This vehicle seems similar in shape, size and design to cruisers referred to as "CCS" class by Cortana in Halo 1, such as the Truth and Reconciliation, which crashed on the surface of the ringworld in Halo 1 and was temporarily a prison for Captain Keyes before his rescue by the Master Chief and Cortana.

The Wraith is a Covenant hover tank. In Halo 1 it had only one form of armament, a powerful, long-range plasma mortar that was just as, if not more, effective against Covenant units as against humans and the Master Chief. These tanks also had a habit of running over their support ground troops. Wraiths were not pilotable by the Master Chief in Halo 1. Once their pilots were killed, the vehicle was useless, as with Banshees and Ghosts. Sniping a Wraith pilot before he entered the vehicle left the Ghost intact and harmless, but still useless. The most effective weapons against Wraiths were rocket launchers and the Warthog's LAAG cannon. In addition to the mortar, in Halo 2 it appears as if the Wraith also has two automatic plasma cannons, probably similar to those on the Banshee and Ghost. This will probably mean slightly different strategies when facing them than in the first game. The Wraith vehicle, while slow, does have a Boost mode.

The Phantom appears to be a rapid attack unit that also carries ground troops, and may end up functioning as a replacement to the original game's unnamed dropships, which have not yet been seen in any Halo 2 footage. Two Brutes drop out of the back of one during the E3 2003 realtime demo, to board a Warthog and kill the driver and passenger.

While only slightly different in appearance from its Halo 1 forebear, the Ghost in Halo 2 is also actually quite different. Like other vehicles, it is now partially destructible. Rather than a single explosion that renders the vehicle unusuable and the driver dead, like other vehicles, the Ghost can be wrecked in stages.

It also has the boost feature, activated by using the left trigger; this causes the Ghost to accelerate faster, but the twin plasma cannons cannot be fired in this mode.

The ghost can also be "boarded", allowing other players to approach it at a low enough speed, eject the driver and take over the vehicle, TJ-Hooker style.

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.