The wonderful world of Halo is full of creativity, a sprawling far-flung universe for players to explore. It’s a world that has only grown as the series has grown, with countless games, comics, books, and other media. One legendary part of this world is the vehicles that the player pilots throughout the many games.
Of course, there is the infamous Warthog, but there are also a whole host of other excellent vehicles that the UNSC — that’s the United Nations Space Command, AKA the good guys — make great use of. Looking specifically at mainline Halo games, as well as Reach, ODST, and the Halo Wars games, there is a bevy of different vehicles to choose from.
25 Vulture
A heavy, titanium-plated flying tank, the Vulture isn’t the best-looking thing the UNSC have ever piloted. Still, it can rain down death from above, making it incredibly useful. As seen in the Halo Wars series, the Vulture can have various missiles and rockets to complete this task, but doesn’t do much beyond that.
24 Gremlin
A modest vehicle compared to what follows, the Gremlin is a small support vehicle for disrupting enemy technology and communication. It featured in Halo Wars and comes equipped with an electromagnetic pulse cannon for getting the job done. It’s a neat little vehicle, but doesn’t come close to the heady heights seen in other Halo games.
23 Wolverine
The strange-looking Wolverine has tank tracks at the back and wheels at the front, with a roof equipped to take down aircraft. As playable in the Halo Wars games, this vehicle can have a grenade launcher and a rocket launcher, the main way for taking down enemies in the sky. It’s a practical, hardy thing, but not exactly thrilling.
22 Cobra
Another Halo Wars vehicle, the Cobra is a light tank designed for maneuverability and speed. Instead of the usual tracks seen on tanks, this tank has six wheels so it can turn corners properly. Instead of a cannon, it has a railgun, making it almost completely unique all-round. It can barely be called a tank, really.
21 Rhino
A tank akin to the Scorpion, the Rhino is rare for UNSC vehicles as it features a plasma cannon. Learned from the inevitable piles of Covenant weaponry that they found, the vehicle can pack a punch that few other UNSC weapons can. It’s bigger and better in every practical way than a Scorpion, but sadly is nowhere near as iconic.
20 Shortsword
One of the more flamboyantly designed vehicles, the Shortsword a stealth-bomber that looks a lot like a stingray. With a strangely colorful design and two winglets at the edge of each wing, it is definitely exciting to look at. As it only appears in Halo Wars, however, it hasn’t etched itself in players’ hearts like some other examples.
19 Mastodon
Starting off with one of the most useful vehicles on this list, the Mastodon is a humble people carrier. Only featured in the sadly underplayed Halo Wars 2, these bulky, spiky beetle-like trucks are designed to carry a good few troops.
They’re equipped shields as well, alongside an M41 Vulcan machine gun mounted on top, as featured in many UNSC vehicles. Unlike other mounted vehicle guns, however, this one is operated remotely, making it much safer to use. Overall, it may not be that flashy, but with its chunky exterior and practical purpose, it’s more than the sum of its parts.
18 Sparrowhawk
Also known as the Hawk, this aircraft has heavy cannons for taking down large vehicles like tanks from the air. It can take off and land vertically and has heavy weaponry to help a UNSC attack. The Sparrowhawk only appears in Halo Wars, but could make much more of an impression if playable in other games.
17 Elephant
Exciting maybe for size alone, the Elephant is one of a handful of massive vehicles utilized by the UNSC, along with the Mastodon above and the Mammoth below. It acts as a mobile base, with multiple levels and various weaponry, but it is only the second biggest UNSC ground vehicle, so can’t take a higher prize.
16 Condor
The Condor is similar to the previous entry in as much as it can carry about 20 people. Other than that it is bigger and better in every way, a grand space-faring vessel designed for long-range flight. It looks a little similar to the famous Pelican, but is much more useful as a transport vehicle. It also has FTL (faster-than-light) flight capabilities which is unusual for a vessel this small. So, in basic terms, it’s a big SUV with a massive fuel tank that can fly through space. Pretty neat.
