HHH HH HH A LLLLL HH HHH AAA LLL OOOOOOOOOOO HH HHH A AA LLL OOOOO OOO HH HHH AA LLL OOO OOO HHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAA LLL OO OO OOO HHH HHH AA AA LLL O OO OOO HHH HHH AA AA LLL OOO HHH HHH AA AA LLLL L OOOOO OOO HHHH HHHH AAA AAA LLLLLLLLLLLLLL OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOO OOOOO 222 OOOOOOO OOO 222222222 OOOOOOO OO 22 222 OOOOOOO O 22 OOOOOOOO OOO 22 OOOOOOOO OO 22222 OOOOOOO 222 OOOOOOO 2222222222222 OOOOOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOO [------Legendary Difficulty Guide------] [ Version 2.7 ] [ By ] /== ==\ || DeusExMachina (on Neoseeker) || || MrWalkthrough (on GameFAQs) || || Deus_Ex_Machina (on Bungie.net) || || Trigintillion (on Xbox Live and Xbox.com) || || Anton Bovin (in, you know, that world outside the Xbox?) || \== ==/ ________________________ "The Great Journey waits for no one, brother. Not even you." -Prophet of Truth /======================================== // / /Contents: // / /1. Intro / 2. Storyline 3. Characters 4. Difficulties 5. Weapons / -Human Weapons / -Covenant Weapons -Sentinel Weapons /6. Enemies // -Covenant / -Flood -Sentinels /7. Artifacts / 8. Vehicles / -Human Vehicles / -Covenant Vehicles /9. Other tips / 10. Walkthrough / -I. The Heretic / -II. Armory -III. Cairo Station -IV. Outskirts -V. Metropolis -VI. The Arbiter -VII. Oracle -VIII. Delta Halo -IX. Regret -X. Sacred Icon -XI. Quarantine Zone -XII. Gravemind -XIII. Uprising -XIV. High Charity -XV. The Great Journey /11. Secrets // -Skulls / -Secret Swords -Others /12. How to Contact Me / 13. Version History 14. Legal 15. Thanks to... 16. Final Word / / /======================================== // / OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 1. Intro]________________________________________ Welcome, my name is Anton Bovin; this is my fifth guide. The other guides I wrote were for the games called Evil Twin: Cyprien’s Chronicles, Myst III: Exile, Worms: Forts Under Siege, and, of course, the sacred Halo. First thing I should point out and you should know: don’t get scared away by the big “Legendary Difficulty Guide” title. This guide is intended for Legendary, but can successfully be used for any other difficulty. In fact, I strongly suggest you pass another difficulty first, because it’s not a good idea to start trying to pass Legendary without a head start on the guns and tricks of the game. I’m planning on making this guide more complete than the ones I saw on the Internet by adding a walkthrough. Yes, the ones that are only walkthroughs have walkthroughs, but I think this is one of the only two or three complete Legendary guides that contains one plus a complete collection of tips for vehicles, enemies, and weapons. You might find the walkthrough unclear about precisely where to go and the number of enemies in each area, but I’ll include the vital parts. There are some huge spoilers outside the walkthrough, so play the game first if you care. I’ll try not to make things sound too easy. In other words, I won't tell you to run into an area full of Elites, kill them all, and then move on to another part. I’ll describe the places I had trouble with in detail so that you don’t have too much trouble. Note that the game plays differently each time. Don't expect the gameplay of your game to be exactly like mine. This guide is for single player, so I'll assume that you, like me, don't have the option of co-op. Otherwise, you might avoid some dilemmas, as it would seem that I'm trying to be in several places at once. I hear that co-op is very good to have, but I don't. Almost anyone who has ever read a video game guide before knows that some authors have the habit of wasting their time by listing the exact number of enemies in every area. I'm not going to do that. Usually. I think it's completely useless and unnecessary as most of the time I'm busier killing the enemies than counting them. To generalize everything I've said so far: I made this guide to be as universal as possible. Of course, I had to overcome some paradoxes and contradictions to do so. For example, I insist that everyone pass one of the easier difficulties before moving on to Legendary, but I'm giving weapon and story details as though the reader is new to Halo 2. Hopefully you'll find what you're looking for here. Also, I'm prone to using big words which may not be on an average person's level of comprehension (told you!). OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 2. Storyline]____________________________________ Halo The story is set in the future, in the year 2552. Humankind is tired of living on Earth due to overpopulation and decided to build an engine that will transport spaceships at the speed of light to other planets. They built it and started going to those other planets. Everything seemed to be going all right when all contact with the colony called Harvest was lost. The human government sent the ship Argo to see what happened. Argo was never seen again. That was a cue for the United Nations Space Command to send a fleet of warships to Harvest. One surviving ship returned and reported that an alien warship was in the colony’s orbit and had obliterated the population. The war went on for thirty years during which humans got a transmission from the aliens, which revealed that they called themselves the Covenant and for some reason they didn’t like humans and decided to kill them. It so happened that because of this, the humans didn’t like the Covenant either, so they decide to board a Covenant ship and find their home world. They put the boarding party on the ship called the Pillar of Autumn, but before they could organize, the Covenant destroyed Reach, the last human citadel against the aliens. The Pillar of Autumn had to make a blind jump to a random location in space to try to lure the Covenant away. They arrived near a huge ring-like artificial planet near a gas giant, Threshold. Now they have to land there and discover what it hides... Halo 2 Master Chief, the protagonist of Halo, survived and returned to Earth. But there’s one problem: the Covenant has found Earth and is doing their best to kill all humankind. And Master Chief is the one to defend it. He’ll have to fight on Earth, in space... and shortly somewhere else. I won’t spoil it for you. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 3. Characters]___________________________________ Master Chief-good guy number one. He’s a cyborg, but technically he’s a human with artificially improved bones and muscles inside the MJOLNIR Mark VI armor. He’s not the usual guy with limited health, but he’s got a rechargeable shield that, when damaged, recharges in a couple of seconds. Unlike the first Halo, he doesn’t have any health other than that, or at least no indicator of it. If the shield is depleted, he’ll take only a few shots before dying. That’s especially true of Legendary. For more details on how the SPARTANS originated, read The Fall of Reach. Arbiter-good guy number two. From the beginning he’s obviously a dedicated human exterminator, but then he really gets ticked off at the Hierarchs of the Covenant and starts fighting against them. He’s pretty much identical to the Master Chief, except being an Elite. Even the HUD is a carbon copy of the Chief’s, except its purple color and the Active Camouflage meter. Sarge Johnson-he’s a more or less major character, and he does put a lot more flavor and language into the storyline. He’ll typically be in and out of the gameplay and he’ll normally carry powerful guns like the Sniper Rifle and the Beam Rifle. And he'll be immortal. Marines-they’ll help you a lot, but they usually get killed off at the start of every major battle, especially those long sieges on some places filled with enemies. Too bad that you can’t give them any commands, or you could stop them from pointlessly charging into the place and getting ripped apart. They will be smarter now, driving vehicles with you at the gun or vice versa. And if you care to listen, they’ll occasionally warn you about snipers and such. But they’re still mediocre drivers and will occasionally get stuck in places where it’s very hard to get stuck. It’s better than nothing, though. They will usually serve as cannon fodder/sacrifices and will be an acceptable source of ammo. Prophets-there are three: Truth, Mercy, and Regret (in order of survival). They’re the leaders of the Covenant. They come with some sort of hovercraft that seem to be equipped with a Prophet-Hunter Fuel Rod Cannon, though Regret is the only one that actually used it. You’ll see or hear a Prophet, usually Truth, almost every time you watch a cutscene inside High Charity. Lord Hood-my guess is that he’s an admiral, but no word on why he’s called that. He doesn’t seem to be wearing a hood... Tartarus-he’s a Brute. In both ways. He’s mean, nasty, ugly, and pretty strong. Tartarus seems to come directly from the Norse mythology: the god Thor carried a hammer, like Tartarus; and Tartar (as I remember) was some infinitely deep chasm mentioned there. I may call him something like “the Monkey” or “Mr. Mohawk”. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 4. Difficulties]_________________________________ This guide is for Legendary, but since I recommend playing at least one of the easier difficulties first, I’ll include a full description of them. I will start each description with the phrase provided by the game. Easy -“Enemies cower and fall before your unstoppable onslaught, yet final victory will leave you wanting more.” Easy is the easiest difficulty and you can literally run through, shooting the Covenant and generally having a good time. In my opinion, this is the best place to get started, but because the difficulty increases exponentially (i.e. the enemies’ strength and the damage they do to you is doubled each time you go to a harder difficulty), some people reasonably argue that it’s better to get started with Normal rather than Easy. But if you trust my opinion, start with this. Normal -“Hordes of enemies vie to destroy you, but nerves of steel and a quick trigger give you a solid chance to prevail.” This is remarkably more difficult than Easy, but the description says the truth: be patient, fire at everything that moves that’s not a human or another ally, and if you get killed too much, figure out a new way to do things. Always sneak up on enemies if you can, and use cover to dodge enemy fire. Use grenades to clear up areas that you’re finding hard to clear from where you are. Heroic -“The enemies are as numerous as they are ferocious; their attacks are devastating. Survival is not guaranteed.” This is a challenge. You’ll have to pick the strategy you will use, not just run into an area full of enemies and start emptying your guns into them. Do it and you will probably die. Always take cover and allow the shield to recharge. Reload your guns. Backtrack to a previously cleared area to get grenades, new weapons and ammo. Get back to the enemies. Flank them if possible. Use a nearby object as cover, throw in a grenade or two, and start shooting. Legendary -“You face enemies who have never known defeat, who laugh in alien tongues at your efforts to survive. This is suicide.” This in-game description doesn’t leave me much to clear up. Like it says, this is suicide. You will be dying a lot, but if you have enough determination and patience, you might actually make it to the end of the game in one piece. If your life expectancy is too low, rethink your options, start using different guns to see how good they are against the enemies you face, and of course, be as careful as possible. And never expect to finish any part of the game quickly. Halo 2 is literally saturated with those checkpoint-less places where you have to sit in one place and patiently pepper the enemies with fire from your guns, where any indiscretion can mean you losing hours of progress. Always count for at least an hour at a time of sitting at the console. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO ______________________________[ 5. Weapons]_______________________________ “Speak softly and carry a big stick” -African proverb Human weapons The Human weapons are the ones I prefer to stick with. Although they’re not the best in some situations, they’re normally the most useful ones in the long run. The arsenal has changed a lot: some weapons have been added, some have been removed, some have been improved, and Halo’s most useful gun, the Pistol, has been stripped down to include only its basic functions. Each description will have some stats in the beginning (the numbers might be slightly off) and a verdict at the end. -SMG Accuracy: not too good, but a lot better than the late Assault Rifle Clip size: 60 rounds in each clip Ammo capacity: 180 in each SMG, plus those in the clip Power: amazing in the right hands, otherwise pretty good The new Assault Rifle. The SMG is much smaller and can be dual-wielded, unlike its Halo cousin. It’s much better, too, but there are not as many of them as I would’ve liked. If you’re going to use it, make sure you have a good gun behind you--this uses up ammo like there’s no tomorrow. It’s much easier if you’re using two of them at once, but the ammo goes twice as fast too. Plasma Rifles are good weapons when double-wielded with an SMG. In fact, a Plasma Rifle and an SMG form a scary combination. On Easy, enemies can literally go down by the dozen from this kind of firepower. This is good on Grunts. Even a Black Grunt can be killed after a second or so from two SMGs. Don’t use this on Flood unless you have to. They’re very hard to kill with SMGs and if that wasn’t enough, they sometimes get up afterwards. It’s just a waste of ammo. But if there’s a lone half-dead Flood nearby and you’re low on ammo, but there’s an extra SMG lying around, it’s just not practical to use you own guns. It’s much more accurate than the Assault Rifle. This enables you to use it for medium range jobs instead of the point-blank-only assassinations the Assault Rifle limited you to. An SMG is not much use when used without a Plasma Rifle of at least another SMG. In most places, it just takes too much time to kill something with only one SMG without dying yourself. If you have an SMG and some Spores around you, it’s not very convenient to use your own guns when you can pick up the SMG. Try not to dual-wield a Needler with an SMG. Neither does much damage alone and an SMG and a Needler won’t do much damage together, either. When you’re dual-wielding two SMGs, make sure you don’t reload if you might be attacked at any moment (unless you’re about to be forced to reload). It takes too long and you can’t stop it without dropping one of the guns--pressing Y will stop it, but you’ll drop an SMG, and meleeing will also make you drop an SMG. This is a pretty good method of killing off Drones/Bugs from close range. But if you meet more than two or three that closely, the SMG won’t help you anyway. Okay, I know that this is heresy, sacrilege, blasphemy, irreverence, derision... deep breath... condescension, disparagement, et cetera, but I suggest you not dual-wield SMGs (and especially not use them without dual-wielding) in any situation where they’re not the best weapon available. For instance, one or two SMGs are definitely not the best weapon when you’re trying to fight Elites or, say, Hunters. //=== Overall: 8/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: pretty good. Certainly better than the Assault Rifle. SMGs work ||pretty well at close range but use them for medium and long range only ||if you get desperate enough. \\======================================================================== -Battle Rifle Accuracy: depends on your aiming ability and the target, otherwise you can fire it with pinpoint accuracy Clip size: 36 rounds per clip Ammo capacity: 108 rounds plus those in the clip Power: pretty good when it comes to Grunts Second trademark weapon of Halo 2. It’s not available in most levels, and when you can actually use it, there’s not usually much ammo for it. You might call it the second Pistol. It’s pretty much identical to Halo’s Pistol--great for sniping and has about the same amount of ammo. The only two differences: it’s a rifle and it fires three rounds instead of one. That doesn’t deplete ammo as fast as you might think, as long as you’re not fighting some big enemy. It often takes down a Grunt with only one shot, as long as that’s a lucky shot (headshot). Aim for the head whenever you’re attending to a Grunt. Sometimes you can use this successfully on an Elite, if the latter doesn’t have very good cover. When it’s standing in the open, pepper it with bullets until the shield lets up. Then it should die very quickly. I’ve seen an Elite expire after only one or two bullets (once its shield’s depleted). This can also get you killed if you get too carried away and don’t notice your own shield. The Battle Rifle is not one of those universal any-range guns. Of course, if you get good enough with it you can use it at any range, but I prefer medium to long range sniping. It’s perfect for getting rid of Sniper Jackals--one headshot will be guaranteed to kill one and if you hit it somewhere else, it won’t take long either. The only problem is that you have to catch them off guard before they catch you off guard--one shot from the Beam Rifle is lethal to you and one shot from the Battle Rifle is not necessarily lethal to them. This is much better on Shielded Jackals. For some reason I find that they’re much easier killed with the Battle Rifle than the Sniper Jackals are. Maybe it’s because I don’t have to stay out of the way, as their Plasma Pistols are not the best guns I’ve ever seen. Again, it’s great for sniping Grunts. Have you noticed that they sometimes carry those Plasma Cannons of theirs before setting them up? If you use the Battle Rifle to quickly kill a Grunt before it has a chance to set up its cannon, you’ll eliminate the danger of an Elite of another Grunt using it. Despite the fact that the Battle Rifle seems to be the descendant of Halo’s Pistol, it doesn’t work very well against Flood. The range is pretty much unlimited, even though, like in every other gun, the reticle stops lighting up red if the target is a certain distance away. Sometimes the enemy is very far down and can’t get to you, while you can snipe it with the Battle Rifle. An example of this situation is on Cairo Station, in the hangar just before the second venture outside. If the huge elevator starts descending with enemies on it, you can climb the tiers on the side of the room and snipe those enemies with the Battle Rifle. Sentinels are not a very good target for the Battle Rifle--like almost every other gun, it has its ups and downs. Its inability of shooting down Sentinels (very effectively) definitely qualifies as a down. If you don’t have any other weapon that’s good against Bugs, use the Battle Rifle. Pesticide would probably work better, but around three Battle Rifle shots will kill any Bug. //=== Overall: 8/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: I liked the Pistol and I certainly like the Battle Rifle. Carry ||it whenever possible unless you’re about to pass an important checkpoint ||and you know that there will be no Battle Rifle ammo in the near future ||or that it won't be of any use any further. \\======================================================================== -Shotgun Accuracy: very bad if the reticle’s not red Clip Size: 12 shells before you have to reload Ammo capacity: 36 shells plus those in the gun Power: much worse than Halo’s Shotgun. Does almost no damage if the reticle’s not red The Shotgun is still a scary gun, but I’d give a lot to make it more like Halo’s Shotgun--more power and range. It’s still often my weapon of choice against the Flood--if I don’t have an Energy Sword. Halo’s Shotgun was by far the most useful weapon in Halo (aside from the Pistol) and I could shoot two Flood from thirty meters away and permanently kill them. Here, a point blank shot sometimes doesn’t do the job. This is good for mass Spore-killing. If they’re concentrated in one place, you can take most of them out with one shot. Seeing that Spores are now much harder to get with a melee attack, the Shotgun is one of the best ways of doing this. It’s good against Elites. One or two point blank shots will kill a healthy Blue Elite, and not many more will kill a Silver Elite. If the reticle is not red when you point it at an enemy, try to get closer before shooting. It’s normally a waste of ammo to try to kill anything from that distance. Most Sentinels usually go down from one or two Shotgun shots. If you don’t have a Sentinel Beam, a Carbine, or a plasma weapon nearby, use a Shotgun to easily dispose of the thing. Most Grunts die after one straight-on Shotgun shot. Some might need a bit more. Main reasons why you sometimes don’t kill a Grunt with only one shot: you were turning while you fired, or you were shooting it from too far away. Not all Jackals are easily killed with the Shotgun. A Sniper Jackal will kill you long before you kill it, and the Shielded Jackals are, well, shielded, so the shield blocks most of the shot. When there are some Flood Bombs around, the Shotgun is my gun of choice against them. Yeah, the Energy Sword kills a Bomb instantly, but it requires me to be rather closer to the Bomb than I prefer. When shot with the Shotgun, most die outright and only few stay long enough to take a second. The twelve shells are a lot more than you might think--it takes... I’d say about 30-40 seconds to empty all twelve shells. But I wouldn’t mind if it held more of them due to the decreased damage it does. Very effective against Bugs. One point blank shot is almost guaranteed to get rid of one. //=== Overall: 7/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: well... depends on how you use it. The Shotgun is definitely far ||worse now than it used to be, but it’s still a weapon superior to most ||others. \\======================================================================== -Pistol Accuracy: as it now has no scope, pretty bad Clip size: 12 rounds Ammo capacity: 48 rounds plus those in the clip Power: depends; if the power is like Halo’s Pistol, very good against some enemies I can’t say much about the Pistol, mainly because I never use it. It’s been cut down on functions and by doing so, Bungie made me real angry. You see, the Pistol was among the most useful weapons of Halo and having it deprived of the scope and the ammo capacity decreased more than three times made it just a waste of a weapon slot. If the power of the Pistol is still the same, I can guess that it can down a Hunter with one shot to one of the weak spots, and kill some enemies (Grunts, Jackals) with one headshot. But I haven't tested this yet. The ammo can be depleted so fast in some situations that you won’t notice how it’ll just disappear. What I mean is, the Pistol can be fired very fast and seeing that each of the total of five 12-round clips can be fired in about five seconds, the whole thing can fire for only about 30 seconds before running out of ammo. //=== Overall: 2/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: the result of the worst messing with a weapon I’ve ever seen,the ||new Pistol is only for those situations where you’re completely out of ||ammo and don’t have any other choice but to use it. \\======================================================================== -Sniper Rifle Accuracy: perfect as long as the target’s not moving Clip size: 4 rounds (???) Ammo capacity: 20 rounds plus those in the clip Power: very good with pretty much every enemy except the Flood The great weapon for people like me who like to stay out of sight and range while effectively killing the enemy. The clip size is one of my main complaints. Just four rounds are not enough if you’re trying to kill some big enemy like one of the most elite Elites. One of the best qualities of the Sniper Rifle is that it has, literally, “side effects”. Even if the bullet doesn’t hit the target but passes close to it, it does some damage. The size of the reticle makes it very, very hard to hit anything without spending a few seconds on aiming. That goes for the occasions when you might try to take down an Elite with a Sniper Rifle if you meet it at close quarters. Unless you’re comfortable with the Sniper Rifle at any range, the Elite will kill you very fast. Don’t try this on Flood. If you don’t want to waste about ten to fifteen rounds on a single Flood. After about that long, some Flood will explode and release a Spore. And that’s more trouble. When you see some Hunters and you happen to have a Sniper Rifle, aim for the head. If you don’t hit its neck in the first shot, it’ll throw back its head and the second shot will hopefully go through the neck. Well, of course, if the Hunter doesn’t see you, you can aim straight for the orange spot on the back. The Sniper Rifle takes down a Bug in one shot, but you’ll have to get that shot into the Bug in the first place. This will probably work only if the Drones don’t know that you’re there or if they’re flying toward you from some far-away place. This doesn’t necessarily kill a Grunt with one shot anywhere to the Grunt, so aim for the head. It won’t do to waste two rounds or more on each Grunt that might be around. A Sniper Rifle can get rid of an average Guard with two or three shots. That also goes for the smaller ordinary Elites. Each round jerks an Elite back and gives you some more time to adjust your aim if necessary. But if you only have a limited view of the Elite you’re sniping, the shot might throw it into cover, wasting your round. Jackals are not very easy to get rid of with a Sniper Rifle. A shot to the notch in a Jackal’s shield will cause the alien to move the shield to the side and this gives you room to aim for the head. But this window is very small and doesn’t usually give you much opportunity to aim properly before you shoot. A good way to keep a Jackal from getting back behind the shield is another shot to anywhere to its body (if you have enough ammo to spare). I noticed that Sniper Rifle shots are deflected off the armor of Wraiths and Scorpions. That is very, very, very (!) useful when you have a Sniper Jackal or a Sniper Rifle-wielding Flood around and you have to fight another enemy. This allows you to lay off the Sniper until you’ve dealt with the other foe. Naturally, don't get out of the Wraith or Scorpion. The melee attack is moderately fast. Just so you know. //=== Overall: 9/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: the Sniper Rifle is great if sniping is your thing. Although the ||Sniper Rifle is not available in all places, you can usually use it very ||effectively. \\======================================================================== -Rocket Launcher Accuracy: good with vehicles; extremely bad with anything else Clip size: 2 rockets Ammo capacity: 6 plus those in the clip Power: very powerful The Rocket Launcher is now the best weapon for vehicles you can’t get close to. It has a new ability: homing. When you have an enemy vehicle within range, just aim at the target, hold the right trigger till it locks on, and let go. The rocket usually hits the target. Remember that a rocket is lethal to you. Make sure that you don’t shoot at anything close to you. Also, don’t pilot vehicles when there are Rocket Launcher-wielding Flood in the area. This works on almost everything equal to or bigger than a Ghost. That includes Sentinel Tanks, Wraiths, Phantom Cannons, and even Phantom turrets. But as it doesn’t do any damage to Scarabs, the tracking system doesn’t work on them. I'll mention it later, but this is more general. There's a hidden oink when you're dealing with an enemy in a Wraith. If you shoot a rocket at a Wraith, it hurts the driver. So, you might be able to kill the driver of a Wraith using rockets. Watch the ammo. There’s very little of it, and it should be spent only on the bigger enemies and vehicles. Of course, if there are a lot of enemies in one place and you’re planning to toss the Rocket Launcher, it’s kind of irrational to waste ammo from other guns. When you have a Flood behind the stick of a Wraith, you don’t always need to jump on top of the Wraith to take it. It sometimes works to shoot rockets at the Wraith until the driver dies. That will leave the Wraith slightly battered, but it’s your best option if you don’t have any grenades. The Rocket Launcher is your best weapon against Banshees. Two rockets kill a Banshee, but you need enough cover to hide while you’re shooting at the Banshee. If it somehow happens that you don’t have enough cover, run sideways while facing the Banshee and fire the rockets when they’re ready to be shot. Don’t give the Rocket Launcher to fellow Elites. They fire it about every sixty seconds, and that’s not enough. When you have a Scorpion and a couple of Marines with Rocket Launchers, you can usually push through anything, like the bridge in Metropolis. When you’re around Marines with Rocket Launchers, make sure you stay a good distance away from them--they usually don’t look where they’re shooting and tend to blow themselves up, along with you. If you have some spare rockets and an enemy Phantom nearby, don’t hesitate to take down its cannons with the rockets. It’ll be easy to do and will get rid of a few nasty enemy cannons. Don’t ever try to hit an Elite with a rocket unless it doesn’t know that you’re there. any Elite will be able to dodge a rocket and kill you in the process. And you don’t want that. I've recently tried the Rocket Launcher on a Hunter on Easy difficulty (it's excruciatingly hard to have a Rocket Launcher while facing a Hunter on Legendary), and I was impressed. If the power is proportional, then it would take one or two rockets at most to kill a Hunter on Legendary. //=== Overall: 6/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: use this only on vehicles and turrets; it doesn’t work on ||anything else. \\======================================================================== -Machine Gun Accuracy: very good at medium range Power: perfect against minor Covenant The Machine gun is available on the Warthog and the Scorpion. It’s more or less useful on the Warthog (although you don’t get to use it much), but the Scorpion Machine Gun... let’s just say that it’s an unnecessary piece of metal to slow down the tank. If a Grunt ever gets caught in the reticule of your Warthog Machine gun reticle, you can be sure that there will be a lot of blue liquid flying. The Grunts are simple to mow down with the Machine gun, even if you’re surrounded. If you’re going to dispose of some Grunts, make sure you do it fast--they tend to hide. Elites are about as easy to kill with the Machine gun. A few seconds will do, as long as the Elite doesn’t have any cover. If it does, then don’t even try to kill it. Concentrate on more accessible targets. I’ve never tried it on Flood and you probably won’t either, without going to considerable lengths to get it. As far as the Machine gun on Scorpions goes, it’s useless. The Cannon is a much better option. Just for the sake of doing some more completely insignificant damage, hold down the left trigger while you’re targeting an enemy with the Scorpion's guns. This won’t make a difference if that enemy is a Flood, and it certainly won’t matter if it’s a Ghost. Machine guns exist in the form of turrets, but those are rare. //=== Overall: 6/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: it’s strange how much the gun in the Warthog is different from ||the one on the Scorpion. When you get to use the Warthog Machine gun, ||especially on infantry, do it. \\======================================================================== -Frag Grenade Accuracy: all depends on how you throw it; usually not very good Power: kills you in one hit; enemies are luckier The grenade. It doesn’t do nearly as much damage as you might expect it to (they probably have better grenades now, so it looks like the grenade-making business has degenerated over five and a half centuries), but if you get caught in the explosion... well, just don’t get caught in it. Frag Grenades don’t give you many clues as to where they’re flying, but the ones that do exist are: 1) it lights up the surroundings with a pretty hard-to-see yellow glow, 2) makes a very noticeable sound when it hits any surface, and 3) if you have a Frag Grenade under your feet and don’t know it yet, you will soon. Frag Grenades have short fuses, so count on that if you’re planning to drop a grenade somewhere nearby. Don’t drop one at your feet and expect to be able to escape while luring that mob of Flood onto the grenade. The Frag Grenade can be bounced off walls into convenient places. If you’re hiding behind a corner while there’s a half-killed Elite on the other side and your shield doesn’t let you get out there and finish it, throw a grenade and enjoy. If you don’t want to waste a Frag Grenade, don’t throw one at some narrow space where it can easily fall off. It’s very hard to get a Frag Grenade to go exactly where you want it to go, so throw them only when there’s something to stop it or enough space to let it bounce around and still do damage. Hunters are much more affected by grenades now than they were in Halo. In fact, when you don’t have a Fuel Rod Cannon, a Brute Shot, or a sniping weapon while fighting a Hunter, the Frag Grenade is my weapon of choice. Frag Grenades are also effective on Flood. Throw one at a hoard of them and watch them standing there, unaware of the grenade. Flood often get blown apart by Frag Grenades, or they might just die. It’s tougher with Flood with shields--they’re more resilient. Don’t use Frag Grenades on anything other than Hunters and Flood unless you have some to waste--those are the only enemies who don’t jump out of the way once a Frag Grenade comes into range. //=== Overall: 7/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: good weapon of mass annoyance. Frag Grenades are more or less ||powerful, but the accuracy has a lot to improve. \\======================================================================== -Gauss Gun Accuracy: could be very good if the Warthog’s not moving; otherwise it’s hard to aim Power: pretty powerful, especially against minor Covenant This is installed on some very rare Warthogs. Actually, the only place where you can use a Gauss Gun (outside multiplayer) is Metropolis, so it’s like the Scorpion in Halo: available for only a fraction of one level. Some people say that one shot is lethal to a Ghost. Now you have an excuse to laugh at them. One shot from the gun is not lethal to a Ghost, even on Easy. Try to aim at the base of a vehicle if you’re going to shoot it. If it’s a Warthog or a Ghost, the gun will probably turn it over, or at least push it. If it’s a Wraith, there’s more surface area at the bottom, so you’ll be less likely to miss. //=== Overall: 9/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: pretty good, but you’re not allowed to use it much. \\======================================================================== -Cannon Accuracy: can be very good depending on how it’s aimed Power: very powerful; possibly the most powerful (legal) weapon in the game This is installed only on the Scorpion, which is just as well--you get to use it a lot more than in Halo. The Cannon’s reticle gets red when pointed at an enemy, but only at a very limited range. But when it’s not red, you can still use it. What really surprised me is that the Rocket Launcher miserably loses to the Cannon when it comes to Banshees. You see, the Rocket Launcher’s range (and tracking ability) is even more limited than the Cannon’s. But while the rockets’ slow speed is compensated for by the tracking, the Cannon projectiles are very fast and are easy to aim. All you need is to be able to see the target. So that guarantees a few Banshees easily shot down from far away. If it’s at all possible to have a Cannon when facing Ghosts, have one. One shot or so per Ghost and you’re done. When around Flood, be careful not to get too close. They tend to jump on top of the tank and sit there, meleeing your shield to pieces. If you’re unlucky enough to have a Flood on your tank, get out immediately and confiscate the Scorpion. If you have passengers, it’s made slightly easier--the Flood will probably start annoying the passengers before it gets to you. Why am I saying this? Because it’s very important that the Flood don’t get a hold of your Cannon. If one does and you’re more than ten meters away, then you’re toast. They’re usually much more accurate with the Cannon than you can possibly be--I’ve experienced one shooting me out of the air right in mid-jump. //=== Overall: 9/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: very powerful and handy to have. If you have a Scorpion nearby, ||take it. \\======================================================================== Covenant weapons Covenant weapons are pretty different from human ones. Some are energy- or plasma-based. Only one works like the old human projectile guns. Many Covenant guns have human counterparts. Although some overheat, in some cases it’s better to have an overheatable gun than one that you have to reload every five to ten seconds. What’s more, if you time your shots from an overheatable gun properly, you might be able to use it constantly, without pausing to overheat or reload. Much of the time, I certainly prefer Covenant guns over the human ones. -Plasma Rifle Accuracy: very good at medium range, from long range the shots spread out and it’s hard to hit anything. But the shots don't really have any set range, so you can use this on weaker enemies from far away if you have the ammo Ammo capacity: 100 units of charge * 4 shots per unit = A LOT of ammo Power: dual Plasma Rifles are very powerful, but a Plasma Rifle used alone doesn’t do much damage I consider this, along with the Carbine, the signature Covenant weapon of the game. The Rifle has many advantages, mainly that it’s very, very hard to empty of its ammo. The original 100 units of charge now last for twice as long, seeing that every four shots take one unit of charge, and this gives you twice as much ammo as you did in Halo (where a unit of charge equaled two shots). It’s pretty powerful, so you can use it to take down enemy shields before stepping in with a human gun. If you’re going to use a Plasma Rifle, fire it in short, three second bursts. That almost guarantees that it won’t overheat. There are two ways of telling the amount of heat: one is the indicator in the top right-hand corner of the screen. If you tend to look directly down the Rifle, you might want to use the indicator built right into the gun. The indicator takes the form of a circuit-board-like thing/decoration on the side of the Rifle (towards the front). As the gun picks up heat, the circuit board starts picking up some color, starting at the front. When the color reaches the back of the decoration and completely fills it up, the gun starts dumping the heat. It takes about five seconds and is usually pretty nasty. Remember that you can dual-wield this gun. Some recommended, or at least potentially useful, combinations: -Plasma Rifle-Plasma Rifle--very good in all situations. Two Plasma Rifles are very nice to have, especially when you’re dealing with Sword Elites and the smaller Covenant. -Plasma Rifle-SMG--this is, as I mentioned before, a scary combination. It affects the enemy ranks more significantly than almost any other weapon. Almost any type of Covenant goes down after you introduce this combo to them. -Plasma Rifle-Plasma Pistol--if you can concentrate on two differently used guns at once, you might like this. Personally, I can’t make this combo work for myself because I can’t always manage to think about using these two guns individually. Just know that, whatever you do, don’t dual-wield a Needler with a Plasma Rifle. Needlers take a long time to cause any real damage when dual-wielded, let alone when you only have one Needler. And one single Plasma Rifle won’t do much damage either. When you don’t have a more appropriate weapon (A.K.A. SMGs), use dual Plasma Rifles to dispose of Bugs. It’s very effective, maybe even more so than SMGs. The thing that makes it so good against Drones is the range. SMG bullets only go a very limited distance. Plasma from this gun travels a lot further and with much more accuracy. Plasma Rifles exist in two types: the standard Elite type and the Brute Plasma Rifle. The latter is, of course, used by the Brutes and seems to be designed to be more ceremonial than for actually fighting. Brute Plasma Rifles are red and are apparently smaller than the Elite ones. They’re also much more ineffective--they overheat very easily and lose ammo about twice as fast. Dual Plasma Rifles are my preferred weapons for close-up Sentinel fighting. Really, you can dispose of about three or four before they have a chance to kill you. Brutes are very tough and I know that two of them take about fifty units of charge to get rid of, as proven in Uprising level. //=== Overall: 9/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: the Plasma Rifle is a very good gun; use it whenever you feel ||you need to, namely when you have Elites, Grunts, Jackals, or Sentinels ||to get rid of, if you don't have something more powerful or effective. \\======================================================================== -Plasma Pistol Accuracy: overcharges are pretty accurate at short range, normal shots are accurate at almost any range Ammo capacity: 100 units of charge, two shots per unit and about fifteen units per overcharge Power: normal shots do very little damage, but overcharges can take down just about any shield There are not many positive things I can say about this. Mainly, I hate this gun: 1) The only dual-wielding combo (that uses a Plasma Pistol) that I can use is dual Plasma Pistols. But that doesn’t work very well either--as the normal shots are pretty much trivial, the best option is overcharges. Because two overcharges waste too much ammo, I want to charge up only one Pistol. Now, so that the other one doesn’t go to waste, I usually want to fire it. Here’s another dilemma--it’s hard to fire one Pistol normally while having to concentrate on the second one, which has to be held and released. I don’t blame you if you didn’t get this, but just trust me--try this once and you probably won’t like it. 2) Again, the power. Normal mode shots are very weak; overcharges can take down about any shield, but they also take down your ammo supply just as effectively. Overcharges: big blobs of green plasma that home in on the target. They’re very effective on shields and sometimes Sentinels, but that’s about it. If that wasn’t enough, they only home while the target is within range. If not, the overcharge flies in a straight line and rarely hits anything. Jackals sometimes use overcharges, especially if you hide for too long. Be careful around them, or at least don’t get too close. Of course, always have cover available in case you happen to see a large green thing flying towards you at an impressive speed. Bugs with Plasma Pistols are exceptionally nasty. Get caught by a couple of them in the open without a Plasma Rifle or an SMG, and consider yourself fried. I’m not completely sure, but I think that if you shoot the Beam Rifle out of a Sniper Jackal’s hands, it draws a Plasma Pistol. Not that it’s too much of a threat, just watch your six for Sniper Jackals that might have survived. //=== Overall: 4/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: my personal opinion is that Plasma Pistols are mostly useless ||unless temporarily used to take down some particularly annoying Elite’s ||shield. \\======================================================================== -Carbine Accuracy: very good Clip size: 20 rounds Ammo capacity: 72 rounds in your pocket plus those in the clip (well, in one place you get an exception with more than 72 rounds) Power: perfect for headshots (kills some enemies in one headshot), otherwise not so good I think that this is the successor of the late Pistol. The properties of both are pretty much identical--both have clips, both shoot a round per shot, both are usually used for sniping, and both are good for headshots. First of all: headshots. One headshot from the Carbine can take out Grunts, Jackals, and, most importantly, Brutes. Well, a number of headshots are needed to kill a Brute, but hey, it’s better than body shots. Also, I noticed that when you’re targeting a head, or at least an enemy's weak spot, a tiny red dot (pixel-sized) appears in the center of the reticle. It’s not much, but can help when you’re trying to execute a Brute or something from far away. I can’t honestly say that this is good on Bugs, but it’s better than, say, the Battle Rifle. Use it if you don’t have anything better. By the way, don’t get tricked by that red dot when you’re dealing with a Shielded Jackal. Instead, use your common sense. You should, of course, realize that if you’re targeting the shield and you see the red dot, the only thing you’re going to hit is the shield. There's an extremely handy trick you can use when fighting the Flood with the Carbine. It's pretty simple: shoot for the chest. The red dot that appears in the center of the reticle clearly says that that's a weak spot. It makes sense, really--that's where every Combat Flood's Spore is lodged, so it only takes one or two shots to kill one. As most other weapons, the Carbine’s range is not limited to only the distance at which the reticle becomes red. No, it’s not guaranteed to hit anything if you’re out of range, but it’s a very good gun either way. Somehow, it’s very easy to aim even if you’re far away. Sentinels are pretty easy to down with a Carbine, especially the unshielded ones. Their Sentinel Beams’ range is limited, so you can sometimes take a few down from far away without even using cover. Shielded Jackals are a bit of tough spot with a Carbine. Their only vulnerability is the notch in their shields, which is not much of a target. But when you do hit the notch, the Jackal in question will jerk back and expose itself to more Carbine rounds. Have fun. Don’t discard the first Carbine you see because of its looks. Yes, I admit they're ugly, but it’s about the best gun available, so use it. It takes quite a bit of ammo to down an Elite’s shield. But usually this is the best choice--it doesn’t pay to get close to any kind of Elite. After the professional sniping weapons (Beam Rifle, Sniper Rifle), I think this is the best weapon against Sniper Jackals. For some reason, Carbine rounds often seem to find the head. I don’t know how, but Carbines are for practically any range, from close quarters to very long range. //=== Overall: 10/10 ===================================================== ||Verdict: probably the best weapon in Halo 2, the Carbine deserves a round ||of applause and very frequent use. \\======================================================================== -Needler Accuracy: depends on the range and whether the enemy is moving much; ranges anywhere from zero to perfect Clip size: 30 rounds Ammo capacity: 90 rounds plus those in the clip Power: individual needles do almost no damage; combined, they produce a large and powerful explosion Well, Needlers are not always my choice, but having a gun that can detonate an enemy with half the force of a Plasma Grenade is useful. Needlers have odd range issues. There is a certain range (pretty close) where the needles home almost perfectly. Then follows medium range, where enemies can easily dodge the needles. After that follows semi-long range, at which range the needles home very well also (if enemies are standing far enough away, they won’t dodge the needles as much). Notice that as long as the reticle is pointing in the general direction of the enemy, the needles will home even if the target’s out of range. It takes about six needles to start a big explosion. That severely hurts most enemies. It’s even better with friendly Elites who carry dual Needlers--they can fire incessantly, which causes some big damage. Try not to use Needlers against fast enemies. They can easily dodge the needles and then make you see your mistake. A list of enemies needles do work on: Grunts, Elites, berserk Brutes that are running at you, Brutes that don’t know that you’re there, sometimes Sentinels, and I think it works on Flood--the latter don't realize that needles are a health hazard and run at you no matter what. The only way I suggest you use Needlers is dual-wielding. A Needler alone doesn’t do that much damage and it takes twice as long to start an explosion as the dual Needlers could. Besides, two Needlers can let you collectively store twice as much ammo as one Needler. Needles seem to bounce off vehicles, or at least if the vehicle is shot at head on. Try to avoid doing that. Note that if you’re shooting at an enemy at point-blank range (and I mean point blank; you have to be almost in contact with the enemy), your own needles could do damage to you. Well, I’m not implying that this happens that often; personally, I usually don’t live long enough to get that close to an enemy. If you’re hiding behind a corner, still be careful when an enemy is firing needles at where you were a few seconds ago. The needles usually seem to be shot at an angle that will have them ricochet back at you. Sometimes, an occasional needle might still have its homing ability after bouncing off the wall. I suggest you hide behind a second corner if possible. The melee attack is less vicious-looking this time, but it’s still accompanied by the weird swinging noise. The crystalline spikes on the top of a Needler are the indicator of the ammo you have left, kind of like the circuit board thing on a Plasma Rifle. The more the spikes are sticking out, the more ammo you have in the clip. If you have some ammo, as you shoot the needles slowly retract into the gun. The reloading time is very short, just wait for Master Chief/Arbiter to tip the gun forward and stick out some more needles. //=== Overall: 5/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: normally useless, though it’s good in some situations, say when ||a Brute is charging at you. It’s handy for disposing of tough enemies who ||happen to be close. \\======================================================================== -Fuel Rod Cannon Accuracy: depends on the distance; the slow projectiles are hard to aim at long range Clip size: five rounds Ammo capacity: 25 fuel rods, plus those in the clip Power: very powerful Now, finally, you get to have a hand-held Fuel Rod Cannon (YAAAAHOOOOO!!!). It’s still carried mostly by Grunts, but you can give it to other allies. Well, don’t get me wrong, Fuel Rod Cannons exist in four types: Hand-held Fuel Rod Cannon- this is the type that’s carried by Grunts. The projectiles are relatively slow and have a hard time hitting anything faster than a Hunter from long range. Actually, a Grunt with a Fuel Rod Cannon can sometimes be more dangerous than a Hunter--the often catastrophic splash damage can make cover useless. Hunter Fuel Rod Cannon- this is carried by Hunters, so you can’t use it. This particular kind fires a two-second-long stream of plasma, which can easily kill the Chief if he’s exposed to more than half of it. Hunters are very accurate with it; take cover if you ever see a Hunter. Prophet-Hunter Fuel Rod Cannon- long name, isn’t it? This breed is pretty much identical to the Hunter Fuel Rod (right down to the sound), but is installed on the Prophets’ hovercraft and the plasma is, for some reason, orange. Because of the color, some people call these Flamethrowers. I don’t know. Maybe it was intended to be a flamethrower. But I would’ve thought the Covenant were above using something as primitive as flamethrowers. The only place where you have to experience this gun is Regret level. Banshee Fuel Rod Cannon- the Fuel Rod Cannons installed on Banshees are the only type of Fuel Rod that’s identical to the one in Halo. In the on-screen manual (those directions that sometimes appear in the center of the screen), it’s referred to as the “Banshee bomb”. Well, this kind is a large projectile of plasma that can destroy just about anything. It’s even accompanied by the old Fuel Rod Cannon sound from Halo--I mean that smashing-glass sound. Hunters just happen to be very affected by Fuel Rod Cannon fire. I’ve seen a single Fuel Rod shot kill a Hunter, though I’m pretty sure that the Hunter was previously damaged. It’s kind of hard to test this, as you don’t get to see many Hunters on Legendary while having a Fuel Rod Cannon. If you want to test this, you can go to Gravemind level and check. The Fuel Rods on Banshees are very powerful too. Shoot one at a Ghost and see (a good place with a few Banshees and many, many Ghosts is the bridge at the start of Metropolis. You can jack a Banshee just as you pass the first Wraith (look in Secrets section)). Not that you get to use Banshees a lot, but no more than a couple of shots at an enemy Banshee can lay it down for good. The projectiles on the hand-held Fuel Rod Cannon are very slow, so take the enemy movement into account when you’re going to shoot something far away. So far I haven’t found anything that’s completely immune to the Fuel Rod Cannon, except Regret and his shield. If you don’t know this, Fuel Rod Cannons have scopes. That helps slightly when you’re trying to go for long distance. Note that due to the very fast firing rate, you can put out a whole clip in a few seconds. Very useful when you need to apply a number of rounds into a target as fast as possible. //=== Overall: 8/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: well, I would call the hand-held Fuel Rod Cannon the heavy gun ||of the day in the legal hand-held gun category. The ammo is well above ||the Rocket Launcher’s and Fuel Rod Cannons are available slightly more ||often than Scorpion Cannons. Still, I wouldn’t mind more ammo and ||projectile speed. \\======================================================================== -Beam Rifle Accuracy: about the same as the Sniper Rifle--potentially perfect Ammo capacity: 100 units of charge; about 6 units per shot. That’s 17 shots at most Power: headshots usually mean instantaneous death This is about the same as the Sniper Rifle, so I’ll be brief, although it does have some advantages over the latter. Big advantage: no clips. That means that all the ammo is loaded and ready to go, so, provided you don’t overheat, it’s possible to fire constantly until the charge runs out. I’ll assume that you’ll always be using the scope when using the Beam Rifle. Look at one of the edges of the scope (I’m not sure which; I think it’s the right). There, you’ll see the heat meter. When you fire one shot, the meter will rise considerably. The second shot, if fired less than a second after the first, will bring it over the top and the gun will start dumping the heat. So, try not to get it overheated at the second shot unless the target is going to die of two shots. Elites get visibly shocked by Beam Rifle shots, so once you hit it once, you’ll have time to adjust your aim to shoot the Elite a second time. The same goes for Jackals once you hit the notch in one’s shield, but the window is considerably smaller than the one with Elites. The reticle is even less noticeable than the one of the Sniper Rifle (about two pixels). That makes it even harder to shoot at close range. That, and the slightly lessened ammo capacity, is about the only thing it has that’s worse than the Sniper Rifle. Like the Sniper Rifle, the Beam Rifle rounds can go through more than one enemy. That way, you can get rid of two small enemies (Grunts, perhaps Jackals) with only one shot. Combat Flood are very hard to kill with the Beam Rifle. It takes somewhere around the entire stock of a Beam Rifle’s ammo to kill one. And after get enough shots into the Flood, they sometimes explode and release a Spore. Don’t use the Beam Rifle unless you have too many Beam Rifles or no choice. Wraiths are immune to Beam and Sniper Rifles. The rounds just bounce off the hull. This is useful when dealing with Sniper Jackals. //=== Overall: 9/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: Beam Rifles are usually more effective (not to mention much less ||rare) than Sniper Rifles. They’re usually my preferred sniping weapons. \\======================================================================== -Energy Sword Accuracy: the uppercut can get you across a short distance way faster than you could walk it; otherwise you hit whatever gets near the blade Ammo capacity: a maximum of 100 units of charge. Different amounts of this are spent, depending on the enemy Power: one hit is not lethal to most enemies, but it does take away a lot of health This is the dream of any Halo fanatic. And finally you have it. The Energy Sword is a close-range killing machine preferred by some of the higher-ranked Elites and, of course, me. There’s a trick to using the Sword, which is its uppercut attack. Not only is it powerful and looks cool, it can also have the character fly across a couple of meters much faster than the speed you could get there at without it. The uppercut is simple to use, really. Get the reticle on an enemy and start moving toward the enemy until the reticle becomes red. When it does, squeeze the right trigger. You’ll automatically pull up next to the enemy and hit it with an actual uppercut attack, which seems to be more powerful than your normal swing of the Sword. Be careful when you’re performing an uppercut because it has a tendency of leaving you disoriented for a second. It’s sometimes an issue when you’re surrounded. Also, don’t use this on enemies in turrets. For some reason I don’t know yet, you can miss many times in a row even if you’re standing right next to the turret. There’s a weird and, in my opinion, rather useless feature known as Sword canceling. I can’t fathom what practical use this has, but it’s kind of amusing anyway. When in the middle of the swing, press X to cancel it. To see this properly, start repeatedly pressing the right trigger and at the same time mashing X into the controller. The result: the character swings the Sword at at least twice the normal rate, but it doesn’t do any damage. Flood don’t take much ammo, which is very good, considering the numbers they tend to come in. Flood corpses (as they’re technically all corpses anyway, I’ll point out that I’m talking about the ones lying on the ground, not the ones that can still walk) take very little ammo to destroy, which is why I recommend you destroy them before a Spore settles into the Flood. Why I’m telling you this is that live Flood with Spores inside them take more ammo to kill than the bodies on the ground. There are some more dos and don’ts of this in the Flood part of my Enemies section. Don’t get in the way of an enemy Sword just because you figured that as your Sword can’t always kill an enemy in one blow, theirs won’t either. One hit of the Sword is normally lethal to you. Most Flood are killed by a single Sword hit, but that’s not true of all Flood. Some are shielded and some are just so tough that it takes more than one swing. A big advantage of the Sword when it comes to fighting Flood is that it gives you two options: either die or blow the Flood apart. It always destroys the Flood and takes away some future Spore’s chance to use the body. Energy Sword ammo is spent only when the Sword kills an enemy. If you hit one but don't kill it, the ammo is unaffected. I don't use this, but you could theoretically use the Sword without wasting ammo by weakening enemies with it first and then finishing them off with other guns. //=== Overall: 10/10 ===================================================== ||Verdict: as perfect as a melee weapon could get; it’s my preferred weapon ||when I need to fight at close range. \\======================================================================== -Brute Shot Accuracy: horrible Clip size: four rounds Ammo capacity: 12 grenades plus those in the clip Power: barely acceptable This is a kind of a grenade launcher carried by some Brutes. It’s okay for getting rid of some enemies, but the accuracy is, well, atrocious. Brute shots are not very powerful, yet I grudgingly admit that they have some rare advantages. For example, the grenades can bounce off walls and even if you miss in some narrow space, the grenade could bounce at the enemies you missed. Back to the accuracy. I’m not kidding when I say that you could miss even when the gun is sticking straight into the face of an enemy. I don’t know how it could possibly be this inaccurate. Never shoot this at a flying enemy. That’s a waste of your ammo (the rounds have some drop on them) and what’s more, it gets their attention if you’re hiding. The clip size and even the overall ammo capacity are way too small for comfort. That, and the difficulty of actually having all sixteen rounds on you at one time, amount to another significant drop in prestige. The melee attack is one of the few advantages. I think it’s about as powerful as a hit with an Energy Sword. At least there’s something good about it. The when the grenades explode, it pushes things, which you can use to your advantage. Get the Sputnik and you’ll be throwing enemies overboard on a regular basis. If you’re ever fighting a Brute, know that it takes four grenades or more to take it down. Miss one and I suggest you empty the rest, then proceed to use another gun on the Brute. The splash damage is pretty wide, so keep your distance when you’re shooting at an enemy. //=== Overall: 3/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: good only for its melee attack. \\======================================================================== -Wraith Mortar Accuracy: very bad Power: good, which compensates for the accuracy; Mortar rounds tend to throw things Mortars are only installed on Wraiths. It’s a good thing that they’re not very common because enemies can be much more accurate with these than it’s possible to be for an actual person. The rapid firing rate is one of the two advantages over the Scorpion’s Cannon. You can fire about two Mortar shells in the time it takes to fire one Cannon round. The second advantage is that it’s an indirect-fire weapon. That allows you to fire over obstacles. But again, it’s very hard to aim, especially due to the very limited range of vision. More about the range of vision: this is a real pain. It doesn’t allow any close-range fighting because the shells just go over the target and there’s no way you can stop that. The best thing to do is to use Scorpions whenever you can, or just limit the Mortar use to long-range jobs. The massive splash damage often throws vehicles. Use that to knock them off cliffs or at least to deprive the driver of his vehicle. //=== Overall: 5/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: the inaccuracy and limited range of vision are about the only ||disadvantages of the Mortar, but they’re enough to bring it crashing down ||to the murky depths of my least-used-gun list, next to the Brute Shot, ||the Plasma Pistol, and the Scorpion Machine gun. \\======================================================================== -Plasma Cannon Accuracy: depends on the kind of Plasma Cannon you use, but all are pretty accurate Power: some are powerful, some are not These are very similar to Plasma Rifles. They come in three types: Dual Plasma Cannons (Wraiths, Ghosts, Banshees)- these are about the equivalent of two Plasma Rifles put side-by-side on a vehicle, although they don’t overheat or have any ammo limit. Spectre Plasma Cannon/Spectre turret- this is very different from a Plasma Rifle or the other vehicle-mounted Plasma Cannons--there is only one gun on each Spectre instead of two. This is very weak, but it’s also very accurate at long range, as long as you can aim properly--I mean that the shots don’t spread out that much, if at all. It also makes a somehow imposing noise. Portable Plasma Cannon- this kind is very small (seeing that a Grunt can carry it and set it up). It’s usually operated by Gunner Grunts, but sometimes an Elite, or even you, may man one of these. This is like a Plasma Cannon taken off a Ghost or Banshee--it makes the characteristic Plasma Rifle noise and the shots look like Plasma Rifle shots. The gun itself even looks kind of like a Plasma Rifle. These are very weak--a couple of melee attacks at most are enough to break one down. If you want to prevent some future Grunt from using a certain Plasma Cannon against you from behind, I suggest you disable it with those melee attacks. Also, if you need a couple of shots to finish off a particularly insistent Elite, feel free to use this for a couple of seconds--the Elite in question won’t let you use it longer. And, if you don’t want to dispose of some other half-dead small enemy and don’t feel like using your ammo, this is a possibility. //=== Overall: Ghost, Banshee, Wraith-8/10; Spectre-6/10; Portable-6/10 == ||Verdict: the Plasma Cannons on Wraiths, Ghosts, and Banshees are pretty ||good against everything; the Plasma Cannon on Spectres are fine for ||certain tasks; Portable Plasma Cannons are okay for certain things like ||short-term disposal of small enemies. Again, Plasma Cannons on vehicles ||are especially effective. \\======================================================================== -Phantom Cannon Accuracy: relatively good, if the target is not moving too fast Power: works very good on you, otherwise I think it’s fine Phantom Cannons come in three breeds: Actual Phantom Cannon- these are actually installed on Phantoms. When I happen to see one, the word “incinerator” inevitably boards my normally Halo 2-orientedted train of thought. Look at the burned surroundings near a place where a Phantom saw an enemy--you’ll see why. The contrast of this gun on Easy and Legendary is phenomenal. On Easy, it does practically no damage. On Legendary, you have to be exposed to it for just a couple of seconds before you buy it. Phantom turret- this is a turret that fires projectiles similar to the Phantom Cannons. Not that this is the worst weapon in existence, but if I have to resort to using it, I can honestly say I’ve seen better times. It’s a lot more powerful than the Portable Plasma Cannon (not to mention that it can turn 360 degrees), but the projectiles are slow and are not fired very fast. An advantage this has over the other turrets is that it has a shield in front of it protecting the gunner. Shadow Phantom turret- this is a Phantom turret installed on top of a Shadow. It works in about the same way as the Phantom turret, but with only one slight quirk--there is only one place where you actually get to use it, and you have to kill off the enemies near the Shadow to use it, so there won’t be any fun in shooting the walls just for the sake of taking the opportunity to use this particular gun. //=== Overall: Phantom-5/10; turret-4/10; Shadow turret-5/10 ============= ||Verdict: not the best nor worst weapon, but if I have a chance to use ||anything else, I’ll happily take it. \\======================================================================== -Scarab Cannon Accuracy: very good even at long range Power: awesome I really shouldn’t be mentioning it due to it being a well-kept secret, but I just couldn’t resist as I’ve just recently gotten it. If you want it, you’ll have to visit the Secrets section of the guide and find out how to find it. To escape some unnecessary question marks and head-scratching: I’m not talking about the big contraption on Scarabs. I’m talking about a genuine, hand-held Scarab Cannon. I’ve rated the “most powerful-ness” of the other guns independently from this gun because it’s, again, secret (by the way, I didn’t tell you this). Another reason is that the other guns are really no match for this monster. The Scarab Cannon, for one thing, fires rounds equal in power to a Cannon shot. And it does it every half-second. That means an obliterated Wraith or any other vehicle, you name it, in two seconds or less. Another thing is that the Scarab Cannon has infinite ammo and never overheats. That allows you to pulverize huge areas in seconds. Just be careful not to become epileptic. The splash damage can be very damaging (to you) if, say, you shoot a Ghost speeding toward your person. The splash damage itself is kind of weird--apparently it starts in the center of the explosion and spreads outward until it suddenly stops. That way, there’s a fixed distance at which you can fire and a certain distance at which you can’t. //=== Overall: 11/10 ===================================================== ||Verdict: without a doubt the best weapon in existence, and if it’s not, ||then it’s certainly by far the most powerful. \\======================================================================== -Plasma Grenade Accuracy: depends solely on the person who throws it Power: powerful This is the Covenant version of the Frag Grenade. Just about the only advantage it has over the Frag is the fact that it sticks to any enemy (or friend) it hits. If you want to avoid any accidents while throwing Plasma Grenades (when you suddenly experience a sizzling blue object somewhere on your person), remember that a Plasma Grenade’s ability to stick doesn’t disappear once it hits a surface. It stops only once the grenade has settled. So don’t throw a Plasma Grenade at the ceiling, or you can expect a resounding and slightly blue death. Plasma Grenades kill most enemies in one explosion. Grunts go down like flies; Elites are slightly tougher, but anything weaker than a Gold Elite will die after a Plasma Grenade explodes on it. Gold and Silver Elites can take slightly more to finally buy it. Hunters are more or less affected by grenades now, or at least it makes them pour their orange... stuff... onto the surroundings. Stick about six or seven Plasma Grenades onto a Hunter and hopefully it’ll die. Now you have to worry about the second one. Nice going. Don’t try Plasma Grenades on Bugs or anything else that flies. They can easily dodge them and then start annoying you with whatever they have. //=== Overall: 9/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: very good, but it could do with a shorter fuse. Well, I guess ||Bungie didn’t want to make it too perfect. \\======================================================================== Sentinel weapons These are only installed on Sentinels and Sentinel Tanks. They’re mostly weak (against anything other than yourself) and are pretty rare. You can actually use only one, and it’s one of the weakest, so I usually consider them not worth bothering with. It's a wonder how Sentinels actually manage to qualify as enemies with weapons this weak. Well, I guess that's because all the damage enemies do to you is amplified. -Sentinel Beam Accuracy: relatively good Power: bad. Very bad This is the one you can use. Frankly, I suggest you use these only if you’re cornered by a Sentinel Tank, a couple of Wraiths, and enemy Ghost, and several Flood, with no weapons nearby. This piece of Flintstonian technology (probably Fred's cigarette lighter) is really a piece of trash used to make the game look more interesting. My main complaints: practically nonexistent ammo which drains remarkably fast, and the fact that Sentinel Beams overheat after about three seconds of use. Sentinel Beams exist in two types: normal Sentinel Beams and Gold Sentinel Beams. I think the normal kind is carried by the most ordinary Sentinels (steel-colored and no shield) and the Gold kind seems to be wielded by every other type of Sentinel. Or maybe the type of the Beam depends directly on the color of the Sentinel carrying it. I know it once helped me finish off a certain stubborn Sentinel Tank that refused to submit to the human guns that were all that was available at the time. That’s about it. Sentinel Beams work properly only on Sentinels and Sentinel Tanks. //=== Overall: 2/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: take it if you don’t have anything else; if you do have ||something else, glare at the Sentinel Beam and walk away. \\======================================================================== -Sentinel Tank artillery Accuracy: apparently, pretty good Power: powerful on Legendary This is a kind of ballistic weapon used by Sentinel Tanks on just about everything. It’s basically a long stream of bombs that are fired in an arc at the target. They’re very effective against you on Legendary, so find cover from any Sentinel Tanks that might be in the vicinity. //=== Overall: 2/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: would have been good if only you could actually use it... \\======================================================================== -Sentinel Tank Needler Accuracy: none if you manage to find cover in time; otherwise the massive numbers of needles make this weapon hard to avoid Power: weaker than the Covenant Needler, and combining the needles doesn’t start an explosion Sentinel Tanks use this on minor targets. It’s basically very small red needles that stick to whatever they hit. The damage is minimal, and as you usually have good cover when fighting Sentinel Tanks, this is an easy weapon to avoid. //=== Overall: 1/10 ====================================================== ||Verdict: wouldn’t use it even if I could. \\======================================================================== OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 6. Enemies]______________________________________ "Great spirits have always faced violent opposition from mediocrities." -Albert Einstein One thing you have to remember: every race is every other race’s enemy. If there are two races that have sore feelings at each other in one place, wait for them to finish deciding whose bad feelings are the strongest, and then come out and deal with the winner. Sit fights out if you can so that you don’t have to waste your own nerves and ammo. Covenant These come in different shapes and sizes, and all of them will do everything within their power to kill you and everything else they don’t like. The Covenant are very numerous in Halo 2, but you don’t always have to fight them. One more thing... I’ll make this sound smart: every life form with a Covenant origin and an ability to speak English often employs psychological warfare tactics. Now in actual English: they never skip an opportunity to call you names. Oh, well, at least they do it in a somewhat lame way. For example, Elites will sometimes call you a “cur” and Grunts tend to imply that you should be scared. You can put in some earplugs, which should help you concentrate on the game. -Elites Introducing... your main Covenant enemy. When they’re fighting on your side, they’re pretty helpful (unlike those Marines). When they’re fighting against you, there will be some serious sweating to do. Elites exist in a number of types, in the approximate order of toughness: Blue Elites- these are the weakest Elites (which doesn’t mean that they’re weak--quite the opposite). They, like any other kind of Elite, can carry an array of weapons (again, many more than Marines), which can really help when you need some diversity in what your allies are doing. Generally, an average Blue Elite goes down after two shots of so from a Beam- or Sniper Rifle. This breed can be more or less easily killed with a Carbine, assuming that the Elite doesn’t have cover. Jet Pack Elites- this type of Elite always carries dual Plasma Rifle and can fly (sort of the Covenant counterpart of the Heretic Leader). They’re a serious health hazard, especially when met up close. The dual Plasma Rifles can kill you in a matter of seconds. Your best hope is to keep your distance and use some sniping weapon (even a Carbine or Battle Rifle if necessary) to take them down from that distance. Just never get trapped by a Jet Pack Elite in some hole in the wall because they can usually find some kind of way to get to you without too much risk to themselves. Jet Pack Elites can be considered the nastiest Elite type out there. Red Elites- slightly more annoying than their Blue comrades. The sniping numbers are about the same--two or three shots to kill. Red Elites are relatively easy targets, although just a bit harder to kill than Blue Elites. Honor Guards- they’re about equal to Red Elites, only they’re dressed in exceedingly ornate orange armor (some are dressed in silver). They guard the Prophets, so you won’t see them much. Heretic Elites- they look distinctly technological, with wires and cables coming out of their armor. They seem to have wing-like things on their backs, although the only one I’ve seen fly is the Heretic Leader, and he didn’t use wings. Otherwise they’re pretty much the same as Blue or Red Elites. Invisible Elites- these Elites are equipped with a full-time Active Camo. Now they unfortunately have shields, so that makes them still harder to hurt. They’re usually visible as a blur in the air (a la Predator), but that depends on the lighting and the background color. Sometimes, an Invisible Elite can be really invisible, which occasionally allows them to sneak up on you, though that doesn’t happen often. Also, some have only temporary Active Camo, like the Arbiter, only longer. They activate that at points where they were programmed to do so, thereby letting you have the advantage of knowing in advance if there are any hostile Invisible Elites nearby. Sometimes they carry Energy Swords. Kind of irrational, isn’t it, to arm an Invisible Elite with an extremely visible Sword, which paints a big bull’s-eye on the Elite. Gold Elites- these are no longer the main character in any sane gamer’s nightmares, although I still wouldn’t want to come within a mile of a Gold Elite. They’re killable with some smart strategy and an overwhelming amount of luck. You can take on a Gold Elite with just an SMG and a Plasma Rifle (as long as it’s carrying an Energy Sword), although I prefer to get rid of threats like this from a distance with some big gun. If the Elite is not carrying an Energy Sword, then you have two options: use the aforementioned big gun, or try to precision-throw a Plasma Grenade at it. Either way, you’re risking being slaughtered by said Elite, so be careful. Silver Elites- well, these are taking the place of the Gold Elites in Halo. Silver Elites are ridiculously strong. I once emptied two whole SMG clips at a Silver Elite, point blank, and it still took a melee attack or two before I put it out of its misery with some more SMG fire. Possibly that was an anomaly or some glitch, but nevertheless it happened. Sniper Rifles don’t work because the Elite will easily survive all four rounds with some shield left over, and then find cover while you’re reloading. Beam Rifles give you slightly more hope because you don’t have to reload. Certainly don’t even try anything Carbine-like or weaker. If you can sneak up on an enemy White Elite, you can toss it a Plasma Grenade, or just melee it in the back. I noticed that some Silver Elite seems to accompany the Arbiter in all the easy parts, and he seems to be the Elite counterpart of the Sarge--always invincible and usually carrying powerful weapons. Also, Silver Elites seem to be the only Elites who can carry more than one weapon. That is, once you do enough damage to an enemy Silver Elite, it sometimes drops its gun and takes out an Energy Sword. Elites can pilot just about everything, and in most cases you can extract the Elite from the vehicle it’s piloting and then use the vehicle to kill off the Elite. It’s usually not very easy due to the necessity to get close to the vehicle in the first place. But take advantage of this whenever you can. Elites are tough. They often find cover and repair any damage done to their shield, even if you manage to do some. Elites can dual-wield guns, but be careful when trading with those rare Elites--once you take two dual-wielded guns from an Elite, you can’t get it to hold two guns again. It’ll have to do with one. I suggest you just avoid swapping weapons with those Elites unless you, for some reason, have no choice. They can use any gun, but try not to give them a Rocket Launcher or a Fuel Rod Cannon. They very rarely fire them and usually have to do with melee attacks. On the other hand, they’re remarkably effective once armed with Energy Swords. If there are some Swords lying around and there are some ground enemies nearby (especially Flood), don’t hesitate to arm your Elites with Swords. If, on Legendary, you find yourself mandible-to-mandible with an enemy Elite, you can consider yourself dead--their melee attacks are so powerful that they can put down your shield and usually kill you with one hit. -Grunts Grunts never fail to remind me of some small dogs that run at every casualty. To quote my description of them in my Halo guide: “These aliens are small, short, stupid, dog-like, suicidal,” and about the weakest enemies you get to face. Use their tendency to run away after a comrade is killed to your advantage. That gives you time to concentrate on bigger, or at least more annoying, enemies, or at least shoot the Grunts in the back. It can help you out when you’re in a tough spot. Also, remember that they don’t run forever. Sometimes they gather some of their almost nonexistent courage back and start shooting at you. Keep an eye out for that. Grunts, like your average enemy, come in several types: Yellow Grunts- they’re the weakest Grunts out there but can still be a pain. I think they only carry Plasma Pistols, but that doesn’t necessarily make them a small threat. A couple of shots can destroy your shield. Well, at least they don’t fire overcharges. Red Grunts- they’re slightly tougher than yellow Grunts, and they seem to sometimes carry Needlers. All Grunts are equally cowards, so expect them to run away like any other type of Grunt. Gunner Grunts- these have green armor and operate Portable Plasma Cannons. What’s surprising is that a Gunner Grunt can actually carry and set up its own Plasma Cannon. Note, though, that if you dispose of a Grunt if it hasn’t set up its Cannon, the gun will fall on the ground and there’s nothing you can do to set it up again. Gunner Grunts have a definite weakness, and that’s the fact that when one is sitting at its Plasma Cannon, you’re usually free to get rid of it from behind. Well, it’s not that simple because if the Grunt realizes that its Cannon can only turn about 150 degrees, it gets out from behind the Cannon and starts using its own personal gun, which seems to always be a Plasma Pistol. Heretic Grunts- they look very different from Covenant Grunts because of the two bluish tanks on their backs instead of that weird and functionless ridge on their Covenant cousins, but are still about the same. Heretic Grunts carry Needlers, which is kind of annoying--whenever you meet this kind of Grunts, your Covenant comrades always carry the weaker Plasma Pistols. But look on the bright side--you can always arm your own friends with dead heretics’ Needlers. Black Grunts- I’m not sure if they even exist, but I think they do. If I’m right, they can carry Fuel Rod Cannons, Plasma Pistols, and Needlers, and are pretty annoying. Again, there’s a bright side, which is that without them you wouldn’t have any of the hand-held Fuel Rods. Grunts also usually have Plasma Grenades, which can, with some help from you, backfire on that Grunt's side. For example, when a Grunt is getting ready to throw a grenade and you manage to kill it at that precise moment, the Grunt will drop the grenade, so it will stay where it was, in that case near the late Grunt. If there were any enemies near the alien, they might get killed or at least wounded by the explosion. Another thing about them throwing the grenades--the distance a Grunt throws a grenade depends on how far trough the process it was when you killed it. In other words, if you kill it at one point, it’s going to have just enough strength to throw it a certain distance. If you kill it slightly later, then it’s going to have more strength, thereby throwing the Plasma Grenade further. Who knows, maybe you can get lucky enough to get the grenade onto some Elite standing in front of the Grunt. -Jackals Jackals are rat-like Covenant that tend to be a big annoyance. There are a couple of types: Shielded Jackals- technically, these are two types, but as you don’t meet them often I decided to merge them. They’re Jackals with shields that always carry Plasma Pistols. Their shields indicate how strong they are, in this case the green-shielded Jackals are weaker than the ones with yellow shields. A good way to kill them is to either snipe the notch in a Jackal’s shield through which it’s shooting, or use a melee attack to make it lower its shield, opening it up to more melee attacks or bullets. My preferred method is to use a sniping weapon (preferably the Carbine or Battle Rifle because they have more ammo than the Sniper or Beam Rifle) to shoot at the notch, then take the second I get to aim and shoot the exposed Jackal somewhere in the general head area. Even if the round doesn’t hit, the Jackals should once again lower the shield, which gives more time to aim. Sniper Jackals- this type is extremely annoying because, for some reason, they usually see you long before you see them. That, and one single Beam Rifle shot being fatal to you on Legendary, contributes to them being one of your worst enemies. Discovering them is a trial-and-error thing, when you go into an area and die enough to know where the shot came from. Then it’s just having the luck to be able to successfully get rid of that Sniper. A single Sniper Jackal can take quite a while to find. Just be patient and look for it. By the way, they don’t have shields, so if you somehow manage to catch one off-guard, you’ll be able to give it a headshot no matter what the angle. And in case you don’t know, you can shoot the Beam Rifle out of a Sniper’s hands. If you do, it’ll draw its Plasma Pistol. But well, they’re not much of a threat without a Beam Rifle. It also helps that they often carry Plasma Grenades. Let me know if you know for sure exactly why they have them. If you want to dispose of some closely grouped Jackals with a Plasma Grenade, make sure you don’t throw the grenade at a Jackal’s shield. That way, it bounces off and is usually wasted. Worst case scenario: the grenade bounces off the shield and lands right next to where it started, maybe on you. Try to throw grenades at Shielded Jackals’ feet so that they can’t bounce back. Not that it changes much, as Jackals normally jump away at the last possible moment. Unfortunately, you only get one or two friendly Jackals during the entire game, and that’s at the beginning of Sacred Icon, where the Sentinels usually kill the Jackals. If you can, try to confine Jackals to small spaces so that you can either melee them constantly or just throw a grenade and watch them trying to get out, which will hopefully be impossible because of the size of the space. A good place to try this out is Metropolis level. When you enter the underground highway, you’ll pass through the first half-closed blast door. You’ll have to fight through a section of the highway, then pass another blast door, and go into the sewers. Just before that second door, get onto the walkway on the right side of the road. You’ll notice that there’s a large rectangular prism/box on that walkway, forming a passage with the wall. Now you can lure enemies in there, not necessarily Jackals, and throw as many grenades at you want. I suggest you not do this on Legendary because you’ll be quickly overwhelmed. If you could have more Jackals on your side, I would have recommended to give them Carbines. Otherwise, I suggest you leave the only friendly Jackals you get with their original guns. -Drones I have several names for them (Bugs, Flying Pain in the Fanny, insects, and so on), but they’re essentially insect Covenant that fly around and annoy their enemies with their guns. Try to take Bugs out from a distance because I personally need a miracle to survive a close-range encounter with more than two or three of them. They fly in packs and are very hard to hit, which takes a lot of ammo and nerves. If you happen to have an immortal ally close by, stand aside and let that ally deal with the Bugs. I think the only place where you can actually do this is in the half-ruined building at the beginning of Outskirts level. Again, Bugs are very hard to hit. If you’re trying to get rid of a swarm of them using a Battle Rifle, you probably don’t stand a chance. From a distance, they’re pretty easy to hit because they’re usually flying straight at you, which gives you an almost stationary target. Use those rare moments to shoot them with some powerful sniping weapon, Beam Rifle being the best option. This can be done on Delta Halo. When you clear the big swampy place, you’ll pass through a canyon and emerge onto a rock ledge, from where you should have a grand view of the lake, and see a platform below you and a huge building slightly to your left. At some point, some Bugs will start flying at you from that building. Now you can use a Beam Rifle to snipe those Bugs from where you are. That should be relatively easy. Drones sometimes carry Needlers. Those are slightly less annoying because at least you can hide from the needles. This doesn’t exactly apply to Plasma Pistols. SMGs are the best non-Beam Rifle weapons against Bugs. If you’re unlucky enough to have to fight them close-up, then SMGs (or, maybe, Plasma Rifles) are your best option. -Hunters These are big monsters with big guns and big shields. To be honest, Hunters are more like vehicles than actual on-the-ground enemies. They’re tough, tougher than any other enemy that can walk, but have their own weaknesses. The main weakness is their speed. Even at full speed, a Hunter can only move slightly slower than you. That makes them susceptible to Frag Grenades or other slow weapons, Fuel Rod Cannons for example. When running from a Hunter, try to zigzag because the range of their Fuel Rod Cannons is impressive, which makes it easy for them to hit you, even from a distance. If you’re running away from a Hunter and it’s just behind you, it won’t try to melee you with its shield. But that’s not a big consolation, seeing that it’s very hard to outrun a Hunter. Try to use the close range to aim at, and shoot, one of its weak spots. That will hopefully slow it down enough for you to clear the Hunter and throw a grenade at it. If you somehow get behind a Hunter, I suggest you do your best to get away from it because they have a bad habit of unexpectedly turning around and meleeing you. That’s often fatal. For some reason, when you finally get a few friendly Hunters, they usually die quickly, as opposed to the long sieges you have to conduct to get rid of even a couple of Hunters in the previous parts of the game. A pretty hard-to-execute strategy of killing Hunters with Beam Rifles, but useful nevertheless, is using the Rifle to kill the Hunter head-on. Ever noticed that a Beam- or Sniper Rifle shot kind of jolts a Hunter backward? Well, it also exposes the “soft spot” on a Hunter’s neck. Just aim for the neck and pull off two shots in rapid succession. If you’re lucky, the first shot will shock the Hunter and the second will go into the neck. A Sniper Rifle seems applicable for this task, but Beam Rifles can fire two shots almost simultaneously. And it doesn’t help that you might find out just as you fire the first shot that you only had one round in the clip. On the other hand, the two shots overheat the Beam Rifle, so you can’t squeeze off a third if you missed. If you somehow happen to have a Rocket Launcher when facing a Hunter, use it. If the power on Legendary is consistent with its power on Easy (where I recently used a Rocket Launcher on a Hunter), then they should be a piece of cake. -Brutes Brutes are, in both ways, pretty brutal. They resemble brown gorillas that were for some reason given guns. The most brutal aspect of Brutes is their tendency of going berserk in tight situations. Examples of those situations: when the Brute is the last or almost last Brute left in the area or when the Brute is hurt enough. Believe it or not, a berserk Brute without its gun is far more dangerous than a calm Brute with its gun. Evade those if you possibly can, and use something explosive like Needlers to get rid of the Brute. When headshooting a Brute, notice its helmet. That's going to take some damage from the shot, but a hit will knock it off. Very detailed, isn't it? I noticed another Brutal aspect, which is that they, for some reason, sometimes use human guns. The only human weapon I've seen a Brute use is a Shotgun, but if you get to the armory on Uprising, you'll see a number of Shotguns, a Rocket Launcher, helmets, Frag Grenades, and even some very human canned food, all apparently stashed in that armory by the locals. Very interesting... Beam Rifles don't work very