Halo: Combat Evolved Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Final Run
  • Subject: Final Run
Subject: Final Run

Still the best stretch of pure gameplay in the entire series. I absolutely love watching the Covenant and Flood duking it out! Even in Heroic, every battle is a different result!

Sometimes the Covenant remain atop the hill, a few soldiers left, sometimes a mob of Flood is left standing, or maybe just a single Flood. And often, the Banshee and Goldilocks both make a beeline straight for me.


Anyone got some cool things to try here?

  • 12.02.2009 7:53 PM PDT

--Dear Father, I've been waiting, I've saved you a seat in hell
--I live to see death, destruction, over the light, but the light cannot be extinguished...
A More Complete Compendium of a Bungie History
-Thanatos 117

Once I fight my way to the Ghosts, I take one and fight through the area where the caved in tunnel is and kill the floodies that have rockets. Then I take the Ghost and make a straight run head on right into the Banshees and try and steal one before a Wraith destroys me. If I'm successful I just like to constantly bombard the battlefield with plasma as the Flood and Covenant duke it out.

  • 12.02.2009 8:08 PM PDT

Yeah, but that's the coward's way.

  • 12.02.2009 8:14 PM PDT

--Dear Father, I've been waiting, I've saved you a seat in hell
--I live to see death, destruction, over the light, but the light cannot be extinguished...
A More Complete Compendium of a Bungie History
-Thanatos 117

Well I don't know any other way other then just going in and shooting all of em. Thought I'd try and be creative.

  • 12.02.2009 8:29 PM PDT

"Creative" is picking off a few of the stronger side and keeping the fight going. I.E. destroying one of the Wraiths, or killing a couple Flood.

  • 12.02.2009 9:05 PM PDT

--Dear Father, I've been waiting, I've saved you a seat in hell
--I live to see death, destruction, over the light, but the light cannot be extinguished...
A More Complete Compendium of a Bungie History
-Thanatos 117

I guess im just not creative then.

  • 12.02.2009 9:36 PM PDT

Or, for instance, charging straight in with nothing but an Assault Rifle.

  • 12.02.2009 11:01 PM PDT
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I absolutely love this part of the campaign, it is by far my favorite stretch of the Halo road so to speak. There are so many different ways you can approach that end battle starting at the point after you take out the shade/flood/covies (an AR funfest taking out all of these foes!) before the cache cave.

All of this stuff on legendary of course:

If you want to test your skills, try taking out everything after that point with ONLY AR and PP's. There is alot of AR ammo laying around, as well as PP's, if you make sure that you collect them before you engage the rocket launcher flood. After that, the final bowl battle, with AR and PP's to take out everything including the wraiths is an absolute blast and a real test of your skills.

There are 2 health packs waiting for you when you start to take abuse, as long as the frozen pond camo elites do not ruin your day (tip, do not get lower than 2 health blips or you will have a bad hair day going back to get healthy if you have not already taken out all 3 of those elites). This is where the AR comes in so handy as it is a great weapon up close and mid range to help dispatch those pests.

Taking the wraiths and shade out are best done with the PP's, You will need as close to a 100 charge PP to start with and you can use the cover nearest the cliff wall/doorway to do most of the sniping of the shade and near wraith. The second wraith, behind the trees will move around alot if you get the AI in the right mood, so it is a choice between that same sniping spot or moving to the other side of the bowl and taking shots from between the huge boulder and the cliff wall. The harder part of that position is that it is easier for the wraith to get its plasma shots into that corner and you can die horribly, many times. I strongly suggest that you take out a few jackals near the shade as you do this, you will need their PP's!

When you run low on PP ammo, the best thing to do is to send a frag slightly beyond any jackal that you have killed. If you are lucky, one or more of their plasma pistols will come flying your direction and you can scoop them up to continue your sniping. If you cannot, then the only option is to make your way back to the health cache area and pick up some from previously killed jackals and grunts (you better have handled as many of them as you could before you got the next checkpoint or you will find a mostly barren landscape from the game sanitizer!)

