Gúta

The Gúta,^[1] pronounced "Gueta",^[2] is a gigantic bipedal species native to the planet Reach. It is hostile to both humans and Covenant troops.

Description

The Gúta is the largest terrestrial lifeform discovered on Reach. Severe aggression is rare, outside mating males or females with young. Even so, it is an extremely dangerous animal.^[3] The Gúta is likely carnivorous due to its large tusks and claws and powerful musculature and agility. It is remarkably durable, requiring three to four shotgun blasts and an equal number of melee attacks to kill it on the Normal difficulty. The Gúta is even more resilient on the Heroic and Legendary difficulties. However, one plasma grenade will kill it regardless of difficulty, so letting it come to you before sticking it will make things easier. Also a sniper shot to the eye of the Gúta will kill it in one hit, even on Legendary difficulty.

Trivia

The Gúta bears a passing resemblance to the cut Blind Wolf from pre-Xbox builds of Halo: Combat Evolved.
The Gúta is seemingly named after the Guta, a fearsome demon from Hungarian mythology, as most of Reach's early settlers were of Hungarian descent.
A Gúta's roar can push a SPARTAN back fairly hard despite the enormous weight of a SPARTAN.
On a player's career stats at Bungie.net, the Gúta is listed as "mule". Instead listing a rank, the entry simply says, "No hugging". The "Mule" nickname is an internal name used by Bungie employees.^[4]
Unlike killing Moa, killing a Gúta awards the player points in campaign scoring.
Several ideas were formed around the Gúta, but were ultimately cut from the game. Among these ideas were Gúta being used as battle-mounts by Elites and Grunts, Gúta that were equipped with mounted weapons, and the ability for the player to "hijack" the Gúta and plant a grenade in its mouth.^[4]
The Gúta was originally set to be in several campaign missions in addition to Nightfall. Due to resource constraints, this level features the only two Gúta in the game.^[4]
The player can move a dead Gúta's body around by attempting to walk over it, as a Gúta's body is considered solid in the game's physics engine.
The Gúta may have been derived from the Drinol, a deleted concept for a massive beast Bungie had explored during the development of Halo 2.
The Gúta can survive two direct sniper shots to the cranium before dying.
The Guta has a reptilian or dinosaur-like appearance, but appears to have leathery skin similar to a mammal, like that of an elephant or rhinoceros. It's possible that they are therapsids (warm-blooded, mammal-like reptiles), or possibly giant primates, due to their teeth and apelike posture.
If one drives one of the nearby forklifts on Nightfall into the area the Gútas are, the forklift will be trashed about by the Guta and can be launched at high speeds usually without taking damage. If the forklift collides with a Covenant soldier when it is flung by a Guta, it will almost always kill them.