Welcome to The Reclaimers Library (c20), a project which aims to document and centralize the immense tribal knowledge of the Halo: Combat Evolved modding community, and to a lesser extent the modding communities that developed around the later Halo titles. This is an unofficial resource by modders, for modders.

Modding is the modification of a game by its fans in order to change existing content, add new content, or implement unofficial bug fixes and game features. Halo 1 has a strong tradition of modding starting from Xbox, moving to PC with Custom Edition, and continuing today with H1A for MCC.

Why mod Halo?

Halo's 2001 engine is not as generalized as Unity, Source, Creation Engine, and Unreal, but this is actually a strength. Halo provides all the foundational game systems of a sandbox shooter, yet these systems are highly data-driven by tag assets which you create. No coding required!

Dip your toes in with simple modifications to existing maps, or build a complete custom content overhaul. The relative simplicity of Halo's assets means a lower barrier to entry.

Perhaps the best part is connecting with other creative, passionate fans. Knowledge sharing and collaborative work are staples of this community.

Getting started

We cover engine details, the legacy 2003 Halo Editing Kit and its 2021 re-release the H1A Editing Kit, community tools, and guides for custom content creation.

Less in-depth but we hope still useful information is included for the legacy 2007 Halo 2 Vista Editing Kit, its 2021 MCC re-release the Halo 2 Editing Kit as well as the Halo 3 Editing Kit that was first publicly released in 2021.

New to modding? Check out our H1 introduction guide.

Featured guides:

• Creating a custom Halo 1 map
• Creating a custom Halo 1 skybox
• Creating a custom Halo 2 map
• Creating a custom Halo 3 map