## ### ### # ## ##### ########## ### ### ##### ### ## ### ### ### ## ### ## ## ############# ######## ### ## #### #### #### ### #### #### ### ## #### ### #### #### ### # ### ###### ### ##### ##### ############# ########## !#!############! !##! !###! ## ####!! ##### ##### !####! !##### !##### ! ! ####################### !#! #################### Halo 2 Tricks and Easter Eggs Version 1.1 By Kyle Barr (TablesandChairs4, Kitchensink108, Scooter McDue) Also By Quan Jin (Dark Vortex) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////////////// - Introduction - //////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Well, right now, as I'm beginning this guide, Halo 2's been out for nearly a week. I beat it on normal, started exploring, then came to the message boards and found out just how quickly tricks were being discovered. Not just tricks, either, but a horde of easter eggs. Normally, I'd be like "yes!" except for the mere fact that many of the discoveries can only be accomplished on legendary, a difficulty level revved up a couple levels since Halo 1. What I'm trying to say is, I'll be including as many things as have been found as possible, but I'll be including many of them without myself verifying them. I'll mark these as being so, and try to get to them as soon as possible, but writing this FAQ will be greatly different than my previous. As always, I take no credit for the discovery of these tricks. I'd say now it'll mainly be a text version of highimpacthalo.org, plus anything else that might show up on halo.bungie.org or gamefaqs.com in the meantime. In the ToC, there may be some discrepancies over what's a trick, what's a tidbit, and what's an Easter Egg. I'm using my own discretion here, depending on exactly what it is, what it does, and how you get it. A final note: To go directly to a trick, find its name in the ToC, press bring up the search function (ctrl+f on Windows), paste the name into the box, surround it by brackets ([]), and click 'Search.' Complicated wording, but it's actually quite simple and time efficient. For example, to go to "Crouch Jumping," search for "[Crouch jumping]" without the quotes. _______________________________________________________________________________ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---REALLY BIG NOTE ON MULTIPLAYER GLITCHES---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please do us all a courtesy and refrain from using glitches in matchmade games. I know full-well about dummying, but will not include it here, as it's value as a multiplayer cheat greatly outweighs its value value as a fun glitch. The sniper rifle flag capture is not included here for the same reason. Modem stand- by isn't a glitch with Halo, it's an exploit. Basically anything you can do that your opponent(s) can't do back is unethical, and if it isn't clearly cheating, certainly borders on it. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////// - Table of Contents - /////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ,,Requests ,,Tricks ,,,Campaign/Multiplayer ,,,,,Graphics ,,,,,Crouch jumping ,,,,,Grenade jumping ,,,,,Player stacking ,,,,,Warthog jumping ,,,,,Sword flying ,,,,,Sword cancelling ,,,,,Infinite active camo ,,,,,Launching MC with a tank ,,,,,Top of the level, Cairo Station ,,,,,Keeping Sarge with you, Cairo Station ,,,,,Repelling the second boarders, Cairo Station ,,,,,Banshee on Metropolis ,,,,,Banshee sling, Metropolis ,,,,,Riding a Pelican, Metropolis ,,,,,Scarab gun, Metropolis ,,,,,Soccer ball, Metropolis ,,,,,Scorpion in Metropolis ,,,,,Top of the level, Outskirts ,,,,,Stationary shield launching, Delta Halo ,,,,,Top of the level, Delta Halo ,,,,,Top of the level, Regret ,,,,,Bottom of the elevator, Regret ,,,,,Top of the level, Sacred Icon ,,,,,Top of the level, Quarantine Zone ,,,,,Ride A Phantom, Quarantine Zone ,,,,,Heretic Banshee, The Great Journey ,,,,,Skip the second to last battle, The Great Journey ,,,,,Banshee in the final battle ,,,,,Multiplayer tank launching ,,,,,Giant holograms, Burial Mounds ,,,,,Overloading The Bridge, Zanzibar ,,Top of multiplayer levels ,,,,,Ascension ,,,,,Zanzibar ,,,,,Burial Mounds ,,,,,Headlong ,,,,,Foundation ,,Multiplayer launching ,,,,,Wraith Boost ,,,,,Fusion Cores ,,,,,Tank launching ,,Easter Eggs ,,,,,Skulls ,,,,,,,Intro ,,,,,,,The Armory ,,,,,,,Cairo ,,,,,,,Metropolis ,,,,,,,Outskirts ,,,,,,,Outskirts 2 ,,,,,,,The Arbiter ,,,,,,,The Oracle ,,,,,,,Delta Halo ,,,,,,,Regret ,,,,,,,Sacred Icon ,,,,,,,Quarantine Zone ,,,,,,,Gravemind ,,,,,,,Uprising ,,,,,,,High Charity ,,,,,,,The Great Journey ,,,,,Hippo ,,,,,Zanzibar computer crash ,,,,,David Candland ,,,,,Rex ,,,,,Why am I here? ,,Hidden swords ,,Unlockables ,,,,,Foundation MP map ,,Tidbits ,,,,,Nerve gas ,,,,,Food containers ,,,,,Killing birds ,,,,,Sarge's cigars ,,,,,Face-like Markings ,,,,,Cairo computers ,,,,,7 ,,,,,Monkey bomb ,,,,,MC poster ,,,,,Grenade ring on Regret ,,Version history ,,Legal and Contact info ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// - Requests - //////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// If you know of a cool trick or really strange glitch, feel free to e-mail it to us. For inclusion, please include a fair amount of detail and, of course, use some correct spelling and grammar. Credit is given before the description for direct quotes, as well as at the bottom of the document. Credit is given only at the bottom for anything except direct quoting. We may also accept alternate descriptions, or alternate methods, for many of the current tricks listed here. kitchensink108@gmail.com darkvortex012000@yahoo.com //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////// -Tricks- /////////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [Graphics] When you load a level, you're basically loading the entire game. Small graphical glitches are bound to occur at some point. The fact that enemies like to flop around for a while after they've died is a result of an extremely ragdoll physics engine. ############################################################## [Crouch jumping] Crouch at the top of a jump to get a little extra height. Halo/Halo 2 have many objects which were made just a little too high for Master Chief to jump onto, but crouch-jumping enables you to get more height, many times enough to reach that previously inaccessible spot. ############################################################## [Grenade jumping] For times when normal jumping or crouch-jumping still aren't enough, try grenade jumping. Toss a grenade at your feet, then just before it explodes, make your jump. Most useful when combined with a crouch-jump. Plasma grenades have a fuse of three seconds, which begins when the grenade sets itself. So long as the grenade is moving, the timer is not active. Plasmas are the grenade of choice when grenade jumping, due to you having more time to jump, and you have more control over where the grenade goes. Frag grenades have a short fuse, about one or one and a half seconds. The fuse begins right when it hits something. For tricking purposes, use frags for fairly straightforward jumps, and save your plasmas for anything more complex. For a better chance of survival, find a box or a other small, moveable object. Pile the grenades under or next to the base of the object, and be standing on the object during the explosion. The grenades should catapult the box or whatever into you, forcing you into the air, possibly at a greater velocity than normal. Another survival tip: grab the Blackeye skull. Although seemingly detrimental, meleeing enough enemies to death will reward you with a full overshield. Remember, you don't need to be on legendary to use Blackeye, just to get it. I highly suggest grabbing the skull, saving and quitting, and entering the level you'll use for your launching on 'easy' or 'normal.' Better yet, when you're about to grab Blackeye, hit a checkpoint and save and quit. Use a different profile for tricking. Now, you can go into that profile and immediately activate the skull, without having to worry about getting all that way through the level. ############################################################## [Player stacking] A way to get even more height, especially when combined with crouch-jumping and grenade jumping. You can do this on any mode, but co-op is the most relevant. Have one player stand under the place you're trying to get to. The other player needs to jump on top of Player 1's head. From there, you have a couple choices: -Easily jump to your target, or -If you need more height, toss a grenade either at the ground or on Player 1's head and make a crouch-jump. In single player: Use anyone you can find, if they're in a suitable position. Allies obviously work best, as they won't be shooting you, but feasibly you can use anyone. Co-op: Use your teammate. Multiplayer: Use the other players around you. You can get more height here, as you can have a tower of up to sixteen people if you need it. The only hard part here is coordinating all sixteen players. The real downfall to this is that players interact with each other so much in Halo 2. If you jump on top of one player, you'll begin to slide off. This means it's best to get on their head and jump to your destination as quickly as you can. ############################################################## [Warthog jumping] The physics in Halo 2 have changed dramatically. You'll notice, first off, that just about any object can move or be destroyed. Every vehicle is now prone to explosion, even the mighty Scorpion tank. Secondly, Master Chief has mass. Running into a light object or another person will cause them to move. Standing on a vehicle will weigh it down. . Also note that meleeing your partner in the back is no longer an automatic kill. Moreover, it will move them forward slightly (how far they moved is dependent on if the player meleeing was moving forward or jumping at the time of impact). Warthog jumping is actually a lot easier in Halo 2, though. At least in co-op it is. Here's what to do: First off, don't go in on legendary. In this mode, if one player dies, you revert to saved. Warthog jumping, however, is all about one player dying. Try normal or easy. Now, get a Warthog (I suppose other vehicles would work, but for old time's sake...). Choose your location wisely. Preferably somewhere where there isn't a ceiling above you, and where you aren't surrounded by large buildings. Now, start the grenade pile. It's best if you went through the level, up to this point, without using any grenades. This should cause you both to have eight (four plasma, four frag). Possibly the hardest part of Warthog jumping is making a decent pile. Choose a spot roughly five feet away from where you'll park the Warthog for the launch. Have one player stand there, facing where the pile will be. The other player now bashes in his teammate's back. Might take three or four melees, but all his grenades should fly forward and land in a fairly nice pile. Player 1 (doing the killing), needs to stand back for a couple seconds, so Player 2 doesn't respawn in the grenade pile. He should respawn with at least one grenade (most probably frag). Have him stand in the exact same spot (or as close as you can get), and melee him again. Keep doing this to build up your pile. Take note that, when meleeing, you should stand completely still. Moving forward while hitting will place your grenades farther away from the pile, or at least make the creation of a neat pile a lot harder. If you want, you can also kill Player 1 and get his eight grenades. There are two disadvantages to this, but both can be overcome: 1. You need one grenade (plasmas preferred), to start the explosion. Not killing one player makes keeping this grenade out of the pile a lot easier. 2. Both players now have no grenades, so it's likely you'll take some out of the pile while trying to enter the Warthog. After you get a decent amount of grenades (5-20+), it's time to clean up your pile. Have one player pick up any grenades that fell away from the others, and kill him again, hopefully putting those grenades back with the rest. Now you can park your Warthog on the grenades. Parking it with the pile in center of the hog will cause a vertical launch, while parking it without all the grenades under the hog will cause more a horizontal launch. Mix and match these physics however you like. -Get a checkpoint here by wandering around a bit, or killing a couple enemies. You'll want it in case you botch the launch. Finally, toss a plasma grenade right onto the pile (or anywhere near, but on it is fairly standard). Hop in the Warthog before it explodes and enjoy the ride. You and your Warthog can survive an absurd amount of grenades, many more than you would have survived in Halo 1. Use this to your advantage and see where you can get to. Alternate strategy: Grab the Sputnik skull, on Quarantine Zone. Now, go to any level you want (say, Metropolis for its Warthogs). All you need to do is toss a plasma grenade, then a frag under your Warthog and get in before they detonate. The explosion, coupled with the skull's effects, will send you flying farther than you would have normally with five times as many grenades. Added explosions: If all you're doing is launching the Warthog, as opposed to riding in it, then there's a way to get some extra height. Put every grenade you have into the pile, then have one player stand next to the Warthog, and the other player stand back and dual wield needlers. The player with the needlers should fire a full clip from both guns into his teammate. The needle explosions should give the Warthog a good amount of extra force. ############################################################## [Sword flying] This one's strange, and really fun to do. For best results, go to Coagulation, with a gametype that includes both Warthogs, Banshees, and energy swords. Have one player take a Warthog to either end of the level (behind one of the bases. The passenger seat should be facing away from the wall (toward the bases). Grab an energy sword and hop in that seat. Have another player walk up to the Warthog and stand within a few feet of Player 1 (in the Warthog). Player 1 needs to aim at Player 2 and trigger a lunge attack (lock on red, right trigger). You'll hear the sound of an attack, but nothing will happen. With P1 staying in the hog, P2 should go somewhere far far away. Wherever he goes, make sure you can draw a straight line from him back to P1. I suggest grabbing a Banshee and flying to the other side of the map. It'll be even funnier if you're elevated (keep driving into the top of the cliff wall). Once P2 is in a good position, have P1 exit the Warthog. Don't move the controls or anything (unless you just want to look around). You should be moved automatically towards P2. If P2 is in the air, you'll begin flying. No matter what the distance or elevation, P1 will travel straight to P2. Do with this what you want, as I'm sure there's a lot you can do with it. Here's a description, courtesy of DontEatCream: >>> Single [player]: 1. Get in a Warthog's passenger seat. You'll need a Plasma Sword, obviously. 