well, but their long range compensates for that. This is, again, noticeable on Uprising. Brute Shots don't work very good either. A single Brute can take at least four Brute Shot grenades. Carbines are about the best weapons against Brutes. Headshots take some time, but are relatively easy. After you depose a Brute from its position as owner of a Ghost, it'll take some time to actually kill the Brute with the Plasma Cannons. You can try to drive over the Brute, but that doesn't always work. And you can just run away and see what comes out of it. Swords work, but I can't say anything better. Try to have a Sword for close-up Brute fighting, but you're probably screwed if it comes to that. The only situation when you're forced to fight Brutes up close seems to be the fight just before you enter Delta Halo's Control Room. Flood This is a parasitic race found on the Halos. I usually act on the principle that the Flood are by far my worst enemies, so I deal with them first. -Combat Flood Stay away from these Flood if possible, especially if they or you are in vehicles. If you see a vehicle that a Flood hasn’t yet piloted but is about to, and there’s another Flood that’s going to board that vehicle even if you kill the first one, probably the best thing to do is to blow up the vehicle, even if it means destroying the wheels you could use for yourself later. The Combat Flood can wield weapons and use turrets, although for some weird reason they can’t fire weapons while running. That’s a big advantage for you. You can wait for some lone Flood to run at you across an indefinite distance without firing a shot, then blow it to pieces with your Energy Sword. By far the best weapon against Flood is the Energy Sword. The normal Combat Flood are instantly killed with one swing. The shielded ones can take two. The bad thing--one of the bad things--about Flood is that the corpses are reusable. In other words, once you “kill” a Flood, but the corpse is still in one piece, another Spore can get into the body and you’ll have a new Flood on your hands. If you have an area that you either know will be besieged by Spores or just has some Flood corpses lying around that could potentially be appealing to Spores, try to destroy the corpses. Depending on the amount of time you have, you might destroy the corpses with a Sword or just melee them to pieces with other weapons. The latter is time-consuming and the noises are not exactly pleasant, but it saves Sword ammo. If you choose to use the Sword, know that the ammo it takes to destroy a Spore-less corpse is much less than the amount of ammo it takes to kill a live Flood. Definitely don’t try to melee a living Flood to death. It’s excruciatingly hard and it’s really just impossible on Legendary. If you want to see just how hard it is, get to the Famine skull (Oracle level) and start meleeing the Flood around it with some weapon other than a Sword. It takes several minutes to melee one of them to death. Now consider that these particular Flood are permanently paralyzed or something and that an actual Combat Flood will put up a good fight before it lets you hit it. You’ll die before you hit it twice. Make absolutely sure that you keep Scorpions away from any Flood that might be in the area. They’re very good with the Cannon. I’d once seen a Flood shoot me out of the air with one, all because I somehow let it near a Scorpion I left nearby. If you’re in a slow vehicle, especially a Wraith or Scorpion, stay away from Flood. They often jump on top of your vehicle and swing their tentacles around the place until you die. This is slightly easier when you have allies because the Flood tend to go after your allies first. That gives you time to pry the Flood off the vehicle. If at all possible, when you have ally Elites and are dealing with Flood, arm the Elites with Swords. They’re very efficient with them, probably more so than the Xbox controller could ever allow you to be. -Flood Spores The Spores are the prime Flood. They get into a host body and make it into a Combat Flood or a Flood Bomb. They’re nasty, but usually don’t pose any overly big threat. In case you don’t know, when they jump at a shielded enemy, they kind of pop, slightly impacting the shield. If the enemy is not shielded, they stick to it and do something, I really don’t want to know what, (looks like they're sucking something out of the enemy) that does even more damage. Note that Spores now do a lot more damage to your shield than they did in Halo. Try to avoid contact whenever you can. The Sword is the best weapon against Spores if you don't want to waste ammo from your guns. It’s far more accurate than melee attacks with other weapons and Spores don’t take any Sword ammo. If you’re in a tight spot, wave your Sword at the Spores and see what happens. SMG work fine, especially if the Spores you need to get rid of at the moment are in one place. Just shoot at the place and the Spores will die off like flies. -Flood Bombs Bombs, as I’ll call them in the future, are living containers where Spores are grown. When they come near an enemy, they explode, releasing a few Spores (it’s kind of weird that the explosion can almost kill you, yet the fragile Spores seem alive and happy). When you see a Bomb, either run or blow it up with your guns. Unless absolutely necessary, don’t come near one--the explosion is very powerful. If you choose to detonate one with a gun of your own, try to do it when the Bomb is around other enemies. That way they can be damaged as well. Do your best not to use the Sword on Bombs--it sometimes throws them away, but it sometimes doesn’t. If not, then the resulting explosion will be very painful. Grenades and other explosions throw Bombs out of the way instead of detonating them. Sometimes they bounce around a bit before detonating. Make sure that one doesn’t land next to you. Always look around whenever you might meet a Bomb because they don’t make any noise until they blow up, and when you find out, it’s kind of too late. Sentinels These are Forerunner guards left on the Halos. Their weaponry is basic, but their large numbers often win them fights (only against your enemies, hopefully). -Sentinels These are the actual Sentinels. They’re flying machines equipped with Sentinel Beams. As always, the Beams are a lot more powerful in their hands (so to speak) than in yours. Don’t stand under or near a Sentinel when it goes down--Sentinels usually explode when they crash-land, which takes a chunk out of your shield. Sentinels are most easily brought down by Sentinel Beams. You can salvage a Beam from a dead Sentinel to use against them. But the Sentinel Beam is a horrible weapon otherwise, so I suggest you use other guns. Dual Plasma Rifles are about as effective, if not more so, than Sentinel Beams. Sentinels come in three types: normal Sentinels have the usual Sentinel Beam (red in color) and are kind of steel-colored. Upgraded Sentinels are the same as the normal kind, but they have shields. Gold Sentinels have shields and carry Gold Sentinel Beams (the actual beam is blue). In Sacred Icon, Sentinels are created in special chutes (those hexagonal or octagonal things in the wall with a light at the bottom). You can shoot a chute with your guns to blow it up, which can take away the possibility of a number of potential Sentinels. -Sentinel Tanks Sentinel Tanks are gigantic mechanical flying monsters. They carry Artillery and Sentinel Tank Needlers, and can be a significant health hazard. Something you’ll probably discover in Quarantine Zone: never get under a Sentinel Tank in a vehicle. Sometimes they try to grab your vehicle, lift it into the air, and start banging on it with their limbs. Not fun. This causes some big damage, which you should avoid unless you’re playing kamikaze for some reason. Watch the artillery as the range is very long. Stay out of the way if you’re in a vehicle, and you’d better find some cover if you’re on foot. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 7. Artifacts]____________________________________ This section describes most of the things you find in the environment. And I don’t mean everyday things (corpse, rock, wall, and so on). I mean things that can actually affect the gameplay in some unusual way. -Storage crates These are the crates the Covenant stores weapons in. Some don’t contain weapons, but can still be used as, say, barricades against some enemy siege. The latter use is worth taking a close look at. In some instances, you can wedge yourself between a crate and a wall, and thus have a very defendable “fort”, especially from those enemies that don’t look for you, but wait for you to come out. Sometimes you can even form real forts by meleeing several crates into rows (like in the detention center on Gravemind level). Of course, a grenade can usually blow apart any crates you spent ten minutes carefully meleeing into place, but this can give you a good chance to shield yourself against any enemy fire on the unwelcome side of your cover. And this has hidden advantages, too--you can build the fort with crates containing weapons, so that when you own weapons empty you’ll be able to pick up new ones without even moving. -Skulls These are multiplayer oddballs scattered around the campaign. They’re Easter Eggs that give you special powers, or tamper with the ones you already have, like your HUD. For more info on the Skulls, including a list of them and a walkthrough on how to get each one, visit the Secrets section. -Over Shield I think that this is a multiplayer-only item, but it can still be very useful. Basically, an Over Shield looks like a transparent cube with a yellow spherical thing hanging in its center. Over Shields give you two extra layers of shield, although they seem to drain by themselves, without help from other players. I heard that Black Eye skull can give you a free Over Shield if you use the skull’s effects long enough, but I can’t say I’ve proven it yet. -Active Camouflage Here I mean the multiplayer-only pick-up item, not the default Camouflage in the Arbiter’s armor. This one looks like a transparent pyramid with a blue sphere in the center. It gives you significantly more camouflaged time than the Arbiter’s Camo or Envy skull, and firing shots doesn’t automatically turn it off--it just makes you slightly visible for a couple of seconds before you become invisible again. And even then, it takes a lot of shots to make you completely visible, about five seconds straight of firing a rapid-fire weapon. This Camo doesn’t completely shield you, though, like all the other ones. You’re still visible as a kind of blur in the air. -Destroyed vehicles I’m not mentioning pilotless vehicles because they can still be destroyed. These, on the other hand, don’t have anything to lose. They can sometimes shield you from incoming fire and if the vehicle is (was, I should say) large, it could provide full-time shelter. Just make sure you stay away from some Covenant vehicles for about twenty seconds because of their habit of exploding a second time. -Covenant explosives These are like octagonal prisms cut diagonally somewhere near the middle. They have something blue and glowing in the center and are for some reason scattered around the levels for no apparent reason. They explode when you do enough damage, so make sure that you don't stand near one if you have any damage done to your shield. If and enemy ventures close to one, you might be able to use a sniping weapon to detonate the explosive, but you could probably damage the enemy more by putting the rounds straight into the enemy. -Weapon capsules Weapon capsules are pods that Pelicans sometimes drop to supply you with weapons. You get to see weapon capsules only on Delta Halo and Regret levels. -Sentinel chutes These are roughly octagonal chutes in the walls (Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone only) that deposit Sentinels everywhere. Sentinel chutes can be destroyed by sufficient firepower (dual Plasma Rifles work exceptionally well), but there are usually dozens of them in one place. I suggest you just take cover or run away whenever you see the chutes. -Pistons These objects are found exclusively on Sacred Icon. They're rectangular-prism-ish vertical slabs of metal with holo panels on them that you can shoot and by doing so raise the piston. Once you open a piston, you always have to jump down into the hole and into the next area. On the easier difficulties, you have the luxury of opening pistons by pressing X. Now, on Legendary, raising pistons is gun-only. -Levitated platforms These are sometimes used by Sniper Jackals to gain extra accuracy and height. And sometimes they're just floating around for you to use. They're essentially platforms that you can get on top of by walking into the miniature grav lift in the center. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 8. Vehicles]_____________________________________ Vehicles play a big part in the game. While they’re rarely required by the storyline, it's sometimes very hard to pass the game without them. Note that, if you somehow don’t know, you can jack vehicles. Vehicle-jacking manual: get close to a slow-moving or stationary vehicle, jump at it, hold X when you get to just the right point, and you will hopefully cling to the vehicle and the character will do his thing. Sometimes you’ll just kick the driver out of his seat, like in Ghosts, and sometimes you’ll have to melee the top out of the vehicle and throw a grenade in there, like in a Wraith or Scorpion. Human vehicles It’s kind of hard to compare these with their Covenant approximations (still proud) because they’re so different. I can’t really say which is better, either, for about the same reason--they’re sometimes the most useful vehicles under the circumstances and sometimes they’re junk to fill up the game. Human vehicles are not as maneuverable as I would have liked, but the big firepower often makes up for that. -Warthog Ah, the good ol’ ‘Hog. This 26th century Hummer (I may call it an LRV--light reconnaissance vehicle) carries a big gun in the back, usually a Machine gun, which you even get to use while a friend is driving. That friend can even be AI. Warthogs are not as maneuverable as I would have wanted them to be, but it’s still enough for some quick getaways. And maybe just ramming enemies with your bumper. In Outskirts you have to perform a drive-through assault on the highway tunnel, where the bumper is the essential weapon. Bad thing is, Flood seem to like Warthogs as well. And their driving is pretty good. For those cases, I suggest you pack a Cannon or at least a Mortar. Warthogs almost always have Machine guns, but at least one ‘Hog in the game has a Gauss Cannon. That’s a certain Warthog on Metropolis. Outside Legendary, you can even use it without buying the farm. If you have a friend in the back of the Warthog, you can usually circle enemies and have that friend constantly shoot those enemies. The Flood also seem to use this tactic, so watch for that. If an enemy Warthog drives in front of you and you happen to be inside a Wraith at the moment, you can boost straight into that Warthog and ram it away from yourself. Then you can proceed to use the lengthened range to fire your Mortar at the Warthog. This is even better when the LRV drives between you and some chasm--you can drive it straight off the edge. The speed is impressive. Back to the highway in Outskirts--the Warthog was probably the best vehicle for that. There was one point there, where you had to drive the vehicle off a ramp and into the air. It launched so high that I accidentally killed a Bug that got in the way--and the Bug was almost touching the ceiling. Choose the weapons that the passenger carries carefully. For example, make sure that, if one Marine has an SMG and the other has a Sniper Rifle, that the one with the Sniper Rifle gets into the passenger seat. Or, if you’re dealing with enemy vehicles or turrets, have a Marine with a Rocket Launcher ride shotgun. Just to have this in your memory: you can use Warthogs to get higher ground. I mean, just stand on top of a Warthog and jump to wherever you need to. I’m not sure if this can do any good anywhere, but it might. This, of course, applies to other vehicles. Look at the walls in the multiplayer map Headlong--on one or two of them is a big picture of a Warthog with the appropriate caption, but the vehicle is, for some reason, yellow. Well, not that I would have liked to have a yellow Warthog, but that would have still been a pleasant variation. But, well, an army LRV must be exorbitant. Notice that if you ram things in a Warthog, as in all other vehicles, your shield takes damage. Try not to crash into walls or any other solid objects unless you have to. -Scorpion The human tank. Scorpions are relatively common now, at least far more common than they were in Halo. The Cannon is the most important advantage you have on the Scorpion. Use it well. The weapon tends to throw objects, including vehicles. If you want to get the most out of this, get the Sputnik, start up Metropolis, grab the nearby Scorpion, and lay your path of destruction across the bridge. If you have to resort to this, you have the option of driving over enemies and sometimes even vehicles with the Scorpion. This is not effective, but it’s an option in some tough spots. Don’t even think of getting near a Flood on foot while you are in a Scorpion. This vehicle is permanently slow-moving and therefore permanently available for jacking. The Flood are especially efficient at it. They can set jumping records just to get your tank. Well, that’s unlikely, but still sends quite a bit of electricity down the Arbiter’s pain neurons. First, if they get close enough, the Flood lands on top of your tank and starts meleeing the top of the tank until the occupant either gets out or dies. If you have allies on the tank, the Flood often gets them before it tries to kill you. The only way to get the thing off the vehicle is to get out and kill it somehow. Watch for Rocket Launcher-wielding Flood when you’re in a Scorpion. That’s simply because a Scorpion is a huge target. It would be hard to miss even if the rockets couldn’t home. The Cannon is really long-range, so you don’t have to drive your Scorpion close to a threat, especially seeing how slow it is. It’s important to know that the Scorpion now doesn’t have to go only where the camera is pointed. That’s a huge plus. Just tilt the left thumbstick in the direction where you want to go and use the right thumbstick to aim wherever you need. This is especially useful on the bridge in Metropolis. You always have the option of pushing vehicles and maybe even enemies into chasms using a Scorpion. Covenant vehicles These are a lot more diverse than human vehicles and are used a lot more. Covenant vehicles can be easily distinguished from the human ones by their ability to hover and the overwhelming amount of purple color. They use energy or plasma weapons and are much more common. Covenant vehicles usually explode a second time after being destroyed. -Ghost Ghosts can be considered the Covenant equivalent of Warthogs. They’re fast and are good for quick getaways or drive-through parts of the game. The main problem is that Ghosts leave most of the driver exposed. That directs a lot of shots straight at your shield. Not that it’s a big advantage if you’re the one doing the shooting, but you being behind the stick often results in you having an empty shield. About ten seconds after being downed, Ghosts explode a second time, which is why I never recommend being near one for a few seconds after you destroy it. Theoretically, Ghosts can be used as bombs if you manage to hurl one at an enemy. But the timing, the physics involved, and just precision-throwing the Ghost, are too hard, at least for me. Besides, the explosion is too weak to be worth bothering with. I could probably get a bigger explosion out of whatever I would have to use to move the Ghost wherever I would need to move it in the first place. Ghosts’ Plasma Cannons are improved now due to the increased firing rate. As they don’t overheat, they can be fired constantly. You even have the option of drawing on walls with them. Ghosts are fast and maneuverable, which is very good in those instances when you need to get away or just drive through enemy ranks. What’s more, the new boost function makes it one of the fastest vehicles in the game. But the boost has its disadvantages too--like the worsened maneuverability and the increased damage if you hit a wall. You can circle enemies and shoot them with the Plasma Cannons. Well, sometimes enemies can turn as fast as you can circle them, so some variation in the direction of your circling helps. A Ghost can be destroyed by a good Cannon shot, but the shot has to go straight into the Ghost. If the Ghost just got caught in the explosion, it’s likely to survive. A Fuel Rod Cannon shot (from a Banshee) has been proven to work well, but it’s not often that you get to see a Ghost while in a Banshee. In fact, I think you have to cheat, or at least bypass some intended limits, to get a Banshee in an area with Ghosts. Plasma Cannons can’t work when you’re using the boost. But not that you really need them anyway without the proper ability to target. After boosting a Ghost (as in jack), you usually have to get rid of the driver because they almost always survive you kicking them out of the driver seat. Unless, of course, you somehow happen to kick him out so that he flies over some cliff, drop-off, or chasm. That best-case scenario doesn’t usually work, though, due to the usual absence of Ghosts near chasms and the very small probability that you happen to steal the Ghost in exactly the right place. Be very careful around other objects and small debris on the ground. If you’re not careful, the Ghost can turn over and maybe even land you in the middle of, maybe, a number of enemies. Wherever Ghosts are available, they tend to be available in large numbers, so you normally don’t have to worry about losing a Ghost or two. I’ll point out that it’s a very bad idea to try to push a Ghost with other vehicles. I’m not sure what will result if you push one with another Ghost (the one you’re in will probably flip over), but anything Spectre-sized or bigger will result in the Ghost exploding. If you’re really unlucky, you vehicle will be trapped on top of the wreck and take damage from the “aftershock” explosion. If you happen to jack a Ghost from a Flood, you can immediately dispose of the former driver by simply driving over him. The Flood will be blown apart, making this one of the easiest ways of killing Flood. -Banshee The only vehicle you can pilot that can actually fly. Banshees are useful in some places and essential to the mission in others. Banshees are equipped with a boost, like Ghosts, and the controls are about the same while the boost is active. Naturally, the weapons are deactivated during the boost (Bungie wouldn't give you that advantage, of course) and the maneuverability is very limited. But still, it gives you a lot of speed. It’s possible to do some tricks with the boost. Hold A and now, tilting the left thumbstick to the side will make the Banshee roll over, and tilting it back will make it flip over and gain some height in the process. Both are just to add some interest because the fraction of a second that the Banshee is not moving is more than enough for an enemy to pull the trigger. You would be better off if you just strafe to the side or boost out of the way. Shooting at enemies while strafing to the side is a very good way of fighting enemies like Phantoms, turrets, and other enemies with slow weapons. You get this combat at its best in the Banshee part of The Arbiter level. There, you can use this strafing technique against the Grunts with Fuel Rod Cannons on those platforms spaced around the station. Plus, at the end of the flight, you get to fight some turrets on a platform, which can also be effectively defeated with this. Enemy Banshees can easily kill you on Legendary. If you don’t have some ally who can fight them off while you do your thing, I suggest you boost away and get to some safe place. This particular situation doesn’t happen very often, but there are a couple of spots where the best thing to do is to run. One of them is the part of Oracle where you have to chase the Heretic Leader into another wing of the station. If you linger for a few seconds, a couple of Banshees will come and finish you off. Fly straight toward the destination. Then there’s the part of The Great Journey where, when you have to give Sarge cover, the road to Delta Halo’s Control Room leads you past a few Banshees. As long as you boost straight through, all that should be hit is the Banshee’s tail. At least I could do this very easily. Like Ghosts and most other Covenant vehicles, Banshees explode after they go down. But well, I want to make sure you know that it’s VERY hard to accidentally get hurt by a Banshee exploding. This is partly because the area where the destroyed Banshee could land is larger than the other vehicles’ due to the fact that they can fly, and go (and fall) to places where other vehicles can’t. Another reason is that the explosion is weak. Jacking Banshees is not very easy; the main issue is surviving long enough to jump close to a Banshee. Banshee-jacking manual (I wrote one in the intro to the Vehicles section about general vehicle-jacking, but there are some tricks to jacking Banshees): 1. Find an appropriate Banshee. It would be good to choose one close to you because one flying far away will have more time to incinerate you with its Plasma Cannons before it gets close enough for jacking. 2. When the Banshee gets close to you, about one second of non-boost flight away from the point where you currently are, face straight away from it and jump forward--away from the Banshee. 3. If it’s not boosting when you’re right under it, you should get a message to hold X. Comply with the message, after which you should hop onto the Banshee and pull out the driver, who seems to always die. -Wraith Covenant tank. This is a huge, menacing-looking, and mind-bogglingly slow... thing/slab of purple metal... with a large Mortar on top. The speed is one of my biggest issues with the Wraith. It’s incredibly slow, and the Wraith is, for some reason, the only vehicle that has a limited boost. Well, it can recharge indefinitely, but you can use only so much at a time--about two seconds, after which it takes about five to seven seconds to recharge. And if you interrupt the boost while it’s still going, you can be sure that there won’t be any extra boost left over from that particular firing, so some of it will be wasted. The other concern is the extremely limited range of vision for the Mortar. Definitely don’t go trying to defeat enemies at close range because the reticle just doesn’t go that far down. The only thing Mortars work for is cleaning up areas far away (because of this, speed for the vehicle was apparently considered unnecessary), with the more or less fast rate of fire compensating for it being very hard to aim properly. Don’t climb into a Wraith at the last possible moment and expect to use the Mortar instantly because it takes a few seconds for the Mortar to start working. Plus the time it takes to aim and actually hit the enemy, you’ll lose a big piece of your shield. As I said before, it’s sometimes possible to use the boost as a weapon. You can usually drive straight into an enemy standing nearby, and it’s even better to ram them off a ledge or into a chasm. This can actually be a Wraith’s best means of defense in those cases when an enemy is standing right next to your Wraith. It’s definitely not an option to try to hit it with the Mortar (as you should already know, Mortars can’t aim that low), but if you have any boost you can turn it on, hit the enemy, and draw back, now ready to use the Mortar over the increased distance. As you probably know, Wraiths piloted by anyone other than you have two Plasma Cannons. Why you can’t use them and your enemies and allies can is beyond me. I didn’t think Bungie would sink that low. Wraiths are very bad for combat in general; even strafing--one of the most important aspects of Covenant vehicles--is excruciatingly slow. I suggest you not use them if there’s a choice. -Spectre Another vehicle very much like the Warthog. I’d even say that it takes the Ghost’s place in that respect. The properties of the two vehicles are pretty much the same. It’s fast with its (infinite) boost on, it has a gun at the back, and it can carry passengers (one driver, a gunner, and two passengers on the wing-like things on the sides). The only thing is ever used these for is driving through enemy-packed areas while the gunner took shots at those enemies. Its boost can accelerate it to almost Ghost-like speeds. The Plasma Cannon on Spectres are very weak, but they can be used for precision-targeting enemies over long distances, even without a scope on the gun. Even if the range is too long, there’s a certain trick to it, assuming the target is not moving. First, stand next to the turret, so that the message telling you to hold X is on. Then look past the turret and, using a weapon with a scope, target the target (pun intended). Finally, without moving the reticle, get into the turret and open up on the enemy. You see, I developed this because I discovered that, for some reason, the reticle doesn’t move a millimeter if you get into a vehicle. This can help on Uprising, in the part where you climb down a waterfall, to get rid of the annoying Brutes and Jackals from a distance. A big disadvantage is that the driver, whom I always recommend to be you, is extremely exposed to anything that comes his way. This rule is somehow broken when you’re facing Sniper Jackals. Those aliens, who can hit you from a hundred meters away, can’t seem to be able to hit you in a Spectre, whatever the range. I wouldn’t count on it, but it appears to work. The two passengers, instead of only one possible passenger on the Warthog, can tip the table your way when things get tough. Arm them with something other than Swords, and at the very least you’ll have two Plasma Rifles going at the enemy, instead of one. A slight down side of this is that the Plasma Cannon is not as powerful as the Warthog’s Machine gun. Although the Spectre is rather slow without the boost, it’s maneuverable. You can easily strafe and dodge out of the way and then boost away from there. But it’s also vulnerable to uneven landscape and different explosives, like grenades and the Mortar, which can make a Spectre flip over. The passengers are even more vulnerable than the driver. Under no circumstances get into the passenger seat of a Spectre. -Shadow I don’t have much to say about this one. Shadows are used by the Covenant to transport troops and vehicles, but you don’t get to drive them. They feature a Phantom turret on top, which can give you a bad day. I’m not completely sure, but Shadows with drivers seem to self-destruct once you get close. -Phantom Not much more about this, either. Phantoms can carry troops and vehicles, each has three Phantom Cannons (which is the only destructible part of a Phantom), and they can fly. You can’t pilot them, but friendly Phantoms prove to be good allies, especially on The Arbiter level. -Scarab Scarabs are big, somewhat spider-like mechs with Scarab Cannons and room for a legion of Covenant to fit inside. Of course, you can't pilot Scarabs, but on one occasion you get one as your ally. Scarabs play a big role in the game. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 9. Other tips]___________________________________ -Use storage crates and other objects in the environment for cover To point out an obvious and unshakable truth: Halo 2 on Legendary is all about cover. You hide someplace safe and take shots at the enemy. Storage crates prove to be of enormous help, especially when you need to organize some way of holding off enemies that you can’t kill any other way. Even one storage crate, when propped against a wall and a corner, can protect you from certain enemies. Sometimes, when there’s an area full of enemies who don’t know you’re there yet, and you’re near a stock of crates, you sometimes have the opportunity to melee, push, or topple the crates into place. Of course, I’ve never seen this makeshift castle hold up to a grenade, especially one thrown into it, but crates are indestructible and therefore impervious to any kind of gunfire. -In case of a significant mistake, I suggest you back up to the previous checkpoint If you commit one of the thousands of possible snafus, like leaving good guns behind when you jump of a cliff and into another area, it would be a good idea to return to the last checkpoint, unless you’ll lose a lot of progress by doing so. In general, be careful when making significant decisions like, say, jumping off that cliff I mentioned, because you might accidentally checkpoint at some uncomfortable moment and lose half a level of progress as a consequence of having to restart the whole level. -Always move behind cover, even if you can’t see any enemies No real specifics about this point are necessary for the fairly obvious reason that there may be hidden enemies who can’t get a chance to shoot at you unless you’re in a certain area where you happened not to be until now. And once you find out about that, it’s usually too late for you to do anything about it. The enemies that fall into this category most perfectly are Sniper Jackals. They usually stay in one place and once you’re sure that you’ve annihilated all the enemies in the area, they give you a very good reason to shout “Eureka!” and die a moment later. -Keep your distance when fighting; use sniping weapons whenever possible; ALWAYS take cover I guess I don’t need to explain this, either. Obviously, any sane gamer would prefer killing an Elite from far away with a Beam Rifle than try to melee it to death from up close. Again, take cover whenever possible. A doorway can be improvised into good cover, though temporary, which can save your person from certain bad things on the other side of the doorway. Some permanent cover is a place that’s shielded from all sides, preferably from the top also if the area contains flying enemies. It’s very rare that you meet an enemy who ventures close enough, even if it’s a narrow wall separating you from them, but they sometimes do so, which causes some pain. -Swap-carrying weapons This is a rather simple strategy, but it's what I'm implying you should use when I tell you to stockpile weapons somewhere. Did you ever notice that the character throws a weapon forward when he swaps it for another weapon? That's crucial to this trick. Simply run at a weapon, hold X to swap for it, and the gun you swapped will fly forward. Then run at that gun and repeat the process. Although time-consuming, this is easy and can get you through tough spots. -If you have to, try something radical If (when, I should say) you get desperate enough, you might want to try something hot-headed like running into an area full of enemies whom you'd been picking off for the last two hours and were killed by some stray grenade. Who knows, it might actually work. A great place for this kind of thing is the second hangar on Cairo Station level. There, I normally started picking off the Covenant, but was killed far too often to keep my cool. So I discovered that if I rush into the area with the Covenant, I could kill a surprising number of them before buying it myself. Just make sure you had hit a checkpoint not so long ago--I don't want to be responsible for you losing an hour or two of progress. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 10. Walkthrough]_________________________________ A walkthrough is (as far as I know) not something most other Legendary difficulty guides contain. I currently know of only one other Legendary difficulty guide for Halo 2. I’ll try to make this as complete as possible, but it may still not be enough. It’ll be divided by level names, section titles, and what I consider major checkpoints. I. The Heretic This is basically a cutscene that shows the wreckage of Halo and the Covenant holy city they call High Charity. Then will follow a conversation between three Prophets and a Gold Elite, A.K.A. the Arbiter. Looks like he was the one who commanded all the Covenant you met on the original Halo. The Prophets will blame him for the destruction of Halo and the Council will insist that he’s a heretic. He’ll be arrested. II. Armory [MAC station Cairo, suspended in space above Earth] -One Size Fits All You’re on the orbiting MAC gun platform near Earth called Cairo. The Marine called Master Guns will talk to Master Chief in a manner that made me want to kick him. He’ll run you through the diagnostics waste-of-time, like in the previous Halo, but there it’s not done on Legendary. When you have to look at the lights, whether you push the right thumbstick up or down, the reticle will go in the right direction. When he turns off the inhibitors, you’ll be able to run around. Get a feel for the controls, which are slightly different from the ones in the first Halo, and then meet him by the shield recharging station. Assuming you played the prequel, you’ll know what it looks like. Step in and Guns will explain to you what to do. When a message appears telling you to hold X, do so and the shield recharging station will do its thing. Halfway through the process, Sgt. Johnson (Sarge in the future) will appear. If you finished the previous Halo on Legendary, you may have some interesting questions about how he’s alive at all. After the "zapper" finishes doing something with your shield, you’ll be able to move around again. Oh, and note those yellow hexagonal things in the wall opposite the windows. When you come near one in the future, it’ll open and reveal two guns or so. If you want some extra dialogue from the Sarge, wait in the room and listen. If not, then walk into the elevator. It’ll eventually move and open once again. Go out and into the monorail in front of you. Ride to the Bridge. III. Cairo Station [Close to Cairo Station's bridge] You’ll see a cutscene showing Lord Hood (Admiral, I guess) awarding the Master Chief, Johnson, and Miranda Keyes for their feats on Halo, though Commander Keyes will be awarded a medal for her father’s death there. This cutscene will be kind of spliced with another cutscene showing the Arbiter being punished by Tartarus for his “heresy”. In the end of the Cairo part, Covenant boarding craft will arrive, so the Chief will have to kill them off. You’ll be outside the bridge. Go down the stairs just in front of you and take the guns on the first landing. Make sure to dual-wield two SMGs. Then go down the stairs, along the hallway, and into the next room. -Home Field Advantage This will be your first battle. If you wait for a few seconds, the door far to your right will start being welded through by some Covenant on the other side. Take position on the small stage-like thing on your right. When the door is finally broken, many, many Covenant will arrive. Open fire on them with the SMGs. The Grunts should go down pretty fast, but the Elites will be harder to kill. Once the first party is killed, some reinforcements will arrive. Finish them off also. It’s just a matter of luck here, whether they focus on you or not. Hide behind what little cover you have (one of the poles at the edge of the platform) and when the shield’s recharged, come out and fight. Note that your shield takes longer to recharge than it takes to reload two SMGs, so reload while hiding. Eventually the Elites and Grunts will stop pouring out and you will be able to proceed. Go into the tunnel the aliens originally came through and turn right. There will be some more Covenant at the end of the tunnel, so clean them up. Go up the stairs next to where the Covenant were. Go up and turn left. Once through the door go left and man the Machine gun there. Be careful to drop one of the SMGs before you use the Machine gun, just in case Master Chief drops it over the edge and into the room below. Use the Machine gun to kill the Elite behind one of the palm trees in front of you. Then kill off all the Grunts you can, but watch the radar all the time. There will be an Elite trying to sneak up on you and you don’t want that. When you see the red dot somewhere in the vicinity of four o’clock, get out from behind the gun and go kill that Elite. Don’t expect to kill that particular one on the first try--you’ll probably have to hide. When the way down the staircase is clear (sweep the lower level of the entire room with your Battle Rifle or the suit’s scope to make sure that there are no Grunts there), go down the stairs. Take the left at the first opportunity and go into the tunnel inside the wall. Use it to flank some enemies if necessary, or just to get close. They have an interesting tendency of thinking that the place where they saw you last is going to be the one and only place where you’ll come out. Use that to trick the Covenant that should be hiding at the far end of the room. Use the Battle Rifle to clear the Grunts first, as they can do some serious damage. Then kill off the Elites, and in one corner of the room there will be an entrance to another tunnel and another bunch of Covenant. Kill them off and proceed up the stairs. Once at the top landing, turn right and into one of the hangars. Run forward and take what should be your first grenades--three Frags and four Plasma Grenades. Don’t waste a moment, and while the Covenant are distracted by the Marine on the platform, run out onto the platform and hide behind the shield thing at the end. It’ll more or less shield you from them and provide an opportunity for finishing off the Covenant in the hangar in under an hour. From here, wait for your shield to recharge if necessary, and look out from behind the cover. Gun down the nearest Elite with the SMGs and hide again. Don’t be surprised if you have to hide again--the Elites in this place are very tough and no less annoying. Take shots at them and eventually you’ll clear them out. They will be divided into four parties: one will be already there and three waves will come from the boarding craft that apparently smashed through the window. The first three will be hard to kill, and the last one will verge on impossible due to the Black Grunts and one or two Silver Elites armed with dual Plasma Rifles. Tips to survival: first, crouch behind the shield whenever you’re not shooting at the Covenant. Second, know that there are about 240 rounds for the SMGs near the place where you picked up the Frag Grenades, and some Battle Rifle ammo on the staircase on the other side of the door you entered through. There’s not enough ammo as it is, not counting the rounds that will miss. To retrieve some ammo, wait for the fire to stop and make a run for it across the platform to the main walkway. To get back, wait for the fire to stop and run across again. Whenever there are Elites between you and the window, you can use Plasma Grenades to effectively kill them. When they’re dead and not arriving through the boarding craft anymore, a door will open on the end of the hangar with the Pelican in it and some Covenant will come out. I can’t predict what kind of Elites there will be because it seems to be completely random. Kill the Elites there with Plasma Grenades and SMGs if necessary. But take out the Grunts first. They can be annoying. If an Elite is facing away from you and you’re confident that the rest of the Covenant is exterminated, you can stick a Plasma Grenade to it, or you can just melee it in the back. Once the hangar is cleared, proceed through the door. Upon reaching the other hangar, peek around the corner and snipe the Grunts on the platform above you to get rid of the two nasty Plasma Cannons. If you want some ammo or grenades from the top level of the previous hangar, this is what you have to do: when you pass the door leading to the first hangar, jump on top of the nearest crate and then jump on top of the Pelican there. Try to jump onto the nose, as it’s the lowest. Then jump onto the walkway. For future purposes, take a Plasma Rifle and an SMG, one in both hands. When you enter the second hangar, go right and around the three identical crates there, and then run to the control panel thing in the center of the room. Inch around the left side of the control panel and throw a Plasma Grenade at the Covenant (throw it at an Elite if you can). When you’ve thrown it, run back the way you came and into one of the passageways going into the ground marked “MAC Storage”. Wait for the Covenant to calm down and go back out and behind the panel. Do this until the last party arrives, which seems to consist of several Silver Elites and one Gold Elite with Energy Swords, at least one Silver Elite with two Plasma Rifles, and other really bad things. Don’t despair if you get killed too often--this part took me hours to complete. When the last party arrives, go back to the hangar entrance and wait for the enemies to calm down. Then come out and just look at them. If anything other than an Elite with an Energy Sword spots you, hide. Eventually only a Sword-wielding Elite will spot you but it won’t alert the others by running at you. Wait for it to get close and take it down with the Plasma Rifle and SMG. Repeat until only the Plasma Rifle Elites are left. Use the Plasma Grenade assassination technique to kill them off. Go back to the previous hangar for more Plasmas if there are any left, otherwise walk toward the MAC Storage passageways, which should now be open. -Priority Shift The doors at the end of the passageways will be open. Don’t use up all your Plasma Grenades because you’ll really need one soon. Use Frags and saturation fire on the enemies on the other side of the doors to clear the way. Then go through. Go to the left side of the room and run across. Throw away the second gun and get ready to throw a Plasma Grenade. When the door opens, throw the grenade at the Elite on the other side. If it misses, I suggest restarting. When the Elite is dead, another one will come in through the door on the other side of the room. Pick up the gun you dropped. That second Elite will be invisible, so be careful. If a door is open and you can’t see the glow of a Plasma Rifle in front of it, throw a Frag Grenade at the doorway anyway, so the splash damage hurts the Elite. Then finish it off with your guns. Otherwise use the element of surprise to kill it. Go through the door the Elites came through. Go up the stairs and dump the second gun onto the stairs. Master Guns will be fighting a couple of Elites there, but the doors won’t open till he’s dead. Throw a grenade at the Elites, pick up the gun you dumped, and proceed to finish off the Elites. Stay as low on the staircase as possible. When the way is clear, swap the SMG and Plasma Rifle for a Shotgun and fill up the Battle Rifle. Hide behind the nearest metal shield in the next room. Look out around the left side of the shield and use the Battle Rifle to snipe the Grunt on the platform carrying a Plasma Cannon. After that, use the Battle Rifle to kill off the Grunts left of the platform that will arrive shortly. Then slowly kill the Red Elite with the same weapon. It’ll take a long time, but it’s possible and even moderately easy. Fill up from the Battle Rifle on one of the tables and go toward the shield. Run across the room and hide behind the other shield. Then go into the passageway inside the wall. The closest exit will lead onto the platform that the late Red Elite used to occupy. Don’t go out onto the platform yet, but snipe the Grunts first. Then kill off the Elite with the Battle Rifle. Snipe the Grunts near the place where the Elite was and then snipe the one in the observatory window on your left. After it’s vacated its post on the Plasma Cannon, shoot the other one as well. Go across the room from the current passage and into the passage there. The first opening will lead you out onto the second platform and the last one will provide you with a good view of the next passage with some more Covenant (a couple of random Elites and a bunch of Grunts), which you’ll have to kill. If you still have a Plasma Grenade, use the opportunity to throw that at the unsuspecting Elites, otherwise make use of Frags. If you’re out of those also, which is very likely, sneak up on them and make use of the Shotgun. Clear off the Grunts first, then use the Shotgun on the Elites. It’s not going to be easy, but eventually you should be able to lure the Elites out from under the staircase and kill each with a couple of point blank shots from the Shotgun. Go up the stairs. If you’re lucky, you can kill one Elite from a distance with the Battle Rifle and another with a grenade--don’t have to use the Shotgun at all. Once you’ve gone up the stairs and into the room there, don’t go in. Instead, wait for the door on the opposite end of the room to open and toss a Plasma Grenade through it. Then run back across the room, but just far enough to have a good view of the window and some appropriate cover. When the Grunts and Elites sit at the Plasma Cannon, snipe them for some easy kills. They won’t move (there’s nothing you can do to make them leave), so the Elites won’t hide to recharge their shields. Once the room is clear, go into the observatory and toward the door. Along the way there will be some Battle Rifles on the wall. Take the ammo (go back to the Armory for some Shotgun ammo if necessary. Don’t worry how many Shotgun shells you used because you probably will come back later) and go through the door. There will be a series of doors there, so run through. You’ll arrive in a room similar to the Bridge. Go around the crates on your left and start sniping the Covenant there. With the Marines’ fire, the Elite will go down very easily. But the main Covenant force in the room is further down the room. Go forward and past the open door. You can go through, but there’s nothing in there that you want. Go slightly past the door and wait for the Covenant to come. If they don’t, go a bit further and wait till they come. The hide in the doorway of that door and snipe the bad guys. Then, for the purpose of having as much ammo as possible, you can go back as far as the Armory to get some more. When you’re all set, go through the door the Covenant were guarding. -Authorized Personnel Only Immediately hide behind the closest crate and wait for the Jet Pack Elites to arrive. When the noise of the jets stabilizes you’ll know they stopped. Inch around the left side of the crate and toss a Plasma Grenade at one of the Elites. If the grenade misses, restart. Then snipe the other one with the Battle Rifle till it dies. Notice that in space, you can jump further. That helps. Now, drop down from the room you’re in and turn around. Run across the stretch of concrete floor until you reach the place with a large yellow container and only one of those rooms between you and the door leading back inside the station. Hide inside the container and wait for the Elites to calm down. Look outside and use Plasma Grenades on the Elites. This is as much a matter of luck as skill, so don’t expect to be able to do this on the first try. If you do, though, it’s great. Use the element of surprise, as the Elites always violate one of the most sacred rules of Halo: always move and look around. Once they look for you for a couple of seconds, they stay in one place. This makes it very easy to sneak up on one. The only problem here is that there are three Elites instead of one. Be very careful. When it’s safe, go through the door at the end of the stretch of concrete floor. Take the ammo for the Battle Rifle next to the dead Marine and go through the next set of doors. There will be another Marine and Bugs/Drones. Lots and lots of them. Stay in the passageway and use the same old Battle Rifle to snipe them. Nine bullets or three shots are almost guaranteed to kill any Bug for good. When most of them are dead, a platform with some Elites and Grunts will arrive at the opposite end of the room. Snipe the Grunts and then snipe the Elites. The latter will be tough to get rid of, but you can do it with some patience. If you’re low on ammo, take some from the dead Marine in the passageway, or the Rifles on the wall near the other Marine that should be dead by now. Once only one of the Elites is left, the platform will depart and you’ll be able to snipe the leftover Elite from high up. Then descend down the ramp and through the door. Now you have to use the Battle Rifle sniping method of killing Elites for I don’t know what time to dispose of the Elites there (one with one Plasma Rifle, another with two, and a third one sitting at a Plasma Cannon). They will be the Jet Pack type, so it makes it slightly easier to snipe them as they don’t take cover as much or move as fast. This will take time, but it can be done. When all three are dead, take ammo for the Battle Rifle and go toward the dead Elites. In the center of the place there will be a ramp going down, with two ramps going around it. Stop in front of that central ramp and carefully go forward along one of the side ramps. If an Elite comes up, run back and hide. Then snipe it with the Battle Rifle. The second Elite will be probably hiding. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to sneak up on it and melee it in the back. If not... then I guess you’ll have to start over because any Elite is very lethal if met up close without an Energy Sword or Shotgun. When the way is clear, go through the door. Wait for the elevator to descend. -Return to Sender The elevator door will open as soon as the section title appears. You’ll probably be expecting the door with the red lights to open, but it’s the door on the opposite side of the elevator. When it opens, go through and immediately throw a Plasma Grenade at the closest Elite. It shouldn’t be able to see you yet. When that Elite is dead, hide behind the large crate and use the Battle Rifle to snipe the other Elites. Just so you know: there will be one or two Elites with dual Plasma Rifles, one Silver Elite with one Plasma Rifle and a Needler (the most annoying one by far), a few regular Elites with one Plasma Rifle, one with an Energy Sword, and one Red Elite with dual Needlers. It’ll be hard to get rid of them all, which is what you have to do to trigger the next cutscene. Try this: use guerilla tactics. Inch around the side of the crate and snipe the Elites. Then, a couple of seconds after they start firing the Needlers. But when they do, don’t jump out too quickly. The needles home in on any enemy target that appears, even if that target took cover previously. In other words, if you jump out from behind the crate when there are needles flying toward you, they’ll home in on you and could potentially do some big damage. Snipe them until there are only a couple left. Once you’ve accomplished a raid on the enemy from behind your crate, look left and across the ditch in the center of the room in case some Elites decide to flank you. They don’t do this often, but when they do, fifty percent of the time it’s going to turn out to be lethal. There will be some Battle Rifle ammo in the ditch and some across it. To get the ammo in it, go down and turn left. There will be a room at the end, where there will be two of those on-the-wall weapon racks. One of them contains SMGs and one has Battle Rifles. It’s kind of perplexing why that Marine’s there, if not for fighting. To get the ammo across the ditch, just go across and there will be a dead Marine there, complete with a Battle Rifle. All right. Back to the actual game process. Once there are one or two Elites left, go across the ditch anyway and hide behind the crate there. This should give you a good view of the remaining Elites. Before going there, though, take a couple SMGs. When the Elites come out, use Plasma Grenades if you have any left. If not, empty the SMGs into them. Eventually they’ll hide behind those two crates there. When this happens, run behind the crates and kill them off with the Shotgun. Wait for the cutscene. That will consist of the Chief dragging the huge bomb to the airlock, opening the door, and stepping outside. Then the Chief will land in a Covenant ship through a hole that just happened to appear there at exactly the right moment and in exactly the right place. My guess is that he landed in the ship’s fusion reactor chamber. Then he’ll detonate the bomb and land on, out of all those ships in the area, In Amber Clad (Miranda Keyes’s ship). IV. Outskirts [Outskirts of New Mombasa, Africa] -They’ll Regret That Too You’ll fly down from In Amber Clad in a Pelican. On the way, Cortana will intercept a message repeating the word “Regret” and will use that single word to deduce that one of the Covenant Prophets is on the Covenant ship and that he’s calling for help. Then you’ll come to a sudden obstruction in the form of a Scarab. It’ll take down your Pelican and the Chief will be knocked unconscious. Strange that he’s the only one unconscious while the rest of the Pelican’s crew is alive and well. So, now you're back on terra firma. Go through that door in front of you and down the stairs. Don’t shoot the Grunt--wait for it to turn around and then melee it in the back. Carefully go through the next door while shooting the Grunts and Jackals that come into view with the Battle Rifle. Then go right and kill off the Jackals there. Now you have to take the nearest building. Use the SMG to hurt the enemy ranks when they come down the stairs of the building. Notice that the Sarge is an important part of the story and is therefore immortal. He’ll be carrying a Sniper Rifle, so you can take cover, sit down, and wait for him to get you through this part. But that’s not necessary. So I’ll give you directions for helping the Sarge and the other Marines out. Fight off wave after wave of Covenant until a Phantom arrives. It's a simple-in-theory kill-everything-that-moves strategy, and all it requires is luck and patience. Just stay on the second level of the building while taking shots at the enemy. There’s not much you can do about that Phantom, so hide till it leaves. Then watch out for a Sniper Jackal. When it’s down, shoot at the enemy until the courtyard is clear. Be careful around the Red Elites because they can really hurt you. When all the enemies are cleared out, the gate in the courtyard will get slowly broken out and two Hunters will arrive. Take Sarge’s Sniper Rifle and give him your Battle Rifle. Take the Sniper Rifle ammo near the Machine gun. Then snipe the Hunters in their weak spots. When one is dead, the other will rush at you and will stand under your ledge. You’ll have to drop down to kill it. It's a long process most easily accomplished with grenades and Sniper Rifles. With the Hunter down, go through the broken-out gate. Now you have to snipe the Jackals on the other side of the collapsed bridge. Stay out of their sight when you’re not sniping them with the Battle Rifle. Or you can take the Sniper Rifle that’s lying around. In the wall you have to have your back turned to when you’re sniping the Jackals is a crack with a large concrete block in it. Behind the concrete block is some Battle Rifle ammo, and if you climb up the block and go into that alcove above it, you will find a Sniper Rifle along with some ammo for it, a Pistol, and a few Plasma Pistols. This is one of the many secret passageways and shortcuts New Mombasa is saturated with. I’ll point them out as you go, and a part of the level will be spent using one of those secret places. More on that later. Once the Jackals are finished off, swap-carry the Battle Rifle and the Sniper Rifle across where the Jackals were. Then leave the Sniper Rifle just as you’re about to round the second corner and use the Battle Rifle to shoot the Sniper Jackal a few meters in front. Try to get a headshot, or it’ll take more ammo than necessary. Then pick up the Sniper Rifle and get behind those small green crates stacked nearby. Use them as cover to snipe the Sniper Jackals on the other end of the alley. When enough of them are finished off, some Bugs will appear. Use the Battle Rifle to snipe them. There will be a couple of Sniper Jackals left, so be careful. Sweep the rooftops and the ruins at the end of the alley before moving to any place where you might be exposed. When it’s safe, go down the alley, but make sure you have a Plasma Grenade. Look left all the time and you’ll eventually come to a place where there’s a drop off and an Invisible Elite on top of it. Throw the grenade at it and hope it hits. Then run back and recharge your shield as it’ll probably need to be recharged. Run back to the Elites and kill them off. Then go further along the alley. When you get to the left turn, stop because there will be a Sniper Jackal far up the alley there. Snipe it and another should come. Kill that too. At some point a Jackal might appear in that passage with the hole in it that’s hanging above the alley. Kill it if it does. Swap the SMG for a Sniper Rifle, so that you have a Battle- and Sniper Rifle. Now it’s time for another venture into secret places. Jump onto the square podium/platform-like thing with the purple explosive device and a storage crate on it. Then turn toward the alley where the last Jackals were. There will be an orange overhang there. Jump onto that and then onto the pipe extending over the alley. Then jump onto the overhang above the pipe and onto the roof above it. Turn left and run and jump along the row of roofs until you reach a place with another alley below you and a warehouse-like building (with a hole in the roof) on the other side of it. Some Covenant will start arriving in small dozes: a bunch of Grunts and an Elite. Here’s what you have to do: use the Battle Rifle on the Grunts and the Sniper Rifle on the Elites. It’ll usually take three shots from the Sniper Rifle to kill a Red or Blue Elite (you can occasionally kill a Blue Elite with two). When the Covenant stops arriving, or you’re out of ammo, go back to the places where there is ammo to fill up. Note that there’s some more hidden Sniper Rifle ammo. Just when you’re about to run past the tower that you can easily find from many places on the rooftops, look around it. Near it should be a balcony with clothes hanging on a line. Jump down there and take the ammo. When on the roof of the warehouse, you’ll be able to go through the hole in the roof. It may look like an ordinary roof damaged by an explosion, but it’s actually a concealed tunnel to another hole in one of the buildings, from where you’ll be able to snipe a very annoying White Elite and a Grunt or two. But first you have to get rid of the two Grunts that are guarding the actual hole. It’ll be more or less easy with a grenade. Otherwise use the Battle Rifle. When it’s safe, crawl to the edge of the opening and snipe the Silver Elite and the Grunt(s). The Elite will probably take more than four Sniper Rifle shots. When the place is cleared, jump down and go through the hotel entrance. Once there, take the Battle Rifle ammo if you can find it. Proceed through the hallway. Turn on the flashlight because if you don’t, those lights in the hallway will be very annoying and they’ll certainly interfere with my concentration. When you see Plasma Rifles being shot at the end of the passageway, get behind one of the alcoves in the walls. From there, fire on those Elites and Grunts until they’re all disposed of. Then proceed down the hall. You’ll see a Phantom arriving. Hide so that its guns don’t hit you (if it fires them at all) and wait for it to deposit many Grunts and a Blue Elite. Kill off the Elite first, as it’ll unnecessarily waste a lot of your ammo in the future if you don’t. Then kill off the Grunts. They’ll probably destroy the Warthog by now with their Plasma Grenades. When it’s only you and the Ghost on the ground, I recommend jacking the Ghost. Use the bridge to flank it and then jump on top. Hold X when you’re told to, and the Chief will knock the Elite out of the Ghost. Kill the Elite with the Plasma Cannons. -A Day at the Beach Go down the ramp and onto the beach. Then, swap your Ghost for the one near the downed Pelican (you won’t be coming back, so why not take a brand new and glittering Ghost and leave the possibly damaged one behind?). Ride the Ghost along the shore and stop at the slab of concrete protruding into the water. Take out your Sniper Rifle and snipe the Sniper Jackals and Elites from where you are. Take more ammo from as far back as the courtyard at the start of the level if you really need to go that far. But take ammo anyway--you’re going to need it. Then ride the Ghost through the enemy lines without letting them realize that you’re there till it’s too late. You’ll have to drive to the opposite corner of the valley (couldn’t think of a better word to call it) and get behind the large container. There will be a barrier there with a Plasma Cannon on it. If there is a gunner behind the cannon, take it down. If not, destroy the cannon anyway because for all you know, a Grunt might come in and man it. When you decide it’s all right, go along the tunnel and toward the next area. Don’t stop to snipe the enemy, just ride through to the next checkpoint that’s further along the shore. When you reach it, just wait for your shield to recharge and get on moving: a Phantom will arrive and its cannons can end your rest very easily. Ride through the next area and into the highway entrance. Then take the Ghost there and continue down the highway. When you arrive at a black-and-yellow blast door, turn left and go a bit further. -Speed Zone Ahead Snipe the bad guys till a Warthog arrives. Take the driver seat and drive through the enemy lines. It’ll be tough and you’ll be killed a lot, but it’s possible to make it. The main pain will be the debris the Covenant will use to barricade their sentry posts. Avoiding it will be a trial and error thing: ride through and remember where the debris actually is. I won’t describe it because it’ll take too long and will make this guide look more boring than one of those political speeches. Anyway, you’ll reach a place where there’s a Shadow standing near some of that debris. Ride past it, after which you’ll arrive at another place where the way forward is blocked and you have to turn right. Then, another Warthog will arrive. Yours should be in pretty bad shape now, so take the new one. Ride the Warthog through the following tunnels, but be careful to stay out of the way of the convoy of Shadows you’ll be following--their Phantom Cannons will really hurt. When the convoy stops, use the Sniper Rifle to kill one or both of the Phantom Cannon gunners. Then give the Sniper Rifle to the passenger Marine. Eventually some Ghosts will arrive and the Marines will kill them off pretty quickly. Then ride through the Shadows and the next enemy outpost. Drive toward the right side and through that space in the Shadow there. If you’re fast and lucky enough, you’ll probably make it to the end of the highway. V. Metropolis [New Mombasa, Africa] Here you’ll come to a place where a couple of Marines will be hiding out. Then Sarge will arrive in a Pelican and deposit a Scorpion. He’ll deliver a colorful speech about how to be brave and good. -Ladies Like Superior Firepower The title actually varies from difficulty to difficulty, as does Johnson’s speech. That’s a trick that the Bungie folk seem to like using. If you haven’t noticed, in the beginning of Outskirts, the phrase Cortana says to wake you up is different on different difficulties. So. Get into the “motivational device/divine intervention” and wait for the Marines to get on (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Sarge’s ranting on Easy and, I think, Heroic). Then drive along the bridge. The Marine with the Rocket Launcher will help a lot, but you’ll need to shoot your Cannon at the enemy Ghosts. If you’re very lucky, you’ll be able to push through without too much trouble. It’s not a very good idea to stop because the Ghosts will keep coming and coming, so it’ll worsen your situation. About one quarter way across the bridge, you’ll notice that somewhere ahead a Wraith will start bombarding you. From that point on, be on the move as the Mortar's remarkably accurate. When you reach the Wraith, concentrate on it and then take out the Ghosts. I guess you can also jack the Wraith, but I wouldn’t--too suicidal. When the way is clear, go past the Wraith’s wreckage and drive down the bridge. Soon a Phantom will pass you and start firing at you with its guns. Try to take out some of them with your own Cannon. When a second Phantom passes, fire the Cannon at the guns on it too, so it doesn’t kill you. Some Banshees should arrive at some point, so kill them off. It shouldn’t be that hard. Then go further down the bridge. Somewhere (probably before this) a couple more Marines will join you. Yet another Phantom will fly by and fire its cannons at you. It may be hard to see, but that Phantom will be carrying a Wraith. Take it out to avoid a possibility of a Wraith in the future. Get rid of the Ghosts you’ll meet on the bridge. When Cortana says something about a “welcome party”, there’ll be three Banshees coming in your general direction. When she says that, stop and start sniping the Banshees. It doesn’t take a lot of practice, just aim for the place where a Banshee will be in about 1 second and fire. When the Banshees are down, proceed to the ticket barriers. When the Ghosts come out, take them out. Go a bit further and two Wraiths will come out of the highway entrance in front of you. Destroy both. It won't be that hard. When you’re not shooting, hide the Scorpion behind the ticket barriers. When you can, enter the highway and go through the tunnel. There will be a truck with a Grunt behind it, so kill it. Then take out the Elite further down the highway. When you see a barrier blocking your progress, start firing your Cannon at the top, which should clear off the Jackals there. Then get out of the tank and a Marine will come up to you and say something. She will have a Shotgun, so take that instead of the gun other than the Battle Rifle. So you should have a Shotgun and a Battle Rifle. Then take the Warthog and carefully drive up the ramp on the right. Be sure not to drive over any of the Marines. Then park the Warthog on the other side of the blast door and get into the gunner seat. Mow down the Covenant that should be coming from further along the highway. Or as much of it as possible. At least make sure that you get the Grunts. They’re not that hard to kill. When there’s nothing to shoot anymore, go behind those trucks on foot and use grenades and the Shotgun to get rid of the Covenant there. Then, taking cover whenever possible, proceed down the highway. A Sniper Jackal will arrive on the ledge on your right. Kill that as quickly as possible. Then use the nearby trucks as cover to lay siege on the Covenant that’s further down the highway. There will be several Elites, Grunts, and more Jackals. Many more Jackals. But there shouldn’t be that many Snipers, only one or two, so it shouldn’t be too bad. When there are not many Covenant left, go up onto the ledge on your right and attack them from behind. Then, when you come too close to the next blast door, a Gold Elite will come out, so be aware of that. It’ll have an Energy Sword, so this is about your second chance to get one. Not that it’ll be much use anyway. You won’t get close enough to an enemy to use it (if you want to live). So, when the Elite is dead, proceed past its corpse. The entrance to the sewers will be guarded by a Sniper Jackal, so wait for the Marines to come and kill it. Then swap the Battle Rifle for a Beam Rifle and go into the sewers. Go left and you’ll arrive at the exit. -This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us There will be a Sniper Jackal in front of you, so melee it in the back. Then use your Beam Rifle to snipe the Gunner Grunt on one of those structures in the middle of the area. Then snipe the Elites on the same structures. Be careful not to fire three rounds at once because then the Rifle will start overheating and you’ll find that you wasted three Beam Rifle rounds--the Elite will have time to recharge by then. When you’re done with the Elites, turn your attention to the pretty-looking support beam thing. There will be Sniper Jackals on or around it, so snipe those. It would be a good idea to withdraw into the sewer pipe entrance so that you’re just high enough to snipe. Otherwise, you’re probably screwed--they’ll snipe you themselves. Many Jackals will climb the platform where the base of the support beam thing is, so take them out with the Beam Rifle. When the current one runs out of ammo, go back to the highway and take the one by the sewer entrance. Then, when the Jackals are dead, come out and get down on the ground. If you missed some, it’ll become apparent here because you’ll die. If you don’t die, go to the other end of the area and, if possible, jack one of the Ghosts. If the Ghost pilot notices you, then hide behind something and wait for the Ghost to find you. Then, when it comes around that object, it should be moving slowly, so you can jack the Ghost. Kill off the previous pilot and get rid of the other Ghost. Then come through one of the openings the Ghosts were next to. There will be a couple of Ghosts nearby, and a Wraith with an Elite and some Jackals on the other side of the valley. Leave your Ghost in the previous area and come into the next one. Lure out the Ghosts and get back. Then jack the Ghost that comes after you and kill the pilot. Rinse and repeat till you have a collection of Ghosts. Then snipe the Jackals and the Elite on the other side of the valley. When it’s only you and the Wraith, pick out the most ruined Ghost. Then ride the Ghost up to the Wraith and jack it too. Then go back to the place with the support beam thing and take your least battered Ghost. Go through the doorway near where the Wraith was when you jacked it. Now you have the option of going through with the Wraith, but only if you got one of its wings shot off. Otherwise it won’t fit. But I’ll assume that you didn’t get the wings shot off, and went through in a Ghost. Drive through the exit doorway and you’ll see a Warthog and a Ghost. Try to destroy the Ghost as quickly as possible because another one will arrive. Then go along the highway and turn left. You’ll now be on a stretch of highway with some walkways in front of you (with some Sniper Jackals), some Wraiths beyond that, and a dead end at the end of the road. Go along the highway and turn left again. You’ll be in a “side passage” where you can hide. In the middle of this stretch of road you’ll see a gateway leading out onto the walkways. Snipe the one or two Jackals there and wait for the Warthog to get destroyed. Then take the Ghost and go to the end of the stretch of road. Ride out to the dead end of the main highway and hide behind the crates in the building’s entrance. When the Wraiths calm down, run out and jack the closest one. I think this particular one takes lots and lots of grenades. When the Wraith is yours, go into the side passage and wait there. Some time later a Phantom will arrive. It’ll carry two Ghosts and you can take those down with a couple of well-placed Mortar shots. Then concentrate on the remaining Wraith(s). It would be better to wait for two Pelicans to arrive, so you have some distraction for the Wraith and some extra firepower. When it’s safe, go into the building, which should be now open. Either listen to Corporal Perez, or go past him and up the stairs. -Field Expedient Listen to Sergeant Banks commenting about them sending a Spartan (is it a bad thing or what?) and then survey the big bad Scarab destroying the Scorpion on the ground that magically appeared there. Then head up the stairs on the left and go through the door that should open once the Scarab passes. Run up these stairs and turn right. Then run up those stairs, turn left, and go through the door. Swap the gun you have that’s not the Shotgun for a Rocker Launcher, so you should have a Rocket Launcher and a Shotgun. Or you can swap the Shotgun for the Rocket Launcher instead of the Battle Rifle, but it's very hard to snipe the Covenant from this ledge anyway. I certainly recommend you retain the Shotgun in case you accidentally drop down onto the Scarab and have to fight off legions of Covenant. Now go back a bit and go onto the walkway perpendicular to the channel below. There should be a crate there with a couple of rocket crates in front of it. Take those and get back to the main walkway. Once you see some Covenant coming out of the interior of the Scarab, fire rockets at them. When you see another rocket crate, make sure that overall you have an even number of rockets because you'll waste a rocket if you don’t. When the walkway turns, don’t fire at the Covenant any more because they’ll be too far away. Eventually the Scarab will stop and you’ll have a good shot into it. No Machine gun this time, so you’ll have to do with rockets. When the Scarab’s exterior is clear, a checkpoint will go off. Swap the Rocket Launcher for a Battle Rifle, pick up some Shotgun ammo near the place where the last checkpoint went off, and jump down onto the Scarab. Go inside and turn right. Aim and throw a Plasma Grenade at the Red Elite at the controls of the Scarab at the other end of the room. Then retreat up the ramp and wait for some Covenant to come into view. Take out your Battle Rifle and prepare a Plasma Grenade, so that in case a Grunt comes you’ll be able to shoot it with the Battle Rifle and an Elite will be easily disposed of by the grenade. Probably a Silver Elite will come, so throw the Plasma Grenade at it and it will probably die. At some point an Elite with an Energy Sword will come out. A Plasma Grenade should be enough to get rid of it, but I wouldn’t bet on it. When no more Covenant are coming out or are triggering the radar, wait for a couple of seconds, and go inside. There should be a Red Elite or two at the Scarab’s controls, one of which you should have taken out just when you boarded the vehicle, so kill the second one with another grenade, melee attacks, or your guns. Then wait for the cutscene to start. The Covenant will start retreating and In Amber Clad will follow. As In Amber Clad follows the Covenant ship into Slipspace, something will explode, thereby destroying New Mombasa. VI. The Arbiter You’ll see the next cutscene inside High Charity. The Elite will be led to the Mausoleum of the Arbiter by a couple of Brutes, and the Hierarchs will actually offer him to become the Arbiter, one of the legendary Elites that, over all the time the Covenant existed, became Arbiters to solve some dilemmas the Prophets had. Apparently, the Council decided to have the Elite hung, but the Prophet of Truth decided against it and concluded that this particular Elite should be the Arbiter. The Elite will say that he’s already dead, and the Prophet of Truth will enthusiastically agree. When the Prophets actually make the offer, the Arbiter will ask what the Council will think, and then the Prophet of Mercy (Mercy, huh?) will say that “the tasks he must undertake as the Arbiter are perilous, suicidal. He’ll die as each Arbiter has before him. The council will have their corpse”. Here’s another paradox for you: if he’s to accomplish the task he has to accomplish, then how is it that he’s supposed to do it and still die in the process? And in this case, what’s the point of having an Arbiter in the first place? So, the Prophets will tell you that you have to kill a heretic leader, whose “slander offends all who walk the path”. A fleet of Phantoms will then be shown flying toward the remains of Halo and a Silver Elite will recite a pep talk that’s obviously the normal procedure there, as well as make an attempt to offend the Arbiter. Then you will arrive at the Heretic Leader’s station. [Heretic station, suspended above the destroyed Halo] -A Whisper in the Storm Some Elites will be next to you (howdy, cousin!) and they’ll give you a lot more advice than those Marines. Run forward and drop down. An Elite will be hacking a holo panel and in a couple of seconds the door next to the panel will open. Go through and wait for the next door to open. While you wait, the other Elites will suggest that you have a built-in Active Camouflage. Cool! When the second door opens, press the white button to engage the Camo. Then run forward and behind the Heretic Elite there. Smack him on the back with the Plasma Rifle and then swap it for his Carbine. Then wait for the Camo to recharge (the circular indicator is next to the grenade meter; once the circle around the central section is complete, you have a functioning Camouflage) and move up the ramp to your left (when facing the door you came through). Turn on the Camo when you get halfway up the ramp and use the Carbine to kill the Heretic Elite at the top of the ramp with a melee attack. Then jump downstairs and look for sleeping Heretic Grunts. Or they’ll be sleeping if the two Elites you killed didn’t notice you and shoot at you. Dispose of those Grunts with melee attacks. Then go up the ramp again and use your Carbine to snipe the Heretic Grunts on the floor. There will be a few Elites there too, so when one of them comes out into the open, snipe it and you might be able to kill it. When there’s only one Elite left, sneak up as close as you can, turn on the Active Camo, and melee it in the back. When it’s safe, make sure that one of your Covenant Elites has your Energy Sword (swap the Sword for an Elite’s weapon and then swap that gun for dual Needlers) and that one has a Beam Rifle. Go down the stairs at the end of that stretch of floor you sniped the heretics on and walk toward the cube-like barrier in front of the next doorway. A checkpoint will go off, so now you’re safe. Inch around the barrier and stick a few needles into one of the Heretic Grunts there. Then your allies will take care of the rest. Look out from time to time and needle the enemy a bit. Some more heretics will arrive in a couple of waves, but your Needlers will take care of them. Don’t rely on your radar too much because there will be false signatures everywhere--there will be some enemies below you, but you can’t fight them yet. When the current room is cleared, take some Carbine ammo from the Carbine on one of those sloping stands in this room. There will also be an Energy Sword on another stand, so swap the Needlers for it. Get into the elevator and activate the holo panel. Ahh, Sentinels. I missed them. Of course, they’re your enemy this time. What’s worse, they’ll be on the same side as the heretics. When the elevator gets all the way down, activate your Active Camo to be safe, and melee the Heretic Elite on your right in the back (if the Elite is to the left of the elevator, restart from the previous checkpoint). Then go a bit further forward so that you’re more or less hidden by the things sticking out of the walls. Use your Carbine to snipe the Sentinels. When your Covenant allies open fire, join them and the heretics should go down pretty quickly. If you don’t have any allies left, do your best to kill off the enemy without dying. Kill the enemy till there are no more left. Hide whenever possible. At some point, they’ll stop coming. That’s when you have to go down toward the hangar doors and open them using the holo panel near them. When you activate the panel, run because some Sentinels will arrive. A Phantom will also arrive, and it’ll give you some help in disposing of the Sentinels. The Phantom will also bring some more Covenant. After the Sentinels are dead, some more heretics will come over. Kill those with your Carbine and Plasma Grenades, and then wait. If no more arrive, scavenge some ammo and drop down to the lower level. There will be an open door under the elevator. Go through and turn left. Hopefully you have at least one Elite left. If you do, make sure that it has a Beam Rifle. Hide behind the pillar in the center of the tunnel and wait for some heretics to come up the ramp on the other side. Throw a Plasma Grenade at a Heretic Elite and then hide behind the pillar again. Activate your Active Camo and snipe the other Elites with Plasma Grenades. Take the first chance you get to kill the Grunt that should be there with your Carbine. There will be many Heretic Elites at the bottom of the ramp the first heretics came up, so snipe them with grenades too, till there are no more left. Then head down the ramps the rest of the way until you reach the next door. Take out your Carbine and snipe the Grunt on your left. Some Heretic Elites will come out, but it’s a good idea to hide. Your allies, however many you had left, will probably be killed at this point, so just hide and let your shield recharge. When you have a fully charged Active Camouflage, turn it on and come out. Throw a grenade at the Heretic Elites and retreat. Repeat until you kill one Elite. When you do, the other one will probably hide and you’ll have to look for it. Go up that ramp in front of you and if you don’t see the Elite, activate the Active Camo. Then go down the other ramp and the Elite might be somewhere down there. If you accidentally get close to it, it wouldn’t hurt to stick a Plasma Grenade to it and run for your life. When both Elites are dead, a checkpoint will go off and some allies (a Silver Elite with dual Plasma Rifles and a Grunt) will arrive. There will be some hidden heretics on the other side of the room, which your Elite will expose pretty fast. When it’s more or less quiet, run up to the enemy as close as possible and hide. There will be at least one Elite with a Carbine and one with a Sentinel Beam, plus some Grunts with Needlers. The Elite with the Sentinel Beam will be particularly annoying. Dispose of it with your Camo and a Plasma Grenade. Take your time because they probably won’t try to find you, so you’ll have plenty of time. Eventually you’ll kill all of the heretics. Collect some ammo and, most importantly, Plasma Grenades. There will be some in the passage leading to the hangar. In the next passage, there will be a pillar in front of you. Walk up to it and wait on its right side. A Heretic Elite will come out in front of you. Throw a grenade at it and hope it hits. Otherwise, restart so you don’t have to waste ammo on that Elite. There will be more passages leading down, so clear those. Use the radar, but don’t rely on it too much--there will be more false signatures there, some inside a wall. When you reach the next door, you’ll hear some Sentinels. Stand in front of the door so you have a clear view of the alcove opposite the door and shoot down the Sentinel that will arrive there in a couple of seconds. Then some Grunts and Elites will arrive, both Covenant and Heretic. There will be a nasty Heretic Elite with a Sentinel Beam, so kill that first. There might be a Grunt on your left, so if it’s there, kill it. There will almost certainly be another Sentinel flying around, so shoot it down. Then proceed along the length of the room. When you know that there’s a Heretic Elite somewhere in front of you, activate the Active Camo and melee that Elite in the back. There will be some more bad guys. Dispose of those from a distance with your Carbine and go through the next door. There will be some heretics on the other end of the room, but they shouldn’t notice you yet. Activate the Camouflage and throw a grenade at the Elite there. I'm not certain, but there should be another one. If there is, recharge your Camo and sneak up on that Elite and follow the usual smack-in-the-back procedure. Then go through the next door, but just far enough to see the Banshee depart (behind the window in front of you). Then retreat back through the door and look at the ledge on your left. Some Grunts will go along the ledge and down the ramp. Snipe them with the Carbine. Then whatever allies you have left will rush into the room and get killed. Wait for some Heretic Elites to come. Activate the Active Camouflage and throw a Plasma Grenade at one of them. There will be around two, so it shouldn’t be that hard. If they hide and you have two radar signatures with no apparent owner right next to you, know that they’re up on the ledge above you. To kill them there, activate the camouflage and run out. Then aim and throw a grenade. When all the Elites are dead, run back to the door and hide. Some Sentinels will arrive and they’ll be very easy to get rid of with a few Carbine shots. Then go up either ramp and through the door. -To the Hunt Go through the next door and take a Banshee. Then someone, probably a certain Silver Elite that you will meet throughout the game, will tell you something about sending a Phantom to give you a hand. The Phantom will arrive and you’ll have to just fly around the place until it finds the place where you have to go. Now, main thing you have to do is get a Fuel Rod Cannon. Fly up to the highest possible point and look around. There will be eight tower-like things/protrusions/platforms/towers all around you, but all of them will be connected to the main complex. On top of about three of them will be some enemies, namely Phantom turrets and Grunts with Fuel Rod Cannons. Find one of those and get up close--or just close enough for the reticle to turn red when you’re targeting an enemy. Move sideways and fire at the same time. After a few seconds the Grunts should be dead. Then just land there and swap the Carbine for the Fuel Rods. If you don’t have a full clip and 25 rounds in your pocket, try another place. Do this until you have that much ammo for the Fuel Rod Cannon, plus a full Energy Sword. Then just fly low and wait for the Phantom to report that it’s found something. In my opinion, the best way to spend this time is to find the level's skull. When the Phantom finally finds something (the first time should be a false alarm), fly up and take a look. If it’s not some Grunts, Phantom turrets, and a parked Banshee, go back to the bottom of the level and wait. When it’s found something like that, again fly sideways and fire at the place until there are no more Grunts and Phantom turrets left. Land there and run forward through the arch. Another cutscene should start. VII. Oracle [Heretic station] -Juggernaut Look at the box in front of you. And the Spores in it. Tells you clearly what you’ll be meeting next. Go to the other end of the room and through the door. There will be sounds of battle, but that’s below you. For now, go through the next door and drop down onto the floor. Then use your Energy Sword to destroy the Flood bodies on the floor. This might seem like a waste of ammo, but it’ll help in the future. Sometime soon a hologram will arrive. So that you’re sure what it look like: a miniature Monitor. Then it’ll display the Heretic Leader. The Covenant will shoot it, then they’ll stop. The Leader will talk to you, but I suggest you just proceed demolishing the Flood bodies. By the time you can’t find any more, the hologram should disappear and some Spores will arrive soon. The Covenant will dispose of them more or less quickly, and you can use the Energy Sword. Then a door will open and you’ll have to go through. Then there will be the dreaded elevator. If you played Halo, this place is like when you entered the Truth and Reconciliation for the first time. But fear not--this place has some loopholes in it which you can use and abuse. If you played this part on an easier difficulty, you’ll know that it starts descending until it reaches a door at the bottom. Oh, and whatever you do, don't crack open those green octagonal prisms that the elevator moves around. I don't know why, but they contain Spores. Method one: See those light green and white chutes in the walls that the elevator takes stuff out of? There is some empty space between each chute where you can stay. But that won’t help, since you’ll be a sitting duck. But if you drop carefully off one of the spaces, you might be lucky enough to have been on the one above the door you need to go through. Just so you know: there’s a total of three areas in the walls with the chutes. One of those places has nothing under it at all, so you’ll be guaranteed to die if you drop down from that one; one ends in a closed door; and one ends in the open door you need to go through. I’ve only tried this when the elevator was probably more than halfway down, so I wouldn’t recommend jumping down at once. Try to stay on the elevator as long as possible. As soon as you feel you’re overwhelmed by the Flood, activate your Camo and jump down one of them. Update on method one: I passed the level again and this didn’t work for me anymore. I just kept dying even if I didn’t fall to the bottommost floor, I just died after hitting the floor of one of the niches between the chutes. You can try this method, but I would recommend method four. Method two: emergency tactics while on the