All Halo Infinite equipment items and how to use them

Halo Infinite equipment 343 image drop shield
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Halo Infinite Equipment items can really help you out in a fight by providing defensive support, extra agility, or even just an extra layer of shielding. However, knowing as much as possible about how they work and how to use them can help you get the upper hand over your Halo Infinite opponents. You'll find returning abilities, such as the Thruster from Halo 5: Guardians and the classic Overshield and Active Camo, but also some new ones, like the Grappleshot and Repulsor in the battlefields of Halo Infinite. Here’s what you need to know about Halo Infinite’s Equipment items and how they work in multiplayer.

Halo Infinite equipment list

How Halo Infinite equipment works

How equipment works in Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite equipment repulsor knocking an enemy back

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
Halo Infinite Spartan Cores

Halo Spartan cores

(Image credit: Xbox)

Use Halo Infinite Spartan Cores to upgrade Master Chief's campaign equipment

Equipment items make a return to the Halo series with Halo Infinite, having last made a proper appearance in Halo 3 and were replaced by Armor Abilities in Halo: Reach. These loose items can be found and equipped on the battlefield to give yourself an extra edge in combat. Some provide boosts to your mobility while others allow you to be more defensive and counter the attacks of other players. Halo Infinite has seven pieces of Equipment available in the game, although two of them – Overshield and Active Camo – are Power Equipment items which means they only spawn on certain maps and at certain times in the same way as power weapons.

Halo Infinite equipment hud element

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Any Equipment item in Halo Infinite is automatically picked up when you walk over it unless you already have an equipment item stored. You can see what you have by looking at the box next to your grenade counter in the bottom-right corner of your screen. Each piece of Equipment has its own icon, so make sure you learn how to tell them apart. Press the equipment button to use your current Equipment – that’s RB on the default controller layout or Q on a keyboard – or you can swap it out by following the button prompt if you find another item that you prefer.

You’ll also notice that a number appears next to the Equipment item icon which indicates how many uses you have for that piece of equipment. You can pick up extra uses for your current Equipment item by running over another of the same item, but not all Equipment gets the same number of default and maximum uses. Power Equipment is single-use and provides a passive benefit for a limited time. You can only hold one at a time, but you can use a piece of Power Equipment and immediately pick up a different Equipment item.

Halo Infinite equipment power equipment item spawn for active camo

(Image credit: Xbox Games)

All Equipment items, except for Overshield and Active Camo, have short cooldowns between uses, lasting no more than several seconds, but there is a bit of variation. The Grappleshot has almost no cooldown while the Drop Wall has a relatively significant cooldown but it’s still only a few seconds – just long enough to prevent you from spamming shield walls. Here’s what we think about each equipment item in Halo Infinite multiplayer.

All Halo Infinite equipment items

Drop Wall

Halo Infinite equipment drop wall shield protecting player

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
Halo Infinite weapons

Halo Infinite Multiplayer

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Find out about all the Halo Infinite weapons here.

The Drop Wall is a one-way shield that you can throw out and use as a bit of cover. The fact that it’s one-way means you can shoot through the shield from the back but not the front. The shield is split into 15 different panels, each can be destroyed by only three shots from an Assault Rifle, so it’s a pretty weak shield, but will give you just enough cover to fire back a few shots at your enemy before being hit. It can also block grenades, so if you’re reactions are good enough, you could deploy a Drop Wall to block a couple of explosives. It’s not a solid object though, so players and vehicles can pass through it. After throwing out a Drop Wall, it will destroy itself after 10 seconds.

Default number of uses: 2

Maximum number of uses: 3

Grappleshot

Halo Infinite equipment grappleshot grappling hook swinging to ledge

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Of course Halo Infinite has a grappling hook, and it comes in the form of the Grappleshot. Players can tap the Equipment button to rapidly fire out the hook and get quickly reeled in towards the hook point. It’s an incredibly fun Equipment item to use and can be used in some creative ways. You can grapple enemies to close in for a kill (which combos well with the Energy Sword), use it to quickly cross a map with a good swing, or you can pull yourself up to hard-to-reach ledges very quickly. It can even pick up weapons and CTF Flags from afar!

