The human sniper rifle is changed slightly from the first game. It now has recoil, requiring the user to aim again between shots. When holding the weapon and not using the zoom scope, a "live" image is displayed on the scope.

The sniper rifle cannot be dual-wielded.

The scope provides 5x and 10x zoom. The rifle magazine holds 4 14.5mm armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding-sabot rounds. It is generally only useful at medium or long range due to low capacity and long reload time.

The shotgun in Halo 1 was a short to medium range weapon with middling accuracy and real stopping power at short range, capable of one-shot kills for most unshielded targets. Reportedly this weapon is little changed from the first game.

The shotgun cannot be dual-wielded.

The shotgun holds 12 8-guage rounds and is most effective at close range.

The rocket launcher in Halo 2 has slower projectiles than the SPNKR from the original game, but if you get a lock on a target, the projectiles will seek. Especially good against vehicles. Damage radius is also reduced.

It cannot be dual-wielded.

The sub machine gunfires faster than Halo 1's Assault Rifle, and can be dual-wielded, but is not very powerful.

The SMG's magazine holds 60 5mm rounds and fires them in a fully automatic mode. Not accurate at long distance.

The Battle Rifle fires 3-shot bursts in normal mode and single shots while zoomed.

It is widely thought of by some as a combination between Halo 1's too-powerful pistol and too-weak Assault Rifle. The submachine gun, or SMG, is perhaps more comparable to the Assault Rifle.

The Battle Rifle cannot be dual wielded.

The BR55's magazine holds 36 rounds of 9.5mm ammunition. The Halo 2 manual refers to it as a "useful all-around infantry weapon."

The pistol in Halo 2 has no scope for zooming, unlike Halo 1's pistol, and it is less powerful. However, it can be dual-wielded.

It is magazine fed and uses 12.7 mm armor-piercing rounds. The magazine holds 12 rounds and fires in semiautomatic mode.

The banshee is a one-man flying assault vehicle that can fly like an airplane and hover like helicopter. It carries two armaments; dual plasma cannons, similar to those on the Ghost, and a Fuel Rod Gun similar to those carried by Spec Ops grunts and molded into the arms of Hunters.

The Banshee is supposedly powered by "anti gravity pods" located on the ends of the wings. From footage in recent television advertisements, it seems likely that the handling characteristics of Banshees have been somewhat altered since Halo 1.

The Shadow is an armed Covenant personnel carrier. It has a roof-mounted plasma turret that bears a lot of resemblance to the Shade turret from Halo 1.

The Master Chief destroys several of these with a Warthog-mounted Gauss gun in the E3 realtime demonstration from 2003.

The Shadow has a crew of two (driver and gunner) and can carry up to 8 infantry units, including Elites, Brutes, Grunts or Jackals.

This item was erroneously referred to in the Halo2.com site's XML files as the "Creep". This might have been an early name.

This image, of a vehicle or object not yet positively identified, appeared on the revised Halo2.com website revised on October 15. It could be a revised dropship, but it is more likely a Boarding Ship, a vehicle seen only from the inside during Halo 1. The Covenant may have used these to attach to the Pillar of Autumn's escape pod doors.

Its appearance at Halo2.com may indicate that we will once again be seeing Covenant boarders on UNSC vessels in Halo 2.

The Needler was the only Covenant weapon in Halo 1 that had ammunition; all the other weapons had batteries that drained and became useless to the player.

In single player it was useful for taking out Elites; in multiplayer it was thought too weak, with projectiles that were too slow and too easy to dodge.

In Halo 2, the Needler's projectiles are supposedly faster and pack more punch, although some players have reported that Needler rounds slowed between the E3 2004 and final builds of the game.

The Needler can be dual-wielded and fires in semiautomatic and automatic modes.

Plasma turrets are stationary guns, usually used by Covenant to defend strategic positions. In Halo 1, the users of these guns were especially vulnerable to snipers, Banshees and grenades. For Halo 2, it appears as if the turret (also called a Shade) has gotten a serious makeover, in addition to getting a plasma shield, which the first iteration did not have.

The Carbine is thought to be a Covenant equivalent of the battle rifle. It cannot be dual wielded, and has a zoom that when used, limits its rate of fire. It is assumed it will be wielded by upper echelons of the Covenant hierarchy, such as Elites, or possibly by Drones.

Dormant until activated, Covenant plasma grenades will "stick" to targets, killing most targets (in Halo 1, anyway) and causing damage to nearby units, including disabling shields. As in the first game, you can carry up to four of these. In the first game, they were carried by both Grunts and Elites.

The plasma grenade has a blast radius of 30 feet, and detonates three seconds after coming to rest.

UPDATE: This weapon will also be in Halo 3. Any changes to specifications are as of yet unknown; however, indications are that because of the addition of Spike Grenades, the number of Plasma Grenades that can be carried at once will be reduced from four to three.

UPDATE: In the Halo 3 Public Beta, the number of grenades per type that can be carried simultaneously is in fact two.

In Halo 1, the plasma pistol was carried mainly by Grunts and Jackals. With each squeeze of the trigger it produces a small bolt of plasma that damages opponents or drains their shields. When the trigger is held down, it produces an alternate-fire mode where a large burst is fired, seeking targets within range and eliminating shielding on targets like Jackals, Elites, and Spartans. It was the exclusive weapon for Jackals, who carried no other weapons in the first game, while Grunts sometimes carried Needlers or even FRGs.

In multiplayer, this weapon, like the larger plasma rifle, produces a stunning effect, slowing the movement of opponents.

This weapon returns, apparently unchanged in Halo 2. There is some debate over whether or not the stunning effect persists.

Like most Covenant plasma based weapons, the pistol has a charge level. When this charge is drained, the weapon becomes useless. In Halo 1 it was not possible to recharge this weapon, and there is no indication that Halo 2 will be any different.

When firing the weapon heats up; if it gets too hot, it cannot be fired and must cool. It has a meter that indicates temperature. After firing an overcharge (alt fire) blast it must cool. It can fire at a fairly high rate in semiautomatic mode, and does not have a fully automatic mode. The overcharge mode drains the weapon's charge more quickly than the semiautomatic mode.

The plasma pistol can be dual wielded.

This weapon, apparently carried by the apelike hairy Brutes seen in the E3 2003 trailer, features a vicious-looking wide blade on the handle, presumably for melee attacks, and operates as a kind of grenade lobber.

It cannot be dual wielded, and is the only Covenant projectile weapon (unless you count the Needler).