elevator: go up those ramps and stand on the circular ledge around the central pillar. That way the Flood might leave you alone long enough to recharge your shield. But know this: this method doesn’t work, at least not for me. About halfway down some Flood with Needlers and Plasma Rifles will start arriving and those will be almost sure to kill you. Purely theoretical and almost positively useless method three: You can use the Energy Sword to melee the invincible Silver Elite onto the elevator. Not that it makes any difference as he’ll run right back the moment you stop meleeing him. A fun thing to do is to melee him over the edge and into the chasm. There he’ll disappear (in a somewhat spectacular way) and reappear where he originally was--in the room where you met your first Flood. Method four: If you want to pass the elevator at all, lure both Elites with the Plasma Rifles onboard and stay on the main elevator floor. There, use the Energy Sword to give the Elites a hand with killing the Flood. This is the method that gave me the most hope and I actually succeeded in passing the elevator using it. When you’re at the next door, whatever you did to get there, go through. There will be two Flood there, so use the Sword to kill them. If they’re still somehow in one piece (literally), use the Fuel Rod Cannon to melee them to pieces. It’s going take some time, but it’s possible. If there are any more Flood bodies around, melee them to pieces too. Then go to the end of the tunnel and through the door. There will be a battle down below, so you’ll have to stop that. Break the glass and use the Fuel Rod Cannon to take apart the Flood on the floor. When you’re not shooting at them, look around to make sure that none of them jumped up onto your ledge. At some point some heretics will arrive and hurt the Flood some more. When you’re out of Fuel Rod ammo, you’ll have to go to the previous tunnel and take a Carbine. Then (you should have an Energy Sword and a Carbine), go back onto the ledge above the Flood-infested room and continue sniping. When you do enough damage, some heretics will come and help you with the Flood in the room. Then you’ll have to dispose of them too. When the door the heretics arrived through is open and there’s nothing overly lethal in front of it, go through. Some time later the previous door will lock and you’ll be able to go through the next one. Don’t participate in the Flood-heretic shootout unless something comes your way. The heretics and the Flood will pretty much exterminate each other, and the newly arrived Phantom and the troops with it will mop up. Now go forward across the bridge and turn right. Well, you can turn left, but I never did and won’t give instructions for it. This part will be one of the easiest in the entire game, so I won’t go into the specifics. Main thing: use your radar. It tells you when there are enemies around you, and there are no false signatures here, so it’ll be more or less accurate. Use your Active Camo and grenades to dispose of Heretic Elites when possible. Three Sentinels will arrive about halfway up the ramps, so use the Carbine to get rid of them. When you’re through the next door, go through the next few doors and into a room. If you look at the door at the far end of the room, you’ll see a shielded door with the Heretic Leader behind it. Go toward that and a cutscene will start. The Leader will say that that shield over the door he's behind will protect him from the storm, but you’re gonna die. Then the Arbiter will decide that he’ll cut the cable holding the station up in the air. When the cutscene ends, you’ll have to get to the top of the ledges and ramps in this room and use an elevator to go up. On the way there will be a lot of Flood and Sentinels that you’ll have to fight. That is, you’ll have to fight them if you go up at once. But I suggest you go back through the door you originally came through and wait in the doorway, shooting at everything that notices you. When things are quiet again, go up the ramps and to the top of the whole thing. There will be a holo panel at the top which you’ll have to activate. Once you do that, you’ll go up. -Hey, Watch This! This room will require a lot of luck due to the number of Flood and Sentinels there. Now, the cable seems to be separated into three parts here and spaced around the room. You’ll have to melee the cables to break them (at least that saves ammo and I’m not sure if you can do it any other way anyway). When the elevator arrives at the top, quickly jump off and run to the edge of the room. Use your Energy Sword to melee one of the cables. Those are the pillars that are different from the rest--they have blue lights on them. Once the first cable is cut (it’ll fall apart and start blowing some kind of gas when enough damage has been done), hide behind one of the other pillars and wait for the shield to regenerate. Then run across to one of the other cables. Use the Camo whenever possible to avoid unnecessary attention. Melee all three cables to pieces and run back to the elevator. Once you feel a very noticeable jerk, the station will start falling and you’ll be able to activate the holo panel. Going down... The moment you've gone all the way down to the previous room, jump straight off onto the floor and head toward the door where you last saw the Heretic Leader. It will be open now and there will be some heretics behind it. Throw a grenade at the first Elite you see and gun down the nearest Grunt with the Carbine. Then use the Active Camo to melee in the back or grenade the other two or three Elites there. Then kill the leftover Grunt and jump down the elevator shaft. Go through the door in the next room and shoot down the Sentinel. Another will arrive, so kill that too. Then go through the door. A Flood Bomb should explode on your left and at least one Spore should get into the Flood corpse there. Get rid of the Flood and go past the place where the Bomb exploded. Get about halfway to the opposite side of the room (clockwise) and hide behind one of the pillars. Use the Carbine to snipe the heretics near the next door. Snipe the Grunts first because the Heretic Grunts can be a much bigger pain than the Covenant Grunts. Then focus on the Elites. There will be one or two with Carbines and two with Swords. If one with a Sword comes after you, that’s better. Use grenades on those. Anyway, dispose of them any way you want, and then go through the next door. You’ll see a cutscene showing the Leader running away in a Banshee and the Arbiter himself taking a Banshee. You’ll see a nav point. Fly there as fast as possible and you’ll see another cutscene. -Dead or Alive... Actually, Just Dead Now you just have to go the way you came all the way to the hangar. Kill off the Flood and Sentinels in this room (actually, stay out altogether until you don’t hear any Sentinel fire. Then you will know that either the Sentinels are dead, or the Flood are. Come out and kill whatever’s left). Then go through the next door and clear that of any Bombs. Take the door on your right and take down the Sentinels there with the Carbine. When they’re no longer coming, go through the door, turn left, and go along the length of the room. Once almost at the end of the room, turn right and go through that door. Now time for some hallways. I notice that the Master Chief is the one who has the flashlight, and he’s the one who usually needs the Active Camo; the Arbiter has the Camouflage and he very often needs the flashlight. Strange. So, go up the passageways. Always look around corners before you actually go there, as there might be something you don’t want to meet around that corner (most often, Flood Bombs). Once in the next room, go up the ramp on your left and snipe whatever you can from that ledge. Always look around because there might be more Bombs there. When you feel that you’re ready, activate the Camo and run across to the structure in the middle of the room near which all the heretics are concentrated. Then sneak around the corner and throw grenades or shoot Carbine rounds at the bad guys. Then, when there’s only one Elite left, use the Camo to sneak up to it and melee it in the back. Then get rid of the Grunts if you haven’t already and pick up ammo for the Carbine. Not that you’ll need it anymore, but just in case. The other gun might just as well stay a Sword. Or you can swap the Carbine for two Needlers. Your choice. Then walk around the place to pick up Plasma Grenades if you don’t have four already--you’ll need them. Go through the next door and up the passageways. Go through the door at the end of the passageways. So here’s the first boss fight in both Halos. In the hangar you’ll meet the Heretic Leader ugly face-to-ugly face. Then you’ll meet the hated Monitor. When he gets ready to tell the Arbiter about Halo’s purpose, the Leader will ruin all the fun by trying to kill the Arbiter with his Plasma Rifles. Then he’ll launch two of his holograms, which will actually inflict damage. Once you can move, throw a Plasma Grenade, hide behind the stone thingy on your left, and then run past in and onto one of the conveyers. Then run past the conveyer and hide behind the next pillar. There should be a Plasma Rifle behind the pillar, so swap the Carbine for that. Then, when it’s safe (or at least less dangerous than usual), go closer to the hangar doors and hide behind pillars whenever you stop. The Heretic Leader and his holograms will be patrolling the hangar, so use the radar to tell if they’re close. When you can, activate the Camouflage and run up the ramp, which you should be close to by now. Once on the top level, hide and wait for the Active Camouflage to recharge. Then run toward the elevator again. Do this until you reach the elevator. Oh, and if you’re seen during the run toward the elevator, then you’re pretty screwed, so be careful. Go behind the shaft and there you should be safe--I guess Bungie didn’t program the Heretic Leader to go behind the elevator due to how hard it is for you to get there. When you’re there, swap your Sword for the newer Sword. Then wait for the Heretic to calm down. He should eventually settle in front of the elevator, but just off the second level’s floor, so he’ll be hovering above the first level. Now simply activate the Camouflage and throw a grenade at him. I noticed that one grenade doesn’t kill him all the way, so when you throw it, start shooting the Plasma Rifle at him. A second method: when the first cutscene ends, throw a grenade at the holograms and then run to the left as in the first method. Then you have the option of hiding out in the alcoves the conveyers lead to and peppering the Heretic with firepower and grenades. The other option is hiding behind one of the pillars and doing the same thing. This doesn’t work for me very well, so I would recommend the first method. Anyway, once you kill the Leader, the Monitor will be caught by Tartarus and taken away on a Phantom. You’ll leave too. VIII. Delta Halo [Above the lake on Delta Halo] -Helljumpers You’re on another Halo. Commander Keyes will drop you onto the surface and tell you to take a landing zone. Of course, either the whole Halo is soaked with Covenant, or you just happened to be dropped into an area where there are so many Covenant that I could walk across their corpses to the end of the level. But you’ll have to make the corpses first, so that’s why I’m writing this walkthrough. Go up the ramp in front of you and turn 90 degrees to the left. There will be a Phantom turret there, so use the Rocket Launcher to destroy it. So you don’t have to waste time reading the instructions on the screen: while pointing the reticle at the turret (it’ll change when you do so), hold the right trigger until it’s clearly locked onto the turret. Then let go of the trigger. The rocket should fire and the turret is history. Then quickly withdraw down the ramp. When there are no Plasma Grenades around, come back out and use the SMG to roast the Grunts up there nice and brown. They won’t come without a fight, so you will probably need to hide once or twice. When the Grunts are cleared off, look slightly to the left and look at the top of the ruined building. There will be a turret on top of it. If you can’t see it, walk to the right a bit till you can. Get rid of the turret with the Rocket Launcher. Then go back down the ramp and swap the Rocket Launcher for one of the Marines’ Battle Rifle. Go back up the ramp and turn to where the Grunts were. You should see a very small canyon and a bridge passing over it. Then, if you turn a bit further to the left, you’ll see a hill and a view of the ruins to the left of it. On the side of the hill, there will be something ledge-like. Climb onto that and use the Battle Rifle to snipe all the enemies that are more or less “snipe-able” with the Rifle, namely the Grunts and Jackals. Then, when there are only the Elites left (for which you’ll need the Marine with the Rocket Launcher), turn around and go through the canyon I mentioned before. Then go toward the ruins and into the building. From there, you should be able to kill off the Elites with the help of the Marines. When there are no more Covenant left, scavenge some Battle Rifle ammo and some SMG ammo if possible. Then go into the canyon. At the entrance closest to the building, look left and you should see a series of ramps leading up onto the bridge going across the top of the canyon. That’s an excellent place for sniping, not to mention that most enemies don’t even come close to the bridge. When the first Phantom arrives, it’ll drop some troops. Snipe the smaller ones and then use grenades or anything else at your disposal (melee attacks in the back, sniping Elites with the Battle Rifle, an all-out attack on the ruins) to get rid of the Elites. Then a couple more Phantoms will arrive. Do the same for the first of those, but the last Phantom will carry some Invisible Elites (one with a Sword and two with Plasma Rifles). If you don’t have their undivided attention already, get it with a couple Battle Rifle shots. When the Elite with the Sword comes, you’ll just have to kill it off with the SMG while it’s running around under the bridge. Then get rid of the other Elites with the Battle Rifle. They’ll be unexpectedly easy to kill. You’ll know that there are no more Covenant when Cortana tells you to “hold here until the Pelican arrives”. Then the Pelican will arrive and drop off a Warthog along with two Marines. Swap some guns so that you have a more or less full Battle Rifle and a Sword, and one Marine has a Sniper Rifle and the other has the Rocket Launcher. Do some more swapping if necessary to get the full Battle Rifle. Make sure that the Rocket Launcher Marine rides shotgun and the other rides in the gunner seat of the Warthog. Then go near the canyon entrance and turn left. There will be a passage in the hills there, so drive the Warthog in there. When you reach the next area, your passengers will have to kill off the Sniper Jackals there. To save the Warthog, drive over one of them yourself. Then ride past and into another place. There will be a large structure there that essentially serves to move the bridge. Go to the corner serving as an intersection of the road you're now on and a ramp leading toward the structure, and then turn left. Here you should have a clear view of the structure’s front. Face the Warthog that way and go forward about halfway to the structure. Then sharply stop and start going backward, so that the Marine with the Rocket Launcher faces the Phantom turret on a ledge on the front of the structure. Then stay near the front of the structure and wait for the Ghosts to come. Wait for the first one to go down, then the next one, then the next one. And they’ll keep coming... and coming... and coming... for a total of about eight or ten. If they suddenly stop coming, go around the structure and make some more come out. When you’ve gone around the structure, waited for a minute, and they don’t come, get out of the Warthog and go inside the structure through the front entrance. Turn left, go forward a bit, then turn right, through the doorway, and right again. Go until you reach another door leading to the bridge control room, with a hologram of Regret in the center. Stand in front of the door just long enough to attract attention. Then hide and get out your Sword. The Covies should come out one by one, so use the Sword to kill them off when they do. The Elite will go down after a couple hits. After a surprisingly easy massacre (cleaning up the room, if you want), check that the room is clear and go across to the holo panel under the window. The bridge will come down. Get out of the structure the way you came. Your Sword won’t have much ammo left, so swap it for a Plasma Rifle. Make sure you take the Marine out of the Warthog’s driver seat before he/she hurts him/herself. A Pelican will arrive with a Scorpion, so get in. Wait for the Marines to get in and drive forward a bit. Then turn your Cannon to the right, but not the whole tank. You will see that across the chasm there are a couple of Wraiths. Aim for one and fire. Then retreat behind the building if they start using their Mortars. Rinse and repeat until the Wraiths are destroyed. Note that you won’t see a Wraith exploding from this far away. You'll have to come closer. The only clue pointing out a destroyed Wraith is a blue explosion when it’s had one shell too many. When it’s safe, go forward, turn right, and start going toward the bridge. But always keep an eye on your left side, or the lake. While you’re driving toward the bridge a Banshee will come, so use the Rocket Launcher Marine and your Cannon to get rid of the Banshee. Two more will come after the first one, and by the time you’re safe, the Marines will probably be dead. And if it occured to you to try to jack one of the Banshees, don't waste your time. The Banshee-jacking feature is disabled for this and the next levels. Now, go across the bridge. When you’ve almost reached the other side, retreat to the middle of the bridge and wait. Two Ghosts will arrive from the cave entrances near the Wraiths’ wreckage. Use the Cannon to take out the Ghosts from a distance. Then go toward the cave entrance they came through. Two more should come out, so get rid of those too. Go through the entrance and turn right. It won’t make a difference if you go up the ramp or not, but I would suggest staying on the floor. There will be a few Ghosts further down the road. When you reach a waterfall, take out all the Ghosts bothering you at the moment and look left. There will be an alcove in the wall with some Covenant in it. A few shells will clear them out. Then go past the alcove and turn left. Get rid of any Ghosts that might be there and use the Cannon to clear out any Plasma Cannons on the far end of this stretch of road. Then go to the end, turn left, and go forward. When you turn left again there will be some Jackals that you’ll have to deal with. A couple of shells will do fine. The turn right and drive the rest of the way to the next area. -You Break It, You Buy It Go to the edge of the ledge and look down. There will be a pool further up the valley with a couple of Phantom turrets next to it. Destroy those turrets and turn left. Then go forward and down the ramp. There will be a few Ghosts there, so get rid of them and go toward the other side of the place. Drive through the columns and clean up the rest of the area. There will be a doorway somewhere in the wall, so go through. When you’re far enough down the ramp, some Ghosts will arrive behind the wall to your left. Get their attention with a Cannon shot. Then take out the Ghosts. They won’t go easily, so I suggest retreating a bit. Sometime soon a Plasma Cannon will appear on the other end of the room. Take that out and then clean up the room of any Covenant you didn’t notice yet. Then go down the next ramp. Some Jackals will appear, so kill them. Hurry up and go down the ramp because some Ghosts will arrive if you don’t. Then turn right and proceed till you’ve reached a doorway leading into another ruin complex. Stop near the exit and take out the Phantom turret on the ledge in front of you. Then, if you have time, get rid of the closest turret on your far left. Wait for Ghosts to come. There will be a huge number of them, but with the tank you should be able to kill them all. When you have a window, go past the Ghosts and to the left side of the complex, or closest to the lake. Once there, you should have a couple more cannon fodder, or Grunts, to deal with. But if you kill them at once, it’ll be more or less easy to get rid of the Ghosts once you’ve got the advantage of higher ground that the stone ramps near the Grunts provide. When there are no more enemies near you, go to the other side of the area. There will be a ledge directly on the opposite side of the place with some Grunts, a couple of Jackals, and an Elite. Use the Cannon to get rid of the Grunts and the rest if possible. If they’re hiding, go up there and finish then off manually. The Elite will die after a successful attack with the Plasma Rifle and the Jackals will be easy to dispose of with a few Battle Rifle shots. Then, jump down and you’ll see capsules with weapons that the Pelican dropped. Swap the Plasma Rifle for a Rocket Launcher and then swap the Rocket Launcher for one of the Marines’ SMGs. Soon a lot of Covenant will come out the center of the building you’re on. The field of stationary shields will give you very good cover, so use anything at your disposal to kill off the Covenant. There will be several waves of them, so don’t rush in. I suggest you dual-wield a Plasma Rifle with an SMG as this is one of the scariest combos I’ve come across so far. Stay as far away from the Marine with the Rocket Launcher and don’t under any circumstances get into his line of fire, because he might blow himself up as usual, or he might just hit you with a rocket. When it’s quiet, go to the place where the Covenant came from. There will be a doorway there which you should go through. When you’re through you’ll see a few Covenant. You can easily kill the Elite there with your SMG and Plasma Rifle. Then kill off the Grunts and go further. To your left there should be another Elite. Kill that and go take a Sniper Rifle. There should be a few more Grunts in the area, and they will be easy to dispose of with the Battle Rifle. Now look to the right of the door you entered through (if you’re standing in front of the doorway and looking at it). There will be a small structure/cabin there with a very narrow window and two doorways. That will be a perfect sniping spot. There will be a couple Jackals to the left of that window, which will also be easy to dispose of with the Battle Rifle. The only difficulty will be the weeds that might be in the way of your scope. So, with the Jackals out of the way, there should be two Elites and some Jackals on that large ledge. The Elites will have Carbines, so be careful. You’ll be able to snipe the Elites if they come out, and that’s not that hard. Just come out of the side entrance (adjacent to the window) and jump up and down until an Elite sees you. then return to that structure and start sniping that Elite through the window. It would help if you took the Envy skull from the previous area (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, look in the Secrets section), but I consider that cheating and take the skulls only if I know that I won’t be using them to pass the game. So, if you didn’t take the skull, just use the window and hope you’re lucky. The first Sniper Rifle shot will stun any Elite, so you should be able to follow it up with a couple more shots without a problem. Then kill off the next Elite. When the Elites are down, there will be a couple of Jackals left, unless they dropped down onto the floor and you killed them. They’ll be on the ledge, so use the ramp on your left to get up there. Clean up the ledge and go to the other end of it. There will be a passage leading to the next area. Get rid of any Covenant there and go forward. Some more Covenant will come, so go back to the ledge and snipe the new arrivals with the Sniper Rifle. Then go forward and turn left. There will be a tunnel entrance. Go through. -Off the Rock, Through the Bush, Nothing But Jackal Melee the Jackal you’ll see in the back. Then swap your Sniper Rifle for its Beam Rifle and start sniping the Covenant down by the waterfall. There will be a Sniper Jackal slightly to your left, and I suggest you look for it instead of shooting the Red Elite on that bridge-like root. The Jackal will be on the ground to the left of the Elite. It’ll be accompanied by another Jackal, so once the Sniper is down, concentrate on the second Jackal so you don’t forget about it. Then turn even further left until there are some branches and leaves in the way. There, behind the branches, you should see a Red Elite wandering around. Kill that with two shots with an interval of about 1.5 seconds. I don’t know why, but that seems to work better than three quick shots. Then, when the Elite is dead, turn your attention to the ledge on your right and directly below your level. There will be a Sniper Jackal there. You should be able to see it if you edge close enough to the edge of the waterfall. If you don’t see it, it’s probably behind that cubic block of rock. To reach it, go along the ledge on your right and look down when you’re over the block. You should see it. A headshot with a Carbine, Battle Rifle, Sniper Rifle, or Beam Rifle will kill it. And by the way, I suggest you collect all those weapons (and some SMGs) from the previous areas and bring them to the top of the waterfall. Then continue sniping the enemies. The Red Elite will be somewhere on the ground, so wait for it to come out. When the second Elite is out of the way, some Covenant reinforcements should arrive near where the first Sniper Jackal you shot was. Kill those. When you’ve killed enough of them, some Bugs will arrive. They won’t be hard to kill, seeing that they’ll stay close to the ground and just let you snipe them with a Carbine, which I suggest you use. Then, when you’re positive that there are no enemies in the area, swap-carry your weapon stock across the ledge on your right and drop them onto the lower level (the ledge where the second Sniper Jackal was). Then jump there yourself. If you somehow managed to get low on Battle Rifle ammo, there’s your chance to refill from that weapon capsule at the end of the ledge. If you don’t need the ammo, go there anyway. From next to the weapon capsule you’ll see that there’s another ledge under yours, sloping underneath it. Throw all your guns down there and jump down yourself. Then, when you’re at the end of the ledge, a checkpoint should go off. Then you’ll be attacked by some Bugs, who will arrive from the far end of the swamp. Four options here: -If you can handle the Sniper Rifle as perfectly as I can handle every gun except the Sniper Rifle, you can shoot them down from far away and laugh. -The second option is hiding in a cave down at the bottom of the swamp. There’s a tunnel near the foot of the waterfall which you can hide out in, but it’s pretty suicidal, seeing that you’ll be fired at from both sides. There’s another cave at approximately the center of the place (directly at the end of the stream), but it doesn’t work very well either--it’s too open. -The third option is to run down the bridge-like root and jump to the flat part of a hill on your left (the one with the weapon capsule). Take the SMG from the capsule if you don’t have one already. Then head up the ramp and go into the cave on the right. There will be a Red Elite there, so kill that and wait for the Bugs to come. If they don’t, then lure them in. Hide behind the stone block in the cave and finish them off. -Last option: take out your SMGs, stay on the first ledge you were on when the Bugs came, and just fire away. Well, you’ll have to go to that cave anyway, so go across the root-bridge and jump onto the flat part of that hill with the weapon capsule. If you still have the Bugs to dispose of, swap the Battle Rifle for the SMG and go up to the cave. If you don’t, then I suggest you stay with the Battle Rifle. There will be a Red Elite in the cave, of which I recommend you dispose with a couple Sniper Rifle shots and a melee attack if necessary. Then, if the Bugs are still alive, hide behind the cubic stone and wait for them to come. If they’re obviously not coming, then come out and lure them in. When there are no more enemies outside the cave, go toward the second entrance (the one you didn’t use yet). Inch around the wall and use the Sniper Rifle to... um... headshoot the Sniper Jackal there. Take your time because it shouldn’t know that you’re there. If it knows, then you don’t have much chance of surviving this part anyway. When the Jackal is dead, go swap the SMG for the Carbine laying next to the cubic rock. Go through the first entrance, down the sloping hill right in front of the entrance, then collect the rest of your guts, say a prayer if you know one, and make a run for one of the stone blocks at the foot of the waterfall. Hopefully one of the two leftover Sniper Jackals (there should be only one left if a Sniper ran up and got killed after you got rid of the previous one) doesn’t get you in the process. I won’t describe where each one is because I don’t remember, but you should be able to easily find them. There will be a Silver Elite below where that last Jackal was, so look out for that. Once there don’t seem to be any more threats and you’ve killed three Sniper Jackals, go back to the cave. Then come out onto the ledge where the Jackal was and go across it until you trigger a checkpoint. Then run back into the cave. Take the SMG you should have left in the cave. If you don’t have enough ammo, then take the Plasma Rifle from the Elite. Some Bugs will arrive. Kill them off, this time hiding on the opposite side of the cubic rock. After the cave is clear of Bugs, come out and start sniping the Covenant that came out of the tunnel on the other end of the passage. This will be easy. Watch for the two Shielded Jackals there, so they don’t take you by surprise when you get there. Swap the Sniper Rifle for a Beam Rifle and go to the canyon at the end of this ledge. Bonus secret: when one-quarter of the way across this ledge, you might notice that there’s a ramp going down from the edge to the place where the Silver Elite should have been. When you come down that ramp, turn 90 degrees to the left and you should see a dark passageway there. Go in and turn on the flashlight. There will be a Marine Corp(se) there with two Pistols next to him. So, back to the ledge. Once you come into the canyon, it should become apparent that there’s an Elite at the end of the passage. Two or three Beam Rifle shots will kill it. Then go the rest of the way through the tunnel. You’ll arrive in a large open space with one of those structures you’ve seen from a distance. Look at the closest structure closely with the Beam Rifle and you’ll see two Jackals patrolling one of the tiers. Shoot them both. Then some Bugs will come. They shouldn’t be hard to snipe with the Beam Rifle. On my first try, I could shoot down all but one. Then, as I got better, I could easily kill all of them while they were still on their way. Now, you can kill many of the enemies you’ll meet in the future from right here. Turn to that tower to the left of the main complex. If you look carefully, you’ll see a Red Elite marching along a ledge. Kill that with the Beam Rifle. Then go down onto the platform with the weapon capsules. There will be two SMGs there, one close to the bridge and one further away. Swap the Carbine for an SMG and then swap the Beam Rifle for the newer one. Come close to the SMG capsule closest to the bridge, then go past in so that you have a view of some of the Bugs on it. Use the Beam Rifle to kill as many as possible before they notice you’re there. Then go back to the SMG capsule and dual-wield the SMG there. Take cover behind the nearby rock and wait for the Bugs. Kill them off with the SMGs. Then swap the SMGs for the Carbine you dropped and look at the tower to the right of the main complex. There will be a couple of sleeping Grunts and an Elite wandering around. Shoot the Elite and the Grunts with the Beam Rifle. Then descend the nearest bridge and go through the door. There will be a couple Honor Guards next to a hologram of Regret. If you go around the barrier a couple of times, you’ll see that one has a Plasma Rifle and one has a Sword. There’s a total of two Honor Guards with Swords and two with Plasma Rifles. Throw a Plasma Grenade at the one with the Plasma Rifle. The one with the sword will follow you, so maintain a safe distance and kill it with the Beam Rifle. Take its Energy Sword. Then another Guard with an Energy Sword will come and annoy you. Kill that too. Then, there will be another Honor Guard left. Lure it into the “lobby” (in the future--entrance room, so I don’t have to plagiarize from Tom Race's guide) of their room and finish it off at close quarters with your Sword. Go back to the swamp and take the Sword from the cave all the water at the bottom of the place flows towards. Then take a Carbine and approach Regret’s hologram. IX. Regret [The buildings above the lake on Delta Halo] -Testament You’ll get two Marines, but no matter what you do, they’ll get killed. A lot of Covenant will ambush you. Use the same technique you used on the last Guard--lure them into the entrance room and kill them with the Sword. There will be some Bugs in the hologram's room, which I suggest you dispose of with the Carbine and Marines. There will also be quite a few Guards, but it’ll be more or less easy to kill them all if you stay in the entrance room. The Bugs will be easy to snipe from the where you are, if you come out for each Bug a couple of times. Just stay in the entrance room. Eventually the Covenant are going to all die from thy all-consuming wrath. Swap the Energy Sword for the Shotgun one of the late Marines left. Then go through the door on the ledge on your right. Now swap the Shotgun for the Beam Rifle laying there. Turn left and look at the bridge across a piece of the lake. If you look carefully with the Beam Rifle, you’ll see a Jackal wandering around there. Shoot it in the head and retreat. Swap the Beam Rifle back for the Shotgun. A few Grunts and an Elite will come after you. Hide behind the corner and when the Elite comes, shoot it with the Shotgun a couple of times. Now come out (but not too far out--there should be more Snipers) and use the Carbine to get rid of the Grunts. Then swap the Shotgun for the Beam Rifle again and hide somewhere near the doorway leading outside. Edge around the corner and look for the Sniper Jackals. When you’re pretty sure that there are none left, come out and hide behind the nearest cubic rock block. Then look around and snipe the Covenant with the Carbine and Beam Rifle. Try to reserve the latter for the Elites, but you’ll soon get a new one anyway, so don’t be overly critical about it. Snipe them and then go along the outside wall of the hologram’s room. Go through the doorway at the end. If you did some poking around the room, you probably noticed that it had two entrances and the one of them was blocked. And here you are, on the other side of the blocked doorway. There will be a Carbine near the rocks, so know that when you’re low on ammo. Sometime soon a checkpoint will go off and two Sniper Jackals will appear on that other bridge. Kill them off with the Beam Rifle. Then go onto the bridge-like thing (so you don’t confuse it with anything else--it has two levels) where the last Grunts and Elites were. Try to stay on the lower level as that’s safer from Snipers and the Grunts at the other end. Kill off the Grunts with the Carbine. There will also be an Elite to their left, so go retrieve your Shotgun. Then go toward the place where the Elite should be. If you see part of him poking around a wall, don’t miss your chance to throw a Plasma Grenade. If you meet it up close and give it a surprise, you can also throw a grenade. If times get tough, you can use the Shotgun. But I recommend you save the ammo--there’s not much of it as it is. When the Elite is dead, go along the partly open hallway and through the door there. Turn right and you’ll see a ruined room. There will be some minor enemies there, so it’s a good idea to swap the Shotgun for the Plasma Rifle to the left of the door. Then execute the nearest Covenant. The Plasma Rifle does the job very quickly at close range, doesn’t overheat very fast, and takes a very long time to empty. Don’t worry too much about the ammo because you’ll throw it away anyway. The Grunts will go down pretty quickly, as will the Jackals once you get up close. Make sure the room is clear, but don’t go through the next door just yet. Instead, return to the place where you killed the last Elite and get onto the two-leveled bridge. There should be a dead Sniper Jackal there, so confiscate its Beam Rifle (throw away the Plasma Rifle). Go back to the ruined courtyard and go through the next door. (Another secret: you’ll probably notice that there’s a pile of rubble next to that door. Look at that and you’ll see that that pile is blocking a doorway. But you can still fit through the doorway, so do so. To your left you’ll see two Carbines and about two Plasma Grenades). When you get through the next door, you’ll hear something hit the building. Inch toward the exit of the room you’re in. There will be some hard-to-spot Covenant running around that bridge you get a view of. Concentrate on Sniper Jackals at the moment, but if you get a Jackal-free window, it wouldn’t hurt to snipe the Elites. Then, when you can’t see any more Covenant, go out and run behind one of the wide columns at the edge of the open hallway. Hide behind one and look out from behind it. If you can’t see any Sniper Jackals, move to the next one. When you’re at the last one and haven’t had to see a red flash and Master Chief falling down, that’s a pretty good sign that there are none left. Run out onto the platform and take the fullest Beam Rifle you can find (I think there’s one with 100 percent charge). When you hear a Phantom, run for your life. Then, when it drops two Hunters, take any spot where you can snipe them and start sniping. My favorite spot is near the end of the passage leading from the hologram’s room. There’s a broken bridge nearby, near which you should notice a couple of columns. They’re not particularly wide, but they should be enough to shield you from the Hunters’ Fuel Rod Cannons. There’s an effective technique you can use against them: point the Beam Rifle at one’s head and fire two shots in rapid succession. This is one of the few places where it’s okay to let the Beam Rifle overheat. The first shot will throw the Hunter back and the second will hopefully get its neck. Two or three successful attacks on each Hunter should effectively kill them. Then go to the place where the corpses of the Hunters are and wait for a Pelican to arrive. It’ll drop two Marines and some weapon capsules. There will be plenty of Beam Rifles on this platform, so arm the one carrying the Shotgun with a Beam Rifle. If you’ll look over the lake, you should notice that there are two small-looking structures hanging over the water. At some point blue lights will start glowing below each one. The right one will move away, while left one will start toward you. That would be a gondola full of Covenant. Take a Beam Rifle and target the one moving toward you, as it wouldn’t hurt to take down some of the Covenant aboard it before they do the same to you. When you see something on it, shoot, and when it docks at your building, take down the rest of the Covenant. It’s all right to take a break behind one of those stone flower pots and let the Marines finish off the bad things. Then make sure the gondola is clear and look at the weapon capsules. Swap-carry the weapons onto the gondola and stockpile them on the raised part of the gondola--you don’t want to leave only to discover that you left the weapons on the building. Also make sure you comb the area for other weapons that could be useful (more Beam Rifles and that Shotgun you got in the hologram’s room and left somewhere) and bring them to the gondola. When you’re good to go, make sure that your Marines have a Beam Rifle and a Sniper Rifle, and then go activate the holo panel at the front of the gondola. -One-Way Ticket Somewhere halfway to the next building you’ll meet the second gondola. There will be some Bugs onboard, as well as some Elites and Jackals. There might be a few Grunts, I’m not sure. The Marines will do most of the hard work, being unusually resourceful for Marines. That’s probably because of their good guns. The Bugs will bug you so much that you’ll have to concentrate on them when they appear. When the second gondola is empty, you’ll continue moving along. If you don’t, then jump across and kill whatever’s left. I suggest you take the Shotgun as that’s effective against almost all Covenant. Then jump back across and you’ll start moving. As you near the structure, I suggest you pick up a Sniper Rifle or a Beam Rifle if you brought one. Look at one of the Sniper Jackals on top of that structure (between the Phantom turrets). Sniper them and then focus on the turrets. A shot at the top of the Grunt sticking out of the turret should kill the gunner. Then, as you come even closer to the structure, I suggest you look at the doorway you’re headed for. There will be a Sniper Jackal there, along with some Shielded Jackals. Or they’ll appear soon enough. Snipe them until dead. When you can, focus on the Phantom turrets. When the way is clear, go inside the structure and look through the door on your left. If you were very lucky, both Marines are still alive. Use the Shotgun and Battle Rifle to kill off the Jackals there. They'll put up a good fight, so be careful. When the Jackals are dead, some Bugs will arrive. Your best hope is sniping them with the Battle Rifle from a distance and using the Shotgun if one comes close. If the Marines survived, they’ll easily dispose of most of the Bugs. But once the Bugs start hiding, the Marines won’t look for them, so you’ll have to clean up the rest with your own guns. When there are no more Covenant around, look at the empty elevator shaft in the center of the room. There will be a piece of floor level with the top of the hole, and that’s the side the elevator’s door is in. Wait for the elevator to come up. When it’s coming up, select the Frag Grenades. Once the elevator arrives, don’t be in a hurry to toss the grenade in as the door is transparent and will bounce the grenade right back at you. So, when you’re sure the door is open, toss in the grenade and step aside so the Jackals in the elevator don’t see you and run at you. The grenade will explode, and hopefully take the Jackals with it. Now you have to go inside and use the holo panel to activate the elevator. But don’t be in a hurry to do so because you can swap-carry the weapons from the gondola and stock them in the elevator. Do it. There’s a secret Fuel Rod Cannon in this place with about eight rounds. To get to it, go up the ledges in the room. At the top, you’ll see a passage leading outside. There’ll be a sleeping Grunt there, complete with its Fuel Rod Cannon and Plasma Pistol. While you’re doing all this, a Pelican should arrive outside and drop off another Marine. Equip that one with a Sniper Rifle or a Beam Rifle if one’s available; so that if you have just that one Marine, is has either one; if you have two, give one a Sniper Rifle and one, a Beam Rifle; and if you by some miracle have three, give one a Sniper Rifle, one a Beam Rifle, and the other one can carry any other powerful sniping weapon. Get into the elevator and activate the holo panel. Once the elevator plunges into the water, the Fuel Rod Cannon should disappear. If it doesn’t, good for you. Maybe the Xbox can't support too many guns in one place. Eventually it’s going to surface. Once you’re free to go out, do so. Turn right and go through the doorway there. Look under the stairs and you’ll see a Carbine. You might need that later. Take the stairs and go along the hallway. When you reach a doorway, you’ll see a room with a spectacular underwater view. There will be some Grunts there, so I suggest you snipe the nearest ones with your Carbine. The Marines will catch on pretty quickly and they should start sniping the Grunts. When the Grunts hide, go down the stairs and kill them off yourself. Note that there are one or two Carbines under the staircases of this room. Then take some Carbine ammo from the elevator and go to the next room from the underwater one. You’ll arrive in a room with a staircase. Go up the stairs and into a much smaller room with a doorway leading into a very large one. Come out. Now... I guess the easiest way to describe what to do here is to designate walls as sides of the compass. So let’s call the very far end of the room the north wall. If you’ve been able to get this far on Legendary, then I hope you can figure out the rest of the directions on your own. Now, to pass this part as safely as possible, you should be near the southeast corner. Look around the doorway you came through and at the southwest corner of the room. On the top level you might see something small and Jackal-like. That, most likely, is a Jackal. Fire a couple of shots at it and hope you get a headshot. When you hear some Drones coming, retreat into the small room at the top of the stairs and wait for the Covenant to come. There will be a lot of them, and whatever Marines you might have left will rush in and probably get killed. And you can’t do anything about that. Come out and use the Carbine to slowly dispose of the Bugs. Be careful because a Sniper Jackal will visit your corner of the room. When the Honor Guard is the only enemy left there, lure it close and use the Shotgun to dispose of it. Here’s an extra Sword. If you were very lucky/brave/macho/crazy, you will still have a Marine or two. Take the Sniper Jackal’s Beam Rifle and look over the room. There will be a few more Sniper Jackals and discovering those will be just a trial and error thing. A good place for sniping will be above the doorway you came through. If you look there, you’ll see a light fixture which you can jump on. If you don’t want to cheat by crouch-jumping, melee the nearby