Halo Infinite equipment grappleshot grappling enemy spartan

(Image credit: Xbox Games Studios)

As you fly, you have some mid-air control and can swing around with the hook, but you’ll break the grappling line if you look away from the hook point too much. Pressing the Equipment button or the Crouch button while grappling will cut the line early too, although if you cut the line by crouching, you will slide when you hit the ground. Also look out for the yellow dot in the middle of your crosshair while you have the Grappleshot equipped – it appears whenever the surface or object you’re looking at is in range of your hook.

Default number of uses: 3

Maximum number of uses: 5

Repulsor

Halo Infinite equipment repulsor sending a plasma grenade back

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

The Repulsor is the ultimate grenade and close-quarters repellent. Using the Repulsor causes your Spartan to quickly to fire out a wrist-mounted blast that knocks things back. The most obvious use is to keep enemies – perhaps those with a sword, hammer, or shotgun – away from you, but it also works against vehicles and even rockets and grenades. If you can react quickly enough, deflecting a thrown Plasma Grenade with the Repulsor almost always causes it to fly back and stick to whoever threw it.

Halo Infinite equipment repulsor knocking an enemy spartan off the map

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

If you want to use the Repulsor for more lethal purposes, using the map to your advantage is key as you can bait enemies to the edge of a map and boop them into the abyss. Repelling an enemy so that they hit a wall while they are on incredibly low health can also be just enough to kill them and get a ‘Pancake’ medal.

Default number of uses: 3

Maximum number of uses: 5

Threat Sensor

Halo Infinite equipment threat sensor detecting enemies

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

The Threat Sensor is a little device that can be fired off like a sticky grenade to reveal the positions of nearby enemies. When the sensor sticks to a surface, or even another player, it emits a few pulses that highlight enemies in range with a red silhouette, even through solid objects like walls and cover. Each senor lasts for six seconds as soon as it hits a surface, so you’ve got a decent amount of time to survey your enemies and make your move or respond to their incoming attack. However, please note that the Threat Sensor does not counter Active Camo!

Default Number of uses: 2

Maximum number of uses: 4

Thruster

Halo Infinite equipment thruster evading enemy

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

The Thruster equipment item gives you a couple of charges for a thruster pack that allows you to perform a rapid, short-range lateral dash. Its main use is as an evasive tool, since a quick dash backwards or to the side might be enough to get you a bit of extra cover or to throw off your opponent’s aim. You can also use the Thruster more aggressively to close the gap between you and an enemy, or use it in mid-air to jump further than usual and unlock new traversal pathways in tight 4 vs 4 arena maps.

Default Number of uses: 3

Maximum number of uses: 5

Active Camo

Halo Infinite equipment item active camo invisibility

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Active Camo has been in most Halo games in some form, but it is incredibly powerful in Halo Infinite. Using this Power Equipment makes you almost totally invisible for about 30 seconds from the moment you activate it. You will become very difficult to spot with only faint ripples giving you away as you move. The invisibility temporarily stops when you shoot your weapon, melee, throw a grenade, or sprint, but you will become invisible again if you stop sprinting or attacking. To make things worse for your opponents, you don’t show up on motion trackers while you are invisible and you can’t be spotted by Threat Sensors, meaning the only way to get spotted is by the keen eyes of your opponents.

Overshield

Halo Infinite equipment overshield extra health item

(Image credit: Xbox Games Studios)

The Overshield is a classic Halo power-up that makes a return in Halo Infinite. Using this Power Equipment item will add an extra layer of shielding to your health bar that decays over time. It takes about 40 seconds to fully decay from the moment the Overshield becomes active. You’ll notice your health bar at the top of your screen turn yellow while you have an Overshield active, but the yellow bar will shrink as the shield decays. Other than that, its exactly like a normal shield, making you almost twice as hard to kill.

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Will Sawyer
Guides Writer

Will Sawyer is a guides writer at 12DOVE who works with the rest of the guides team to give readers great information and advice on the best items, how to complete a particular challenge, or where to go in some of the biggest video games. Will joined the GameRadar+ team in August 2021 and has written about service titles, including Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Warzone, as well as some of the biggest releases like Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, and God of War Ragnarok.