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Alphamoon With Sprinkles

Alphamoon With Sprinkles is a mod for Halo 2's cut Alphamoon level that expands the Heretics as a faction and adds allies that accompany the Arbiter throughout the map. Some AI encounters have been scaled up and the changes to the Heretics featured in my campaign mod are all present and improved here, the goal is to make Alphamoon more fun and engaging of an experience overall.

LIST OF CHANGES:

HERETICS
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Same with my campaign mod, I feel the Heretics in unmodded Halo 2 are severely lacking in variety on account of only consisting of 1 rank of grunt, 2 ranks of elite, and only ever wielding 3 weapon types. This is addressed by introducing Heretic Jackals that often have a random chance to spawn in place of Heretic Grunts, and implementing a rank system similar to that of the standard Covenant. While these higher ranks are more experienced in combat, the Heretics still reject the Covenant's hierarchy. Many of the heretic encounters have been randomized, so no two playthroughs will be quite the same. This ranges from the weapons they will spawn with, to enemy types.



GRUNTS
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Heretic Grunts now have major, heavy, ultra, and spec ops ranks fully implemented. Spec Ops Heretic Grunts can dual wield and are quick on their feet, and ultras have a chance of berserking like brutes if the situation gets dire enough. Heretic Grunt heavies double as carbine-wielding marksmen, but aren't quite as disciplined with it as elites and jackals are.

ELITES
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Heretic Elites now have a green ultra rank, which does what elite ultras do. Yep, that's about it for them.

HUNTERS
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Heretic Hunters are encountered throughout the level in some select areas, and include their lesser brethren ported from Halo CE where Halo 2 Hunters wouldn't be very much fun to fight comparatively. The CE Heretic Hunters' fuel rod guns ran out of power at some point, so the majority of them make do with conventional weapons. Just like H1, the CE Heretic Hunters are easily dispatched if you've got the right equipment. Don't get too close, though.

JACKALS
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The Heretic Jackals featured in "H2 With Sprinkles" make an appearance, now with some more english-speaking dialogue lines thrown in. You will frequently hear them taunt the Arbiter in combat.

VEHICLES
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The Heretics' vehicles have had changes applied that make them stand out from the Covenant more, complete with their own reskins and FX.

GHOST
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The Heretic Ghost functions similarly to the CE one, firing both guns when the trigger is pulled. The AI is all too aware of this and are more aggressive in operating this than the H2 Ghost.

SPECTRE
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The H2 Spectres crewed by Heretics in the base version of Alphamoon have been replaced with ported and reskinned digsite Spectres from CE, which are middle-of-the-road in durability and firepower between the ghost and the wraith.

SHADOW
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Shadows now make an appearance in the level, becoming functionally similar to tanks with their death ray turrets. Despite its critical threat level, the Heretic Shadow's firepower can be used just as well against them.

SPIRIT
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Spirit dropships are destructible now yay

WRAITH
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The Heretics now have their own Wraith vehicle with its own projectile FX so you can tell who's who when the going gets chaotic.

GUNTOWER
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The Heretics' AAA turrets now use the sound heard in the earthcity demo and have been given different projectile explosion FX to make them more imposing.


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COVENANT
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All the additions to the Spec Ops Covenant from H2 With Sprinkles have carried over into this mod, and what was once a measly squad of 3 grunts who do not follow you into battle is now a full-on lance of the Covenant's finest. They will accompany you through the majority of the mission as long as you can keep them alive, and their assistance can do a lot of heavy lifting for you in the push sequence if you support them. Convoys of Spectres and Wraiths appear in the larger scale sections to even the odds and make these sections actually fun without a banshee. Animations for the shadow's passenger seats have been fixed so they can ride with you if you get ahold of one.


To top it all off, the Player now starts the mission with an energy sword and beam rifle, making the opening turret sections far less overwhelming on higher difficulties. This mod has been thoroughly playtested on Heroic and, while pretty friggin' hard, should be viable for players who are experienced and patient. I hope players will find this as fun to play as I did working on it, enjoy!


Special thanks to Paddy Tee for reskinning the Heretic Dropship and graciously giving me permission to use the skin in this mod, and AI for helping me port the CE Hunter to 2!


Known Bugs:
Only one with the level itself, you won't get the "Press E to plant charge" message on your HUD, but you can still plant them on the guntowers if you'd like to take them out this way. Just hold E once you're in the spot and it'll work just fine.

The Spec Ops radio effect might linger when you enter the Heretic Leader's lair, reverting to the last checkpoint will fix this

The CE Hunter's movement animations sometimes jank out and make him slide forward

Update 6/18/2025, 2 hours into release: Fixed the heretic shadow's death ray explosion appearing blue instead of green