Halo Flashpoint Zeta Halo Wave: New Keywords and Unit Stats Revealed

Anthony Salazar

We talked in some prior Dispatch articles about the new Battle For Zeta Halo wave hitting Flashpoint, what the new units could mean for the game, and more. However, thanks to some amazing community members over on r/HaloFlashpoint who made the trip to Gen Con, we now have a look at the keywords and stats coming with the new units. Big thanks to u/5050Saint for the UNSC Marines, Horvath, Grunts, Jackals, and Sangheili Enforcer photos, and u/PatTheTuck for the full Spartan Killers breakdown. And a thank you to both Reddit user u/Apache_Raider and Corvus Occisor for sharing booklet photos breaking down the new UNSC Keywords and other information. Big thank you to u/DrProfHazzard for assisting with the new Banished keywords, and special Orders. Seriously, this is why this community rules.

EditorsNote: Upon publication of this article, some amazing and helpful community members provided additional information on keywords, and special orders. A big thank you to those who helped. Content that has been updated will be denoted with an asterisk at the end.

A Couple Keywords You'll Want To Know First:

Some keywords are going to come up a lot below, so let's knock these out now instead of making you scroll back and forth.

Support is the big one. Units with this keyword can only make up half your Fireteam by model count, they're worth zero Victory Points if your opponent kills them, and they treat any weapon with a range of 5 or more as a long action (so less proficient at range, keep that in mind). The biggest benefit is that while one or more units with this Keyword are in a cube, you can increase that cubes friendly unit capacity by +1. That last part matters a lot.

Medic is simpler. Free Auxiliary action, removes 1 lost wound from a friendly model in the same cube. Nice and clean.

Comms Relay is a fresh new Keyword, models with this generate a free Special Order token at the start of a round if it is on the board at that start. Even better, that Special Order token can be activated by any (non legend) model to trigger a special order. Unspent tokens are removed at the end of the round, so no stacking.

This next one applies to all models who qualify, in or outside of this expansion. High Value Target (HVT) nets you an extra Victory Point (in game modes where kills award points) upon defeating any model whose base cost before upgrades is 65 points or more. This does stack with VP enhancers like Spartan Killers, and Acrobatic. This is more of a rules change than a new Keyword.

Alright. Onto the Marines.

The UNSC Marines

These guys are very interesting, to say the least. Across the board they've got middling to bad stats, and honestly that's kind of the point. Lower points costs mean you can field more of them, plus remember that cube rule we just went over, you can stack 3 of these guys in a single cube instead of the usual 2. Volume is the whole game here.

Every Marine has a range stat of 5, a fight stat of 6, and a survive stat of 6. Exception is the UNSC Corporal, whose survive drops to 5. Not great numbers on paper, but having volume as a trade off is something worth actually thinking about instead of dismissing outright.

Nearly every Marine has solely the Support keyword. The ones that break the mold are the Marine with the Comms backpack (bolstering the appropriately named Comms Relay keyword), the UNSC Medic with, well, Medic, and the UNSC Corporal with Tactician 1. Beyond that the only real difference between them is weapon loadouts.

Early images from GenCon, provided by Reddit user: u/5050Saint

The Legendary Tomas Horvath

My favorite unit out of the whole UNSC Marines set. Wow. I was genuinely blown away when I saw his loadout and keywords. Let's break it down.

Tomas is sporting the typical Spartan Energy Shield 2, but he's also rocking Scout and Active Camouflage, meaning he's a great UNSC equivalent to Jega 'Rdomnai (more on him in a bit). Range stat of 4, fight and survive stats of 5, 2-3 speed, 2 armor, 4 health. So, typical stats for a Spartan IV, nothing wild there.

Coming with Spartan Fists as a base, he's also packing the Avenger Carbine, which, while having a measly range of 3, does also have Weight of Fire 3 attached to it. Tomas is also kitted with a frag grenade on his base unit card. Great for dealing with all the squishy new Grunts and Jackals!

I think Tomas is going to be a must have. Given his set up, he's going to be great for game modes like Capture the Flag for stealthily sneaking away an objective, or Husky Siege (my favorite gamemode) for laying down fire in close quarters. Having constant Active Camo access is going to make him a very interesting, versatile Spartan to field. Very excited to see how Flashpoint players across the community end up using him. I know you're already cooking up playstyles and equipment pairings, don't lie.

Early images from GenCon, provided by Corvus Occisor and Reddit user u/Apache_Raider

UNSC Special Orders

There are also two new special orders coming with the UNSC side.

