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Legendary Difficulty Guide

by MrWalkthrough


 
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                  [------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
 /
/
 /========================================
//
/

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_______________________[ 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!).



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_______________________[ 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.



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_______________________[ 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�.



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_______________________[ 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.



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______________________________[ 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.



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_______________________[ 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.



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_______________________[ 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.



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_______________________[ 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.



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_______________________[ 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: [email protected]. 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