Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide

Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide to help you learn everything you need to know about working of units and tips and tactics to snowball to victory.

There are quite a lot of things which you should be familiar with if you wish to succeed in Halo Wars 2. Having a good understanding of how different units work, how to set up your base, how to scout, and how to use Leaders to your advantage can turn the odds in your favor.

For more help on Halo Wars 2, read out our Leaders Guide, Combat Guide, and the Best Blitz Deck Building Guide.

In our Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide, we’ve detailed everything you need to know about the game’s combat system, game phases, and tips & strategies.

Basic Combat Mechanics

Similar to other popular RTS-games out there; infantry units counter air units, air units counter ground vehicles, and ground vehicles counter infantry units. This is a golden rule which you need to keep in mind if you wish to succeed in battle.

However, there are counter units which target a specific type of unit. For instance, the Banished Reaver tends to deal a massive amount of damage to air units despite being a ground vehicle.

It’s important to note that the air units can still destroy the Banished Reaver if left alone. Keeping this in mind, you should try to mix the said units with other units to prolong their survivability. There’s one more thing in this regard.

Halo Wars 2 counter-units are ineffective against all the units they don’t counter which is why it’s a bad idea to build a squad solely based on counter-units; especially against a well-rounded squad.

Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide – Understanding Unit Abilities

Units in Halo Wars 2 can acquire abilities through research. When used at an appropriate time, these abilities can quickly turn the tables in a battle, thanks to their powerful effects.

These abilities don’t require additional resources, but each one of these has a specific cooldown period which appears on top of a unit. In addition to these unit-specific abilities, you can also research global upgrades for all units.

These upgrades are passive in nature and affect all the deployed and to-be-deployed units on the field.

Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide – Leader Points and Leader Powers

Leader Powers are acquired by spending Leader Points. Every player starts with 1 Leader Point in the game – with the sole exception of Strongholds. Leader Points are acquired by completing objectives, destroying units, collecting resources, etc.

It’s a good idea to get these Leader Powers early in the game because these can quickly turn the odds in your favor, even if you’re outmatched on the field. There are 5 tiers of Leader Powers which vary from Leader to Leader.

Within these 5 tiers, you’ve both Active Leader Powers and Passive Leader Powers. As mentioned earlier, Active Leader Powers require additional resources while Passive Leader Powers don’t require additional resources and affect all units.

You can check out our Halo Wars 2 Leaders Guide for more information on these Leader Powers and how to use them effectively.

Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide – Buying Upgrades

It’s important to remember that resources do you no good if you don’t spend them. Therefore, you should frequently head back to your base to find air, infantry, and vehicular upgrades.

In addition to this, you also need to visit Armory in order to increase your population cap, better production time, and improve your structures. You should also consider buying upgrades for individual units and increase your Tech Level upto 3.

Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide – Damage and Healing

One of the most important thing that you need to note is that a unit’s DPS doesn’t depend on its health. Therefore, it’s a good idea to keep a unit engaged in the battle for as long as possible.

It goes without saying that training/building new structures/units is always costlier as compared to repairing/replenishing them which is what you need to do. Therefore, it’s a good idea to always keep an eye out on the HP of units which are engaged in battle.

Whenever you see one getting its HP dropped in the red zone, pull it back immediately behind healthy units and heal it up before sending it in front again. For this purpose, the Nightingale Support Craft fastens the healing of all UNSC units and Engineers do the same for the Banished.

These are some of the things related to damage and healing which should come in handy.

Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide – Tips and Tactics for Game Phases

Halo Wars 2 Early Game Tips and Tactics
Here are some Halo Wars 2 Tips and Tactics which should help you in the early game:

Always try to rush one Supply Pad and one Generator
Always try to drop Turrets in all available slots at the earliest
Always keep an eye on your scouts as they can die very quickly
You need to start exploring the surrounding areas to find Supply/Power
If you’ve some Marines, deploy them into Garrisons to avoid an early rush in
After establishing defense, send a few cheap scouts to gather resources and enemy bases
While exploring, make sure to do so in every direction to come across Phoenix Logs and other resources

Halo Wars 2 Mid Game Tips and Tactics
Here are some Halo Wars 2 Tips and Tactics which should help you in the mid-game:

Look for hidden resources and goodies on the map
Research any available upgrades as soon as possible
Immediately start working on your optional and bonus objectives
Scout the enemy base and plan your attack or at least form a defense
Always try to upgrade to Heavy Supply Pads and Advanced Generators
Deploy a small squad to an expansion area you’ve found and drop Turrets in all slots

Halo Wars 2 End Game Tips and Tactics
Here are some Halo Wars 2 Tips and Tactics which should help you in the end game:

Upgrades your Turrets
Try to focus on objectives one by one
Try to get Nightingales for maximum healing of your units
Use your amassed army to tackle each objective separately
Try to continuously replace your lost forces and set up rally points
Always try to complete any remaining objectives before completing a match

This is all we’ve on our Halo Wars 2 Beginner’s Guide. If there’s anything else you’d like to add, let us know in the comments below!