***** !!* * ........' !!!! !!!* !!! !!!!!!! `!!!!!!!!`. !!!! !!!! !/!!! !!!!* ,!!!!!!!!!!!`. !!!! !!!! !!! !!!! ,!%!, !!!` %!!!!!!!!!!!!%% $ !!! !!!% !!!!!,` ,!!._ !!!! %%%%% %%%! %%!!!!!!!%% !!!! `!!' %!%%'' #!##! #### ##$% %$### %%!! ,###' ##### #### %##% %##$# #### ! `%%% ,####, ######## ####* ###% ######% ##############% $############' !***** *** **** *** ********** ******` ===========================------------------------=========================== Halo: Combat Evolved FAQ/Walkthrough By: Dark Vortex (Quan Jin) darkvortexfaqs[at]ymail[dot]com By: _A.K.A_(Armin Jewell) arminjewell[at]yahoo[dot]com Version: 1.3 ===========================------------------------=========================== This guide may be found on the following sites: [http://www.gamefaqs.com]--------------------------------------------[GameFAQs] [http://www.gamespot.com]--------------------------------------------[GameSpot] [http://faqs.ign.com]------------------------------------------------[IGN FAQs] [http://www.neoseeker.com]------------------------------------------[Neoseeker] [http://www.dlh.net]--------------------------------------[Dirty Little Helper] [http://www.cheats.de]----------------------------------------------[Cheats.de] [http://www.supercheats.com]--------------------------------------[SuperCheats] This guide is copyright 2007(c)Quan Jin and Armin Jewell ============================================================================== LEGAL INFORMATION ============================================================================== ------------------------------- Dark Vortex's Legal Information ------------------------------- This FAQ is the property of its authors, Quan Jin and Armin Jewell. All rights reserved. Any stealing, selling for profit or altering of this document without the author's expressed consent is strictly prohibited. You may download this file for personal and private use only. Halo is a registered trademark of Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios. The authors (Quan Jin and Armin Jewell) are not affiliated with either company in any way or form. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. --------------------------- _A.K.A_'s Legal Information --------------------------- This document is protected by US Copyright Law, and the Berne Copyright Convention of 1976. It is for private and personal use only--it cannot be reprinted in part or in whole, or reproduced in any way or in any form (written or otherwise). It is a free document that cannot be used in any sort of commercial transaction, including selling it or giving it away as a gift. This FAQ cannot be referenced, altered, or used by anybody (including webmasters, publishers, and magazine staff) without my expressed written permission. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Armin Jewell . All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged and respected that are not specifically mentioned herein. This document is copyrighted 2002-2003 by Armin Jewell. ============================================================================= -=TABLE OF CONTENTS=- ============================================================================= 1.0 - General Information 2.0 - Introduction 3.0 - The Game Interface and HUD 4.0 - The Story so Far 5.0 - Walkthrough 5.1 - The Pillar of Autumn 5.2 - Halo 5.3 - The Truth and Reconciliation 5.4 - The Silent Cartographer 5.5 - Assault on the Control Room 5.6 - 343 Guilty Spark 5.7 - The Library 5.8 - Two Betrayals 5.9 - Keyes 5.10 - The Maw 6.0 - Multiplayer Information 6.1 Multiplayer Modes of Play 6.2 Multiplayer Levels 6.3 Multiplayer Games 7.0 - Weapons List 7.1 - Human Weapons 7.2 - Covenant Weapons 8.0 - Vehicle List 8.1 - Human Vehicles 8.2 - Covenant Vehicles 9.0 - Enemy List 9.1 - Covenant 9.2 - Flood 9.3 - Forerunners 10.0 - Strategies and Tips 10.1 - Multiplayer Tips 10.2 - Vehicle Tips 10.3 - Enemy Tips 10.4 - Level Tips 10.5 - Secrets and Miscellaneous 11.0 - Credits and Thanks 12.0 - Version History =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1.0 - General Information =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Halo was released for the Xbox on November 6, 2001 to comprehend with the Xbox. It was an immediate success. At first, it came courtesy with the Xbox, but after it became game of the year, JSRF and Sega GT 2002 took its place. It's still sold with the Xbox in Australia I believe. Anyway, it stayed at full price for a long time and in most gaming stores, it still is at a full $50. The price for most new games. Here are a few things you should know: Developer: Bungie Publisher: Microsoft Genre: FPS (First Person Shooter) Price: $49.99 (US) Memory: 227 blocks Players: 1-16 Release Dates: Nov. 14, 2001(US) Mar. 14, 2002(UK) Apr. 25, 2002(JP) ESRB Rating: M for Mature: Blood and Gore Violence =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 2.0 - Introduction =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Halo is an awesome game, no questions asked. Unless you are some annoying mom who is against violence in movies and video games, you would no doubt, agree. I, myself am not a big fan of Xbox but I saw the success in Halo. I received my Xbox two months ago and Halo one month ago. So I apologize for the lateness of this FAQ. Anyway, Halo itself, is worth the $200 you've been negotiating. This guide is designed to both walk you through the levels and give you various tips and strategies on various types of enemies. I hope you find it helpful. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 3.0 - The Game Interface and HUD =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Before you read this section, I strongly suggest reading the game manual first as it'll help you understand this section. *([Game Menu])* As you load up the game, you'll come to the main menu. You'll have four options to choose from: Campaign - This is the main bulk of the game. You will choose a player, and start a new game. Choose the difficulty and the level and you're on your way. Remember that you can only play levels that you've unlocked. Do this by finishing the level before it. There are a total of 10 levels in all. Multiplayer - You'll come to a screen with the following: Cooperative Play - Similar to Campaign. You fight through the same levels. Same cutscenes. Same story. But the one main(and obvious)difference is you will have a friend to help you to finish the level. You'll find that two heads are better than one. Split Screen - The other main bulk of Halo. Split Screen is very different from the Campaign. Instead of fighting the Covenant, you will be fighting with or against friends. There are many gametypes to choose from including Slayer,(classic deathmatch, Free for all or Team Slayer)Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, etc. Game Settings - Change, add, or delete gametypes. You can make your own as well. Settings - You'll come to a screen with the players you added or the computer created. You can add players, delete players, and change their settings.(color, look sensitivity, etc.) Game Demos - Something you don't exactly see in other Xbox games, the game demos give you a list of interactive demos and movies. The demos are Fuzion Frenzy. The movies available are Amped, Azurik: Rise of Perathia, Bloodwake, NFL Fever 2002, Nightcaster, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and Project Gotham Racing. *([Health and Shield])* Your health and shield meters are on the right of the screen. The shield is that large bar on the top and your health are the blocks below the shield. Your shield is capable of regenerating. Your health is not. If it gets too low, you will die. That's what health packs are for. __ ______________________ \/ \_________________ / + [][][][][][][][]/__/ Hide when your shields are down to avoid losing health. *([Weapons Ammo])* On the upper left hand side of your screen, there is an ammunition monitor. Your amount of remaining ammo is displayed in the left window. Your grenades are displayed in the right window. And your ammunition in clip is displayed on the bottom of the two. This scheme is a fully loaded Assault Rifle with four grenades ready to go. ____________ ______ / 600 x 1 / /() 4 / /////////////////// /////////////////// /////////////////// *([Flashlight])* The flashlight power level appears below the health and shield when you have it turned on. It will gradually lose power so be careful. Turning it off will recharge it. *([Directional Damage Indicator])* In the middle of fire, a red arrow will show you the direction that enemies fire is coming from. *([Nav Points])* Cortana will usually give you a Nav Point to follow to important areas. __ _\/_ \ / \/ *([Motion Tracker])* The motion tracker is the little circle in the bottom left hand corner of your HUD. It's very useful and could detect any moving target. Of course, because it's a motion tracker, it can't track enemies standing still. Only moving targets. On it are: Red: enemies Yellow: allies =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 4.0 - The Story so Far =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The year is 2552. Planet Earth still exists, but overpopulation has forced many of her former residents to colonize other worlds. Faster-than-light travel is now a reality, and Earth's unified government, through the United Nations Space Command, has put its full weight behind the colonization effort; millions of humans now live on habitable planets in other solar systems. A keystone in humanity's colonization efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard that builds colony ships for civilians and warships for the UNSC's armed forces. Conveniently close to Earth, Reach is also a hub of scientific and military activity. Thirty-two years ago, contact with the outer colony Harvest was lost. A battlegroup sent to investigate was almost completely destroyed; only one badly damaged ship returned to Reach. Its crew told of a seemingly unstopable alien warship that had effortlessly annihilated their forces. This was humankind's first encounter with a group of aliens they eventually came to know as the Covenant, a collective of alien races united in their fanatical religious devotion. Covenant religious elders declared humanity an affront to the gods, and the Covenant warrior caste waged a holy war upon humanity with gruesome diligence. After a series of crushing defeats and obliterated colonies, UNSC Admiral Preston Cole established the Cole Protocol: no vessel may inadvertently lead the Covenant to Earth. When forced to withdraw, ships must avoid Earth-bound vectors-even if that means jumping without proper navigational calculations. Vessels in danger of capture must self-destruct. On Reach, a secret military project to create cyborg super-soldiers takes on newfound importance. The soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project rack up an impressive record against the Covenant in test deployments, but there are too few of them to turn the tide of the war. Existing SPARTAN-II soldiers are recalled to Reach for further augmentation. The plan: board a Covenant vessel with the improved SPARTAN-IIs and learn the location of the Covenant home world. Two days before the mission begins, Covenant forces strike Reach and annihilate the colony. The Covenant are now on Earth's doorstep. One ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last SPARTAN-II and makes a blind jump into deep space, hoping to lead the Covenant away from Earth. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 5.0 - Walkthrough =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I'm going to try to be as detailed as possible while writing this. I'm playing on the Normal level. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.1 - The Pillar of Autumn ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: This mission of course is quite an easy mission. You'll find marines around for support. Try to keep them alive so you stay alive! You really can't lost. You won't be meeting any Flood or Sentinels yet so no need to worry. Description: Escape intact as Covenant forces board your ship. Recommended Weapons: Human Pistol/Plasma Pistol -------- Reveille -------- >> Complete Training Dianostics As you wake up, the technician will ask you to look around the room. Move the left thumbstick around. Now, step out of the cryo tube with X. The technician asks you to take a quick walk around the room but there's no need to if you know the controls. Just follow the technician to the Visions Testing. Stand on the square and simply look at every one of the yellow lights. They'll turn green when you lock on. The technician will allow you to test inverted and will ask you which one you like better. I happen to prefer Default but that's just me. Now, time to charge up your shields, follow the technician once again and stand on the square. Wait for your shields to go up. Press A when they're finished to bring them down again and see if they recharge normal. Captain Keyes should come in now and ask for the Master Chief. Looks like you're going to be skipping the weapons diagnostics. Dang! >> Find Captain Keyes on the Bridge After that, Elites should break in and kill the crew member up there. Time to follow the yellow suited technician out of here. As you exit the cryo bay, stop. As fate would have it, he meets a gruesome fate. Instead, hop over the pipes to the left and continue. Watch out for various explosions that could damage your shield. When you reach the end, look to your left to see a half closed blast door. Crouch under it and get through. Continue right and look to the floor by the left wall for a blue arrow. Go into the door it points to. By the end, you should meet an Elite. Of course you're not armed yet so start moving when it moves out of the way. Head left and continue down the path. Up ahead, a small skirmish is taking place. Walk while avoiding the various plasma shots up to the marine by the door across from you. "Sir, the captain needs you on the bridge, ASAP. You better follow me" Well, wait until he moves and follow him past the empty armory to the bridge. Watch out for stray grenades that happen to land in front of your path. When you reach the bridge, head towards the front end of the bridge by the main viewscreen. Walk up to Captain Keyes. -------------------------------- AI Constructs and Cyborgs First! -------------------------------- >> Get Off the Pillar of Autumn Leave the bridge and follow the path to the left. You'll pick up some pistol ammo while you go. Take out the three grunts up ahead to open the door. Head through and pick up an Assault Rifle. Help out your marines by defeating waves of Covenant forces. Use the various tables as cover. I would suggest swapping your Assault Rifle for a Plasma Pistol or Rifle as it's more effective against the Covenant. Head to the other end of the cafeteria and head through the open door. Kill the Grunts and go through the door marked with a red arrow. Continue through the passageway until you reach an Elite with it's back turned on you. Smack it in the back with your weapon to bring it down. This goes for every level, whenever you have the enemy's back to you, just melee it. Continue and say hi to your fellow marines and head left and down that path. You'll see two marines in front of an airlock. Don't get too close as a grenade will send them flying. Take out the enemies behind them and pick up the ammo to the right of the airlock if you wish. There is an overshield inside the boarding craft as well. Continue down the passageway to find a green arrow on the ground. Kill the various Covenant inside the doorway and head in. Take the first left you see and assist your marines by killing every Covenant in the area. Continue right to find another red arrow on the ground and a health pack on the wall. Pick it up if you need it and head down the path that the red arrow is pointing to. Ignore any intersections and continue heading straight. Head forward to find another small skirmish between a few marines and a few Grunts and two Elites. There is quite a bit of ammo here so pick them up. Continue and you'll find another Covenant boarding craft with two overshields inside. Continue along and you'll find a room with something burning in the rear. Crouch and head under the door blocked by a round crate. Keep going and you'll find another green arrow on the ground. Enter the opened door and follow the path. You should reach some stairs and some Covenant on the floor above. I would suggest taking them out from the first floor and then climb the steps. Continue through the opening opposite of the opening you entered through on the second floor. Follow through and pick up the ammo on the ground. Hide behind that piece of metal in front of you and pick off the enemies while constantly diving under for your shields to recharge and to reload. After clearing that room, head forward and enter a darkened room. There are many Grunts to pick off here. Continue and kill the other Grunts. Up ahead is an Elite hiding behind a shield. Take him out swiftly and follow the path right. Continue and take a look outside the second window, the lifepods are being shot by blue plasma beams. Time to go! A health pack is on the ground by a dead marine and assorted ammunition can be found through this area. Just follow the twisting path and take out the Grunts in the distance with your zoomed in pistol if you still have it. Cortana will attempt to open a door by the end. Wait for her and go to the door with the nav point. Turn on your flashlight and take the first left you see. It's pretty immediate. Continue along with your flashlight until you see a closed door in the distance. Take a right without heading towards it. Cortana will activate your motion tracker now. Continue going straight ignoring any turns. You should see a door with a green light in the distance. Go through. Cortana should now tell you to bash the stubborn door open. Use a melee to do this. Follow through and find a lone grunt. Smash it and continue. Take the first left you see and take out the enemies here. Continue in the direction the enemies are coming from and head through the door marked by a yellow arrow. There is a health pack on the wall here if you need it. Continue this way through the passageway to the Cryo Bay you were just in. Cortana informs you that the Elites were going to kill you before you woke up. Continue forward and enter a charred area. Walk up to the Elite in the distance to trigger an explosion killing it. Head back and go right now and watch the next explosion kill the Grunts. That sure makes life easier for you! Go through the charred door on the left wall of the room with the Grunts after the explosion. Turn on your flashlight and follow the path. After the path winds right, there will be a Grunt. Kill it and take the left turn. Follow and take the right. Go through the door here and help the marines kill the Covenant again. There is a Health Pack by the wall opposite the door you came out of. Make a left and follow the path. Go through the opened door to the left of the path and kill the Grunt there. Continue that way and kill the other Grunt. Ignore the turn to the right but head straight until you can't anymore. Then take a right and slay the Covenant here. Use the shield and other obstructions as cover. After they're gone, ignore the small doors and head straight and go with the passage left. Pick up the frag grenades in front of you and launch a few at the Covenant. After taking out the majority of the Elites and Grunts, jump over the obstruction and continue. Say hi to the marines here and Cortana will inform you that there is only one lifeboat left. Take the first door on the left wall. Follow straight and take the immediate right. Follow that and you'll be at another three way intersection. Take a left and you should get to the lifeboat and escape. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ALTERNATE STRATEGY BY A.K.A =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ***Mission Overview*** Escape intact as Covenant forces board your ship. ___________ / REVEILLE / >> Complete Diagnostic Training You start out in the Cryo-Tube and looking around. If this is the first time in the real game you will have to go through a tutorial to set up your suit. If you have to go through this, read the next paragraph. If not, skip the next paragraph. They first ask you to look around, before you can get out. They then give you your health by bringing your health monitors online. Then you are able to get out, by pressing the X button. You will se a cut-scene of you coming out of the chamber. Go to the red square indent in the ground next for target testing. If you want, you can look and move around to get used to the controls. Once you get into the square on the ground, they tell you to target the 5 yellow things on the wall in front of you. At first your controls are not inverted, but once your target hits all of them for the first time, you get to try it out inverted. You can then decide which setting you like, I prefer the normal settings, but that is just what I am used to. Once you decide which one you want, go to the other side of the structure in the middle of the room to see another indented square in the ground for you to stand in, this time it is a yellow square. Face forward so you are looking at a bar. Once the guy talks to you some more press A to get your shields online. You will get your shield; then they will test its recharging capabilities. Once everything works you will be set to kill all of the monsters on Halo, potentially. You will see an explosion, and in the room up above the guy will get killed by invading Covenant. Captain Keyes then requests for you over the intercom, so you have to make your way over there. >> Find Captain Keyes on the Bridge Head through the towards the door and the guy will say follow me, follow him for a little while, but dont follow him to the door, wait back, and you will see him die in an explosion. Dont fret, look to the left to see some pipes, jump over them into the hallway, and head through the open door. In the next hallway, watch out! Before you get to the door, you will see another explosion, hopefully you avoided it! Keep going down the hall and you will see a door that is halfway closed, push and hold down on the Left Thumbstick to duck underneath it. You will see on the other side some marines and workers from the ship trying (Key word in that is trying) to fight those damn Covenant. WAIT! Dont go through into the line of fire yet. Look to the right and you should see a door closing between the Covenant and the marines. Every time you see a Covenant fighting marines, there will be a door that closes eventually, so just wait so you dont get hit in the crossfire. Once the door closes, go into the open door. To know if you are going the right way, on the ground there are arrows pointed to different places in the ship. Follow the blue arrows, they also say Bridge on them, to get to the Bridge. Look ahead to see more marines fighting more Covenant. Turn left and go down the hall until you see even more marines fighting even more Covenant. Geez, they just dont stop! It will get MUCH worse then this. Again, wait for the door to close, then go to the Marine with an assault rifle in his hand. He will tell you to follow him, and do so. Go through the room with a bunch of dead marines and into a room where, you guessed it, marines are fighting Covenant. You can ignore it this time, and just follow the Marine. He will stop in a doorway, and look for a blue arrow leading right. Follow the hallway to complete your first objective by finding Captain Keyes. He knows that the Covenant are too strong, so he puts the extremely intelligent Cortana in your suit, and tells you to escape from the Pillar of Autumn. Before you go, he gives you an unloaded pistol. ___________________________________ / AI CONSTRUCTS AND CYBORGS FIRST! / >> Escape from the Pillar of Autumn Well, now the fun part starts, as now you actually get to find some bad guys with your own guns. Exciting, huh? When you leave, turn left and follow it to a hallway, and keep going until you get pistol ammo and you take out your gun. Reload your gun to make sure you have full ammo, then go behind the door and use its scooping power to scope in on the dark area up ahead. There should be 3 grunts waiting for you to kill them. Beware that they dont throw a grenade on you, as all Covenant tend to do. Aim for their head to kill them each in one hit. Once you have killed three, go through the dark area left and look right into a doorway, where you will pick up your shiny new assault rifle! Now here is your first real battle so be careful and dont be reckless, be smart. Many people here hide back and try to let the Marines do the work. Hmm, maybe on easy and normal mode, but on Legendary? If you dont help the Marines they will die quickly, leaving you all alone to fight about 5 Elites to start out and a couple more Grunts at that. Not good. Go in right away with your pistol to help take out the original blue Elite that shows up. Once he is dead, right away ditch your pistol and take the plasma rifle that the Elite held, this weapon will be the only weapon you need in this level. Make sure you have at least 2 marines alive if you can, so when the additional two or three elites show up the Marines will distract them, making it easy for you to just plant grenades and clean everything up. Once they are all dead, you can move on. Follow the next hallway and if you go the right way, you should see an elite with his back to you. Dont waste a grenade, just melee him in the back to instantly kill him. Keep on following the hallways, killing some puny grunts on the way, until you see two Marines guarding a door. It will explode very soon so throw a plasma grenade right next to the door, so when it explodes it will hit the Covenant coming out of the pod. There will be a couple grunts and an Elite, do what you are trained to do. Inside the pod are two over shields, use the very wisely as they help tremendously, especially on Legendary. Go into the hallways until you get to a fork. Staying to the left will keep you safer and fighting with marines. Going right then left however, gives you a good vantage point to chuck some grenades at the unsuspecting Covenant warriors. There will be many waves of them so be careful. My suggestion is to have your over shield taken away after fighting all of the guys. Yes, it is not a typo, because then you can go get a fresh one without having to trace too far back later on in the level. Remember on or by most doors there are health packs, so use them whenever you need it. Follow the halls until you get to a dark hallway. When you get to a fork, to the left will be the marines fighting and going straight will get you to the place where the Covenant are fighting. Again, you can go either way. Going with the Marines will make it safer, but less effective. Going to the Covenant is a little more dangerous can be potentially much more effective. Continuing on you will get to more Covenant blasting in from their pods. Continue to do what you hopefully do best to eliminate all of the foes. Another pod means...more over shields!! Actually there is only one this time, but it is better than nothing. Kill of the remaining elites, picking up plasma rifles as needed since you can get new ammo for the same gun. Once you get to the next part you will see stairs ahead of you. This is probably the hardest part of the level because you are at a disadvantage and kind of at the mercy of the Covenant, not good. Rush VERY quickly up the stairs and you can hide behind the little flaps coming out of the wall. From the top level, you are once again more equal to the Covenant, and you can destroy them. I think there are two elites and maybe four grunts or so. Once they are all dead, go into the opening of the door. Now you will come to a closed door. Just wait, if you are in the right place, you should get a navigation point to go to after some talking by Cortana. Once you get there the door will open to a dark narrow hallway. Continue until you reach a fork, then turn at it and follow it until you reach an opening. You should next reach a bunch of guys who are trying to get rid of your presence, but hey are all in one space, so use your rocket launcher. Oops, did I say rocket launcher? I meant grenades. Once they are all dead move on to a very open hallway with three grunts standing stupidly at the other end. If you happen to have a pistol, use its zooming feature, or just use your plasma rifle as normal, because it has very good range as well. You will then go into the Maintenance Shafts. This is a very complicated place, with many exits. Whichever one you end up on you will find some Covenant. If you are really patient and observant you could go to all of the exits to kill almost all of the Covenant unnoticed, but either way you will succeed. Now keep heading forward and if you are going the right way, you should pass where you were before with the cry-tube and such, but you are looking at it from above. Keep on heading forward, and you will see a Red Elite waiting for you at the end of the hall. Keep blasting him and moving forward, and soon there will be an explosion there, which will leave him every weak and easy to finish off. Turn right into the open space to see some Grunts, dont worry too much about them, and explosion will eventually kill them too. Now we get to go back into the maintenance shafts. Yay! You will now if you are going the right way when you see a Grunt at the end of a hall. Now wait! Right to the right at a dead end will be another Grunt waiting for you to kill him. Now head forward in the only places you can go, you will get to three exits. Take the last one after launching a couple grenades through each one along the way. After securing this area, head to the open door. It is the right door, if you see a few grunts in there waiting for them to die. Then follow the hallway right to get into another good position to fight. Once you kill everyone jump over all of the junk in the floor to get to the last part of the level. You should see a barrier, with about 5 grenades on the right side of it. Keep crouched this whole time, and just launch all of your grenades over to the other side. You can take a peek every once in while to see where they are, but once they are all dead Cortana will tell you to leave. Get to the escape pod on the left to trigger a cut scene of you finishing the first level!! Great job, but we are just getting started. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.2 - Halo ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: Remember that you don't have to rescue the Marines. You can let them die if you wish. But, I would still suggest you keep them alive. They can be the difference between life and death for you as well. Also, Cortana will help you a few times by giving you nav points and such if you get lost. Description: Seek out surviving Marines and help them fight the Covenant. Recommended Weapons: Sniper Rifle/Plasma Pistol --------------- Flawless Cowboy --------------- As you start regaining consiousness, Cortana will wake you up. Walk outside and pick up the large ammount of ammumition and grenades. Stock up and walk to the bridge a few feet ahead of you. Before you can step on, Cortana informs you of covenant air patrols in the area. A new batch of objectives have been given. >> Evade the Covenant patrols searching for you >> Head for higher ground >> Search for other lifeboats Now, you can either take on the dropship(and it's two Banshee escorts)or escape. Since you don't wish to lose any health and you don't want to waste ammo, you should probably hide. Immediately walk across the bridge and start walking towards the wall. Now, hugging it, walk along it and stop at intervals to avoid the Banshee's sight. Walk along the wall avoiding the Banshees. If they start attacking you, there's nothing you can do except attack back. Anyway, after a small trot, you'll see a few Grunts and Elites up ahead by an area with a lot of rocks grouped together. If they haven't sighted you yet, use the element of surprise and use headshots on the Grunts with your zoomed in pistol. As soon as the Elites start charging you, strafe back and forth and attack them with your Assault Rifle. I strongly suggest picking up a Plasma Pistol switched your Assault Rifle and a few Plasma Grenades. Continue forward and jump down the small cliff. Continue as the path turns and Cortana will inform you of a lifeboat. Just as you reach an area with a few structures, you'll immediately see a Covenant dropship dropping off a few enemies. Help the Marines take them out and Sarge(the black guy with the baseball cap) and a few other Marines will talk to you. Cortana will give you a new set of orders. >> Stay with the survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship to arrive Take some time to search the crashed lifeboats and structures for First Aid Kits and various ammo. Ignore the various Covenant coming in and fight them when you have full health, and full ammo. Various dropships will come in and they will usually come in from the front and the back. This will be the first level that you will meet Jackals so make your aquaintance known. Use grenades. After roughly 5-7 dropship encounters, E419 will radio in and pick up the survivors. Say hi to Foehammer as you'll be relying on her quite a bit. Anyway, she'll drop off a Warthog with a gunner. To get a side seat passenger, drive to a Marine and he'll automatically get in. After the Marines escape, Cortana will give you a new set of objectives after watching three new lifeboats fall from the sky. Joy! >> Search for three additional groups of human survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship Head forward and head forward. Go down the rocky slope and turn to your right into a small cave. If you can't find it immediately, Cortana will give you a Nav point to follow. Anyway, as you get close, Cortana will tell you that the cave is not a natural formation. Continue through the so called cave turning and shifting around until you reach a jump in the path. Gain as much speed as possible by falling down the ramp and heading back. Use the slope as a ramp to make it. Continue through until you reach a big room infested by Covenant. The easiest way to kill them(if you have a gunner)is to run over them with your gunner taking out as many of them as they can. After the initial Covenant are taken care of, head to the right of the room by the entrance and you'll find a small slope leading up. Be careful, at the top there is a Red Elite and he's intent on getting you. Don't go up to far. When you can see the end, throw a grenade to attract him and then use an overcharged Plasma Pistol to bring down his shields. Then, run up to him and melee him a few times to bring him down. Continue up and left and you should reach the bridge controls. Watch the bridge appear and head back to your Warthog. Now that you have the bridge activated, you can continue through and to the other side. The cave will swerve a lot and Cortana will tell you a few things. After a while, you will reach an opening in the cave. Finally! ------------ Reunion Tour ------------ Now, there are many paths in this area to three different rooms. In each of those rooms, there are Marines and a Covenant. I'll walk you through the fastest way but these can be done in different orders. Anyway, I'll number them to make life easier for you. 1) As you exit the cave, head right and forward. Don't cross the river! Continue through for a bit staying by the right wall. Eventually, you'll see a trail going up with flashing blue lights on the ground marking it. Head through and you'll find a light skirmish taking place. If you want to snipe, head over right to the crashed lifeboat and pick up a Sniper and leave your Warthog. The alternative is to simply drive around and kill Covenants by means of crushing or gunning. The first is much easier and you'll take less damage. Head over to the rock in the back that is sticking out of the ground if you wish to snipe. After taking out the initial wave, a few more dropships will come in and you should kill them too. Head back to your warthog. If your passengers have died, pick up some more Marines. >> Search for the two remaining groups of human survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship 2) There are two paths leading to this room. The one you came in is by the left, the one you should get out of is at the other side of this room. Continue along the wall and reach a skinny trail. This is a major shortcut and should save you a minute or two. Anyway, when you're back by the creek, there is another opening directly in front of your face with blue lights like the last. Continue through and you'll reach a downhill slope with more structures. There are Marines by the back near the group of rocks. Use your Sniper Rifle and get on the various structures and take out the Covenant. After the rest of them are dead, Foehammer will come again and pick up the survivors. Now, time to get to the last lifeboat. There are more first aid kits near the crashed lifeboat. Continue through the path by the crashed lifeboat.(not the one you entered from.) Exit. >> Search for the last group of human survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship 3) Back in the open, there are a few Covenant. Squish them and swerve. Cortana tells you that the Captain has been captured. Uh oh. Anyway, head right and cross the river. There is a lifeboat ahead that Cortana informs you about. Replenish your Sniper Rifle's ammunition and continue in the direction you were going. There is a path here leading up to the final lifeboat. Continue through and snipe as many Covenant as you can. There are Elites on top of the structure and Jackals and Grunts walking on the ground. After taking out as many as you can, drive the Warthog near the structure and leave it there. Get out and kill the rest of the Covenant. This may or may not take a while. The Covenant may be hiding on a few of the structures. Foehammer will not come until you kill every one of them. Explore the various structures and when Foehammer comes, press X to enter the Pelican and fly to safety. