The Halo Wars series breaks from the FPS tradition of the franchise, showing the interstellar conflict from a totally different perspective. While the gameplay might’ve changed, all the basic bits that make up a Halo game are pretty much still intact — take the skulls for instance. Yes, collectible skulls have returned, and earning them isn’t quite as difficult as it’s been in the past.
Instead of esoteric Easter eggs and hidden locations, the skulls of Halo Wars 2 are unlocked by completing campaign challenges. Each mission features one challenge (some feature two!) and completing these titanic tasks will unlock a skull. It isn’t always clear exactly what to do to get the skulls, so we’re going explain every challenge below.
And yes, skulls still modify the game in weird and wonderful ways. These aren’t just collectibles, they’re mutators.
More Halo Wars 2 guides on Gameranx:
- Halo Wars 2: 5 Tips To Help You Dominate in Blitz | Multiplayer Guide
- Halo Wars 2: All Phoenix Logs Locations | Complete Collectibles Guide
- Halo Wars 2: How to Get Free Blitz Packs (And Why You Shouldn’t Buy Them)
All Skulls Locations | Complete Collectibles Guide
Note: All Skulls can be earned on EASY difficulty. This makes completing challenges significantly easier.
- Skull #1: Grunt Birthday Party
- Mission: A New Enemy
- Challenge: Capture all the nodes — Simply capture all the nodes visible on your minimap.
- Skull #2: Paintball
- Mission: Ascension
- Challenge: Completely destroy the main base in the northern section of the map.
- Skull #3: Pain Train
- Mission: Ascension
- Challenge: Destroy the smaller base in the southeast corner of the map. It can’t be accessed normally, you’ll need to send Hornet flyers to destroy it.
- Skull #4: Bountiful Harvest
- Mission: One Three Zero
- Challenge: Keep all your captured prisoners alive during the mission. Play on Easy to make this challenge much less difficult to obtain.
- Skull #5: Emperor
- Mission: The Cartogapher
- Challenge: Destroy the base and buildings on the northern edge of the map.
- Skull #6: Pestilence
- Mission: Lights Out
- Challenge: Locate and release all prisoners. Don’t complete the map until you’ve fully explored and released everyone!
- Skull #7: Total Annihilation
- Mission: From The Deep
- Challenge: Don’t let any Spartan soldiers go down in combat. Very easy — just retreat when their shields are low.
- Skull #8: Sickness
- Mission: Hold the Line
- Challenge: Complete the mission without losing a single barricade. Tough to accomplish, so lower the difficulty to make this easy.
- Skull #9: Firestarter
- Mission: Hold the Line
- Challenge: Don’t let the Particle Cannon take more than 50% damage. On easy, this one is extremely simple — if you can protect the barriers, this one is a cinch.
- Skull #10: Things That Make You Go Boom!
- Mission: Under the Dark
- Challenge: Defeat all three of the Brute Warlords before completing the mission.
- Skull #11: Wuv Woo
- Mission: The Foundry
- Challenge: Keep the Scarab alive. Possible on just about any difficulty, but very simple to accomplish on Easy.
- Skull #12: Sugar Cookie
- Mission: The Foundry
- Challenge: Keep the Scarab’s health above 25%. Same as above.
- Skull #13: After Party
- Mission: The Halo
- Challenge: Fight your way to Bravo Base in the northeast corner of the map. Kill all the enemies and eventually it will become operational.
- Skull #14: Nightmare
- Mission: Last Stand
- Challenge: Don’t let the control room shields take more than 25% damage. If it drops below 75%, you’ll lose this skull.
- Skull #15: Shadow
- Mission: Last Stand
- Challenge: Defeat both Brute Warlords — one is one the east side of the map, and the other is on the west side.
Achievements Unlocked!
- Alas, Poor Yorick! (10 Points):
- Collect a skull.
- Morbid Curiosities (20 Points):
- Collect half of the skulls.
- Collecting A Dream (30 Points):
- Collect all of the skulls.
