Halo: Combat Evolved
The legendary first-person shooter that launched the Xbox franchise, featuring numerous physics exploits, grenade jumps, and sequence breaks that have been refined by speedrunners for over two decades.
The legendary first-person shooter that launched the Xbox franchise, featuring numerous physics exploits, grenade jumps, and sequence breaks that have been refined by speedrunners for over two decades.
Character Possession Glitch
Character Possession Glitch is a groundbreaking exploit discovered in September 2024 that allows players to control characters normally restricted to AI—including Covenant Elites, Flood forms, and even the Pelican dropship—without any mods.
Discovery
23 years after Halo: Combat Evolved's release, speedrunner Mr_Monopoli (a former Microsoft software engineer known for breaking Bungie games) discovered a method to possess enemy and NPC characters on the original Xbox version of the game.
How It Works
The glitch exploits the co-op respawn system, which operates in two stages:
- Body Creation: When you die in co-op, the game first creates a new body and stores it in memory on the "object table"
- Control Grant: After creating the body, the game grants the player control of it
Mr_Monopoli found a way to decouple these two steps:
"Using glitches we found a way to interrupt the respawn at the point that it has created the body, but has not granted us control of it yet. After that, we found a way to delete the pre-loaded body from the object memory table. I then spawned a new character in the exact memory location as the deleted player. Then I stopped the respawn interruption, allowing the respawn sequence to continue. Because step 1 (create a body) was already completed, it now moves to step 2 (Grant Control)."
— Mr_Monopoli
This technique essentially tricks the game into granting player control to whatever character occupies that memory slot.
What You Can Control
Using this glitch, players have demonstrated control of:
| Character | Abilities |
|---|---|
| Covenant Elite | Full movement, can use plasma rifles |
| Flood Infection Form | Wall-climbing capabilities |
| Pelican Dropship | Full flight control—"a dream come true" for fans |
| Other AI | Potentially Grunts, Hunters, and other units |
Requirements
- Original Xbox hardware (OG Xbox)
- Co-op mode required
- Does NOT work on Halo: The Master Chief Collection (MCC uses PC code, not original Xbox code)
Current Status
This glitch is still being researched and documented. As of the discovery:
- No formal tutorials exist yet
- Mr_Monopoli has announced plans to release video tutorials and explanations
- The community is still exploring the full extent of what can be possessed
Credits
- Mr_Monopoli — Discoverer of the glitch
- Amadeus — Created a PC tool to analyze the object table, enabling the team to understand the memory mechanics and apply them to original Xbox hardware without mods