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ALTERNATE STRATEGY BY A.K.A =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ***Mission Overview*** Seek out surviving Marines and help them take out the Covenant. __________________ / FLAWLESS COWBOY / >> Evade the Covenant patrols looking for you >> Head for higher ground >> Search for other lifeboats You start out in a lifeboat that has crashed. Get out and get all of the items that are right in front of your pod. You should have full armor for both your assault rifle and the pistol that is in your inventory. From there, cross over the long bridge that is to your left. Right as you exit the bridge on the other side, you should see a large shadow over you, that is the covenant dropship. It will give out 2 Banshees, which will please you immensely. I would just ignore them, and after a while they will start heading off into the distance. If you are daring and risky, and you think you can do this without losing any health, you can kill one or both of the Banshees. If you do this now, they wont show up later in this same level, so it is your choice. I would suggest on Legendary to wait until you have some guys to help you. Once those Banshees leave or blow up, courtesy of you, follow the left rock wall until you reach a more open area. In this area are several grunts and a couple of Elites. Take care of business. The thing I like to do is use the zoom feature on the pistol to snipe out the grunts at least, and then go on against the elites. When fighting against the elites, there are many rocks in this area that you or they can use for cover. If they use it for cover, stick a plasma grenade on the rock, not on the elite, so it will hopefully be unnoticed by the Elite, leading to his doom. Once you kill everyone in the area, you will get a checkpoint signaling this, and head through the narrow passage way. If you do all of this fast enough, the enemies from the dropship coming from behind you will not catch up to you. If they do, I would suggest reading this next excerpt. =============================================================================== (Here is another way to do the first and second fights thanks to halo.bungie.org) When you begin the level, run out, fill up on goodies, and walk over near the bridge to trigger the dropship. Your escape pod cut a swath in the ground as it crashed. Follow the line of this smoking furrow back to the river. Soon two elites and six grunts will disgorge from their dropship. You should be out of their range, but still close enough to snipe the grunts with your pistol. Some of the grunts will head straight across the bridge, so plug them before they get safely to the other side. There's plenty of ammo at the crash site, so go through as many rounds as you want. Once absolutely all the grunts are dead, we're ready to take out the elites. Two against one isn't really fair odds, so we aren't going to play fair either. We're going to get our feet a little wet and sneak around behind them. Hop into the river and head back to the waterfall. Once you're far from the keen eyes of the elites, turn right and hug the wall heading back west towards the escape pod. Keep yourself pressed against the wall until you reach the edge of the abyss, then follow the edge north out into the open in front of the escape pod. If all goes well, you should be staring at the backs of two elites who have no idea you're there. Now of course you should beat them to death. Quickly fill up your pistol, grab the secondary weapon of your choosing (I like the plasma rifle), scavenge for grenades, but don't get the health pack yet. Cross the bridge and look out for any grunts that might have gotten through your hail of bullets. Two banshees will start making your life difficult right about now, but if you keep an eye on them and only run between cover when you're clear, they will turn around and just leave once you get far enough along. If you want to be extra thorough, use up all that assault rifle ammo on them. It will just go to waste otherwise. As you're making your way up the hill, stay relatively close to the right edge. When you're all the way up as far as the edge goes, turn left and look for a big rock against the wall to hide behind. There are four grunts and an elite frolicking in the rocks here. Peek out and snipe until all the grunts are dead, then ruthlessly slaughter the single remaining elite however you choose. A charged shot from a plasma pistol will drop his shields nicely and force him to run for cover. Don't forget the goodies back at the escape pod if you need anything at all before going on to the next area. Now you can get the health pack. After you're full, head out to save the marines. You should get a checkpoint just before you start the next fight. Save and quit when you hit it. Checkpoints have a nasty way of creeping up in this area just after you've shot your last bullet and have no health left. If this happens, just turn the machine off and restart your game. This area is the hardest part of the level. There are six dropships that will land in rapid succession at three different landing sites. You'll get a checkpoint after you've taken out each dropship's complement of Covenant, but only save it if you've killed all the elites, most of the jackals and grunts, left the rest behind for the marines, and are already in range of the next dropship's landing site. By the way if at any time the dropships get ahead of you and you begin to get absolutely overwhelmed, skip down past this section and read my strategy for when things get all screwed up. You can always run down the hill as well and wait around far from the action for about fifteen minutes. Foe Hammer will show up and all of the Covenant will mysteriously vanish. But that's no fun. The first complement of troops has already engaged the marines by the time you arrive. There are two elites and two grunts on the right and four grunts on the left. Throw a frag grenade at the elites then take out the grunts on the left. They're easier to kill and they throw grenades. Throw another frag then follow up with the pistol. Hopefully, the elites on the right side will be busy with other things by now, so throw another grenade or two then clean up as necessary. Scavenge as you run. Head immediately up the ramp over the structure, stopping to pick up the health pack and goodies at the top if you need them. Run a few feet down the ramp on the other side and drop down. Keep going and you should see the next dropship in front of you. There is some randomness to the number and type of Covenant on these dropships, but there are two elites, two jackals, and two grunts on board this one. Run to the right and approach the port (left if you're on the ship facing forward) side of the ship. As soon as the doors open, stick a plasma grenade to the elite furthest back in the ship nearest the gun. By the way plasma grenades stuck to the ship don't seem to do much, so make sure it's on the elite. If you're fast and accurate, you can stick a second to the other elite before they jump out of the ship. If not, throw another one where he'll land. Hopefully, they'll both be dead now. Toss another grenade at the jackals and move on. Don't worry about a few leftover grunts or jackals. The marines will take care of them. But grab any plasma grenades lying around. The next landing site is past the escape pod on its right, past the pipe structure, and on a slight hill. There's a health pack on the way, but only get it if you really need it. This ship usually contains two elites and five grunts. Again the elites will come out on the port side near you, so stick plasma grenades to them or have some waiting for them when they land. Now run back to the first landing site. This is where dropship number four is touching down. Your path will take you through a pile of grunts from the other side of the dropship. Take a moment to kill any that are easy pickings and take their grenades if you're not full. Again leave the leftovers for the marines. The important thing is to keep moving. Dropship #4 once again offers two elites and five grunts for your killing pleasure. And once again the elites will be coming out of the port side so run around the ship to the far side and stick it to them as usual. There are probably a few grenades lying around here from the first fight, so be generous with them. Hopefully there will still be some marines around to clean up after you, but even if there aren't, scavenge and move on. Paste a few grunts to the hillside on the way if they regain enough courage to attack you. The fifth dropship lands back on the hill where number three landed. This one has three elites and four grunts. As before the elites are on the port side. Take them out as usual, but since there are three be extra generous with the grenades. If you've got a spare frag, chuck one towards the grunts. Scavenge at least one plasma grenade from the bodies then head on around to where the second dropship landed. This is the last one. Usually it has a slightly smaller complement of nasties. Only one elite, one jackal, and four grunts. Stick a grenade to the elite then throw all you have left to kill off this group as quickly as possible. Clean up by sniping at any surviving grunts from afar with your pistol or a needler. Use the buildings to sneak up close to (and preferably behind) any jackals that are still around and let 'em have it. Whew! If you've managed to save any marines, you rule. Ok, now my strategy for when things get all screwed up. I can usually get to the fourth ship, but the fifth and sixth almost always require this plan. First locate a small walled-in area directly in the path of the escape pod. If it had kept sliding it would have run straight into one of its walls. There are two entrances to this place. One is very near the escape pod; the other is going to be our back door. Grab a needler if you can and head in. Once you're there, peek out the entrance towards the escape pod and snipe at grunts and jackals. Wait around for all the dropships to unload and go away while you're picking them off. You should be able to duck back in here and only very rarely will any Covenant follow or throw grenades close enough to hurt you. Once everybody is gathered, let them have it. Throw two or three grenades out at a time into their midst. Use up all your grenades and most of your pistol ammo. Keep sniping until elites are the only Covenant left. If you have a needler, use it now to hopefully reduce the number of elites. This next part requires a bit of luck. Sneak out the other entrance and run far, far away. If nobody sees you, you can now roam around freely on the other side of the main structure gathering supplies. Once you have a full needler and as many grenades as you can find, sneak back in the back way. They'll never know you left. If they do figure it out, it'll be too late. A full needler and a few grenades should do the trick, but you can always sneak out for more. Once you have cleansed the area, scavenge thoroughly then hop in the warthog for the next section. Keep your pistol and needler. =============================================================================== >> Stay with the survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship to arrive I would recommend saving and quitting at a lot of the next checkpoints in this part of the level. This is one of the hardest battles in the whole entire game; so dont get discouraged if you cant do it at first. There is a really wussy way to do this, if you find it too frustrating and you are patient, go towards the other end of where you come in to find a sloping hill that leads to an entrance into a Covenant structure, which is a tunnel. Go towards the entrance of the tunnel and wait about 15 minutes, or until you hear Foe Hammer calling for you. There will be no enemies left. Of course, if you really want to earn your living, read on. There are several dropships that will come in, and they will make your life miserable. Each one usually has an elite or two with some grunts and jackals to compliment them. The best way is to kill these guys before they get out of the ship. If you can do this, it will make it ten times easier. Obviously, stick to going for the Elites only, then scavenge the rest of the guys off. If you can, leave the grunts and jackals for the marines. Again, if you get overwhelmed, just go and chill in the hill area until all of the guys are gone. This is a tough section so be patient. I would suggest that using the health pack is a very big lasI think the strategy above is also really helpful if you get too overwhelmed. Once you beat all of the dropships, you will find Cortana talking to Echo-419 about the survivors on this planet. The Pelican will disengage its Warthog for your use, and if you have trouble finding it, they will give you a navigation point. If you have any Marines left (which is very hard to do), they will hope into the gunner seat to help you. You will also get some new objectives. >> Search for three additional groups of human survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship Continue straight past the Pelican, and go opposite the direction you came from. You will find that hill, that famed hill, to go down to find a Covenant made tunnel for you to go through. Maneuver your way through the tunnel until you get to an open area. There will be guys on both sides of the raised roadway if thats what you want to call it. Where you need to go is on the right side of where you came in. Most of the time, I repeat, most of the time the people on the left dont come and attack you, but every once in a while if you get too close they will pounce from both sides, rendering yourself helpless. It is up to you, but I would stick to the right side for ammo saving purposes. BTW, I suggest you have a pistol and either a plasma rifle or Needler. Once all of the guys are taken care of, look for an uphill incline, which is a very narrow type of hallway leading to a sharp left turn. DONT GO UP IT YET! Now, since this is Legendary difficulty, you will find not one, not two, but three elites just around the bend waiting to kill you. This part can get a little bit tricky. If you go too far up the ramp they will jump all over you and you will be dead pretty fast. This will test your fragmentation grenade throwing, and if you can get them to die or at least back up you will win fairly easily. Once you beat them head across to the place where you will find a switch to turn on the light bridge. Do so, and watch the cut scene and then hop back in your Warthog and head across. Keep going straight, there arent any more guys here. Follow the path around into the open to get a new checkpoint. _______________ / REUNION TOUR / During this part there are a couple of options actually. Since you are recovering three dropship inhabitants, you can go to which ever one you want whenever you want. I will give I walkthrough for the way that I do it, but you can do it in any order. As you come out of the tunnel, head across the river at whatever point you can and continue in that direction. You will come upon a crashed life pod, so pick up the well-deserved ammo and health. Also in this area is a sniper rifle, which I highly recommend you pick up, it will prove much easier to use this and fight like a coward then to fight like a real soldier. ------------ DROPSHIP #1 ------------ Looking behind you, where you came from, you will see a slope, and a path leading up to the right. You will also see that there are a couple of Jackals that can really make your life miserable. Use your newfound sniper rifle to blast them all out of the water. Once they are dead, head in that direction and go up the slope and to the right to find the first drop ship landing site. Proceed with caution, there could be guys from anywhere, especially those tricky Elites, usually Red ones at this point. Straight ahead of where you came in is a structure, go around it, bad guys permitting, and enter it through the other side. You will have to leave your current marines in the Warthog to die, dont worry; you will get more very shortly. You can use that as a distraction if you cant take care of the entire Covenant by yourself. Head down into the structure, killing a few Jackals and Grunts along the way, to find a whole new group of marines. Lead them out through the other side, killing guys on the way up, but dont totally go out the door. There is usually an Elite and a Jackal around here that could tear you to shreds. Again, use the marines as bait, and while the Covenant fire at them, you unload on them, killing them much faster. Once you are sure the area around you is secure, head back to your Warthog, and scavenge around for any remaining Covenant. Once they are all gone, you will get a message from Echo 419 that they are coming to pick any remaining marines. It would be very good if there were maybe 2 or even 3 marines left, but that is a stretch. Most of the time you wont have any left. After Echo 419 leaves, with or without marines, head to the next dropship. >> Search for the two remaining groups of human survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship ------------ DROPSHIP #2 ------------ From where you came in to this first dropship, take a right and go along this wall, until you get to another opening off to your right. Take that opening, and to your right again will be the dropship, so stock up on ammo and health. Beware, however, the Banshees are back, and if you have a Marine, it will be very easy to take care of the Banshees. If you dont, I would suggest unloading on them with the Assault Rifle that is lying around by the drop ship. You shouldnt carry that gun normally anyway, so you can waste some bullets with this gun. Beware again, do not, I repeat, NOT stand in one place while shooting, because the Banshees will not hesitate to run your ass over. Once the two Banshees are taken care of look across the river and look until you see some Grunts running around. That is your next target. Snipe them all away and head in. You should find a similar set up to the last drop ship, except there is more of a cliff. As soon as you get to the area with the structures, head right and you will need to go up the hill to find some Marines waiting for you, have them hop in and unleash hell on the Covenant forces. Again, you have to kill EVERY last guy, so stay around this place until you hear Cortana or Echo 419 say so. The marines at the top of the hill will stay there, so if your marine happens to die in combat, just get to the top of the hill to restock and get some more. Once that is done, head out of the place the same way you came in and you will see the final area that you need to go for the final drop ship. >> Search for the last group of human survivors >> Protect the human survivors >> Wait for an evac dropship ------------ DROPSHIP #3 ------------ This last dropship, is more towards the end of the river, and it is more of a steep incline to get to it. Remember it is marked by blue glowing...markers, to help you go the right way. If you cant find it, e-mail me and I will try to clarify any confusing things in this guide. Anyway, if you are in the right place, you will see a bunch of large rocks with a few overhanging cliffs. You should come to a broken down dropship, so stock up on sniper ammo and health. If you really want your Warthog in the rock structure, which I recommend, take it all the way around to the right to find a place to bring it up to the top. My suggestion is to find the top cliff and snipe everyone as much as possible, and try to avoid going down to finish the last guys, unless no Marines are going towards it. After you kill the guys that were already here, a drop ship will come in giving you more guys to have fun with. A tip on the sniping, snipe the hardest guys first, namely the Elites, then the Jackals, and then finally the Grunts. Also, be aware of your motion tracker. If you see red dots behind you that means that they are on to you and are about to attack you, or your Marines, from behind. After the first dropship leaves, another will come in by the broken dropship. This makes it much easier to snipe, so fire away. When you are sure you killed all guys from the second dropship go down to check again, and have your gun ready. They are only all dead when the evac dropship comes in. Once they are all dead, head to the evac dropship, which is marked with a Navigation Point. Cortana found Captain Keyes! So now you will go find him, as he is being held by the Covenant in a ship called the Truth and Reconciliation. Press X to enter the Pelicans side seat and you will complete the mission!! Yay! ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.3 - The Truth and Reconciliation ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: It's fairly easy to protect the captain in Normal and Easy difficulty. There's a lot of Covenant in this level and your first encounter with Hunters. Description: Board a Covenant ship in an attempt to rescue Captain Keyes. Recommended Weapons: Sniper Rifle/Plasma Pistol ------------------------ Truth and Reconciliation ------------------------ Get out of the Pelican and Cortana will give you objectives. >> Board the Covenant Battle Cruiser You don't want to be engaging the enemy head on yet. You have a Sniper Rifle so use that. Never switch your Sniper for anything. Anyway, get onto the cliff by the right without getting too close to the enemy. Use the zoom in and night vision(the white key)and start sniping the Grunts in the gun turret first. The Covenant should react but don't stop sniping until they start firing at you. When they do, the Marines will come in. I would suggest protecting the Marines but if you're that selfish, let them take all the damage. After clearing this room, head to the path on the far side on the left. More Covenant will come along this path. Whatever you do, don't FALL DOWN! Cortana will soon tell you to halt. Ahead of you is another cliff with a Shade Gun on top. Take out the Grunt on top and advance. A few Elites and some more Covenant will jump down and engage you. Use the rocks and trees as cover and use hit and run tactics. After clearing the initial attack, pick up the health pack by the dead Marine. (now how did he get there?)Continue left along the wall until you find an opening and head into the main area. Using the rocks as cover, take out the Covenant here. Be careful of Grunt ambushes. Take out the various other enemies. There is a small path by a cliff edge that Cortana should tell you about. It's on the far wall from the way you entered. Continue along that way and you should see another cliff. The Covenant aren't in your sight but you can see red on your motion detector. Throw a grenade up the cliff to attract them. Now, there is a big rock by your current location that you can crouch under. After taking down the enemies that attack you(if no Covenant notices, just continue to the next step) , advance to the left along the cliff wall. Go past the first opening and up the most left opening. Now, Cortana will tell the Marines to take the middle while you take the other side. Your Marines will listen and start engaging. With you on one side and your Marines on the other, you can now surround your enemy. Try to take out every one of them before the Covenant dropship comes in. Use a Shade Gun Turret but be wary of stray grenades. There are many trees and rocks that you can hide behind to help you out. Take out every one of them and note the Active Camoflage by the back of the area. There is a small passageway by the right of the room. It's on the same wall as you entered from but it's on the far side. Go through. As you enter yet another room, you'll notice the gravity lift. Don't go for it yet. Instead, stand on a rock and take out a few Covenant before they notice you. I would suggest targeting the Shade Gun right in front of you first. After they start engaging you, engage back. Try not to lose lots of health as you'll need it later. The music will change a bit in this area a few times. When it gets dramatic, be careful, when it gets calm, you're okay. Enemies will come in by both Dropship and from the gravity lift so those two should be your primary target. Don't be afraid to use the Shade Guns. Just be careful of grenades. Use grenades as well but be careful not to blow up your own marines. After a few waves of annoying Covenant, two large Hunters will come down and start killing your Marines. Use your Sniper Rifle and give each a pop in the orange spot. Cortana will tell Foehammer to send in the reinforcements. Before you enter the ship, pick up the First Aid Kit by the dead marine. When you're ready, stand on the gravity lift and enter the ship. --------------------------- Into the Belly of the Beast --------------------------- >> Find the ship's brig and rescue Captain Keyes At first, Cortana will tell you that she doesn't detect any enemies. Of course, she was about to be proven wrong... BIG TIME! Covenant will start pouring in through the doors. Help your Marines kill them. Be careful, there will be one invisible Elite with a PLASMA SWORD! There is a First Aid Kit and an Active Camoflage in this room hiding beneath some crates. There will be many Covenants pouring in from the doors in various directions. Use grenades to make the fight go smoother. After the enemies seemed to have stopped, the Marines will enter through a large door into a corridor. As you reach the end, you'll notice a large door. Well, you guessed it, it's locked. The Marines and Cortana tell you that you'd have to head to the other side and open it from there. Well, we had better get moving. Head back to the big room and as soon as you exit the corridor, turn right into the unlocked door. At the end, head right and kill the lone Grunt. Continue until you reach the Elite. Kill him and his support and head right. You'll be in a large blue room. Ahead of you are a few Elites and a few Grunts. Cortana will mark the door opener with a Nav point but don't jump down yet. Instead, take out the enemies on the floor you are on and as many of them as you can on the bottom floor with your Sniper Rifle. You probably won't be able to take them all out though. Open the door and your fellow Marines will pour in. There are many enemies that will pop out and you can't advance until you take them all out. Afte you do, Cortana will open a door. It's marked by a Nav Point. Enter it and continue. Take a left and continue. Ignore the next path on the left and keep on head straight. The passageway will turn and Covenant are waiting for you down there. Keep on going while taking them out and keep straight. Ignore any turns unless there's no other way. Follow through and take out any enemies you see. You should soon reach a door. Welcome to the shuttle bay. This place can get tough but you have to know where to hide. Use the crates as cover while sniping out the enemies above you and meleeing the enemies on your level. It may take a minute. It may take an hour. It all depends on how you fight. Try to keep as much health as you can. There is an overshield on the far side of the entrance that you came from. After taking out most of the enemies, Cortana will try to open a door for you. But, as the music dramatizes, two Hunters come in. Take them out with your Sniper Rifle in the orange spot and Cortana should soon open the door. Before you go, there is a First Aid Kit by a fallen Marine by the wall that separates the two rooms. It's on the side you entered from. Head to the Nav Point and continue down the passageway. Follow through the passageway. There are a few Stealth Elites along the way so be careful. You will soon reach the shuttle bay. If you lost all your Marines, you'll have to get some reinforcements. Cortana will give you a Nav Point and you can open the shuttle bay door. Continue through like normal until you reach a door on the left side. This corridor is full of Covenant so be careful. We are near the captain. Follow the path up and reach the third level of the shuttle bay. Head right and kill the various Covenants ahead of you. There's a crate that you can crouch under. After they are taken care of, ignore the door they were guarding and make a left. There's a door at the end guarded by a few Jackals and Grunts. Continue through that door and follow the passage until you come to a four way intersection. Head right and pick up the First Aid Kit and the Ammo. Head back and go straight to the center fork. You should now enter a large room. There are Grunts, and a few Elites. Be careful, there is a Gold Elite wielding a Plasma Sword. After wiping the enemies out, Cortana will give you a Nav Point to a door. Follow it and continue. Take the first left you see and head straight. There are many Jackals and Grunts along this path. When you reach the fork in the road, head left to an empty holding cell. In the rear, there is a control panel that deactivates the walls. In the cell closest to the entrance and to the right is a dead Marine. Pick up the ammunition and the First Aid Kit. Head back to the fork and go in the other direction. Ignore all the red doors and follow the path. When you reach the two Jackals, kill them and turn to your right. Here's the holding cell with Captain Keyes. Kill the initial enemies inside and go to the control panel in the rear to release your comrades. After a cutscene, you learn about Halo. -------------------------------- Shut Up and Get Behind Me... Sir -------------------------------- >> Return to Shuttle Bay for Extraction You can not allow the Captain to die. Anyway, if you want to kill him and see what happens, do it now. Head back outside but don't get too close, invisible Elites are waiting. Shoot them and kill them. Continue along the path. Remember the fork, head to the left this time at the intersection. Continue this way until you reach the Control Room. There are 2 Invisible Elites in here carrying the deadly Plasma Sword. Use the Sniper Rifle to hit their not so invisible swords. More enemies will pour in. Cortana will contact Foehammer to pick us up but it looks like she can't. You're going to have to get out yourself. Cortana will give you a Nav Point to follow. There is an unlocked door that you'll have to go through. Just follow the Nav Point killing off all that attacks you. You should soon reach the third floor of the shuttle bay you were at before. Kill the group of enemies waiting outside with a well placed grenade. Get to the Nav Point and press X to release the dropship. Just as you get on, two Hunters will pop out and attack you. Luckily, Keyes is skilled enough to crush them. You're now safe and everything is in order. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ALTERNATE STRATEGY BY A.K.A =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ***Mission Overview*** Board a Covenant ship in an attempt to rescue Captain Keyes. ___________________________ / TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION / >> Board the Covenant Battle Cruiser Oh boy. If you though that last level was hard, think again. This will test your Halo skills to the maximum, and will test you beyond belief. Dont worry, its only the third level so it gets easier. Right...? Actually, this is considered by many, including me, to be the hardest mission in the entire game! Think about that as we begin. We start off getting off of a ship and you should know realize it is very dark, and you have a sniper rifle in your hands. As you follow your men, you realize that you must stop. You are now a sniper. Look at your ammo, and it is 64 extra rounds! Normally it is 24, if you didnt know. Now there are many important things about being a sniper. Here are some hints and very important tips to look at when becoming a sniper. =============================================================================== (Thanks to halo.bungie.org) Since we'll be relying on our sniper rifle throughout much of the level, I'll take a moment to impart some sniping tips. Things to do with your sniper rifle: 1. Be patient. You're not being timed. 2. Stay on the 2X zoom mode when you're looking for something to shoot. Zoom in further when you know exactly where a target's going to be. 3. Wait for enemies to wander into your sights. Resist the urge to chase them down with your crosshairs. 4. Keep your rifle fully loaded. Even grunts can take multiple hits to finish them off if you fail to hit them in the head. You don't want to have to reload when you've got a Covie on the ropes. 5. Always aim for the head. Well, unless you're shooting at hunters. Then aim for the orange meaty bits. 6. Hands and feet are fair game. Some enemies die if you shoot them in the toe. Alien physiology is strange indeed. 7. Run away. Getting hit knocks you out of zoom mode for a reason. Once you're discovered, go find another spot to shoot from. The Covenant will soon settle back down and start wandering if they don't see you. 8. If an enemy in a Shade is turned towards you, shoot below and to the side of the gunner's shield. You can hit them in the arm. 9. Red elites will always take at least two shots to kill. One for the shields, one through their head. If they're turned away from you, they're less likely to dodge the second shot. =============================================================================== Now that we have figured out how to become a sniper in this dark, perfect weather, lets begin sniping. There is a perfect rock for this, probably made this way for your sniping ease. The only problem with this is that it can get to be too far away and the view will get limited. First things first, make sure you snipe the gunner. No questions asked. Then get the Grunts first. This is simple logic, because shooting the Grunts first eliminates all possibilities for the Grunts replacing one another in those nasty guns. Once you are sure that all the Grunts are killed and you cant find anyone else from that rock, move ahead. Still stay back, but get close enough so you can see a portion of the left side that just includes the gunner on the left as well as everything else on the right. Remember, if you are seen once and fired at, the rest of the cavalry comes in and makes a fool of them selves, so be cautious. There are a total of two elites, two jackals, and seven grunts in the beginning group of guys. So either keep tally in your head or keep tally by how many shots you fire or whatever. Once there is maybe a Grunt or two left, head in with your guns and start a-blazin. This should cause the cavalry to come in and clean up anyone that was left. Now, beware of the guys coming from the left by the gun. There will be an Elite and two Grunts coming in, and the Grunts will definitely not hesitate to man the guns and start blasting you away. Try to stop this in anyway possible and guard the guns. Actually, this should help you, if you catch them before they reach the gun, they will not shoot at you, and you will just need to fire at a moving target, which I hope you can do. Then, once they are dead, four more Grunts along with two more Jackals show up. Easy as pie, clean them up, with the gun if you like. Once nobody else shows up, continue on very cautiously and get out your sniper rifle. On the ledge above you will see some guys hanging out, a couple of Grunts and probably an Elite, so take care of them with care. Once they are taken care of more guys will show up on the level you are on, so watch out and let your men help you. They can help you by being distractions anyway. :) Once they are killed, slowly move around to the left and you should see an Elite hanging out in this relatively small area, so take care of him easily. Now carefully move forward and look to your left, in the small alcove will be a gunner, usually distracted but be careful nonetheless. Once you kill him you will fin a health pack along with some sniper ammo. DONT GET THE AMMO! There are 16 rounds in each box, so unless you're 16 or more rounds from a full load, you'll end up losing some if you pick up a box. Even if you're just one round shy of a full load, you can still pick up a box of ammo. You'll just pick up 1 bullet while the other 15 disappear into thin air. So throughout this walkthrough, unless it's an emergency only pick up one box of ammo at a time, and only if you have 8 or less extra rounds for your rifle. You might have to do a lot of backtracking, but it's worth it. Now that I dont have to talk about this anymore, lets continue with the walkthrough. Your cavalry should be either dead, or dying very fast right now so go help them with the drop ship that just landed with some guys for your enjoyment. Wait, before you do that use your sniper rifle to look on the ledge and see a gunner in the distance shooting. Snipe him up, then go help. If things get really nasty, on the way to the enemies is a camouflage, so you can really create some havoc. Once everything in the area is quiet, go on. You will see a path by where you fought the enemies from the drop ship, a small narrow dark path with that. Going into the path will lead you to the next part of this level. This is the final stage of the first half of the level. Yay, we are almost half way. This isnt so bad is it? I hope not, because it gets much worse soon. In this next part in the small narrow path, a couple of elites and even more grunts come to meet you. Take care of them however you need to, I suggest picking up a plasma gun to make it a little easier to defeat them. Once they are defeated, continue on, until you get to the next area. This is a little tricky, but you will survive under my guidance. There are a total of five gunners here, and they are all facing you in a sense. There is a rock right before you get to the opening, use that as a fallback point if things get to hairy. Start killing off enemies one by one, and soon all of the gunners should be depleted and you should be looking at a weird platform type thing in the middle. Watch that carefully, because a lot is going to happen there. Soon if all the guys are dead, wave after wave after wave, after wave...you get the idea...of Covenant troops ill show up to try to destroy you. The best way is to take guerilla tactics. Get their attention, usually shooting them works well, and then have them follow you back to the rock in the corridor. It will be much easier to handle and manage with grenades and sniping. Once the last group of grunts, jackals, and elites are killed, there will be a change in the music, signaling the arrival of two Hunters that you need to kill before you can get into the ship. Use anyway you want to kill them, there is sniper ammo, so dont worry. Either use the charge/sidestep/shoot method, or whatever tickles your fancy. Anyway, once they are dead, a HUMAN drop ship comes in to give you some more guys for when you travel inside the big ship. Once they are all in a circle on the launch pad, step on it as well, and you will see a cut-scene, launching you into the beast. ______________________________ / INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST / >> Find the ships brig and rescue Captain Keyes Now I dont want to alarm you, just prepare you, for the hardest fight (arguably) in the entire game. It is for me, and it took several tries the first time I did this level on Legendary. You are about to fight wave after wave after wave after wave...you get the idea, of Covenant. There will be almost 12, yes 12, different waves of Covenant that show up during this hurt- fest. Dont worry though, it should be easy enough. Before they all start to show up, there is a brief moment of silence before they get see you and start coming. Make sure you realize where the Active Camouflage is in this room, yes there is one, but do not get it yet. Save it for when you actually need it. A quick note, do not try to save your marines. I repeat, dont do it. It is a big, big waste of time and you will regret doing it once you die quickly. The best way to use the Marines is do exactly that, use them. Use them as bait for some of the elites that show up so you can kill them easier. There are three types of waves of opponents. The first kind will reveal just an invisible elite with a plasma sword, of course. Make sure he gets killed, and pour on the plasma. Remember, shooting him a little bit makes his invisibility stop working, making it easier for your marines to help you. The next type of wave is one with a group of jackals and grunts. There are probably around six or seven in this wave. Strategies for killing this and the next wave are coming later on. The third wave is exactly the same as the second, except that there will be a Gold Commander Elite along with them. This could be trouble. Now there are several ways to tackle this battle but the easiest way is to have a system, and a system you will have. The only waves that will come out after that first Invisible Elite are the second and third waves, so this wont be that difficult. The best way to kill the Elites is to use the sniper rifle. Now it is pretty unrealistic to say that you should get a head shot EVERY time, but try for them as much as you can. If not, it will take three shots, instead of two in the head; so conserving ammo is an issue still. If the second wave shows up, just throw a grenade to kill several, then rush in and finish them off with some charged plasma pistol shots. If you encounter the third wave, throw a grenade first, then make sure you kill the Elite with the sniper rifle, then finish off the rest of the guys in that wave. Make sure to keep your eye on your radar; I would rather have a leftover Grunt then a leftover Elite. If you do this correctly, you should even be able to save some Marines! Of course, I will have a section if things go haywire. The plan above can work either really well, or it can fall apart pretty easily. There are a couple ways that it could fall apart. One way is that you get behind and you arent there to throw a grenade when the door opens because you are dealing with other doors. Another way is that your health gets low and you need that health pack, causing you to fall behind. Here is a strategy for if you fall behind. I think that the best way is to catch up and give yourself a hefty advantage is to basically go with guerilla tactics. When the Covenant open their door and attack you, kill them but enter where they came from to take shelter and destroy anything that enters. Beware however, if you enter a door and you get to a hallway, that means that more guys can come from these hallways, so keep on watching your radar to make sure you dont get blind sided by an Elite. Once you finish this excruciating battle, there will be a short break. Gather yourself and if you are hiding in the hallways, you will see a checkpoint signaling when it is okay to come out. You think that was it? Guess again, because a fresh batch of two Hunters will come to please you. Dispatch of them quickly, you will find them somewhat easier compared to the monstrous battle you just won. Once you win that battle, head down the open path where they came from and you will see the door is shut. That will cue Cortana telling you to go around the place to open the door and let the marines through, if you have any left, which I highly doubt. Go back to the main battlefield and look for newly green shaded doors. Enter one of them and head into the hallway. You will come upon two grunts, which you can kill easily. Around this next corner will be a pain in the butt, as you will find regenerating guys. Sounds annoying, doesnt it? Well it is just a Grunt and Jackal that keep on coming back for more. Around the corner you will also see a door, which opens to an open area with several Grunts and a couple of Elites present. The best way to kill all of them without them laying a scratch on you is to use charged plasma pistol blasts primarily, and maybe some Needler action as well. Once they are all dead, you will find yourself on the highest level of a small Covenant hanger with Covenant ghosts and banshees inside. Sorry, but you cant ride them in this level. Head across the hangar and move into the halls that will take you downwards. It will eventually take you to the lower levels of the hangar. In these hallways you will find a couple of grunts, a jackal and an elite. Hopefully if you dont make too much noise, the elite wont hear you and he will have his back turned towards you. An easy knockout for you. :) Anyways, move on until you get to lower part of the hangar and in front of you should be some health and a couple boxes of sniper ammo, load it up, if you need to, and get ready for another pretty big brawl, but not nearly as big as the last one. When you get to the ammo and health you will see