhanced in your combat capabilities than you would be on foot.

That said, the Ghost is a fun vehicle when you can get in it, as it's quick to move and can deal good damage with its dual plasma cannons. You can tap the left trigger for a burst of speed, which is handy if an enemy is directly in front of you and you want to run them down. Just be careful, as the Ghost is prone to tipping on bumpy ground.

Wraith

The Covenant's heavy tank is the Wraith, and unlike in Halo 3, you cannot jack these during the single-player campaign. Taking out a Wraith is a tall order, as the presence of a turret on their fronts makes that very difficult. In the campaign, you'll usually have access to a turreted Warthog or another long-range vehicle that you can use to take out a Wraith, but if you don't, you might want to try sniping out the turret gunner (he's vulnerable to headshots), then driving a quick vehicle up close and hopping aboard to grenade the Wraith.

Mortar Variant

Most of the Wraiths you see will pack mortars that fire huge bursts of energy at extremely long ranges. These move very slowly, in an arcing manner, so you should be able to see them and dodge them when you're at a distance. As you get closer, though, these mortars get progressively more deadly, since they can be fired at very close range and will impact pretty much instantly. On Heroic difficulty or higher, a single mortar hit anywhere near you will instantly kill you, and they can hit even quick vehicles pretty accurately if you're driving straight towards them. Try to approach at an angle, then, and if possible get on their rear side, where you can grab onto their back sides and throw a grenade into the engine without having to deal with the turret.

Chopper

The Chopper is a one-seater motorcycle…and it's awesome. There's nothing especially complicated about it; the primary fire button is a powerful laser cannon that can chew through most light vehicles relatively quickly, while the left trigger will get you a bit of a boost in speed for a few seconds.

The narrow width of the Chopper will make it difficult to hit players with it, unless you're good at fishtailing the vehicle. The width also makes it easier to get into lengthy flip sequences when you get off-axis, though, so you need to be careful while driving.

Banshee

The ever-popular Banshee returns in Halo ODST, and is equipped with a homing missile. It doesn't seem to do as much damage as the homing missiles on the Hornet, but still, it'll help you out in those wild dogfights.