2. While in the passenger seat, find a Phantom and lock on to one of the turrets on the Phantom. 3. Use the lunge attack. You'll hear a "whoosh" sound effect but nothing will happen. 4. Look in the direction you want to go, and press X to get out of the Warthog. You'll fly in that direction. Multi [player]: 1. Get in a Warthog's passenger seat. You'll need a Plasma Sword, again. 2. Get another Spartan / Elite right next to your passenger seat. 3. Target that Spartan / Elite, and lunge attack. Once again, you won't move anywhere. 4. Have that Spartan / Elite run his ass all the way across the map. 5. Get out of the Warthog. You'll go flying towards that Spartan / Elite. <<< The following tutorial for sword flying and sword cancelling was written Wintermute and many other members of the highimpacthalo.org forums. It can also be found at: http://highimpacthalo.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2200 >>> This tutorial assembled from various posts across the HIH forums, all information within is the intellectual property of its assembled members. Sword Flying/Cancelling/Bumping (hereafter called "Sword Flying") can be accomplished in a number of manners, and ways. Multiplayer, single-player, horizontal, vertical, etc. For the simplest of ease, try with friends first. Take a large open map, and equip Swords and vehicles (Warthogs and Spectres, please). Meet somewhere mutual. Have the intended flyer get in the passenger seat of one of the vehicles. Have the 'destination' player walk in front of the prospective flyer, and position himself until the flyer can get a lock (red reticule). The flyer pulls his right trigger once (does NOT need to hold it in), and releases it. There will be an accompanying sound effect to indicate the dash attack was successful, but no damage accompanying it (the 'seated' position interrupts and delays the lunge attack). The destination player then goes wherever the flyer wants to be. At this point, the flyer may press 'X' to fly. They will NOT fly toward the destination player, UNLESS they aim that way. Whatever way you're aiming when you come out of the vehicle is the direction you will travel, with no alteration.and you will fly approximately as high (or far) as the destination player is high (or far) away. Make sense? Try it a few times. You can have tons of people jousting in the middle of maps, and playing around like crazy. Now, in addition to this method, there's also the 'Cancel' method. A simple version of this is to simply try to melee an opponent, but press ' X' to cancel out before contact is initiated. If you'll note, an opponent can walk away from you, and steadily lead your rapidly locked-on and tapping R/X/R/X-self along a map. Now, let's insert the sword into your hand. Lock on, press R, immediately followed by 'X'. WHOOSH.buy the target still lives. The 'X' is what 'cancels' the attack out, and prevents the killing blow from landing. This can be used to 'teleport' short distances with the sword. If you can suspend an opponent a short distance above you, then jump toward them and use the teleport, you can fly insanely high without the use of a grenade or rocket. A good example is on Coagulation.the three rocks in the center of the map. Have one player stand on the tallest of the three rocks, and the prospective flyer stand on the ground below. The flyer jumps toward the high player, gets the lock, pulls the trigger, and presses 'X' to cancel. The curvature of the rock should still keep you flying upward with tremendous force, and eventually bring you back down onto the rock. (Works best when done to loud 'WheeeeEEEEEE!' sounds as you fly up.) Another variation is the lock-on method. Using a weapon with a scope (I've personally been successful with Rocket Launcher and Battle Rifle), you can achieve a LONGER lock-on distance (hence making higher jumps and flight possible). Aim the reticule of the prospective 2x zoom weapon onto your opponent (I always aimed for the head), and ensure you have a sword as your secondary weapon. The targeting reticule *MUST* be red in order for this to work. I let the reticule sit for approximately 7 seconds before attempts. To perform the teleport, in EXTREMELY rapid fashion, press 'Y', 'R' (and I usually press 'R' a second time to make sure). The weapon switch should be immediately bypassed by the dashing animation of the fading 'lock', ramming you at the target. In single-player, it is suggested that a Warthog with a ton of Marines provides the best bet. Similar to the previous Sword Flying technique involving a hog or a Spectre, lock onto a Phantom's gun turret as it comes in to drop off baddies, and pull 'R' to lunge, while in the passenger seat of a Warthog. After the Spectre leaves, feel free to press 'X' to begin flying away. Variations on this can be performed with other vehicles and situations. Try shooting enough Marines to make them turn hostile, then locking onto a dropship and flying away with them, for example. Experiment! The world is your pearl. <<< Two more important notes about this trick: 1. Apparently this works for going down, as well as going up. Barring any auto- kill zones, you should be able to use this trick to fly downwards to any part of the level you want. 2. Performing the rocket launcher version will reset the kill-timer if you're falling. So, if in mid-air you can manage to find an enemy and do this trick, it'll take twice as long a fall for you to die. The "Sword cancelling" description below also includes another method of sword flying. ############################################################## [Sword cancelling] The following is courtesy of HellKnightX. >>> If you hit either B+X or R+X rapidly, your sword will move very rapidly but it won't do any damage. The X button cancels the attack so it allows you to perform another attack immediately afterwards. If a player jumps on top of your head repeatedly, you can press R+X rapidly to move them infinitely upwards. Another neat trick is to target an enemy with any ranged weapon such as a rocket launcher or sniper rifle (preferably one with a scope) and target an enemy until the reticle turns red. Change to the energy sword and mash R as fast as you can. You will lunge to the enemy no matter how far away they are. If you don't want to strike them, just press X before you reach them. <<< This trick is used a lot for getting on top of levels, such as Headlong. ############################################################## [Infinite active camo] Grab the Envy skull, save and quite, and enter the level you want infinite camo in. When the level starts, activate the active camo and quickly hit a checkpoint. You need to hit the checkpoint while the camo is activated. Save and quit, and restart your Xbox. When you load the gamesave again, you should have infinite active camouflage. ############################################################## [Launching MC with a tank] Flip a tank upside down. Now, stand on top of it and press X to flip it back up. Flipping it should send you into the air, with a good deal of height. This is the same as the trick in Halo 1, except, from my experience, it seems to send you farther this time around. ############################################################## [Top of the level, Cairo Station] There are many ways of doing this, the easiest are listed below: ========== Go through the level normally until you have to go outside (where you'll learn about the Covenant bringing a bomb onboard the ship). You'll be attacked by two or three Elites with booster packs. Take them out and notice the hallway thing you just came out of. Go forward and turn the next corner. Look up to find another one of those. Jump onto the big thing in front of it (metal cargo crate). From there, throw a plasma grenade on your feet, look up, and crouch-jump to the top of the walkway. Now, one of the sides of the walkway should have a step of some sort on it. Jump onto that, and grenade jump again to get on top of the level. You should now be free to explore an exorbitant amount of map, fraught with inactivity. You get a good view of the spaceships around you, though. ========== The first time you come outside, drop down and turn left (opposite of the way you're supposed to go). You'll drop down a few feet into a trench; you may need to use a grenade to get back up on the other side. Do the same thing with the following trench. Once you're past them, jump the gab to your right, onto the other ship. Near you should be a slope that you can use to easily get to the top of the ship. =========== This is very similar to the first method, but I'll redescribe it anyway: Get outside and hang a right. Keep going until you get to the glass walkway. Go a little past it. There should be two big control panel type things just sitting there, one two the left of the way your were going, the other to the right. Hop on the one on the left (you may need to crouch-jump). Once you're up, turn around, back towards the walkway. Look for where the walkway is divided into two sections. The area where the division occurs is a couple feet lower than the top of the rest of the walkway. Aim for that place, and crouch-jump to it. When you're on top of the walkway, look to either side. One will be pretty will lit, the other not well lit. Head to the well lit side. There will be a small elevated area at this end. Hop onto it, then simply grenade jump to the top of the ship. ========== Exploration As you explore, you'll see giant yellow squares. Walk into the middle of one and look down to see that these are actually glass ceilings for the ship. I don't know what causes them to appear yellow from a distance, but take a look in to judge where you are in the ship. Also, if you go back into the level far enough, you'll come across the first Covenant ship that boarded the station. While attempting to walk to it, you may come across random invisible walls. These can be avoided by walking slightly to the side, and ultimately will not stop you from getting to the ship. The walkway that appears in the game normally is solid, but the ship it leads to isn't. In other words, you can walk on the walkway, but jumping onto the rest of the ship will result in you falling to your death. ############################################################## [Keeping Sarge with you, Cairo Station] The following was written by Card of Fate. The original write-up used the term "buttstroke" in place of "melee." I've changed this and only this in order to stay focused. Also note that I haven't even had the desire to attempt this, so its legitimacy is up in the air. >>> I will warn you... the level of difficulty of this exploit is hard, but not IMPOSSIBLE like some people are finding the 1st level... its mainly for you guys who find yourselves running out of ammo in those damn chambers. I have already passed the game on legendary, but tried to find a way to help others because I have seen so many topics about people not being able to pass the 1st level at all. I honestly thought it was the hardest level of the game, so I can relate. basically, the exploit is the fact that the Sarge (the badass mofo who fires on the turret at the beginning of the level) turns out to be completly invincible. Now, you will notice that he just pretty much wants to stay on the turret in the beginning. So heres what I did (I went through the level twice trying this (on two different xboxes with 2 different versions of halo 2) to confirm it... plus my friend wanted me to show him. When you engage in the first contact with the covenant, you can pretty much let the marines and sarge take care of everything. after they are ALL dead, destroy the turret that the sarge is on (by meleeing it) this will make him run through the doors where the covenant went through. then this is where his set path ends... he isnt supposed to go beyond this point at all. now, kill the guy on the turret and destroy the turret down the hall... they get in the way when trying to do this next thing. what youre gonna have to do, is melee the sarge down the hall up the steps... this knocks him off of his set path. you will experience resistance because youre taking him off of his path... when butt stroking, make sure you try to keep him in the middle of the pathway, you dont want him against the wall when meleeing because if you get to the end, he will get stuck in a corner, this is bad.. because he will run all the way back to where his path ended like a magnet. also, try not to miss when whacking... if you have 2 players, you can have one person act as a catcher while the other person melees.. the catcher will be there just in case something goes wrong and the sarge ends up running passed the meleer then the catcher can melee him before he gets back... this saves time. however, you cant save w/ 2 players... so its give and take.. ANYWAY, if you get him half way up the stairs, he will start on his new path.. I have no idea why he even HAS a new path during this part.. but this new path is a HUUUUGE pain in the ass. Now, in this new area you will see a turret with a downed marine... ignore the turret and follow the sarge down the hall. He will pause going down the other steps about half way, because there is an elite and a grunt down there. quickly melee him off the steps.. dont melee him OFF the steps but rather, actually make him fall off the side through the small glass divider. This will knock him between the elite at the bottom of the other stairs, and another elite on the other side... now you can watch him in action! (he should still have the battle rifle at this point...) now you need to pretty much kill all the elites and grunts in this area... even the ones through the doors at the end of the hall BUT DO NOT GO ALL THE WAY IN THESE DOORS!!! they close behind you if you go in, and you cant get back... after you kill all the enemies, you will now embark on the hardest part of this excercise. Meleeing the sarge allll they way through those doors. It took me 10 tries at least, on my first go at this exploit. there is one thing that REALLY sucks though.. sometimes, like 1/5 of the time, if you miss, he will try and run ALL THE WAY BACK TO HIS ORIGINAL PATH ENDING, meaning back up the stairs, and down on the other side... so try to get good at meleeing, I cant stress this enough. If you do manage to get him through these doors, and passed the boxes, you will reach a checkpoint, and the doors will close. Now you can relax! the worst is over! and now this level might even seem fun! heres what ya do... melee the sarge up these new steps. dont worry this time though.. his set path is completly gone, so you can take your time. when you reach the top, whack the sarge through the doors and on to that platform in this 1st chamber (try to get it so that he can pretty much overlook the entire area that the elites and grunts are). As soon as he starts firing, you will pretty much be in the clear, cause I guarantee that he will draw virtually all of their fire... so in the meantime, YOU go to that other platform where all the plasma grenades are.. dont even bother trying to help the other marines in the room.. screw em. you just focus on throwing grenades where the sarge is shooting. after you get that over with, you will hear some goofball say something like "we won!!" then "this is bad" while this talk is going on, your mission is to get the sarge off of the platform and onto the ground below.. just be careful on this part because youre supposed to get a checkpoint here but it doesnt even happen most of the time... *shakes fist* if you DO get a checkpoint, go down with the sarge and do battle with the elites that come through the new door. if you DONT, then stay up there, and let sarge handle it while you throw grenades once again. after all of them are gone, GET THE NEEDLER IN THIS AREA!! its among the dead bodies somewhere, so find it and it with the sarges battle rifle. its awesome cause he doesnt have to reload the damn thing ever... now take him down that hall where the new door opened, and you will get a GUARANTEED checkpoint. when this happens, use the battle rifle you took from sarge to shoot out the 2 grunts that are on the turrets... then melee the sarge out there. Sarge likes to hide behind boxes.. so ive been working on some ways to get him out from behind those damn things.. cause what use is an invincible sarge if he doesnt even freakin do anything... 