Halo: Campaign Evolved Skulls: How to Turn On All 42 Modifiers
Skulls in Halo: Campaign Evolved don’t switch on the moment you pick one up. According to Halo Support’s official collectibles guide, players must back out to the main menu and start a fresh Campaign session through New Game before any collected Skull can be toggled on for a mission, a detail confirmed independently by GameSpot’s and Push Square’s own collectible guides for the game.
Halo: Campaign Evolved, Halo Studios’ full remake of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, launched on Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC on July 28, with early access from July 23 for Premium and Collector’s Edition owners. The remake folds in 42 Skulls, the series’ signature gameplay-modifying collectibles, spread across the original ten missions plus three new prequel levels.
The Exact Menu Path to Turn Skulls On
Per GameSpot, Skulls can be activated when starting a mission from the New Game option on the main menu. That single line matches the fuller breakdown from other outlets that have mapped the full sequence: select Campaign from the main menu, choose New Game rather than Continue, pick a difficulty, then select any unlocked mission and rally point (checkpoint).
That sequence drops players into a dedicated Select Skulls screen, where every Skull collected so far can be individually switched on before hitting Apply & Start to launch the mission. Halo Support’s own collectibles page confirms the underlying logic: collectibles grant platform-specific achievements, such as Gamerscore on Xbox or Trophies on PlayStation, and Skulls can also unlock additional modes and enable unique gameplay modifiers, but the toggle itself only lives in that pre-mission menu, not during actual gameplay.
There is no pause-menu shortcut. Once a mission has started, the loadout of active Skulls is locked in until the player quits and runs through New Game again to reach the Select Skulls screen a second time.
Finding Skulls: Three Per Mission, 39 to Hunt
Halo Support’s guide notes that several collectibles can be found throughout each story mission, and all collectibles can be collected or interacted with by using the Interact action, mapped to X on Xbox controllers, Square on PlayStation, or E on keyboard. Push Square’s own location guide adds a useful tracking tip: when you’re near one, you’ll start to hear a sort of whispering/hissing sound that becomes louder the closer you get to the Skull, and this is the only way you’d know you’re near one.
Push Square’s guide also confirms the overall spread: there are 42 Skulls in the game, but only 39 of them need to be collected from the Main Missions and Bonus Missions, with the missing three automatically earned when the Campaign Remix menu option unlocks, at a rate of three Skulls per each of the game’s 13 Missions. Halo Support’s support article pins the automatic unlock to a specific trigger: once any 3 Skulls are collected, the Adaptation, Armistice, and Reload Skulls are automatically unlocked, and Campaign Remix becomes available.
Four Brand-New Skulls for the Remake
Halo Waypoint’s official reveal for the Skulls & Campaign Remix system highlights the new additions built specifically for this remake. As the studio describes it, players can slow your roll with the sprint-disabling Speed Limit Skull, eliminate aim-down-sights with Hip Fire, amp up your assault with Magnified’s 60-round AR magazine, or activate Endurance Spec to turn UNSC vehicles into indestructible, Covenant-stomping machines.
Those four modifiers sit alongside a much larger legacy roster. Halo Waypoint states the full collection breaks down as 26 fan-favorite Skulls from previous Halo titles, plus 16 new game-changing Skulls specifically designed for maximum mayhem, covering everything from the classic Grunt Birthday Party celebration effect to harder “Challenge Skulls” like Black Eye and Famine.
Campaign Remix, LASO and the Achievement Trade-Off
Once Campaign Remix unlocks, the same Select Skulls screen gains extra options. Halo Support’s Campaign Remix article explains that after selecting the mission and rally point, players enter a Select Skulls screen with options to also enable Spore Visibility or Night Vision and manually select any additional Skulls, alongside a Remix Selection button that activates an additional three to six random Skulls from the unlocked collection.
Skull-hunters chasing full completion will eventually run into LASO — Legendary All Skulls On — which requires a specific subset rather than every Skull in the game. Halo Support confirms LASO becomes available only after collecting 17 specific Skulls, and completing a run under those conditions hands out the MYTHIC achievement or trophy depending on platform.
Read also: Halo: Campaign Evolved’s 42 Skulls: All Locations, LASO Unlock Explained
Local Availability for NZ and Australian Players
Because the launch used a synchronised worldwide unlock time rather than staggered regional releases, players across the Tasman effectively got the game a calendar day later purely due to time zones, with the global unlock landing at 8am PDT on July 28, which fell on July 29 locally in New Zealand and Australia. The Collector’s Edition, since sold out, was also stocked regionally, with JB Hi-Fi confirming it as an official Australia and New Zealand retail listing alongside Xbox’s own digital storefronts.
For anyone picking the remake up now, the practical takeaway is simple: grabbing a Skull mid-mission only banks it for later. To actually feel the effect, whether that’s an indestructible Warthog or a mandatory melee-to-recharge shield system, players need to exit to Campaign, hit New Game, and dial in their loadout on the Select Skulls screen before dropping back onto Alpha Halo.
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