15 Mongoose
There’s something wonderful about quad bikes, stirring every childish instinct. The quad bike in Halo is known as the Mongoose, and has had many different versions since Halo: Combat Evolved. All these evolutions have never got rid of that core charm, however.
Basically looking like a baby Warthog at first, the Mongoose has since had dozens of permutations just like its larger sibling. The player can also have a buddy perched on the back like they’re the clubs in a golf buggy. It’s all a bit silly, and wonderfully so.
14 Kodiak
Only seen in Halo Wars 2, the Kodiak is a unique vehicle. It has one massive cannon and can lock itself into the ground, assumedly to stop the thing toppling over. It is a silly, powerful weapon that, while cumbersome, can only come out of the strange and wacky world of Halo.
13 Hornet
Another vehicle only featured in the Halo Wars games, a Hornet is a light aircraft that can take of and land vertically. It is small and nimble, with various uses like attacking enemies or transporting troops. It is interesting, but it doesn’t quite have that magic that other UNSC aircraft do.
12 Wasp
More exciting than the Hornet is the Wasp, a tiny aircraft not dissimilar to a Banshee. It can take off and land vertically, and is actually playable in Halo 5, making it a much more exciting prospect than some of the other vehicles on this list. Still, that entry wasn’t exactly a high point, so there is still a way to go before this list gets there.
11 Mammoth
Appearing in Halo 4, the Mammoth is exactly that, an absolutely mammoth vehicle designed for transporting pretty much anything smaller than it, as well as taking down aircraft and basically being a mobile command center. As Chief’s iconic AI companion Cortana says on seeing the beast, “well, someone’s overcompensating.”
A bit of a jack of all trades, the sheer size of this vehicle is impressive in and of itself, being able to transport dozens of troops, as well as smaller vehicles like a Warthog or Mongoose. It’s three stories high, and even has a winch to get other vehicles out of sticky situations. There’s just so much to it.
10 Broadsword
An aircraft primarily used in space, the Broadsword is designed to take down similar-sized enemies in dogfights with ease. It has four engines, two cannons, and a missile system to deliver heavy blows to enemy forces. Only in Halo 4, the Broadsword is slick and sleek, but doesn’t really have that rugged down-to-earth feel of other UNSC vehicles.
9 Jackrabbit
A three-wheeled scout vehicle, the Jackrabbit is a strange little thing designed with little in terms of firepower, but a lot to offer. Playable in Halo Wars 2, the Jackrabbit can be equipped with a grenade launcher, machine gun, or even a heavy gauss canon. It’s a testament to the fact that great things can come in small packages.
8 Heron
A strangely memorable vehicle for anyone who has played Halo Wars, the Heron is designed to move large things. It lifts them up in its ‘belly’ and can carry bases for the player to set up in the game. Any player will see it a lot, and any fan of Halo Wars will surely have an affinity for it.
7 Scorpion
The first properly iconic vehicle on this, the Scorpion is very easy to explain: it’s just a tank. That might be selling it a bit short, but on first look that’s all it is. It has one great big cannon coming out of its center, with four covered tracks at each corner. It has an upgraded version named the Grizzly which features in the Halo Wars series, but there isn’t much to differentiate them.
It stayed in use because it was so cheap, but there is also a real charm to this vehicle. The first time a player pilots one in a Halo game, they may see one or two or, if they’re lucky, four of the soldiers jump onto the track coverings and perch there. With their guns aimed they all seem to be part of the same team with you, an amazing feeling such an old game to give.
6 Falcon
Similar to a Pelican, the Falcon is a smaller, more versatile transport with two helicopter rotors and downward thrusters. It has a big cannon at the front, and can have weapons fitted to either side, such as a grenade launcher or a machine gun.
While it may not be the most abstract of the UNSC creations, it’s still a sight to behold; a nimble-looking helicopter covered in guns and troops. Still, it’s big sibling and many other vehicles have captured players’ imaginations to a much greater extent.