1. melee the boxes he hides behind. this will make him not be against it anymore.. if you try to melee HIM while he is cowering behind a box, he wont budge. trust me. 2. plasma grenade that mofo right in his face!!! you heard me right. sometimes he will freak out, and run in the opposite direction toward the bad guys... doesnt work all the time though... again, if you manage to get him out in the open, he will draw ALL of the fire. And with the needler in hand he will be a force to be reckoned with! I love watching him go up against the sword elite.. its pretty funny :) This is the room everyone was getting stuck in, so from here you can either: A. just try to take on the rest of the level yourself and leave sarge behind. B. pick up the sword that the elite drops in this 2nd chamber and you can whack the sarge WAAAAAY easier and quick er with the right trigger. I have been able to take him through the ENTIRE level in 2 and a half hours on my 2nd try.. seems like a lot but its better than wasting 3 hours in one of those damn chambers only to find yourself run out of ammo. <<< ############################################################## [Repelling the second boarders, Cairo Station] This tactic can make getting past this section a lot easier on legendary. For clarification: There are two points in this level where a small Covenant ship attaches itself to the station and unloads troops. This is the second of those two. When you walk into the room, go to the right, into the room and up the stairs. Keep the Grunts on the turrets, then look for a crate next to one of the guns. Choose the gun you want to man (preferably facing the enemies), and melee the box directly behind it. Try to position the gun in the center of the box. Now, press X to man the turret. You should go into the box, and be sticking partially out, but still able to aim and shoot. In this position, so long as you positioned the box well, the Covenant won't see you, even as you fire the turret at them. ############################################################## [Banshee on Metropolis] This will be easier on an easier difficulty. Easy or normal recommended, as this gives you very little tactical advantage, anyway. At the beginning of the level, you'll get a tank and a Warthog. Choose whichever, and begin your assault over the bridge. Sometime after destroying the Wraith, you'll be attacked by a Phantom on the right. At this time, get out of your vehicle, turn around and look to your right. You should see a Banshee coming in the distance (and hopefully you'll get a checkpoint). Go to that side of the bridge. You need to get up the side. A perfect crouch- jump will do this, but you can also grenade jump. A tip for grenade jumping: throw a frag three or four feet away, and jump both away from the grenade and towards your target. You should get up easily without losing most of your shield. Anyways, you need to get up there. Watch the Banshee's path. It'll slowly glide in, then as soon as it gets over the bridge, it'll either attack you or the marines. You want it to attack the marines. To maximize your chances of this happening, crouch-jump onto the bridge only after you see that the Banshee has chosen to attack the marines. So, you should be up top, with a distracted Banshee gliding about five feet over your head. Make a leap of faith into the Banshee's path (preferably so you'll intercept it at its wing), and either hold X or tap it frantically. If you did it all correctly, you should hop on, pull out the Elite, drop him to his death and commandeer his vehicle. w00t. I've noticed, on a second time through, that the Banshee's path isn't always the same, so the above method won't always work. A tip to quell some frustration: kill any rocket launcher marines. They enjoy locking onto the Banshee and blowing it apart before you can hop in (not that you would want them to do that if you _were_ in at the time, but you get the picture). Another method for grabbing the Banshee is to stand on the side of the bridge and get its attention. It'll fly towards you, and at a distance of about ten feet, it'll begin to boost. Jump backwards and hold X. Usually the Banshee will quit boosting right after it's passed your initial position. So, by jumping backwards, you can catch the Banshee right as it stops boosting. Do whatever you want now. Pester the Phantoms, fly to the bottom of the level, whatever. If you try to continue the level in your Banshee, you'll come across a giant invisible wall (made just for you and your vehicle) near the end of the bridge. ############################################################## [Banshee sling, Metropolis] Hijack the first Banshee on the bridge. Now, I suggest you kill everyone else to avoid them interfering with this trick. I also suggest keeping the Banshee in as good of health as you can. Once you're ready for the trick, fly it to the invisible wall and land. Get in a Scorpion or Wraith (for best results; I suppose a Ghost would work also), and use it to push the Banshee past the invisible wall. Push it as far as you want. The farther you push it, the more extreme the result, but you also have less of a chance of surviving. You may want to park it before the toll areas, at least the first time around. You can mess around with what way the Banshee is facing, but for now, have it face the bridge you just crossed. Once you get it in position, get out of whatever vehicle you're in and get a checkpoint (or get the checkpoint while in the vehicle, just get a checkpoint). Now, get in the Banshee. Right as you start getting in, you'll be accelerated to an enormous speed, and slung back across the invisible wall. The reason your Banshee needs a good amount of health for this is that, going so fast, hitting any object will cause massive damage. Alternatively, you can lure a Banshee past the invisible wall and board it then. This trick also works with the invisible wall behind the final structure in The Great Journey, except it's harder to do, so isn't really as interesting. ############################################################## [Riding a Pelican, Metropolis] Play through the level until you get to the part where you're in a Gauss Warthog, with another Warthog riding alongside you (situation may be slightly different, but that's what was _meant_ to happen...). You'll come into a street with a couple Jackal snipers, two Wraiths, and a couple Ghosts. Another Wraith and two Phantoms will come momentarily, followed by two Pelicans. Notice where the Jackal snipers were standing: a raised areas between the streets. Go to the far one. This is the one where the Pelican will drop off some marines for you. Be at the top of this before the Pelican begins its descent. The second the marines have exited the Pelican, jump towards the passenger bay and hold X. I suggest aiming for the bottom of the Pelican, right near the back entrance. You should, hopefully, climb aboard and go for a ride. After a short trip, the Pelican will fall to the bottom of the level. In Halo 1, it used to be that a free-falling Pelican would travel the exact same path every time, but this might be different here. When I did this in single player, me, two marines and the Pelican all landed safely at the very bottom of the level. In the three times I've tried it on co-op, though, everybody landed on a giant concrete platform (too far down to get back into the level, too far up to continue to the very bottom). The Pelican continued its way down, while we were stuck there. If you manage to get to the bottom (blue area), you'll notice two pretty interesting things. The first is that the Pelican will land facing up, or keep rocking back and forth until it looks straight up. The second is that, when you walk up to it, it'll say "Press X to flip Banshee." Banshee, huh? Yeah... -Note: Apparently, if you jump into the right side of the Pelican, you'll be unable to get out until the Pelican crashes. Getting into the left side allows you to jump out mid-flight and land on buildings. ############################################################## [Scarab gun, Metropolis] The following tutorial is courtesy of DaemonFyre: >>> 1)Is this real? Do I need a hacked X-Box? Will it mess up my game? Yes. No and no. This is 100% real, no hacks needed and won't screw up your game/save/profile/etc. 2) Why should I bother with this? Because once you pull it off you get a weapon with the destructive power of the main cannon on the Scarab with unlimited ammo and no overheating. 3) How do I get it? Step 1: Load the level Metropolis on any difficulty. It is recommended that you kill the marines at the starting area so they don't become a problem later. Board the tank and head out. Remember to also kill the marine that joins you half way across the bridge. Step 2: When you reach the other side, hijack an enemy Ghost and clear out the area by any means, leaving at least one Banshee still flying. Step 3 (CO-OP only): Have one player keep the Banshee(s) occupied while the other takes a Ghost into the tunnel and clears out all the enemies, make sure you also destroy the Warthog full of marines when it comes by. When you reach the last section come back to the end of the bridge. Step 4: Go through the tunnel, firing back at the Banshee from time to time to keep it "interested." If playing single player take out the Warthog that shows up so they don't kill the Banshee. Step 4a: This is very annoying, you will find the Banshee getting stuck against walls and buses several times. When it gets stuck, use the opportunity to shoot off the wings as this makes things easier but be careful not to destroy the Banshee. To get the Banshee unstuck you need to walk around it and back slowly away until it retargets you and starts moving again. Step 5: Now for the really hard part, getting the Banshee into the small tunnel at the end. This is the most likely place for you to screw up and have to restart so be careful. There's no real way to make getting it in easier except that if it starts to veer away from where it needs to go(and it probably will) start backing up as far as you can in the direction you want it to go. Once it gets almost to the checkpoint you need to move behind it and try to move it forward by meleeing it. It should get stuck just before the checkpoint so force it through and immediately start boarding it. You need to actually start the hijack a moment before the checkpoint so that you grab on as you cross otherwise the Banshee disappears and you gotta start over. Step 6: Once you successfully board the Banshee, fly out of the tunnels and into the circular area where the Gauss Warthog is driving around. Fly up, way up towards the two bridge like structures. The closest one has the Scarab Gun on it. It is hard to see until you get up on it but it looks like a Plasma Rifle sitting on top of one of the "Danger" cones. Method 2- This one's easier but means you get to do less with it. Step 1: You need an energy sword for this. I think you have to have one carry over from the previous level but I'm not sure. Step 2: Get past the bridge/tunnel till you get to where a Pelican comes in. You need to have at least 4 marines with you at this point and a warthog. Kill the four marines and get in the passenger seat of the warthog with the energy sword. Lock onto the gunner in the Pelican and pull the trigger. Wait for a few moments then aim up at the bridge and get out. You should be propelled upwards towards the bridge and land on it. Now you can get the gun but getting down in another story. <<< A special strategy that could make the Banshee following you much easier to bring in was sent in by elf. His description is below. >>> An extremely easy way to get the banshee to follow you into the narrow tunnels just before the load and checkpoint is to switch weapons. Just keep one human weapon in your arsenal, and have the other weapon be a covenent weapon. Now whenever the Banshee gets stuck, or stops following you, just switch to your human weapon. the Banshee will suddenly become unstuck and follow you again. This works every time! You don't even need to shoot at it or around it, it just starts going after you again. <<< >>> So you found the first Scarab Gun, huh? However, do you have the skill the get it with only one grenade? However, it also requires a Warthog and a Marine gunner. There is a video floating around on highimpacthalo.org that highlights a way to get this second Scarab Gun with one Fragmentation Grenade with 9wt and Overrida with the video. However, it is still UNPROVEN! Before you go to Metropolis, you must first find the Sputnik Skull located in Quarantine Zone on Legendary. Check the respective section elsewhere in the FAQ. Got it? Good. Progress through Metropolis as you normally would past the first bridge and through the bridge blockade. Move through the tunnel getting out of your Scorpion at the other end. After clearing the sewage tunnel back to the outside, a Marine will drive a Warthog in your direction. Go through the level until you are obligated to go into the building to eventually lead up to the Scarab. Drive the Warthog (with a Gunner and one Frag Grenade) up the stairs. The only really difficult part might be the first hallway transition. If you get stuck, get out of your Warthog and push. With the Sputnik Skull, your melees are stronger eventually getting the Warthog through. Once you reach the first outdoor ledge, drive the Warthog leftwards as if you were going through the level again. Pass the door up some more stairs until you finally reach the outside area where the Scarab would move in. Turn right and drive your Warthog to the very end. Look up to see a gigantic bridge above. Position your Warthog on the open bridge and get out. Select the Frag Grenade (the Marine still in the gunner) and throw it at the very rear end of the Warthog (if you hit the middle, the Warthog will