First is Target Acquired. After a model with the Support keyword makes a shoot action, you can use a special order command die to give a plus one die modifier to other Support keyworded units for the rest of the round. Can't stack this one, and it's not applicable to Explosive, Incendiary, or Grenade keyworded weapons. This special order is rather interesting, because if you're fielding multiple Marines, you're talking about accuracy by volume at that point. Going to be very interesting to see this used in bigger point games like Big Team Battle (quick refresher, that typically kicks off at 450 points versus the standard 200 per player). Field out 6 or 7 Marines and yeah, this just became a real concern for your opponent, even with their middling stats.

Just imagine a crouched, elevated Marine with a sniper. He goes to shoot, uses Sniper Scope after this special order's already active. You're talking 3 dice base for the attack, 2 for Sniper Scope, 1 for crouch, another for height, 1 more for the special order, possibly 2 more with Clear Shot, and for extra fun you pair in explosive ammo for 1 more die. Now you're talking 11 dice on a single range test, not even counting headshots on 7s and 8s. That's scary.

Next special order is Our Time to Shine, exclusive to Marines. It lets you drop the Support keyword off a single active model for the duration of its activation, meaning you'll be able to shoot a weapon of 5 range or more without it counting as a long action. Nifty, and lots of opportunity mid match as the battlefield stays ever dynamic. Be selective with your targets.

Let's Swap Over to the Banished - Keywords First

Horde gives a model a bonus die in close combat for every other model in its cube that also shares the Horde keyword. Stacks powerfully with Support when combined in the same cube (yeah, sit with that one for a second).

There is also a new Keyword called “Agile” that’s being added. After committing a “long” shoot action, this unit is allowed a single cube of movement for free. Nifty*

Grunts and Jackals

Grunts come in two flavors, Conscripts and Assault. Conscripts have a ranged, fight, and survive stat of 6 across the board. Yikes. They're rocking 1 armor and 3 health. Assault Grunts are a little more manageable, 6 ranged, fight and survive stats of 5, range of 1-2, 1 armor across the board.

The Kig-Yar (Jackals) are very interesting. Flavored as Freebooter and Sniper variants, both have a movement stat of 1-3, zero armor, and 3 health. Fast little glass cannons. The Freebooter has a ranged stat of 5, the Sniper comes in at 4. Both share a fight and survive stat of 6 and 5 respectively. Both come with Scout, with the Freebooter also carrying 2 Energy Shields, and the Snipers are carrying the new Agile keyword.*

The Sangheili Enforcer

Now, for the unit most everyone is excited for in the Banished Reinforcements set. For you Sangheili players, you better listen up, this guy is going to be a must have in your Elite builds, he is certainly a presence on the field.

Rocking a Shock Rifle, the typical Sangheili fists, and standard plasma grenade, he's got a fairly typical loadout. Also consistent are the stats, in line with other Elites at 4 across the board, movement 2-3, 1 armor, 4 health. His keywords are what make him impressive though. This ferocious warrior is coming in with 4 Energy Shields, Evade, and Tactician 1. This guy is going to be a problem, and as a UNSC Stan, I am already fearing it. I know a lot of players are going to have a lot of fun with him on the squad (myself included, probably against my better judgment).

Early images from GenCon, provided by Reddit user: u/5050Saint

Banished Special Orders

Unggoy Plasma Grenade Assault, this one's exactly as fun and thematic as Mantic promised. Spend a Special Order result on any Unggoy, and that model can use the following profile as a CC attack, hitting on a 4+: CC/AP2, Smash, Lethal 1.

Here's the catch, and it's a big one. At the end of the Assault action, every model in the cube (yours included) gets Pinned and scattered out of the cube. The Unggoy that used the Special Order also takes 2 wounds on top of that, and armor and shields don't stop that damage. So yeah, this is a suicide run, exactly like we speculated it might be, and now we've got the actual numbers to back it up.

Two wounds is rough for a model that's only sitting on 3 health to begin with, but the trade off, an armor piercing, lethal close combat hit that scatters an entire enemy cube, is a genuinely nasty tool in the right moment. Just don't expect that Grunt to be walking away from it.*

Big thanks again to u/DrProfHazzard over on Reddit for providing information on this, and the Agile keyword. The Dispatch thanks you.

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Image provided by: Mantic Games

New Keywords, Before Getting Into The Spartan Killers

Firing Platform

One more to define ahead of time. Firing Platform is confirmed on some of the Spartan Killers specifically, and units with it get x amount of extra dice on a shoot test. This was introduced with Noble Team, and is making another appearance here.

Spartan Killer

New Keyword applied to all the models in the set. This will net you an additional Victory Point for killing enemy Spartan models, similar to the “Acrobat” Keyword already in place.