storage crate under the doorway and use that to get extra height. When you can’t find any more Sniper Jackals, go back to the southeast corner. Look at the east wall and you’ll see a barrier you can jump on. Do so, and if you had all the Sniper Jackals killed, a checkpoint should go off. Go back to the doorway and look past it at the place where you killed the first Sniper Jackal in the room. There should be a lot of them there. Use a Beam Rifle to kill them off. If you’re low on Beam Rifle ammo, make sure you got rid of those Jackals and go to their corner. Take one of their Beam Rifles and start sweeping the room for Sniper Jackal again. It helps to get on top of those pointless-looking things cantilevering over the center of the room. When you’re once again sure that there are no more Jackals left, go to the west side of the room. Jump onto that barrier connected to the wall and start jumping along the wall. When you reach Regret’s hologram, you should see that there’s a pillar right above it with a ring of six Plasma Grenades on it. When you clear the pillar, a checkpoint should go off. Quickly drop onto the floor and return to the southwest corner of the room. To avoid the Bugs’ fire, stay as low as possible, but don’t go down onto the floor because that’s going to leave you open to the Snipers. Once you’re out of range, go to the southeast corner of the room through the in-the-wall system of stairs, as usual. There, if you look down and north for a while, you should see a couple of Honor Guards. Use the Beam Rifle to kill the one with the Plasma Rifle if possible, otherwise dispose of the other one. They will come for you, so find the Shotgun you dropped and swap the Carbine for it. Then wait for them to come and use the Shotgun. There will be a substantial number of Bugs near the north wall, so use the Beam Rifle to shoot those down. Look at the floor of the room. There should be two Hunters there. Use the Beam Rifle to snipe them the same way you killed the last Hunters. Then, when the Hunters are dead, swap the Beam Rifle for the Carbine. Make sure there are no Sniper Jackals in the room and proceed along the east wall northward. It would be better for you not to hug the wall while going there. I suggest you use the ramps and ledges if possible. You’ll eventually come to a place where there are some enemies above you. Edge around the obstacles preventing them from seeing you and use the Carbine to snipe the Jackals there. When the Elite is the only bad thing left there, kill it with the Shotgun. Now, make sure the room is clear and go back to the elevator for an ammo refill. Then get back to the freshest bodies of evidence you created and go through the door at the north end of the room. Go through the western door and down the stairs. Behind the storage crate you’ll see an Elite. Throw a Plasma Grenade at it. Then look at the lower level and there will be a few Jackals. Not a problem with a few grenades and Carbine shots. Then go back to the large room and take a Beam Rifle instead of the Shotgun. Get back to the last Covenant you killed and look through the next door. You’ll see a long flooded room (deja vu) with a few Invisible Covenant in it. Use the glow of the Plasma Rifles and Pistols and the slight warping of the background to tell where they are. Use the Beam Rifle to focus on the Elites (the Plasma Rifles glow a whitish glow, while the Plasma Pistols glow green) and kill them off. The Elites will be easy to dispose of if you time your shots. Then pick off the Grunts. An Elite with a Sword will arrive shortly from the door on the other side of the room, so take care of that. Go down and make sure that the room is clear. Then go to the next elevator through the door the last Elite came through. When the whole area is clear... you guessed it. If you’re kleptomaniac, time to put it to good use--go stockpile all the best weapons (leftover Shotguns, a couple Beam Rifles, at least one Carbine, definitely a couple of SMGs if you have them, the Energy Sword from the flooded room, and a Battle Rifle) in the elevator. I understand that it’s a long and painstaking process, but it pays off in the long run. When you’re ready, turn on the hologram in the elevator and enjoy the ride. You’ll arrive in another room, where you should immediately turn right and melee that Elite in the back. Then another one will arrive, for which I recommend you take a Shotgun and an Energy Sword. Try to take it out (relatively) silently with a Plasma Grenade. If that fails, lure it close and use the Sword. Then proceed down the next hallway. If that last Elite didn’t fire a shot, there will be several sleeping Grunts around Regret’s hologram there. Take them out whether they’re sleeping or not. Then go back, take the SMGs, and go past the hologram and toward the next doorway. Look through and you might see some Bugs. If you don’t, then know that they’ll be there. Look through until you see some. Use the SMGs on them. Guerilla tactics work very well--fire for a second, then hide and wait for them to stop firing and for your shield to recharge. The jump out and continue. Do this until the two Elites are the only things left. Then use the Carbine to take one of them out. If you can’t, then you can get closer and hide behind something. Then use the shortened range to kill it off. If the second Elite hides, go back, take an Energy Sword and a Shotgun, and then climb the ledges to the Elite. There will be a few Jackals there, which will go down with a couple grenades and Shotgun shots. Eventually a Pelican will arrive and use its Machine gun on the last Elite. While it's distracted, use your Shotgun on it. Two Marines will drop down, so give one of them the Sniper Rifle from the nearby capsule. Proceed down the nearby slope and toward the next area. As soon as you can see that area, turn right and you should see a Sniper Jackal walking around. There will be another one walking on the bridge slightly closer. A bush should be in the way, so wait till you see the closer one and then make a headshot. The Marines should rush out and get themselves killed, but the best course of action at the moment would be to stay where you are. The Marines should get rid of the second Sniper, but watch out for that in case they didn’t. Then come out and hide behind some nearby cubic blocks of rock. There will be an Elite with a Carbine on the other side of the place, for which I suggest you take a Sniper Rifle from one of the late Marines. Use that to take the Elite by surprise (get it to fire at you, then dodge around the rock. The Elite will be firing at the place where it last saw you, so that gives you a window) and kill it. Then clear off the Grunt near it. A Phantom will arrive, so hide until it leaves. Take the Battle Rifle (now you should have a Shotgun and a Battle Rifle) and drop down on the ground. There will be some hopefully unsuspecting Covenant between some former buildings and a passage with columns, so use grenades if you can. When you’ve thoroughly squeezed the juice out of the element of surprise here, inch around the side of your cover (it would be a good idea to hide as close as possible) and use the Battle Rifle on the minor enemies. If an Elite comes close, shoot it with the Shotgun. There will be two Elites there, so don’t run out and get killed if you’ve killed only one. So, when the Covenant are dead, go past there and very carefully look at the gondola dock. There might be a Sniper there. Kill that if you can. Then, clear the Jackals on the gondola as best as you can. Swap-carry as many weapons as possible onto the gondola. Make sure that you took at least one Rocket Launcher. Activate the holo panel on the front of the gondola. Immediately take one Rocket Launcher and a Sniper Rifle. Then go to the rear right-hand corner of the gondola (right if you're facing the gondola's holo panel; otherwise, left). Get halfway down the nearest ramp and hide behind the barrier separating the edge of the ramp from the lake. If you look above the floor of the gondola, you’ll see at least one Banshee. Now all you have to worry about is getting rid of them as safely as possible. That won’t be easy, but there are a few simple tips: -Wait for a Banshee to come within the Rocket Launcher’s range before firing. When a Banshee is within range, lock on and let go of the trigger. -Once you get a shot, get down the ramp as soon as possible because the Banshees can kill you very easily. When the neighbor gondola arrives, watch out for the Grunts with Fuel Rod Cannons that are on board. Then another issue will fly up--two Jet Pack Elites will arrive. They will be a pain. This is another one of those trial and error places, so you’ll be dying a number of times. Tips and warnings: -I suggest you swap the Rocket Launcher for a Shotgun, hide somewhere, and snipe the Elites from behind the cover. If you’re forced to get out from behind cover and into the Grunts’ line of fire, consider yourself as alive and happy as a Flood after a Sword hit. -It helps to get to the front of your gondola when the neighbor gondola is approaching and hope that you can finish off one of the Elites and maybe a Grunt. -Grenades won’t help you much as they’re exceedingly hard to aim at the flying Elites. -If you’ve tried to do this for an hour and still can’t get it, go to the kitchen and make a sandwich. Or try rice with ketchup, Tabasco, and soy sauce. It helps. When at last the Elites are finished off, you’ll be free to ride the gondola to Regret’s building. There will be many, many defenders guarding Regret’s fortress which you have to somehow break into. The first ones won’t be hard to kill off--snipe them with a Beam or Sniper Rifle from the gondola while it’s far away. Concentrate on the Phantom turret gunners first, then take out the Jackals. -Sorry, Were You in the Middle of Something? Whatever Covenant are left will retreat into the building. Probably the most effective thing you can do at the moment is to take a sniping weapon, come to the foot of the stairs, hide behind a storage crate, and take out the Grunts operating the Plasma Cannons at the top of the stairs. Then take any Beam or Sniper Rifle and snipe the Elites at the top of the stairs. When you’ve looked at it from every possible angle and they’re not coming out, swap whatever guns you have for an Energy Sword and a Shotgun, and then come up the stairs. Hide just outside the exit, where the wall is so thick that if you press against it, it’ll serve as pretty good cover. There may be Elites in the closest passage, so carefully look into it. If not, look closer and you’ll see that it has two doorways going further into the structure. Take either one and if you see any Elites on the other side, throw a Plasma Grenade at one. Then, if there was only one Elite, you’re free to proceed. If there were two (which is most likely), a grenade will get rid of the danger of them flanking you if you’re somehow forced to hide in the passage. Kill the last Elite with your Sword or Shotgun. Then swap the Shotgun for a weapon of choice (ahh, so many good guns for once and you’re only allowed to carry two. I guess that’s too bad). Dual Needlers would be a very good choice if they didn’t spend ammo so quickly. And it so happens that by this time you probably don't have the appropriate amount of ammo for the SMGs, if you even still have them. The best weapon for this particular situation would be the Plasma Rifles because they have a very, very large amount of ammo, and if you fire it in controlled doses, dual Plasma Rifles can be the best weapon for almost anything on this level. If there’s no threat in the room where you saw the last Elites, go under those stairs and swap your Energy Sword for the newer one there. You might see some Honor Guards in the doorway at the top of the stairs. The old “pick them off and kill the boss” strategy won’t work here as there’s an infinite supply of the Guards. You could snipe them as much as you want, they won’t stop respawning. So, if there are no Honor Guards at the door, run through and jump over the railing in front of you (yes, you can run down the ramps, but I can't see the point of losing time, nerves, and your life by doing so). The Prophet will be at the far end of the room. To get rid of him, you should first know that weapons won’t help. You have to board his hovercraft thingy and punch him for as long as necessary. When he’s had enough of your big green fist, he’ll teleport to someplace else in the room, leaving you where you were. The problem is that if you dual-wielded a couple of guns, one will drop when you jump on top of Regret. If it dropped too far, you won’t have time to go and retrieve it because the Guards and Grunts will arrive very soon, and you’ll have to run for your life. Running on the numerous ramps and the bridge is the best way to lose them. They'll trail after you, but the original distance between you and them should give you enough distance to run away without taking too much damage. Just run away up the closest ramp and then go as fast as possible to the end of the room you originally entered through. When you’ve lured some more enemies close to where you are, leap over the railing again (or you can try to do something even more suicidal--run down from where you are) and run again at Regret. Note that when you’re running, be ready to dodge to the side at any moment because he’ll be firing his Prophet-Hunter Fuel Rod Cannon. The gun has a big name and does even more damage when you’ve come into contact with it. But he’s not very accurate with it, so it’s usually all right. Do the melee attack on the Prophet as many times as you need, which, according to my experience, should take between four and six attacks. More tips: -There will be many Guards with Swords. To dispose of those: if you’re alone with the Guard and have enough distance between your two persons, use the dual Plasma Rifles. If you’re pretty close, melee the Elite with your own Sword, then run backward as soon as possible, and attack again. If you’re cornered and have no where to run, take out your Sword and hope for the best. -If you’re forced into the previous room, all for the better. You’ll have to exterminate the Guards at the door if you want to get back into Regret's chamber, yes, but it’ll be pretty easy. Use a Beam Rifle for the Grunts and Guards with Plasma Rifles, and the dual Plasma Rifles for the Guards with the Swords. If you stay there so long that you run out of Beam Rifle ammo (there are two Beam Rifles under the stairs leading into Regret’s chamber), you can go back to the gondola and look for leftover Sniper Rifles which you hopefully packed with you when you were on the other side of the lake. The one advantage of hiding in this room: if you attacked Regret previously, he sometimes comes over. That means a very big gun to deal with, but his proximity will be an enormous advantage. -Remember that when you’re on top of Regret, you’re covered by his shield and completely invincible. So if there are a lot of Covenant on the ground and Regret teleports and leaves you on a ledge, you can easily get back to the previous room. -Whenever you’re in the previous room and the door to Regret’s chamber is closed, hurry to your Plasma Rifles, pick them up, run as quickly as possible through the door, and do your thing. When Cortana says something about the Phantoms withdrawing, run for your life until the cutscene starts. X. Sacred Icon [Inside the wall protecting Delta Halo's Library] -Uncomfortable Silence Here, you’ll see a cutscene from High Charity, where the Brutes are taking the job from the Elites. The latter are not very happy and express their feelings to the Prophets by threatening to resign. The Arbiter will talk to the Prophets, who will explain that they questioned the Monitor about how to activate the rings. According to Mercy, the Monitor explained “with clarity and grace” (may raise some questions from those who heard the Monitor speak during Halo) that they need the Index, A.K.A. the Sacred Icon. Suffer through Mercy shouting about “salvation for all” and then you’ll see a Phantom descending onto Delta Halo. During the trip, the Arbiter will become very interested when he hears that the Master Chief is on the ring. When you get dropped off, a Sentinel Tank will sneak up on you from behind, but the Phantom will chase it away. Immediately pick up a second Plasma Pistol and jump into the room in the wall. There's a piston to your left with a button on it. You will barely have time to shoot it before Sentinels will start swarming in. When you’ve opened the piston, jump down. When you’re at the bottom of the tunnels, you’ll just have to run through the place--there will be Sentinel chutes everywhere and the Sentinels will easily kill you if you pause in one place for too long. When you’re in any long room, know that the next piston is at the end of the room. At some point, you’ll be in a passageway-like room with a ledge on your left. If this is the right room, that ledge will contain a Plasma Rifle. Swap your Carbine for the Rifle. Then jump down and continue along the room. When you see a dead Brute, there should be a Carbine near it. Swap your dual Plasma Pistols (which you should have along with the Plasma Rifle) for that Carbine. Now, I know that you spent the previous nine levels thinking that Carbines can’t have more than 72 rounds. Here’s an anomaly--this one has 104! Reload, get rid of the Sentinels that are annoying you at the moment, and continue. Eventually you’ll arrive at the entrance to a huge room with a lot of Sentinels floating around, along with one Sentinel Tank. In this room, if you’ll notice, there will be four columns, each with a button under it. There’s no point in trying to get down there and press all of them, as that’s a waste of ammo and a considerable amount of your survival odds. Instead, just shoot the furthest buttons. You'll know when you're successful when the column rises out of the pedestal with the button. Then pick off the Sentinels you can see and, using the Active Camo, jump down. There will be a passage directly below you, so jump in there. In that passage, you should see some corpses and a few guns. Dual-wield a second Plasma Rifle. Come out of one of the two exits from the passage and use the Carbine to take down the furthest column. Then go around to the other exit and do the same to the last one. If some Sentinels come, get rid of them with your Plasma Rifles. When all four columns are down (or, as it looks from the way they moved, up), a holo panel will surface on the platform the Sentinel Tank is guarding. Dual-wield newer Plasma Rifles (if there are two) and then try to get up to the Carbine that you may have seen from the entrance. When you’re all set and ready to move on, activate the Camo and run to the holo panel. Activate that and the Sentinel Tank will explode for no apparent reason. Enjoy your ride through a hollow section of the wall. -Buyer’s Remorse No word on who Buyer is, what he bought, or why there’s any remorse involved. Am I missing something? You’ll arrive in a halfway-outside room with a huge battle between a considerable number of Sentinels (of course a Sentinel Tank), and many, many, many Flood. Your best hope to survive this mess is not to fight at all until one of the sides is defeated. That will, most likely, be the Flood. To do this, go to the back of the platform you arrived on. Toward the sides there will be some pillar-like things behind which you can hide. When the sounds of battle die, you’ll have to deal with numerous Sentinels coming over. Eventually they’ll stop coming, which should be your cue to change cover. Change it until you have some cover that you can hide behind, but still be able to look out, kill off some Sentinels, and quickly jump back behind the cover. During ceasefires, you might want to take the opportunity to destroy some of the Sentinel chutes. The Tank might start firing its bombs at your cover, and that’s when it’s a good idea to activate the Camouflage and run to another cover. When all the Sentinels in the room are down, swap your Plasma Rifles for a Sentinel Beam, preferably a Gold one. Empty as many as necessary at the Tank until it goes down. Take a couple of SMGs from the dead Flood (because your Plasma Rifles should be nearly out of ammo by now) and go through the big door in the wall that should've opened recently. There will be a horde of Flood and Sentinels there, so just run through. Each enemy will be too busy killing off the other enemy to notice you. At the far right end of the room you’ll find another piston. Go down and immediately reload. A few Flood will come from further up the room. This will be pretty hard, but if you stay behind the piston you might just win. The SMG ammo will probably be halfway depleted by the time the Flood die. Go to the place they came from and you’ll come to a room with a few Spores clustered in a corner. Open up on them while they don’t know that you’re there, and this way you’ll be able to easily kill all of them after only a couple of seconds of shooting. If the Spores come after you, you can still mow them down with the SMGs. Then go down the next piston. You’ll come into a yellow-lit room. Notice the Shotgun near some corpses. Swap the SMGs for that. You’ll get a transmission from one of the Marines that are also trying to get to the Index. Go along the room until some Flood arrive. Hide and use the Shotgun and dispose of the Flood. Watch out for the Flood with Shotguns, as those things are pretty lethal. When the Flood are down, don’t wait for Spores to arrive, but reload the Shotgun and run past. Now you have to make the Sprint of Faith along the room to the next piston. Save the Active Camo for as long as possible, but when Flood start dropping off the ceiling you’ll have no other choice. This is just a matter of luck, so try this over and over again until you manage to drop down the next piston. May the Force be with you. At the bottom of the piston, you’ll find yourself in another halfway-outside room. Run out of the alcove in the wall you’re in, and get down into that passage in the floor. There will be a room at the bottom with a corpse and a Shotgun. Refill your gun from that one and wait for the fire outside to stop. Run up the ramp opposite the one you used to enter and run into the closest alcove in the wall. If you have time to notice this, this alcove leads to another, identical area. Activate the Camo while you’re running through the alcove because there should be a Flood with a Shotgun hiding there. In that second area, run down to another underground passage, this one with a Rocket Launcher. From there, again run up the opposite ramp and into the alcove. This alcove will contain a piston. Go down. This room is very dark and murky, so your best signs of Flood presence are your hearing, color of the reticle, and the radar. The Flood there will be pretty easy to dispose of. When it’s safe, go close to the next room, and take down the nearest Flood. Clear the nearby areas of the things, and then run out. Lure some Flood out with a few Carbine shots (if you kept the Carbine) and then pick them off with the Shotgun. Then run to the end of the room, through the passage, and to the end of the series of three rooms. In the left wall of the last room you’ll find a piston. Drop down and jump out of the alcove you’re in. Swap the Carbine or the gun you took in its place for the Energy Sword lying to the right of the alcove. If you'll look over the edge of the floor, you'll see the Phantom far below. Now activate the next piston and jump. You’ll come to another half-outside room. You might see a Flood corpse under the piston you entered through. Destroy that with your Sword. Then take care of the second one in the alcove. Lure some Flood out of the main room and use the Sword to kill them. Note that a lot of Spores will drop down from the piston. If you can avoid them, that’s great. Otherwise use the Shotgun while they’re in a group after dropping down the piston. When you get the feeling that it would hurt less if you just jumped into the main room, do so and eventually the Spores will stop coming. Take the Sword near the next piston and jump down. At the end, run along the tunnel and through the door. -100,000 Years’ War You won’t have time to admire the great outdoors due to the two Flood to your right. Get rid of them and wait for two Elites to arrive. Don’t give them any new guns--the ones they have will be the best for the moment. Some Flood should arrive through the tunnel spanning the chasm. Get rid of them and go through the tunnel. On the other side, you should hear a nasty Flood noise. Retreat to the other side of the chasm. Here, the Elites might snipe the Flood on the other side. If you’re lucky, the enemy might even come over and realize that your Sword is a lot more imposing than it might seem. If you need to, lure the Flood to your side of the chasm. There will be a few more waves of Flood. Try to maintain a safe distance and the Elites will easily do the job. Then go through the tunnel in the wall. To be clearer, it’s behind one of the Phantom turrets. You’ll come to another battle between a bunch of Elites and a lot of Flood. Help them get rid of the first Flood. When the majority of the Elites are dead, go to the edge of the area and get onto a high-up spot. Watch the Elites get slaughtered. I think there’s one immortal Elite there, but I may be wrong. If there is one, I suggest you just stay out of the way until the next cutscene starts. If all of the Elites are mortal, then wait till they’re dead and try to flank the enemy. Then do your best to kill the Flood. When the waves stop coming, wait for a cutscene. XI. Quarantine Zone [On the Library's territory] -Objects in Mirror are Larger than They Appear A small army of Elites will arrive to give you a hand. Quickly get into the Spectre’s gunner seat. Some Elites will mount up and one will take the stick. Soon some Sentinels will come with a Sentinel Tank. Get rid of that with your Plasma Cannon and proceed to take down the other Sentinels. Get into the driver seat of the Spectre. Your allies will be going through a door, so follow them, and they’ll lead to another door. Go through that and you’ll see a very large room with a lot of Sentinels, Tanks, and a large number of Flood. Drive straight through (hang around for a minute so that the Sentinel Tanks can disable the Scorpion further down the room) and down the ramp on the other side of the area. That Scorpion will be there, so avoid its Cannon if it’s still active. Boost through the next door and through to the following outdoor area. -Healthy Competition Ride straight down the twisting ramp and through the next door. On the other side of the door, get behind that rectangular prism in front of you. A few seconds later, a Sentinel Tank will start firing at the Wraith nearby. Its bombs should dispose of the Wraith’s driver pretty quickly. When the Tanks are busy with other Flood, get over to the Wraith and pilot it. Go over to the left side of your edge of the chasm and you’ll see a tunnel going to the other side. Go almost to the end of the tunnel, but then go back. Some Flood in Ghosts and some pedestrian Flood will come out, so use your Mortar on them. When the Flood on the ground are blown to bits, go back to the tunnel’s entrance and get out of the Wraith. Go to the right and use your in-suit scope to look above the stone wall from which the pedestrian Flood came. Somewhere on top of the wall, you’ll see another Flood. It’ll have a Rocket Launcher, which is why you had to turn at the end of the tunnel. Use the Wraith’s Mortar to saturate the vicinity of that Flood with plasma. When you feel like the Flood should be dead, get out of the Wraith and check. If it’s not, rinse and repeat until it’s safe to proceed. When you get to the other end of the chasm, shoot your Mortar at the area near the big upright rocks there in order to flush out any Flood that might be hiding there--you don’t want the friendly Spectre ambushed by the parasites. Drive across the next bridge, but when you’re almost across, stop again and get back. Some Flood will come out (one with a Rocket Launcher), so try to take those out from a distance. Some Ghosts may come to be also destroyed. There will be a Wraith further down the next part of the edge of the chasm. If you were lucky, the Sentinel Tanks that were there got rid of the driver. If not, then I guess you’ll have to destroy the Wraith. When there are no more enemies in the area, I suggest you go over the narrow bridge near where the enemy Wraith was. Somewhere at the end of the bridge a checkpoint should go off. That’s your cue to turn around and um... glide for your life. A Sentinel Tank should come out of the nearby chasm and bombard you. If it’s focused on you after a few seconds, use your Mortar to get rid of it. Then repel the Ghosts coming over and go back across the bridge. There will be some Flood there and the ones in the Ghosts will be especially annoying. Some Sentinels will arrive and you’ll be unusually powerless against them because of the Mortar’s remarkable inaccuracy. When you’re done with the enemies in the area, go into the tunnel they were guarding. When you’re through the tunnel, you’ll come to an area guarded by a Sentinel Tank and Sentinels, who will be obliterating a Scorpion piloted by a Flood. You might as well give them a hand (although a finger will do just fine) because you don’t want to risk the Scorpion noticing you. When the Scorpion is down, go through and around the room. Hug the right wall and you’ll eventually arrive near another Wraith. This one will probably be slightly less damaged, so get inside and drive over to the part of the wall that’s clearly artificial. Very close to that second Wraith will be a crack in the wall. It may not seem like a passage, but it really is. You won’t be able to get the Wraith much further (unless you find some glitch that allows you to compress vehicles to your own size), so get out and go through. You’ll find a passage somewhere in this place, which you should go through. Run up the ramp you’ll find and you’ll see some windows to your left. There will be a number of corpses lying around with guns near them. For the moment, take the Plasma Rifle and use it on the Sentinels outside. Then focus on the Sentinel Tank. It will take nearly all, if not all, of the ammo. Because of that you should destroy the Sentinels first. If you deplete all the ammo and the Tank is still in the air, jump down from the end of the passage you’re in and take one of the Sentinel Beams there. Notice the niche in the wall next to you. Jump into that and then onto the wall to get back to the top level. Use the Sentinel Beam to finish off the Tank. Then get rid of as many Flood as possible. Jump down and run to the cave entrance on the opposite corner of the room. Suffer your way across the next area and to the doorway. Once you’ve jumped a gap to the doorway, get out your Energy Sword and prepare a Frag Grenade. Throw the grenade through the doorway and proceed to rip the Flood apart with your Sword. Eventually you’ll be able to go through. Turn once, but stop at the second turn. You should see another room (deja vu again) and hear Flood noise. The Flood will come for you, so ambush them when they round the corner. There will be some Flood with shields, so make sure you completely kill a Flood and that you don’t run by a Flood in an attempt to get rid of another one. When all the Flood are lying near the corner, come out and go to the opposite side of the room. There will be a ramp there. Go up that and look around the corner. Walk through till you get a checkpoint. Then run back. Some Sentinels should appear. For those you’ll need a Plasma Rifle. One of the most recent Flood should have had one, so take it. Get back to the doorway where you saw the Sentinels, but be careful--a Plasma Rifle used alone doesn’t do much damage. Make full use of your Active Camouflage and maybe even Plasma Grenades. The Sentinels will go down eventually and you’ll be able to move on. Take a Sentinel Beam for some Flood that should be on the ground. If there are no Flood in sight, wait for a minute. If there are still no Flood, start throwing all the weapons in the vicinity over the edge. When you’ve thrown all possible weapons down (make absolutely sure that you take a Sword, a Shotgun, and the Rocket Launcher near a nearby corpse) and if there’s still no sign of the Flood on the ground, jump down. Take the Rocket Launcher and leave the Sword in your pocket. Circle around the piece of land you’re on until you have a more or less clear view of the valley below. There will be a Wraith there, which you’ll have to destroy. It’ll take a few rockets, but it’s pretty easy. Don’t be in a hurry to do this because you’ll need to hide after every rocket--if the Wraith notices you, you’re meat. Get back to the drop-off that you jumped off and hide there. It’ll protect you from anything the Wraith has to offer. When the Wraith is down, concentrate on the two or three Ghosts near it. Each will only take one rocket after going to a much happier place (if the latter exists). When you’re pretty sure that it's safe, drop down into the valley and comb the area for stragglers. Swap the probably near-empty Rocket Launcher for a Shotgun from the ledge. After you’re all set to go, take the Scorpion that should be in the area, probably in a corner. Drive through the tunnel that was near the Wraith. Now you’ll witness a big battle between one or two Sentinel Tanks and a number of Flood. Unfortunately, the Flood will have vehicles and will be much harder to dispose of than I would have liked. There will be a couple of friendly Elites sweating it out somewhere in front of you, so lure them back into the tunnel you came through. When the battle ends, come out and get rid of the surviving side. Try to take at least one Wraith in one piece for one of your Elites, since they won’t get onto your Scorpion. Sweep your unending wrath through the rest of the place and exit through a passage far to the right of where you came into the area. Go through and dispose of the enemies there. I recommend you wait it out and only come out when the Sentinel Tanks are defeated. There will be a Wraith there and a lot of Ghosts. When you’re gotten rid of all of them, go to one of the two entrances of the large structure that should be clearly visible no matter where you are. If you have any Elites left, they/it will make a huge difference. They’ll just run in, kill all the Flood (with your Cannon’s help, of course), and you’ll be free to run through to the door in the center of the room/hallway. If the Elites don’t survive, you’ll have to remove the Flood by hand. Again, use the Cannon to just fire nonstop at the place until you feel that the area is clear. But whatever you do, don’t venture off the snow. See those two big dead-end walls visible from the entrances, one per entrance? Each has two doors in it and if you come too close, those will open and let loose a bunch of Flood with Rocket Launchers, Sniper Rifles, and other undesirable guns. No matter if you’re in a vehicle or not, you’ll die if you release them. So, when you’ve cleared all the Flood in the hallway/room, haul your gluteus maximus toward the door at top speed. When you hear the doors open releasing those nasty Flood I talked about, just continue running. Use the Camo when you hear that because some extra precaution never hurts. Run through the hallway behind the door and into a gondola-thing that will transport you to the Index. -Shooting Gallery Here you basically have to fight off a colossal concentration of Flood on your gondola till you reach the Index. Main tip: just as soon as you can move, take out your Sword, swap it for the nearby Elite’s Plasma Rifle, and swap the Rifle for the Sword of the other Elite. That way you’ll have a full Sword. Your other gun should be a Shotgun, so swap one of the Elites’ Plasma Rifles for that. When you pass a place with a few Flood planning to stage an ambush on you, they’ll drop down onto the gondola. The next part consists of you just blasting the Flood to bits. Try to stay out of the most dangerous parts like close combat with more than two Flood, but don’t stay out of the fight altogether--the Elites will get killed and then the Flood will come after you. It may take a lot of time, but you’ll eventually get it. About halfway through the ride, the remaining Elites will move to the opposite side of the place. Make sure that one has a Shogun and the other, a Sword. As long as that means that you don’t have to lose the Sword yourself, that is. But there should be plenty of Swords lying around and there definitely should be enough for everyone. It helps to get into that pipe at the base of the gondola that the Flood keep coming out of, and stand at the end of it. You see, the game apparently wasn’t programmed to give you a visual explanation of how a huge contingent of Flood actually gets into that pipe in the first place. It also apparently wasn’t programmed to create any enemies out of thin air while you’re looking. The result: no Flood coming out of there. That will, believe it or not, make part of passing the gondola actually easy. -That Old, Familiar Feeling When the gondola docks at the top of the shaft, go out via the exit near which you started Shooting Gallery section. Go into the structure and run to the right. You’ll pass a legion of Flood corpses. I think there should be some Spores, so destroy the corpses and you can proceed without worrying about any Flood sneaking up on you. Go through the door at the end of the hall. You’ll see the Commander and Johnson retrieving the Index. Then the Arbiter will attack Keyes and knock Johnson out (hey, I forgot he was the bad guy!). Tartarus will arrive, take them as POWs, and inform the Arbiter that the Prophets want him to reward you for your hard toil and trouble by sending you on the Great Journey. The monkey will toss you over the edge of the platform you’re on... And here’s where you meet Gravemind. It’ll force you to meet with the Chief and explain that the Great Journey and Containment are the same, show you Regret whom he somehow fished out of the lake where you supposedly killed him, bring 2401 Penitent Tangent, Delta Halo’s monitor, how he’s not particularly happy with the Prophets carrying out their Great Journey, blah blah blah. The Arbiter will refuse to listen to any sense, so Gravemind will decide to let you search for the Index yourself. XII. Gravemind [High Charity, close to Delta Halo] -Inside Job You’ll find yourself inside High Charity. The remaining two Prophets will have the Index. Just as you see it, the Master Chief will materialize near one of the Grunts. The thing will drop a Needler, just for you. When you can move, notice the Needler directly behind you. Go slightly back, take the Needler, and hide behind the nearest column (well, I’ll call it a column). Weave between those while going toward the back of the room all the time. The Covenant will follow you, which you’ll have to avoid. When you’re at the back of the room, notice that there are large alcoves in the wall and in those alcoves are pillars. Hide behind those pillars and use the Needlers to kill off the enemies. Be very careful to save the needles--there will be a severe shortage of ammo. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up hanging around the pillars without any usable guns. Watch for the Brutes--they tend to go berserk and melee attack you without any visible weapons. So, once you kill the current Covenant, scout the place for useful guns. You’ll automatically pick up a second gun that’s not a Needler. Pile your guns behind the pillar you’re hiding behind. When you kill the second wave, some more Brutes and Grunts will arrive, so be ready to hide at any moment. This second party will contain a Grunt with a Needler, so that’s more ammo for you. When you run out of Needler ammo, though, don’t run out and take the ammo--the enemies will kill you within five seconds. Only run out to take it when there is a break between enemy fire or waves of Covenant, or if you don't have any ammo. In the latter case, you'll have to run out and hope for the best. For best chances of winning this, take two Needlers, two Brute Plasma Rifles, and maybe a couple of Plasma Pistols. Make sure you have at least two full clips (one for each Needler) for the berserk Brutes. Using all this, eventually you’ll defeat the Covenant. When that happens, swap the Plasma Rifle for a Carbine and look around the room for ammo. Then go to the door at the end of the room where you were hiding and wait for it to open. Open the next door and get rid of the Grunts at the entrance. Look past the barrier in front of the door and use the Carbine to deliver headshots to the Grunts and Brutes there. Be careful with the Grunts manning the Plasma Cannons. One of the Brutes might lose its cool, so keep the Needlers close. When the room is clear, go to the other end and stand on the side of the door opposite the pedestal. When the door opens, throw a grenade at the closest Brute and use the Needlers on the other one. Get rid of the enemies on the ground with your Carbine. Some more will arrive from the end of the platform you’re looking at, so dispose of the Grunts before they can set up their Plasma Cannons. Then you should be able to eliminate at least one of the Brutes with Carbine headshots while they’re on their way inland. One of them will have a Brute Shot; that's the one you should aim for first. Then you'll have to kill the others. Just snipe them from where you are till they’re all either hiding or dead. The hiding Brutes will be easy to find. Problem is, they often find you first. Try not to venture too far away from the door or your Needlers. Better yet, take both Needlers with you. When the enemies on this platform are dead, carry your Needlers to the end of the platform and drop them through the grav lift that Cortana will tell you to step into. Then take one of the Brutes’ Brute Shot in their place and collect the ammo for the Carbine. When you have the Carbine full, go down the lift. While you’re traveling down, turn around and take aim at the doorway in the wall. A few Jackals will be there, and one will be a Sniper. Make sure you kill that first. Then hide behind the small pedestals there and snipe the Covenant near the door. Don’t use the Brute Shot yet because you’ll need it later. Proceed through the next room, but stop at the door. There will be a bunch of Jackals there, which you’ll have to kill. Grenades work fine. A better option: wait for them to look away, then jump out, and start headshooting. After the Jackals, there will be a Brute in the next room. A few successful headshots will kill it. Then proceed a few meters along the room until you see some enemies at the end. When they notice you, run back to the door and hide. When the Brute there comes within shooting range from the door, use the Carbine to give it a few headshots. Then get rid of the other Covenant and move on. In the tunnel before the next room, you should notice that there are four doors. When the enemies in the next room notice you, the door on your right will open and let out a couple of Jackals. Shoot both before they get a chance to shoot at you. Then look through the next door again and snipe the enemies there. To be safe from large berserk monkeys, retrieve both Needlers from the elevator and keep them close. When the room is clear, go to the end and look through the next door. Before looking, though, make sure that you have a quick escape onto the platforms on both sides of the door. When you need a break from all the enemy fire, jump onto the platforms and hide behind the walls. That will give you all the cover you need at the moment. Snipe the enemies with the Carbine and have two Needlers ready for emergencies. Then clear up the room, collect ammo for you Carbine and Brute Shot (one or two of the most recent Brutes had Brute Shots; you should be able to refill completely from there), and go to the grav lift in the center of the room’s lower level. It should open and Cortana will tell you to use it. Make sure that you took a Carbine, Brute Shot, and four grenades. Jump through. The detention center is pretty hard to pass and qualifies as one of those long and patient sieges that Legendary is soaked with. You’ll land in the center of the top level of the huge room. There will be two Brutes just standing there looking over the room. Ignore the reflex to try to kill them and come to the right of the nearest door. Look down and you’ll see that the detention center is composed of three ledges going around the edge. You should aim for the lowest level. There are two ways of doing this. One: just jump from where you are and risk missing. On the other hand, this will almost guarantee that you won’t get noticed. Method two: go along one of the ramps, run to the middle of the top level, and use the grav lifts there to get to the lowest level. I prefer the first way. Not getting noticed is vital to what you’re about to do. Either way, get to the exact place you saw from the top. If you got noticed, restart. When you’re at that end of the lower level, use the Brute Shot to melee the storage crates into a fort-like position. Make sure that you have a crate lying on its side in front of you, and that that crate contains Plasma Rifles. Also be sure to have an upright crate on your right to protect your person from the Brutes on the top level. When you’re ready, get out the Carbine and snipe one of the Jackals walking around the top level. Now put down the Brute Shot and pick up two Plasma Rifles. When the Covenant start dropping down the grav lifts, open up. When you’re done, there should be a lot of blue liquid splattered on the floor. When you’re pretty sure that you killed everything that will come down the grav lifts, look up at the Brutes you saw looking from the top level. Use the Carbine to snipe them. When you’re done with them and everything else that has a gun, go to the middle level. A door should be open there and that’s the first party of Marines. Get your Brute Shot and look through. Annihilate everything in sight. The Marines will come out. Look outside and you should see some more Covenant coming out of some other door. Kill those too. The Marines will get killed, so stay behind cover and take shots at the enemy. Kill them too and go down to the lowest level. When