explode). Quickly jump on top of the gunner and you should be launched high into the air eventually hitting the bridge. The Scarab Gun, you'll see, is to your left. Have fun. Again, this is still UNPROVEN although numerous people have claimed to have picked it up. ############################################################## [Soccer ball, Metropolis] There's a giant soccer ball on one of the rooftops in Metropolis. The description of getting there is courtesy of djdeej. >>> (Co-op mode) To get the soccer ball, you must first get the skull for Sputnik mode. (Legendary, Guarantine Zone. For more information on this, please see the skull FAQ.) This will allow you to launch your warthog further. Next, save and quit, then go to Metropolis, (I suggest on easy, it's easier to not get killed and such) and go to the place where there is a building with a waterfall in it. Right outside the indoor waterfall place you will see an open area with a white building that has a gaping hole in it right in front of you. You should have a Warthog that has been out of harms way (in other words, not ****ed up), because you'll need it in as good as shape as possible. Next, make sure you have a rocket in hand, and park the Warthog about 10-15 feet away from the building. (Give or take a few feet.) Then, have your partner get in the passenger seat, and have the guy with the rocket shoot under the gunner seat behind the hog. (Think of it the same way you would do a traditional warthog launch.) Be careful, though, because sometimes the Warthog explodes. With a little trial and error, you'll make it up there. When you land inside the gaping hole, you will see a set of steel beams. Climb them to the roof. Once on the roof, turn to your right, and walk on the top ledge. In a dark corner you will find the soccer ball. Melee it down and have fun! <<< There are other methods of getting up, pretty much anything you'd use to get the Scarab gun. In particular, if you've brought a Banshee into the area to acquire the gun, you may as well fly down and play with the soccer ball, also. So, if you're having trouble getting up, you can refer to the Scarab gun's description. You can also check out the following site for videos of it: http://maphawk.ontv.com/utfoo/maproom/%5b05%5dMetropolis/soccer.htm ############################################################## [Top of the level, Outskirts] When the level begins, you'll walk through a couple doorways into an area where you're forced to stay and fight for a while, as enemies swarm you repeatedly from every angle. In this area, there's an alleyway with a ramp leading through a doorway. Go up the ramp and hang a right. Turn right again, into the corner. At the base of the corner is a small mound of rubble. Very small, but enough to stand on. Get on it, and crouch-jump to the roof of the building. Hopefully you're on the ledge that leads back the path you came. If so, run along that ledge and make another crouch-jump to the next building. You're now pretty much on top of the level. To get fully on top, just crouch- jump to the next highest building. You can now travel on the rooftops to just about anywhere in this area you'd like. While you're up there, look for Pelican spawn points, or watch the Pelican/Phantom paths from a new angle. Refer to the hidden sword tutorial for this level for another way to get on top. Sputnik would also work well. Near the Zanzibar hotel is a small concoction of houses. There are a couple places with dumpsters or other small elevated areas that you can use to get on top of the houses (and with that, on top of the level). ############################################################## [Stationary shield launching, Delta Halo] Drive your tank through the level until you reach the part where the Covenant are "pouring out of the center" and you're supposed to go in after them (with the marines' encouragement). On the side of this structure is a cluster of stationary shields. Blow them away with your tank, and park on top of them. Try to be over as many as once. This is a strange one. One positioning may cause your tank to flip up slightly, and you dying. Another may knock your tank over the edge. My friend came across one that sent the tank hurling to the top of the level, flipping insanely. I can't be sure what this position was, but that's the one you're aiming for. Mess around a bit and see if you can find it. ############################################################## [Top of the level, Delta Halo] There are many ways of doing this. I currently have six listed below. Methods 1 and 4 also have exploration tutorials. On a side note, several people have e-mailed me regarding extra vehicles. Basically, anywhere where you're next to the lake, hijack a vehicle and throw it into the water (not literally, either park it next to the edge and melee it over, or use another vehicle to push it in). This will allow you to mess around with other/more vehicles once you're on top of the level (by travelling along the mountains to a low part where you can drive into the lake). It's also been said that driving the tanks over the mountains is especially fun. -----Method 1 Go through the level until you get to the lake. Right as you exit the passageway and can view the bridge and structure, look to your right. There should be a stone platform you can jump onto. On the platform will be a few vertical beam thingies that begin to slope a little above your eye level (and are just too high to jump onto). From the side, they would appear as: __ / / | |x | This next step may take a few tries. If you try a normal grenade jump, you still won't make it. What you need to do is a sort of "double grenade jump." Refer to the 'x' in the rudimentary drawing above. You want to throw a plasma grenade at about that position on the beam. Follow that, quickly, with a plasma grenade to your feet. Throwing the first one a little ways up the beam will delay its trigger long enough for you to throw the second, hopefully causing their explosions to coincide with each other, giving you that extra 'oompf.' Make sure you're also crouch-jumping while trying this. It may very well be possible to get up without both grenades, but it can make it a lot easier. If you mess up, try adjusting how high you throw the first grenade. You want their explosions to be as close to each other as possible (in both time and distance). If you make it up, you'll come across some odd ruins. What they're doing up there, I don't know. Now, for some exploration. The area you get to immediately after reaching the top is rather small. You want to head to the far left, and near the cliff edge. Somewhere around here you can either walk, jump, crouch-jump, or grenade jump onto the second 'tier' of the top of the level. Once you're in this new area, you have some mountain climbing to do. Keep walking along this area, until you reach a steep, sloping path to your right. You can walk up this path, so do so. Beware, this is an absurdly long climb. It'll take you quite a while to reach the next stage. When you get high enough, you'll be presented with another slope, similar to the one you just went up, except steeper. Steep enough that you can't climb it...or can you? Head to the right side of the path, to where the path and the path's "wall" (more or less) meet, making a small ridge. At this juncture, you can walk up the entire rest of the way. After that long walk, you have two options: 1. Climb the highest mountain 2. Head to the other end of the lake Climbing the mountain is fairly simple. Just stay on the corner of the mountain, or any other place you can walk on. Try not to fall off; you don't want to make that walk again. If you want to head to the other of the lake, that's even simpler. You're able to walk on every slope during your trek, so just don't fall into the water (seriously unlikely, you have rather large area to walk along), and you'll get there with ease. If you want to hop in the water, don't risk making a jump. Keep going to where the cliffs gradually slope into the water and use that to walk into the lake. -----Method 2, courtesy of Corky: >>> After you get the Scorpion tank go across the bridge (destroying ghosts as you go), go through the tunnels and you'll come out in front of a temple. Stay at the top of the hill and destroy all the ghosts and covenant. Drive around to the right and you'll notice a grassy ledge, if you go to near the left hand edge you can drive the Scorpion up the ledge and then drive up the vertical cliff face to the top of the level. Once on top of the level you can drive around hills and up vertical mountain sides. You can also drive underwater - this didn't have any effect on the fire coming out the side of my tank or the sniper sat at on the tank. You can drive to the end of the level and find it devoid of covenant. Theres also a rectangular patch of sky in the middle of a hillside - its the top of a shaft in one of the temple structures - it looks bizzare. <<< -----Method 3: This one is really easy, but it's also one that you can't bring a vehicle with you. Right when the level starts, you'll head up the beach. Stay on the right side and go under the arch. As soon as you pass the arch, turn around and look left. To the left of the arch is a sloping path that leads up. Head up the ramp. Walk past the bridge. There will be another, smaller slope up ahead. Go as far up it as you can. You'll now be at the end of the line. Get as far onto the small corner as possible, turn around and look up. There will be two sides of the cliff in front of you. One side, facing the way you came up, is very steep. The other side (on the right) is slightly less steep. Aim for the right side and jump (you shouldn't need to crouch or grenade jump, but do it if you must). Now, simply, walk to the top. -----Method 4: This one is also easy, and you get a vehicle with it. Go past the first area (you don't need the Warthog/marines or anything). Keep going along the path, until you get to the area with the bridge. Jack a Ghost and extend the bridge, in whichever order you choose. Now, cross the bridge and immediately head left. Note that you may choose to destroy the enemy Ghosts and Banshee that'll come shortly. Just remember that where you want to go, ultimately, is directly left after crossing the bridge. Once you're ready, bring your Ghost to the cliff wall on the far left side of the area (so, if you went to the left, it should be right next to you). Most of the cliff is very steep. You may be able to climb many spots, but look for one spot that slightly less steep. Pilot your Ghost slowly up this area, until the entire vehicle is resting on the cliff wall. Now, simply boost your way to the top of the level. If you get the Ghost, you can also bring it back to the area mentioned in Method 3. Go to where you would if you wanted to get up on foot, and with a bit of work you can drive the Ghost up that area, as well. Here's an alternate description of the same method, written by URnotXboxRedE: >>> After you extend the bridge, drive over and eliminate the Wraith (or hijack it), and kill any enemies, but make sure you have Ghost to use. Look over on the left side for a little slope against the wall. It has a yellow color on it. Turbo boost the Ghost up the wall there, and strafe a little to the left as you go, into a groove. Once you pass through several of the flat textures of leaves, and get to a somewhat level area (your Ghost might flip over here, but just get back in) turn a little to the right(toward the sun) and continue going up. You'll get to a top edge which is safe to go over, and you'll end up on a flat section. Turn right and start exploring. You'll see the "patch of sky" mentioned by Corky; it's an opening into the tunnel below, without textures on its walls. You will fall down inside (and die) if you drive into it. If you keep going forward a while, you can then go right and enter the water that's at the beginning of the level. If you go left, you can go to the mountains that you mentioned in your FAQ. I got to the top of the highest one from the back, which is a less steep way, but I guess it's possible from the sides. It's fun to get to the top and see almost the entire level, and because you are so high/far away, the stuff in the distance does "pop up" when you turn left and right. Then you can turbo forward, toward the water. It's like sled riding down a... well, down a mountain! ;-) It is safe to enter the water, just don't try going in down a steep slope, or you might die. If you travel quickly down a too-steep slope, it's like falling, and it will trigger the death. It may be possible to go down a steep slope sideways (or slightly backwards) by "hanging on" with turbo in the Ghost, but there are lots of gentle slopes into the water around, so that's not necessary. Before you do this trick, you can use the Scorpion to push some Ghosts, the Warthog, or the Wraith off the edge by the bridge, and then find them in the water to use later (this helps if the Ghost you are using gets damaged while driving and you want a fresh one). You can also find other slopes that let you go up out of the water, but WARNING: if you exit the water in an area that, during regular gameplay, is where you could possibly FALL INTO the water, YOU WILL DIE. In other words, Bungie made it so if you fall off a cliff into the water from areas they expect you to be in, E.G., around the bridge, you automatically die. So touching the surface of the water by exiting the water there is deadly. But in areas away from these places, it is safe to exit the water. <<< -----Method 5: Vehicle launch. Somewhere, anywhere. -----Method 6: Get the Sputnik skull. You can now get up by grenade jumping at just about any location. ############################################################## [Scorpion in Metropolis] Apparently you can get the Scorpion past the barriers you're supposed to leave it at. Try pushing destroyed vehicles (or healthy vehicles for that matter) against the roadblock and drive the tank up them, using the vehicles as a ramp. It may help to stay on the right side, through where you're supposed to traverse on foot. Here's Jody Wheeler's description: >>> ...drop to the other side and take out all the bad guys before proceeding up the sewer pipe. I've found that you can actually get the Scorpion up the ramp and into that pre-pipe level thus inflicting massive death to the Covenant horde. Push one of the battered trucks parallel to the ramp (the jeep works well there too.) Back up the Scorpion and drive part up the ramp and up whatever car you've used. Aim right for that "gap" you are supposed to walk through. Angle it just right and the Scorpion will go right through the gap and drive right into the mess of badguys inside. You can plink and explode them with either the big gun or the .50 cal. Hella fun. <<< ############################################################## [Top of the level, Regret] Grenade/vehicle jumping anywhere with Sputnik activated is an easy way. Another method is: Play through until you come back outside. This means, after you ride the underwater elevator twice, you'll come outside