guys at the bottom. Unless you decided to snipe them from up top, which would be a bad idea considering they have a much bigger advantage over you if you try to kill your shooting enemies from higher or farther below them. Anyway, the easiest way to kill these guys is to snipe, because you have so much ammo right by you. Make sure you use the boxes wisely, and get them when you are out or very close to out of ammo as to eliminate lost rounds. Once the first wave is gone, several other waves will join in the fun. You might find it overwhelming to snipe, but do your best to snipe as long as possible, and then continue on to your normal strategies to eventually defeat them all. Make sure to use your by now superb, hopefully, guerilla tactics in defeating them, which can also include retreating into the tunnel that you came from. Dont hesitate to run and make them follow you; it is one of the best ways to kill a guy. BTW, if you had any Marines that survived that huge battle at the beginning, you can open the door for them now at the other side of where you came in. After you defeat those waves of guys, you will be able to move out of this damn hangar. Dont worry, you will be saying that about another place pretty soon... In this next long hallway there are several dead-ends as well as a couple of grunts, jackals, and of course one elite. The elite likes to catch you by surprise and hide in a dead-end and blind-side you. Be careful and ruin his surprise. Now when move on and get to a loading point in the game FREEZE! If you continue on the door behind you will shut, closing off the whole first part of this ship. If you did it right the door will stay open, granting you access to ammo or health until you pass that point. Make sure your sniper rifle has full ammo and then continue on. You will now start to ascend the big place to get to the enormous hangar, which originally can hold two drop-ships. You will have to go up three flights of hallways to get to it. In this next part however, you will have to deal with many upon many Covenant troops. Dont fret however there are, count it, 8 more boxes of sniper rifle ammo in this part of the hangar alone. So go absolutely crazy with the sniper rifle. After you kill the first wave of guys, the next wave will appear and the next one, until you are almost overwhelmed. Here is where it would really pay off to have Marines, seeing as this is such a big area the Marines could easily distract them long enough for you to get into position and snipe them. Also in this room is a health pack and an over shield so use them wisely. Here is the best way to make sure you stay alive in this onslaught as well as some item and enemy information. =============================================================================== (thanks to halo.bungie.org) The next area will take quite a while to clear out. It's a large three-story hangar capable of holding two Covenant dropships. There are four boxes of rifle ammo and a health pack on the far side of the first bay and four more and an over shield on the far side of the second bay. That's 128 sniper rounds you have access to, so snipe away. One elite and a few jackals and grunts will snipe back at you from the second story, so taking them out should be a priority. Work through the ranks of the enemy until you've cleared out everyone here. Multiple waves of bad guys will come through the doors to make you're life difficult, but it can sometimes take a lot of wandering to trigger them. Always keep track of the door you used to originally enter the area though. You'll want to head back there as soon as a new wave arrives. Sometimes there are Covenant coming out of this door as you're trying to get in it, but a grenade should clear the way nicely. Once you're safely inside, switch back to sniping until the room is once again clear. =============================================================================== So continue with that strategy or the strategy with the Marines, whichever applies to you, until all of the enemies are taken care of. Now you can leave...oh wait, I forgot the Hunters! Yes a battle like this wouldnt be the same without Hunters. Kill them like you normally would, maybe waiting on the over shield until now if you have trouble defeating Hunters. Once they are defeated, follow the Navigation Point to continue on. Now you will really start to ascend the hangar through these hallways, and boy it isnt easy. By the way, the purpose of going to the top of the hangar in case you were wondering is because there are two rooms full of prison cells sort of near the top floor, so we must ascend. If you havent grabbed the overshield, now would be a good time to do it. Move ahead and try to use your sniper rifle as much as possible. If you cant see them from that far away, just turn on your sniper at each corner. Once you move ahead, you should have killed a couple grunts and an elite. Also further along in this first hallway series is a couple of stealth/invisible elites there to kill you. That is why I told you to get the overshield now, because they pack a punch and you can lose serious health if you are not careful. Once you get to the second story ledge, peek out to the right to see some baddies sitting there waiting for you. Obviously if they saw you they will start running towards you, otherwise take out your sniper and pick them off one by one. If you find that you are low on ammo or dont feel like wasting the time with a sniper rifle, another ill-advised method is to throw a very well placed grenade. The elite will only dodge it right before, so even two well placed ones would really get the job done. Anyway, once they are killed move along, and keep on sniping/killing guys on the way, about halfway through the ledge in the middle, enemies will spawn from the door behind you. I suggest taking care of them before you move on, as there are bad guys up ahead as well. There are probably two elites, many grunts, and several jackals in the wave that appears behind you, so they are noteworthy opponents. Once you defeat that wave, get ready for the next one. They will only appear as soon as you get close to the door on the right hand side, so prepare some grenades. Get close to the door, fire away, and then move back to deal with the survivors. Rinse and repeat with this strategy for optimal results. In the next hallway, there are just a couple of grunts and jackals as well as the lonely elite. Take care of them, preferably with the sniper rifle, and continue on to the third and final (yes!) level of the hangar. Once you get to the top, look to the right to see a group of bad guys waiting to get it. A couple of well-placed head shots will take care of the three or four guys that are there. Now this next part is pretty much suicide. As you continue on through the small barricades on your right across the ledge, you will see on your radar a massive red spot both in front and behind you. Yes, the have got you surrounded on this ledge, and trying to fight a battle from both sides really is suicide. So my advice is to get the hell out of there. One floor below you, you should see a piece of land stick out in the middle. It should have a Shade on it as well, so if thats what you are seeing, you are correct. Jump out onto that and then move up to a more tactical position on the third hangar, so you can kill every last one of them, snipering of course. Once everyone is dead, you can move on to where Captain Keyes is located. But first off (almost there...) you will reach a command center or control room. This place is definitely not fun, but that is a later-on issue in the mission Two Betrayals. Before you get to the large control room, off to the left you will see...a health pack and ammo! Pick up as much as you need and stand in the doorway to the control room. Inside you will see several guys, including two or three elites, several grunts and jackals, and one gold commander elite. This definitely will not be easy, but they start out nicely, because absolutely none of them see you! Start off sniping an elite, not the commander, because it will not kill him, then the rest of the crew will wake up to welcome you. Tear through the ranks with your sniper and if it gets too heavy, back off a little and wait to regenerate health or whatever you need to do to get back in it. Once you defeat every one of the guys in that control room, give yourself a round of applause and continue forward. Continue through the door that is straight ahead of where you came from and continue to find Captain Keyes. You are almost to him; he is only a heartbeat away. In these next hallways, follow them the only way you can go, and beware of the many Jackals that will be in the halls. They are usually in pairs also, so more fun for you. There is an occasional grunt around, but mostly Jackals. The first group of jail cells you come to should be completely empty, unless you missed it. Use the switch in the back to open the doors. By the way, up ahead is the room with Captain Keyes in it, not this one. Now here is a strategy for beating the other guys in the room with Captain Keyes in it and utilizing the Active Camouflage effectively. =============================================================================== (thanks to halo.bungie.org) The halls ahead hold a few grunts and three pairs of jackals. You can snipe them all if you're careful. There's an empty brig off to the left, but don't worry about that yet. Make sure these halls are totally cleared out and find the second brig where Keyes is being held. You can peek in and snipe any grunts around. There are also two stealth elites and an elite commander on guard. Now you can go back into the empty brig. There's a health pack in a cell and an active camouflage hidden away in the back. Grab it and run as fast as you can to free Keyes. You should have plenty of time to sneak in and beat everyone down. Now just hit the switch and you're set. =============================================================================== Following this strategy is the best way to defeat the gold commander and stealth elites in the room guarding Captain Keyes. Once you defeat all of them, continue and press the switch and you will reach the final and most annoying part of the level. __________________________________ / SHUT UP AND GET BEHIND ME...SIR / >> Return to Shuttle Bay for Extraction Finally!! Keyes is finally free, now all you have to do is escort him out of this damn forsaken place. The sooner the better if you ask me, but you still have a little work to do before you can leave, and you can bet the Covenant will be there to impede your every progress. From the get go, the Covenant are there to make your life interesting. BTW, if I didnt mention it before, you must guard Captain Keyes with your life. If he dies, you will automatically fail the mission. Now on easy, he can take a pretty good beating, but on legendary, he will die pretty damn quickly so make sure you know where he is at all times. As soon as you start heading towards the door, two Invisible or Stealth elites will show up. Start blasting them as soon as possible to make your Marines start to see and shoot them as well. Once those two guys are dead, get the health and ammo in the left corner from where you start to leave and then head out. In the hallway, there is an elite and some grunts off to your left waiting for you, so stick them with a plasma or fragmentation grenade to get rid of them quickly. On the way back to the control room you will meet several groups of Covenant, do the best you can, with the sniper rifle, grenades, and the occasional charged plasma pistol shot for the elites. Make sure you are keeping Captain Keyes safe, and be careful not to snipe your own guys, because they are damn foolish and get in the way. Once you defeat these couple groups of guys, head on and go to the Control Room. You will want to be swift about this because otherwise the Marines will barge in and make an ass of themselves. As soon as you can, run towards the Control Room and whip out your sniper rifle. In the Control Room are now two Invisible Elites with Plasma Swords. Take care of them quickly, as many, many Grunts are about to rush in and try to overwhelm you, which they can. Back off at that point and try to let your Marines do some of the work, but still protect Captain Keyes. Grenades are important to try to clear out the many ranks of Grunts and eventually, their stupidity and your intelligence will lead to their downfall. Continue through the Control Room and out, that wasnt a fun place to be, and continue out to the third level of the hangar. You are almost home free, so stick with it! There will definitely be some guys waiting for you on the hangar, which would include a couple Elites, several Jackals, and many Grunts. Use the door as cover for your sniper rifle and grenades, and take your time. Once they are all dead, you are pretty much done. Run out and to the left to see a switch floating there on your right. Press the switch to release the drop ships and watch Captain Keyes ram over the Hunters and zoom out of the place. This is arguably the hardest level so dont worry, it will get easier from here. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.4 - The Silent Cartographer ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: There are a lot of Hunters in this level. You'll also be meeting your first Gold Elite. They're a killer. Also, invisible Elites are common in this level as well. Look for movement in the air. They're really easy to kill once you find them. Description: Search for the map room that will lead you to the secrets of Halo. Recommended Weapons: M6D Pistol, Plasma Pistol ----------------------- The Silent Cartographer ----------------------- >> Clear the landing beach of hostiles Immediately, the initial Covenant will start firing on you. Get out of the Pelican and stay back killing off any Covenant that only fire at you. Your team of Marines should be more than enough to wipe out the Covenant unless you're playing Legendary, then they'd be dead in two seconds. Anyway, after clearing out the Covenant on the beach, continue forward past the archlike structure and kill the rest of the Covenant forces. Make sure you wipe out everyone or else your special Warthog won't come. As soon as a Marine yells,"Area Secure." You can stop fighting. Foehammer will come in with your Warthog. Joy! >> Find the entrance to the map room Start driving down the shore forward in the direction your Warthog was facing before. Keep driving until you come to a small incline to the left. Kill the Covies in this area and continue up the incline. There are a few more Grunts and Elites here so kill them. You should be on a concrete like slab sticking out of a cliff and next to you should be a structure that you can enter. Leave the Warthog and go inside and kill the enemies here. Use the various pillars or whatever they are as hiding spots. There are a few Elites and Grunts you have to take care of. Remember to pick up a Plasma Pistol as well. >> Activate the map room Continue to the end of the hallway and head right. Go down the incline until you reach a small room with a lot of Covenant. Take advantage of that and throw a Fragmentation Grenade before they can move. Pick off any Covenant that didn't get in the blast. You'll immediately notice the door that you were supposed to go to close. Don't worry, that's supposed to happen. Sigh. Cortana should call Captain Keyes now and they have a small conversation. You must located the map room. You're going to have to deactivate the security door thingy. >> Find the main security override First of all, head back outside by exiting the structure. Turn to your left and use your flashlight and locate the small cave that you can jump into. You're going to need a running start by the way. You can get to the shore by driving the Warthog there but this is a quick shortcut that should save you a few minutes. Even after you get out of the cave, you still have a bit of walking to do. Continue along the wall that you emmerge next to. After about a minute of walking, Cortana will inform you about a path leading into the interior of the island. After that, you should see a few Covenant ahead of you. Use the rocks and trees as cover. Be careful of the overcharged shot from the Orange Jackals. Anyway, after taking them out, notice the path that Cortana was talking about. Face it and turn around, well what do you know, a Warthog. Looks like the Marines had some bad luck. Anyway, there are two First Aid Kits and a few pieces of ammunition. Reload your M6D and continue up the path Cortana was talking about before. Kill the other Covenant that come down. Keep on walking and killing and using rocks as cover and eventually, you should come to a structure... with two Hunters. Be sure to turn left immediately as soon as you enter the first room for two First Aid Kits and a few bits of ammo. Now, time to focus on the Hunters. If they haven't noticed you, great. Snipe them in the orange spot with the pistol. If they have noticed you, run up to them and make them charge you. Then strafe to the side so their orange spot on their back is uncovered. Give them a pop that way. After killing the two Hunters, continue in the direction opposite of the direction you entered from. If you are playing on easy, there are two over shields hiding behind a crate. Anyway, continue that way and take out the various enemies that throw themselves at. You should use the rocks as cover and watch out for the Jackals overcharged Plasma Pistol capable of taking down your shield. If one happens to get to you, immediately take cover without taking too much damage. You should soon get to a bigger area with a path going down right. Kill the Covenant here and take that path. There are Grunts here. After taking care of them, enter the building that you're next to. In the first big room, there are two Hunters hunting for you. Try not get in their way. Jump to the side when they melee rather than strafe. Use your M6D like before and kill. Keep going straight now down the hallway. At the end is the Security Override. Press X to open the door... Finally. ---------- It's Quiet ---------- >> Find the Silent Cartographer After opening a door, a Gold Elite should emmerge with a Plasma Sword in the cutscene. Time to head back to the door. Now head back around down the hallway. Don't walk too fast as 2 Stealth Elites are waiting to ambush you. Be careful of his annoying moves. Stand in one spot without trying to chase it. Look for it's weapon firing to find it. Since the invisible Elite doesn't carry a shield, it should be considerably easier to defeat it. Head back outside and turn to your right. I hope you haven't used every one of the overshields next to you yet. Pick up one and head in the direction you came from before. Advance in that direction all the way until you get to the structure where you found the Hunters. As you'd expect, the Covenant know of your position and sent in a Dropship to drop a few Jackals. This is too easy. Take them out and continue forward. If you need any health, use the First Aid Kit by the fallen Marine if you haven't picked it up before. As soon as you enter the beach area, head left. Yes, that's correct, left. If you saw the crashed Pelican when you were up there, great. If you didn't, doesn't matter. It's a bit of walking but when you get there, take out the Jackals and pick up the various ammunition. Might I remind you that there's a Rocket Launcher too. Now, go through the cave, use the Warthog, do whatever to get back to the structure where you found the locked door. When you get to the structure, there are two Hunters you have to take care of however. A Rocket Launcher will make short work for them. Now, time to enter the structure. The Silent Cartographer is past the unlocked door. Enter the structure and go through the hallway and turn right and follow the path down. There will be no Covenant because you killed them all. Anyway, head through the door you opened. ------- Shafted ------- You can head right and take a look at the depth of this place. After you do that, head in the opposite direction and follow the path. By the end should be an Elite with his back turned to you. You feeling what I'm feeling? Smack him in the back and go right. Enter the door there and kill the various Covenant on your floor. You can kill the Covenant on the higher levels but that's not neccesary. Now, there's another door on the opposite wall you entered from. It's pretty hard to miss. Kill the Jackals hiding there and move down the path. Be careful not to venture too close to the edge. Anyway, enter the door at the end and you should be in another room with a lot of Covenant. Okay, before you go in there full charge, let me tell you something. There are Hunters, and Jackals. Don't go in immediately. Instead, from the door you entered from, head down the path straight and check out the dead Marines. Pick up what you need to pick up and start hiding behind one of the pillars. The Jackals should've already noticed you. Anyway, let them come to you. Don't go to them. After killing them, head towards the center of the room to deal with the Hunters. If you are still sporting a Rocket Launcher, use that. If not, use a M6D. Now, on the left wall(opposite of the dead Marines), there is another path going down. Go down once again to reach another level. At the bottom, you'll hear a conversation between a few of your Allies. Looks bad. Anyway, jump down. You'll lose a bit of shield but that won't matter. Face forward and turn your head left. Walk forward a little bit and you should see two doors. One to the left and another to the right. Take the left door and head down the path. As you enter another room, turn left down the small incline and pick up the Active Camoflage. Jump off the platform to the level below and continue. At firstm it appears you can't get out but turn around and go through the passageway to the right. Continue and you should reach a room. There are Covenant but you have an Active Camoflage so they can't see you just yet. You can attack them if you want but it's not neccessary. From the door you entered from, head left and when you reach the end, make a right. Kill any Covenant in your way. You should come to a path leading left. Go through and head down the incline. Kill the annoying Grunts here and pick up the Over Shield. Now, continue forward and take the first right you see to get to the map room.. or the Silent Cartographer. Before you can activate it, kill the two Elites on the far side of the room that should be attacking you. Ah, now activate it with X. >> Return to the surface for extraction You should hear that Cortana can't contact Captain Keyes. This is bad. Anyway, I'm going to have to list the directions back because it will be different than the direction we came. Head back and go back up that ramp we came from to the left. As soon as you enter the room you came from, you should be at a fork, one path going left and one going right. Take the left one to find a ramp leading to a higher platform above. Turn right and continue along this way. Towards the end, you should see some red dots on your motion detector. Turn right and the music will come on to a more interesting pace. Anyway, kill the Jackals and head up the path without falling down the middle. As you exit, there should be a lot of enemies around. Take a quick look around. This is door we didn't choose last time. The door on the right. You're going to have to fight off these Covenant but avoid losing your sense of direction. From the door you entered the room from, head straight and you should see a ramp leading up to the platform above you. Get on and kill the annoying Grunts on top. Continue on this as it twists. When you reach the incline going down, ignore it and continue towards the path forward going left. Don't get off this platform until you reach the end. At the end, go up the familiar ramp killing the enemies here. Don't rush, you have all the time in the world. After clearing the room, head to the door you entered from again. You should be able to find it. Continue up this familiar path. Go through the door and keep in mind that this room is full of the Covenant. The best course of action would be too immediately head to the right and go through the doorway. Kill the Elite and continue through the path you should be all too familiar with. However, what should be blocking your path. A GOLD ELITE. Yes, it's the Elite you saw earlier. Use a Needler if you have one and run backwards while shooting it. Be careful of it's jumps. After clearing him, go forward and run up the incline to get to the first hallway. As you look outside, notice the covenant Dropship. You will soon be attacked by invisible Elites. Roughly three. Try to finish them or hide until Foehammer comes and starts down. Press X to enter it and escape intact. Guess what, you're going underground. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ALTERNATE STRATEGY BY A.K.A =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ***Mission Overview*** Search for the map room that will lead you to the secrets of Halo. __________________________ / THE SILENT CARTOGRAPHER / >> Clear the landing beach of hostiles Wow, since you beat the last level on legendary, this level will seem like a joke. This is my second favorite level, as you can really do whatever you want on this enormous island that you are on. As a matter of fact, you can almost skip half of it right from the beginning. Isnt that cool? I will write it like you are supposed to do the level, and also include some bits on where you can skip certain parts and whatnot. So lets begin! You start out getting dropped off by a Human dropship, not the one you stole from the Covenant, and you get placed on the beach along with several other Marines. Now from here there are a couple things you can do. You can follow the Marines and take the longer but usual route and you can follow this walkthrough. If you feel like skipping a lot of this then turn around and start walking the other way, keeping the ocean on your left. You are going to have to go halfway around the entire island, but there wont be much to any activity. You will eventually reach a place with a flipped warthog and a forested area guarded by several logs with many guys in that area. If you decide to do the first method read below, if not skip down to where you see a series of symbols that look like this: !@#$%^&*. Follow these next steps: 1. Highlight it 2. Press Ctrl (or Apple) + C 3. Press Ctrl (or Apple) + F 4. Press Ctrl (or Apple) + V 5. Press Enter or Return All right, if you are reading here you decided to take the longer but relatively safer route as well. With this route you should always have some Marines with you. If you follow this route it is the route the game intended so you will see the entire plot. Anyway, from the start follow your Marines, now in Easy mode you could probably let the Marines do the dirty work and kill the enemies, but here in Legendary, as you know, the only purpose they really have is to a kill a couple guys and serve as bait. With this however, you want to keep a minimum of two alive so you must go and help out. Until you find a plasma weapon use either your pistol or assault rifle to mow down some baddies, then use their weapons to take the rest of them down. There are several rocks here so you can hide as well as the elites can hide. There are threee groups of two Grunts when you first start out, and take them out with your zoomed in pistol. After that first part there is a lone Elite waiting for a Plasma Pistol blast in the face followed by pistol shots. Then the next wave includes another Elite and three Grunts, take them down and lob some Grenades for this last group of two Jackals and two Elites. Once they are all dead you will receive confirmation of that by Cortana requesting a Warthog and receiving it. You will get a Navigation Point to the Warthog being dropped off by the enormous human dropship, and with your two remaining Marines, have them load up with you to aid you in your journey. Continue on around the bend in the mountain, keeping the ocean on your right, and you will see some guys on your left. Not just some actually, you will see seven or eight jackals, oh man that is a nightmare. This is optional and you can just speed by, but here is what to do if you want to kill them. The guys on the ground are easy enough to kill, but the guys on top of rocks can provide you with a lot of pain. The best way is to get out of your Warthog and take care of them yourself, as the aim of the Marines with the Chain Gun on the back of the Warthog is pretty subpar. Once the enemies in that area are eliminated, move a little further to see some Grunts and two Elites. Right away, go for killing the Elites and run their ass over, because they will provide nothing but trouble for your gunmen. Usually the gunmen will take down the rest of the Grunts, but help them out as well by running a few over. Once they are all dead in this area, continue up the slope and left until you get to the top of the slope. You will now be able to see the cave where the Cartographer is located. Before going to the entrance however, you might want to backtrack and head along the beach to find an overshield guarded by three Jackals, or three run-over Jackals. Once you get the overshield, the entrance awaits you. At the entrance you will see three or four Elites and several Grunts. Obviously the Elites are a priority, as they can rip you apart pretty damn fast. Try to either run them over or make room for your gunners to mow them down. Once the entrance is free, you get to enter the structure. As soon as you enter you will see a narrow hallway with three pairs of alcoves on both sides, so one on each side. In this area there are, count it, four Elites. Sounds like trouble? Well it is trouble. The best thing for you to do is to not stand and wait for them, but have them wait for you, sort of. They will all be standing there stupidly until you pass that alcove, so head into the first one and peer across to see if an Elite is there. When you peer around the next corner and you see an Elite, stick him quickly with a Plasma Grenade and listen to him wail. This might wake up the others, and it probably will, but it is better to fight three then four right? Take cover when needed and use the Plasma Pistols often to kill them quickly. Once you kill these people, head down this hallway and take right, and down the narrow slope. When you get to the bottom, take a peek left to see a couple of Grunts, a regular Elite as well as a Commander Elite with a Plasma Sword. Throw a grenade down there to hopefully kill some guys, but the Gold Elite will retreat behind the door and close it, leaving you with those guys. Throw grenades and plasma pistol blast them and they will die quickly. GO to the bottom realizing that the door is locked! You must go back and unlock the door, oh goody! >> Find the main facility security override Retreat out of here and get back to your warthog. Your guys will have faithfully stayed there, hopefully, unless they got killed. Take them down to the beach and follow the ocean to your right until you get to the next area. It will include a flipped warthog and several guys in a wooded area. Read on to figure out what to do. !@#$%^&*. Well, here we are at the wooded area with the flipped warthog. If you are coming from the beginning, you will find this part a little more difficult, because you dont have a plasma pistol, but with your sharp shooting skills with a pistol, you should be fine. Stand back, and if you have Marines let them shoot, otherwise just let it rip. There are several Grunts, several Jackals, and I believe two Elites. Those are going to be a pain in the ass, so be careful and take your time with them. If you find they are hiding, charge at them, this means they are weak and are trying to regenerate their shield. This might take a while to defeat all of these guys, but be patient and use whatever you can as cover for your mayhem. Once they are all dead, move up the slope behind into a narrow passageway of trees and such. In this section, you will find several other people to fight, and this my friends includes another two Elites, a couple of Grunts and a couple of Jackals. Hiding behind rocks is a good idea as the enemies can get overwhelming, so just be patient and you will be victorious. Once they are all dead move on until you get to an opening. I wouldnt go too far in the opening, because to your right will be two Hunters waiting for you. I think this is the easiest setting to beat Hunters in. Across from where you came from you will find a Health pack as well as some well-deserved pistol ammo. That gun is what you need to kill these guys. Also, down by one of the shield type objects in the ring by the Hunters is a couple of over shields. Doesnt get any better than this does it? Once you defeat them, you can continue on. Continue down a sort of slope to a bigger area with many trees and a large structure on the right. In this area there are many enemies, and these include three or four jackals on the right side and four or five grunts with an Elite on the other side. Taking out the Jackals first is recommended otherwise, they will just be getting in your way as you shoot the others. Plasma Pistol is very useful here to take them all down efficiently. The ground will be covered in Plasma Pistols, so dont worry about that. Also, you have another over shield back by the Hunters if things get messy. Once they are all dead, head around the corner to meet another Grunt and Jackals waiting for you at the entrance, dispatch of them and move past the entrance to find THREE OVER SHIELDS!!! I have no idea what you would need three over shields for, but you never know I guess. So now, enter the structure to find the security system switch. There is only one group of enemies that are waiting to stop you, and that is another two Hunters. Joy! This is a pretty large area where you end up fighting them, and you have three over shields up top and a health pack in one part, so this should be a sinch. Once you kill them, continue on through the door at the other side to get to the switch. Press it to open the door to the Cartographer. Once you press the switch, you will see that the door to the Silent Cartographer will open, letting the Gold Commander Elite free, but dont worry, you wont fight him...until later. _____________ / ITS QUIET / >> Find the Silent Cartographer Well, now you get to trek all the way back to the Silent Cartographer base, and that isnt an easy task. But first things first, we got to get out of this place. Head back the same way that you came. When you reach the area where the Hunters were, you will be in for a big surprise, and my worst nightmare. Not 2, not 3, not 4, but 5, yes, 5 stealth/invisible elites are in this area. Thankfully they dont have plasma swords, or you would be very screwed. You can stand back and try to fight them all, and you eventually should kill them all for a checkpoint, but that is a bad strategy, seeing as how they are invisible. If you really want to try this strategy, then the best way is to try your best to single each one out, or focus on just one, so you can for sure kill that one. If you shoot all of them three or four times, they will appear for a second, but then their invisibility will regenerate, putting you back to where you started. There is another way to do it, and here is a strategy that I recommend ten times over the last one. =============================================================================== (thanks to halo.bungie.org) There are five stealth elites now in the room where you killed the hunters and they can be very nasty. The easiest way to eliminate them is to run as fast as possible straight through this room. Your overshield should keep you alive. Once you're safely on the ramp leading out of here, you can peek in and pick them off much more easily. They'll bunch up together just inside the door. Take a moment if you wish to gloat over the pile of bodies. =============================================================================== Whatever you decide to do, once you complete this part of the level, you wont have any trouble finding the outside and, some fresh air. Now we have to get back to the Silent Cartographer, and you know that your last failed assault on the Cartographer will make the Covenant try extra hard to kill you with more and harder enemies. Hunters anyone? Anyways, there is again a split in the road. From the entrance of the Security System Facility you can fall down the cliff ahead of you, effectively creating a shortcut, or if you prefer the path more traveled turn around to the left and back where you came from. Either way works, but the Covenant troops are waiting for you back where you came from. As always, I will provide you with a strategy for both directions, and a way to get to each direction. This is a much smaller detour, but it less killing of guys and less traveling. On the other hand the longer way is safer than taking the huge drop. If you prefer the path less traveled via going down the cliff and taking a shortcut, just skip the next paragraph. If you are going back the way you came, read on to the next paragraph. If you are here, that means you are going back the way you came. Pick up an overshield, which you probably need after the onslaught of those five stealth elites. So go back the way you came, and eventually you will end up at the place where you fought the first Hunters. You will see a Covenant dropship coming in, and they will give you, five jackals. My favorite. Get down behind some of the cover and use some charged plasma shots to take them down. Keep shifting so they dont catch up with you, and eventually they will fall. If you need some more ammo, go back to where you killed the Grunts to get some Plasma Pistols. Once they are dead, head left and down the narrow passage out into the open to find your old abandoned Warthog. Take the Warthog left with the ocean on your right and around the bend. You will end up where the people who have dropped down have ended up, with a fallen HUMAN dropship and a tall mini-plateau ahead of you. Alright, if you took the long route you must skip a couple paragraphs, as it entails how to go about getting to the bottom of this cliff by jumping, and not affecting your health. To get to the paragraphs after these you must search for this: *&^%$# @!. Yes, it is the same thing, but it is backwards. It is simple, yet effective. If you decided to take the shortcut, read on to the next paragraph. Anyway here are those steps again to find the next part if you decided to take the shortcut: 1. Highlight it 2. Press Ctrl (or Apple) + C 3. Press Ctrl (or Apple) + F 4. Press Ctrl (or Apple) + V 5. Press Enter or Return Once you exit the main structure, head over to the right side of the cliff and scope it out. There are several palm trees and a not as steep slope further right. There are two ways to do this, one would include having good jumping skills, the other would require not as much skill, but good concentration nonetheless. Obviously the second one is easier, but whatever you like to do. If you are doing the first one, read on to the next paragraph. If you are doing the second one, skip the next paragraph. To get down the cliff by jumping, you must have good jumping skills. You will have to judge and time yourself correctly for this to work properly. The idea is to jump on one of the trees and on to another one so that you can fall safely without getting hurt. Again, timing and distance judgement is key to this, and if you feel these arent very, very good for you, then this isnt for you. Nevertheless, once you get down, you should see a crashed human dropship and a tall mini-plateau. BTW, if you havent figured it out already, skip the next paragraph. To get down the cliff by sliding, basically all you have to do is jump and make sure you land on the down slope. It should take you most of the ways down, and if it doesnt you should be able to jump down the rest of the way without losing health. You might lose your shield, so take a moment and regenerate it, but you shouldnt lose any health. Taking an overshield at the beginning of this might help as well. Anyway, once you get to the bottom, you should see a crashed human dropship and a tall mini-plateau. *&^%$# @!. Head up to the dropship and grab all of the goodies. There is a health pack, lots of pistol ammo, assault rifle ammo, needler ammo, and (sings heavenly music) a rocket launcher. Definitely take this as it can really help you out. Anyway, if you managed to get to the goodies without killing anyone or getting hurt, I applaud you. For the rest of us, we have to take care of them. Facing away from the dropship there are four jackals on the left as well as a couple on the right, with about five or six Grunts on top of the plateau. First, kill the Jackals on the left. Either run over them with your Warthog or whip out your pistol and zoom in and take their heads off. From wherever you came from, it is a good idea to stop and snipe at least one of these guys with your pistol. Once they are all dead, move on to killing as many of the Grunts on top as you can. You can use the pistol, but for this part I would use the Needler. Stand back as far as you think you can hit them with the Needler and let it rip, as you arent going to be keeping this gun