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It is a skull, but it is the HARDEST SKULL TO GET in the whole game. As a matter of fact, it is pretty much the hardest single thing to do in the game. The running around you saw him do in the vid is to avoid the delay of the Outskirts battle to just go and get the skull without having 30 minutes of fighting. Plus, by skipping the battle, you can restart the level once you have the skull and not redo a battle you just fought! The skull i s a stone bi**h to get.
Finding the skull is the easy part, the hard part is getting the game to let you keep it. I will do my best to help you here. Keep in mind, it only spawns one time for every seven attempts to get it, so have alot of patience. If it doesnt spawn when you get to the spawn spot, you have to restart the level and try again from the beginning. That is why he does it his way, to save time. If you can, go with Sputnik and Envy (GBParty can make it more dangerous if you also have Catch, because there are alot more explosions to duck out of the way of and trust me, if you die you are gonna be plenty pissed that you killed yourself from too many grendades going off), so stick with Sputnik ( mostly to move large objects, and in case you have to melee) and Envy (cause you will need to hide), they give you a fighting chance at the end. DO NOT GO WITH BLACK EYE OR YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME!
OK, here we go. Outskirts, on Legendary:
You can do the battle skip like the video showed (nice work by the way), or you can go through the battle, either way you have to play all the way to the point that the sniper in the alley where Johnson gets picked up by the Pelican. Once you have played to this point, some people start grenade jumping to the skull spawn spot...... I have a different approach. This is the way I get to the spot it spawns. Play past the buggers and the invisible Elites, take out the next three snipers (the two that spawn at the bus at the end of the next "alley" and the one that spawns on the walkway above. Next, slowly go down the walk and take out the sniper that spawns between the buildings to the left of where you took the one down on the walkway. BACK UP AND GO BACK OUT TO THE COURTYARD AREA OUT OF REACH OF THE GRUNTS AND ELITES if they spawn, lifes easier if they dont spawn. Walk back to the spot where the sidewalk starts to drop down and stop. On your right is the area that the invisible sword Elite spawned (if he spawned on the ground, sometimes they spawn on the ledge, which is where you want to go). Grab the sword, and move a large Covie crate on its side to just right of that spot. You want to jump up to the ledge above you. Do this and stop. There should be a post in front of you, a small crate in front/left of you. Face STRAIGHT FORWARD and look across to the next building. There is a balcony with a doorway. That is the room that the skull spawns in. To get there from here do the following. Turn 180 degrees around. There is a small awning on your right. Crouch jump to it and then turn 90 degrees to your left and jump to the next rooftop. Move straight ahead and jump to the next rooftop. Turn 90 degrees to your left and crouch jump up to the next roof. Go straight ahead and jump across the walkway where the sniper spawned earlier (not the last one, but the second of the three in the "alley"). You will see in front of you a rooftop with some girders/beams running "across" it. Move very carefully at this point because the last sniper will spawn to your left on that far rooftop as soon as you move onto this next rooftop. I usually jump and then crouch and stay crouched till i land on this girdered rooftop as far to the right side of it as I can. Once I am not sniped in the brainpan, I move slowly to my left with my scope looking for the jackal sniper and take him out. Once he is gone you should be able to jump to the balcony I pointed out earlier, its just a jump across the gap to land on it. Move thru the doorway and if the skull spawned it will be on the floor. Do not bother with the sniper stuff, taking it will not help you in any way if your goal is to get the skull. If the skull did not spawn, quit and completely start the level over. If it did, things get interesting.