and a Pelican will drop off supplies. When the Pelican starts coming, walk over to where it'll land and look to the left. There will be a large sloped area. Jump onto it, and walk up about half way and watch the Pelican. Once it reaches its lowest point. At this time, get a running start and crouch-jump to its top. You should make it with relative ease. If not, you can try grenade jumping. Nonetheless, when you're on, wait a few seconds for it to lift back up. Look towards the area you jumped from, to the larger hill in back of the sloped area. As the Pelican begins flying horizontally, make a leap to that area. Again, grenade jump if you must, but it shouldn't be needed. You should make it on top of the hill, and now you're on top of the level. I didn't do much exploring when I got up. I mainly wanted to see if I could get back to Delta Halo once in this level. In other words, I walked into the water, across the lake, back up a cliff, into the mountains, across the mountains, back to the area just before where Delta Halo ends. It was long and uneventful. To spare you the same turmoil, the previous level is no longer there. The path that would have lead back to it just plain doesn't exist. Where it should be is just a cliff. The bridge that you cross there looks how it does if you don't cross a load point, which is a cement-grey, and all the structures are very cube-like. Cody Travis has his own strategy on getting to the top of Regret. >>> When the level begins you will be in a small room where you will be attacked by a few enemies. If you are on easy, you can just ignore them. Go past the hologram in front of you and up the ramp, then go left. If you look up you can see an arch going across the room and some pillars. You need to grenade jump on top of any of the structures (Sputnik may be required). Then, once on top of the arch/pillars go to the edge of the room and look up. You need to position yourself where you can see the sky and grenade jump out to the top of the building you started in. Explore as you wish up there but be careful--The snipers can see you so watch out if on heroic or legendary. Ok, you're up there. Now if you want to, explore the mountains/water you can jump down to the ramp where you came from on the previous level. Once up the ramp you can grenade jump up the steel structure at the end and be out of the level. From there, you can explore the water and mountains and such. There is a structure that looks remarkably similar to the "center structure" of Delta Halo. <<< ############################################################## [Bottom of the elevator, Regret] To just get to the bottom of the first elevator shaft, before the elevator comes up: Look down the shaft to see really small ledges on opposite sides, going down. If you've played Prince of Persia, you know what's next. Jump down to one of the ledges, then right when you hit it, jump again, in the opposite direction. With the right timing, you'll hit each ledge on the way down, and each time you hit will prevent you from accelerating too quickly. The main thing is the timing. The second big thing is getting to the bottom. When you make it down to the final jump, you want to land as close to a wall as possible. You can't go into the water, onto the elevator or too close to the water or you'll automatically die. If the car is coming up, you can jump down and ride it back up. Apparently, doing this a certain way will cause you to be launched. Far. Through the structure, pretty far into the air, over the lake. Also... Another 'apparently' is that you can get to the bottom of the lake through the elevator shaft. First off, with Sputnik activated, push some crates into the car. You want the first crate to trap the small Covenant force inside. That means keep them alive. The crates need to be standing vertically, so getting them in can be kind of tough. It takes time. Load up the car with as many crates as you can get (two is the norm, I think). Once that step is complete, head around to the other side of the elevator. You can activate the switch from the outside; do so. This next step seems trickier than it is. Step into the car, just far enough for the doors to start closing, then jump back out. Oh, one note for this part: you must have a rocket launcher and a sword, and be an expert at the rocket/sword lunge. Yeah, once that's squared away, jump on top of the elevator as it descends. You'll hit a load point, which will put you back in the car. Apparently the boxes you piled inside are supposed to cause you to be pushed right back out, to the top of the car. If so, take out your rocket launcher and aim at the car. The enemies you should have left alive should turn your reticle red. Use them to rocket/sword lunge. Keep rocket/sword lunging, as often as you can. Each time you do it successfully should reset your 'death clock.' In other words, you won't die so long as you're continually rocket/sword lunging. Do this until you're close enough to the ground that you can just drop and land safely. Voila. ############################################################## [Top of the level, Sacred Icon] Go through the level until you get back outside. You'll go across a bridge, and to an Elite encampment. Next to the walls of the encampment will be a slab of metal, that looks like: ,______________ | \y | \ | | | | | | x About where the 'x' is should be a light or something really small you can step onto. Walk onto it, and crouch jump to the 'y.' Walk over the ',' and do a grenade/crouch jump to get on top of the level. The top of this level is really big. It may take you a bit of time to explore it all, and you can get some nice views of the scenery from up there, too. ############################################################## [Top of the level, Quarantine Zone] Same as the top of Sacred Icon. The beginning of Quarantine Zone is the same place as the end of Sacred Icon. ############################################################## [Ride A Phantom, Quarantine Zone] You can actually ride a Phantom if you catch it at the right time. The following description was sent in by Cody Travis: >>> (Be quick! the Phantom leaves after a while) When the level begins, look 90 degrees to your right. Jump on the rock in front of you. Now, in front of you is a snow covered ledge. Jump to the part closest to you. Now Grenade Jump (Sputnik may be required) up to a high ledge adjacent to the ledge you are on. Now run over to where the Phantom is and grenade jump up on top of it. When the Phantom starts moving it makes a quick turn and accelerates so it takes some effort to stay on it. It flies off out of the level and disappears. <<< ############################################################## [Heretic Banshee, The Great Journey] I haven't managed to find this yet, but I'll give as much info as I can. First realize that, in The Great Journey, the place you start out at is the same place you come back to at the end of the level. This took me too long to figure out. Okay, with that out of the way, go through the level until you're supposed to grab your Banshee and give Sarge some support. Fly back to where the level started, to a rather large drop off. Somewhere in this area is supposed to be a Banshee colored the same as those in the Arbiter levels. As far as location goes, I've heard one report saying it's at the bottom of the drop off, but it could be anywhere within that area. It may also only be possible to find it on co-op, but on any difficulty. Neither of these pieces of info have been verified, but they're a start. ############################################################## [Skip the second to last battle, The Great Journey] The last battle of the game is Tartarus. The second to last is a Brute battle inside the building that Sarge blasted a hole into. You can skip this battle, though. Remember the hallway you have to be near to trigger the Tartarus battle? It's the far right of the room with the Brute battle. Memorize that as a rough location. Before entering the structure, while still flying around with your Banshee, get as close to that point as possible. It'll be to the right of the structure. Rub you Banshee against the wall to get even closer. Hopefully you'll find "just the right spot" that will trigger the Tartarus cutscene and enable you to skip the final Brute battle. Realize, however, that Sarge must have already blasted the hole in order for this to work. That means you can't just skip the entire 'protect Sarge' battle, although you can wait it out. ############################################################## [Banshee in the final battle] There are two ways of doing this: the first is a sure thing, but leads to a damaged Banshee, the other can get you a perfectly healthy Banshee, but won't happen every time. 1. The damaged Banshee method. Park your Banshee somewhere and get out. Using small arms fire (no explosives), carefully knock the wings off your Banshee. Now, fly it into the hole Sarge just blasted. You should be able to wiggle your way through the hallway(s). Fly your Banshee as far forward as you can, and whenever the final fight is triggered, head back to commandeer your ride. 2. The not sure thing. Perform the trick "Skip the second to last battle, The Great Journey" Sometimes doing this will cause your Banshee to load in the hallway just before the fight arena. If it came with you, it should be pretty obvious from the get-go. Just turn around and fly it into the room. The main reason for getting a Banshee into this room would be exploration. It _can_ be an asset in actually fighting Tartarus, if you're laying down relentless fire and get off a fuel rod shot before his shields come back up. Just make sure you stay away from the center platform. Tartarus' hammer can still kill you in one hit. The reason the Banshee isn't quite as good as it would seem in this fight is because the ways to kill Tartarus are very limited. Basically, you have to have Sarge bring his shield down, and you must kill Tartarus in this time. Tartarus is immune to being run over by vehicles, and if pushed off the platform, will simply reappear a few seconds later, alive and kick'n. ############################################################## [Giant holograms, Burial Mounds] This one is just plain odd. Actually, I haven't been able to do it yet, but it's well documented, and reports from others say it's quite easy. Go to Burial Mounds with at least two players and some sort of vehicle. You know the lava rock thingy, next to the Ghost and plasma pistol? Go there. Have one player stand with his back against it, and the other player crushes him with a vehicle. This can have some strange results: a) The player dies b) The player is shot straight into the air. Fun, but not the intention c) The player gets shot out to the side. See b) d) The player dies, and his body flies into the rock and through the level For b) and c), this can be the result of having an overshield. You want the player to die, so feel free to put on very little health. If you get a) but not d), try again. If you achive result d), hopefully the glitch will work. It should cause a giant hologram of Master Chief and/or his weapons to appear in the sky. If it doesn't work, try making sure the weapons were also pushed through the level. ############################################################## [Overloading The Bridge, Zanzibar] Much thanks to Cody Travis for providing an incredibly in-depth description on performing this particular task. >>> This is a neat trick that allows you to make the bridge (the one you can lower to get to the sword/rocket area) disappear. Neat trick. Pointless, but cool. You need 8 people or so to get on the bridge and go to the squared off corner. Everyone needs to look at their feet and walk into the corner. You know it's working when you hear the bridge creaking. It will suddenly disappear and be gone until the end of the game. You can do this theoretically with any structure not attached to the map. <<< ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////// - Top of multiplayer levels - /////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// I remember in my Halo 1 Secrets FAQ how I had like ten ways of getting top of Sidewinder, Blood Gulch, and other levels. There really were no limits. Halo 2 introduces us Halo fanatics to the hated concept of the invisible wall. What fun! Now attempting to grenade jump to the top of a building will most likely result in you contacting an unseen force that repels you backward. There is, however, a way to circumvent these guys, usually. The redundant part is that there are two methods for getting top of almost any level, and that's sword cancelling or sword flying. Refer to their respective sections for details on doing this. Other methods for getting on top of multiplayer levels are listed below. **************************************** ------------------------A NOTE ON ETHICS **************************************** Glitching has become rampant in online play. Some people are doing anything they can to win, and one of the tactics is to hide the bomb, in Assault, somewhere that cannot be reached by normal means. Methods of doing this are listed below, but I ask of you not to do this in matchmaking. These glitches are meant to be fun, and are not listed here as strategies. You may also get cheating feedback left if you do this (just because it's not your definition of cheating doesn't mean it's not your opponent's). ############################################################## [Ascension] The description is courtesy of Cody Travis. >>> Simple, pointless, and uneventful. Get someone to get in the Banshee. Get someone else to ride on top of the Banshee. (You can fit 3 at a time on a Banshee). Fly up to the back of the base. When you're close enough, jump off to the ramp and walk to the top. It's the highest point on the map and you can't fly the Banshee up there. I've never seen anyone do this in combat but I guess you could. <<< ############################################################## [Zanzibar] 1- Go to the archway bridge and jump onto the siderails and head to the end opposite the assault team's base. From there, head to the cliff and simply grenade jump up. You can't go far, but you're there. 2- On the left side of the base (right if you're defending) is a long ramp that leads to where the windows/shutters are, and has a battle rifle. Go to the top of the ramp, and jump to the top of the shutter. Get as close to the edge of the shutter as you can and grenade jump. This can be kind of tricky. You need to throw the grenade next to you (not up the shutter, or it'll propel away from the building, and not behind you, or it'll send you into the building). When you jump, jump straight up. When you're just about to your apex is when you should aim for the top of the building. It should also be noted that you should take care when trying this trick. Each grenade will take down a shutter, so failing just a few times will leave you out of tries. 