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Halo 3 (31st), ODST (14th) and Reach (4th) Mythic Conqueror. (Mythic is Solo, Legendary, All skulls on + scoring on and no deaths/saves).
Staff Writer and speedrun record holder at highspeedhalo.net
Ignorance is the true enemy of all things.
Rocking Bungie.net for over 8 years!
Posted by: Michael_Archer
Nice job! I think this may be the fastest POA run so far!
Mine is faster :D
Gamestats.
Much more agreeable lengths of time to watch rather than Legendary Smile's and Aura's runs!
Funny thing: I actually started my run more than an hour before Dark did (17:17 rather than 18:09, local time), but I paused just after the Hunters, went and had dinner, went for a couple of quick drinks, did some shopping, and came back and completed it. So thats why the gamestats show an obscene 269 minutes! :P
Quite nerve racking at the end though! Even though I didn't really come that close to dying at all.
The Holdout is the only hard bit now really, and even then, only the second Phantom wave because of the two Chieftains. If the Zealots actually came after me, they'd own me in a second flat, but they're nice, and with a bit of manipulation, they'll behave quite well for PPing.
Field Marshall? Still fidgety, but with the strategy I invented mid-run, he barely even shot at me while I filled his face with plasma bolts.
Man, I really should have watched Legendary's film all the way through long before this; I would have done it much sooner! This is actually the first and only run where I got past the 3 Ultra's in the smelting room without dying!
A brief talk through:
- ran straight down the right side of the first area like Aura did.
- Did as Legendary Smile to despawn the wraith. Didn't even bother shooting those two jackals in the sniper tower though, don't need to.
- DMR Buggers, with a couple of Rockets like Aura to get a large group of them
- grabbed needle rifles (6; don't miss any!) and kept it for the Brutes in the holdout (especially useful on those chieftains!)
- approached boneyard, promptly DMRed jackals and skirmishers until I ran out of targets
- ran back and deloaded elites, finished off jackals and skirmishers
- brought laser from next to dropshield/armour lock crate for extra... fun :)
- use laser and sniper to kill shades and grunts. DMR until out of targets or ammo
- run across bridge, check elites in there loaded, sprint all the way back and deload them
- grab dropsheild on way back, DMR grunts in invasion core room.
- Grab PPs and an extra DMR incase the two Grunts in the smelting room decide to both carry needlers (and you don't want to mess around with trying to grab one from the jackals...)
- DMR grunts and jackals, bring any needed weapons (like your needle rifle) through the door (since the hallway deloads if you go too far out onto the balcony)
- jump up onto higher catwalks with DMR and PP, proceed to own 2 of the Ultras (the concussion rifle one didn't even shoot at me!)
-run around room/melee Emile to prompt him to go outside and engage last Ultra, proceed to own.
NOTE: the small staircase on this balcony, the one on the left, has fake guardrails. They will not stop you from falling into the abyss below. So watch out for that. Its not a pleasant way to die...
- take out skirmishers, over rooftop and through the window
- DMR jackals, approach the lowered area of the room to prompt Spec-Ops Sword Elite to come for you, retreat onto any of the blocks, use Emile/Troopers as meatshields and DMR until dead (you have more than enough ammo in this room for it)
-DMR Grunts, get Ultra to fall down (not sure how that works really, but it does)
- grab the 3 extra Needle Rifles (for 9 total), top up on DMR and health
- use liberal grenades on Plasma Rifle Jackal and Grunts to preserve ammo.
- At holdout, I used the fenced platform that you enter onto to make my stand. The height, and the unevenly spaced walls offer ample protection, and you have a good field of view to most of the area. A combo of DMR for long-range and needle rifle for close-mid made short work of most of the enemies. I tried to bring a PP from the last battle along with me for the Chieftains but I think it despawned anyway. Once the centre platform is clear, you should be able to grab another one that shouldn't despawn as easily. Hop down for DMR ammo occasionally.
- Once the second wave of phantoms come, with the two chieftains, I basically just waited up there until I could see the hammer chieftain, then promptly deshielded him with the PP and needle-rifle super-combined him twice for the kill (actually I had to deshield him twice, but ah well).