anyways. Unfortunately, the Grunts are chickens, so you wont be able to kill all of them, but you should be able to kill enough to keep the enemy fire from up there to a bare minimum. Once most of the Grunts on top are dead, move on to killing the other Jackals at the other side. This is the way that you want to go, so that is why I picked them last. Run them over or shoot them, it doesnt really matter, just take care of them. If you need to you can snipe, but running them over works just fine. Once everyone in the area is dead, grab your Warthog and head left with the ocean on your right. You will come up to where you first started, and if you skipped this part earlier, you will now have dividends to pay as not only does the original group of people still exist, there are more Covenant waiting for you. Luckily you have a Warthog before the battle, so barrel through their ranks with it and get the hell out of there. Once you pass them, you will reach the part right before the Cartographer base. Again, if you havent been here yet you might have to fight some guys, look up from before to get more details on what to do, or not to do. Once they are all dead you can go up the slope and you will be just to the side of the base. There will be several Grunts here before you get to the outside part and they are just in the way. Massacre them, but keep an eye by the base, because out come the Hunters. A pair of Hunters will show up and firing at all cylinders. Sadly enough the Hunters will not only aim at you, but at your Marine friends in the Warthog. Hmm, I wonder what you should use for them? Maybe that crappy rocket launcher you picked up could do the trick! Blast them both away quickly and effectively and start to enter the structure. Go into the complex and go through the security door, which you opened up. Turn right at the T- intersection and look at the depths of this place. You will get a cutscene of the Master Chief staring around this enormous facility. __________ / SHAFTED / I really dont know why Bungie decided to put a subtitle there, it doesnt mean anything really. It is more funny to me but anyways, go back the way you came and continue straight into the complex. Here is one of the most in-depth strategies and ways to get into the place unheard and unseen and getting the Cartographer. =============================================================================== (thanks to halo.bungie.org) Moving along, you'll come across an elite hard at work on his big purple box thingy. Hit him from behind then head half way up the ramp to your right. One or two grunts will be patrolling the upper floor. If you wait patiently on the ramp, they will wander over near you, turn around and expose their backside to you as they walk away. Make sure to wait for the second one if there are two, then run up and hit them from behind. There's also often a sleeping grunt up here so take him out while he's snoozing. Head back down the ramp and take an immediate right through the door. Again there are one or two patrolling grunts and often one sleeping. Peek around the corner and wait for the second one to pass. They patrol around the central structure in the room. They also like to turn when they reach the corner nearest to you and look in your direction before proceeding, so be careful. Run out and bash the second one after it turns away. The first will turn around after it reaches the next corner so move fast. Duck behind the central structure after you strike so it doesn't see you. Use your motion tracker to notice when he moves on, then go for the sleeping grunt. Retreat to the door and wait for the first grunt to return. He should be easy to sneak up on this time. He uses the same pattern as before. Now you should be left with one elite down below, one grunt on the ledge above him, and possibly another near him. Find a good sniping spot out of view of the elite and send one round through each grunt's head in turn. The elite will be alerted, but will have no idea where you are. You should be able to use the upstairs catwalk to sneak around and pistol-whip him. Now that the area is yours, switch out your rocket launcher for a plasma pistol. There are three jackals in the hall ahead. Empty a plasma pistol on them. Just keep sending charged shots down the ramp. Throw a grenade down too. If they get into the room with you, run up and smack them then go back to gunning down the ones in the hall. After they're toast, pick up a more fully charged plasma pistol. The next area has two pairs of jackals roaming about and two hunters blocking the way forward. As you enter the room, you'll see a hall extending to your left and one in front of you overlooking the shaft. Move into the one ahead of you and look to your left. You should see a narrow corridor that leads to the interior of this room. This short, narrow corridor is a beautiful place. Only very rarely will Covenant follow you in here. You'll use it now on the way down and again on the way back out. Send charged plasma shots at the jackals from a distance then follow up with your pistol. Grenades as well work wonders against jackals. Hang out near the corridor and use it for cover whenever necessary. There's a pile of goodies here, but save it for after you face the hunters. These guys should be easy. Try to get the two of them in a line so they can't both fire at you. Dodge up to them then backpedal and shoot them in the gut when they charge. Go fill up on good stuff and retrieve your rocket launcher. Follow the path down to a mysteriously vacant area. As you enter this place, the exits are directly beneath you. You could just hop down, but wander around for a moment to familiarize yourself with your surroundings. This place will be crawling with jackals later. There are two doors out of this room. The one on the left leads to an active camouflage. Go down and take a look. Memorize where it is. We'll be getting it later. The one on the right leads down a ramp to a long hallway with three grunts at the end. Zoom in right at head level for these shorties and nail them. There are six more grunts and an elite on the lower floor. Move ahead and look down. Just before you expose yourself on the ledge ahead, you should see little triangular openings next to the floor. Through the one on the left you'll see several grunts milling about. Crouch down, zoom in, and start shooting. After you've sent many of them to an early grave, the rest will retreat down a ramp overlooking the shaft. This leaves the room they were in nicely vacant for you. Notice there are four ways in and out of this room. If you're still standing on the catwalk facing the center of the room, there's one behind you, the one you came from. The Covenant retreated through another. It's to your left, and you can see the shaft through it. To your right and in front of you there's a ramp that leads down to two more elites. And to your right behind you another ramp leads up to the room with the active camouflage. Take a moment to look around the theater and familiarize yourself with the location of all emergency exits. Drop down and go to the fallen bodies of the most recently deceased grunts. Grab a needler and drop the rocket launcher for now. Peek out into the shaft and unload your needler on the elite and grunts that retreated. Keep firing until the grunts at least are all definitely dead. The elite might be trickier. A charged plasma shot will send him behind cover. While he's hidden you can creep up next to him and drop a grenade or run around and blow his head off. There's an overshield here behind cover, but wait until after you've dealt with the next two elites before snatching it. These guys cover each other very well. You could always get their attention from one direction then run back into the previous room and use another exit to get around behind them and stick a grenade to their back. Or you can just toss several grenades into the hall with them. Unloading a couple of clips of needles works well too. You have many options. Try them all. Just as long as they die. Whew. At last you can activate the cartographer, grab that overshield and your rocket launcher and get ready to blast your way out of here. =============================================================================== Wasnt that an awesome strategy? Wow, it amazes my every time I do it. Anyway just because you finally got the damn Cartographer, doesnt mean this mission is over yet. In fact, the hardest part is yet to come. You now have to get out of this place with the Covenant alerted that you are here. Sounds like fun right? Well get ready to rumble. From the Cartographer, head back the way you came to the room with the catwalk in the middle and head straight across. Head up the ramps and through the next door with you will then come to a room with an active camouflage. Sounds like fun huh? Well, first take care of those pesky Jackals firing at you, or just run in and out, grabbing the Camouflage. Anyway, once you get it, head back into the room with the catwalk. You must definitely make the most of your Active Camouflage by getting the hell out of this place. Hopefully you remember the way you came from, so you dont waste time looking for the exits. Head down the ramp and to the ramp going down the long hall. If you are lucky, you can make it to the room with the active camouflage, except where those Jackals were firing at you. Hopefully you took care of them, if not fire Plasma Pistol shots at them to take them down fast. There are originally six or seven of them, so it might be a challenge, but tough it out and stay conservative and hang back firing those Plasma Pistols. Once they are dead you can move on. Moving on, get out of this damn pit that you get to. Blocking that will be an Elite with some Grunts. If you diddle dawdle you will be gunned down, period, so make sure you take it to them with some Plasma Pistols blasts. Once they are all dead continue on. You will get to another ramp up and several more...Jackals. Man I am starting to hate these guys! You know the drill, Plasma Pistol them and melee or pistol. BTW, if any guys give you a lot of trouble, you should have a rocket launcher, so make use of it well. Once the Jackals are dead you will end up in a room with an exterior hallway around the room along with an interior that is quite large. In this room there are several Jackals (ugh!), some Grunts, and an Elite. Hide in one of the little pockets in the interior to take care of as many guys as possible from that point of view, then use their Plasma Pistols to take out the rest of your foes, including the Elite. Continue on to one of the last rooms before your victory. You will find yourself in the upper deck of a room with a couple Jackals (GEEZ!!) a couple Grunts and of course and Elite. The Jackals will be stationed all around the top floor waiting for you as the Grunts and Elite will be at the bottom. Give the Grunts and Elites some Plasma Pistols before continuing on. The Jackals shouldnt give you too much trouble, and you can almost ignore them. Continue out the top-level door and you will see an Elite guarding the lower level door. Stick him with a Plasma grenade and watch him squeal. You are almost done, hang in there! Now we come to the Gold Elite Commander with a Plasma Sword. You should have gotten a checkpoint before this, so you can try as many times as you need. Basically, go through the halls until you are looking straight at the place you got shafted with the door on your right. In that doorway is the Elite. The best way to kill him is to stick him with a Plasma Grenade. Once you do, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!! He will come running after you, because he is pissed off. I guess I would be too so I cant complain. Anyway, once he dies, continue through the door out to the room with many alcoves. This is the last battle, so hang tough. The last battle consists of about five or six stealth elites. The best way to kill them is to fire a couple bullets in the hallway to get the interested and then back off. They will usually congregate right around the corner, waiting for you to blast there butt away. With any luck you should be able to sidestep out and blast them all away with a well-placed rocket at their feet. If all of them dont die, you can kill the rest easily enough. You can basically use the same strategy and kill them quickly and effectively. You are now home free, as nothing can stand in your way. A Pelican will be there to pick you up and the mission will be completed! Congratulations, but save the celebrations for if you beat this next level, because it is one of the hardest in the game. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.5 - Assault on the Control Room ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: If you ever get disorientated when in a structure, use the white arrows on the ground as reference. They will always point in the right direction. Be careful of the Wraiths in this level. Description: Defend the Control Room against wave after wave of Covenant troops. Recommended Weapons: Plasma Pistol, M6D Pistol/Sniper Rifle ---------------------------- I Would Have Been Your Daddy ---------------------------- >> Reach the transition to the second chasm As you make your way out of the Pelican, the Grunts will start running away and make the Elites come at you. You can easily take a Shade Gun Turret and start mowing them down. After they fall, continue through the door they came from. There may still be stray Grunts in this hallway so be careful. Enter through the door at the end of hallway and you'll enter a circular room. An Elite should be patrolling the entrance. If it hasn't noticed you yet, stay back and give him a smack in the back. Anyway, if the Grunts woke up, start hiding behind a few of the pillars and kill them that way. If they haven't woken up yet, start meleeing them. Anyway, there are quite a few Elites and a lot of Grunts in this room but there is a lot of cover that you can hide under while you attack. Use Plasma Grenades strategically as well. After clearing the room, go to the door opposite of the one you entered. Remember to switch your Assault Rifle for a Plasma Pistol. Anyway, if you can't figure out where this door is, use the arrows on the ground. They will point you there. Follow the hallway until you reach another door. Enter and you'll come outside. Keep in mind that you are under the surface of Halo so snow... is a bit strange. Anyway, immediately start smacking the sleeping Grunts to your right and left and wait for the Pelican to radio in. It seems they're being attacked. Now, look around. You seem to be on some sort of bridge. Drop down the sides and you die. We're going to fight all the way to the other side which can be a problem. The key thing to remember is to not rush. Don't just charge into the enemy. Instead, let them come to you. Advance through the bridge by continuously using Elite tactics. Popping up and jumping back to cover when your shields are low. After clearing the first half of the bridge, you'd probably be seen by a Gold Elite with a Plasmatic Sword. Well, avoid his sword and stick a Plasma Grenade on him if you could. Clear out the rest and kill the Grunts in the two Shade turrets by the end. You'll come to another door. This door leads to an elevator to the area you saw below. We're going down to the ground underground. Continue through the hallway and enter yet another circular room infested with Covenant. This room is similar to the last room you went to. Take a left and head that way around the room killing off any Covenant that attack you. About 1/4 of the way around the room, you'll find a dead Marine with some ammo and a First Aid Kit. Pick them up if you need them and continue in the direction you were heading. Avoid getting too damaged by the onslaught of Covenant. Try to pass them without killing them all. When you reach the tunnel like path heading down. It's easy to catch because it's flashing yellow and the white arrow is pointing in the direction. Continue that way until you reach the elevator. Press X when facing the control panel to make it go down. Avoid getting too close to the edge of the elevator as there are a few tiny air pockets that you can fall through. After going down and exiting the lift, go through the small hallway and you should come to another large room with a lot of Covenant. Luckily, there's a lot of cover you can take. Hide in the little Grunt sized alcoves or on some of the higher platforms to kill the Jackals, Grunts, and Elites. Now, it's easy to get lost and disorientated and because of the size of this room, you might get lost. However, they decided to make it easier for you and add arrows in this room. When you see an arrow, travel in the direction it's pointing to reach the door outside. Head through the small hallway to reach the bottom. Look up to see the bridge you were on before. Ahead and a little bit to the left is a small battle between a few surviving Marines and a few Covenant. Actually, quite a lot of Covenant. The closest enemy should be a Grunt in Shade Gun so throw a grenade on the Shade and then focus on the Ghosts and the various other enemies. Don't go attack the Wraith or any Covenant up ahead as you'd want a vehicle first. If your Marines are alive, use the overturned Warthog. There is also a Sniper Rifle and a Rocket Launcher by that vehicle. Drive forward and take out the Wraith(the thing that shoots the blue mortars) as quickly as possible. If you took the Rocket Launcher, use that. After the Wraith is destroyed, focus on the other Covenant in the area. Be sure to take out that annoying Grunt in the Shade on the cliff to the left. This is a wide open area without too much cover so you'd have to use evasive maneuvers and strafes to escape the Covenant's fire. After killing the Covenant in the vicinity, continue forward through the canyon. Don't forget your Warthog! As soon as you reach the ice pond, you should notice a Scorpion. Get out of your Warthog and immediately get on. Some Marines may also get on but that's good. Start killing off the ghosts that come after you and kill the various other Covenant in the area. Be careful of the Jackals and they're overcharged beams. You should also notice a crashed Pelican to the left of the canyon wall. There is some ammunition and a First Aid Kit. Go through the canyon and take the tunnel on the right. There are various Ghosts and Covenant in here. Try not to use your main cannon because of the tight area. You might end up hurting your marines. Exit the tunnel and you should emmerge in a large battlefield. The Covenants will immediately target you and you might notice 2 Wraiths(one on the cliff at the far side and another directly in front of the small cliff in front of you. First, take out the enemies attacking you(including a really annoying Banshee), then focus on the Wraith and Shade at the top of the cliff. After the enemies are obliverated, take a look at the tunnel below the former Wraith above the cliff. There will be two Hunters in that little thing so you might want to take them out. The Scorpion does wonders as a direct hit will send one flying. Anyway, continue through the tunnel unlocking the first door.(the control panel is on the left wall.) Get back in the Scorpion and enter through the open blast door. Advance through the hallway. When you reach the large room at the end, prepare yourself for a big battle. I would suggest getting out of the tank and killing that way. There are a few Elites patrolling the first area and a Shade gun on the unfinished bridge to the right. There is also another Shade gun on the far left as well. After clearing the initial enemies, take your tank if you wish and cross the left bridge to the other side. Now... before you do anything, let me remind you that there are an abundance of Elites and Jackals plus two Hunters so be careful. The Shade turret is to your left when you get on the other side. At some point, you may want to try getting out of the tank and crouching behind and use it as a cover. After the Covenant are destroyed, open the large door on the opposite side you entered from. Continue down the large passageway with your Scorpion. --------------- Rolling Thunder --------------- After the chapters fade, you'll find a little Covenant emplacement with two Ghosts and a few Elites. Take them out and continue in that general direction. Soon, you'll find yourself heading uphill with a tank. There will be a hell amount of Jackals and Elites around here. Reach the top of the tunnel to get back on flat land and find a Covenant Dropship and a lot of enemy. >> Reach the transition to the third chasm The Dropship will drop off a few Elites and at least 6 Grunts. A Ghost should come at you immediately so look out for that. Anyway, you have two paths. One takes longer but has less combat but the other is shorter with more combat. Let's go right for the shorter path. There is a Grunt with a Shade on top of the small incline. Take him out and continue in that direction. Focus all your firepower on the single Wraith ahead. After it's gone, take out the others that are attacking you. Like before, get out of the tank and use it as cover if you want to. Anyway, after the Covenant here are dead, continue through the path that you were facing before. Behind the former Wraith. Two Hunters should be around here. Kill them and continue. There are a lot of Grunts in this next area plus a spiraling slope down. After taking out the Grunts. Drive the tank carefully down the slope without falling. At the bottom, you'll find some more Marines and a lot of Covenant. As you can see, they're pretty much overwhelmed so help them out. A Dropship should drop a few Covenant around as well. As the Covenant are destroyed, notice the pipelike barrier in front of you. It would appear you can get through them but the tank couldn't. Too bad. Anyway, note the ammunition on the left wall close to the pipes. Behind where the Hunters were formerly standing. An active camoflage and some more ammunition including some rockets. Now, head through the pipe like wall and continue. You should see an Invisible Elite with a Plasmatic Sword and a few other enemies. If you have the Camo, they wouldn't have noticed you. Send a Plasma Grenade their way and stick it on him. Continue in the direction of the Elite and your Marines should should inform you of a Shade Gun on top of a cliff. Well, exit the tunnel and look around and up. A Shade Gun is resting on top of the wall. Use the Rocket Launcher to send it flying. By this time, a Banshee might've sighted you and started a strafing run already. Meet it with a rocket. Continue forward and your Marines will come with you. There is quite a bit of Covenant here so use LOTS of maneuvering and lots of hiding. If you can, steal a Ghost and start wreaking havoc. Now, on the right wall, there is a door guarded by two Shades and a few Elites. You're going to have to get there. Use a rocket to take them out from a distance. Enter the door and continue down the hallway. You should emmerge in another room with a few Covenant around. Immediately turn to your left and smack the Grunt there. Continue in that direction killing off the various enemies that attack you but stay on that path. When you reach the flashing yellow arrow on the ground, head in that direction. Continue through the door. Guess what, you're going on the elevator again. At the top, you should be surprised by a Jackal. Smack him with something pain- ful and continue through the hallway. On the other side of the big block are two Jackals and a dead Marine next to them. Kill them and pick up the ammunition and the First Aid Kit if needed. Continue up the path. This is yet a very similar room to the one you went to before. As you get in, turn right immediately and use the same strategy as before. Kill off the Covenant here but avoid getting lost. There is also a Gold Elite in this room armed with a Plasma Rifle but you can get past without him getting too much on you. When you reach the door with a arrow pointing in it's direction, there will be a small force of Grunts and Jackals blocking the hallway. Throw a good grenade in there and clear them out. Continue down the small hallway and you should come out on another large bridge. You were in the canyon below. Anyway, smack the sleeping Grunts and continue down the bridge. You are on the left of two bridges and enemies are attacking from the other side as well so make your moves quickly. There's no need to kill everyone, just to get to the other door. By the end, there is an invisible Elite. He doesn't have a sword for the least. As you travel down the hallway, you should come to another door. Enter and you'll come to another circular room. As you enter the room, head left and follow the Elite. If you can, smack him in the back. Continue that way getting and killing enemies in your way. When you reach the dead Marine, pick up whatever you need and continue forward. Exit through the door and advance down the hallway. Immediately, you should come to a more wider hallway with a lot of Grunts and Jackals. Use grenades to take them out swiftly. Continue forward and you should come to a circular room. Turn right and look out for Covenant. Exit the door when you see it and you should enter another hallway(this is getting repetitive). Go through and you'll find yourself on another bridge. You were just on the bridge to the right and now you've gotten to this bridge. Keep head through the bridge watching out for enemy fire. Use cover as there are Hunters on the other bridge. Try to get through as fast as possible. Be careful of any Invisible Elite ambushes. Continue through the door and follow the hall- way. Another circular room. Head to right and kill the various Jackals and Grunts. When you reach the small slope flashing yellow again, go through and you should see a Plasma Sword floating in the air. Kill the wielder and continue. You should come to yet another circular room you have to navigate through. Take another right attempting to avoid the Hunters. If they see you, there's nothing more you can do but to kill them. Anyway, follow the arrows to another hallway. Enter and... ---------------------- If I had a Superweapon ---------------------- Now, you can easily steal a Banshee to finish the level early. You have to get to the Banshee in front of you before the Elite does. Use a Sniper Rifle or something to take him down before he does. Then steal it. However, it might not happen if you are too slow or something. After you get the Banshee, immediately fly to the pyramid to the left and land on the floor with the large door. This is really fun and is a lot easier. However, for those of you that don't feel like being lazy and want to take it the long way, follow these: Anyway, kill the initial enemies on the land bridge and watch the Banshees come at you. Bring them down and head to the opposite side of the land bridge. Continue through the door and guess what... another circular room. sigh. Head left and kill the Covenant in your way. When you reach the tunnel leading down, follow the hallway to the elevator. Your at the bottom now. Exit through the hallway and you'll find yourself in another room similar to a few before. Turn right and follow the arrows to the door. Exit through the hallway and you'll be outside. One of the first things you'll notice is the Wraith ahead of you and a little to the left. Head in it's direction. You don't have to destroy it but avoid it's fire. Notice the big arm coming down from the pyramid. It's like an extra growth. It leads to a pit. In this pit is a lot of ammo plus a Ghost? Anyway, find some vehicle to commandeer and avoid enemy fire. Somewhere around at the base of the pyramid is a path leading up around the left part of the pyramid. A Hunter is right there so crush it with your Ghost. Now, continue up the slope and follow the path right through the small tunnel. Kill the enemies on the other side. Now, turn around and head in the opposite direction. Go up the slope to the next level. There's a Shade Gun at the top of the slope. Continue right all the way, past the tunnel and to the slope. Another Shade gun rests at the top so you might as well throw a grenade. Continue upwards and head left. Be careful of the Jackals here. Continue in this direction to the next slope upwards to reach a more flat area with a few Grunts, three Shade Guns, and two Hunters. Take them out as you would normally take them out. Now, we have to get to the next level. You can't climb from the front but the sides are climbable. You should emmerge by a large, locked door. The controls are on the right side. If you have a Rocket Launcher, arm it right now. When the door opens, prepare to be greeted by a large force of Grunts and Elites. Including a Gold Elite with a Sword. Use your Rocket Launcher to clear out the middle and start climbing the structure behind you. The slope is on the left side. The Covenant won't climb after you so this is a great place to hide. Kill the initial force and continue. There are more Elites in the but after that, these guys are extremely easy. Now there will be no more enemies around. W00T!!! Anyway, open the next door with the controls and the next to finish the mission. Don't rest now, as you'll have to get moving again... quickly! ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.6 - 343 Guilty Spark ______________________________________________________________________________ General Information: You'll be meeting a new enemy in this level. They are the Flood. Apparently, they are very different and are still very lethal. Be care- ful around them as they use a completely different approach than the Covenant. Description: Creep through a swamp to meet the only enemies the Covenant fear. Recommended Weapons: Shotgun, Assault Rifle ----------------- Well Enough Alone ----------------- >> Locate Captain Keyes Apparently, you're now in a scary looking swamp... by yourself. It would seem that Cortana stayed back at the control room. Anyway, you're already facing in the correct location. Continue forward and look a bit to your left to find a crashed Pelican. There is a bit of ammunition by it so take some and continue in the direction you were going. Simply continue forward until you're attacked by a few Grunts. Kill them and continue straight taking the left fork. To your left is a crashed Covenant Dropship that was supposedly shot down by something. Anyway, a few Jackals might make their way to your position so take them out if needed. Continue left around the downed Dropship and take out the various Jackals attacking your position. Ahead of you is a strange growth coming out of the ground. After getting closer, you should notice that it's just downed tree. Anyway, jump onto one of it's roots and walk up and along the trees stem. When you get off, you may notice a Shade Gun in the distance on top of the small cliff. Don't worry, it's not manned yet but kill any Grunts that try to make a run for it. Now, the majority of the Covenant that landed here in that Dropship are residing here. Notice the large structure ahead of you before engaging the Covenant. There are many rocks and trees here and you won't have to worry about Elites so this fight should be an easy one. Now, note the structure, go inside and you should hear a strange humming sound. That is the elevator in front of you. Don't get on until the lift gets to your level. Then, press the control panel to head down... At the bottom, you should see a few Covenant on your motion detector but no one can be seen. Fire a few rounds and some Covenant should come pouring out of the side of a wall with two green symbols above it. Kill them and continue through in that direction. Kill any enemy still there and continue through the door. There was a light bridge here but it appears to be broken. Jump down to the lower level and kill everything here. There is an opened door on the right wall of this floor. It should be pretty easy to find because of the size of this room. Continue through and take either path left or right ignoring the red doors and emmerge into the next room. Go left along the wall and kill the three Jackals guarding the door. Enter through and look at the Grunt blood and the dead Jackal on the floor. Well, something happened here obviously. This hallway is similar to the last one. Continue either left or right(I chose left for obvious reasons)ignoring the red doors and exiting through the door at the end. Here's a room similar to the one you entered before. There is a bit of Grunt blood in the middle plus two Shade Guns. Now, ahead and a bit to the right is a door on a low ledge that you can easily jump on. Notice the Needlers and ammo below the door. Jump on the ledge from the side to get on and go through the door. This should be common knowledge by now. Continue either left or right and exit through the door at the end. Ahead of you is a Marine. He appears to be mental as of right now. Apparently, something must've caused him to go this crazy. You can kill him for pistol ammo if you want. If you cared to listen to him, you'd hear that you witnessed some sort of monster or whatever. Anyway, walk through the room to the end. Note the incredible amount of Covenant blood in this room. Towards the end is a platform above some fire. Jump onto it and get up to the second floor. Exit through the door directly above the door you entered from. Go through this corridor like last time and you should come to a familiar looking room. Ahead of you is a Light Bridge Control Panel. Press X to activate the energy bridge and cross to the other side. There is a door before you with two red symbols above it. Enter and turn left and right to find some blood on the ground from a dead Marine and two First Aid Kits. Take one if you need it and continue down the path. Take a left and walk up to the green door. Watch the cutscene if you wish but I assure you, it's both long and disturbing. --------- The Flood --------- Position yourself in the middle of the and arm your Assault Rifle. A faint banging should be heard. Immediately, lots of red dots will appear on your motion detector. Aim in the direction of it and watch the door blast open with strange little creatures popping out. The door behind you has locked so you're going to have to fight the critters. Use short bursts to conserve ammo. There will be more Infection Forms coming out soon. After a few waves, the door that you entered from will break open with both the Infections and the Combat Forms. Luckily, they don't carry any weapons yet but they will melee you. Take them down quickly and exit back out. >> Escape! Judging by the exclamation point, I'd say this is pretty important. Immediately head back to the door you entered from and you should see quite a few red dots on your motion detector. Look below to find the Grunts being obliverated by the infamous Flood. Just try to avoid them and turn right without falling down. Go through the unlocked door and continue through this squarelike hallway. Exit through the door at the end and you'll find multiple Flood on the floor below you. Without making too much noise, turn right and go through the smashed door on the wall. It looks like the battle you saw before has probably ended. No need to stick around. Anyway, turn right and kill the Jackals and Grunts guarding the door with two green symbols above it. Go through that door and make a left to find a dead Marine with a few First Aid Kits on the ground. Pick up the Shotgun, trading it for you Pistol. Do not get rid of your Shotgun until the end of the level or until you run out of ammunition but that probably won't happen. Anyway, continue down the hall in the direction you were going and exit through the door at the end. You appear to be in a operation room. Anyway, head right and exit through the door on the opposite wall. You should emmerge with a wall blocking your way straight. That's good so the Flood in the room don't notice you. Now, working quickly, run to the elevator in the middle. The Flood will no doubt, notice you but you can make a quick getaway without taking too much damage. Or... you can stick around and fight. Immediately press the Control Panel and start descending. As you head down, notice the various Grunt blood on the walls(How come it's always Grunt blood?! Not Jackals or Elite blood). Anyway, there are a lot of Flood at the bottom and they carry both human issued and Covenant issued weapons! Luckily, they're not too smart and will throw themselves into combat without taking cover. They don't seem to have too much brainpower so constantly taking cover and popping them with the Shotgun should be enough. Now, there is an Over Shield above a stack of purple crates, left of that is the exit. Since the purple crates are blocking the right exit. You're going to have to walk around to the left to the door. Entering another familiar room, there is a small skirmish below between a few Marines and the Flood. Let them die off. That is cold but we can't save them. Anyway, the Flood may notice you and start jumping to your position. Yes, they can jump that high. Blast them in the air while they are vulnerable. Pick up one Active Camoflage to your right and jump down. Kill the various Flood on the bottom floor and pick up the Shotguns the Marines dropped. There is another unlocked door on the left wall. Like the last one, it should be simple to find because the room is small. Anyway continue through ignoring the doors on the side. If you still have your Camoflage, the Flood in those rooms won't notice you. Continue through the broken door at the end and enter. There are various Flood on the second level so you're going to need to get up there. Walk towards the other side of the room and get on the rubble above the fire. There is a M6D and a First Aid Kit on this platform. Continue on the second floor killing off any Flood that attack you. Now, there is another door on the second floor that is directly above the one you entered from, go through and continue through. There are various Infection Forms and look below through the clear floor to see more. Head through the door at the end and you'll be at the other side of the flickering bridge. Continue straight to the other door. Head through and exit through the door at the other end to reach the top floor of another room. Jump down and head left. There's no need to kill off every Flood but it would be a good idea. Exit through that door that you were head for. Continue through the squarelike hall- way and exit through the door at the end. Initially, the Flood will start attacking you like crazy. Shoot them down and go through the blasted door on the other side of the room. Straight across from the door you entered from. There are many Combat Forms here in a tight area so you might lose some health. Continue and turn right. Jump onto the human blood splattered platform and pick up whatever you need. See the walkway directly in front of you? Jump onto it from the platform and look for a door on this upper level. Continue through this squarelike hallway and exit. Kill the Combat Form that immediately comes at you and activate the bridge with X. Go across and approach the door directly ahead of. It bears two green symbols, and a purple symbol. Don't get too close as a load of Combat Floods will come out. Stand in one spot and let them come to you. If you want, you can throw a grenade. If you start getting shot by the Flood on the lower level, move to a more covered area. After blasting the Flood, continue through the door and turn either left or right. Head to the middle of the room and ride the elevator up. As you ascend, Foehammer will come in telling you to reach a certain tower outside your current location. Reach it and you'll be picked up. Also, at the top are a few Marines armed with Assault Rifles and Shotguns. Now, once you're outside and back in the swamp, you may notice a few red dots on your motion detector. Anyway, your Marines will lead you in the correct direction so always follow them. Do not allow every one to be killed or you'll have to find the structure yourself. If the Marines aren't walking, there are probably more Flood in the area. Kill them and they'll start walking again. After a bit of running, you'll notice a strange structure rising out of the ground. You'll also walk into some water. Lots of Flood will begin ambushing you and chances are, your Marines were probably eaten by most of the Infection Forms already. You may see some red lasers coming from floating robots. These are called Sentinels. As of now, they will help you but later on, you're going against them. Anyway, after clearing out the majority of Flood, you'll be teleported? ---------------- 343 Guilty Spark ---------------- Meet the Monitor of Installation 04' Before you can have a say in anything, he will immediately teleport you to places unknown.... ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.7 - The Library ______________________________________________________________________________ General Information: The Library is a very repetitive level so don't be afraid if you get lost. It's very linear. And also, this level is all Flood so remember to use Human weapons. There are many areas where you should simply stick back and let the Flood come to you. Be careful of those annoying Flood with Rocket Launchers. Description: Fight your way through an ancient security facility in search of the index. Recommended Weapons: Shotgun, Assault Rifle ----------- The Library ----------- >> Follow the Monitor to the index Now, despite what the Monitor says, advance forward slowly. The first to attack you should be the Infection Forms and a few Carriers. After clearing them out with a few pops from your Assault Rifle, continue forward a bit until a few Combat Forms attack you. I'd suggest the M6D when going against these as you don't have a Shotgun. Pick up any grenades if possible. If you can get your hands on a Shotgun, please pick it up quickly and switch it for your M6D. Notice the blue glow ahead of you. That's the Monitor and remember to follow it when you're not in combat. Anyway, walk up to him after clearing the small group of Flood and he'll say something like,"We are near the index chamber, follow me" You should notice a lot of Flood ahead of you now. Use your M90 or M6D to clear out the Carriers first to kill the Combat Forms around them. Then focus on the ones that survived. Try not too charge into the opposition as they will tear you apart. Instead of doing that, calmly stay by one of the structures coming out of the ground and wait for them to come to you. When they get into your sight, kill them quickly. Now, I know that one of the Flood here has a Shotgun so locate it as it'll make your life a lot easier. Now, notice the Monitor once again. He's hovering above a tunnel that you can advance through. Head through the short tunnel and emmerge in a large room. Don't fall down that pit in the center as that will probably guarantee you dead. Anyway, a few Combat Forms should make their way to your position. Take them down and more and more should come. A good strategy is to back up into the tunnel you took before and use the confined space to group your shots on one Form so they fall quickly. Anyway, notice the blue glow of the Monitor and follow it. He's hovering above a tunnel similar to the one before. Keep in mind that as you reach the end of the corridor, you will be ambushed by a few Flood. Jump back when they do and take care of them. Beyond in the room ahead are a few more Flood. When you walk in, the Flood will come out of two holes in the wall directly in front of you. You can lower the amount of fighting by throwing a grenade into one of them. This battle is fairly tough and you may find that you must occasionally, head back into the small tunnel and hide. After the few waves of annoying Flood, you should pick up a Shotgun if you didn't before. Continue forward a bit and turn right. More Flood will reside up ahead but luckily, you have some cover you could shoot from all around you so this battle should be a bit easy. Many of the Flood will carry Shotguns now so keep that in mind. Continue past the blocks sticking out of the ground like pillars. Kill the Flood on the higher ground ahead of you with an Assault Rifle and turn to your left to find 343 Guilty Spark by a large door: "The security doors have sealed automatically. I will go access the override to open them." Luckily, the Flood won't come now so all you have to do is wait about a minute and follow through when the door opens. The Monitor will head right so follow it. Some Flood will come out of the various "holes" in the wall. Take advantage of that and throw a few grenades to "meet" them. Continue in the direction we were going and more Flood should throw themselves at you. Luckily, for them, they don't know the difference between courage and suicide and you may find that some of them may die when they hit the ground. Anyway, use some of the cover on the right side and kill them. Continue forward until you reach the three glass panels ahead of you. Backtrack quickly and keep the Flood ahead and in front of you to prevent annoying ambushes. This fight is fairly easy but keep an eye on your shield and take cover when it goes down. There are a few Combat Forms and Carriers so shoot the Carriers when they're by the Combat Forms to take them down easily. Ahead of you should be some some giant blue televisions? Anyway, advance towards them and notice the red dots that pop up on your motion detector from all directions. Pedal back and use evasion to confuse the Flood. There are a lot of Flood which means a lot of ammunition so remember to reload after the fight. Be careful, many of the Carriers will try to ambush you by hiding behind the large wall. Be careful. After taking everyone down, take the path left. The path right leads to a dead end with a hole in the wall. Turn left again at the first turn you see and fight the stray Flood here. Emmerging in a very familiar looking hallway, turn right and notice the blue glow ahead of you. Walk up to the Monitor and it should head through the hole in the wall directly in front of you. And guess what comes out of the hole, more FLOOD! Since you really can't take any cover without attracting more Flood ahead, use some strafing runs and grenades. The Flood are slow and ungainly so you should have no problem killing these. Now, it sure doesn't look like you can get up to that hole so you can't follow 343 Guilty Spark but turn right. There's a detour you can take. JOY! Continue this way and pick up the First Aid Kit in front of the first "leg" that comes out of the wall when you entered this hallway. Note the pit ahead of you. Jump into it and pick up the Over Shield here. Head back up the ramp and continue in the correct direction. Go past the pillar like objects and turn to your right at the first big alcove. The Monitor should fly through plus a lot of Flood will appear like many times before. Take cover behind some of the pillars and kill them with a few shots. The Monitor is directly in front of you so follow it like before. By the end of the hallway, you should see some more big, blue tvs. Not only that but notice the three glass panels on the floor. A good strategy is to lure a few Flood on them and shoot the glass so they plummet all the way down to their deserved deaths. More should appear and simply take a bit of cover, and take them out calmly. After taking out this wave of Flood, continue into the blue television hallway and turn right to follow the Monitor. Turn right again and look to your right to find three Carriers ready to ambush you. Run away and let them blow each other up. Continue through the hallway ignoring the path to the left and notice more Flood. Luckily, the Sentinels shall come to your rescue like the last mission and take out the majority. The Flood should start focusing on the Sentinels so stay back and attack any that attack you. After clearing out this large group, continue forward and turn through the small alcove to the left and get on the lift. ------------------- Wait, It Gets Worse ------------------- And it sure does. Anyway, when it reaches the top, exit through the door and follow the monitor. Immediately turn to your right and take out the Carriers that fall down. If you must, retreat back through the small hallway and get out and back on the elevator. Throw a Fragmentation Grenade into the narrow hallway to send them flying. Continue left through the hallway again and continue. As you advance, Sentinels should start coming around and follow you. Ignore the first left and take the second left. Continue this way and notice the pit in the center. In it are two First Aid Kits. Meanwhile, the Monitor has to fix some thingamajig so simply continue without him. The Sentinels will pretty much take care of most of the enemies here. Continue forward and make a right to emmerge at a large door and a new set of objectives. >> Hold your position until the Monitor returns Uh oh, that doesn't sound good and the presence of more Flood make it even worse. The Sentinels are here however so they should make your job much easier. You can either take cover and hide away from the Flood or kill them head on. Obviously, you would lose less health with taking cover without doing too much fighting but your Sentinels will get damaged and destroyed. Find some way to kill them and eventually, the Monitor will open the door. It's okay if you didn't kill ever Flood. You don't need to. Remember the two First Aid Kits in the small pit? If you need a First Aid Kit, use one of those. >> Follow the Monitor to the index Continue and turn to your right. Your Sentinels have already picked a fight with a few Flood. You should probably want to stick back as the Sentinels can easily take care of the Flood over there. If you're willing to fight, this group of Flood is pretty easy to defeat. Continue in a generally straight path and turn as the path curves. There should be another group of Flood ahead. You still have your Sentinels with you so let them fight. If you want to make it go quicker, by all means, head in there and create some damage. Just keep in mind that one of these annoying Combat Forms bears a Rocket Launcher and a direct hit will render you lifeless. However, you can simply use strafes and sidesteps to avoid enemy fire. Pick up the Rocket Launcher if you wish and continue. You may get disorientated by the fight but the blue glow ahead of you should get you on the right path. Emmerging at yet another large door, the Monitor has to go open the door once again and you're left by yourself... like before. >> Hold your position until the Monitor returns Luckily, not too many Flood will engage your location right now except for a little group coming from behind you. There are more Flood on the other side of the door so you should be aware when the Monitor comes back. >> Follow the Monitor to the index On the other side of the door are a few more Flood you need to take care of. Kill them swiftly and follow the Monitor once again to the right. When you notice a few red dots on your motion detector, stand back a bit and prepare for another small fight. If you have a Rocket Launcher, arm it now and take out the Flood rapidly. Try to use up all the rockets in this fight and then switch it for something else quickly. Hide behind the "legs" coming out from the wall when your shields are low. This group of Flood shouldn't be too hard but if you're not aware, you could lose health pretty rapidly. After killing the initial attack, continue forward and notice the pit ahead. The only difference between this one and the others before is tunnel you must take that resides here. Fall down and continue through the narrow tunnel. It's fairly long and a few Flood are patrolling in here. When you reach the end, a few Combat Forms may become aware of your position and jump down. There are more Flood up there so I would just suggest staying in the tunnel and luring them into your hiding spot with a few stray shots. After clearing out a few, get out and take out the rest. Anyway, when you emmerge, turn around and turn right to meet up with the Monitor once again. Follow the Monitor as he turns left and be careful of the Flood that jump off the various rafters in the area. There are quite a few so retreat when neccessary. Continue down the blue television hallway and turn to the left when you see the turn. Turn right this time and continue. Notice the Flood at the end. Use a few grenades to take out a few. I would believe one or two of them are wielding a Rocket Launcher so take caution and use strafes. At the end of the hallway(after clearing out the Flood)is a First Aid Kit by the wall. Pick up the Rocket Launcher if you wish and continue right and follow the Monitor. Ignore the pit in the center as it contains nothing and continue. Flood will start coming from your sides and in front of you when you reach the small pillarlike things. A lot will pop out but considering the amount of cover, this battle should still be, nevertheless, easy. After killing the initial Flood, walk up to the Monitor to trigger more and more. Use patience plus evasion to take them down. Continue forward to a hallway with their televisions shut off. Okay, the blue screens are more fainter here. Continue right and follow the empty hallway. At the end, turn right and the Monitor should appear directly above you. Anyway, follow it again. Take the path left and notice the Combat Forms that appear behind you. Believe me, it's much easier just running past these guys and getting to the elevator. Jump on and let the lift take you up. ------------------------------------- But I Don't Want to Ride the Elevator ------------------------------------- As you reach the top, exit through the door. We are now on the third floor by the way. Anyway, you should meet up with the Monitor once again plus a few Sentinels. Head left and turn left again and continue down the hallway. A few stray Flood Combat Forms should be ahead of you but your Sentinels should already be taking care of them. Anyway, up ahead is another ramp leading into a tunnel similar to the last one. Drop down and continue down the narrow hallway. There may be a few Flood in this tunnel but there shouldn't be too much. If you still have your Rocket Launcher, use that. When you get back out, you should be greeted by your Sentinels. Notice the red dots on your motion detector and let the Sentinels take care of the Flood. It would be a lot easier to let the Sentinels take out the Flood but keep in mind that they are not indestructable and if you find them being destroyed, help them out. Anyway, face the tunnel as if you were going back in and head right past the pillars to the faint blue screens. Head right and you should see the Monitor, like before, float into the tunnel and leave you. Anyway, continue right at the end of the hallway. Another large door is ahead of you. >> Hold your position until the Monitor returns First, kill the two Flood guarding the two sides of the door. They both wield Plasma Rifles. Now, back up against the door and strafe back and forth with your Shotgun. There are many Carrier Forms in this group so blow them up first before taking down the Combat Forms. If you need to, use grenades. Remember to kill any Flood that attempt to charge at you as they pose the biggest threat. Do not allow them to get too close or you will probably get overwhelmed. Pretty soon, the Monitor should return. >> Follow the Monitor to the index Go through the open door and head left down the hallway. Flood should appear ahead of you as the Monitor waits. This group should be easily taken down with a grenade. Shoot any Flood Combat Forms left and melee the Infection Forms. Continue and follow the Monitor to meet another larger wave of Flood. A few of them will even get on top of the blocks to get a good shot at you. Most of these wield Plasma Rifles and Shotguns by the way so be careful when you're shields are down. The Monitor is still ahead of you and waiting so follow it and head left through the opened door. Continue down the hallway right and pick up the First Aid Kit and a few Fragmentation Grenades by the fallen Flood on the left wall if you need them. Continue down this hallway and a few Flood should jump out of the pit ahead of you. This hole doesn't lead to a tunnel so there's no need to jump in. Continue toward the blue television area and head left down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, go left and left again. There are more Flood by the end of this hallway but they should have been killed already. The Monitor is up ahead by a partially opened door. You can still walk through though so do that and continue forward. Make your way towards the Monitor and notice the First Aid Kit in the second alcove separated by the legs coming out of the wall. By the First Aid Kit are a few grenades. Now, make your way to the Monitor and it tells you to wait here as it deactivates the door. As soon as it leaves, head straight into the small alcove on either side of the door. >> Hold your position until the Monitor returns Get all the way to the back of the niche and stay there. Don't fire your weapon and don't throw any grenades. The Flood won't notice you right away and won't attack you until the door is open which shouldn't be long. After about a minute, the Monitor should return and the door should open. >> Follow the Monitor to the index The Sentinels on the other side of the door should take care of the Flood. Still, be careful of any Combat Forms that make their way into your little shelter. Taking care of this group of Flood should be simple with the help of the Sentinels. Anyway, after killing every red dot on the motion detector, continue through the open door and notice all the dead Flood on the floor. The Sentinels had already taken care of these guys so you can thank them and pick up any ammunition. One of the dead Flood carried a Rocket Launcher so you can take that. Continue toward the next large hallway and head left. Up ahead are a lot of Flood by the way so you might want to stick back and kill a few without wasting too much ammunition. If you are going to fight, use a few strafes and such. The Flood have really bad aim and they probably won't hit you. Anyway, whichever way you choose to kill the Flood, they should be dead. Continue down the blue television hallway and make a left and another left. Up ahead is another elevator and a few Carriers that drop from the ceiling. Just run past them and get on the elevator to the final floor... ----------------------------------------------- Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys to Super Weapon ----------------------------------------------- As we all know, we're on the final floor. Exit through the door and the Sentinels should greet you. There's a First Aid Kit plain as day in front of you when you exit. Turn right and let the Sentinels kill the majority of the Flood. This hallway is the hallway we will be going down after killing the Flood. Help out your Sentinels and use strafing runs to take them down. Continue down the hallway and kill the few Flood here. Turn right and then left through this large corridor. Combat Forms will start jumping from above but the Sentinels should easily take them down. Continue and turn left towards the end of the hallway. A pit should lie ahead of you. Jump down and head through the tunnel given. There are a large number of Flood in this room. Exit the tunnel to come to another large hallway. Face the tunnel again and turn right to the large partially opened door. Although it is slightly ajar, you still can't get through. Immediately, a few waves of Flood will attack you. These will come from all directions rapidly. Try to use tremendous evasive maneuvers and lots of cover. These guys carry a lot of Shotguns so be careful when you're shields are down. This fight may seem tough but prepare yourself for a tougher fight later on. Pick up any ammunition you may need and follow 343 Guilty Spark as he opens the door. Continue through. Another pit lies ahead of you with a First Aid Kit if you need it. Continue forward to the blue screen area and turn left. Continue down this long corridor and make another left at the end. Red dots on your motion detector should surround you. Backtrack immediately and attack the Flood in your rear before focusing on your front. The Flood seem to be trying to flank you so just move to the side and they will give up their plan and attack you from the front. This group is pretty large so use grenades sparingly. After knocking these guys down, continue down the hallway and the Monitor should meet up with you again as he flies through the hole in the wall ahead. Turn right and once again, the Flood should attempt to surround you. Luckily, we have a Shotgun. Start blasting away and they should fall quickly. Follow the Monitor up ahead and look to your left. Prepare yourself for a large attack. As the doors open partially, Flood should immediately start pouring out. There are much more inside, believe me. Anyway, throw a grenade to take out the initial attack. As soon as the front lines have been blown, head straight for the door and immediately turn left. Go through this little niche and stay there. The confined space will allow you to take on the Flood one by one to make life easier. Remember to get out occasionally to attract more Flood. After most of them have been killed, exit the hole and continue towards the blue beam up ahead. There are still Flood around so kill them as needed. There are many hiding Flood in the area so search and destroy. After clearing out the majority of them, you may retrieve the index, finally. >> Recover the index Ignore any remaining Flood and run straight for the blue beam. If you're overwhelmed, take a little time to put things back in order with your trusty Shotgun. Anyway, don't fall down but get onto one of the paths leading towards the middle. Walk towards the beam and the cutscene will start with the Library finally finished. Time to get back to the Control room and "activate" the index. Cortana is still there, waiting for you. We must hurry and the Monitor teleports you back. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.8 - Two Betrayals ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: Remember that for the majority of the level, you'll be going backwards so follow the arrows backwards. Of course, a few times you may get confused as you will also visit a few areas you haven't before. Description: Recommended Weapons: Plasma Pistol/Needler, Shotgun Immediately kill the four Sentinels as the Monitor leaves with a Plasma Pistol overcharged shot or a few rounds from your Shotgun. Use the various glass screens as cover when killing the Sentinels. Their lasers can't shoot through it. The Sentinels should fall pretty easily and it's time to leave now. ------------------------------------------- The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe ------------------------------------------- Now, a few things to keep in mind. As stated in the General Tips, this is simply Level 7(Assault on the Control Room) backwards so you will have to be relying on the arrows again. Follow them backwards so you don't get lost. Cortana will soon think up a plan so head towards the large doors and open it with the Control Panel to the right of it. Ahead is a skirmish between a few Sentinels and a lot of Covenant. If you want to, throw a grenade to end the fight more quicker but the smarter thing to do would be to stick back and wait for the Covenant to knock down the Sentinels. Now, advance and kill the remaining Covenant with a well placed grenade if they are grouped together. Continue forward towards the next large door and open it via the control panel to the left. I would suggest picking up a Needler right now for a Gold Elite encounter later on. Anyway, the door should open, but no enemies? There are two plasma shields here. Open the next door with the control panel like before and a few Jackals and Grunts. Use the plasma shields to your advantage. After killing them, Cortana will give you a new set of objectives. >> Locate and destroy Pulse Generator #1 Now, notice the ramp leading up the tower ahead of you, continue upwards until you reach the top level. Up here is a Sniper Rifle, M6D Pistol, Shotgun ammo, Fragmentation Grenades, and a First Aid Kit. Pick up whatever and Cortana should already have told you about her plan on how to destroy the Pulse Generators. Head back down the ramp and continue back down and jump down to the next level or use your Sniper Rifle to kill a few. Now, the Navigation Point leads to the first Pulse Generator but you can not get up there without a Banshee or some air transport. Anyway, try to kill every Covenant on this level without losing too much health. Now, to the right of this level is a ramp leading down to the next level. On this level are a few Elites that need to be killed. If you picked up the Needler before, now would be a great time to use it. Continue on this level killing off any enemies and through the small tunnel. Towards the end are more Covenant who need a bit of lesson. Continue down the ramp to the next level. Go through the tunnel and kill the opposition towards the end. If you must, use the various pieces of metal sticking out of the ground as cover. Head down the next ramp and the Covenant Tank plus a large force of Covenant should be activated towards the bottom. You will need to act fast or die as this battle coming up is quite tough. Instead of just heading down the ledge to your doom, continue towards the small tunnel on this level and pick up the Rocket Launcher and a First Aid Kit if you need it. Now, you can simply head down the slope in front of you to the snow but it appears as if you probably won't live with that decision. There is a lot of opposition down there and one of the Covies is a Gold Elite. You should notice him quite immediately as he will make his presence known. If you decided to take the Needler, now would be a good time to empty the clip on him. After killing the Gold Elite, the battle should be much easier although there still are a lot of other Elites. Take them out the best you can from the pyramid. After killing a lot with various grenades, rockets, etc. make your way down the slope. The Covenant Wraith is still there to your right but you have to make sure every other Covenant is dead. Arm your Rocket Launcher and go for it. As you head towards it, you may notice one Banshees to your left. Use two well placed Rockets to bring it down quickly and smoothly. The music should fade now. That signals it's safe to go. Get into the Banshee and continue toward the Navigation Point. When you reach the platform, the door should open and a few Covenant should come out and attack. Use your Fuel Rod Cannon to kill them quickly. Be careful of the Elites as they prefer to hide and if they can get enough shots on your Banshee, it will tear apart. Now, kill everything and exit the Banshee. Be careful not to place the Banshee so you fall out when you get out(you exit from the rear). Make a "safe" parking and enter the structure in the cliff. Continue down this hallway towards the navigation point and you should reach a circular room with a large, blue beam ahead. Listen to Cortana explain what you should do. Apparently, you will have to walk into the beam to trigger the detonation. However, the aftereffect will drain your shield energy. Uh oh, that doesn't sound very good. As soon as Cortana shuts up, walk straight into it, and stand there for a few seconds. The Pulse Generator will make a large sound and your shields will be gone. As we expected, Sentinels are already flying in. Instead of sticking around to fight, RUN back through the door, past the Sentinels that may get a few good shots on you and back outside to the platform. ---------------------------- Breaking Stuff to Look Tough ---------------------------- >> Go to Canyon B Get into a Banshee. You may notice that a second one has magically appeared. I would suggest taking this new one as it has no damage. After getting back on the Banshee, Cortana will give you another Nav Point. This Nav Point will lead to the land bridge you were on near the end of 'Assault on the Control Room'. We are now heading backwards through 'Assault on the Control Room' so remember to follow the white arrows on the ground BACKWARDS. Anyway, there are a few Covenant on the land bridge. The Grunts here are carrying a Fuel Rod Cannon that can rip apart your Banshees in seconds so be careful of those flying green projectiles. Other than the Grunts, there are a few Elites and Jackals that will try to hit you with their charged shots. Be careful, they are guided. Anyway, use a few Fuel Rod shots and your powerful Plasma Cannons on the Elites to rip them apart quickly. After clearing out the opposition, head towards the door marked by the Nav Point. Continue down the hallway and turn left and continue that way in a clockwise motion to the next door. Kill any Covenant that get in your way and use the same strategy as you did in 'Assault on the Control Room'. Soon, you should reach the small path leading down. It's flashing yellow and the arrow is pointing away from the door so that means you should continue through. There are various Jackals and Grunts in this hallway. You should quickly see the hallway widen to the right. Advance forward and you should reach a force of Covenant towards the end. Kill them and use the pillarlike things on the right side of the room as cover. Eliminate them and continue forward into the next hallway. Go up the slope and you may notice a few Combat Forms up there. Instead of raging in, stick back and let the Elites take care of them. Then, enter. Before you do anything, notice the two First Aid Kits and a bit of Shotgun ammunition to the right. Now, head to the left and make your way to the next door. The majority of the Covenant here are Elites. There is also a Commander Elite towards the center. Luckily, he is only armed with a Plasma Rifle and you can take him down quickly with a Shotgun. Continue left around the outskirt of the room in a clockwise motion until you reach the next door. This door will lead you outside, to a bridge resting quite high above the valley below. When you're ready, head through. Follow the hallway and exit. You should immediately notice it's darker and bleak outside than Level 5. Continue forward and kill the Jackals. The Flood are on the other bridge shooting at the Covenant so stick back without doing anything! There are a lot of them and the Elites this time are overwhelmed. The Combat Forms will jump from the other bridge even to fight. After a minute, things should calm down. The Combat Forms are still in large numbers so blaze away with your Shotgun without getting too careless. There's a lot of cover on this bridge so use it. The Combat Forms are weak after the fight so they should go down pretty easily. After killing every red dot on your motion detector, pick up any grenades, ammunition, anything you need and make your way to the end of the bridge. There is a possibility that a Gold Elite is still residing by the end with a Plasmatic Sword so watch your back. In fact, the Gold Elite may even have attacked you before but you killed him, right? Enter the door and advance down the corridor to the next room. This room is infested with Flood so arm your Shotgun. Take an immediate right turn and continue. There are many Combat Forms here so don't rush but avoid losing your sense of direction. There's no need to kill every Flood in this room. You just need to survive and get to the next door. Anyway, the first to attack you should be a few Infection Forms. Use a melee attack to knock out most of them. Continue in that direction and you should meet a few more Combat Forms blocking your path. By now, the other Combat Forms should be coming and you are probably overwhelmed. Instead of sticking around, backtrack quickly back to the doorway you entered from and hide there while knocking a few out. When you're comfortable and confident, turn right and run for the door at the end blasting any Flood in your way. Enter the door and notice the Elites ahead of you. They will at first, start shooting at you and then dive into a Flood conflict. Stick behind like before and wait for the gunfire to stop which should happen pretty quickly. Before we dive in, remember that one of the Flood towards the end carries a Rocket Launcher. The Elites should have lost this battle so take care of the Flood in this room. Pick up the Rocket Launcher if you wish. Continue down the hallway and enter another circular room infested with the infamous, Flood. Luckily, you can use the Carrier Forms in this room as grenades and take them out quickly. At first, it seems like you killed the Flood here. Turn right and continue forward towards the next door. A large explosion should signify the arrival of more Flood ready to kill. Instead of sticking around to fight, outrun them and get through the door. There is a First Aid Kit by the door and you can pick it up quickly. A lot of Infection Forms will come at you on the other side of the door so stay a second to allow your shields to recharge. Continue down the hallway to the next outdoor bridge above another canyon below. This bridge is quite tougher than the last. Not only will you be forced to fight an onslaught of Flood, but the Banshees above aren't making it easier. The best course of action would be stay by the large wall blocking your sight and letting the Banshees take care of all the Flood. It may take longer than expected so if you want to, start fighting prematurely but I have no guarantee that you will live. If you die this way, wait a bit longer next time and get out at the right moment. The Banshees should still be flying around so take them out with a well placed rocket. Be careful, there are two Combat Forms with Rocket Launchers on this bridge and they have no care if they blow themselves up in the process so use lots of caution. Towards the end, there are more Flood around so whip out your M90. It hasn't failed you yet! There are a lot of Infection Forms around the second half of the bridge so give your shields a chance to recharge. Continue through the next door and through the next corridor to another circular room. Ahead of you are a few Flood Infection Forms taking a well deserved snooze after catching some prey. Smack a few and kill them quickly. Head left and continue until you find the next door. Another explosion should come and you will notice more red dots appearing on the motion detector. Like before, don't fight but run straight for the door. However, if you are being fired upon, there's nothing you can do but to retreat. If you are fast enough however, you can outrun them and save a good bit of ammo. Go through the path leading down a bit and exit through the door at the end. The path leading down is flashing yellow by the way. Continue through this narrow hallway to reach the elevator at the end. Activate it with the control panel and head down to the bottom of the canyon. Exit the lift and continue through the small hallway to the next room of Flood. At first, it appears empty but walking up a bit will cause a few Flood to ambush you from the ceiling. Take them out quickly and head right. A few former human Flood Combat Forms should pop out of various places. Stay on the border of the room following the path counter clockwise. It would be best to go slowly blasting any Flood that get too close. Eventually, you'll reach a door that leads outside and to Canyon B. Okay, before we get to the objective, let's pause the game and get a feel of what's around. Let's see, a large force of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals. Two or more Banshees circling above. And a large Covenant Tank towards the left firing high explosive Plasma Mortar shells at you. So, we are at least going to use a little bit of strategy. Anyway, Cortana will give you your objectives first... >> Destroy Pulse Generator #2 Notice the flipped Ghost in front of you. Take it quickly and immediately mow down any enemies in close proximity which should include a few Elites and Grunts plus a Ghost to your right. After killing the driver of the Ghost, get out and arm your Rocket Launcher. The Banshee will make a few passes. Do not shoot until it dives at you. Then aim and fire a nice rocket to sail to meet the oncoming Banshee. Now, get back into the Ghost if you want and head to the other side. There are 2-3 Shade Gun Turrets plus a Wraith that you should focus on first. The Grunts should already be trying to take you out. Use concentrated fire to knock them out and continue crushing whatever you can. It's okay if you lost a block or two of health but if your Ghost is an inch from destruction, get out and rely on foot combat. The Wraith is right there so either use the Ghost to circle strafe around it firing plasma or use two good rockets to bring it down. It shouldn't be too hard as you have a lot of room to maneuver. After killing off the Wraith, focus on any stray Elites. Use your Ghost to crush them. Now, before actually advancing, notice the large alcove in the middle of this canyon. There is a flipped Ghost here plus two small rooms with Rocket Launcher and ammo, Shotgun ammo, and Pistol ammo on one side and two First Aid Kits on the other side. Take the flipped Ghost in the middle alcove and continue towards the left side of the room jumping off the small cliff thingy. You may recall this room from Level 5. This is the cave where you couldn't bring the Scorpion into because of the pipelike barrier blocking your way. With proper maneuvering, you can get your Ghost through the barrier and into the other side of the canyon with the spiralling slope upwards. The first enemies you should encounter are two lone Jackals that seemed to have gotten lost a bit. They will be no match for your Ghost so mow them down and continue forward where you'll find a flipped Warthog. Around it is a bit of ammunition and one dead Elite and another dead Flood. Hmm, this seems a bit confusing. Anyway, get back in your Ghost and drive up the spiral slope without falling off. On top of the cliff are a few Grunts that require killing. Continue into the next large and familiar, canyon. This canyon should contain a large pillarlike rock formation in the middle separating the paths. Both paths will lead to the same area but the left one shall take you to the Covenant Tank. Take the left and ignore everything and focus on the tank. The best way to defeat it and take the least amount of damage is to circle strafe. The tank should be torn apart pretty quickly. When it explodes, notice the Shade Guns around and the Banshee circling around above. Get out and arm your Rocket Launcher if you still have it and wait for it to dive again. Shoot it to bring it down quickly. There are still many enemies around to kill so don't get cocky just yet. Luckily, there's a lot of room around and you can either use the Ghost or walk on foot. Kill everything on your half of the canyon without walking to the other side. On your side is a door leading into the pillarlike rock. Enter and follow the path to a circular room. There is a dead Flood and a dead Elite with a First Aid Kit in the middle. Notice the slope leading upwards to the ledge. Recon the enemy's position from here without them noticing. The first thing you should see are two Hunters. If you still have a Rocket Launcher, use that from your current ledge. If not, pull out any weapon and engage them by jumping off the ledge and taking them out quickly and efficiently. Now, head left in the opposite direction of the way you entered from. Continue down the canyon and swerve right as it turns and notice the two Elites and the Shade Gun Turret. By the former Covenant, there are two Banshees to fly up. Before flying to the generator, take out the Covenant on top of the pillarlike rock. There are a few Shade Turrets manned by Grunts and a Commander Elite. You may also notice an extra Banshee that you can take when your Banshee gets damaged. Keep in mind that the other Elites may take one of the Banshees and start dogfighting you. Prevent that by killing them before they get to one. Your former Banshee should be quite damaged and you may also notice Fuel Rod shots coming from the platform with the door to the Pulse Generator. Get into a new Banshee if you can and take out the threat on the ledge. The Covenant should soon be dead so you can land on the ledge safely. Be careful not to position yourself so you fall out when you get out. Enter the door and follow the corridor. There are many Flood in this Pulse Generator room including one with a Rocket Launcher. Wait for the Sentinels to die before running in and fighting. Luckily, this circular room has much cover for you to hide under. The Flood have poor aim so strafing runs should do wonders as well. Kill every Flood before walking into the Pulse Generator. When you feel safe, head into the beam and wait for the sound before walking away. Like before, your shields will be completely down and the Flood pouring out aren't helping. Because the Flood have covered your exit, you can't run away this time. Instead of fighting right away, find a little niche or hiding spot to allow your shields some time to recharge before charging out. There are a lot of Flood again this time so use cover and don't rush. One of my favorite strategies is hiding behind something that will offer you cover when crouching and then popping up and blast a few shots and then dive under again. Take caution as one of these Flood also wields a Rocket Launcher. Whichever strategy you choose, the Flood shall soon be dead. Head back to the exit and continue onto the ledge where Cortana will give you some more information. The game gives you an extra Banshee so don't be surprised if you see two Banshees on the ledge. ----------------- The Tunnels Below ----------------- >> Move through tunnels and enter Canyon A As you make your way towards the Nav Point, Cortana will tell you that she has found the Pillar of Autumn. Anyway, there is a tunnel below that leads to the next canyon. As you near it, you may see a skirmish going on between Flood and a lot of Covenant. It would be best to wait for them to finish as the Flood will probably win. When the screaming stops, continue through. Now, there are two Flood in the vicinity with Rocket Launchers so you may find that getting out of your vulnerable Banshee may be a good idea. Avoid getting the Shade Guns as the rockets are quite accurate. There's no need for your Banshee anymore so continue through. As you walk, you may find a flipped Ghost to your left. Take it for faster transportation. This passageway is slightly long and at the end of the hallway is a large blast door. Get out and open the door via control panel and a large explosion stops the door from opening completely. The opening is large enough for a single person to fit through so you can't bring any vehicles. Aw man. Flood will start attacking you through the small opening so move back and take them down quickly. Continue through and you may recall this room from 'Assault on the Control Room.' Take the right bridge as the left one is broken. At first, there appears to be no enemies around but as you make your way across the bridge, a large group of Infection forms will start attacking followed by a few more Flood. Blast them down with a Shotgun and Flood will start appearing on the other side. These will carry more lethal weapons like the Rocket Launcher so be quick with your attacks and take cover a lot. The blocks sticking out of the ground will protect you well enough. After mowing the Flood down, you can now proceed to the large blast door. Open the door via the control panel and pick up either First Aid Kit towards the right side of the room near a block sticking out of the ground. When you are ready, proceed to the door and open it. Prepare to walk. Continue along the hallway and open the next large blast door we saw before. Open it and ahead of you, you'll see the ground transition to snow. Yes, we are back outside. Continue along this path to the last Pulse Generator. --------- Final Run --------- >> Destroy Pulse Generator #3 We are now in canyon A and we need to destroy the last Pulse Generator. The Pulse Generator is quite close but extremely high up and we lost our Banshee before remember? Walk up the slope and look ahead and a bit to your right. A battle is raging ahead with a large group of Flood and Covenant plus one or two Banshees circling above. Let them fight as the Flood will probably overrun the Covenant quite quickly. The Banshee/s may start firing at you but you can counter with a well placed rocket directly in the center of it to destroy it quickly. When the battle ahead starts receding, move ahead and get into one of the Shade guns and just mow down the Flood. Do this quickly to avoid the one with the Rocket Launcher. Continue along the right wall watching out for Flood ambushes until you reach the group of Shade Guns and Ghosts. Luckily, they are empty. Take a Ghost and continue along the right wall(the cave is blocked with rocks)and you should soon reach another battle. Since we just ran into it, there's no need to run away. Continue along squishing and firing and the Flood and Covenant should be destroyed quite quickly. Ignore the blocked cave and continue forward where more Flood reside. Be careful of the two Rocket Flood here as they can do quite some damage. After clearing them out, continue forward to a small ledge that seems to stop you in your tracks. At first, it seems you can't get the Ghost up but examine the left wall. There's a small slope where you can launch yourself up and over the ledge. Ahead is a starting battle but there are also the Banshee you will need. Now, hasten and stick close to the right wall so the Flood and Covenant don't notice you. Ignore any opposition along the way unless you are inches from death, then you will need to hide. Continue along the right wall using the rocks to cover your moves. The Flood are closer but they lack intelligence and senses and probably won't notice you. There are two Covenant Wraiths up ahead but we can clear them quickly. When you get close enough, get out of the Ghost and run as fast as possible towards the Banshees. The Wraiths will notice your position and start firing but you will be able to make it and fly off and out of danger. Now that you are airborne, I would strongly suggest forgetting about the battle below and immediately head towards the Nav Point leading back and to the final Pulse Generator. Fly back and towards the ledge leading to the last generator. Beware as 5-7 Sentinels will fly out of the door before you can land. Try to stay out of their weaponry or just fire from far back. They will fall pretty quickly but keep in mind that they can kill you pretty quickly as well. If you want to have some fun, fly the Banshee into the Sentinels and they will fall. After the Sentinels are reduced to scrap metal, land the Banshee and walk through the hallway. The last Generator resides in this room but it's still covered by a few Sentinels. Well, I would say that after all that, this battle should be fairly easy. The Pulse Generator is waiting for you. Destroy it and we're done. Now, it's time to find Captain Keyes and destroy the Pillar of Autumn which in turn, will destroy Halo. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.9 - Keyes ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: This mission takes place in the same ship as the 'Truth and Reconciliation.' There will be a lot of opposition in this level and some may consider Keyes the hardest level. You'll be meeting some Black Grunts and Elites plus a lot of dangerous Flood so beware. Because of the number of Elites in this level, the Needler may be a good weapon to carry. Description: Stage a one-cyborg assault on a Covenant ship and bring back the Captain. Recommended Weapons: Shotgun, Needler -------------------- Under New Management -------------------- >> Find a way into the control room. Head forward a little distance and a strained Keyes will radio in. Cortana urges you to continue. Soon, you will reach a fork in the road and a Grunt will give a whimper. Following it is a Combat Flood Form so kill it and then the Grunt. Head right ignoring the door to the left and head that way until you reach a fork leading left. There are a few Grunts in here but the Flood will come pretty soon. If you wish, stay back and let the Flood kill the Grunts but I would probably go against that as you can kill the few Grunts anyway. Mow through the Flood and the various little Grunts and advance down the hall. Continue and you should pretty soon reach a door leading to a large pit. There's nothing you can do but jump down. If you stay however, a lot of Flood will come so you'd probably want to take the jump down to a large fight between the Covenant and a lot of Flood below. >> Find another way into the ship. Well, we're pretty screwed right now. It's best to hide somewhere and let the Flood and Covenant finish their feud but if you wish, head out and mow through them. Be sure to use your flashlight and when you need to recharge, turn it off and head into a little alcove or something. Remember to clear the canyon before you continue. Along the left side of the canyon is a path leading to another canyon. Search around for it and continue through the natural like passageway. Since there's no enemies, you should recharge your flashlight here. Soon, the path will widen up and plasma fire will appear in front of you in yet another skirmish. Wait back and stay until the fire slackens a bit. There are a lot of enemies here. Before you continue, be sure to take out the Combat Form on the ledge before continuing as they prove the most threat. Head to the left of the rock that is in your path and stick to the wall that should provide you some cover. Kill as many of the enemies as you can and advance through the bodies and such (remember to pick up ammunition) until you reach another path through the canyon. Kill off any other enemies and go through this path as well. Charge up your flashlight and keep going. There are going to be a few Flood along the way. Halfway through, a Carrier Form will drop from above and try to take you in it's mucky explosion. Advance until you reach a cliff and a dropoff point. Cortana gives you a nav point to follow. On your ledge is a Sniper Rifle that you may use to kill the Hunters below if you wish. Stay on the ledge until the fighting settles a bit. Pick up the First Aid Kit if you want to. There will be infinite Carrier Forms coming out of the water so don't worry about them. The Covenant should fall quickly but the Flood are in larger numbers and you may have some trouble. Take some time to pick up some extra ammunition if you wish and continue all the way to the other end of the canyon mowing down the enemies until you are capable of exiting fairly quickly. There's a First Aid Kit in the area that you should pick up. Continue through this similar path through the canyon. At the end of this path is yet another canyon we have to clear. The first enemies you should come across are a few Grunts and an Elite in a Shade Gun. Throw a plasma grenade quickly on the Shade to clear everyone. Head forward and a bit to the left killing off the Flood Forms. Take your time and stick to the right wall which will lead you up a hill to a cliff. Jump down the small cliff which takes you to a path. Advance through it to reach a small canyon with some Flood on a ledge and a few Elites around. It shouldn't be too hard killing off these ones either considering what we went through before. Just watch your health and use the First Aid Kit by the front wisely. Continue around the rock that blocks your path to a really short path that brings you to the gravity lift Cortana has been talking about all the time. >> Hold your position under the lift until it re-activates. You really don't need to wait or anything. Despite what it appears to be, it really isn't too hard to get through them. Head around the plateau blasting through the clumsy Flood and pick up the Over Shield towards the other end of the greenish water and head up the plateau to the grav lift. Kill the enemies on top by throwing a well placed grenades to get inside the ship... again! -------------------- Upstairs, Downstairs -------------------- >> Follow Cortana's directions back to the control room Once you get inside the ship, you will find yourself in the middle of a huge room. There will be some small Flood off to the left, but they aren't that big of a deal. You can take care of them or let them hit you. Anyway, to leave, you must go through the door to the right. Head down the hall, and you will hear Cortana talk and she will give you a nav point and eventually some Flood forms will fall down right in front of you. Beware however, they will appear behind you as well. Take care of the carrier flood first so that they can kill any others around them, and then take care of the fighter flood. There will be many carrier flood coming up behind you, so it isn't necessary to kill all of them, and you can just keep on moving. Eventually you will get to a place where you can see the floors below, and it will be completely spattered with Covenant Blood. On this level, there will be a couple flood, but more importantly an overshield with some health. Grab them for sure, and since the Flood are there, you can stock up on the shotgun ammo that they will drop. I would recommend also that you try to thin out some of the Flood on the lower level, as it will be much easier to fight them from up here then from their level. Use whatever weapons you have, and the shotgun will be a big part as well as grenades. Once you get most of the dead, you can jump down and continue through the next door. Head through the halls and you will get to a point where many, many Flood will drop out of the ceiling. It would be in your best interest to stay around the previous corner and wait for them to come to you so that you can deal with them in more manageable numbers. Wave after wave of them will appear, but eventually you will be able to cut through their ranks and win. You can move on even though the hall even when the infection flood are appearing because they will spear for a lot longer time than the rest, so just continue on. Continue through the halls, killing any extra Flood, and you will get to the bottom level. Look around the level before entering to blast away any Flood in here already, and then when you feel comfortable, enter and a big group of Flood will enter through the big door by the overshield. Start shooting and throwing grenades to thin out their ranks until they get too close. Switch to your shotgun and finish off the rest of them. This shouldn't be too hard, and you should be able to defeat them pretty easily. Then this area is yours, and the exit is directly across from where you entered. Exit through the door and wait right before the corner with your shotgun armed. There is a group of flood right around the next corner, so quickly go out and throw a grenade in the midst of them, then get ready to shotgun the survivors. Once you destroy this group of flood, keep heading down the hall until you get to a dead end, or so it seems. The hole in the ground is your next destination, but before you go down, use up any weapons around you to kill anything below you, because you will not be able to come back. Make sure you kill off the carrier flood so that they don't explode when you land next to them. Once the coast is seemingly clear, go down the hole and kill the rest of the Flood that you missed. Once you drop down and continue, you will see another battle between the Flood and Covenant break out, and you will have to wait again. A huge rule of thumb here is to never break up their fighting to fight you. Let them battle it out, but if you see one side winning by a large margin, you can drop some grenades in there to even things out. Once you hear the battle has stopped, quickly go and destroy the rest of the survivors, so that they can't recover from their previous battle. There might be some carrier and infection flood that find you also, so be aware of them and take care of them. Continue down the hall and you will get to a small, pathetic group of Covenant with maybe 5 grunts and a couple Elites. Peer around the corner and throw a couple grenades onto the Elites' backs and kill off the rest of the Grunts. Also, don't worry if there are extra Covenant around, it will be to your advantage that they are. Keep going and when you turn left, you will trigger a huge group of flood to come out behind you. If you turn around they will be up the hall and to the right. Now there are two ways to go about this. If you think there are any Covenant that they will swarm towards, get the hell out of there, as they will be busy enough with the Covenant to ignore you. If there are no Covenant, you can also run, but it won't be as effective and you will probably end up getting killed. If you experience the scenario where there are no Covenant, read on to the next paragraph, otherwise, if you can get away from them, skip the next paragraph. Alright, here is a battle that might test your skills. The Flood here are almost endless, and don't be surprised when you just killed ten Flood, that ten more appear out of nowhere. The best way is to stay behind a corner or find a small alcove where they can get at you only in smaller numbers. An alcove or indentation is the best thing to find, because really only one Flood can get to you at a time. It might take a lot longer, but it will be much safer. Fight through wave after wave after wave of the Flood, and slowly but surely move towards your destination. Anyway, once you pass the left turn triggering the Flood behind you, continue on and take a right and Flood will pop out of the ceiling in front of you. Drop some grenades in preparation of them coming at you, and then shotgun the rest of them. Keep heading down the hall and if you didn't kill all of the Flood in the first wave, then turn around and start shooting the Flood coming after you. Continue on until you get to the shuttle bay, which is your ticket to freedom from the Flood behind you. They will stop reappearing once you get to the shuttle bay. When you enter the shuttle bay, you will see a health pack right to your left side, so get it if you need it. Once you do that, take cover behind the blue shield and take a look around. Right in the middle of the place is that central platform with many elites on it, as well as the stationary guns. This is the best chance you have to kill them, so I would definitely take advantage of it by killing as many of the elites as you can and definitely kill all of the Grunts so that the Shade gun isn't operational. To even further help you out, a group of Flood will come and attack the Covenant, so help the Flood or the Covenant out by throwing grenades everywhere. The elites should be taking a big blow with the Flood and your grenades, so they aren't going to sit around. Be aware on your left the door to the bottom level might open with a Covenant or Flood trying to attack you, so take care of that. Now, I would go and kill off the rest of the Covenant or Flood in the middle, whoever wins, once you feel comfortable. Keep throwing your grenades and taking cover behind the pillars/shields until you kill them all. There are many of them, so it won't be easy to kill them all. Once you do, head back towards where you came from, then head to the door on the far left of the shuttle bay to continue on in the second level. While heading down the halls, another battle between the Covies and the Flood will break out, so stand back and let it rage on. You know the drill; help out whoever is losing so the battle is closer, but all together stay out of the battle. Continue on, and you will find some Grunts being attacked by some Flood. Let the Flood kill them, then take care of the Flood. Go around the next corner and continue through the halls. There isn't anything really special here, there will be some combat flood that will appear, but other than that it is pretty much straightforward. But after the first left turn, move ahead, take a right, and look around to the left. Holy Flood! There will be lots of Flood there, and you need to get rid of them...somehow. Take a shotgun and blast them or put a grenade in the middle of them to attract their attention. Then head back around the corner, and draw them out one by one. They will be stupid enough to come out one by one, so just keep on shotgun blasting them to pieces. Once they are all dead, continue on until you reach the highest floor of the shuttle bay. Once you get to the highest floor of the shuttle bay, you will see a dropship moving in, and it will drop of some Covies on the bottom floor. Well that's not going to do any good. You can ignore them completely, and now we get to battle some more Flood. The Covies, as you can see, were a little late so you don't have any help here. Peek around the cornerto the right to see some Flood by the doorway. You can snipe some with your pistol and throw some grenades. Once they see you, go back around the corner and wait for them to come out one by one just like before. Once this wave is stopped, look back around the corner to see more Flood. Get their attention again, and repeat the same process. After the second wave, go towards the door, and a third wave of Flood will come out of the hallway. To take cover, go to the right/left of the door, or back off and kill them that way. Once they are dead, move on. ----------- The Captain ----------- Continue through the door and through the halls. Continue around to the right and you will see a big battle between the Covenant and the Flood. The left path is blocked by a fire, but it does contain a health pack, if you need it. Continue on and once the battle slows down a little, get in there and clean the rest of it up. >> Recover Captain Keyes When you get to a four-way fork, you can either go straight, right or left. Going right is a total dead end, straight will lead you into some Covenant and a dead end, and going left will lead to the control room and lots of Flood. Basically you can just go left, or if you want you can lure the two together and have them do some work for you before you have to. Then after you do that, continue on to the control room. Here, there is going to be lots and lots and lots and lots of Flood. It's going to be a long battle to even get into the control room, so be ready for a fight. Use the same tried and true methods of battling Flood, especially the way the works for you. Grenade and get attention, step back and one by one shotgun them down. This might take a while, and if you get overwhelmed, you can retreat while firing. You can go as far back as you like, just eventually kill them all. Once you do, head into the control room, and up the ramp to the right to trigger the cut-scene. Once you are done looking at the gruesome Keyes, head down the ramp. On the way are many, many Flood that you might have to battle. They will come out the doors that you didn't come in. The door you came in from is loaded with Covenant. However, if you trigger it right, you can make the Flood and Covenant battle each other. Wait a few seconds after the cut-scene, then go stand by the door that you came from. The Covenant will then come out and hopefully the Flood will as well. They can just completely forget about you, so go in the back and hide while they duke it out. The Flood will most certainly win, because they have such big numbers, so you will have to take out the Flood surviviors, but it is much better than fighting the Flood then having to fight the Covies. Once all of the bad guys are dead, the door will open and you will have one last thing to do before you are home free. >> Escape via the shuttle bay Head out of the control room, and go back the way you came. Along the way, all the Flood that you killed are now being replaced by Covenant, so you get to kill them all over again. There will be a couple groups patrolling around with usually an elite and a couple of Grunts. Kill them if they get in your way and continue on to the shuttle bay. Now you have two options. You can either go back through all the halls and kill Covenant after Covenant after Covenant. Or you can take the easier way, and just drop down to the bottom of the shuttle bay. Drop down one level at a time, and make sure to recharge your shield, as it will definitely help in taking the damage. Once you reach the bottom, or before you reach the bottom, two Banshees will land. Elites will come out, but if you are quick enough, you can be right there to bash their skulls when they get out of the Banshee. Quickly take the Banshee before you attract any more trouble, and zoom out of the shuttle bay into the space. Congratulations, only one more level left! ______________________________________________________________________________ 5.10 - The Maw ______________________________________________________________________________ General Tips: In this level you revisit the first level and you come back to the Pillar of Autumn. Of course this time around is much, much harder, with many Black grunts, Gold and Invisible elites, many Flood, and of course, Sentinels. You will visit much, much more of the Pillar of Autumn than you even want to, but you will survive and finish this level. There are also many puzzles to solve along with an exciting race to the finish, and it is a pretty well done finishing level. Description: Destroy Halo before Halo destroys all life in the galaxy. Recommended Weapons: Shotgun, Plasma Rifle/Pistol ------------------------------- ...And the Horse You Rode In On ------------------------------- >> Make your way to the bridge When you enter you will be in an escape pod bay, so behind you is a never- ending drop. Head forward and left and go right around the corner. Follow the path around to get to the maintenance tunnels. Enter the maintenance tunnels and turn left right away, so you don't have to search through all the other passageways, until you get to a hole in the ground with a ladder. Right away, infection flood will come out, so take care of them. Also, look down the ladder once they stop coming to take out as many Carrier flood as possible so you aren't blown up when you go down the ladder. When all is relatively clear, drop down the ladder. The carrier flood, if any will explode and hurt you for not killing them, but if you killed off as many as you could you might not even get hit. Once you drop down, take out your plasma rifle and look ahead to see four sentinels. The plasma rifle is practically the best, and is the most efficient gun in taking the Sentinels out, so keep one of these guns with you. If you find yourself out, you can also use plasma pistols. Anyway, take out those Sentinels using the tremendous cover that you already have. Move on and you fill find your first fighter flood of the level. There are maybe 5 or 6 of them, so I would use up what's left of your assault rifle on them because you won't need it ever again. Why? One of the fighter floods has a shotgun, so you definitely want to pick that up. Move ahead and you will find yourself seemingly in a dead end. However, look at the door that is there and you will see it bursting open with lots more Flood. This is the first real battle of the level, and if you do things carefully and actually aggressively, you will get in and out without a scratch. This first battle is like another Flood battle you have later on in the level. They will come in waves and waves, but actually the waves come out of thin air. After you pass a certain spot the waves will stop coming and you will be set. It isn't quite like that in the later battle, but it is very similar. So for this battle, kill off the first wave. As soon as the door opens lay a nice frag grenade in the doorway or even a little further back because the infection flood will be leading the waves. Also, if you can, right away shotgun and carrier flood you see to act as another grenade. Once you do all that it should be just as easy as cleaning up the remains and scavenging or ammo. Now once the first wave is gone, right away head up the passage that they came in. Keep going through until you get a checkpoint, and then you know for sure there will be no more flood waves. Oh and by the way, you will need a pistol sometime very soon, so go and get one if you don't have one already. Continue through the halls until you get to a doorway that is right next to a fire. Now here there are two options. You can either stay back and fight and have a nice little game with some elites, or you can just run totally through and fight the elites in a much more manageable situation. The best thing to do is to follow this exactly, so as soon as you see the door, take out your pistol and peer out the left side of the door. A hunter will come charging through trying to kill flood. Since you have a pistol, one shot in his orange meat will kill him, so do it quickly and it doesn't have to be perfect. Turn right from there and a hunter will come through a door and attract his attention, otherwise he will escape. Once they are killed, get the health pack that is straight across from the door you came in, then head in the doors of the mess hall, and they are across from the door you came in on the left and right. If you did this fast enough, the Covenant that would be occupying this room will not have gotten there or are just arriving. The troubles start when you don't get there in time. When you do that, a pistol and needler will come in handy to snipe the Grunts and needle down the Elites. If you came in there at the right time, you can just leave and you won't have to worry about them. If you get there in time, I would recommend doing this because the only thing that killing those Covenant will do is deplete your ammo. If you feel the adrenaline rush to exterminate every single life on the ship then go for it, but for this guide's sakes we will just move on. After the mess hall, keep heading through the hallways and through the doors that have an arrow on the ground next to them saying Bridge. Once you get close you will get to a hall where you must turn right to get to the general Bridge area, but straight ahead will be an Elite that blends in very nicely to the background. This guy, if you do not see him will rip you apart, so be aware of him, and know that he won't attack unless you get pretty darn close to him because he thinks you can't see him. Grenade or needle him and move on. In the area of the bridge, there are a couple of Grunts along with some fuel- rod ones as well. Use the cover and the element of surprise to kill them all, then move to the front of the bridge where you will find a glass thing, which will trigger the cutscene. Make sure that you have a Covenant weapon before you trigger the cutscene as well. After the cutscene, four Sentinels will appear outside. Use the Covenant weapon you picked up to dispose of them quickly and use the glass thing as cover from their lasers. Once you kill them, you will get a new objective and you will finally be heading out. >> Get to engineering by way of the cryo storage facility Head out back the way you came, and when you get to the mess hall, you will see that it is closed off, and some Flood will welcome you to the next stage of the level. Blast them with your shotgun and use some grenades to help you out and kill them all. Head towards the far door, and inside will be some Hunters and an Elite. You can try to avoid them and run by them, or if you want to have some fun you can kill them off. There is a loading point shortly after them so once it loads the Hunters will have forgotten that they have seen you. Anyway, head into the next hallway and some Sentinels will be there to greet you, so hopefully you still have some Plasma weapons to take care of them. Once you kill one of the groups of Sentinels another group will attack you as well. Once you take care of the Sentinels, move on and you will get to the door of the cryochamber. I would suggest not going in yet, as a pretty big battle is ensuing between the Flood and some Sentinels. As you can probably guess the Sentinels will die rather quickly, so I would almost suggest going in while there are still some Sentinels left and helping them out by shotgun shooting some of the Flood. Anyway, once you clear out the bottom level of the cryochamber, use the ladder to get to the upper level. As you continue forward to the control center of the cryochamber, you will come upon some Sentinels. Use the glass windows as cover, and make sure you don't get hit by their explosions when they die. Also, below you another wave of Flood will come in, but I would suggest just ignoring them. After finishing off the Sentinels, head left past the controls and you will trigger a huge battle between you and many, many Flood. I personally fight this battle differently based on the difficulty setting. To the right of where you went is a dead end and a hiding spot for you to recover from the Flood. I found this especially useful in legendary difficulty and, although it was tedious, I barely got hurt. However, I think in Normal difficulty you don't need to use this strategy and you can take the shorter, but more dangerous route. If you go into the hallway where they appear and rip them completely apart, right away continue down the hallway and once you get past a certain point any remaining Flood waves will cease and you will have received a much smaller scratch. Once you finish the huge Flood battle, continue down the halls, picking up the overshield that is located in a dead end, and head into the maintenance tunnels. From the maintenance tunnels there are several exits. I personally don't care which exit you take, but before you exit any of the exits make sure you look around so you aren't ambushed by some Flood. The only enemy you will find are Flood, no Covenant are here as they should all be dead. If the battle is still raging, don't go out there yet, let them finish their business before you intervene. Exit out into the hallways and try to use the element of surprise as much as you can to wipe out the remaining Flood. Once they are dead, and look around the hallways until you find a door with a big red arrow on the ground by it saying Armory. Go there and you will find yourself in heaven. Stock up on your ammo, and I would suggest taking a fully loaded shotgun along with a fully loaded rocket launcher. Don't stay here too long however, if you get in and out fast enough you can avoid the invisible flood that are here. If not, you can take care of them just as well. Head out back into the hall and this time follow the door that leads to the engineering. Once you get to a three-way fork, you will get a cutscene. -------------------- Light Fuse, Run Away -------------------- After the cutscene, you will arrive at a three-way fork, and you can go either right or left. At this point either one is fine, but I usually go to the right. Now, before we continue with this massive and annoying section of the game, there are some things I need to tell you. The objective of this section of the level is to set up a bomb using the engine. To do that, you must open up four exhaust manifolds and shoot some explosives inside of them. On each side of the room there are two "staircases" in a sense to get to the top floor where the switches are to open them up. Before you start your ascent, on each side of the room are several health packs, as the programmers knew that this part of the level could get annoying. That should be all the miscellaneous information that you need to know. Once you enter the main control room, and Flood start coming out behind you with Cortana buzzing away with what I just told you, start heading towards the third floor. You must do this next sequence four times, so just continue doing it until you get a new objective, which I will continue from there. ============================================================================= >> Use the controls on the third floor to retract an exhaust manifold I am going to assume you went right, so I can give you a more detailed walkthrough. From the door into the engine room if you took a right, take another right and head up the ramp. Head across the ramp away from where you came and enter the door. You should have seen the health packs along the way, pick one up if you need it for some odd reason. Also, before you enter the door some Flood could be behind you, so watch out for that. Once you enter the door, head straight up the ramp and right around until you get to where you will see many Flood. This is stage one of the Flood fest. Basically shotgun blast all of the Fighter flood that are in your way, and otherwise you can just barge through and ignore the rest of them. After you go through the next door out onto the second level, go left and head to the door right there and enter. Ascend again until you get to another door, when you open it, it will be filled with Flood, so go crazy. This one has some more Flood than the last one, but it is still manageable. Remember you can always back away as far as you like to, but if you didn't kill all from the first one you might sandwich yourself. Once you get past the second stage of the Flood fest, you will finally get to the third floor. Press any of the switches, being aware of any Flood that could run at you and hit you, and jump down to the corresponding manifold that is moving. It should be right below the switch that you press. >> Destroy the open vent core with a grenade or rocket Take out your rocket launcher, and turn around so you are facing where you just jumped. You should see a grating that is opening and closing and when it is open some yellowish reddish color is behind it. You must get your rocket inside of the engine, so fire it when it is open and fire it through the open holes. You will know if it registered when the actual thing blows up and you will hear some beeping as well. To make it even more complicated, once you press the switch, some Sentinels will come and join you. I would suggest not even bothering with them, as you can avoid them quickly enough if you shoot the rocket and get down fast enough. Rinse and repeat. ============================================================================= Once you complete this four times, you will finally be able to leave. Go all the way back up to the top level again, all the while Cortana will explain to you what to do (don't listen) and give you a new objective. >> Get to the elevator on the third floor Starting from if you went the right side, or the way that I gave the walkthrough for, go all the way to the last door before the third floor. Go through the door, and look straight across, and you will see a door at the other side of the third floor. Head straight, and look left to make sure no more Flood will sneak up on you, and head through the door. Head throughout the halls, they are pretty straight forward, and once you get to an elevator that isn't quite open yet, take out your rocket launcher. It will eventually open up with a couple of elites and fuel rod grunts. Shoot a rocket, followed by a well-placed grenade will do the trick. Board the elevator and get ready for the last section of the game. Eventually you will reach the top, and you should start moving right away. --------------------------------------------- Warning: Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Convicts --------------------------------------------- >> Escape from the Pillar of Autumn before it's too late At the top of the elevator start moving quickly, and Cortana will casually explain to you that the bomb you set will explode in 6 minutes, and it completely destroy the planet, so I don't think you will survive. If you are quick enough you can take one of the six Warthogs in the first room, otherwise, grab the one overturned in some fire. Start driving right away, completely ignore and enemy that is in the way. You must go in 6 minutes about 2.1 or 2.2 km, as your navigation point will tell you. Your last objective is to get the hell out of this planet, so you need to find a ride. So get going. From the overturned Warthog, go up the slope and stay straight as you enter the first courtyard. Head into the tunnel and again ignore all enemies. Head slightly to the right side of the tunnel, otherwise you will run right into a pillar. Continue forward the rest of the way into the first hallway. Head straight down it but eventually head to the right side of the hallway. In the next courtyard, going down the middle is a very bad idea, as more often than not you will end up slowing down or even flipping over, so avoid that. Enter either the tunnel to the right or to the left of the center jump. Head to the far edge of the courtyard upon exiting the very short tunnel For instance if you took the right tunnel, head to the right side of the tunnel so you have a head start. If you get stuck or something, Sentinels will be right there to remind you of it. Head around the middle wall and go into the next hallway. The next hallway is a very key part to whether or not you will make it on time. In this hallway every 50 feet or so there is a pillar right in the middle, and you can go either left or right of the pillar. Usually, one side is completely flat like the rest of the hallway, but the other side as a little bump in it that can send you flying, or can give you that risk. If you can, just weave in and out of the pillars on the side that doesn't have the bump. Also, in this hallway, there is a shortcut, a little hole in the wall that will cut through part of the hallway. I personally think it is way too much trouble and it is more difficult to get into the shortcut than it is actually worth. One last thing, any enemies you see, just keep on truckin'. You will then get to the third courtyard, and this one can be either very easy or kind of tough. Right from the beginning, you can get on either of the raised runways and most importantly stay on than that is the best way. If not, head to one of the tunnels and then come out the other side and head straight to the next hallway. This hallway is just nice and straight, so just get straightened out if you are spinning out for the next courtyard. The fourth courtyard is the hardest of the bunch, as you will have to do some very tight slalom work between pillars. Head down the middle and do your slalom thing, and take your time because you don't want to flip over. Once you are through run over the shade gun sitting there and continue to the next halls. If you have been listening to Cortana at all you would know that you Foehammer is the one you are looking for and the Navigation Point is the place where Foehammer would pick you up. You will eventually get to the bridge where Foehammer is supposed to pick you up, but sadly enough you shouldn't stop. Sadly enough, Foehammer will not be counted as a survivor of this trip. Continue on and you will get to another hallway with the giant slalom. There is again another shortcut, but use it only if you really want to, and by the way it is on the right side this time. Whatever you decide to do, continue on and Cortana will warn you of a big jump coming up, so line yourself up straight and hit the gas as much as you can. You are not supposed to make it to the hanging platform, and you are supposed to fall all the way down into a tunnel. Follow the path as it is pretty straightforward until you get to some obstacles. Now, you are so close, and you will have to run the rest of the way. There will be battles raging on all around you, but I would completely ignore it and just make a mad dash for the hangar. Once you get to the hangar, the screen will turn white, and the final movie of the game will play. Congratulations! You have just beaten a very fine game in Halo! Now just sit back and enjoy the movie. