Welcome to the Halo 5 Skulls locations guide that helps you find the total of 13 Skulls locations for the Xbox One first-person shooter game.
Finding all 13 Skull locations and picking them up will help unlock the following Achievements:
* “Gravedigger” (10 Gamerscore) — Found and claimed a Skull.
* “Gravelord” (40 Gamerscore) — Found and claimed all Skulls.
* Bonus: Activating Skulls will enable special effects and difficulty increasing effects in the Campaign.
The Timeline for all these in-game Skulls locations is listed below.
Index of Halo 5 Guides:
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Halo 5 Skulls
Skulls list and their effects:
1. Black Eye Skull: After taking damage, your shields will not recharge. You can only recharge your shields by performing melee attacks on enemies.
2. Blind Skull: Your entire HUD, motion sensor, reticules, weapon and arms will be removed from the screen completely.
3. Catch Skull: Enemies will throw and carry more grenades than usual.
4. Cowbell Skull: Acceleration of objects effected by explosions is increased. This is particularly useful for increasing the height of grenade jumps.
5. Famine Skull: Weapons dropped by enemies or picked up from the environment will have half the ammo that they would usually have.
6. Fog Skull: Your motion sensor is disabled.
7. Grunt Birthday Party Skull: Performing a head shot on a Grunt will cause it to explode in a shower of confetti whilst cheers can be heard in the background. – HAPPY BOOM TIME!
8. Iron Skull: Makes the game more difficult by messing with death and checkpoints. You cannot be revived or revive squad mates. / In solo mode, if you die at any time you will have to restart the mission. / In co-op mode, the death of one player will cause all players to reset to the previously obtained checkpoint.
9. IWHBYD Skull: Enemies and allies get additional humorous dialogue. Rare combat dialogue becomes more common.
10. Mythic Skull: Enemies have increased health.
11. Thunderstorm Skull: All enemies will be the next rank up from usual. Normal Elites will be upgraded to Captain Elites for example.
12. Tilt Skull: Enemy resistances and weaknesses are increased.
13. Tough Luck Skull: Enemies always go berserk, meaning they dodge/avoid weapon and grenade attacks much easier. They also always dive out of the way, and never flee.
How to find missing Skulls?: In-game the Skulls will appear simply as black-burned color human skull on the ground that you can pick up to collect when you stand next to it. It can be confirmed as being Skulls simply by walking up to it, as the on-screen text will then tell you can press the B button to “Pick up Skull”.
Does the game save each Skulls you collect?: Yes, the game will automatically save the Skulls you just collected if you picked up the Skull, so you don’t have to play to the end of the mission. After picking up each collectible you can safely quit the mission without losing collectibles progress.
Note: Collecting the 13 Skulls can be done on any difficulty level, except for the Iron Skull that can only be found on Legendary difficulty level.
Tip: You can turn on/off Skulls in the Main Menu’s Campaign menu, in the New Game Setup section you’ll find the Active Skulls. Which you can change before starting a new mission.
Where to find all Skulls in Halo 5? The in-game collectibles locations for the Skulls are described in this detailed video guide with handy voice-over tips by Maka.
The Skulls are listed in the video in the order that they appear per Campaign Mission.
Timeline in minutes for the Skulls Locations Guide:
• [00:07] — Skull Location #1: IWHBYD Skull – Found in Mission 1: Osiris.
Location Description: After the second large fight area, before entering the room with the elevator, jump up the the left side cliff and find the skull at the end of this ledge.
• [00:40] — Skull Location #2: Black Eye Skull – Found in Mission 2: Blue Team.
Location Description: Once you reach the reactor room, clear out a few enemies and then go the very left side of the room near the ammo cache. Use the cache to get on top of the large pipes on the side of the wall. Follow the pipes to the back of the room and jump across to the ledge when they end. Ground Pound through the vent in the floor into a red room where you’ll find the skull on a table.
• [01:34] — Skull Location #3: Iron Skull – Found in Mission 3: Glassed (on Legendary difficulty).
Location Description: 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.
• [03:33] — Skull Location #4: Blind Skull – Found in Mission 5: Unconfirmed.
Location Description: After the sniper section, go to the top of the hill and the large vault door will open. Once it open, get on the left ledge, then jump on the box and make the jump onto the vents at the top of the room. Once here, follow the vents to find a small cave/path with the skull.
• [04:14] — Skull Location #5: Thunderstorm Skull – Found in Mission 6: Evacuation.
Location Description: 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”.
• [06:37] — Skull Location #6: Grunt Birthday Party Skull – Found in Mission 7: Reunion.
Location Description: After your first enemy encounter near the downed covenant ship, get on the path above and behind it. Follow the path to the end to find the singing grunt holding a skull. Click the “Punt” prompt, and the skull will replace him after he flies off.
• [07:46] — Skull Location #7: Fog Skull – Found in Mission 7: Reunion.
Location Description: At the very end of the level after exiting the underground cave system that you can walk or fly through you notice a large structure in front of you which is where your objective is. Do not go here yet as it ends the level, instead go to the right and follow the path up the hill to find the skull on the platform.
• [08:25] — Skull Location #8: Mythic Skull – Found in Mission 8: Swords of Sanghelios.
Location Description: 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.
• [09:48] — Skull Location #9: Catch Skull – Found in Mission 10: Enemy Lines.
Location Description: 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.
• [10:42] — Skull Location #10: Cowbell Skull – Found in Mission 12: The Battle of Sunaion.
Location Description: 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.
• [11:25] — Skull Location #11: Tilt Skull – Found in Mission 13: Genesis.
Location Description: 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.
• [12:04] — Skull Location #12: Famine Skull – Found in Mission 14: The Breaking.
Location Description: 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.
• [12:30] — Skull Location #13: Tough Luck Skull – Found in Mission 15: Guardians.
Location Description: 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.
There you go! All Skulls in Halo 5 are yours! 🙂
Huge thanks to Maka for the guide videos and tips.
Please comment if you have any additional Halo 5 Skulls location tips of your own, we’ll give you credit for it. – Thanks for visiting!