Bungie Teases Halo: Reach Achievements


With the launch date of Halo: Reach just around the corner many anxious gamers are looking for any little tidbit about the title to hold them over until the big day. Bungie, for their part, is happy to oblige, leaking a handful of Reach Achievements in the hopes of whetting the appetites of gamers.

Here’s a (very) partial list of what to expect:

  • A Monument to All Your Sins – Complete each Campaign Mission on Legendary – alone.
  • Banshees, Fast and Low – Hijack a Banshee during the Reach Campaign.
  • Yes, Sensei – Earn a First Strike Medal in a Matchmaking game.
  • A New Challenger – Complete all of the Daily Challenges in a given day.
  • Make It Rain – Purchase an item from the Armory that requires the rank of Lt. Colonel.
  • If They Came to Hear Me Beg – Perform an Assassination against an Elite to survive a fall that would’ve been fatal

Bungie has also broken down how the Achievements are awarded, with 23 coming from the campaign, 7 from Firefight 4 from multiplayer, 6 from training and 9 from player experience.

It’s interesting that a game as competitive multiplayer-focused as Reach would weight its Achievements so heavily toward the single-player/co-op campaign. Those who have blasted through Legendary difficulty before with a group of friends should have a beast of a time with the “A Monument to All Your Sins” award, since it removes that crutch of bringing buddies along to help. Also, the multiplayer Achievements teased are actually somewhat reasonable, which makes you wonder how hard gamers are going to have to work to get them all. Is this a kinder, gentler experience, or are some of the multiplayer Achievements so fiendish that only the most hardcore even stand a chance?


Bungie also revealed three new medals that didn’t make it into the beta last Spring, complete with hilarious descriptions of how foes will react when you perform the action associated with obtaining the award.

Rejection – Armor Lock and survive damage that would be fatal.

How it works: Armor lock and survive single, incoming damage types that have the ability to kill a player at full shields and health, like a Rocket, or a Sticky grenade.

How interested parties will react: The dude who’s Rocket you just rejected will probably throw his controller, or as resident Armor Lock savant Froman can routinely be heard saying, “Oh man, that guy is so angry.”

Protector – Save a teammate by killing his foe.

How it works: We track damage done to players by other players, even if those players don’t generate kills. In Protector’s case, after a certain amount of damage has been done to a Player A by Player B, if Player C kills player B, he earns the Protector Medal. Player A receives a message (in the same place as messages like You sniped JimmyAwful) that says PlayerC saved your life.

How interested parties will react: Player A will survive and have a newfound appreciation for the bro he may or may not know who just bailed him out of harm’s way. Player B will be selecting a loadout while respawning.

Showstopper – Kill an opponent while they are performing an Assassination.

How it works: Assassinations (which have had many names internally throughout development) have a strike frame where the kill occurs. This enables players on the receiving end of an Assassination to be saved if their assailant is killed prior to the strike frame. Enter, the Showstopper Medal.

How interested parties will react: The guy performing the Assassination is going to pitch his controller and possibly his Xbox out of a window. The guy who earned the Showstopper is going to watch his friend stand up and walk away, unscathed.

So Halo fans, on a scale of 1 to infinity, how excited are you right now?