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 6.0 Multiplayer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=- This is what you do when you are bored of doing it solo, then you go for the Multiplayer mode! ============================= 6.1 Multiplayer Modes of Play ============================= Multiplayer allows you to play Halo in a number of exciting and varied ways, and with a few features that differ from the main Halo campaign, such as the liberal use of ammo and health power-ups in many of the multiplayer environments. Read the descriptions below to find the type of game you 'd like to play and then follow the setup instructions. ----------------- Cooperative Play ----------------- This option allows two players connected to a single Xbox video game system to play through the entire single player campaign side by side. To start a Cooperative game: 1.Select Multiplayer from the Main screen 2.Select Cooperative Play from the Multiplayer screen. 3.Each player presses Start or A to join the game. Each player must select a custom player profile. 4.Select the difficulty level for the campaign. 5.Press Start or A to begin. ------------- Split Screen ------------- This option allows up to four players to play in split screen mode on a single Xbox video game system. You'll pick your own maps and game settings. To start a Split Screen game 1.Select Multiplayer from the Main screen. 2.Select Split Screen from the Multiplayer screen. 3.Each player presses Start or A to join the game. Players may select a custom player profile if desired. 4.Select the map you 'd like to play on. 5.Select the game type you 'd like to play. 6.Press Start or A to join the game. ----------------- System Link Play ----------------- You can connect two Xbox consoles together using an Xbox System Link Cable, or up to four Xbox consoles using an Ethernet hub and standard Ethernet cables. To start a System Link Play game 1.Physically connect two Xbox video game systems to each other using Xbox System Link Cables, or up to four Xbox consoles using Ethernet cables to plug them into a 10Base-T network. Refer to your Xbox Instruction Manual for more information about how to do this. 2.Select Multiplayer from the Main screen. 3.Select System Link Play from the Multiplayer screen. 4.Each player must press Start or A to select a profile and then join the game. Halo attempts to find an available game on the linked network. 5.If there is no game and you 'd like to start your own, press X or A. 6.Select the map you 'd like to play on. 7.Select the game type you 'd like to play. 8.Press A to begin. ====================== 6.2 Multiplayer Levels ====================== (Thanks to xbox.ign.com's Vincent Lopez) -------- Rat Race -------- "Up the Ramps, Down the Tubes" 2-6 Players Simple corridor match with an overhead cavern that allows you to get from one end to the other, one particular corner with two shield stands where you can properly camp in the public eye. Look for the shotgun and the overshield at the end of one of the overhead caverns, the Halo equivalent of Quad damage. A couple of portals keep this from just being a running game. Make sure to sneak up behind your opponent with a shotgun for a good one-shot kill. A good map overall for small groups, especially two players. -------- Prisoner -------- "Get on Top" 2-8 Players It's built like a multi-story mall, and there's plenty of space for grenade tossing, especially if you're on top. Risk the bottom level for the active camouflage (aka invisibility) in the center of the map. Remember, you can actually leap most of the platform gaps on the higher levels, so don't think you're stuck walking around the edges. Not really recommended for two players - - we'd recommend at least four for this one, as it's too easy to play chicken in the interior of the buildings. ------------- Hang 'Em High ------------- "Tombstones for Everybody" 4-16 Players This one's got a little bit of everything -- a maze of pylons to run around in, a shotgun to blow people to smithereens in, and some nice high ledges to snipe from. It's wide and open, so if you don't have enough players, you may be a little bored -- unless you're a marksman, of course. Play it on Snipers mode for some real fun fun fun. Definitely more fun as a Capture the Flag map than anything else. --------- Chill Out --------- "Dude, you really need to..." 2-8 Players One of the best maps for small group battles, especially if you've only got two players. There's a good variety of weapons (even a Sniper rifle), and lots of twisty corners to turn. If you're not familiar with multi combat, this is a non-threatening, intimate map to get you started. -------- Derelict -------- "Deep-Space Anomaly #0198" 4-8 Players I'm not a huge fan of the open courtyard type maps, which is what this one is. If you're a good Sniper this can be some fun. This level works best if you're playing a game like King, where you've got to control a point. With little room to camp, this one's a tough battle. --------------- Boarding Action --------------- "Ship-to-Ship Combat" 4-16 Players Another one for rocket fanatics and snipers. You've got two ships split open like apartment complexes, and all sorts of long range weapons to use on one another. If you're a rocket arena fan, you'll like the strategy in this one, but close combat fans will be bored. Definitely more exciting in concept than execution, unless you're a long-range fanatic. ----------- Blood Gulch ----------- "The Quick and the Dead" 4-16 Players A fantastic map that is just screaming for you to play it in Capture The Flag. You've got your bases. Made for huge numbers, but even smaller groups can get into it because of the open fields of play, and nice selection of vehicles and weapons to play with. Try it out in Team Rally mode, where you're racing to get to checkpoints, for some jeep racing fun. Get a good gunner on the back of your jeep, and you're golden. ------ Wizard ------ "Round and Round and Round" 2-8 Players Not being a fan of courtyard battles, this one tended to bore me, at least in two player games. There's a limited selection of weapons, and generally little to do other than shoot blindly. Things get more fun when someone grabs the Active Camouflage, though. Another one that's good for beginners, since it's really, really straightforward. ----------- Chiron TL34 ----------- "Spartan Clone Training Complex" 2-6 Players An insanely claustrophobic corridor battle with little variety in weaponry, and one well-placed packet o' instant Active Camo. Tons of little evil slits in the scenery for you to fire through, a myriad of portal points, and some nasty little hiding spots make this a vicious game for campers and close-combat freaks alike. If you can keep from getting lost, this is a fun, fast-paced CTF game for tiny groups. ------- Longest ------- "A long walk down a short hall..." 2-8 Players This level's skinnier than the casting call for Ally McBeal. There's not much room to move, so you'll have to know this level inside and out, and most important, find that shotgun! Get a perch and get it quick. Sort of insane for any team games, which is actually the best part, if you've got some fragging experience and want a close combat challenge. Weird and fun. ------------ Battle Creek ------------ "Splash Splash, Bang Bang" 2-8 Players If you're looking for a way to show off the beauty of the game in multi, this and Sidewinder are the levels to use. It's a really natural landscape, complete with a river, and two conveniently located fortresses on either side. This is a traditional CTF map, complete with some Sniper locations and a maze-like fortress to keep your sacred flag well-protected. Use the trees to keep you covered, as well as all your Quake-honed CTF techniques, and you'll be fine. ---------- Sidewinder ---------- "Red Blood, White Snow" 4-16 Players One huge ice field and two fortresses make for some heavy combat. This one's good with four players, but you'll find that it ends up being a corridor battle in the "hidden" walkways that lead through the mountain to each base. Get over eight players involved though, and throw in some Scorpion tanks, and you've got yourself a war. Multiple snipe locations, a variety of attack points for the bases, and some cool crisp snow make this a fun one for game parties. --------- Damnation --------- "Covenant Hydro-Processing Center" 4-8 Players Damnation, AKA "extra-cool bump-mapped level galore", takes the most practice of any of the levels. It's a little odd in the way it's laid out, and you've got to have your long and short range skills together if you think you're going to survive this one. CTF is extra-fun given the "walk of death," a long walkway with deadly gaps in clear view of a conveniently-located ledge full of sniper rifles. If you're not comfortable doing quick jump-turn maneuvers in odd directions, you better practice on some other maps first. The only bad thing about multiplayer Halo is that they treat it like a PC multiplayer game -- namely that most games with under four players suck. Get your friends to forklift over their Xbox and an Ethernet cable, and you'll be a lot happier. As an unrelated tip, remember that cracking someone on the back the head with your weapon is a really, really effective attack, if they're not facing you. And you can always skip the "level will load in 10 seconds" stuff by just pressing A repeatedly. ===================== 6.3 Multiplayer Games ===================== (Thanks again to xbox.ign.com's Vincent Lopez) ------ Slayer ------ Angel of death, angel of deaaaawwwwth! All apologies to Kerry King for that one. Though not sponsored by the band Slayer, this mode certainly exemplifies them -- ruthless, brutal, and fast as hell. It's a classic Deathmatch, where you'll need 15 kills to win. What level you play decides whether you'll have access to vehicles or specific weapons. If you're just beginning, this will keep your head from spinning... too much. ---------- Slayer Pro ---------- Like Slayer, only this time you'll need 25 kills to win. That's a marathon, folks. Thankfully, in this mode you start with a Pistol, Automatic Rifle, and Grenades to make the killin' a little quicker. ----------- Team Slayer ----------- You pick your teams, and the one to reach 50 kills first (total between your team) wins. The extra gimmick here is that the more you kill, the slower you'll move, but the more you die, the faster you'll be able to frag. Remember that you choose your teams at the start up screen, so you can mix this up in whatever fashion you like. Four newbies can take on two seasoned veterans, or you can have an even three on three split if you've got two consoles and two TV screens. Team games are especially fun when you've got multiple TVs, cos you can keep one team in one room, and another team in another room, provided you buy long enough Ethernet cable to go between the two. Hint: buy reeaaaally long Ethernet cables. More expensive but worth the price in the long run. ----------- Elimination ----------- This one's quick and dirty, and better suited to levels that give you a little room to dodge. Play it on Longer and you'll find yourself with a shorter (sorry about that one) game. This mode's great on levels like Boarding Action, where precise shooting means that the game's usually drug out longer than usual anyway. -------- Phantoms -------- Mmmm... yummy Phantoms. All players are "invisible," meaning that everyone's got on Active Camouflage, making them almost impossible to see unless they're firing directly at you. Fortunately, all your opponents have nav points, so you'll be able to tell how far away they are from you, as well as their direction. This is a fun one in a variety of levels, whether you're tying to snipe ghosts of your enemies, or chugging it out in tight hallways. --------- Endurance --------- You've got five lives, and the winner is the first person to score ten kills. The clincher? Respawn Time Growth and Odd Man Out rules apply. Time Growth means that ever time you die, your respawn time will increase by five seconds... but every time you kill someone else, your time will decrease by five seconds. Play clumsy, and you'll be waiting ages to get back into the game. Odd Man Out rules mean that if you die, you can't respawn until someone else assumes the role of Odd Man Out by dying. It's a rotating afterlife, made worse by the time increments. This doesn't work with two players, for obvious reasons, so get a big group to make this one really frustrating. ------- Rockets ------- Don't be daunted by the 25 kills needed to win this game. Remember that one rocket blast will nail someone in a flash... and since that's what you've all got, this one flies by. The catch (and have you noticed that all Halo multiplayer games have one?) is that nobody's got a motion tracker, so you'll have to use your eyes and the rocket scope if you think you're going to nail someone from afar. ------- Snipers ------- Everyone with snipers! Fifteen kills are needed to win this one, but with Respawn Time Growth rules in place, if you're not quick you'll be waiting in the afterlife for what seems like hours to get back into the game. Get the lead guy out of the picture as quick as possible if you don't want to see them snowball the whole game. ------- Oddball ------- It's simple -- hold the skull for two minutes, and you win. Of course, there'll be a ton of people on your tail trying to take it from you, but don't worry about that. About 10 seconds after play begins, a skull is dropped somewhere on the map. Find it, and your timer will start counting down from two minutes. Make it to zero, and you win -- but remember that you can't use your weapons while holding the skull, leaving you vulnerable. The skull's a brutal melee weapon however, so a good knock over someone's unsuspecting head can help take out a potential noggin stealer. The weapons depend on the level, so try a few out in Oddball and see which ones suit your playing style the best. --------- Team Ball --------- The first team to hold the skull for two minutes wins the game, so make sure to protect your buddy holding the skull to keep them from getting killed. A 10 second respawn time makes it tough to simply tag along and protect your buddy, however. ----------- Reverse Tag ----------- The first one to score a kill on the map is "It," and a counter starts counting up to two minutes. The first one to reach two minutes win -- but the one who's "It" runs slower than the competition. Fun for all! In case you need pointers, look for the big target symbol over their head to know to nail with your sniper. Remember, so check up on everyone's times, including your own, press the Back button. ---------- Accumulate ---------- You've got to stay "It" for five minutes, but it's not as long as it sounds -- if you're it, and score kills, you get a timer speed bonus for each one. Get a few kills and keep "It" and you'll win in no time. Get killed, though, and you'll lose "It" status, as well as any time bonuses you accrued while playing. ---------- Juggernaut ---------- The first one to kill becomes the Juggernaut, and does extra damage with all weapons. Kill the Juggernaut, and steal his powers for yourself. It's as simple as that. Ten kills will nab you the game in this mode. Stalker One player is invisible on the map, but if you can find and kill him, you get his powers. Wanna guess that the person sniping you from the hills is the invisible one? Get 10 kills, and victory is yours. ---- King ---- Somewhere on the map is an area surrounded by a moving square ring -- get inside it and stay there for two minutes, and you win the match. Simple, huh? Of course, everyone else is trying to stay in the same place as well, so don't blame us if things get a little heated. For even more fun, try it out on levels like Prisoner where the ring is at the top, and in the middle of, the entire level. You may think your safe, but a good grenade toss is all they need to take you off your throne. -------- King Pro -------- Like King mode, only you start the match with grenades, a pistol and an automatic rifle. ---------- Crazy King ---------- Like King mode, but with one little difference -- the "hill" location changes during the match. --------- Team King --------- The same two minute rules as King, only now you're a team, and it's the team total that counts. A ten-second respawn time makes this one tougher, however. Race Follow your nav readout onscreen and touch a series of flags laid out around the map of your choice. Do three laps first by touching all the flags in order, and you win. This gets real fun when you big vehicle-based levels like Blood Gulch -- it becomes a flat-out racing game... with guns, of course. Team Race Get a team and play a level with vehicles -- you'll be able to shoot at your enemies while racing for the next flag point. Quake may have quad damage, but it certainly never had racing with guns. ----- Rally ----- This one's a race without the laps -- collect 15 flags first, and you win. Of course, the designers have made it so that you're definitely getting in one another's way while trying to get to the flags first. A pistol will do the trick. ---------- Team Rally ---------- The team version of rally runs a lot quicker, because you've just got to grab five flag points to win. Of course, everyone on your team has to collect five flag points, so if one of you is lagging... ---------------------- Capture the Flag (CTF) ---------------------- An FPS classic. Capture your enemy's flag and return it to you base three times, and you win the game. You can't fire while holding a flag however, and everyone will be alerted when a flag has been stolen from a base. Battles of epic proportions have been waged under this pretense, so beware -- your free time is at stake. While CTF is fun in small groups, the true beauty of the game type comes when you get eight or more players involved. -------- Iron CTF -------- All players have 200% health, and both teams start with Scorpion tanks. If you think you can get away with this with only four players, it doesn't work as well as you think. Play it with at least six or more, and you've really got a party going on. You'll only find this mode in a few types (because you really can't fit a tank that well in a hallway), but seek it out. It's definitely worth some play. ------- CTF Pro ------- This one's a killer, and I only advise playing it if you've got a super-sized group ready, otherwise no one's ever going to score on this one. CTF pro plays just like CTF, only this time you've got to have your flag at home base in order for you to score. Not only do you have to sneak into your enemy's base and steal their flag, but you've got to make sure that your flag's intact at the same time. Great fun if you've got a good team to work with. -------- Invasion -------- A fast food version of CTF. You've already got your enemy's flag, and now you've just got to get it into their base and plant it onto their flag station. Do it three times and you win -- but you've only got five lives to work with. It's quick, it's dirty, and it's ruthless. Once you've mastered the general CTF skills, then move onto this one for a different sort of challenge. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 7.0 - Weapons List =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ================================/ 7.1 - Human Weapons / ==============================/ M6D Pistol ---------- Maximum Ammo: 120 rounds Maximum Ammo in Clip: 12 rounds Most Effective: Flood Carriers, Hunters Least Effective: Groups of Combat Flood, Elites Special Abilities: 2x Zoom Disadvantages: Slow firing rate, moderately slow meleeing attack Manual Description: This pistol is a recoil-operated, magazinge-fed handgun. It is issued with a smart-liked scope capable of 2x magnification(press in the Right thumbstick). It fires 12.7mm semi-armor piercing, high explosive rounds. It can shoot either semi-automatic or automatic fire(pull and hold the Right trigger for automatic fire). Shot placement is very important. The only shot that guarantees immediate and total incapacitation is on roughly centered in the head, above a horizontal line passing through the ear opening and below the crown of the alien skull. Summary: The Pistol is probably one of the best underrated weapons in the game. Many don't consider it to be too much effect. The melee attack is slow but it's really effective on a variety of enemies. Each shot is very powerful although round supplies are usually short. Strategy in Campaign: In most levels, Pistol ammo is usually short. Being found in occasional spots on the floor. Pistol rounds are best conserved for Hunters. Aim for their orange spot both on their back and their neck. A single shot will kill it. Also, at close enough range, a Flood Carrier can be obliverated with a single shot as well. However, avoid being stuck with a pistol when fighting against Elites. Because of the slow rate of fire and frequent reloading time, the Elites can hide, recharge, and pop back up again. Although the Pistol is slightly effective against the Flood, large groups will easily overwhelm your position. This is why the Pistol is ineffective in Level 7. Strategy in Multiplayer: The Pistol is more useless in Split Screen but if you can snipe someone out with a head shot, that's great. Remember you can't take them out with a head shot before bringing down their shields first. If you must, take a peek at their screen to see if their shield is going down. The pistol does have a pretty slow melee attack so avoid close range combat, especially if your enemy has a Shotgun or Assault Rifle. Snipers seem to love the Pistol because it's useful when their target is closer because of the faster rate of fire and it saves ammo as well. Overall Rating: 8/10 MA5B Assault Rifle ------------------ Maximum Ammo: 600 rounds Maximum Ammo in Clip: 60 rounds Most Effective: Grunts, Flood Infection Forms Least Effective: Jackals, One or two Elites, Large Groups of Combat Flood Special Abilities: Compass pointing to the planet Threshold, screen showing how many rounds are left in the clip. Disadvantages: Bad accuracy if the trigger is held down too long Manual Description: This rifle is gas-operated and magazine-fed. It fires 7.62mm armor-piercing rounds. Rate of fire is limited by a soldier's ability to aim, fire and change magazines. Short, controlled burst are more accurate than fully automatic fire. The MA5B's integrated computer displays rounds left in the magazine and the relative direction of the gas giant, Threshold, for point of reference. This feature is particularly useful for orientating you in areas where it's easy to get turned around and lose your sense of direction. Summary: Not too good of a weapon but hey, it's the Master Chief's signature weapon. Being gas operated, the Assault Rifle has a very high rate of fire. Each clip actually contains 60 rounds that can be emptied in a few seconds if using automatic fire. Strategy in Campaign: Best used against groups of Grunts. Because of their physical weakness and speed, you can easily take out a group of them before setting your weapons for a more powerful enemy. The melee attack is pleasantly speedy and the reloading time doesn't take too much time. The Assault Rifle is extremely effective against the Infection Forms. A single shot can blow one up hopefully taking out the entire group. Use single shots when against Infection Forms to conserve ammo. The Assault Rifle is marginally effective against Elites when not in groups. Avoid wasting ammo with Jackals as they have that annoying shields. I've also noticed that the accuracy gets worse as you continue holding automatic fire. So for better accuracy, use short bursts of rounds against targets farther away. Strategy in Multiplayer: Not a very great weapon but if you can get close to an opponent without them noticing and smack them in the back, it's worth it. Also, you can use automatic fire at close range to rapidly bring down an enemies shield. The Assault Rifle is useless when engaging targets far away as it'll only give your position away and you'll barely do any damage at all. Like campaign, use short bursts of fire whenever possible. Overall Rating: 6/10 M90 Shotgun ----------- Maximum Ammo: 60 shots Maximum Ammo in Clip: 12 shots Most Effective: Flood Combat Forms, Elites, every weak enemy, Sentinels Least Effective: Jackals Special Abilities: Clips are impractical Disadvantages: No effect at long range, slow reloading time, slow firing rate, slow melee attack Manual Description: The shotgun is a pump-action magazine-fed (dual tubular non-detachable type) weapon. It fires 8 gauge magnum (3.5") rounds. This weapon is very effective against targets at close range and may be used to engage several targets simultaneously at medium and long range. Summary: The Shotgun doesn't exactly have clips but it can carry a maximum of 12 shots at maximum. You can then reload any time you wish. The Shotgun can only be acquired on 343 Guilty Spark and every level after that in case you were wondering. Strategy in Campaign: The key thing to understand is that you should reload at every opportunity you get. You're not wasting ammunition by the way. The best enemy to use the shots on are the annoying Combat Forms. This weapon is required in Level 7 and strongly recommended in any level with the Flood. The Shotgun is effective on every Covenant except the Jackals. Avoid wasting ammo on the Grunts but use them on the Hunters and Elites. One shot at close range in the orange areas will bring down a Hunter and a shot at close range in the head will kill an Elite. There is usually an abundance of ammunition for this weapon in the Library. Strategy in Multiplayer: One of my favorite weapons, great for just walking up to a Sniper that hasn't noticed you and just pop them in the head with a very painful shot. Avoid taking shots at long range. Pick up a shotgun whenever possible if you can as it gives you a killer advantage. However, when using a Shotgun, make sure you have another weapon that is effective at long range just in case your target makes a run for it. If you really want to annoy someone, walk up to them and blast them in the head. The result should be instant and you'd earn yourself a good laugh. Overall Rating: 9/10 S2 AM Sniper Rifle ------------------ Maximum Ammo: 24(Truth and Reconcilliation starts with 64 but you can't get more in any other level.) Maximum Ammo in Clip: 4 rounds Most Effective: Any Covenant, Sentinels Least Effective: All Flood Special Abilities: 10x Zoom, Light Amplification(Night Vision) Disadvantages: Small amount of shots per clip, scarcity of ammunition, useless at close range, no effect against Flood Manual Description: This rifle is a gas-operated magazine-fed weapon. It is issued with a smart-linked scope with two levels of magnification (press in the Right thumbstick once for 2x magnification, press again for 10x magnification, and once more to deactivate). Also, while still in zoom mode you can press the White button to activate light amplification. It fires 14.5mm armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot rounds. Warning: The 14.5x 114mm APFSDS round is an anti-material munition. It can easily over-penetrate several armored soldiers. Be sure of what is on the other side of your target before firing. Summary: The Sniper Rifle is a very powerful weapon. Able to zoom in and the accuracy is perfect. Best used when your enemies don't notice you. When sniping at night(ie. Truth and Reconcilliation)you can use the night vision to make sniping easier and more fun. ^_^ Strategy in Campaign: The absolute dumbest thing to do with the sniper is to try to take down a Flood. Any form. I had to learn this the hard way. Because of the lack of ammunition, the Sniper Rifle should not be used at close range as it's just a waste of ammo. Try to shoot Elites in the head and Hunters in their weak orange spots. Although the Sniper can take out a Grunt, it's best conserved for more powerful targets. Also, if you can get a shot to go through 2 or more Covenant, you can take them all down or damage them. I once took out 4 Grunts and damaged an Elite with a single shot. Very effective, especially when your enemiese don't notice you. Strategy in Multiplayer: If you've ever played with Xbox connect, you would have probably met a few skilled Snipers the hard way. They're extremely skilled and can take you down with a single headshot from a mile away. So how do they do this? They probably increase their look sensitivity to make it extremely easier. I would suggest doing that. Also, don't just follow your target, let them walk into your sight and blast them. The shot is instant and you won't need to lead the target. Try to get them down with a head shot or chest shot. Overall Rating: 9/10 M19 SSM Rocket Launcher ----------------------- Maximum Ammo: 8 rockets Maximum Ammo in Clip: 2 rockets Most Effective: Every Enemy Least Effective: None Special Abilities: 2x Zoom Disadvantages: Slow firing rate, slow reloading time, slow melee attack, can damage self if fired too close to current location, scarcity of ammunition, fact that rockets travel slow and targets must be "led" before the rocket can be launched Manual Description: The M19 SSM is a man-portable and shoulder-fired rocket launcher. It has two major components, the launcher and the magazine. The magazine (the expendable part of the system) contains two 102mm shaped-charge, high-explosive rockets. It is designed for fast, easy detachment from the launcher. The launcher contains the sighting and fire control systems. Summary: The Rocket Launcher is a high explosive dumb fire weapon. The rocket is quite slow and if a target is far away, leading the rocket would probably be required. Ammo is usually short and can only be found in a few levels. Also, try to avoid firing a rocket too close to your location or face death. Strategy in Campaign: As stated above, avoid firing too close to your location. Engage targets far away. Rocket Launcher ammunition can only be found in a few levels and if any at all, it's usually a small supply. Try to only use rockets on groups of enemies to send them flying or a Covenant Tank to take it out easily. An empty Rocket Launcher should immediately be switched. It's also best used for groups of Flood Combat Forms or Elites that are charging you. Strategy in Multiplayer: I like this weapon in Split Screen. Useful for clearing out a group of enemies. One of the best times to use this weapon is when a few other targets are fighting each other and haven't noticed you. Launch a rocket down there and take them out. That's a lot of fun. When going against vehicles moving at a fast speed, the best thing to do would be to switch to another weapon to take them out or lead the target far or near depending on it's speed and hope it'll hit. You'll need to be an excellent marksman(like me)to hit or you can simply get lucky. Overall Rating: 8/10 M41 LAAG -------- Maximum Ammo: N/A Maximum Ammo in Clip: N/A Most Effective: Sentinels, Grunts, Elites, All Flood, All Covenant vehicles Least Effective: Hunters Special Abilities: Found only on the Warthog, Unlimited Ammunition Disadvantages: Very inaccurate Manual Description: The Warthog's M41 light anti-aircraft gun is a three-barreled, electric- powered, linkless, drum-fed weapon. It fires 450 to 550 12.7x99mm armor penetrating rounds per minute. Turret traverse rate is 100 degrees per second and weapon elevation rate is 60 degrees per second. Recoil from sustained fire is prodigious and negatively impacts accuracy at long range. Summary: The Light Anti Aircraft Gun is extremely effective against a variety of enemies. Although the accuracy is... questionable, the LAAG is an extremely powerful weapon against every enemy you'll meet in Halo. However, you can only this when you're in a Warthog... Strategy in Campaign: If you're playing co op, use the LAAG whenever possible but always have a driver. If you're not moving, you'll be easy meat for a lucky Grunt that happens to get a grenade on you. In single player, have a marine there and let him shoot everything in sight by driving by the enemy. Strategy in Multiplayer: Use the LAAG whenever possible as well. In Blood Gulch, try to get a Warthog on top of the bases with Rockets and Grenades and you'll have a rotating gun around your base for CTF defense. The LAAG is quite inaccurate and should only be used if you have a driver. Overall Rating: 9/10 M9 HP-DE Fragmentation Grenade ------------------------------ Maximum Ammo: 4 grenades Maximum Ammo in Clip: N/A Most Effective: Every enemy Least Effective: None Special Abilities: Explodes on contact with ground. Disadvantages: Can not stick to vehicles or enemies like the Plasma Grenade, Possible to hurt own player if thrown too close Manual Description: The M9 high-explosive, dual-purpose grenade is a thrown fragmentation device. Use it to suppress or disable vehicles, except tanks. It can be thrown, rolled, bounced or ricocheted into places direct fire weapons can't reach. Increase the angle of the throw to toss it farther, or to get it over obstacles. Be careful not to throw it too close to your own location. Summary: The Fragmentation Grenade is a human commissioned high explosive throwing grenade for destruction. It can flush out enemies or send them flying off into the distance. Strategy in Campaign: The Fragmentation Grenade is much more effective than the Plasma Grenade even if it doesn't have that sticky thing. It can easily be used to take Elites and Grunts out of hiding or it can be thrown into a group of enemies and send them flying. These are very useful when you feel overwhelmed by whatever enemies. Also, remember not to throw them too close to yourself or face yet severe damage that could have been inflicted on your opponents, not yourself. Strategy in Multiplayer: Because it doesn't have any blue glow like the Plasma Grenade, if your target hasn't noticed you, he/she probably wouldn't notice the grenade. I find the Frag Grenade more useful than the Plasma Grenade. Some may disagree but it explodes faster and has a larger splash damage radius. However, the Frag Grenade is impractical against vehicles. Those are what Plasmas are useful against. Overall Rating: 8/10 ================================/ 7.2 - Covenant Weapons / ==============================/ Plasma Pistol ------------- Maximum Ammo: 100 energy life Maximum Ammo per Clip: N/A Most Effective: Sentinels, Elites, Jackals Least Effective: All Flood Special Abilities: Overcharge Disadvantages: can not recharge battery, overcharge brings down the battery rapidly Manual Description: This weapon is a semi-automatic directed energy weapon. If you pull and hold the Right trigger, the weapon may become over-charged; when the Right trigger is released the bolt is launched. After the over-charged bolt is launched the weapon temporarily stops functioning as it dumps waste heat. Use of the over-charge capability rapidly depletes the weapon's power core. The Humans do not understand how to replace or recharge a power core at this time. Note: This weapon will deplete its energy source as you use it. It is wise to replace it as often as possible. Summary: I happen to like the Plasma Pistol over the Plasma Rifle when engaging Covenant. The overcharge rate is capable of homing in to enemies and when it hits, it does some tremendous damage, bringing down an Elite's shield or taking out a Sentinel. The Plasma bolt is green. Strategy in Campaign: Since many Grunts and Jackals carry the Plasma Pistol, it would be wise to pick them up at every opportunity you can. You can't exactly recahrge a Plasma Pistol's energy so you'd have to replace them. Use the overcharge on Elites, Jackals, and Sentinels and the regular shots on Grunts. The Plasma Pistol can have the same rate of fire as the Plasma Rifle but you would have to constantly fire. You can't just use automatic fire like the Plasma Rifle which is a major disadvantage but firing too frequently wouldn't overheat the gun so that helps quite a bit. Strategy in Multiplayer: I find the Plasma Pistol quite useless in multiplayer. The overcharge weapon barely ever makes contact even if it has a small homing mechanism. Your target will probably be moving too fast. Although I find the regular shots slightly effective, the Plasma Rifle is a better choice because of it's automatic fire. You can dish out more damage that way. Overall Rating: 7/10 Plasma Rifle ------------ Maximum Ammo: 100 energy life Maximum Ammo in Clip: N/A Most Effective: Jackals, Elites, Sentinels Least Effective: Hunters, All Flood Special Abilities: None Disadvantages: Overheats when used too much, can not recharge battery Manual Description: This is a directed energy weapon. It is capable of either semiautomatic or automatic fire (pull and hold the Right trigger for automatic fire). Continuous rapid fire overheats the weapon-this in turn depletes the weapon's power core. The Humans do not understand how to replace or recharge a power core at this time. Note: This weapon will deplete its energy source as you use it. It is wise to replace it as often as possible. Summary: The Plasma Rifle is an automatic plasma weapon similar to the Plasma Pistol. It doesn't have an overcharge but it doesn't require pushing the trigger up and down. It will overheat if you keep your finger on the trigger for too long so avoid that. Strategy in Campaign: Avoid using automatic fire even if it allows it. Instead, use it like the Plasma Pistol to avoid overheating. Try to replace this as much as possible. Elites and some Grunts carry it. The energy core can not be recharged. I prefer the Plasma Pistol over the Rifle, but if you're that lazy and don't want to have to tire your finger out, use the Rifle. Strategy in Multiplayer: Strafe back and forth and keep moving so you're enemies won't be able to hit you with their weapon. Just blast them and they'll eventually fall. There are better weapons but if you wish, use the Rifle to rapidly bring down an enemy's shield and health. Overall Rating: 6/10 Needler ------- Maximum Ammo: 80 needles Maximum Ammo in Clip: 20 needles Most Effective: Elites, Grunts Least Effective: Hunters, Jackals Special Abilities: Homing projectiles, an explosion will occur when more than 8 needles are attached Disadvantages: The needles will bounce off of Jackal's shields and Hunter armor Manual Description: Very little is known about this weapon other than that it is a magazine fed weapon capable of automatic fire. Its projectiles penetrate soft targets no matter what the angle of impact. They ricochet off of hard surfaces at oblique angles, however, and are always deflected by energy fields. The only exceptions to this are the shields generated by the MJOLNIR battle suit and the Elite's combat armor. The composition and energy signatures of its projectile is unknown. The manner in which the projectiles home in on their target is also unknown. Summary: The Needler is the only Covenant weapon usable in Halo that requires clips and reloading. You can pick up Needler ammunition from some Grunts, Elites, and Flood. The projectiles are capable of "homing" into the enemy. Placing more than 8 needles at once will result in a pink explosion that will tremendously damage the target and set off any grenades nearby. Strategy in Campaign: Avoid using the Needler against Jackals or Hunters. The needles will simply bounce off both. Unless you can get behind a Jackal or get a Hunter in their weak spot, you won't be doing any damage. The Needler is the best Elite killer and you can kill one with around 16 needles. Great against Grunts as well. The explosion after putting too many needles on an enemy will set off any nearby grenades and you can use that to your advantage. Strategy in Multiplayer: Although this weapon is useful in Campaign, it really doesn't do too much in split screen. One reason, the needles do home, but not if the target is moving fast. Another reason, the needles will spread out the farther away a target is. So if you fire a clip of 20 needles at a target a 100 feet away, only around 5 will actually touch the target... taking the target hasn't moved at all. There are much better weapons to use so don't choose the Needler although it may be slightly useful. Overall Rating: 6/10 Gun Turret(Shade) ----------------- Maximum Ammo: N/A Maximum Ammo in Clip: N/A Most Effective: All Covenant Least Effective: none Special Abilities: Unlimited Ammo Disadvantages: Immobile, Projectiles move slower than other Plasma weapons Manual Description: Although the Shade appears to be a light anti-vehicle weapon, the Covenant uses it almost exclusively in an anti-infantry role. The operator sits directly behind the gun and an armored control suite, but relies entirely on the infantry support for protection to the sides and rear. Summary: The Shade Gun Turret is mostly used by Grunts. It's extremely powerful and one of the best weapons in the game. However, be careful as it's immobile and a stray grenade can land on you. Sometimes you may find an Elite manning the gun. Use that opportunity to throw a Plasma Grenade and blow it up. Strategy in Campaign: You can choose to use it to mow a crowd down but don't stay in too long. Eventually, a Grunt will get the sense to throw a grenade and getting killed by a Grunt is kind of embarrassing. Get in for a few seconds and then get out immediately before something bad happens. Try to lead the target as well because the plasma bolts move a bit slow. Strategy in Multiplayer: I don't think you can use this in Split Screen. Overall Rating: 9/10 Plasma Grenade -------------- Maximum Ammo: 4 grenades Maximum Ammo in Clip: N/A Most Effective: All enemies Least Effective: None Special Abilities: "Sticks" to targets Disadvantages: 3 second fuse can allow for a target to get away if it doesn't stick to the enemy, can hurt self if thrown too close to current location