The FRG Chieftain usually hangs around the area immediately below you or near the stairs up to the little building. I used a combination of shooting through the slit in between the panels of the cover you have and strafing to either side to de-shield him then needle rifle. In my run, he actually ran off a little once I killed his cronies, but hes not too keen on actually rushing you so hes still not much of a problem.
- Plasma Launcher Chieftain wave was cake. I stayed in the same place, just using a drop shield to make sure the phantom didn't kill me! Then used the gap between the panels to kill his minions until he ran off. Finished off everyone else, then killed him. I was a bit paranoid about remaining enemies after the PL Chieftain was down; often Emile will call 'pad is clear' when there is still an enemy remaining. If the chieftain isn't the last one to die for definite; make sure there are no more around!
- After taking out the grunts from afar, approaching the door makes the Zealots back off into the room. From here, you can sometimes see the Engineer by standing on the right side of the door and looking high left above the railings of the next level. If you can see him, you can take him out. DMR or the sniper rifle on the building behind are good choices. After taking out the two grunts:
We now have the interesting bit. From the doorway, you can see a sort of machinery looking pylon/pillar to the right, half way into the room, near the wall. Run behind it, then you can jump onto the various tanks/boxes on it. Then, if you turn around, looking at the wall, and look slightly to the right, there is ledge you can jump to which runs around that corner of the room. Jump to it, run along it and jump over the railing to the first floor area. Then run to the large supporting pillar in the middle of this floor. Around here, is a trigger so that the Field Marshall will move up to the next level, and the dual weilder will move up the first level (the same one you're on at the minute).
If you haven't taken out the engineer yet, now would be a good time to do it.
Jump back down to the 'ground' level of this building, grab a PP and DMR, then proceed to the right-most staircase (the small one). From here, you can shoot at the 3 zealots with your PP, and a combination of just shooting the tops of their heads and backing up down the stairs will keep you safe while you take them out. Eventually, one will either just sort of give up and stand in the open shooting at you until you can get their shields down and kill them, or you'll land enough shots on them in between their dodges to kill them anyway.
There is a small metal box next to the first pillar you can see that you'll want to grenade out of the way to give yourself a better view.
Once they're all dead, its time for another series of jumps!
Right behind you (in the opposite corner of the building to the Mass Driver, on the 1st floor, there is a blue machine and a grey circular object, with a light above them. Jump onto the guard rail, then onto the yellow, er, thing, attached to it. Then jump to the top of the blue machine, then onto the top of the light fixture, then up once more onto a metal girder. This girder runs around two sides of the building, and there is space in between it and the exterior wall to keep you completely safe from fire.
You can use it to run right next to the mass driver, then you can jump onto the girder, onto the exterior wall, and over the railing so you're actually standing right next to the mass driver, completely bypassing the Field Marshall. BUT. The trigger for the mass driver sequence is at the bottom of the stairs here, and even if you triggered it, the FM would blast the hell out of you in two seconds flat. So you need to kill him at least. If anyone remembers me mentioning that you don't need to kill the Zealots here: this is how its done. But they will ping you a little, and you'll have difficulty getting here with full shields, and you'll be unable to bring multiple Armour Abilites here, so you'll either have to camp somewhere very dangerous, or go without the Hologram. So I take 'em out.
From up here, next to the Mass Driver, is where I had planned to take out the Field Marshall from, but what I discovered during my run last night, was that there is a much, much easier way of doing it...
Back down in the little alley between the wall the the girder, right next to the Mass Driver, it slopes down to the level of the 1st floor. Here, its visually open to the interior of the building, with a fence between. The FRG chieftain cannot hit you while you're down here, neither will his attempts to throw stickies at you work. But, you can PP and DMR through the fence, with impunity! Like I said; he'll still fidget a lot, which meant it took me two PPs worth of ammo to take him down, but he'll barely bother shooting back. So its pretty awesome :)
- Then just recharge health, bring a holo up there, wait, activate holo, then jump in mass driver for epic win :)
So yeah, that makes me 8/9 with only the Long Night of Solace left. :D