you go down the ramp to the room the last Marines are in, get a Plasma Grenade ready. When the door opens, throw the grenade at the Brute that should be clearly visible. Then use the Carbine to assassinate the Grunts in the room. When the Marines are out, get out the door and you’ll have to again repel very large waves of Covenant from this exact position. They will eventually go down, but watch out for the Brutes on the top level. Use the Carbine to snipe them once you deal with the other enemies. Then go up to their level. There will be two Gunner Grunts on there, with their Plasma Cannons. They won’t be able to reach you from where they are, so take advantage of that to snipe them. Then get rid of any berserk Brutes that might have been left there. Take all the ammo you can find for the Carbine and Brute Shot, and then go up the central grav lift. When you arrive, swap the Brute Shot for the Energy Sword near an Honor Guard corpse. Then look at the nearby crate containing Carbines. Melee it slightly away from the wall, so that there’s just enough space for the Chief to fit. Then come close to the open door that you should see from where you are and open it. Throw a Plasma Grenade at one of the Elites coming out. When the grenade hits (if it doesn’t, restart from the last checkpoint), jump behind the crate. Some Bugs will arrive, which you should be able to dispose of with the Carbine. If you’re hidden properly behind the crate, they won’t try to find you too much. Now kill the Bugs--just run out from behind the crate and fire at them. Then collect the Carbine ammo from the crate and proceed into the next room. The moment you enter, get onto the platform on your right. When some more Bugs attack you, use the nearby wall (one separating the main floor from the platform) for cover. An Elite will arrive soon and dispose of the Drones. Now, go back to the door and use the Carbine to snipe any Brutes and Elites that might be in the room. To be sure they're dead, look around the room. Once you’ve cleared the room completely, go back as far as necessary and swap the Carbine for two standard Plasma Rifles. Then open the next door. More Bugs (why, oh why, don’t they include pesticide in your equipment?..). Hide behind the closest wall and come out whenever the Drones stop shooting. When you do, shoot them and they’ll easily go down. A Brute may or may not come over, so be ready to take out your Energy Sword. Clean up the room and take back the Carbine you dropped. Go through the next door and walk past the Hunter’s corpse. There will be very light resistance in the next room, so wait for only one side to remain and kill everything in sight. Go back and swap the Sword for a Brute Shot. Go back to the room you recently cleared and go through the door. The next room will contain two Hunters. Ouch. First, empty your Brute Shot into one. Then stick grenades to it until it assumes its best form--dead. The second one will be tougher. Without the Brute Shot, your best bet is grenades. If those fail and you can’t scavenge any more from the last areas you visited, then just take out the Carbine and open up in its face. To get more accuracy, crouch behind one of the “flower pots” running down the center of the room. There will be Carbine ammo and grenades in this room. The Carbines will be just on the other side of the barrier in front of the door and easily accessible, but the grenades will be hard to get without getting within a couple of meters of the Hunter. Of course, you can just run past them and through the next door, but you’ll get killed if you just run out there; I recommend killing the Hunters. When you’re done, get to the next door and stand at its side. Look through and use your Carbine to assassinate the Sniper Jackals in the area. There should be one on your right (in the levitated platform), one on your left (just at the edge of the cliff), and one right across the valley in front of you, on the building. Snipe those and then get rid of any nearby enemies that so kindly distracted the Snipers. Then go to the levitated platform to the right of the door and take one of the Beam Rifles there. Then get onto the platform and snipe the two Jet Pack Elites somewhere at the bottom of the valley. Jump down the drop-off near the platform and turn right. Around the corner, you’ll see a path going up into the hills. Follow that and go toward the structure. Kill anything that might be there. Then go back as far as you need to in order to get a new Sword (there’s Carbine ammo at the top of that path). After that, go through the door in the structure and down the hall. Outside, regard the In Amber Clad flying past. Then walk into the light bridge transporter thing. Once on the other side, immediately run behind that barrier leaning against the wall straight ahead. Some Covenant will come out from the passage on the left, so kill those off with the Carbine and Sword. Be careful not to get out for too long. Then come all the way out. So that you don’t die suddenly after you leave the cover: there’s a Sniper Jackal there somewhere. Kill that before it kills you. Then go along one of the passages. There will be a fight on the stretch of floor you’ll see. Kill off everything with your Carbine and the Sword if they come after you. Then take the Beam Rifle and proceed along the floor. When you hit a checkpoint, quickly run back and wait. After a few seconds a couple of Jet Pack Elites will fly over the wall leading to the next light bridge. You shouldn’t have any trouble shooting them down from this far away. Now take the Carbine and go to the other side of the wall. Once you see some Covenant there, turn back and get behind cover. When you hear the sound of that light bridge transporter, some Brutes will arrive. Both sides will be pretty evenly matched, so you won’t have much to clean up once one side wins. Do so and go across the bridge. When you pass through the doorway, you’ll see some Bugs flying by. Don’t fight them yet, but once they pass, follow them to the room they were going to. There will be a huge battle going on in the next room, so the only things I suggest you shoot are the Jet Pack Elites because, believe me, you won't want to deal with them by yourself. This door is very awkwardly positioned, so that the only way you can recharge your shield is with the door closed, and that doesn’t allow you to take shots at the enemy. Next, make sure the room is clear, get ammo, and go through the door. Walk into the light bridge transporter. The next part will be simple. Simple, simple, simple. There won’t be anything to stop your progress at the beginning except the many shields stationed around the place. Walk around them and then toward another stretch of floor with Grunts and Brutes there. Kill them with the Carbine. Then get ammo for the Carbine and a fresh Sword if necessary (there'll be a whopping four Swords in the area), and then walk into the next bridge transporter. Behind the door at the other end of the bridge you’ll see a very long hall and a few Brutes coming out the other door. You should be an expert at sniping them by now, and you know the drill. Give them the ticket to their Great Journey. Now go through the door they came through. There will be a battle there between some Brutes and Elites. Don’t jump in just yet because it’s much safer to let someone else dispose of the Sniper there. When it’s quiet on your level of the room, come out and use the Carbine to snipe the Grunt on the other side, as it has a Fuel Rod Cannon. Some Brutes should come over, so make sure you have a quick escape to the door. When they do, use guerilla tactics--jump out, lure them close, and use the Sword to dispose of them. If you’re lucky, they’ll come in turns. If not, then I guess you’re just not lucky. Whether this is a glitch or not, the Brutes with weapons sometimes take four to five hits before finding that “salvation for all” Mercy talked about. So when they’re down, sweep the area for stragglers, and go down the path on your right. There might be some leftover Brutes on the ground, so stay low and always have some object nearby to use as cover. When you’ve gone up the ramp on the other end of the valley, a checkpoint should go off and some enemies will come from the door at the very top of the ramp. There should be two Invisible Elites with Swords coming at you (unfortunately, even their Swords don't make them very visible in this place) and around two Grunts. You should be able to easily wipe out the Grunts and kill off the Elites once they let you know where they are. Stay on the safest side of the wall separating the two halves of the ramp and you’ll have an excellent escape route. Then go through the door at the top of the ramp. Go around the right side of the barrier there and you’ll see an Elite walking away. Throw a Plasma Grenade at it and then clear up the Grunts. There will be another Elite in the area, so be careful. When the room is empty, go past the other barrier and into the next room. Don’t be in a hurry and just snipe the enemies in there. Then go toward the door at the end of the room. The door will open despite its red color and you’ll see another circular room with a grav lift in the center. You’ll have to use whatever little weapons you have to wipe out the Covenant there (actually you have about fifty weapons behind you; they’re just mostly useless). They’ll be tough. When you have about thirty Carbine rounds in the Carbine and no Carbine ammo left behind you, go back to the hall you saw after the most recent bridge. From there, swap-carry one of the Beam Rifles to the hideout in front of the most recent room. Use that to finish off the Covenant in the room. When you kill everything, sweep the room for enemies. When you’re ready, get onto the top level and come close to the door on the other side of the room (stay on the walkway). When you hear a door opening, run to the door you came in through as if your life depended on it. A Brute or two and two Jackals will come through the door you heard opening, so that should be your cue to use the Carbine for easy disposal. When you’re done, go through that door they came in through. There will be an enormous battle on the bridge you’ll see, so the only thing I suggest you do is immediately take out the Sniper there. Then proceed to kill off the rest of the bad things. Some time later some Bugs will arrive. For those, either use your Carbine (although the ammo is too valuable at the moment to be wasted on Bugs) or take two regular Plasma Rifles and have considerably more fun. But make sure to take out the Brutes first. When you’re done with all the resistance on the bridge, including maybe some Elites further down the bridge, go down and collect ammo. Get a Beam Rifle from one of the storage crates lying around and carry it back to the door you originally came through. Then start walking toward the door on the other end of the bridge. As soon as it opens, run back to the door where you took the Beam Rifle. From there, use the Carbine (and the Beam Rifle if necessary) to snipe the Grunts. One of them will have a Fuel Rod Cannon, so watch out for that. In fact, try to get rid of it first--it won’t hurt to kill it, but it will hurt not to. Attend to the Elites and Grunts manning the Phantom turret at the far end of the bridge (if there is one) and then come closer to the door. If you used the Beam Rifle, swap it for a newer one and make sure you carry the late Grunt’s Fuel Rod Cannon back to the door. For more ammo, go back to the most recent outdoor area. If you remember, there was a Grunt there with a Fuel Rod Cannon. Find that and take the ammo. When you’re ready, come closer to the enemy door. When it opens again, run back to your door. If you feel that you escaped with enough time, weave sideways along the bridge so as not to get hit by the newly arrived Hunters’ Fuel Rod Cannons. From the door, snipe the Hunters the same way you sniped the ones on Regret--aim for the face and then release two shots in rapid succession. When you run out of ammo, pick up the Fuel Rod Cannon and a use that to kill off the Hunters. The Fuel Rod Cannon is remarkably effective against them, so once you get rid of the other enemies, you’ll have free passage to the next room. When you can go there, take the Fuel Rod Cannon and a Carbine with you. There's quite a bit of ammo for the Carbine on the bridge. Take it. When you open the door to the Mausoleum of the Arbiter, you’ll see a pretty much empty room. Then a number of Brutes will arrive and fight the Elites there. Meanwhile, you might as well follow Cortana’s advice and sit it out. At some point the battle will end. If no Hunters have come out yet, come out the door slightly and wait for them to do so. When they do, use the Fuel Rod Cannon on them so that the Brutes can do as much damage as possible to the Elites. Eventually one side is going to be wiped out (probably the Brutes) and Cortana will tell you something about her picking up two transponders from the Commander and Johnson. Briefly scout the area if the Elites allow you to, and then run back to the door you came through. A door at the other end of the room will open and some Elites will come through. When they do, run to the bridge and take an Energy Sword with a Carbine. Go back to the room and wait behind the door for some Invisible Elites to come over. There’s no one way of killing them, but my favorite method is this: come out and take advantage of the short window while the Elite is throwing a grenade to present it with a grenade of your own. That’s relatively easy and safe. When both Elites are down, try to snipe the Elite with the Energy Sword that’s running around on the other side of the room. Do this until it dies. Then go back as far as necessary to obtain a Brute Shot, a Sword, and as many Plasma Grenades as possible. Then go around one side of the room (the side that contains the Elites) and use your weapons to execute them. Hide whenever you’re not trying to find or fight them. When you’re done, run through the door the last Elites came through. When you come out on the new bridge, Cortana will tell you that you have to find Truth or something. Mission accomplished! XIII. Uprising [On the cliffs above the sea surrounding Delta Halo's Control Room] -Oh, So That’s How it Is Watch the Arbiter materialize on top of a cliff. A very high cliff. He’ll just happen to find a Plasma Rifle lying around, so he’ll pick that up. Now you can move. Go forward and into the small canyon. You’ll see a Sword near some Elite corpses on your left, so walk toward that. You’ll automatically pick it up. Go toward the corner and wait there. You’ll see a red dot on your radar slowly moving toward you. When it stops, run around the corner and whack the Brute, who was firing completely unnecessarily at one of the dead Elites, on the back with your Plasma Rifle. Then go right and wait for two Brutes to come over. Throw a grenade at the first one and activate the Camo. Melee attack the other monkey in the back. If something goes wrong, and it probably will, take out your Sword and swing it around until the bad guys are exterminated. Now dual-wield two Plasma Rifles. Stand under the arch the last Brutes came through and wait. When you hear a Brute voice telling some more Brutes to “go see what’s taking them so long”, quickly run back to where you started the level. You’ll notice that there should be a ridge on one side of the path and the drop-off on the other. Jump onto the ridge and walk to the top. From there, wait for the Brutes to come. Look down and open up. Hide as often as necessary. The Brutes will long to go down, but it's still rather simple with dual Plasma Rifles. Just be patient and expect to be done in a few minutes. When the last one goes berserk, fire at it a few times and it’ll expire pretty fast. Good thing is, none of them will try to climb up to where you are, so you’ll have very good cover. When the last of the Brutes are finally on the Great Journey, go to the valley further down the path. Get rid of both Brutes there. Then take two fresh Plasma Rifles and go up to the structure. Some Elites will arrive to give you company. Go through the door, through the hallways, and through the next door. Here starts the part consisting of entering an area, dying a centillion times, scratching you head, dying a couple vigintillion times more, moving to a new area, and repeating this. In this area you’ll have to defeat the enemies on the platform in front of you. Use the Plasma Rifles from long range and the Sword at short range; they’ll die pretty fast. Now look at the edge of the chasm. There should be a storage crate there with Carbines in it. Take those and arm one Elite with a Sword and the rest with Plasma Rifles. Now move toward the next ramp leading up. There may be a Jackal there, so if it is, quietly kill it with your Sword. Then look up. There will be ledge above you and there’s a Jackal on that ledge. Wait for it to come unless the Elites are rushing up the ramp. In that case, follow them and eliminate the Brutes there with the Carbine. Once you’re done, make sure that one Elite has a Sword and the rest have Brute Shots. If there’s only one left, then give it a Brute Shot. Proceed up the next ramp. The ledge above it is very awkwardly positioned, so that the Brutes can execute your Elites from above without getting shot at themselves. To make sure that doesn’t happen, run through to the point where the path turns to become that ledge and use the Carbine to distract the enemies. If it works, you might have two or three friendly Elites left to help you out after this mess is over. You’ll probably almost run out of Carbine ammo, so there’s some along that long top ledge. With all the Brutes and Drones safely done with, arm one of the Elites with a Sword and the rest with Brute Shots again. Go through the door. Run to the edge of the ledge you’re on and immediately throw a grenade at the far right-hand corner of the room, where some Jackals should be concentrated. Jump down and start swinging your Sword around the place. Soon the Jackals will go down and then it’s going to be pretty easy to get rid of the Brutes. Now collect some grenades if you haven’t already and move on through the next door. Just so you know: this room contains three ledges and the floor. You’re on the top ledge. The one below you has some Jackals and the next one is full of Brutes. I understand that this is overly macho, insane, and all that, but the best option you have to lengthen the life span of your Elites is to kill as many enemies while they don’t know that you’re there, then jump down and start swinging your Sword once more. The second ledge shouldn’t be a problem, where the Jackals die after one hit, but the Brutes on the lower ledge will jump on top of you en masse. Just do your best. Don’t worry if the Elites die during this ledge, but you survive--it’ll be about time for them to go. In fact, expect it. When you’re on the third ledge, don’t jump down and start trying to cut them to pieces. Instead, do the smart thing and stay on the ledge. Look for a crate with Carbine ammo. You’ll need it in the future. Headshoot the Brutes downstairs with the Carbine and then melee all the weapon crates down to the floor. Throw all the useful weapons along with them and jump down yourself. Swap your Sword for a newer one if it’s available. When you’ve loaded up on everything you could carry, go through the next door. In this room, turn right and you’ll see a couple of Grunts and a Fuel Rod Cannon lying on the floor. Give it to one of the Grunts (preferably the Red Grunt--it’ll probably hold up longer). Then go to the edge of the ledge you’re on. Distract the enemies with your Carbine while the Grunt takes the long route and starts basting the enemy to bits with its Fuel Rod Cannon. The Grunt will die very soon, so make sure you’re ready to run straight to the door due to the fact that a few Brutes will come upstairs. When they do, turn on your Camo and throw a grenade at one of them. Hide in the hallway behind the door till the Brutes go back down. Come out and continue your coup d'etat of the room. Once the room is cleared, swap-carry your guns and the Grunt’s Fuel Rod Cannon through the door. At the end of the hallway behind this door, you should notice a Fuel Rod Cannon on the floor. Pick up the ammo and continue along the following hallways. -Step Aside, Let the Man Go Through Before you do anything, look behind the toppled purple cylinder thing near the humongous door. There should be another Fuel Rod Cannon there, so take the ammo. Now open the door. Right off the bat, shoot off a fuel rod at the Brute in front of that rock in front of the door. Hide, recharge your shield, and start sniping with the Carbine. With the closest enemies entering rigor mortis, come out and look to the left. If there are no enemies in the area you see, start coming close to it until there are. Then activate the Active Camouflage and run back. There will be a Sniper there, so watch out. Wait in a safe place, recharge the Camo, and proceed to take down the enemy defenses in the area. If you catch a Brute in that tunnel separated down the middle by a rock, it wouldn’t hurt to shoot a fuel rod at it. Try to take down the Sniper first, which I think should be somewhere to the right of that big useless purple... thing... in the center of the valley that you’re assaulting at the moment. If you want to live, use the Fuel Rod Cannon. That’ll increase your chances of actually hitting the Jackal. Get rid of the other Covenant there and swap your Fuel Rod Cannon for the Sniper’s Beam Rifle. Take the Ghost and drive along the tunnel that the Covenant were guarding. Once you reach the next valley, stop and look to your left. From that huge rock in the middle of the valley, look slightly to the right and straight up. There, you’ll see the top of the rock wall. Take down the Sniper on the top. Take the stick of the Ghost and proceed to just saturate the enemy with Plasma Cannon fire. Make sure that you take apart the Phantom turret to the right of the big rock. The two Grunts in the area will probably pilot the two Ghosts to the left of the rock and give the enemy a very good distraction while you’re pounding the bad guys with your cannons. The Grunts are eventually going to expire and if you’re not lucky, the Ghosts will still be in one piece. In that case you’ll have to deal with one or two not-so-friendly Ghosts. If you find that you’re running low on Ghost parts, go back to that canyon you came from and take a new Ghost. If the ground enemies are being a pain, take out your Beam Rifle and get rid of the Brutes. Otherwise, save it for as long as possible. Just in case. When the area is clear, go through the canyon entrance on the right-hand side of the valley. At the end of the canyon, use the Plasma Cannons on the Jackal walking around the ledge running along the left side of the valley. Then drive the Ghost up that ledge and hide behind the crates at the end. Swap your Beam Rifle for a newer one and look through the crack between the crates. There, you should see a small hill with a Shielded Jackal on it. Then look through the leaves and you might see a Sniper Jackal. If you don’t, you will once the Sniper opens up. Take out the Jackals and the nearby Brutes as quickly as possible, then swap the Beam Rifle for a fresh one and run back down the ledge and to the canyon exit. A Spectre with a few Brutes will arrive, so shoot them out of it with the Beam Rifle. Make sure you don’t blow up the vehicle--you’ll need it in the future. Then get rid of the rest of the enemies (make sure you don't get too close because of a very unfriendly Sniper there). If needed, you can go to the entrance of the valley and snipe the Covenant from there. Look at one of the hills in the valley and you’ll notice that one of them has a crate on it, and the crate contains Beam Rifles. Take a Rifle. Then take the Spectre and drive along the next canyon. In the next area, use the Plasma Cannon to get rid of the Jackal on the ledge running along the left side of the place--just like last time. Go along the area and execute the rest of the Jackals. When you’re ready, go down the next waterfall and park the Spectre at the bottom of it. Then man the turret and open up on the Covenant in the distance. There’s one useful trick: get out of the turret and use a scope to focus on an enemy. Then, without moving, hold X to get into the turret. The reticle won’t move from the target, so you’ll be able to fire at the enemy with pinpoint accuracy. There should be two Snipers there, which you might as well kill first. When you’re done, get a new Beam Rifle and drive the Spectre along the stream. There will be a couple of Jackals on top of the tree trunk hanging over the water. They’ll be a great target for the Plasma Cannon. When you reach the bottom of the dip in the road, kill that Jackal on the rock protruding out of the water while it still doesn’t know that you’re there. -Fight Club Activate the Active Camouflage and go outward from the wall that you’re probably hugging right now. Look at the right-hand side of the stream, just near the drop-off. Use the Camo to take the Sniper there by surprise and lodge a large amount of energy in its skull. The next part is basically sniping the Brutes below the drop-off with the Beam Rifle until you've exhausted all the Beam Rifles in the area. Then get onto the rock that once held the first Sniper and look far to the left. You should see some Brutes behind the bush. Swap the empty Beam Rifle for the Fuel Rod Cannon you dropped earlier. Fire a couple of Fuel Rods and retreat. Wait till the Wraith comes. Now go back, take a Carbine (as full as possible) and a Sword. Also take a Ghost. Drive to that drop-off, get out of the Ghost, and activate the Camo. Then, as quickly as possible, get back onto the Ghost and make a grand entrance by driving off the drop-off and into that pond. Quickly get out of the Ghost and jack the Wraith. Get inside and dispose of the Brutes. Also take care of the other Wraith and the Sniper near it. Then wait for the door that the Brutes came out of to open. Some more Brutes will come. And they’ll keep coming, and coming, and coming... and eventually they’ll stop coming. For some reason this part is stuffed with checkpoints, which you really don’t need. When the waves finally stop coming, get out of the tank and go along the ledge. Make sure you go into one of the side passage things and swap the Sword for a Shotgun. Run to the door and go through. Now here’s a gun fanatic’s dream. Take all the ammo you need (and finally some Frag Grenades). Go through the door and the passage. Carefully walk through the door leading back outside and observe the opposite side of the area with your Shotgun’s scope. When you see some Snipers there, get back to the Wraith preferably through the armory. Ahh, I love Wraiths when it comes to this kind of thing. Completely immune to Beam and Sniper Rifles and very hard to take down without a Rocket Launcher or grenades. Drive it into the area where the Sniper Jackals were and slaughter them and the nearby Brutes. Enjoy. When you’re done, go to the exit from the armory and outside. If you cleaned the area thoroughly, there won’t be anything there to hurt you. Proceed along the ledge until you hear a Ghost. When you do, run for your life back to the door. From there, use the Carbine to kill off the Covenant. Hopefully, the Ghost will fall down from the ledge. That way, it’ll probably face you and the head of the driver will be just above the front of the Ghost, leaving you completely free to snipe them without them even reacting. So fun... what’s more, once the current driver is dead, Brutes will jump down and take his place. Hilarious, isn’t it? Anyway, when the Covenant in the area are dead, take the Ghost (which hopefully survived) and go along the ledge again. There will be an entrance to a cave-like tunnel in one of the side passages. A Ghost will ride out of there when you get close, so destroy it. Really, when you take an enemy Ghost by surprise, it goes down very fast. Then ride along the tunnel. A few Brutes and Jackals will come through the next door. Assassinate them with the Cannons, or you can drive straight through. Your choice. Then go through the door to complete the mission. XIV. High Charity [High Charity] -Cross-Purposes The Chief will land on the Phantom docks just seconds too late. Meet Mercy and his Spore. He’ll declare that Truth is going to the Forerunner ship in the center of the city, which is then going to depart to Earth to kill off the last humans. The Chief will pop the Spore and admire the view of a Flood-filled Pelican crashing in the docks. The Flood will run out and start a fight with the locals. Use the Carbine on them (whose idea was it to give you a Plasma Pistol to fight the Flood, anyway?). Use the first chance you get to confiscate a Shotgun from one of the dead Flood. That’s going to help you a lot. So you know, the second Flood that should try to kill you will carry a Needler. If you don't have a Shotgun yet, swap the Plasma Pistol for the Needler. That’ll be slightly more effective. Whenever you can, swap it for a Sword. When you can’t see any more Flood, proceed toward the stretch of floor between the door and the Pelican. Some more Flood will come out of the Pelican and a couple of Grunts will come through the door. Those will die reasonably fast, but take the opportunity to throw a couple of grenades at the Flood. That’ll make things a lot easier when you have to get rid of the leftover Flood. When there are no more Flood nearby, sweep the area for ammo. Especially look at the entrance to the Pelican--there should be some Shotgun ammo there. If you want to use it later, there’s a Rocket Launcher to the right of the exit. Now go through the door. Look around the right side of the barrier in front of the door. You should see a horde of Brutes coming around the barrier on the other side. There’s nothing you can do about them, just wait. I suggest you run back and hide behind one of the upright triangular things running along the path leading to the door. In a few seconds some Flood will come out and happily finish the monkeys off. Be careful not to shoot the Brutes--the Flood will easily get rid of them and then be a rather big pain. Instead, shoot the Flood. Make sure you have a Sword and a Shotgun. Then proceed through the door, along the room, and into the grav lift. Here, the first thing you should do is to swap one of your weapons for one of the Beam Rifles lying nearby. Run through the next door. Run out onto the platform in front of you. Focus on the fight on that thing coming out of the wall far to your left. Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill!!! Anyway, when the Bugs are down, concentrate on the Flood. They’ll die pretty easily (or maybe it seems so because of the very large amount of Beam Rifle ammo in the area), after which you’ll be free to check the room for enemies, pick up the weapon you dropped, and go onto the transporter on the left part of the platform. After that, use the second transporter (they take a couple of seconds to activate, so expect that) and run along the platform where you should arrive. Across the second light bridge, and through the door. There will be an obstacle in the doorway in the form of some Flood, so execute them with a grenade and your Sword. Run through the tunnel. -Please, Make Yourself at Home Now you have to sprint through the following rooms--don’t fight if you know what’s good for you. The first room will hold a few Flood. No surprises there. Run through and into the next room. There will be some Covenant there, which should be your cue to hide, especially as some very murderous Flood will come from the previous room any second. Hide behind the wall separating the main room from a side passage, which should be on your left. Wait for the Flood to come and dispatch of the Covenant. When the sounds stop, check your radar and run along that side passage, through the door, into the next room, and outside. Here, run along the walkway you’re on and into the passage somewhere in the middle of the walkway. Wait there for your shield to recharge, then run out the other side and along the second half of the walkway. There will be a door at the end. It kind of helps to toss a grenade in there first in order to get rid of some future issues with the Flood waiting behind it. Run along the passage and toward the door at the end of it. Look through the door and lure the Spores there toward you. Get rid of them and go through. There will be a couple of Flood wandering around: one with a Plasma Rifle and another with a Shotgun. Lure them close also, and cut them down with your Sword. Run along the walkway and through the door. Make sure you run fast because there will be some nasty things behind you. I’m not completely sure what kind of things; I just know that it’s necessary to run away. On the other side of the door, turn left and activate the elevator. -Sanctified Here are the Prophets’ private quarters. There will be some homicidal Covenant on the other end of the room, while the rest of it will be enthusiastically invaded by Flood. Don't fight unless you're suffering from ITFS (Itchy Trigger Finger Syndrome). Stay on the elevator; activate it whenever times get tough. To emphasize the important part--whenever a Flood notices you, press the button. Make sure you press X thoroughly: the elevator takes a few seconds to activate and you might get carried away and press X once more to be sure that the elevator is going down. You see, if you activated the elevator on the first try and press X again, it cancels the “down” command and stays on the top. In this case, consider yourself a corpse. I suggest you stop somewhere close to the top and rapidly cancel the “up” and “down” commands, so that you can stay at one height and not go down or get the elevator lodged at the top. When the Flood are down, wait for a few minutes in case some more are coming. Then go back down, swap your Sword for the Carbine that was lying at the foot of the elevator, and ascend on the elevator once again. Use the very limited amount of ammo in the Carbine to get rid of the remaining Covenant. When you’re done with all the enemies in the area, the door on the other end of the room will be open. Go through and into the large circular room. Swap your near-empty, or probably completely empty, Carbine for the Beam Rifle near a dead Sniper Jackal near the huge window. If you don't go through the open door leading to the grav lift at once, Cortana will open it herself. Go up on the lift. -Once More, With Feeling Last room. Right from the start, zoom in on the other side of the area and assassinate the Sniper Jackal there. If you didn’t follow my advice and didn’t take a Beam Rifle, you’ll have to extract a Carbine from one of the Brutes. Do whatever you have to to kill it. I just know that running up to it and hoping to survive isn’t an option. From the grav lift, run around the room and to the other end where the Sniper was. I suggest you run around the left side because it’s somewhat easier to run right through the battle there than be in the way of another mob of Flood whose closest victim happens to be you (which will happen if you run around the right side). Run onto the very end of the platform (I think that there's some kind of a circle marking the place) and wait a couple of seconds for the final cutscene of the level to start. XV. The Great Journey [On the ground by the Control Room] -Your Ass, My Size-24 Hoof Apologies; couldn’t bring myself to censor the second word. Ah well... The anonymous Silver Elite will talk to you, then keep the Wraith he’s in. If I didn’t need him so much, and could actually do it, I would have gladly killed him. So, you have no choice but to get into the Spectre. Under no circumstances get into the turret. That will get you killed. Get into the driver seat and have the other Elite man the turret. Well, as you can’t use the Wraith, you’ll have to make the best of whatever advantages you have--in this case the infinite boost and the maneuverability. You don’t have any other choice but to drive through without pausing to try to execute some enemies. At some point you’ll see a Scarab. Go a bit further and some Wraiths will come out in front of you. Once those appear, you’ll know that all the enemies behind you are gone. About the smartest thing you could do is sit this out. Have your Elite friend shoot his Mortar at the enemy. I'm pretty sure he’s immortal, so don’t waste any nerves over him. While he’s busy firing the Mortar at the trees near the enemy, you can sneak around the left flank and get the Elite at your turret to fire at the Brutes behind a rock there. Do this until both enemy Wraiths are dead. Then wait for the Silver Elite to clear off the Brutes and go through the door. Well, finally I get a couple of Hunters who are on my side. Go with them and through the following door. When you get to another door at the end of the passage, don’t go through. The Hunters will squeeze through and start oozing their orange blood onto the floor. They’ll take out most, if not all, of the Brutes, but they should die themselves as a consequence. Help them out if possible, but don’t go through the door yourself. With the enemy dead, go through the door. Keeping track: you should have a Carbine and a Shotgun, all brought over from Uprising. Behind the door at the top of the ledge that the Brutes were on, you should see a cave entrance. Get rid of all the Brutes close to you and go get a Beam Rifle from the hallway before the previous room. There will be several Brutes on the ledges in this cavern, which you should snipe with your Beam Rifle. I suggest headshots. When you’re trying to do some sniping, always have the Active Camo on. That’ll give you more time to snipe and prolong your survival quite a bit. When all the Brutes in the area are dead, some more reinforcements will come from the doorway on the opposite side of the place. Use your Beam Rifle to kill those. Be especially careful to activate your Camo when you come out--those reinforcements will contain a couple of Snipers. When the enemies are finally down, go along the ledge. Be careful around the first left turn due to the Brute there with a Phantom turret. If it’s not looking, throw a grenade at the Brute itself. If it is, throw a grenade at the base of the turret to cause a lot of damage. Anyway, go through the next door. When you emerge on the bridge, immediately swap your Carbine for a Beam Rifle in the crate on your right, and then hide behind the barrier-like object in front of you. Activate the Camouflage, come out, and throw a grenade at the large party of Jackals further up the bridge. Then hide. You have the advantage of the window, which you can see through and apparently they can’t. Use it to plan out where you’re going to throw the grenade when the Camo is recharged. With the Jackals out of the play, look at the top of the barrier on the opposite end of the bridge (the one that’s identical to the one you’re hiding behind). Kill the Sniper there. Then look around the place where it was. You’ll see a few Bugs. Those will have to be disposed of before you come close. Use the Beam Rifle to shoot down the Drones. If you’re not sure if you disposed of them all, dual-wield two Plasma Pistols and go check. At some point a Phantom will start hovering next to the bridge. Stay out of its sight and a few minutes later it should leave. With the enemies on the bridge down, take back the Carbine and run through the next door. After about ten doors, you’ll come out in the prison block. Get up the ramp in front of you, activate the Camouflage, and look around the barrier separating the ledge down the middle. There will be about three Jackals walking around there. Throw a grenade at them and hide. Now use the Camo again to finish them off. After the Active Camo is recharged again, look out over the room. You’ll notice that the Brutes are keeping some allies of yours in the cells. More importantly, look at the foot of each shield acting as a door--there you’ll see a small block that's projecting that shield. If you don’t know this already, putting enough firepower on one of those blocks will take out the block and the shield. The first prisoners you want to focus on are the two Hunters in the far right-hand corner. I’m not sure how it feels, but I certainly wouldn’t want to suddenly have two hostile Hunters behind me, especially if I don’t have any cover. Once the Hunters are keeping the Brutes busy, shoot out the two or three Elites. They’ll finish the Brutes off without your help. After about ten other doors, you’ll come out on top of the structure that the Scarab was docked next to. There will be a few Brutes there, which your new allies will take care of. Wait for the cutscene. -Backseat Driver Sarge and his Scarab (the game doesn’t exactly explain how on Halo he got the Scarab in the first place) are heading for the Control Room. First thing, go back to the prison block and swap the Carbine for the Sword on the ledge that you probably saw when you came into the room and went up the ramp. When you get back to the platform next to the Scarab, you’ll see that a couple of Banshees came over, one of which you’ll have to take. Then you’ll have to “give” Sarge “some cover”, as if he needs it. But all you have to do is fly to the point where you started the level, and on to the Control Room. Then wait next to the door for the Scarab to crawl over. Stay as far away from the door as possible, and I suggest you keep the Banshee away from it too. If you want to be absolutely sure that you’ll be safe, land on one of the rocks down in the water or somewhere on the building itself. But if you want to hear some extra dialogue from Sarge, stay on the platform with the door, or above it. -Delusions and Grandeur When Johnson blasts open the door, go through, find your way through the ruins, and run through the door at the end. Immediately jump into the hole in the floor directly in front of you. That’ll lead to a passage under the floor. Go to the other end of the passage and look up through one of the openings there. Use the Active Camo to take aim and throw a Plasma Grenade at one of the Brutes. If one happens to be close enough, melee it in the back. Try to attend to only one Brute at a time due to the fact that it increases your chances of survival quite a bit. Another useful tip: take your time in exploring the passage. There are a few useful alcoves and secret tunnels that you can use to set up ambushes on those Brutes that dare venture into the tunnel. All four are near that narrow tunnel you should have gone through when you jumped into the passage. On the entrance end of the tunnel there are two very small alcoves on either side that you can hide in to ambush any Brute that happens to come after you. On the other end, look at both sides of the tunnel’s entrance. There are two hidden passages there, in which you can hide very effectively. So, use your Shotgun and Sword when a berserk Brute drops down into the tunnel after an attack on one of its comrades. This won’t be too hard. When the room is clear, go outside, jump into the Banshee, and fly to wherever you need to to get a full Beam Rifle and fill up on grenades. A good place is that bridge you passed earlier. Just as you exit the Control Room, look to the left and you should see it in a relatively narrow canyon. So now you should have a Carbine and a Beam Rifle. When you’re ready, go through the door the most recent Brutes came through. The Arbiter will find Tartarus trying to get the Commander to put the Index into the holo panel. The Arbiter will try to get it to Tartarus’s faculties that The Monkey was just getting ready to kill them all by activating Delta Halo, after which Johnson will come with a Beam Rifle of his own pointing at Tartarus’s face. After they get an explanation out of the Monitor about what the rings do, Tartarus will lose his cool and toss the Monitor at Johnson, then proceed to put the Index into the holo panel and activate his shield, which is immune to anything other than the Beam Rifle. That's why I suggested you bring one. First, use your Carbine and grenades to take out the Brutes next to Mr. Mohawk. He’ll jump down onto the central section, where you’ll have to follow. If you want to be sure that you don’t miss the platform, wait for one of those ledges revolving around the central platform to come. Jump across that and onto the platform. This is the standard boss fight arena: a lot of variables that you could use to your advantage and a big fat boss in the middle of the place who’s vulnerable to only one weapon or action (which is always supplied in indefinite amounts), in this case, Johnson’s Beam Rifle. I didn’t think Bungie would do something like this. Oh well, back to business. -Method one for killing Tartarus: When you’re on the platform, ride the central grav lift up to the top one of the three levels. From there, aim with your Beam Rifle at Tartarus and give him a couple of rounds to take down his shield, then proceed to fill him up with Beam Rifle charges. Continue this until the Beam Rifle is empty. When this happens, take a Plasma Rifle from the nearby crate--just to have a usable weapon instead of the empty Beam Rifle. Then take out your Carbine and wait for Johnson to take down the Monkey’s shield. When he does, open up until the shield comes back. This will go on until you run out of ammo. In this case, take some from a nearby crate containing Carbine ammo. When that runs out, go to the lower level and take the ammo from there. I also think that there’s a full Carbine crate on the middle level, but once you get there, either the place will be crawling with Brutes or Tartarus is going to force you to leave. So, when you’ve exhausted the Carbines, dual-wield two Brute Plasma Rifles and do your thing. -Method two: This is purely theoretical and hasn’t worked for me yet. You can stay one of those moving ledges and orbit the central platform while taking shots at the boss. If you try this, make absolutely sure that you ride one of those higher ledges--if you stay on the lower ones, one of the higher ledges is going to knock you off. Certainly not the end I would choose. Also, once the Brutes arrive, you won’t have much cover. The single plus in using this method: when on one of the higher ledges, look at the arm that’s holding the ledge up in the air. Go around it so that you’re standing in front of the side facing the outer wall. From there, you can crouch-jump up to a point on the arm from where you can walk up to the top. From there you can jump down onto the top platform. Note, though, that you can’t go back to the revolving ledges and will have to use the first method from this point on. So once you fire the final coup de grace, the last cutscene will start. Congrats! You may be somewhat disappointed by the ending of the game, but I think it would be worth playing Halo 2 even if it had no ending. Oh, and for those who followed my advice and went to the kitchen and made a sandwich, I suggest you stay to see the end of the credits. There may be something interesting at the end... OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 11. Secrets]_____________________________________ "It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a regime that does not maintain any military secrets." -Albert Einstein -Skulls Skulls are the main secrets of Halo 2. To be clear, skulls are the same as the oddballs in multiplayer--they look the same and can be used as melee weapons. Every time you get a skull, a message comes up where the checkpoint messages always appear, saying the name of the skull. Personally, I’m surprised that any skulls were found at all, seeing how well they’re hidden. Bungie put a bit of humor into some of them by having enemies around the skull do something unusual: twitching Flood lying on the floor, Grunts and Elites dancing around the skull, et cetera. No one actually knows why the skulls are there: maybe one of the Bungie programmers got bored one day and started throwing skulls around the levels, or maybe the Bungie folk just wanted to interest the public. Skulls have different effects which can be good and bad. For example, one skull erases your HUD, which can make Legendary almost impossible to complete; while another skull reduces gravity, giving you the liberty of jumping higher, using explosions to throw enemies over the edges of chasms, and other fun stuff. Note that the only way to get rid of the effects of a skull is to reinsert the disk or maybe even restart the console--don’t expect to have the effects of some good skull after you’ve restarted the game. I’ll arrange the skulls by level, so that you can take directions for getting skulls in the order that you complete the game. Here's a list of the skulls (in order) and their locations: 1. Unnamed skull ------------------------------- Armory 2. Thunderstorm skull -------------------------- Cairo Station 3. Blind skull --------------------------------- Outskirts 4. I Would Have Been Your Daddy skull ---------- Outskirts 5. Catch skull --------------------------------- Metropolis 6. Grunt Birthday Party skull ------------------ The Arbiter 7. Famine skull -------------------------------- Oracle 8. Envy skull ---------------------------------- Delta Halo 9. Assassins skull ----------------------------- Regret 10. Mythic skull -------------------------------- Sacred Icon 11. Sputnik skull ------------------------------- Quarantine Zone 12. Angry skull --------------------------------- Gravemind 13. Ghost skull --------------------------------- Uprising 14. Iron skull ---------------------------------- High Charity 15. Black Eye skull ----------------------------- The Great Journey And here's a walkthrough on how to get the skulls: -Unnamed skull Armory on Legendary difficulty This skull is not hard to get, but you’ll have to run around one room for about ten minutes to get it. Once Master Guns gets done with the “zapper”, Sarge will come in. If you noticed, he has a lot of dialogue to throw at you if you don’t go into the elevator with him. Stay out of the elevator until he says “Will it help if I say ‘please’?”