Halo Online

Halo
Halo: Combat Evolved	2003
Halo 2	2007
Halo: Spartan (series)
Halo Online	2015*
Halo 5: Forge	2016
Halo Wars (series)
Halo Recruit	2017
Halo: The Master Chief Collection (series)
Halo Infinite	2021
Halo: Campaign Evolved	2026

Halo Online is a multiplayer first-person FPS game in the Halo series.

The official release under Microsoft Studios for Russian players was cancelled in 2016.

The game is playable worldwide with the ElDewrito Mod, which is now essential for play. As such, all guides on this page are in reference to the aforementioned mod.

General information

Halo Waypoint - Official Beta Launch of Halo Online testing under Microsoft Studios in Russia

ElDewrito.com - Official Page of ElDewrito Mod

Blog.ElDewrito.com - Official blog for the ElDewrito Mod

r/HaloOnline Subreddit for Halo Online and ElDewrito Help and Discussion.

ElDewrito Source Code - ElDewrito Mod Repository

Availability

Not officially available. Requires the ElDewrito Mod to play the game.^[1]

Essential improvements

ElDewrito

Provides bug fixes and quality of life improvements including 21:9 support, extended FOV slider, raw mouse input and mod manager.

Players can host multiplayer and Forge games with up to 16 players with this mod.

Installing the ElDewrito Mod^[2]
Download the ElDewrito Launcher. Run the downloaded `launcher.exe` file and follow instructions on the screen. Remove the `launcher.exe` file after the ElDewrito shortcut is created on the desktop. Run the ElDewrito Launcher through the desktop shortcut and click "Play".

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\dewrito_prefs.cfg^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\ElDewrito\keys.cfg^[3]

Notes As ElDewrito is an online game, the player "save game" is just a cryptographic key by which player statistics and customisations are tracked. There are no achievements or story progress to track.

Video

In order to access game settings on keyboard and mouse, press Home from the main menu.

Can only select Resolutions up to Desktop Resolution of the Primary Monitor

In-game general video settings

In-game advanced video settings

In-game general game settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Supports between 55° and 120° (Hor+)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Exclusive Fullscreen not Supported.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Bundled as part of "Texture Filtering" Setting.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Post-Processing AA - Does not support Downsampling Techniques such as SSAA or DSR
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Enabled by default; to disable toggle the "Fix FPS Stutter" option in the Video Settings
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Physics are locked at 60Hz
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Input

In-game general control settings

In-game general gamepad settings - also showing the "Halo Online Default" gamepad scheme

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Halo 3 UI can only be navigated using the Keyboard, or Gamepad
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Only has native support for XInput
Full controller support		Requires a Keyboard and Mouse to navigate certain menus.
Controller remapping		See Controller remapping.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Both Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers are supported with icons
Xbox button prompts		Both Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers are supported with icons
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller remapping

Halo 3

In-game "Halo 3 Default" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Southpaw" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Boxer" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Green Thumb" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Bumper Jumper" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 3 Walkie Talkie" gamepad scheme.

Halo Reach

In-game "Halo Reach Default" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Southpaw" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Boxer" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Green Thumb" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Bumper Jumper" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo Reach Recon" gamepad scheme.

Halo 4

In-game "Halo 4 Default" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Southpaw" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Boxer" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Green Thumb" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Bumper Jumper" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Recon" gamepad scheme.
In-game "Halo 4 Fishstick" gamepad scheme.

Audio

In-game general audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, and Music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

ElDewrito UI and In-game HUD does not respond to Language changes and remains in English.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	4	Versus Start the game with `-multiinstance` parameter.
LAN play	16	Versus
Online play	16	Versus

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		See this Guide for how to set up a Dedicated Server for Halo Online's ElDewrito Mod
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Open the console (`~`) and use `connect` followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	11775, 11777
UDP	11774

This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

Issues fixed

The best way to report game issues to the ElDewrito community and get assistance, is via the mod's latest bug report thread.

Crash on Nvidia RTX and newer AMD chipsets on 0.6.1 build

The game has a bug whereby Contrails cause the game to crash, notably on RTX GPUs.^[4]

Replace binkw32.dll with the modified one

Download the Unofficial Mod Patch which fixes the RTX GPU crashes when the game uses contrails.
Navigate to <path-to-game> and replace the binkw32.dll with the downloaded one.

Notes

Tested on a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080ti on Windows 10 build 1809 ^[5].

If the player has used the previous version of this fix, they must also download the original mtndew.dll file - which is also included in the link - and replace the modified mtndew.dll with the original one.

This bug was fixed in the 0.7 release of the mod^[6].

Game is too bright on Intel HD Graphics

Enable the `CPU Exposure (Bloom Patch)` in the game's Advanced Video settings, and restart the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9Ex

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok Physics
Interface	Scaleform GFx, Chromium Embedded Framework
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	4Game, ElDewrito	ElDewrito Mod is a Requirement to play after shutdown by Microsoft

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista	7, 8, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Equivalent AMD CPU
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT Equivalent AMD GPU 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support
Controller	XInput Compatible	Xbox 360 or Xbox One Controller

Notes

↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ Polygon - Russian free-to-play Halo Online canceled - last accessed on 2019-11-23
↑ ElDewrito Guide - Google Documents - last accessed on 2024-04-22
↑ Does anyone know how to transfer your ElDewrito account to another device? Answer by u/00a_introduction - last accessed on 2024-05-28
↑ r/HaloOnline - Bi-Weekly Questions, Requests, and Bug Reports Thread. (Oct 24) - last accessed on 2019-11-23
↑ Verified by User:Weion on 2019-01-24
The RTX crash is fixed by this patch while also not modifying the mtndew.dll file, allowing players to still be fully updated - and fix all known issues of the previous release.
↑ ElDewrito Changelog - Google Documents - last accessed on 2024-04-22

[gamedir-3] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[1] Polygon - Russian free-to-play Halo Online canceled - last accessed on 2019-11-23

[2] ElDewrito Guide - Google Documents - last accessed on 2024-04-22

[4] Does anyone know how to transfer your ElDewrito account to another device? Answer by u/00a_introduction - last accessed on 2024-05-28

[5] r/HaloOnline - Bi-Weekly Questions, Requests, and Bug Reports Thread. (Oct 24) - last accessed on 2019-11-23

[6] Verified by User:Weion on 2019-01-24
The RTX crash is fixed by this patch while also not modifying the mtndew.dll file, allowing players to still be fully updated - and fix all known issues of the previous release.

[7] ElDewrito Changelog - Google Documents - last accessed on 2024-04-22

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Developers

	343 Industries
	Saber Interactive
Windows	Microsoft Studios
Publishers
	Microsoft Studios
	Innova Systems
Engines
	Halo Engine
Release dates
Windows	2015
Taxonomy
Monetization	Free-to-play
Modes	Multiplayer
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	FPS
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Halo