Slayer Arena in Reach - Guide to understanding 'How did I get that number?'

[Odin Runebearer]

Assists and Kills get you the same amount of points. Both are weighted equally. You lose points equivalent to 1/3rd of your deaths. Betrayals are a full point loss. A loss means you lose 4% of your score that game.

Equation:

Score = Kills+Assists- 1/3rdDeaths - Betrayals [- 4%(if you lose]

Assuming everything is worth 1 point then if you go 15-10-12 (2 betrayals and you lose)

Base Score = 15+10 - [1/3*12] - 2 = 19

Final Score (4% reduction for loss applied) = 18.24

Every game is started with a base score of 1000. The whole system has a highest possible score of 2000 and lowest of 0. But it's an atan function which means you can NEVER get 0 or 2000. An atan function is basically a S-curve with unattainable end points.

Currently Bungie has implied that they are going easy on us with deaths being weighted low but that could change.

Your daily Arena score is achieved in this fashion:

1. Play 3 games.
2. Get a number (Say 1650)
3. Not satisfied? Play some more.
4. Bad games will NOT lower your score.
5. Good games will increase your daily score.
6. The system seems to be based on the BEST 3 games you play that day.
7. It is exponentially harder to go higher in scoring. A game where you go +10 with 15 kills/assists might net you a score of 1600-1700, but to get 1700-1800 you're probably going to have to get both higher k/d spread AND higher number of kills/assists.

So far I know ONE person who's managed to get a score of 1800+. Everyone seems to be sitting around the 1500-1600 range and if you've picked up the game quick enough you're hitting 1600-1700+.

Also you seemed to get matched up with a team that (more or less) fits your team's average Arena ranking. I was running consistently into 1650's and above but once we got in a couple of guys who had lower Arena scores (1400 and 1500 something) we seemed to get relatively easier opponents.

How you wind up in which division and when that happens (some people are saying after 5 days of straight play, some say at the end of a season) is a mystery to me.

My biggest gripe about the Arena is the style of gameplay.
In normal Slayer games there is no such thing as a setup as anyone can run invis, jetpacks, armor lock to ruin your play.

In Slayer Pro, everyone has sprint and no radar so it's become more like CoD where you rush the power weapons, grab the lead ASAP and start roasting smores waiting for the opponents to come to you.

They need to do SOMETHING to make it more fast paced like H2 and H3.

The pistol is the best bet you have against a sprinter coming straight for you with a shotgun or hammer or with just intention to melee. 4 quick shots to their torso removes ALL shields and then you can trade on the melee. Remember that while coming out of sprint you actually have a slight delay before you can use your weapon. If you're really good, just pump the four to the torso, strafe to let the reticle reset and headshot the rusher. It is much harder to do this with a DMR purely because the bloom on that weapon is much higher.

All this being said, I treat my DMR like a BR in close/mid range, at that range unless your aim is off, you can usually pop 3-4 good hits on a person relatively quickly. The last two (or one) must be timed though.

[Odin Runebearer]

Alright so after doing some more math I figured out how you get a score per game.

Game Score = 1000+(2000/Pi)(Arctan(X(2/25))

Note: If you lose take 96% of this value

X = Raw Score = Kills+Assists-(1/3)Deaths-Betrayals

Approx math:

Raw Rating >= 39, then Game Score >=1800
Raw Rating >= 25, then Game Score >=1700
Raw Rating >= 18, then GS >= 1600
Raw Rating >= 13, then >= 1500
Raw Rating >= 10, then >= 1400

As you can see getting 1800 and above would mean getting ATLEAST 39 combined kills/assists with NO deaths or betrayals. Talk about having a good game.

Theoretically also, the lowest score you can ever hit is ~390 (0 kills, 50 deaths) and the highest is ~1850 (50 kills, 0 deaths).

[SSG Omega]

Those sure are a lot of complicated looking numbers! (I'm an artist for a reason)

But I've only played 4 Arena games (technically against my will, I was not party leader) and I do prefer that everything is condensed into this number. Having my number of deaths on display isn't very flattering, haha.

I haven't played enough games to qualify for a 'division', where does that show, anyway?

[Odin Runebearer]

Alright so I FINALLY figured it out. Bungie didn't make it very clear as to how many days of Arena ratings you would have to get to be placed in a division or how to find said division.

Simply put, this is what you do:

1. Play enough Arena games to get ratings for ATLEAST 3 days. Doesn't have to be consecutive days. Just 3 days in the season (I believe it will be 5 days for the final version of the game, but for the Beta its only 3 days). Basically what this means is you have to play atleast 3 games in a day for 3 days in a season. 

2. Go to Bungie.net, click the Halo:Reach link at the top right of the page AFTER you sign in to your BNET account.

3. On your Reach stats page click Arena. Then click either Aggregates (appears on the left sidebar right above Commendations. These are your Arena specific aggregates) OR click 'More Career Stats' which should appear just above to the right of the 'Most used weapon' picture that is displayed on the page.

4. Now look at your name, it should show your GT , your emblem, your callsign, your Halo Reach rank (Warrant Officer, Corporal etc.).

5. Right after the bar that shows you how many more cR's you need to rank up you will see a military insignia and if you've followed this process correctly, there should be a small vertical bar after which they will display a COLORED STAR with a number on it.

EDIT: A Black Star with a 5 = Onyx, Star with 4= Gold and so on till Star with 1= Steel. The order of divisions from lowest to highest is Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Onyx. 

Bungie also states that at the end of a season if you have played enough games you will be ranked WITHIN your division. A percentile or maybe even a ranked number, so don't be too happy just yet if you've gotten that Black Star.

EDIT: Or as I've found out, somewhere on your 4th day of play after getting a rating you will see the star come up next to your name.

[TTL Duff]

So I finally got to sit down last night and get some good time in with the Reach Beta. I actually kinda liked the Arena. I managed to get 3 games in and won them all! It was fun. I would definitely love to run with a team and do it for a bit.

All in all, I like the Arena thingy. It's fun.

[Odin Runebearer]

Hit me up if you see me online Duff. I love playing some Arena the most in the Beta. The only REAL problem with the playlist is that there is no penalty for quitting out of games. So often if you go in with less that 4, people will start quitting if their score is low and they think they will lose that game.

[VoltRabbit]

Nice post, good information. 

[SSG Omega]

The only REAL problem with the playlist is that there is no penalty for quitting out of games. So often if you go in with less that 4, people will start quitting if their score is low and they think they will lose that game.

Tell me about it. It was my second Arena match for the day and two people quit on my team for whatever reason, the opposite team was full.
But luckily the guy I was left with was rad. We teamed up, watched each other's backs and won the match anyway.
Good times.

Bungie's banhammer update makes me so happy. 

I'm still on the fence about Arena (I'm not stats crazy, I just like cool things), but I will gladly CoOp should anyone need me!