3- Requirements: a vehicle, several players, overshields, and sword cancelling skill. Now, head to the beach with the vehicle. Facing the water, head to the left side and to the invisible wall. This may well be the hardest part: you need to find a way through the invisible wall. This may be possible by simply having one player stand against it, and another player boost a Wraith or other vehicle into them. However you manage to do it, you need two players on the other side. These two players should now walk to the right side of the beach, sticking near the invisible wall to avoid walking into an auto-kill zone. Once at the wall, simply sword cancel your way up. Feel free to explore whatever map you want up there, or fall back down into the water, praying you don't hit a kill- zone, and explore there. ############################################################## [Burial Mounds] The description is courtesy of Cody Travis. >>> Go to the Beam Rifle spawn and use the MP Launching method using a Ghost or Hog. I suggest using the boulders outside the structure. The boulders in between the ribcage and the Beam Rifle spawn. Once up there, Happy Sniping! Nice rocks to hide behind and everything. I've had this used on me several times in matchmaking. All that work for nothing because I just snipe the guy anyway. <<< ############################################################## [Headlong] The description is courtesy of SirLancelot87. >>> There's is a slope that doesn't have a wall at the top of it, that's the one that can be used to get on top of the level. Just grab a Banshee and remove the wings, then fly towards the top of the slope while boosting. You should be able to get on top (the wings prevent you as you don't have enough clearance to compensate for the flight ceiliing). You can explore the area with some grenade jumps. The second terrace of the building to your right is reachable, and the one to your left can be used to run around to the area behind the hanging section of road. There's not much tactical advantage to this position, other than sniping. <<< Alternate method: Use the Wraith boosting technique under Multiplayer Launching. ############################################################## [Foundation] There are multiple ways of getting atop this level. The thing about it is, the area above the rooms is blocked off by an invisible wall. This means that if you want to get on top of the level, you can only either get on top of the room area or the central beams, not both. Rooms: Head to Room 1. There is a fan in the room, and above the fan is freedom. Simply rocket jump with an overshield or do whatever else you need to get that bit of height. I don't think I have to go into too much detail there, as there are many possibilities. You can even carefully melee that board leaning against the wall to where it's leaning under the window, hop on top and grenade jump from there. The next step has a catch, but it's simple: just a single grenade jump. The catch is that you have a rotating fan above you. Just time your jump so there isn't a blade above your head and you'll make it up with ease. Beams: The first way I did this was severe overkill, but you can do it anyway. Grab an overshield and head to the pile of three fusion cores. Hop onto to the pile, throw a grenade at your feet, and jump. The combined explosion will send you high enough to land on the closest beam with ease. Alternatively, things like sword-flying work well here, too. Basically, get an overshield and use mass explosions. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////// - Multiplayer launching - //////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [Wraith Boost] You need a Wraith, an overshield, and Ghost helps too. You can do this without a Ghost, but I think the Ghost makes it more fun. Head to somewhere where you have a vertical wall, with relatively few obstructions in the air around you (the buildings in Headlong work well, but can sometimes be congested with overhangs). Back the Ghost against the wall, and keep driving backwards. Try to keep the Ghost as centered as you can. Now, bring the Wraith in. Park it between one half and one full 'boost-length' from the Ghost. It doesn't matter so much how far away you park it, so long as: a. you have enough room to actually boost b. you're close enough to hit the Ghost before running out of boost Now the tricky part: lining it up. Look at the Wraith from the front. It has a small fin on either side that joins up with the larger body. You want the center of the Ghost to be lined up with the area on the Wraith where the fin meets the body. Once in position, keep the Ghost backing up, and have the Wraith boost forward. If lined up correctly, the impact will send the Ghost flying. If it didn't work (and it'll be obvious if it did), adjust the position of the Wraith in relation to the Ghost slightly. This trick can be used to get yourself just about anywhere you want if you can position and time everything correctly. Even if you aren't looking to get somewhere, it can be really fun to just mess around with. --- Here's a very in-depth description, courtesy of A S U R A: >>> It is possible to get the ghost to ridiculously more areas on any map with baracades, making the easiness of multiple kills unrealistic. To go over any baracade with the slightest difficulty, stop serveral yards from a baracade, and simply hold A whil boosting. The front end of the ghost will lift off the ground, and you'll be able to reach places thought unreachable. I thought you might want some examples, so I will give you the tricks for the best place to use them: Headlong. ------- Accessing Buildings: Building near Warthogs. To gain entrance to any via the 3 entrances to this building, back up mid-long range from the baracade. Boost towards the baracade while holding "A". This will lift your front end, and allow you to make your way over the baracade and into the building. Building with Rocket Launcher. This building can be accessed by going up from the dirt ramp then using the trick mentioned above to go over the baracade to the area with the Covenant Sniper Rifle. Then procede across the bridge to gain access to the building. Building with Plasma Sword. This building has multiple entrances. You can use the trick above and then go into that tower, down a floor once inside, then across the bridge and around to come in on the second floor. You can use the jump trick listed below to jump from the building mentioned above directly to the second floor. You can come from the middle of the map with the small bridge and use the front end lift trick to go over the baracade and enter on the first floor. The final way is different. There happens to be an air lift near the Banshee and two Ghosts. Go to this area and you'll notice there's a large opening that you can jump up into and access the building via the first floor. It is possible to bring the Ghost with you, yet it's slight complicated. To enter here, line straight up with the opening and back up until you are even with the Banshee. Boost towards the opening, and only hold "A" right before you go up the first hill towards the opening. Two things will happen here. 1) You'll wind up straight up, leaving you very vulnerable as the Ghost will not kick you out; or 2) The mid-underside of the Ghost will hit the lip of the entrance, and you'll bounce up and into the opening. After this, there's one slight problem with accessing the rest of the building. Once you're inside, you'll notice that your Ghost wont fit through the first doorway. Don't go and blow your wings off, you still won't fit, and it's best to keep your Ghost in perfect condition so that someone doesn't get the jump on you in these tight quarters and blow you up. To get into this doorway, accelerate (not boost) towards the doorway on a slight angle. You're left/right wing will bounce up and into the doorway, and you'll be stuck there this / angle. You'll have to boost through, and after that, you'll have access. ------- Jumping from building to building: This trick allows you to move between both the buidling you can warp to, and the building that has a rocket launcher outside on a ledge. Go to where the Rocket Launcher sits, and go around the corner and down to the end so that you can see the turret sitting kiddy-corner to your location. Back into the building all the way to the wall on an angle facing to the right of the turret (it may be necessary to shoot and destroy the turret, but most times not). Simotaneously boost and hold "A". Your front end will lift, allowing you to jump across the ledge and land into the building, giving you access to that building. To jump back across, proceed to the top floor of the building you will now be in. In order to get where you'll need to jump from, after you go up the stairs, turn 180 degrees and then move forward and turn to your left so that you'll be straight across from the small glass railing that runs along the stair case. Using the method above, back against the wall and boost while holding "A" to get over the glass wall. Go all the way to the wall and turn facing the window. Near the window ledge and aim for the corner of the ledge on the opposite building where you jump from to the building you are in. Back until you just touch the wall, and then boost while holding "A" to get back to the building you started at. ------- Why do it: Exploiting this trick gives you a very good advantage over your opponents. The possibilities are endless, and I find new things to use the trick for faster than I can write them. Just keep working it, and before long you'll be able to go anywhere you like without hesitation. ------- Other fun things to do: There are a few other things you can do with the Ghost that require the trick. First of all, there is a long steel I-beam hanging in the air, while actual execution line up is pretty much random, it's possible to start near the Rocket Launcher and ride across to the hanging section of bridge, and from there procede to the bridge with the Human Sniper Rifle without going around. Secondly, once you are in the building containing the Plasma Sword, you can park the Ghost directly over the portal location and disallow players from warping across. While I have not tested, this also works for CTF, as you can park the Ghost over the Flag base. <<< ############################################################## [Fusion cores] Many levels have fusion cores, or slim yellow-pulsating containers laying around. They can take a hit or two of small arms fire, but are fairly unstable and ready to explode. These are great to use for vehicle launching, or if you find a need, just launching yourself. Bump into the core to knock it over, and keep walking into it to roll it into a pile with other cores. Some tips: -The harder you run, the faster the core will move -The physics are decent; hit one side to turn the core in any direction while it's moving -Don't pile more than eight together, or they may begin to disappear -Be gentle if you must knock one off a ledge, as it very well may explode -Don't waste them senselessly. They don't respawn, so you have to restart the game to get them back -Don't try and push more than one at a time. If one explodes, you don't want to lose another with it -You can run as hard as you can into one, or jump on it and it won't explode -Ramming it with vehicles will cause it to explode -If you go slow enough, you can drive a Warthog on top of a pile of cores without causing an explosion Be wary of things above your pile, as they can easily ruin a launch and waste valuable cores. The Warthog and Ghost are both good for launching, and Zanzibar, with it's many cores and open air, is a good place to do it. ############################################################## [MP tank launching] There are several ways to really send a tank flying in multiplayer. More methods may be added soon, but here are a couple for now: --Collect the explosive barrels. Get as many as you can into a pile and detonate them next to the tank. --Flip one Scorpion upside down. Park another Scorpion on top of the flipped one. Now, flip the bottom Scorpion upright to catapult the other into the air. To do this well, you need the two tanks positioned exactly on top of one another, tread for tread. --This description is courtesy of VulcanXP: >>> Go to zanzibar in a gametype that has the scorpion. You may want to have overshields enabled as well as fast vehicle respawn time. Now, drive the scorpion around infront of the right entrance to the base and drive the tank into the rotating wheel. When one of the arms comes around it will start to pick you up. Immediately start driving forward and continue driving forward. The arm will come around to the walkway above where you can shoot the box and make the rest of the walkway come down, anyway, if you drove forward far enough the arm and the walkway will squeeze the tank and then basically spit it out, throwing you all over the level. If you are lucky, you might land ontop of the base. <<< It can take a bit of luck to get this to work. I suggest leaving the Scorpion as your primary heavy vehicle, also. I tried it with 'random,' and it just gets annoying sitting there for so long and having a Wraith come back. --I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds plausible. You can do it in standard multiplayer, or co-op. Have one player grab a Wraith, and the other a Scorpion. Start driving the Wraith into either the front or back of the Scorpion. After a second or two of this, boost. The boosting should launch the tank in a similar fashion to the Stationary shield launching of Delta Halo, or tank-on-tank launch mentioned above. Try also ramming the two into each other, and the second they collide, boost the Wraith. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// - Easter Eggs - ///////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [Skulls] -[Intro] At the time of this writing, several skulls have been found laying about the campaign levels. Some are always there, others only appear in legendary mode. There seems to be one for each level, but not all have been found. These skulls are oddballs, if you'll remember from Halo 1's multiplayer. Standing over one will not prompt any message, but picking one up will engage a unique mode of gameplay. Many of these modes seem to be...detrimental to your health. It was brought up on a forum that collecting all the skulls would result in a pseudo "super legendary" difficulty. A lot of skull information/documentation has come from flechette, just to give some more credit there. For alternate descriptions, video links, or anything else abou the skulls, go to: http://highimpacthalo.org/ Some more general info about the skulls: There is an acronym that seems to be closely tied to this mystery. If you bought the Halo 2 soundtrack, take a look at the bottom right corner of the little booklet it came with. There will be the acronym. Each of the letters of the acronym fits the first letter of the name of the skull. For more cryptic info, or whatnot, a forum thread (http://ducain.org/hihforum/viewtopic.php?t=9) contains a plethora of good stuff. ============= -[The Armory] Legendary only. The Armory is a really small level, with no fighting in it, but it does have a skull. Start the level on legendary, and go through the routine exercises (thumbstick setting, shield info). Sarge will now arrive in a little subway type vehicle. You're supposed to get in, but don't. Wait in that room for a while. Sarge will periodically talk to you, telling you to hop in the car. At one point he'll say "Would it help if I said please?" At this point, you can hop in the car. When you start moving, facing the right side (that is, look out the window to the right of the direction the train is moving). For best results, just hold X the entire trip. If you don't want to do that, in one of the first rooms that you pass, they'll be a crate with the skull on it. So long as you're looking at the skull and holding X as you pass, you should pick it up. This will activate a mode with no name. It makes enemies know your position at all times, even if you have active camouflage. ======== -[Cairo] (verified by video) Legendary only. There are a couple places in the level with several potted plants, and a raised platform on either side of the room. Go to the second one, after you begin the chapter "Priority Shift." Kill all the enemies (easier said than done). There are two short platforms in the room. There used to be a red Elite and a plasma turret Grunt on each. Look above them and try to find which has an area above it. It'll have many support beams, and glass windows. On that platform, jump onto the glass bordering it. If the glass is gone, jump onto the metal pieces that used to frame the glass. From there, look up towards the ceiling. There should be a slanted beam directly in front of you. Crouch- jump onto it. The top of that area should have one large beam supported by many smaller ones, like: ________ / / / / / Kind of. Jump onto one of the central beam's supports, then make a crouch-jump towards the main beam. Notice how this beam is actually two smaller beams. Be careful to jump far enough to land on it, but don't fall between the two. Once on the main beam, walk to the right side of the room. There will be a platform next to a window. In the far left corner of this platform will be a trash can. Under it is the Thunderstorm skull. This apparently promotes all enemies to their highest rank. ============= -[Metropolis] (verified by video) Legendary only. Go through the until where you come out of the sewers, into a field with a couple Jackal snipers, and a Scarab in the background. Go to the middle platform, with a giant, fairly ornate, curved beam thingy going up. Grenade jump onto it, and walk to the top. At its peak, head to the left tower, and walk around the left edge. You should come across a skull to activate Catch mode. Effects: Enemies will always drop two grenades, and are much more likely to throw them. ============ -[Outskirts] Possibly the easiest to find. Can be done on any difficulty. At the very beginning of the level; go through the first door, turn around, and jump onto the light above the door. Crouch-jump onto the building to your left (if your back is to the wall). There'll be a decent length hallway/alleyway on top of the building, and at its end will be a small pile of grenades and the skull. Effects: Activates "Blind Mode." Removes your HUD entirely. This setting is apparently preserved through other levels and profiles. There is no way to exit this mode, short of restarting your Xbox. BDawgPHD states that having the Blind Skull also makes enemy's reaction time much quicker. Melee them and watch. ============== -[Outskirts 2] 'IWHBYD' skull: I Would Have Been Your Daddy The following site has the best description so far: http://www.highimpacthalo.org/showskull.php?sort=IWHBYD&submit=Display Also, BDawgPHD states that this skull will give Sgt. Jones (Not Johnson!) some new dialogue. Delta Halo is probably the best place to test this by the location of the Envy Skull and the Pelican. ============== -[The Arbiter] Must be in legendary mode; at one point in the level, you commandeer a Banshee and have to help a friendly Phantom take down some enemies, as you look for the heretic leader. Once you get in the Banshee, fly straight down, to the base of the station. Try to see how the station base is divided into three sections. Each section has a domed part, with a slanted piece right above it. The slanted piece is, well, slanted, diagonally, so the gap between it and the dome becomes increasingly smaller. In one of the center dome/slant areas, underneath the slant, will be some dancing Grunts. In the middle of the Grunty circle will be the skull. Pick it up to activate "Grunt Birthday Party." From now on, every time you get a headshot on an enemy, they will explode with the force (and appearance) of a plasma grenade. Shielded enemies must have their shields brought down before exploding, and hit must be a headshot (so no using other explosives if you want an exploding Grunt). ============= -[The Oracle] (verified by video) Legendary only. Go through the level until you come across a room overlooking a heretic/flood fight. You're supposed to break some glass and jump in with the fight, so do so. Once you're in the room, however, do whatever you need to (grenade jump, crouch-jump, hop on other objects, etc.) to get past the glass on the other side of the room. That is, when you came in, you were on a ledge surrounding the room and broke the glass to hop in. On the other side of the room, there is another area the exact same (surrounds the room, lots of glass). Get up there. Once up, head to the left to find a circle of writhing Flood. Grab the skull to activate Famine Mode. Effects: Any weapon you pick up will have half the ammo that it would have normally. ============= -[Delta halo] Not too hard to find, but you have to get through half of this level on legendary mode. Nonetheless, go through until you come across the structure with the Covenant "pouring out of the middle." Take out any immediate enemies, and head to the left of the structure. There'll be a short ramp leading to an area with a couple plasma turrets. Head to the end of this platform, to the wall. There should be a small ledge (kind of like a light fixture, but not glowing), a little ways up the wall (eye level or a little higher). Crouch-jump on it, then jump to the platform on the left. Once up there, look up and slightly to the right for another platform, higher up. If this is co-op, have one player stand against the wall. The other player jumps on top of him, then easily jumps the rest of the way. If this is single player, toss a plasma grenade at the ground, and crouch- grenade jump up. You should come across two camo Elites dancing, more or less. Effects: "Envy Mode," apparently allows you to use active camouflage just as you do as the Arbiter, by pressing the white button. ========= -[Regret] Legendary only. Play through, until you come across the first gondola (right after a Hunter fight). Hop on and travel across. On the other side, go into the building. Immediately inside will be a large stone cube. Jump onto it and look up for a ledge. Jump onto the ledge and walk outside. Once outside, head to the left. Jump up to another ledge (actually just another tier of the structure). Do whatever you need to do in order to make progress along the outside of the building. Under one of the ledges will be a small grassy area with two dancing-cloaked-sword Elites. Jump down there. Between the two Elites is the skull. Grab the skull next to them to activate Assassins mode, turning all enemies invisible. Note also that you can find this skull, in its same location, on other difficulties. You can pick it up and use it as a melee weapon, but you will not get its effects (it doesn't activate Assassins mode). ============== -[Sacred Icon] (Confirmed by video) Legendary only. Sometime in the level you'll come into a room that's outside. That is, you're still inside the structure, but you're on the outside part of it. There will be an Enforcer there, along with Flood and gold Sentinels. After this area, you'll go down a piston into a fairly dark room. In this room will be a stack of crates. In the words of flechette: "There are a handful of alcoves on your right hand side. The skull is in the third alcove, floating above a dead human flood." It activates Mythic, which may or may not give enemies more health. ================== -[Quarantine Zone] Easier than it sounds. You need to be on legendary, but you don't have to do any fighting. As soon as the level starts, turn around and look for a tunnel/cave. Go through it to come into an empty field. Stay against the left side of the field to find one of the giant mist pits. Along wall surrounding this pit is a long ledge. Start walking down it. At its end will be a floating skull. Grab it to activate Sputnik mode. Sputnik mode causes things to fly farther. Meleeing dead bodies, grenading enemies, and the like will cause that object (or objects) to fly much farther than they would have normally. Can also be used for easier vehicle launching. ============ -[Gravemind] (Confirmed by video) Legendary only. After playing some ways through the level, you'll come back outside. Once out, go to the right and jump atop the Covenant crates. Walk up the rock hill and look over for a long red/pinkish beam. Walk along the beam to its end, and continue on the long platform it lead to. On this platform is an invisible Grunt with a fuel rod cannon. Take him out as soon as you can. Jump onto the platform at the end to find the skull floating above a purple mist. Angry mode. Apparently causes Grunts to shoot faster. Note also that you can use this skull as a third weapon, if you choose. =========== -[Uprising] Legendary only. Go through the level until you get to the armory room. Head past that, into the hallway, and turn around. There's a small area above the door that leads back into the armory, and that's where the skull is. It's hard to get up there, but here are a few pieces of info for getting the height: -Going in on co-op, you'll be able to stand on the other player's head for some extra height. -Bringing a Ghost in and parking it under the door give you a little help. -There are pedestals or trashcan looking things in the armory room. You can melee this out and stand on them. -Grenade jump, crouch-jump, Sputnik, etc. =============== -[High Charity] Legendary only. Near the end of the level, you'll take an elevator up, which will lead to a rather large room. In this room, you have to destroy some objects in order to open the door on the other side. Do so, and go through the door. You'll come across another room. This one is circular, and will have a glowing pedestal in its center. Once you're in this room, Cortana will open another door to reveal an elevator, then tell you to take that elevator up. As soon as you step onto the elevator, look up and hold X. You'll be sent up, and in the middle of the elevator shaft will be the skull. So long as you're holding X when you see it, you'll automatically grab it. Unlocks "Iron" mode, which apparently means that when you play co-op, one player dying will revert to saved. This is how it works on legendary mode, but Iron mode makes it for all difficulties. ==================== -[The Great Journey] Legendary only. Fight through the level until you come to the point where you have to give Sarge air cover with your Banshee (while he's in a Scarab). You can actually give Sarge support if you want, but make sure you make it to the end of the path alive. Land your Banshee on a ledge above the door (where Sarge will blow a hole) and get out. Walk on the ledge to the left of the door. Look for an ornate (highly decorated) stone and jump on it. Walk up to the top, and head to the back of the structure. You'll walk across a large dirt area, and in the back will be a really big support beam, that appears to be almost vertical. Walk up the beam. You can't go extremely fast up it, but you can get up. Eventually, the beam will level out for a few feet, before becoming vertical again. On the part where it levels off is the skull. Effect: "Black Eye" mode; your shield will not recharge by itself. You must melee an enemy to death to gain some shield back. ############################################################## [Hippo] Multiplayer, Headlong. You'll find hippos on the inside walls of one of the buildings. Note that the significance of this is one of Bungie's employees has an obsession with hippos, meaning they can be found hidden in certain parts of the game. In Halo 1, if you quickly zoomed in 10x on a used shotgun shell, you'd find the hippo. Kind of glad it was easier this time around. ############################################################## [Zanzibar computer crash] Infiltrate the defender's base in Zanzibar and hit the button the open the front gate. Now, take a gander at the computer screen. It should be a blue screen of death (seen on Windows computers whenever something goes wrong). It also says: WAC A total FU exception has occurred at your location. All system functionality will be terminated. Press any key to power cycle the system. If system does not restart, scream at top of lungs and pound on keypad. If you need to talk to a programmer, press any other key. Press any key to continue. ############################################################## [David Candland] A quote from Louis Wu (halo.bungie.org): "Mike Basus was looking at his HDTV screen, waiting for matches to start in Live, and noticed that one of the lines of what looks like alien text is actually the lower half of text in the Halo font. He's decoded this much so far: "DAVID CANDLAND IS THE GREATEST UI DESIGNER EVER" [unreadable text] "LIVEINTREEISI" "HIS WORK IS ASTOUNDING AND HE IS VERY HUMBLE" ############################################################## [Rex] Make your way to the hidden sword in Outskirts. Next to the sword will be a mess of blood and rocks. Look closely at the rocks to see them spell out "REX." Rex is short for Ferrex, which is the nickname of one of the level designers. ############################################################## [Why am I here?] Go to Beaver Creek and walk up the ramp to the sniper rifle. Past the sniper rifle is a small rock ledge you can walk onto. Take a few steps out onto the ledge and knock down the rock sitting there. Somewhere around where the rock was sitting, in very faint lettering, will be the phrase "Why am I here?" //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////// -Hidden swords- ////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// There are several energies swords that are just lying around in somewhat hidden places throughout the game. Some can take a bit of time to get to, but tactically it can be very worth the effort: ========= Outskirts You'll need this sword for sword flying on Metropolis, and next to it you'll find the Rex easter egg. When the level starts, go through the doorway. Look above either of the two doors (the open one you came through or the closed on across from it). Jump onto the light above the door. To either your left or right will be a wall that appears to be made of wood, that also looks