Strafing Guide

Strafing is when a player moves in an attempt to not reach a destination, but throw off the enemy's aim with the goal of making themselves more difficult to kill. Strafing is an essential part of an experienced players arsenal, and through the years has gotten more advanced. Jumping, stop-and-going, gandhi hopping, and many other methods have been incorporated into the strafe, making it incredibly difficult to kill an experienced strafer. Here I'm going to teach you the types of strafes and how each can help you in your game. However, remember that your strafe is nothing without your aim and vice-versa.

The two standard side strafes are the short and long strafe, consist of moving your analog stick side to side. Short strafes are more effective in close to medium range battles, while long strafes are better in long range. With short strafes, you move the left analog stick side to side as quickly as possible, tapping the edge of the controller hole every time. With the long strafe, you move the stick side to side, but instead of tapping it, you hold it for a certain amount of time. While the side strafe makes it difficult for your enemy to shoot at you, this strafe is less useful against experienced players. To maximize the effectiveness of the side strafe, you can mix up your motions by using both short and long strafes in different combinations, or even add extensions such as a jump.

With jumps, it is most beneficial to add during your third or fourth shots of the BR battle because it can give you an advantage in the most crucial time of the battle (when you are most likely about to die). A common mistake with jumps is jumping straight up. Although this is effective at close range, at long range, you are just a bullet magnet, attracting bullets easily. The solution to this is to jump sideways at as low of an angle as possible. This will make you noticeably harder to hit. However, you should jump as little as possible(1-2 times a battle) unless it is absolutely needed because your movement it very limited and can become a bad habit, especially on bumper jumper controls.

Tap strafing is the most popular among experienced and skilled Halo 3 players and one of the simplest and most efficient. The tap strafe is done by tapping the left analog stick 2 or 3 times to the left, then 2 or 3 times to the right, and repeating this. This develops an extremely unpredictable outcome every time you strafe because of the endless combinations that can be used, which can throw off even the best players. When you use the basic long and short strafes, you have a delay between changes of direction and have to stop for a split second, making it easy for your enemy to shoot you. On the other hand, tap strafes keep your momentum going and don't give your enemy any time to react.

Although tap strafing might be the most effective for most situations, you should try and mix up all these types of strafes and jumps depending on your shield, position, and events going around you. Practice with these strafes and you will soon be out-bring players naturally!