In any competitive First-Person shooter game, it is crucial to figure out the best keybinds and settings before you jump into the game. If you’re not comfortable with the controls or the graphics and framerate of the game, you’ll never be able to reach the high ranks in the competitive mode. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the overall Halo Reach Best Keybinds and Settings to make sure you are the best Spartan on the field.
Halo Reach Best Keybinds and Settings
Before we jump into the control settings, you must understand that most of these are completely preference-based, so it’s better to figure out what you are most comfortable with. We’ll help you do so by telling you how scaling each setting will affect your gameplay.
Apart from these keybinds, you can also turn off anti-cheat in Halo Reach PC to tweak your experience even further.
Keybinds
Movement
The standard W,A,S,D and Spacebar, Left Control are the recommended movement settings.
Actions
For Fire and Zoom, use your mouse’s left and right clicks. For the ‘Magnify Zoom’ option, Q seems to be the best choice.
For the Melee option, the absolute best choice is one of the thumb buttons on the left of your mouse.
If you don’t have a mouse with those, use a key on your keyboard which is very easy to press in an instant, so F seems to be a good option.
For Reload, use R of course. For the Throw Grenade option, you can either use the other mouse thumb button if you’re not planning on using it for anything else; or you can use the ‘G’ button.
The ‘Action’ option means the key which you use to interact with objects in the game, like picking up weapons or entering vehicles.
You need a key which is easy to hit for this, so ‘E’ will suffice.
For the Change Weapon option, you have to use a number key. Use the number key which is the easiest to hit for you.
Use the number key adjacent to the one you already picked for the ‘Switch Grenades’ setting.
For the ‘Use Armor Ability’, you can make use of your other mouse thumb button if you didn’t use it for the Throw Grenade setting.
If you did, use left Shift.
Halo Reach MCC Mouse Settings
Look and Flight Inversion
Keep these settings to ‘Not Inverted’. Changing them to Inverted makes your gameplay quite disorienting.
Crouch Behavior and Zoom Mode
Set both of these settings to ‘Hold’. This allows you to zoom in/out, and crouch/standup very quickly.
Mouse and Zoomed Mouse Sensitivity
This is one of those settings which you only have to figure out once, then you can use this same sensitivity across all the First-Person shooter games you play.
There is no recommended sensitivity setting. Some players prefer low sensitivity, while some prefer very high sensitivity. If you haven’t figured out what works best for you, just keep experimenting. Wrist players tend to play at high sensitivities, while arm players play at lower sensitivities.
Change the sensitivity, play the game for a bit, then change it again, and play the game some more; until you find that perfect sensitivity for you.
Most players prefer an overall low sensitivity as it allows for better micro-movements and tracking at longer ranges. Your mouse’s DPI should be either 400, 800, or 1600. These are the most commonly used ones. The lower it is, the slower in-game sensitivity will feel.
Vehicle Mouse Sensitivity
With the Vehicle Mouse Sensitivity, it is probably best to set it to a high value since it will increase your maneuverability.
Mouse Acceleration and Smoothing
Turn both of these settings Off in Halo Reach PC. This will allow you to have full control over your aim, helping you make precise movements.
Controller Settings
We have a few tips for you regarding the best settings for your controller as well. You can essentially use any controller you are comfortable with and tweak your settings accordingly.
Crouching
You should set your crouch behavior to ‘hold’ in the settings. This will allow you to perform various high-level movements like Gandhi Hopping, a move that allows you to jump in one direction and slightly change the head hitbox, making it difficult for your enemies to get that last headshot.
Button Layout
Opting for the Bumper Jumper controller layout is the best bet because it allows you to aim, jump and do other things like swapping weapons more freely.
Jumping is a big part of Halo Reach, and that’s why we recommend using the Bumper Jumper layout, as it helps you keep your right thumb planted on the right stick at all times.
Aim Control
This setting should be kept at ‘Modern’ to allow smoother tracking, especially when shooting diagonally. It helps eliminate that weird diagonal acceleration and makes it much smoother and easier for you to track your enemies.
Sensitivity
Sensitivity is something that varies from player to player but, having a lower horizontal and vertical sensitivity allows you to make minute changes to your aim and hit enemies more accurately on longer ranges.
It does require some practice to get used to, especially if you are coming from high sensitivity, but once you get used to it, your aim will be much more consistent.
The rest of the controller settings, like vibrations and whatnot, are personal preferences, so you are free to tinker with them until you find the right ones.
Video Settings
Field of View and Vehicle Field of View
Your Field of View (FOV) determines how much information is in the frame at a single time, meaning the higher your FOV is, the more objects/enemies you’ll be able to see at a time.
Hence, it is important to set the FOV very high – you can even set it to the highest number possible if you’d like. Never set it too low.
Gamma
If the game seems a bit too dim for you, you can increase the gamma to make it brighter.
Window Mode
You have to set this setting to ‘Fullscreen’. This will reduce input lag and also increase FPS as the game will be given highest CPU priority.
Also, as it is a competitive game, having it set to Fullscreen will allow you to see distant enemies much easier.
Resolution Setting
This setting depends on how powerful your GPU is. The ideal Halo Reach resolution is whatever your monitor’s native resolution is.
If your GPU is not powerful enough to pump out at least 60 frames per second at your monitor’s native resolution, you should lower it until you hit that 60 FPS mark.
V-Sync
It is recommended to turn V-Sync off since it gives a tiny bit of input lag. In any competitive game, you have to remove any and all input lag.
Hud Anchoring
‘Centered’ seems to be the best option with this setting.
Framerate Limit
This Halo Reach setting depends on how powerful your system is, and also what your monitor’s refresh rate is.
If you have a very powerful system, you can set it to ‘Unlimited’ since the higher the FPS, the better the gameplay.
However, if you’re experiencing significant framerate dips, I.e. the FPS goes from 100 to 65 then back to 90, you should set framerate limit to your monitor’s refresh rate. This is because framerate dips make the gameplay even more annoying than overall less FPS.
Graphics
There are two options here, ‘Enhanced’ and ‘Original’.
The Graphics option is a bit strange as both Enhanced and Original seem to be almost exactly the same, changing this setting doesn’t really make that much of a difference.
If you have a powerful system, set it to Enhanced.
If you don’t, set it to Original, since you’ll get a bit of an FPS boost and the game won’t look much worse anyway