like you can jump onto it. Since it looks like you can, go ahead and do it (crouch-jumping, that is). For some reason, this jump can actually be kind of tricky. It may take a few tries, but you should be able to get up at least after a few tries. Once up, turn around and look for a hallway. Not the Blind skull hallway, but a hallway that's behind you and slightly to the left once you're on top of the building. Jump into that hallway and go to its end. Here you'll come across an invisible wall. Grenade jump onto the smaller (real) wall on the right. Turn to the left and jump down to the building below. From there, head to the right, into a hallway that narrows into a smaller hallway. Jump onto the obstruction at its end, and then jump to the rooftop right next to you (on your left). Turn right and jump down to the bridge. Hop onto the barrier/rail on the other side of the bridge, and use that to crouch-jump to the top of the next building. You may fall, in which case you have to repeat it all again. If you have Sputnik activated, and you fall, you can simply grenade jump back onto the bridge. Jump down to the red roof in front of you, and walk into the hallway and up the ramp. There is another level of the roof, about your height up. Jump onto it and head left. There will be a giant hole in the ceiling, where it looks like a bomb hit it. Jump into the hole and turn around to find the sword and Rex stones. -- Here are some variations of the route, courtesy of lbmXpenpen18: >>> If you fall off the bridge you can just continue not far through the level; just to the area where there are tons of snipers, a flock of the flying Covies and a black burned out building (with snipers) ahead. Kill the enemies (or not) and go onto the raised platform where there's a purple Covenant ... thing ... and to the right, there's this blackish thing protruding from the wall with pipes? around it. jump onto that, turn right and there should be a lower red roof up in front. Run foward and try to jump-crouch at the latest moment you can (so you won't hit the AC above you). From there, jump onto the higher part of the roof to the left. Head left. There are a few of those red ... window ... things ... ledges ... jump onto the left and stand at the lower left edge of that. Look up past the corner of the building you're on. There should be a black piece of construction overhead that goes from your building to another building to the left. jump-crouch onto that, but don't go to far because there's a hole in the middle. The missing corner with the Rex stones and the sword is to the right. Or you can head towards the alley where you're supposed to go, but don't go through it. Look up and there's another of the window ledge thing. Jump-crouch onto that, jump onto the conductor thing above that, and jump onto either roof. You can go find the black platform from either roof, or you can jump across to the lower red roof and start the process above. (You can go straight to the Zanzibar Hotel if you jump onto the roof above the sword room and head west of your position) <<< ========== Delta Halo -courtesy of Jason Kromberger and Nate Ellenwood: >>> I have found a couple different ways to get to it but the easiest way to explain it is by getting to the place where you have to "push through the ruins" then going straight to the left of the area where the two turrets are and all the columns go up there and go straight to the right..as if you were going to get the envy skull. When you get to the wall you will see a square block blocking off a door you can see the gap..well if you throw enough grenades or use a rocket launcher which is easier you can make a hole to get inside the door. You will go up a ramp into a small room and there will be two dead grunts and two plasma swords. <<< -Alternate strategy, courtesy of Cheapy: >>> What I do is jump up on the block, then onto the ridge, THEN crouch jump up to the tree ledge, finally walk to the edge of the building, turn right, and walk up the mountain. From there, I just jump on down the buildings until I either get to the Skull or the swords. I am also convinced that one can jump up that slanted wall section using the gap in the side. To understand what I'm talking about, do what I did above, go all the way down untill you are on the lowest non-ground level, and walk to the left most corner. Look to your right, and you should see a little ledge. I have gotten close, but not quite onto, it by using plasma 'nades. I eventually gave up becuase I wanted to continue the campaign! After going thru that blasted courtyard, I did a 'back trace' of sorts and figured out that if you do get up to that ridge, you can surpass 2 ways of enemies. <<< ============= Delta Halo, 2 Descriptino courtesy of lbmXpenpen18: >>> In the chapter "Off the rock, through the bush, nothing but Jackal" of Delta Halo (the one where you walk into a stream and kill an unsuspecting sniping jackal...with plenty more snipers ahead), there's another plasma sword lying at the end of the stream. To get to it, you have to jump down to the lower ground and follow the stream. Near the end of the stream where there's a giant boulder and the stream's path seems to disappear where it meets the boulder. The sword is just a little before the end, lying down in the stream. If you need cover, there's an alcove on the left before the sword. You have to go through the 'tunnel' and it will lead you close, if not directly, to the sword. <<< //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////////////////// -Unlockables- /////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [Foundation MP level] Beat the game on any difficulty. On the last level, make sure you perform a Banshee trick (preferably one you haven't done yet). This should unlock the multiplayer map Foundation. Note that Foundation has also been made a download from Xbox Live. No need to unlock it if you have Live. Another note: By Banshee trick, I mean a barrel roll or flip. Something special that the game told you to do with a little pop-up screen while flying around. Note III: If you don't unlock it, I can't help you much. It's really glitchy. I have some friends that unlocked it right away after beating the game, and others who have beat it several times on varying difficulties and performed every Banshee move known, and still haven't succeeded. Xbox Live is your best bet all the way around. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////// -Tidbits- ///////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [Nerve gas] In the level The Armory, once you're free to move around, head to forward and to the left side of the room. There will be a table with a container on it. Jump onto the table and read the container. It's a container of VX Nerve Gas. ############################################################## [Food containers] The Armory. In the first room, there will be two cylindrical containers sitting next to each other. One of them reads: "BEEF STEW LUMPY GRAVY" The other: "PEACH DESSERT SALTY" You'll find both those containers in the armory room of Uprising, along with two more: "BEANS W/ RICE & BACON" and "PORK RIBS BONELESS IN BBQ" ############################################################## [Killing birds] On a few levels, Delta Halo in particular, you'll notice flocks of birds flying around in the sky. Feel free to kill them at your discretion. Sniper rifle or beam rifle works best, but you can also dual wield two plasma rifles and just let loose. Hitting a bird will kill it in one shot, and it'll burst in a fountain of blood. ############################################################## [Sarge's cigars] Throughout the game, there are several cigars hidden next to trash cans. You'll usually have to knock over the trash can to reveal them. Some of their locations are: -The Armory. Before getting on the tram, look for a can to your right. -Cairo Station. Apparently there's one near where the skull is for that level. -Outskirts. In the Zanzibar hotel, it'll be in the dark room right behind the front desk. ############################################################## [Face-Like Markings] In Burial Mounds, if you stand where the Shotgun spawns and look toward the main base, the rock directly in front of you should have a devilish-looking face on it. Likewise, there's also a devilish face (although different) in Zanzibar. Look at the gray rock by the gate to see the outlines of one. ############################################################## [Cairo computers] Look closely at the computers in Cairo Station to see the following message: CODED MESSAGE: WJ1I2G REJECTED BY ADMINISTRATOR REV. PAIN MAY CONTAIN HARMFUL CONTENT RESULTANT PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE ACTION CENSORED ############################################################## [7] Bungie has a strange obsession with the number seven. Guilty Spark's number is 343, which is seven raised to the third power (or 7*7*7). Penitent Tangent (the red monitor of installation 05), has the number 2401. 2401=7^4 (or 7*7*7*7). Apparently there's a ship in the game with the designation FFG-142. The three digits added together make seven. It's a stretch, but whatever. Update: That ship is actually In Amber Clad, for clarification. Also, the Halo story takes place in 2552. Split it apart, into 25 and 52, and the digits of both add to be seven, also. In one of the levels it is mentioned that there are seven Halos. At the end of the credits, Bungie spells "thanks" as "7hanks." Note: There are a lot of ways to contrive "7" from Halo or what Bungie has said. Some listed here, and many other ways of doing so are really stretching it. What I mean by an instance of "7" is something where it's obvious Bungie put it in as an easter egg of sorts. Things completely random, say, like there being 15 levels in Halo, and that minus one level which is a cutscene is 14, divided by two because it's Halo '2' gets you seven. That's not an easter egg. That's a complicated set of illogical mathematics that Bungie probably doesn't even know about, but doesn't care about. In the room with the IWHBYD skull, there are two posters, one of a "7" and the other of a "1" - this may very well have a significance beyond the scope of a simple "seven reference," however. ############################################################## [Monkey bomb] One of the doors on the lower level of Foundation has a picture of a monkey riding a bomb on it. I have no idea why, but it's amusing nonetheless. ############################################################## [MC poster] On Outskirts and possibly other levels, you can find posters on the building walls. Some of these posters are a faded screenshot of Master Chief using a gun turret, taken from the 2003 E3 demo. ############################################################## [Grenade ring on Regret] Go to the really big room with the really big hologram, where really big enemies (Hunters) attack you. Ignore their feeble attempts at ending your life, and grenade jump (Sputnik suggested) to the top of one of the pillar thingies. Look for a ledge or something else higher than you are (referring to altitude, not drug intake) and hop on it. Somewhere in that not-too-vast expanse will be a ring of seven grenades. This should fit into my '7' section, but oh well, that's not where it is. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// -Version History- ///////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Version .1 Started the FAQ. The version number's really low, since tonight I've written six pages, but only covered maybe of fifth of what's been discovered thus far. I need to start getting the ball rolling. Version .2 Grammar/spelling corrections, along with revising of several descriptions, and addition of one or two tricks. Legendary is hard. Version .4 Added some stuff. Slowly but surely catching up on the tricks. Still have some big tricks to add. Those will hopefully be included this weekend. Version .5 Fixed some skull info and adjusted a couple descriptions. Version .6 Uh...stuff! I never really know what to say here. Just know that I've updated. Version .7 Small update, rushed slightly. Version .8 Some much needed additions, with more to come. Hopefully I'll be able to start catching up on a lot of the tricks I've been holding off on. Version .9 Didn't add many tricks, but I did add a lot of extra trick descriptions. Version .95 Really getting behind on tricking, along with the rest of my life. I'll be doing what I can this week; hopefully the next update will be a little more noteworthy. Version .99 Finally updated again. Added a 'Requests' section. If there's anything in particular I'd like a description for, it'll be there. That section should allow me to update more frequently, as I have very little time anymore to test tricks, especially those of a high complication or difficulty. Version 1.0 Updated with some new information along with another way to get the Metropolis Scarab Gun. Dark Vortex has become this guide's co-author. Version 1.1 Some new information has been added with courtesy to a few people. Check new strategies on getting atop certain levels along with added tidbits to those already listed. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////// -Contact and Legal info- ///////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Copyright 2004 by Kyle Barr & Quan Jin This document may not be reproduced in any form for any public means. In other words, don't print it and sell it, don't post it on your site and call it your own, don't copy the tricks section only and paste it into your post on a message board. That would all be illegal. I give permission for this document to be hosted on any site that wants it, so long as they host the entire document without alteration. No cutting off the legal section, replacing my name with yours, or whatever else. Please respect this. If this is hosted on a site that I cannot update the guide on myself, it's in your better interest to check gamefaqs.com once in a while to see if there' s a newer version out yet. To contact us, please send an e-mail to: kitchensink108@gmail.com darkvortex0012000@yahoo.com Realize that I know I don't have many tricks here. I'm missing a lot, because there are currently a large amount, some on levels that I'm still trying to convince myself to like, and others that require me to be on a difficulty still far out of my league (on single player, at least). Thanks to the following for information: Ducain djdeej Clay Eubanks Trogdor Nomak LXAMagnum Shinigami adam hall Dark Helmet SirLancelot87 chuck gorilius Siah HellKnightX Petrucio A S U R A SlipoS Benvolio Skarekrow Travis Clow Mike Basus Jason Kromberger Robbie Still lbmXpenpen18 flechette Nate Ellenwood VulcanXP Krosork Card of Fate Rich (URnotXboxRedE) Petrucio Troy Vegard DontEatCream Bushy Tailed Fox Jody Wheeler Cayergallant Corky Mark Luna Rob Vasey LInkman97 JordnAM128 dan the man Hunter Scarborough Omnicyde How May I Help You Swift al cr 9wt DaemonFyre Cheapy baradnorodh Overrida Cody Travis elf BDawgPHD Everyone at GameFAQs, HIH, HBO, etc. My site is at http//halosource.info