I save the AR for when the elites (visible and Camo) get nosy and make their way to my hidey-hole, that tends to change their mind, and leave me with a supply of plasmas to toss around as well.

A great place to get a good view is the initial sloped sided boulder just beyond the frozen pond. You can get up on it and see everything, but it is VERY exposed. You can do alot of sniping from it, but you will take alot of fire in return. It is more difficult to position yourself just right to be able to fire and not get hit much, but the out in the open wraith occasionally can lob shots close enough to ruin your day.

Try to take out the elites with grenade tosses, many targets, many grenades, lucky shots do occur. The Grunts that are smart enough to stay out of the shade I tend to take out with short bursts from the AR, saving whatever PP I have left for the annoying Jackals. When everybody but the Hunters is mopped up, it's on to the Hunters, which die by MELEE ONLY of course. That dance with 2 Hunters, while meleeing is quite the ballet!

Enjoy the show!

  • 12.03.2009 10:28 AM PDT

Doc: "i'm a pacifist"
Caboose: "your a thing that babies suck on?"
Tucker: "no dude, that's a pedephile"
Church: "tucker, i think he means a pacifier"

Before I climb up to watch the battle I pick up both the sniper and the rocket launcher. Once I have those I stand right at the edge of the frozen lake, target the far wraith near the banshee's, swith to my rocket and fire two quick shots, reload and fire a third on legendary. That get's the other wraith fighting on full, and usually draws the invis elites my way. Using the sniper till it's dry I take out whatever covvies I can, and if possible try to take out the other wraith with the remaining rockets.

After all of that I go back to the weapon drop, pickup a pistol and a shotty and, return to watch the festivities. Usually the flood are still obliterated by the remaining hunters and covenant. I just mop up with the pistol either way.

  • 12.03.2009 11:27 AM PDT

I like to do it without using the sniper. If you start to annoy the elites with the M6D they will duck behind those energy shields to recharge. Hit it with a rocket and the blast overloads their shields-making a quick one shot to the head with the pistol way too easy. If you are quick, and can grab a Banshee without dying, I like to fly to the top of the bridge and use a sniper or the rocket launcher to headshoot the tiny, antlike, enemies underneath. For kicks I will ride the ghost up the large flat rock on the far right side of the battle and try to rocket the wraiths from there. I even grabbed the sniper and went back to use it on the sentinels guarding the final platform just before the cut scene. Snipers seem to have no effect on sentinels at all. Disappointing.

  • 12.05.2009 11:21 PM PDT

Posted by: KamelToad
Snipers seem to have no effect on sentinels at all. Disappointing.
It has an effect, but like most human weapons, bullets don't have much effect. By my count, it took about 14 shots to kill one with the sniper.

  • 12.06.2009 3:04 PM PDT
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Must agree, greatest thing ever here. Not "something to try," but, had a unique experience. Literally 1 in 100. I normally hit up the Shades with an RL...tends to level things out. But this particular time it equalled total Flood victory. I had, no exaggeration, at least 15+ Flood advancing on me. Fell back to the entry, and they were still following. It took every round from every thing I could scavenge to get through. Made it though...a CE highpoint.

  • 12.06.2009 5:33 PM PDT

You know, it's very strange. When I first reached the first hill, the Covenant and Flood won about equal amounts, with me only killing the Banshee and small group of Flood by the entrance.

the next night, the Flood would constantly win every time.

  • 12.06.2009 8:40 PM PDT

Doc: "i'm a pacifist"
Caboose: "your a thing that babies suck on?"
Tucker: "no dude, that's a pedephile"
Church: "tucker, i think he means a pacifier"

I've had more occurances where the flood abandon their attack on the covenant and come right at me early in the battler. After them i'm left to deal with the covvies. Very taxing on the ammo.

  • 12.08.2009 2:28 PM PDT

Posted by: SweetTRIX
I've had more occurances where the flood abandon their attack on the covenant and come right at me early in the battler. After them i'm left to deal with the covvies. Very taxing on the ammo.
That doesn't happen to me, but the Banshee always goes straight for me, and sometimes Goldilocks makes a beeline for me as well.

  • 12.08.2009 8:14 PM PDT