Manual Description: This weapon is similar to the Human's own hand grenade in that it is a thrown anti-infantry and anti-vehicle weapon. It has some kind of internal mechanism that allows it to distinguish between targets and background. For example, it will stick to a soldier or vehicle, but not a tree or wall. It has a three-second fuse that is activated after it sticks to a target or otherwise comes to a rest. Summary: The Plasma Grenade is capable of sticking to an enemy. This will kill it no matter what unless it's a hunter. Strategy in Campaign: Use the Plasma Grenade to flush out opposition to make them easier to shoot. It really doesn't help if you don't stick to an enemy as they'll usually run away before it can explode. It can help but I find the Fragmentation Grenade easier to use. Strategy in Multiplayer: Sticking it to your opposition would really get them angry. Because of it's flashing blue glow, your opponents would usually be able to see it and get away but if you can stick one to one's back, it'll usually kill them unless you have 400% health on with shield. Overall Rating: 5/10 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 8.0 - Vehicles List =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8.1 - Human Vehicles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ M12 LRV(aka Warthog) ____ -------------------------------/ \ Crew: 1+1(plus 1 more in rear) Weight: 3.25 tons Armament: 12.7mm three-barreled machine-gun Manual Description: The M12 light reconnaissance vehicle, or Warthog, is the standard vehicle of the UEG armed forces. It is fast and maneuverable, but prone to rollovers during hard cornering. A three-barreled machine-gun is mounted in the rear of the vehicle. Armed passengers significantly increase the unit's anti-infantry capacity. Summary: The Warthog is a fast jeep with a LAAG fused in the back seat. It is mostly used for CTF games for transport the flag bearer. The player in the passenger seat is capable of throwing grenades although they will damage the driver if it's too close. Strategy: As stated in the summary, the Warthog provides for fast transport and with more than one person, can be a pretty good weapon. The person in the passenger seat should be the one to go for the flag as the driver drives to the target. After getting close to the flag, the passenger gets off and the driver and gunner stay on fending off any attack. Then the passenger gets back and make a getaway. Make sure you swerve when attempting to squish others. Driving straight into them will easily allow them to get out of the way but if you swerve quickly before hitting your target, the smack radius is much larger and you can almost be guaranteed a hit. Take a look at this diagram: =============================================================================== Going in straight, incorrect: O - Target ##### # - Strike Zone <---- ##O## ----> W - Warthog ##### ___ The target can move in either direction | | and the Warthog has a tiny strike zone. | W | The target can easily dodge the Warthog | | plus have a chance to stick a Plasma to |___| Grenade to your Warthog. =============================================================================== Swerving in, correct: O - Target # - Strike Zone ####O### W - Warthog ######### , Although the Warthog loses all speed, ,' \ it's Strike Zone is extremely wide. \ W \ This is the much more preferred way \ \ of coming in. \ , \,' =============================================================================== My Overall Rating: 9/10 M808B Scorpion MBT ____ ---------------------------------/ \ Crew: 2(or 1 cyborg) Weight: 66 tons Main gun: 90mm HV(High Velocity) Secondary/coaxial gun: 7.62mm AP-T(Armor Piercing, Tracer) Manual Description: The Scorpion Main Battle Tank is primarily an anti-vehicle weapons platform, but it also has very high anti-infantry compatibilities. Its ceramic-titanium armor makes it nearly invulnerable to small arms fire, but its deep dead-zone, or the area within which fire from the tank's guns cannot hit targets, puts it at risk from enemy anti-tank infantry. Up to four soldiers may ride on(and fire from)the Scorpion's track pods. Riding on a tank is always hazardous and should be done only when the advantages outweigh the risks. Summary: One of the more powerful vehicles in the game, the tank has a very powerful cannon. It's secondary weapon is similar to the Warthog's LAAG. Both powerful and of course, inaccurate. The main cannon requires five seconds to fire again as the cannon takes another shell. Firing too close to current location will damage the driver. Also, the Main Battle Tank has a very large deadzone. If one gets too close, the tank will not be able to fire upon the target. Additional passengers may cover the dead zone. Strategy: The tank is another choice for Capture the Flag. Although the Warthog is better at taking care of that. One of the passengers can jump off while the tank takes care of any attackers. Very useful for direct base assaults as well. It's not terribly useful in Free For All because of it's crippling deadzone. Also, the open cockpit and the speed of the tank can make it an easy target for any sharp eyed Sniper. My Overall Rating: 7/10 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8.2 - Covenant Vehicles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ghost _____ ---------------------------------/ \ Crew: 1 Weight: 3.25 tons Armament: Two Plasma Cannons(100-250 kW range) Manual Description: The Ghost is the Covenant's standard reconnaissance and rapid attack vehicle. It is equipped with two of what are now accepted as the standard light vehicles mounted weapons: a directed energy weapon capable of projecting a bolt of super-heated plasma in the 100-250kW range. While the vehicle is fast and maneuverable, the driver is virtually unprotected. Summary: The Ghost is the 2nd fastest vehicle to the Banshee. Anyway, it's extremely maneuverable and has two Plasma Cannons. The bolts are similar to that of a Plasma Rifle except they're more powerful. These hovering vehicles are capable of strafing which makes them an excellent anti-infantry vehicle. Strategy: The Ghost would've been a great multiplayer vehicle... if only it could carry more than one person. Anyway, it's great for base defenses and it's high speed and strafing abilities makes it a real annoyance to any tank. Be wary of campers as you are sitting in an open cockpit. Try to move a lot when attacking enemies as a still target is an easy target. My Overall Rating: 8/10 Banshee _____ ---------------------------------/ \ Crew: 1 Weight: 2.25 tons Armament: Two Plasma Cannons(100-250 kW range) Secondary weapon: Two Fuel Rod Cannons Manual Description: The Banshee is the Covenant's standard ground assault aircraft. It is very fast, extremely maneuverable and capable of hovering. It has two weapon pods mounted to either side of the fuselage. Both of these pods contain a light plasma cannon and a fuel rod cannon. Though small arms fire may not disrupt or disable the pilot, only heavy weapons are capable of inflicting damage or destroying the vehicles. Summary: The only actual thing that you can drive that is capable of flying. And it sure is a weapon. With the same weapon as the Hunter and the Ghost, this is a fast and light vehicle that can soar to the heavens. Although it has a strange shape, it's very streamlined and fast. Like the tank, you can't just fire the Fuel Rod Cannon rapidly. You have to wait five seconds. Strategy: Sadly, the Banshee can not be used in Split Screen. Anyway, keep in mind that it is destroyable and because of it's fragile frame, it can easily be shot down by the Covenant and rapidly destroyed by the Sentinels and their lasers. Try to stay higher than your target and hover there. To hover, hold back on the left thumbstick. You'll be pointing downwards. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 9.0 - Enemy List =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The world of Halo is diverse with three different groups living on it's surface. The first you meet on the Pillar of Autumn and throughout the entire game are the Covenant. The second is the Flood that you discover on 343 Guilty Spark. And the third are the Forerunners that you first start fight alongside, but after a betrayal by their leader, 343 Guilty Spark, they turn against you. //////////////////////////////////// // 9.1 - Covenant //-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- //////////////////////////////////// There has been a losing war between the Covenant and the humans. The Covies had more advanced technology, more advanced tactics, and more advanced soldiers. Grunts ------ Manual Description: Approximately 5' tall and relatively weak, Grunts tend to travel in packs and stick close to more powerful allies. Individually they are easy to defeat, but in groups they can overwhelm careless Marines. Their armor seems to house some sort of life-support mechanism. They are known to use a variety of weapons including the plasma pistol, plasma rifle and plasma grenades. Appearance: The Grunts are the tiniest and lowest ranking Covenant quite obviously. They are the only Covenant that scream out words in English. Most of what they say are comical actually. They have either a rounded or pointed object sticking out of their back which is supposedly some sort of life support device. They're quite easy to recognize. Summary: The Grunts are the lowest ranking combat Covenant that you'd meet. They are the Covenants that seem to throw grenades most frequently. Although they're pretty poor shots and have very little combat skill even on Legendary, they can still bring you down if you're careless enough. Grunts can also be found in Shade Gun Turrets. Ranks: Orange(Minor) - You'll see the Orange Grunts found around other more formiddable targets. They're usually quite easy to defeat. I would suggest using your ammunition on the more higher ranking Covenant and use your melee attacks afterwards on these pests. Be careful, these can still throw grenades so no need to charge them. The Minors seem to be sleeping a lot so use that to your advantage. They mostly carry Plasma Pistols and occasionally, Needlers. Red(Major) - Although they're better shots, better grenadiers, and better Grunts overall, they're still pretty simple to disperse. They seem to stick around with Minor Grunts and use their grenades more wisely. They also sleep on the job but you won't usually find Majors as lazy as the Minors. They are still pretty easy to defeat and will run if higher ranking comrades fall. They also carry small Plasma Pistols and Needlers. Black(Special Ops.) - The highest ranking Grunts. On higher difficulty levels, they can actually be a nuisance. Capable of throwing grenades farther and with better accuracy than the other Grunts, these guys can really hurt you. They hang around with the dreaded Black Elites and that makes them even more deadly. They carry Plasma Pistols and Needlers occasionally but their favorite seems to be the Fuel Rod Cannon. The same weapon that the Hunters and Banshees carry. When they die, look out for their Fuel Rod Cannon that they drop. It will self destruct and set off any grenades around it. And you don't want to be caught in the explosion. Special Ops. Grunts are only found in Level 9 and Level 10 thankfully. Strategy: Melee attacks wreak havoc on Grunts as 2-3 smacks with your gun will put their tiny bodies out of commission. The most effective weapon against these guys would probably be the Plasma Pistol or Assault Rifle. Any weapon with a high rate of fire would be useful. Using grenades will bring them down as well. In fact, if you can get them not to notice and stick a Plasma Grenade to their back with other Covenant around, the Grunt will run around in circles and hopefully, knock out some of the other Covenants sticking around. Avoid wasting ammunition on these guys as they're so easy to defeat. Also, when you find these nuisances in Shade Gun Turrets, stick a Plasma Grenade to the gun turret and watch the Grunt fall out. Very funny! Jackals ------- Manual Description: With superior senses of sight, hearing and smell, Jackals serve as scouts and assassins for the Covenant forces. They use plasma pistols and carry a strong energy shield to compensate for their physical weakness; a well-positioned Jackal can hold his own against several Marines, though grenades are effective against them. They stand approximately 5'8" tall. Appearance: These Covenant are also pretty hard to miss with their shields. The Jackal's body is fairly weak and if you can get a shot behind their shields, you can easily bring it down. Their shield can also be brought offline but it'll come back up again. Also, the Blue and Orange Jackals have different colored arms as explained below. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. Summary: The Jackals are the second most maneuverable Covenant next to the Elite. They carry an energy shield that is quickly brought down by a Plasma Pistol or Plasma Rifle. These don't throw grenades or at least I've never witnessed them. There actual body without the shield is fairly weak and after you bring down their shields, you can use a better weapon to knock them out. Ranks: Blue(Minor) - These are relatively poorer shots than the Majors. They can still hurt you on higher difficulty levels. Their shields are also easier to take down with a nice Plasma weapon. They use overcharge less often and their accuracy is worse. Their arms are black. Orange(Major) - Only a step up from the standard Minor, the Majors are more accurate shots. They also find the overcharge fire better and will use those more often. They stay on balance more and won't stumble. But, like the Minors, the Majors can easily be taken down with a overcharged Plasma Pistol to bring down their shields. However, even without their shields, they can still take a good 2-3 melee attacks. Their arms are orange. Strategy: The best way to knock these guys out would be too run up to them and smack them with the butt of your gun. And you can do that when you find a Jackal by itself. However, you won't always be able to do this because of the risk. Maybe there are dangerous Hunters or Elites around. Maybe there are more than "one" Jackal. Well, then you'd have to rely on a trusty Plasma Pistol for taking down their shields and taking them out that way. Or, you can take them out with a well placed Fragmentation Grenade. I find that the Jackals are less wary of grenades so if you happen throw one behind them, they usually won't see it unless you actually stick it too them. The Jackals are pretty tough in groups but using grenades are very effective. Elites ------ Manual Description: There are a few varieties of the Elite, but all are roughly 8'6" tall and incredibly strong. Their strength allows them to rely on brute force when necessary, but they're quite capable of brilliant battlefield tactics as well. Their natural resilience is augmented with full-body energy shielding which recharges when depleted. They wield plasma pistols, plasma rifles, grenades and needlers. Appearance: The Elite, in my opinion looks the most human. It even walks human unlike some of the others. The Elites can be found in a variety of colors depending on their rank but you'll see the Blue Elites most often in the first few levels and throughout the rest of the game. You'll also meet less common but more difficult Elites as well. Summary: Elites are probably the second on the Covenant heirarchy next to the Hunters. They're extremely maneuverable and are more durable than other Covenant with their energy shields. Yes, just like yours, they can recharge and annoy you. There are many ranks of Elites that can confuse you. You'd probably want to take out the Elites before anything else. Ranks: Blue(Minor) - Although they are the lowest rank, they can still make a formiddable foe. Especially when they come in groups. That's when grenades come in handy. They don't throw grenades often and seem to stick around lower ranking Grunts to at least give them a chance. They seem to carry the Plasma Rifle more often. Red(Major) - These are a bit better shots than the Minors but they can still be quite easy to defeat... or tough. They don't throw grenades very often either. You'll usually find these around other lower ranking Elites and lower ranking Grunts. They can use Plasma Rifles and Needlers. Invisible(Stealth) - These annoying pests, although hard to see, are pretty easy to defeat. First of all, they aren't really invisible. Look for distortions in the air that will easily give them away. Just blast away at that spot. Another thing that makes life a helluva amount easier is the fact that these Elites don't carry energy shields! That means a few shots from a Plasma weapon can easily bring one down. Just remember not to move too much when facing these. Staying in one spot will cause it to move and you can focus on it that way. Be careful, the Stealth Elites can also carry Plasma Swords at times. Black(Special Op.) - These are very annoying. They are very maneuverable and use Plasma Grenades more often. They are hard to shoot at and love to hide around. In fact, these Special Op. Elites actually use patterns and strategies. The best thing to do would be to use the same tactics as this Elite. Keep moving around and hiding for your shield to recharge. Then you can use a better weapon than them and smack them down. These Elites seem to hang around the Black Grunts and carry Plasma Rifles and sometimes, Needlers. They won't hesitate to come up to you and melee you to the floor. Luckily, we won't be seeing these guys until Level 9 and 10. Gold(Commander) - The most powerful Elite. Luckily, you will rarely find these guys, even on Legendary. But when you do happen to meet one, avoid it altogether if possible. If you can't run away, start moving. Strafe back and forth attacking it rapidly. There is really no easy way to defeat these guys but using vehicles against the Commanders is a good choice. Also, the Gold Elite is one of the only Elites capable of wielding the all powerful Plasmatic Sword capable of rendering you lifeless with a single swipe. Strategy: The Elites are kind of hard to take down. Use vehicles whenever possible, strafe back and forth, hide, and use their tactics. That's really the one key thing to remember. Use their tactics. You will probably be able to outsmart them that way. Also, use the Sniper Rifle whenever you could. Even if you don't kill it with a shot, you will damage it by bringing down it's shield. Keep in mind that Elites on higher difficulty levels and with higher rankings can take up to four sniper shots before falling. You have to know where to hit them. On Legendary, four sniper shots to a Gold Commander Elite to anywhere except the head and chest will kill one. However, if you get two shots to their head, they'll fall. Or you can use three shots to their chest. Head shots are very, very useful when the Elite hasn't spotted you yet. Hunters ------- Game Description: Hunters stand 12' tall, though in their combat state they contract to approximately eight feet. Hunters fight with a fuel rod gun integrated directly into their armor. They carry an enormous and nearly-impervious metal shield made of an unknown alloy, which they sometimes use as a melee weapon. Appearance: The largest Covenant, the Hunters are very intimidating with their armor and large weapon. These guys carry a large shield and a Fuel Rod Cannon fused together into their armor for easy carrying. They have a few horns or spikes on their head piece. They have a few exposed orange spots. Those are it's weak spots. Summary: The Hunters are very intimidating yes but there's one thing that makes them weak and once you figure it out, Hunters will be extremely easy to bring down. If you don't use this advantage, you'll have a bit of trouble and waste a lot of ammunition. Be careful of their annoying weapon that they fire at you when you're far away. They will melee you with their shields if you're up close and that deals quite a bit of damage. Ranks: (There is only one rank with blue armor) Strategy: Give them a nice shot to their orange spot both on their back and on their neck. Get up close to them with a pistol or shotgun,(if you have them, if not, use any human weapon you have.) and strafe to the side when they get near to avoid their melee. This will expose their large orange spot on their back. Shoot at it with a single shot from the pistol or shotgun(more shots will be required with any other weapon.) You should be able to knock it out quickly and conserve ammunition. //////////////////////////////////// // 9.2 - Flood //-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- //////////////////////////////////// The Flood are an ancient alien specie trapped on Halo. After the humans and Covenant landed on Halo, the Flood had a chance to attack and kill and eat. Flood Infection Forms --------------------- Appearance: The Flood Infection Forms are the tiniest Flood forms. They are physically weak and look like little light bulbs. They have small tentacles on the bottom. They are brownish yellowish like every other Flood Form. Summary: These guys will explode on contact if you're shields are up. Try to attack them using the Assault Rifle with short bursts. A few Infection Forms won't do you too much damage but beware, if you're shields have been brought down, the Infections will literally, attach to you and eat you. They will disattach at times but you probably won't survive with some Infection Forms actually eating your flesh. Talk about pain. Ranks: N/A Strategy: Avoid getting them on you when you're shields are low. With large groups, take them out with short bursts of Assault Rifles. If they are close and in small numbers, use a simple melee attack to make them explode. Flood Combat Forms ------------------ Appearance: The Flood Combat Forms are pretty unsightly. No seriously, the marine forms are like Zombies and the Elites are like, ughh. After killing one, you can shoot off limbs and look inside their body and their rotting organs and bones. They're yellowish, brownish like all the Flood. Summary: The Combat Forms are pretty annoying. They can jump great distances, carry weapons, and have an annoying three fingered arm(similar to Freddy Krueger's) that they melee you with. But, you will be meeting quite a lot of these, especially in Level 7. They can carry a few weapons including all Covenant weapons and Shotguns, Assault Rifles, and even Rocket Launchers. Ranks: Flood Form 1(marines) - These can't jump as long as Form 2 but they're still quite annoying. These used to be the marines that founght by you before. It's pretty disgusting to see what they've turned into. They are generally easier to kill then Form 2. These will drop Fragmentation Grenades. Flood Form 2(Elites) - Because Elites are bred for combat, these forms are more powerful than Form 1. They can jump really high and carry more powerful weapons like the Rocket Launcher. They are larger than Form 2 and could be easily distinguished by their strangely shaped head. It looks something like an elephant trunk. They will drop Plasma Grenades. Strategy: If you can get your hands on a Shotgun, use that. You can easily tell that the Shotgun is the one most effective weapon against these freaks. Try to take them out at close range. If you don't have a Shotgun, use a Pistol or an Assault Rifle. The Form 2s will jump at you so be careful of that. When you see a rocket fly through the air, prepare yourself for more. Flood with Rocket Launchers are very, very tough. Flood Carrier Forms ------------------- Appearance: The Flood Carriers are the giant balloon like creatures that have short legs and walk extremely slow. In fact, the reasons they have such short legs are (a)They are what's left of the two smallest Covenant, Jackal's and Grunts and (b)It's only half the leg. Apparently, anything below the knees had to go. So what they walk on are really their knees. Anyway, it's pretty hard to miss as it walks slowly and looks like an inflated piece of yellowish crap. Summary: The Flood Carriers are kind of like kamikaze Flood. They explode and damage you. And if the explosion wasn't enough, 5-7 Infection Forms will pop out as well. However, they are pretty weak and can't withstand a single M6D shot or a few rounds with the Assault Rifle. Ranks: N/A Strategy: You can use these Forms to your advantage by killing them near other Flood. A single M6D shot at medium range should do. The resulting explosion should kill any Flood nearby and if there are grenades around, you are in for one hell of an explosion. But be careful, if one explodes near you, ouch. And if you are unlucky enough to have a few grenades nearby, double ouch. Just avoid getting too close to one and you should be fine. I wouldn't suggest wasting Shotgun ammunition on the Carrier Forms although it is the best weapon against them. Still, they can be killed easily with any other human weapon. //////////////////////////////////// // 9.3 - Forerunners //-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- //////////////////////////////////// The Forerunners are the creators of Halo. They are the ones who supposedly "built" the four ring installations and everything on it. Although they weren't human, they were predicted to be human sized because the multiple structures and installations on Halo were built and could fit humans. The Forerunners placed defense robots and a monitor in charge of every Ring istallation. Sentinels --------- Appearance: These robotic orblike are capable of floating and wielding a precision laser that cuts into anything and damages it. They can easily be distinguished because they float and don't have the blue glow as Guilty Spark does. Summary: The Sentinels are the Monitor's only defense. And they are pretty darn good ones too if only they were more durable. They are extremely weak and are most effected by Covenant weapons. Two shots from a Plasma Rifle and a an overcharge from a Plasma Pistol can bring one down. You won't be meeting this until the later levels. At first, you fight alongside these, then you go against them. Ranks: Unshielded - These are the weaker Sentinels. They carry a precision laser and float around. Shielded - Not much different than the Unshielded. They carry the same weapon and don't seem much better in combat. Even with their shields, they are still quite weak and vulnerable to Plasma fire. Strategy: The best overall weapon to use against the Sentinels would be the Plasma Pistol, second the Plasma Rifle, and third, the Needler. And Assault Rifle and Shotgun would be pretty good only if the Sentinel is at a close range. Try not to stay in it's laser for too long. In the harder difficulties, they can bring down your shield in seconds. Use lots of cover. There's no need to rush into a battle with these guys. One Sentinel is enough but think about, but being simaltaneously attacked by 5 or more, ouch. Also, when one is hovered down to your current level, smack it with your gun to damage it. Since the Sentinels are trying to destroy the Flood, it's best to leave conflicts between them and wait for it to end. 343 Guilty Spark(thanks to shenton for correcting this) ---------------- Appearance: You can't miss him. He has a blue glow when seen from far and he says annoying lines and hums. Summary: Guilty Spark is the Monitor of 'Installation 04' (which we know as 'Halo'), which means Halo is one of at least 4 rings. Guilty Spark is only one of several robotic guardians of Halos throughout the universe, all created by the Forerunner, about which nothing is known for sure except: - They made Halo (and the other Halos) and Guilty Spark (and presumably other monitors on other Halos). - They are close to human (or Elite) sized - hence all the buildings on Halo being scaled to human proportions. - They kept the Flood on Halo to study them. - They have disappeared Ranks: N/A Strategy: Ignore this Monitor. He can't attack you and you can't attack him. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 10.0 - Strategies and Tips =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- If you wish to contribute to this section, please consult my topic on the Halo message board, email me, or IM me. Contact information can be found in section Contact Information. If I find that your information is either useless, or I personally don't like it, expect me to turn it down. Don't worry, I'll contact you if I turned a contribution down so you usually don't have to worry. The ones without a name were from me. -- 10.1 - Multiplayer Tips -I would strongly suggest knowing everything about the level you're playing in. When you're not playing someone else, take some time to explore each level to find weapons, hiding spots, things you'd never think before. -Try to use the weapons best suited for a certain map. For example, Sidewinder has many sniping spots so a sniper would be a good choice. Battle Creek is more of an assault map so a close range weapon would be better. -Never stop moving! a stationary target is an easy kill for a sniper.(Blamat) -The Human Pistol is by far the strongest weapon for multiplayer. Learn where it respawns and learn to dominate with it.(MHarvey124) -Learn respawn points on every map. Respawn kills are cheap but effective. (MHarvey124) -If you are about to die while in combat, use this grenade trick to take him down with you. Do a melee attack, and then do another. Right before you do the second melee attack, throw a grenade (preferably at the ground or a wall, somewhere where it won't bounce far). This way, you look like you're doing a melee attack while you are really throwing a grenade. If you are playing with friends on 1 xbox, try using a frag grenade, so you don't have to worry about your friend looking at your screen and seeing a bright blue grenade behind him. If timed right and done correctly, your enemy will have a very short victory celebration.(Xicisor88) -- 10.2 - Vehicle Tips Warthog --------------------------------------------------------------------- -When stoping a Warthog, with enemies around, try and position the vehicle so that the right side of the car (with the two marines on it) faces the enemy soldiers, so that they can better defend you.(lkjhgfdsa) -Avoid overturning and flipping in the Warthog. The Warthog is very durable but it handles really bad. -Warthog, good when you have a gunner, but watch out for rockets. Makes good sniper protection.(Blamat) Scorpion -------------------------------------------------------------------- -The Scorpion tank is very powerful against covenant troops, but it's a fragile machine, in that you and your four possible passengers are the only targets the enemy will be shooting at, and the tank offers no protection, other than some powerful weapons.(lkjhgfdsa) -Remember not to fire the cannon at, or blow up any object that is very close to the scorpion, or you and your passengers will take serious damage. Try and save your cannon fire for ghosts, enemy tanks, gun emplacements, and large, closely packed groups of covenant. firing the cannon at a banshee will almost never hit it, unless it is heading straight towards you, so concentrate on using your machine gun on banshees whenever they come at you.(lkjhgfdsa) -Hunters appeard several times during your drive through the mission with the scorpion, and unless you are facing an enemy tank, they should then be your first target for your cannon. It's practically impossible to avoid their shots, so don't waste your time trying that, but rather concentrate on killing them before they fire again.(lkjhgfdsa) -Scorpion, good when you get outside of the base. If the setttings are 100% health, one tank rocket should kill somebody, and use the machine guns up close. Be careful of rockets. To avoid sniping, turn the vehicle away from the sniper, then just turn the crosshair/turret around.(Blamat) Ghost ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ghosts are easy to turn over, and sometimes difficult to maneuver through rocky areas, so move cautiously when there's alot of obstacles, or you may waste even more time have to flip your ghost back over and get back on again. (lkjhgfdsa) -Ghosts are fast and fire fast as well, however they are easy targets for infantry fire, so be cautious around foot soldiers. Tanks are very weak against ghosts, and as long as you can avoid a direct hit from their plasma rockets, you'll be fine, just keep on firing at them.(lkjhgfdsa) -Ghost, good "get away with the flag" vehicle, and the plasma gun can stun, so you can easily stun someone and run them down.(Blamat) Banshee --------------------------------------------------------------------- -The Banshee is one of the two vehicles that can and will explode after a set amount of damage, so remember to be cautious when you're facing gun emplacements, banshees, or tanks.(lkjhgfdsa) -The banshee has two firing mechanisms, so try to take advantage of both of them when you make enemy contact. The left trigger fires a green cannon type ball, which can do serious damage to a tank, but isn't accurate enough to use in a dog fight.(lkjhgfdsa) -When fighting another banshee the best strategy is to get behind them and pummel them with shots, try and predict their next move, and fire into their path so that they run into your fire.(lkjhgfdsa) -Be cautious around walls, since sometimes after bumping, or scrapping against one, you will fall out of the banshee and most likely die.(lkjhgfdsa) -Tanks fire very powerful plasma rockets, but they take a while to reload, after a tank has fired you should make a dive towards it and fire your own missile as well as your guns, pull up as soon as you are close, or as soon as it fires, and try and avoid the plasma.(lkjhgfdsa) -You will be facing rocket launchers about halfway through one of the last missions, so when you reach a point where you see rocket launchers firing (even if it isn't directed at you) land and exit your banshee, or you will be blown to smithereens.(lkjhgfdsa) -- 10.3 - Enemy Tips -The best weapon to use against a Hunter is strangely enough, a M6D Pistol. Take them down in the orange spot found on their back and below their neck. -For Elites, I've found that the needler works best. Unload a full clip of ammo on them and it will take out their shields and health (even gold elites on Legendary). Also, the blasts will take out some nearby enemies and may even trigger some grenade explosions if there are any on the ground. Another Useful gun combination is the plasma pistol and another rapid fire weapon, like an AR or a plasma rifle. Use the PP's charge up shot to take out an Elite's shield and then mow him down with your other gun.(Xicisor88) -For Hunters, if you do not have a human pistol or a sniper rifle, then your best course of action is close combat. For example, if you encounter 2 hunters in the same area, the best way to kill them is to get in close to one, and then evade his melee attack (when he lunges, move to his side; it takes a little practice) and shoot him in the back in the orange area when he passes you. I've found that when you are in melee combat with one hunter, the other hunter will not attempt to shoot you or atack at all.(Xicisor88) -The flood take very little damage from plasma, so using projectile weapons like a shotgun work best, also the Flood are pretty much imprevious to sniper rounds. On the contrary, The Covenant easily fall from plasma, but the best thing to do is to take out shields with plasma, and then use a human weapon. (Blamat) -Against the carrier flood, the PISTOL is THE best weapon at mid-long range. Oh, and the Pistol is also really good against the Flood.(Kingcodez) -Meleeing is USELESS against the flood(except the spore-infection-baby flood) It takes upwards of 10 hits on a warrior flood to even to damage.(Kingcodez) -NEVER go full auto with the AR on a jackal(at close range)(for those who DO use an AR on jackals)most of the bullets will bounce off the shield and might hit you.(Kingcodez) -Don't shoot rockets directly at someone. Aim for their feet, or a nearby wall and attempt to kill them in splash damage.(Kurka) -- 10.4 - Level Tips Pillar of Autumn ------------------------------------------------------------ -There are many Marines on this level so use them to help you live. Halo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Cortana will give you a Nav Point to follow if you are lost. These Nav Points will appear only if you don't get to the objectives right away. Wait a few minutes. -Use the Sniper Rifle in this level. Get on a hill and snipe the Covenant while they are still in the dropship when landing. Truth and Reconciliation ---------------------------------------------------- -In the empty holding cell, beyond the control panel is a cloak. Always useful for taking out everything in the room Keyes is being held in.(madruk) The Silent Cartographer ----------------------------------------------------- -Be careful of the Gold Elite, he will ambush you towards the end of the level when escaping. Assault on the Control Room ------------------------------------------------- -The "white arrows" on the ground will always lead you in the correct location. This makes life a lot easier as Assault on the Control Room is full of battles and you can get disorientated easily. -This is the only level where you can take a Scorpion Tank and one of the two where you can get a Banshee so use vehicles whenever possible. 343 Guilty Spark ------------------------------------------------------------ -Your escape route will be different then the route you entered from. The Library ----------------------------------------------------------------- -This level is very linear so it will be easy to navigate through but the Flood will sometimes get you confused about direction. Remember to never lose track of where you are. Two Betrayals --------------------------------------------------------------- -Two Betrayals is basically just Assault on the Control Room backwards. Remember to follow the arrows in the opposite direction. Keyes ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Towards the end, you have to get a patrol Banshee. Instead of going through the hallway and fight lots of Covies, jump onto the platform of the second level, and then the first. Jumping straight from level 3 will only get you killed. Not only will you save a good 10 minutes of fighting, you also get a few seconds ride in a really fast Banshee that can fly through walls before the cutscene comes on. The Maw --------------------------------------------------------------------- Try to avoid going "too" fast with the Warthog towards the end. Instead, use brakes and avoid overspinning and flipping. -- 10.5 - Secrets and Miscellaneous -If you're a sniper, keep your sensitivity done to 2-4, but if you don't snipe often, keep it at least higher than 5-6.(Blamat) -For a 3 second time bomb, make sure you have 1 frag, and 1 Sticky Grenade. Throw the sticky(at the ground mid-long range of course)then since you're outta stickys, keep punching A(or your nade button)and you'll throw the frag, and if all goes well the two should have a simultaneous explosion(.02-.5 delay maybe)this only works if you have ONE no more no less, of Stickys. The # of frags doesn't matter. If you have more than 1 sticky and you can throw the nade, and hit black fast enough, maybe just maybe it will work.(Kingcodez) -I've been experimenting with the control options and I've found that the Jumpy setting is one of the best(To emphasize, turning and jumping is a heck amount easier, unless you have a second thumb or an opposable index finger)oh and Grenade is set to A which prevents accidental friendly quote "Killage" (Kingcodez) -When you encounter a big group of enemies and you and your partner continually try to kill them but fail, this is what I do; I toss a plasma grenade on my partner, he runs into the crowd of baddies, and kills them when the grenade blows. obviously he dies too...if everyone isn't dead, walk back and make your pal respawn, then do the same thing.(RSVP the ASAP) --Crouch when you land to take less damage. (When jumping down from high places.)(Morlok Man) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 11.0 - Credits and Thanks =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Microsoft - The publishers and the guys that made it all possible. Bungie - Developed Halo. Need I say more? shenton - Correcting my information for the forerunners. Thanks to the Following for Contributing to the Reader's Corner - MHarvey124(2), Blamat(6), Xicisor88(3), madruk(1), Kingcodez(5), RSVP the ASAP(1), lkjhgfdsa(12), Morlok Man(1), Kurka(1) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 12.0 - Version History =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Version 1.3 - This is Dark Vortex updating. I can't believe this guide has sat for this long without my username updated. Well, everything's been touched up again. In all honesty, this guide is FINISHED. Don't expect another update. ;D Version 1.2 This is A.K.A updating, I added a few strategies I wrote a long time ago so I thought Id add them here. Version 1.1 - Few changes were made. Version 1.0 - This guide is very complete. _A.K.A_ co-authored to finish this FAQ, he added the multiplayer section, and did the levels Keyes and The Maw. Version 0.5 - This guide is very incomplete. Submitted to http://www.game- guides.tk today. ---------------------------- END OF DOCUMENT -------------------------------- Copyright 2007 Armin Jewell and Quan Jin