. When he says that, run into the elevator, ride that to the monorail, and get in. Make sure you stay near the side of the compartment opposite the door you came in through. At one point, you’ll pass a place with a few crates. The skull is on one of the crates. Press X to take it. To be sure that you take the skull, hold X all the way to the end of the ride. It’s supposed that the Unnamed skull makes it easier for enemies to spot you. I never managed to notice any effect. -Thunderstorm skull Cairo Station on Legendary This is a pretty hard-to-get skull as you have to pass half of Cairo Station to get to it. When you pass through the second hangar, you’ll go through the MAC Storage room, the station’s armory, and about eight hundred SMG rounds. When you exit the armory, look up. There’s railing up there, with an area behind it. Clear the room as usual. Then, jump onto one of the elevated platforms adjacent to the wall on top of which is that railing. Jump onto one of the small poles holding the glass (one closest to the wall) and crouch-jump on top of the 45 degree beam in the area behind the railing. Now look around. There are several of those beams, all of which supporting the two tracks of the monorail. Walk to the top of one of the beams and jump onto the track. Be careful not to overshoot or fall through the gap between the tracks. Walk to the right end and jump onto the platform there. Remember that you got into the monorail from this very platform? Look at the trash can in the corner. The skull is just behind it. All you have to do is to hold X. I think that Thunderstorm mode moves enemies up several ranks. Not that it matters much on Cairo Station--on this level, the ranks of most enemies seem to be completely random. -Blind skull Outskirts on any difficulty Directly at the start of the level. Very easy. When the Pelican crash-lands, you’ll come around with some considerable effort. Then you’ll go through a doorway. When you’re through, look up. There are two rectangular light fixtures there. Jump on either one, then crouch-jump on top of the striped wall nearby. It’ll probably take a few tries, but it can be done. Once you’re on top of the wall, look left and head into the dark alley there. The skull is at the end, along with binoculars and three or so Frag Grenades. This is probably the most annoying skull out there--it wipes out your HUD. That means no radar, no reticle, nothing. If you’re crazy enough to try to pass Legendary with this skull on all the time, go ahead. But you’ve been warned. -I Would Have Been Your Daddy skull Outskirts on Legendary I didn’t put the widely used acronym "IWHBYD" for people like me, whose first reaction to it is reminiscent of “What the ‘fudge’?”. Well, my reaction is somewhat less obscene but the acronym kind of leaves me wondering what on Halo it means. Also, I can't understand why this was named after the very first section of the famous Assault on the Control Room level on Halo. This skull is a bit obscure with me. I’ve never gotten it, but here’s what I gathered about how to get it: on Outskirts, you have to trigger the checkpoint after Sarge gets onto the Pelican. Then you have to go past the alley with the Snipers and Bugs, and onto the rooftops. If you remember, in the level’s walkthrough I pointed out that there’s a balcony with a Sniper Rifle in it, plus some ammo, just past the church-like tower and to the left of the alley below. That’s where the skull supposedly is. Apparently it spawns there randomly, so you’ll just have to commit suicide over and over until you get it. Then, as I heard, once you pick up the skull, you’ll be teleported onto the ground, with a Plasma Pistol and a crowd of Elites attacking you. From what I understand, you’ll have to kill them all to completely get the skull. IWHBYD gives characters new and funny dialogue. That’s all I can tell you. -Catch skull Metropolis on Legendary It’s tough, if not impossible to get the skull without the Sputnik skull. I suggest you get that first. On Metropolis, just after “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” section title is triggered, you’ll come out into an swampy and roughly circular area with a few structures in the center. Once you clear the enemies, go onto the center structure. Come to the foot of the big decorative support beam thingy. You’ll have to grenade-jump onto the beam. From there, you can walk up to the top. When you come to a fork, turn left and walk along the ledge around the tower. At the end of the ledge is the skull. Reportedly, Catch skull causes enemies throw grenades in twos and do it more often. -Grunt Birthday Party skull The Arbiter on Legendary Almost at the end of the level you’ll have to board a Banshee and fly around for 10-20 minutes until the friendly Phantom finds the place where you have to land. While it’s busy doing that, fly almost to the very bottom of the level. There are three enormous cylinders there, all of which are held together by a huge beam running across the top of each one. See that each cylinder has a dome on top? Fly to the dome on top of the middle one. Look around the dome and you’ll see that, under the beam, there are a few Grunts dancing around the skull. You don’t have to kill the Grunts--they won’t hurt you, and you’d better leave a couple to test out the effects of the skull. Grunt Birthday Party skull is pretty useful. When you’ve taken it, every headshot to an unshielded enemy will result in the enemy exploding exactly like a Plasma Grenade. I’m not sure if it works on Elites. It probably does, but I think you have to get rid of their shields first. -Famine skull Oracle on Legendary After the feared and hated elevator battle, you’ll go through a passageway and then onto a ledge above a room. If you’ll notice, there’s an identical ledge on the other side of the room. When you can, drop down and grenade-jump onto that ledge (Sputnik is, I think, required). At one end there will be a circle of twitching Flood (ahh, it feels so good to see them like that). The skull is in the center. After Famine mode is unlocked, weapons you pick up have half the ammo than they normally would (this is just a guesstimate--it’s impossible to know how much ammo guns have in the first place). -Envy skull Delta Halo on Legendary I consider this the most famous skull. To find the skull you have to fight across the bridge, through the tunnels (including another open area), and eventually to yet another ruin complex. To specify, this one has a number of Ghosts coming at you from behind the building and several Phantom turrets to your left, which are on the edge of a drop-off looking over the lake. You need to head over to those turrets. I suggest you clear the area first. At the far end of the ledge the turrets were on (to the right, if looking at the lake) there’s a cubic rock. Jump on that and look at the nearby wall. Look closely and you’ll see a very narrow ridge running along the wall, just wide enough for you to jump on it. Do so and jump onto the wall on your left (with the tree branch sticking out of the wall). Now you have to go even higher. There’s a wall directly above you, which you have to jump on top of. If you can do this without the Sputnik, great. Otherwise, get it. Without the Sputnik, I haven’t been able to jump on top of the wall, whatever I did. Once you get on top of the wall, whatever you did to get there, take the skull from between the Elites doing something or another with their Swords. Envy is possibly the most useful skull out there--it gives the Chief an Active Camo. It seems to be shorter than the Arbiter’s, but it’s still worth it. Needless to say, the flashlight is taken away. Not that you need to use it much as the Chief. -Assassins skull Regret on Legendary Suffer through the level until you get to the building straight after the first gondola trip. Inside the lobby is a cubic rock. Jump on top and then onto the nearby ledge. Go along the ledge and outside. On your left, you should see a Phantom turret. Jump on top of that, then on top of the doorway, and proceed to the back of the building. Somewhere at the end of the trip, you’ll see a grassy balcony, a couple of Elites (doing the same thing they were doing next to the Envy skull), and the Assassins skull. This skull unlocks Assassins mode, which means that most if not all enemies are invisible. If you return inside the building, you’ll meet some invisible Jackals. Cool, really. I haven't tried it, but maybe even Hunters could be made invisible. -Mythic skull Sacred Icon on Legendary At some point you’ll reach a second halfway-outside room (a large, rectangular area with a side passage leading to its duplicate). After you fight through that room’s duplicate, you’ll go down a piston and into a very dark and musty room. There will be a number of Flood in front of you. Dispose of those and go further along the hallway. There should be a stack of five or seven boxes at the end of the hallway, which you should climb on top of. There will be an alcove on the ledge at the top of the stack. Go along the ledge and further into the room, and you’ll see that there are a few more alcoves. Mythic skull is in the third one. Mythic mode is said to give enemies more health, thereby creating an even harder difficulty level (makes sense: “mythic” is somewhere above “legendary”). Don’t get me wrong, you don’t get a separate difficulty that you can select, it just makes Legendary more legendary. -Sputnik skull Quarantine Zone on Legendary I would say that this is the easiest skull to get. Just as the level starts, turn around and run into that tunnel. At the other end, run straight (stay near the wall to the left) and along that narrow ledge running along the edge of the chasm. The skull is floating in midair at the end of the ledge. Sputnik reduces gravity. That means that explosions, jumps, melee attacks, and everything else I forgot to mention carry objects and characters further than normal. For example, I mentioned that the Sputnik was necessary to get many skulls because even grenade-jumping may not be enough to get to a particular high ledge. And now, you can melee absolutely any corpse, including Hunters, and make them move. One very useful thing: Brute Shots can now throw Brutes and other enemies into chasms or off lethal drop-offs. -Angry skull Gravemind on Legendary When you ride out of the detention block on the grav lift, you’ll arrive in a room. From here, you’ll have to clear the following corridors and defeat two Hunters. After the Hunter battle, go outside as usual. Clean up the area and look to the right of the door. There’s a crate there with Brute Plasma Rifles. Jump onto that and then onto a small hill leaning against the metal wall. Then proceed along the earthen ridge and to another hill. This one’s larger, but you can still crouch-jump onto it, especially if you find one point on the slope that you can stand on. Once atop the hill, go along the pinkish/purple ridge running along the wall serving as the perimeter of the valley. Go to the back of the wall--the side you entered from. There’s a pedestal-like thing at the end. When you come close enough, a Fuel Rod Cannon-wielding Invisible Grunt will appear, which I suggest you take down at once. Proceed past the corpse and onto the pedestal. The skull will be floating above a transporter-like circular light. Angry mode supposedly makes enemies shoot faster (as if there’s any room for faster shooting). Also, I don’t think you can drop this skull or swap it for a third gun. Not very convenient when you need to swap weapons fast. -Ghost skull Uprising on Legendary This is pretty easy to get. Once you go through the door leading out of the armory, turn around. There’s a light fixture above the door, and that’s where the skull is. I suggest you grenade-jump on there. The best way is to proceed along the level, then confiscate a Ghost from one of those Brutes, and then come back. Put the Ghost under the fixture, stand on it, throw a grenade directly at your feet, and follow the standard grenade-jumping procedure to get onto the fixture. No one knows what Ghost actually does (I tried doing different things with Ghosts, but that’s definitely not it). Some think it makes enemies less aware of your presence, or that it makes them shoot slower. -Iron skull High Charity on Legendary After a dark and murky outside run-through battle, you’ll ride an elevator (not a grav lift, mind you) to a room occupied by some very nasty Covenant and at the same time happily besieged by Flood. When you’re done sitting that out and everything in the area is dead, you’ll go through the next door. This room will be large, circular, and empty. When Cortana opens a door leading to the next grav lift, go through and into the lift. Before walking in, though, look straight up and hold X. The skull is in the center of the tube you’ll be traveling through. I advised you to look up because in case you don’t get the skull for some reason, you’ll know where it is. Iron means that you don’t get to respawn if you’re killed in co-op. Big deal--the game is more than beatable even outside co-op. -Black Eye skull The Great Journey on Legendary When you fly up to the Control Room in your Banshee, land above the door, to the left of that ridge. Run to the end of the walkway-like stretch of stone and jump onto the big spherical thing (which, if you haven’t realized, is the actual Control Room) and jump on top of it. Get to the top and walk along the disk on top of the sphere toward that rock slope behind the structure. There’s a pillar there, which you can get on top of. At the top is the skull. Black Eye takes away your shield’s ability to recharge. The only way to get the shield back is meleeing enemies to death. Every cloud comes with a silver lining: meleeing enough enemies will give you an Over Shield. Every silver lining comes with a cloud: it’s just too hard to get close enough to almost any given enemy without getting killed, even if that’s a lone Grunt. -Secret Swords I know of three hidden Swords in Halo 2 besides the ones that you get on the regular “kill it and then take its Sword” basis and the ones just lying around in plain view. The two truly hidden Swords contain Easter Eggs somewhere near them, or at least something unusual. As for the other one, you have to do some poking around an area, but it's not hard to find. -Outskirts This Sword is a bit problematic to find. You have to go the same way you have to to get the Blind skull. But once you jump on the striped wall, don’t go into the darkish passage--instead, turn around and walk to the ledge above the passage you just jumped out of. There’s another ledge across the passage, so jump there. Go along the passage that you should now be in. Somewhere at the end you should feel one of the now widely used invisible walls. From there, grenade-jump up to the higher ledge on your right. Turn around. You should see a twisted beam going over the courtyard where the Pelican crashed. Go across that and jump onto the concrete-colored roof hanging over an alley. Jump onto the pale yellow roofs. Run through the nearby passage between two buildings and jump onto the twisted-looking block there. Get onto the nearby roof and walk over to the edge so that you’re looking at a collapsed bridge. About now a checkpoint should go off, so you’re safe. Jump down onto the bridge and walk to the other side. Get onto the railing and grenade-jump to the roof overhead. From there, head along the rooftops, parallel to the alley with the Snipers. After you pass some air-conditioning things and use them to jump onto another roof, turn left and jump through the hole in the side of the building there. There’s your Sword stuck into the ground, and there is also the Rex Easter Egg next to it. -Delta Halo--Sword 1 You have to go the same way as you did to find the Envy skull, but stop at the cubic rock. Jump on top of it. See that there’s a crack between it and the wall? There’s a passage behind it. Toss a Plasma Grenade through the crack and jump off. The rock will hopefully be thrown far enough back for you to melee it out of the way and go through the passage. There you’ll see a couple Grunt corpses and two Swords. -Delta Halo--Sword 2 This Sword in not very secret; it’s pretty hard not to find it. When you pass the "Off the Rock, Through the Bush, Nothing But Jackal" section title, kill that Sniper Jackal in front of you, and clean up the general area. When you jump down, go along the stream. It’ll end inside a cave, and the Sword is lying just short of the place where the cave gets too narrow for you to go any further. -Others More secrets. Some of these will probably be slightly more useless, but some are very important. By the way, they’re not arranged in any kind of order, I just wrote them down as I though of them. -The blue screen of death This is on the multiplayer map Zanzibar. Inside the largest building, there’s a computer that opens the gate to the building. Activate the computer and zoom in to get a grand view of the feared blue screen. -Rex Go find the secret Sword in Outskirts. The Rex rocks are right next to the Sword. They’re that pile of bloodstained stones. If you’re having some issues in deciphering the word “REX”, look for the X part. That makes it easier. I hear that the nickname of one of the Bungie level designers is Ferrex, and that's the apparent source of "Rex". There's also a place in Halo with the word, but I've never managed to find it. -Original Xbox menu glitch This is totally unrelated to Halo 2, but I just discovered it. In the main menu, if you start rapidly and simultaneously pressing X and Y, the actual menu part is going to start jumping around the screen. -Crouch-jumping No doubt you’ve heard this term before. It’s the glitch that allows you to jump slightly higher than normal. You do it like this: jump and press the left thumbstick in to crouch. That gains you a bit more height and allows you to jump to some places that were out of your reach before. -Grenade-jumping This gives you even more height. To perform a grenade-jump, look down and throw a grenade directly at your feet. If it’s a Frag, don’t worry--the effect will still be the same. Just as the grenade is about to explode, jump. Try to have a full shield when you grenade-jump because it can really hurt if you don’t. I personally prefer Frag Grenades to Plasmas as the timing is much harder with a Plasma Grenade’s longer fuse. To get the highest jump possible, combine the Sputnik, a grenade-jump, and a crouch-jump. -Get a Banshee in Metropolis There are two ways of getting a Banshee in Metropolis: 1. When you pass the first Wraith and a sizable hole in the right lane of the bridge, jump onto the railing on the right side. Get onto the big concrete block holding the support cables in place. After a Phantom comes, a couple of Banshees will arrive. It’ll help to sacrifice the Marines so they don’t shoot the Banshees. One of the aircraft will pass very close to the bridge, and that’s when you have to jump toward it. If you’re successful (lucky, I should say), you’ll get the message telling you to press X to board the Banshee and you’ll be able to comply in time. The Chief will pull the driver out of the cockpit, then get in himself. Now have fun. A Phantom will be easy to defeat when faced with a halfway competent Banshee pilot. Just strafe to the side and keep shooting. Also, when you’re approaching the end of the bridge, you should see a Phantom just lifting up. You can get on top of that Phantom, and you’ll be able to fly it to the building above the highway entrance. This is the only way as Banshees are not allowed there. More fun: from there, you can jack a Banshee and have the invisible wall shoot you away at breakneck speed. And it’s almost perfectly safe, as there are practically no obstacles in the way. 2. The second way of procuring a Banshee is a bit further down the level. Once you pass the ticket barrier, two Wraiths will come out, and sometime soon two Banshees will follow. Lure one Banshee into the highway tunnel and keep it moving after you. Whenever you can, shoot off the wings, so they don’t become a nuisance later. Don’t board it yet because of that invisible wall set up just before the ticket barrier. Therefore, you’ll be shot out of the tunnel at a speed that almost justifies boarding it before you really need to (well, if you’re lucky; otherwise, due to the speed, as much as scratching the paint on the Banshee’s side against a wall will be almost guaranteed to kill you). So, you need to lure it through the blocked-off part of the tunnel. I suggest you only do this on Easy because otherwise you’ll have to fight the enemies and that usually doesn’t turn out good for you or the Banshee (on Easy, you can run straight through). Once the Banshee reaches the sewers, get it to the entrance of the exit tunnel. Once the “loading... done” message disappears, you’ll have less than a second to board the Banshee before it disappears itself. I’ve done this only once, after more than an hour of painstaking toil of getting the Banshee through the tunnels in one piece. There was an instance where I came horribly close to getting the Banshee right at the entrance to the final tunnel in the sewers--but I didn’t have enough time to board the Banshee before it disappeared. Expect this, and numerous other mistakes, to happen very often. There’s a very narrow margin for error here and they're very common. A useful tip: once you’re in the blocked-off part of the highway, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES stray away from the Banshee so far that you stop hearing its sound. If you do, the Banshee will disappear and will cause a considerable number of neurons to burn out. Second tip: kill the Marines from the Warthog on sight. Otherwise they’ll destroy the Banshee and cause even more neurons to burn out. -Secret and usable Scarab Cannon I have to say, this is one of my favorite secrets. It's in Metropolis. Acquire the previous Banshee (I mean the second method of getting a Banshee in this level). Once out of the sewers, you’ll see that to your left and high, high up are two huge bridge-like support beams, each connecting two buildings. You’re aiming for the closest one. Directly in the center of that support is the Cannon floating above one of those orange warning pyramids. Make sure you look closely because it’s pretty small and hard to see. Right now, you’re probably storing this in the "creme de la crud" section of your memory because, due to the size of a Scarab Cannon, a Plasma Rifle skin was used. Well, pick it up and see for yourself. But make sure you turn away from the Banshee while practicing--bust the vehicle and you're not getting back down. And this is not a replica of the pathetic Cannon that’s installed on Scarabs (as you might know, the Scarab Cannon on Scarabs doesn't always do damage; sometimes it's faked). This is a real, honest-to-(the name of the supreme being(s) in your religion here), Scarab Cannon. This one can fire almost as fast as a Plasma Rifle, but each shot does as much, if not more, damage as a Cannon shot. Everything you could possibly want from a gun, infinite ammo and no overheating included. The only down is that the splash damage can easily kill you if you’re not careful. And it’s a shame that the gun is available exclusively on Metropolis; otherwise Legendary might actually be easy. But well, considering the lengths you have to go to to get this gun, it might be easier to pass Legendary without it. I consider this secret the hardest one to acquire, along with, maybe, some of the skulls. -Exploding birds Throughout the game, you’ll notice that in some places there are birds flying around. When those are hit by any kind of weapon, they explode in a very bloody way. Whenever you’re frustrated in High Charity or on Delta Halo and have a spare sniping weapon nearby, feel free to take out your suffering on the birds. I think you can use some normal weapons, like the Plasma Pistol or Rifle, but it’s harder. -Get three times the ammo for a dual-wieldable gun This only works for clip-operated guns, namely the Pistol, SMG, and Needler. I’ll use the Pistol as an example, but you can do the same thing with the other two. Go to a level with more than three of the weapon that you need to fill up with. Make sure you have at least one dual-wieldable gun. Call it gun 1. The other one is gun 2. Swap gun 2 for a Pistol. Then dual-wield gun 1 with another Pistol. Swap gun 1 (it should be in your right hand) for the third Pistol. So now you have three Pistols, and their ammo is combined. Again, you can do the same with the SMG and the Needler, although I noticed that neither of them shows the overall amount of ammo, just the ammo in each individual weapon. And, of course, you can dual-wield three dual-wieldable guns at once this way. -104 rounds in a Carbine This is just a weird Carbine I found in Sacred Icon. When the level starts, you’ll jump through the piston nearby and go through the next few rooms. Soon after that, you’ll arrive in a room with an alcove/ledge on your left. If you’re in the correct room, there’s a Plasma Rifle on that ledge. Just a bit further along the room is a dead Brute with a Carbine next to him. This one, when you pick it up, will have 104 rounds. Well, once you actually reload it it’ll be less, but still just under a hundred--a couple dozen more than usual. -Glitch in the Metropolis ending Look carefully as In Amber Clad disappears into Slipspace. Wrong skin, isn’t it? -Sarge’s cigar It’s rumored that there are more than one of these lying around the levels, but I’ve only managed to find one. On the very first level, when you exit the armory on the elevator and ride down, to your right you’ll see a trash can. Behind that trash can is a cigar, supposedly dropped by Sarge. I was personally surprised by how detailed the thing was--it was actually smoking! You can find this very cigar one level further, on Cairo Station. The trash can is the same one that contains the Thunderstorm skull, and the cigar is right behind it. And it'll still be smoking. Word has it that another of Johnson's cigars can be found on Outskirts, in Hotel Zanzibar, through which you'll have to run to A Day at the Beach section. Behind the receptionist's desk is a small dark room, where the second cigar supposedly is. -Snafu in The Arbiter captioning For this, you need to turn on the captions (somewhere in the profile options) and start The Arbiter level. This mistake of whoever wrote the captions appears near the end of the cutscene showing the Phantoms flying toward the ruined Halo. More specifically, it's during the Silver Elite's recitation of the rules of the Elites. When he says "Those who would break this oath are heretics, worthy of neither pity nor mercy", his fellow Elites will reply. So look at the end of their line--didn't they forget to say something? -Secret Pistols on Delta Halo The big, hated swampy place just after "Off the Rock, Through the Bush, Nothing But Jackal" section starts off. As you finish this part, you'll be on the opposite side of the area from where you started it. You should be on the ledge from where you can enter the canyon leading to the level's final area. From this ledge, climb down one level using the ramp coming down from about the center of the ledge. Once there, look out over the swamp. Far to your left, in the wall, there's a dark hole. That's a tunnel. Turn on your flashlight and go to the end. There, beside a Marine Corp(se), are two Pistols. -Bypass part of Outskirts When you're entering that infamous alleyway with the Snipers, Bugs, and some Elites, pass it as usual. When the alleyway is clear, go to the other end of the alley and jump onto that squarish platform. Turn toward the entrance to the next alley and look at one of those orange overhangs. From here, you can jump onto the closest overhang. Once on top of the overhang, you can jump on top of the pipe going across the alley and then onto another overhang, from where you're free to get on top of the roofs. Then you can move along the roofs parallel to the alley below, all the way to the alley intersecting the one you're following now. Note that there's a secret Sniper Rifle in one of the two balconies just past the church-like building. When you reach the intersection, jump across the perpendicular alley and onto the warehouse-like roof there (the one with the hole in it). Jump into the hole and go along that tunnel. Greet the Grunts there with SMGs or something and then you're free to execute the enemies you can now see through the large hole in the wall of your building. -Gravity-altering Scarab This is a glitch I experienced with the Scarab on Metropolis. It's just that if you get under the Scarab, you can jump a lot higher. Try this when you're in the makeshift Marine HQ building. Just after "Field Expedient" starts, jump down from the balcony and get under the Scarab as it walks by. Or you can wait till the Scarab walks over the building and get under it there. Anyway, if you jump while under the machine, you'll jump a lot higher, like in space during Cairo Station. -Secret balcony on Regret level This is not the one that contains the Assassins skull. I'm talking about one close to the beginning of the level. When you pass across a two-leveled bridge, along a halfway-open passage, and through a small, dark room, you'll emerge in a ruined courtyard. Clear the courtyard as you normally would, then look around the door you should be going through next. Apparently the ceiling collapsed to the left of it, and the rubble is blocking a doorway. Or so it seems. Look closer, and you'll see that you can just squeeze through the gap between the pile of rocks and the doorway. On the ledge on the other side, you'll see two Carbines and two Plasma Grenades. Good place to relax. Time to pull out your tablecloth and make Grunt barbecue :). I heard from one of the Marines that they taste just like chicken... -Characters have different dialogue In some places, the difficulty level determines some characters' lines. There are at least two places like that in Halo 2: 1. In the beginning of Outskirts, the phrase Cortana uses to wake up the Chief is different on every difficulty. 2. In the start of Metropolis, the very first section title varies with the difficulty, along with Johnson's speech. -Opening closed doors on High Charity This works on Gravemind and High Charity levels. The closed doors I mean are those rectangular doors that seem to be permanently closed. But all you have to do to open one is to get far enough along its outer side. Take the very first hall in Gravemind level for example. Then look at the closest door to the exit you eventually use. Get in front of the door. Then, notice that you can run along the wall parallel to the passage behind the door. Do so, and when you're far enough along the wall, you should hear the sound of the door opening. Now you can enter the passage. This is rather useless, but it's good to know that you can at least do this. -Stunned Jackal I'm sure this works on Easy and I'm sure that it works only once, but I'm not sure if it works anywhere outside my console. But nevertheless, I'll write about it so you can test it. This is an odd glitch I found on Sacred Icon level. Once you meet the Jackal with the yellow shield and drop down a piston with it, give it your Carbine. The first time I did this, the Jackal spread its arms and took on a bewildered look as though it suddenly entered rigor mortis. The only way to confiscate the Carbine is to kill the Jackal. The second time I did this, the Jackal took the Carbine and continued as normal. -Nonexistent glass This is a technicality I found on Gravemind level. Once you pass the detention center, go through a couple of rooms, and defeat two Hunters, you'll go through a door and outside. Just beyond that door, sticking out of the floor, is something glass-like that I could just walk through. Maybe it's a glitch that's only present on my Halo 2 disk, but it probably isn't. -Ride a Pelican in Metropolis This is a glitch/secret/cheat/whatever you want to call it, that is located just in front of the Marine HQ building. Once the two Phantoms depart, a Pelican or two will arrive in the area. One will hover over the raised ledges the Snipers were on and drop some Marines. That's your chance. Run up to the Pelican, jump up toward it, and hold X. You'll board the Pelican. After the ride you'll eventually land in an extremely weird area, where the floor seems to be a perfectly horizontal layer of air a few decameters above the water. The area is very large, and you can walk quite a distance around it, but it's kind of boring due to the almost complete absence of anything to do. There are two things, though: 1. There should be a Marine standing there somewhere without any visible reason, whom you can shoot, melee, shout at, run into, look at, push under the Pelican, and anything else you might want within the parameters of the game. 2. Then there's, of course, the Pelican. Without any normal place to just land, it'll be spinning in the air. Note that if you come close enough, you'll get the message saying that you have to hold X to flip the Banshee (?). If you, for some reason, want to live in this place a bit longer, don't get hit by any part of the Pelican. Half of the time the hit will be lethal. -Teleport the anonymous Silver Elite Teleporting the immortal Elite is an interesting trick I found on Oracle level. Right after the start of the level, you'll pass through a room with a tank full of Spores, then through a second room with a semi-transparent floor and a vicious-sounding battle going on below, and then jump down onto the floor of another room. After you watch the hologram of the Heretic Leader and defeat a number of Spores pouring into the room, you'll have to leave the Silver Elite and proceed into the next room and onto the elevator. When I was experimenting with methods of making the elevator battle passable, I, of course, tried meleeing the Elite onto the elevator. It didn't work, as the Elite kept running back to the room from where I originally meleed him. And it turns out that his desire to get back to that room is a lot stronger than it seems at first. One of the times I tried getting him onto the elevator, I accidentally meleed him off the bridge leading to the elevator, after which... he teleported back to the room. And yes, the animation for this teleportation is just like the one in Halo and the place in Halo 2 where Gravemind teleports the Chief and the Arbiter--he kind of lit up the surroundings with an orange light and disappeared. -Secret ledge on Delta Halo level This ledge is seen right after you start the level. I can hardly even call it secret. The ledge is on top of that large ruined building. When you first see a Sniper Jackal, clear the area and climb up to that balcony the Sniper was on. Now walk to the edge of the balcony and look at the part of the building to the right of the ledge you're on now. You should see a narrow platform running along the side of the building. Jump on top of that and onto the roof of the building. From here, look to the right and you'll see that you can jump on top of the roof above the Sniper's balcony. There, you'll find the corpse of a Marine (no word on how it got there), along with a Rocket Launcher and Frag Grenades. -Weird Grunt speech I found this Grunt in Uprising. Close to the start of the level, you'll battle through a cavern-like room with a something like a generator in the center. Then you'll pass through a door and into a room. Drop down onto the lower level and turn around. Just under the edge of the upper level, near the wall, is a cowering Grunt. Walk up to it and listen to its speech. -Sniping point on Regret level Ever needed a very convenient vantage point on Regret? Well, here is one: when you come up out of the underwater rooms in the second elevator, you'll pass a hologram of Regret and go outside. Here, you'll see that there's a ramp going up to a ledge higher up. When you climb up the ramp, you'll come up on one side of the ledge. Now clear the area and go to the other end of the ledge. There, in the gap between the hills, is an extremely handy opening you can use for sniping the Covenant below. -Handy hiding place on Quarantine Zone level -Credit: aughah If you're having trouble with "Shooting Gallery" section, read about it in my walkthrough. If that's not helping and you don't mind cheating a bit, here's a very useful trick. Just as the section starts, turn 180 degrees and run to the back of the gondola. You're aiming for that pillar-like thing right on the end. You'll notice that the base of the pillar forms a kind of very small gate or doorway with the floor. If you get on top of the railing running along the perimeter of the gondola, you'll be able to crouch-jump on top of the gateway. From there, the pillar will split. One branch will go upward and another will also go upward, but at a 45-degree angle. Jump on top of that slanted beam and walk up to the top. If you already spent three hours suffering on the gondola, then you're probably not going to be bothered by the bad physics. Once on the top, walk right at the wall in front of you and you'll fall through. Here you'll land on some sort of invisible floor hanging above the gondola. Although the floor is transparent, you'll be able to walk around if you don't get off the part surrounded by that border. Make sure you don't jump because sometimes the gondola will kind of boost or maybe just glitch and you'll be thrown off. While above the gondola, you'll be able to watch the Elites being killed and the Flood running around. Once the gondola is docked, grenade any Flood that might be blocking your way, then activate the Active Camo, jump off, and run on to the Index. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 12. How to contact me]___________________________ If you want to write your opinion about my guide to me, send hate mail (which I want indicated in the subject of the letter so I could delete it), point out holes in my guide, ask about permission to post this piece of writing on another web site I haven’t listed in the Legal section, or thank me with paper (the green kind with watermarks and large numbers), send me a letter to: anton_bovin@yahoo.com. I rarely come around to checking that particular e-mail, so don’t expect an answer very fast. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 13. Version History]_____________________________ Version 0.3--first edition. Just finished writing and posted. The guide is still imperfect, but I'll correct that later. Version 0.7--second edition, composed after I read through the entire guide and corrected some minor voice and spelling snafus. Publushed again. Version 1.0--third edition. Finished actually applying the "version history" concept to the guide--before now I didn't think there would be a lot of versions following. I ran the guide through Word's spell check, although there were a lot of misunderstandings because of the Enter after every line; hacked off any uneven surfaces (with a chisel); and sanded everything else. Plus, I finally fixed the O around the "2" in the heading to make it more symmetrical. So, now it's sparkling and polished to near perfection, at least as perfect as I can get it, and the only revisions I'm thinking about are additions to the Legal section's web site list. Version 1.3--fourth edition. It's just additions to the Legal section. Plus, I added the location of every level at the beginning of each one. Version 1.7--yet another, fifth, edition. Added a couple of secrets to the Secrets section. Version 2.0--sixth edition. Did some minor corrections all over the guide, including the "O" before every section, after going through the game again. Version 2.3--seventh edition. Outlined the verdict on every gun and did some more additions and corrections. Version 3.7--eighth edition. It's been a while since I looked at this guide and it's undergone some changes, namely that I stopped maintaining that the Scarab Cannon can't do any damage (horrible mistake, I know), changed to the gamertag that I actually use, and slackened the copyright rules a lot. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 14. Legal]_______________________________________ I know this is boring, but necessary: This guide may be reproduced or copied on a web site with my permission. You may reproduce it in any other form you like without my permission. Of course, I don’t appreciate plagiarism. Therefore, if you publish any of my strategies or secrets, the credit must, again, be given to me. Naturally, I can’t tell if you developed a particular strategy yourself, so if any problem somehow arises over that and you're claiming that the stategy is yours, I’ll just have to take your word for it that you figured it out yourself. These web sites have permission to host this guide so far: GameFAQs ---------- gamefaqs.com Neoseeker --------- neoseeker.com Gamefly ----------- gamefly.com 1up --------------- 1up.com Supercheats ------- supercheats.com Gamers' Temple ---- gamerstemple.com OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 15. Thanks to...]________________________________ Bungie- for making this awesome game! Tom Race- his Legendary difficulty FAQ is great; I consulted it sometimes while writing this guide. I realize that there is a suspiciously large number of similarities between our guides, but I swear that all the names, ideas, expressions, and strategies here are mine. Some names or strategies may coincide with his and, maybe, other people's, but that’s not intentional. GameFAQs, Neoseeker, 1up, Supercheats and Gamers' Temple- for letting me publish this. Tablesandchairs4/Dark Vortex- I used their secrets FAQ to find some secrets of the game, like the skulls and, say, the Scarab Cannon. I couldn't resist putting all the secrets I know of into this guide, so my thanks to Tablesandchairs4 and Dark Vortex. Many secrets here are still my discovery, though. OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO OOO OOO OOO OO OO OOO O OO OOO OOO OOOOO OOO OOOOOOOOOOO _______________________[ 16. Final Word]__________________________________ Well, hopefully this has helped, or will help, you with the game. I did my best to make the guide as clear, precise, and comprehensible, as possible. I already have some practice writing guides, which has helped me out with this one. In 10-point Courier New, this guide is over a hundred--114--pages long, my longest one yet (and apparently the longest one on GameFAQs also), and I had fun writing it. Hopefully, I'll be writing a Halo 3 guide as soon as I get it. Enjoy Halo 2! Copyright 2006 Anton Bovin