The next part details what the video did NOT show you, in other words the hard part of keeping the skull. If you notice, the skull name did not show on the screen when you pick it up, that is because in order to actually GET the skull (not just hold it in your hands) and its effects you have to battle 27 silver elites (waves of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 elites per wave, kill the last one and the skull name shows up and it is yours until you turn off your xbox). There are two parts to getting the skull, first is surviving the initial wave of 1, then 2, and then 3 elites. Fortunately once you do that you will usually get a checkpoint. The second part of the battle is what I refer to as building my hide, or my fort, and surviving the remaining waves (much harder). At a certain point there will be one elite that does not chase you. He will still fire at you, but he wont move much. When you have that situation, USE IT TO BUILD YOUR HIDE and DEFENSES (see below). The only way to survive the coming waves it to be able to keep them off your arse. When 4 or more elites spawn, you dont have a chance in the open. Below I list how things kinda go:
Once you grab the skull you will immediately get screwed, because you get teleported (minus everything but a plasma pistol, and NO grenades) down to the ground level and Silver Elites start to attack you. One of the trickiest parts of this battle is that you cannot leave a certain area (an area slightly bigger than the confines of the courtyard and the back of the building alley), if you do, you are teleported right back to the original teleport spot and there is usually an Elite waiting sword in hand to help you find heaven. You cannot go outside of the box formed by the middle buildings. Once you head down one of the alleys, you get teleported right back. There are a few weapons scattered around. I find the PP and BR combo best, cause they dont noob combo me, but it is the only way I have gotten them down to the final one or two. It is also the best distance method of taking the TWENTY SEVEN elites that will come looking for their skull, and trust me, they want it back, and they want it bad. The best way I have found to stay alive the longest (you will always die pretty quick running and gunning) is to go into the "right" side part of the map ( "right" being the small rooms and alley hidden on the right side of the area as you originally took down the alley jackal snipers to start this whole shindig off). The first time an elite does not chase you, but stays close to a spot when he sees you is your opportunity to set up your hide. This is the area that has the battle rifle ammo in it. If you use the crates and gas canisters to BLOCK OFF the entry on both ends the Elites cannot cross over them and you can pick them off a bit easier. The hallway closest to the bus is best blocked by moving the largest container (you will need the sword) so that it sticks out the long way from the building, back towards the balcony you got the skull at. Then move one of the covie weapons canisters over and block the space between the wall with the single gas canister and the space to the container you just moved. What this does is create a block so that the elites will not/cannot follow you down that second hallway to your hiding spot, but you can jump over the obstacles to get in and out when you need to find a hiding elite or gather ammo. That blocking position will seriously save your arse. If you do it right, there will be gaps large enough to see through (but not shoot through) to scope out the courtyard when one of the elites is playing hide and seek with you. The other area I block is the doorway just to the left (as you face out of your hide from the interior alley) of the area that the BR rounds were. I block it with the smaller containers that are in that hide area to start with (including the pallet and the canisters. I stand the pallet up on its side and move it to block the doorway, then move the containers against it to keep it from being knocked over. If you block too far out, it will get moved. If you block it too far in, it gets in your way and an elites needler will take you out. You need to be able to move back and forth between the small room and the hide area there to get good noob shots on the Elites and avoid their fire. There will be times when the elites will breach your block, keep a highly charged sword over by the little recess in the second hallway so you can grab it and hide in that recess and ambush one that comes after you. Also, if you run short of PP you may have to go medieval on their butts, and the sword with sputnik on is not bad at all. It does mean you have to be close, and close in this part of the battle is the LAST thing you want, but if you have no choice, you gotta do what you gotta do! If you manage to get this far, DO NOT DIE, I went three months between skull spawns, and IT PISSED ME OFF! When any wave is down to its final member, do not kill him until you have been able to go and scoop up ammo. Needlers (double wielded)/BR's/PP's/Plasma rifles (double wielded). MAKE SURE YOU HAVE KILLED ANY BEAM RIFLE ELITES BEFORE YOU GO AMMO HUNTING OR YOU ARE DEAD DEAD DEAD. Bottom line is you need as much ammo and weapons as you can gather. I keep them in piles by weapon type to keep me from grabbing something useless when one breaches my front door.
I have gotten the skull twice by this method. The best thing that can happen is that you survive the first wave or two and you get a checkpoint, then if you die you go back to that checkpoint still in the battle, not losing the original skull spawn.
Good luck and GOOD HUNTING