Checklists
Skulls
Skulls are modifiers and hidden collectibles in Halo 5: Guardians. Skulls are secret items that change player and enemy abilities. The first Skull discovered, Black Eye, appears on the Blue Team stage. All of the known Skulls for Halo 5 are listed below.
There are a total of 13 skulls in Halo 5. These skulls and their effects include:
- Iron - Cannot revive/be revived
- Black Eye - Shields do not recharge until you melee enemies
- Tough Luck - Enemies berserk, always dive, and never flee
- Catch - Enemies are grenade happy
- Fog - Motion sensor is disabled
- Famine - Weapons drop less ammo
- Thunderstorm - Enemy abilities upgraded
- IWHBYD - Rare combat dialog becomes more common
- Grunt Birthday Party - Headshot a grunt for a surprise
- Cowbell - Acceleration from explosions increased
- Blind - HUD and first-person arms/weapon hidden
- Mythic - Increased enemy health
- Tilt - Enemy resistances/weaknesses enhanced
Finding IWHBYD
The IWHBYD Skull is located in Mission 1 - Osiris.
After the second big battle against Prometheans, Fireteam Osiris needs to head into a big structure to move on. Instead of going into the structure, Climb up the ledge just to the left of the structure's entrance.?
Walk all the way down toward its edge and you'll see the skull.?
There she is!
Finding Black Eye
The Black Eye Skull is located in Mission 2 - Blue Team.
You'll find the Black Eye Skull hidden in a dark upper corner of the Reactor Room.
To reach it, head to the platform at the center of the room and climb crates to reach the upper piping.
Stand on top of the thick pipe and follow it up toward a dark upper corner of the chamber.
Jump across the gap and reach this hidden alcove.
To penetrate the grate in the floor, leap into the air, lock on with your melee attack, and burst through.
Once your reach the red chamber, look in this corner and you'll find the Skull.
Finding Iron
The Iron skull is found on Mission 3 - Glassed.?This skull can only be attained on Legendary. If you try on any other difficulty, you won't be able to shoot down the Phaeton.?
After getting into the Scorpion, proceed up the hill and take out the beam turrets. You go under a large rock arch way and follow the path to the right. As you move past the big building to the left, you will see a friendly cargo ship appear in the sky in front of you. A Phaeton will begin the chase it and shoot at it. You must shoot down the Phaeton before it takes out the cargoship. You can do this using the Scorpion's main gun, or turret, or a combination of both in co-op.
If successful, you will hear the Grunt Birthday Party sound, otherwise reload the last checkpoint. After taking down the Phaeton, the skull will spawn in 1 of 3 locations, either alongside the fence in the nearby area in between two yellow barrels (this is just before the tower you passed), on top of the roof of the Scorpion bay underneath a yellow barrel, or under the small archway near the entrance of the area close to the bridge next to two metal boxes. Pick up the skull from one of these 3 locations to unlock it.
Finding Blind
The Blind Skull is located in Mission 5 - Unconfirmed.
To reach it, double back and look up just after entering the first underground section of the mine.
Look up for a narrow shaft (with a light near the entrance) hidden by pylons in the small subterranean area behind the mine entrance.
By jumping up nearby platforms and across, then crouching you can enter a secret cave and claim the Skull.
There she is!
Finding Thunderstorm
This skull is found in Mission 6 - Evacuation.
This skull requires you to destroy 5 traffic cones in 2 minutes at the very start of the level. The final traffic cone will unspawn if you are not fast enough. Jump into a Gungoose if you're alone, or Warthog have a friend drive/taket the turret in order to do this quickly.
Upon destroying all 5 traffic cones (you'll hear the fun grunt birthday party sound after destroying each cone), go all the way to the very end of the level and you will find the skull on the ground as you enter outside as the guardian begins to "pulse".
Finding Grunt Birthday Party
The Grunt Birthday Party skull is located in Mission 7 - Reunion.
When you first see the Covenant, go into a tunnel on the right.
If you're in the pit with the Covenant, the path is just behind the crashed Phantom.
The path will split; keep right.
You'll first hear a Grunt singing. Press X to punt him off the cliff and get the Grunt Birthday Party skull.
If you kill the Grunt accidentally by other means, don't panic. You can still punt empty space to get the Skull.?
Finding Fog
The Fog skull is located in Mission 7 - Reunion.
At the very end of the level, you'll see Cortana's location - she'll make a remark about how Blue Team will be one of the first humans to set foot in the installation.
Don't approach the bridge. Instead, go right.
The path in this open area splits. Keep left and go uphill.
The Fog skull is on this small Forerunner structure. It'll be at the very end.
Finding Mythic
This skull is found on Mission 8 - Swords of Sanghelios. After you walk through the ruins and spot the covenant reinforcements, you'll need to navigate to a high platform on your left as you enter the area. To do this you'll need to jump on the diagonal beam in the doorway of the entrance to this area and then sprint, jump, dash and mantle your way up. The skull is in plain sight once on the platform.
Finding Catch
This skull is found on Mission 10 - Enemy Lines.?Once on the Kraken, head down and find one of the two Banshee docking bays. You'll need to find the correct bay, to do so look at the back of the banshees and find the greenlit hall. If it's to your left, you're good, if it's to your right, switch to the other bay. Once in the correct bay, look up and to the left to spot a small platform in this room. Grab a banshee and fly over to it, get out of the banshee and grab the skull in plain sight.
Finding Cowbell
This skull is found on Mission 12 - Battle of Sunaion.?You'll enter a large area with a Guardian at the very back in plain sight. Stay on ground level and go as close to the guardian as the map will allow you to, from the edge of this area, look down to spot a metal beam and concrete platform. Slowly jump down 1 level landing safely on the beam, and then turn around to spot the skull.
Finding Tilt
This skull is found on Mission 13 - Genesis.?After the encounter with the Warden Eternal,?you'll find a group of rocks (just to the right as you enter the area after crossing the bridge). You'll need to do a few crouch jumps & mantle to the tallest point of this group of rocks. Find the skull at the top.
Finding Famine
This skull is found on Mission 14 - The Breaking.?You'll enter a circular room where the Warden Eternal spawns in the middle and quickly disappears upwards into a purple streak of light. Navigate into the hall that circles undearneath him to pick up the skull before progressing through the level.
Finding Tough Luck
The Tough Luck skull is located in Mission 15 - Guardians.?Run up the ramp behind Gamma Core to what looks like the side of a buried Forerunner structure. Climb the rocks to the right of it, and jump carefully across the ledges toward the crashed UNSC Pelican.
Next to it is the Tough Luck skull. If you’re having trouble jumping to the Pelican’s platform, use the boost to help close the distance between the platforms.?