The Spartan Killers

Lastly, we've got the Spartan Killers. Courtesy of u/PatTheTuck, we can see the full stats of the team. Segwaying into the threatening three is the fearsome Jega 'Rdomnai. Keywords include Active Camouflage, 3 Energy Shields, Evade, Fearless, Spartan Killer, and Tactician 1. I know, I need a change of underwear too. He's also sporting a ranged stat of 5, a fight stat of 3 (oh crap), and a survive stat of 4. 2-3 speed, typical, 1 armor, 4 health. His loadout is solely his CC/ranged weapon, Bloodblade and Ghostpierce. The CC stat on that is ESD 2, Lethal 2, Smash 1, and 3 Armor Piercing. Players using him are going to be eagerly serving Spartan kebab on the menu.

Transitioning to Hyperius, his keywords are Energy Shield 2, Imposing, Jump Pack, Spartan Killer, and Tactician 1. Both ranged and fight stats are set to 4, survive at 5. 1-3 on the movement, 2 armor, 7 health. Guy is a charging tank. His Ravager has a split CC/ranged option, CC is a single Armor Piercing and Lethal 1, ranged brings 1 Armor Piercing, Blast, ESD 1, Grenade, and Implosion 5. He's also lugging a UNSC S7 Sniper with its usual stats, which is just a nice little bonus.

Tovarus has the same base stats as Hyperius, 4-4-5, movement set to 1-3, 2 armor, 7 health. These guys are beasts. His keywords are Energy Shield 2, Imposing, Jump Pack, and Spartan Killer. This smelly ape is carrying his signature Scrap Cannon, with two fire modes. First gives Armor Piercing 1, Firing Platform 2, Knockback, and Weight of Fire 1. The second holds no Armor Piercing, Firing Platform 1, and Suppression. That same Scrap Cannon also has a CC stat of 1 Armor Piercing, Lethal 1, and Smash 1. Close or far, he knows how to kill. Players be wary of him.

They also share the Hand of Atriox special order. Tied directly to use only by the three models in the box, it lets you, at the start of one of their activations, mark an enemy model. Anytime the activated model makes a fight or ranged test against the designated target, you can re roll up to 2 dice from your test. The con being if you fail to kill the marked target by the end of the round and they're still alive, you lose a Victory Point. Pros and cons here. Overall an interesting special order I think will see a lot of use from players picking this box up.

Early images from GenCon, provided by Reddit user: u/PatTheTuck

Unit Costs - Where Are They?

You may have noticed that through out the article, we didn’t mention how much the units would cost in regards to point values. There’s a reason for that.

Curtesy of a community member by the name of Corvus Occisor who is boots on the ground at Gen Con as I write. They got to speak with Blake from Mantic himself. It seems like Mantic is making a smart pitch by excluding the points value for units within their respective booklets, and keeping them tied to the Halo Flashpoint Index exclusively, so they can remain futureproof. Many players, as well as those within my home community (Alex, I see you and hear you brother) have expressed frustration of having unit cards come from the original run of the game; only to then be made obsolete with the Wargames expansion, and now once again doing another batch for the 1.5 rules update. This is a measure to prevent the booklets from being useless or outdated in the years to come, and the booklets seem to only contain Keyword information, possibly also Special Order information. The Booklets are measuring at 4×3, and are about four pages in length. Small.

Corvus stated that from what he heard in person, Mantic is aiming at updating the Index within the next week or two to include the new units coming, their costs, and more. This makes sense, as we have seen something similar with Noble Team being added to the list builder ahead of their launch. While some may find this information disheartening, I think it is a positive change that will curb communication issues or arguments at smaller scale local games and events. By keeping point values tied to the Index, every player will be on the exact same page, and will not have to worry about having outdated information that they are building their teams with.

Thanks for the inside scoop Corvus, The Harriers Salute you!

Wrapping Up

I think we have a much better idea now as to how the new models are going to behave and get used on the tabletop. We've seen a lot of theory crafting going on in the community already, and I myself am eagerly strategizing how to leverage the new UNSC Medic (that's probably my most anticipated model in the whole release, honestly). These models look great courtesy of Mantic showing them off, and I think they're all going to be a blast to paint up and customize. Each one offers something useful and interesting to your fireteam dynamic, and games are going to be more diverse than anything we've seen yet in the history of Flashpoint.

I'm also trying to really plan out how to get a team built with Spartans, ODSTs, and Marines together. So, how are we feeling about the new reveals? Big shout out again to our amazing community members over on r/HaloFlashpoint for sharing these photos and bringing back this information from their trip to Gen Con. Don’t forget to pre order the new Battle For Zeta Halo wave of products either through your local game store (show them some love) or through Mantic Games directly. If you’re local to Albuquerque, Ettin Games offers a 20% discount when pre ordering in store. The new wave releases in September.

If you're interested in more Flashpoint news coverage, be sure to keep checking back with The Dispatch.

Fresh From Gen Con: Breaking Down the New Zeta Halo Wave Keywords and Stats