Halo: Infinite features a hybrid of classic Halo movement with some modern additions such as sliding and special movement equipment like Thrusters and the Grappler. With our first look at the Halo Championship Series this weekend, we got to see how pros are using these various movement mechanics to their advantage in Halo Infinite for the first time.

We studied their techniques and distilled them into some movement tips and tricks that can help you improve your own movement in Halo: Infinite. Here is our guide for how pros are using movement in Halo: Infinite.

The basics of movement in Halo

Halo offers a few pretty basic and useful movement abilities in your standard kit. While these are relatively basic techniques, you can combine them to improve your movement around the map and take advantage in a fight.

The full list of movement options includes:

• walk
• sprint
• jump
• vault
• crouch
• slide 

Walking is your default state in this game. While walking, you have full control over your weapon, and can strafe and AD dodge during fights. Sprinting will take away your ability to fire, in exchange for moving more quickly around the map. You can use your sprint to start a slide by crouching while sprinting.

As usual, you can also crouch, which will keep you off the radar while moving around. You can also jump, and in this game, you can clamber over ledges, which makes you more mobile when it comes to vertical movement than in some past Halo titles without the ability to vault over ledges.

How pros are using standard movement to gain an advantage 

Slide early and often

One thing that a lot of players can learn from the pros is the value of the slide mechanic. If you watch the pros play, they are constantly sliding between various pieces of cover and entering rooms or peaking angles with an aggressive slide.

By sliding instead of just walking, running, or jumping, they are able to reduce their hit box's profile, reach cover more quickly, and take enemies off guard via an off-angle. This makes it harder for enemies to isolate the headshot quickly and can give you an advantage in a gun duel. You can also slide into a jump if you want to keep your momentum after a slide, instead of coming to a stop, which is a great tech for every Infinite player to know.

Learn clamber spots to improve your map control

Another thing you will notice the pro players doing is finding hidden or unexpected clamber spots around the map to quickly move up and down the vertical areas of these maps. There are a lot of paths around the map that you can unlock if you are able to master the technique and learn the spots. This will help you cut off more enemies in objective modes and Slayer, and generally allow you to be more fluid with your movement around the map.

Use cover to outplay and confuse opponents

You can also learn a lot from the way that pros use cover and reposition during fights. Pros use cover to introduce uncertainty into the decision-making of their enemies. When a pro runs away, they might be rotating, or they might be baiting an enemy into following or ignoring them, giving them the upper hand if they reengage.

Thinking about cover in this way will help you gain more advantages in your fights and give you more opportunities at map and engagement control than if you only think about cover as an escape or as a static advantage in a duel.

Using equipment for movement in Halo: Infinite

In addition to the standard movement otpions, pros are also a great example to look to for how to use the various movement-based equipment scattered around the maps. Pros are particularly fond of both the Grapple and the Thruster, which they use to maximize the utility of their arsenal of movement abilities.

Use the grappler to attack, rotate, and steal objectives

The Grapple can be used as a quick way to rotate or as an aggressive attacking option. Pros often use it to grapple onto an opponent to quickly close the distance and land a melee attack, as seen by OpTic Trippy in the HCS finals this past weekend. Trippy can also be seen using it to quickly move around the map in search of enemies.

Additionally, you can use the grapple to grab items and weapons from a distance, which can come in very handy when you are trying to secure an Overshield or pick up the Oddball off the ground before an enemy can reach it. You can even grab the flag in Capture the Flag, so long as it has already been moved from its perch in the base. This makes it a highly versatile and valuable piece of equipment in pro-Halo. 

Integrate the Thruster to reposition during gunfights

The Thruster is also great in pro matches, where a quick reposition can be enough to give a pro an advantage to win a gunfight. Generally, the thruster is used to quickly reposition from side to side, not forward and backward. Pro players have also been using it to chase down enemies who are trying to escape a fight or to quickly rotate after they win a gunfight. The Thruster might actually be more versatile than the Grappler in pro play, at least based on the first weekend of competition.

With some practice, you can integrate these movement equipment options into your broader movement matrix to gain the upper hand over your opponents.

Halo: Infinite is all about movement and aim. If you can master both, and learn the maps, you are going to have a very good experience playing this game. Watching how pros play is one way that you can speed up your skill development and learn valuable tips and tricks for your own games.