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This topic has moved here: Subject: Bungie Weekly Update: 10/08/10
  • Subject: Bungie Weekly Update: 10/08/10
Subject: Bungie Weekly Update: 10/08/10

I really can't understand why people are making out that the legendary campaign is so difficult, I got my copy of Reach at about 10am on the release date and finished it about midnight on legendary and that's with about a 2 hour break in between.
I wasn't even racing through it to prove I could do it either just got hooked because it's simply the best Halo campaign to date.
The only tips id really give about the campaign on legendary is just take it an enemy at a time don't just think you can run into a covenant group guns blazing also found myself conserving the power weapons hiding them along the mission until a big group or hunters, vehicles came up then it made it easy mode.

As for achievements im on 48 of 49 hoping to get to lt. col later tonight (:

  • 10.10.2010 7:26 AM PDT

Well for all those playing through on legendary remember overcharged plasma pistols kill the shields, if you have a pistol or dmr, or basically anything, finish em off! Oh and i have every achievement, can you make a statistic for me :P

  • 10.10.2010 8:22 AM PDT
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Legendary Solo tips (yes I'm part of that 5% :) ):

Don't rely on Kat. She's an idiot when it comes to shooting anything.

Grab a needle rifle when facing Hunters. Shoot a super combine into the neck from far away (far enough to dodge their fuel rods) and you will kill within a magazine or two.

When facing elites either try to assassinate them or carry a PP and a head shot weapon.

Great update. Glad I am in the top 10% as far as rank and I will have a chance to become Lt. Colonel before you raise the cap.

  • 10.10.2010 8:28 AM PDT

i completed the game on legendary. alone in 6 hours 53 mins with mostly DMR and Plasma pistol or Pistol and plasma pistol
if i could find one i would also recoomend a ggrenade launcher and emp a group of enemys then headshot them

  • 10.10.2010 8:32 AM PDT

Legendary Solo Strategy

The first thing you want to do is turn on campaign scoring. This is just an easy way to confirm your kills, and lets you know how many enemies your grenades kill.

Throughout the game, the most efficient method I found works is to rely on the plasma pistol. Absolutely have one on you at all times! The EMP blast is crucial to taking down elites, especially when they are in groups. Thankfully, the weapon is abundant due to grunts and jackals being the most common enemy fought, so ammo is never an issue. Furthermore, pair it with a precision weapon, preferably the needle rifle whenever possible. The needle rifle is the best overall weapon for campaign because of the 3 shot/no shield super-combine effect. The EMP doesn't really effect brutes, since they don't have energy shields, but they are vulnerable to the needle explosion which helps A LOT.

Also, never, ever use the shotgun, energy sword, or gravity hammer. You take far too much damage from everything to try and run through plasma bullets trying to melee kill something. It just isn't worth it. (The exception to this of course is when fighting pairs of hunters.)
Overall, to make it through, you want to keep your distance, swing in and out of cover, move forward slowly, and head shot as much as possible.

Finally, when shooting the carrier at the end of the game, don't get into the MAC cannon and try to shoot down phantoms and banshees. YOU WILL DIE OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Instead, take cover behind the MAC cannon until the carrier is in position. The ships will not hit you while you are there. Then just hop in, shoot fast, and it should be an easy win.

Hope this helps.

  • 10.10.2010 9:13 AM PDT

On hiding dead bodies:
Posted by: Psuedo
Posted by: teh Chaz
Inside another dead body. It's the last place they'll look
A corpse within a corpse.
CORPSEPTION.
Win.


Posted by: NBA Kirkland
"Estimated percentage of those who did it WITHOUT "cheesing" (making a custom gametype with infinite ammo, unlimited shields, etc...) = .0001%."

Haha, it may even be lower. You really should have required the firefight achievements be earned "in firefight matchmaking" just like you do with the daily challenges. These achievements are pointless the way they are now.
It's not physically possible to earn much over 20k points in Firefight Matchmaking, let alone 50k, 100k or 1 million. It's limited to 5 rounds, and the difficulty is heroic, and the enemies don't award many points. Cheesing is almost a total necessity. I reckon the percentage of 'cheesers' is probably not so much 0.0001%, but probably closer to just 1.

Also - I have a blame stosh, any way I can get it noticed without spamming it over the site tagged with 'bungie check this out'? It's on my file share.

  • 10.10.2010 9:59 AM PDT

I beat Halo: Reach on legendary alone the week it came out.

Who dies first?
I found that targeting enemies with the highest threat (Elite Zealot taking priority over a Hunter But A Skrimisher/Jackel/Elite with a focus rifle taking the highest priority for example.)

Where did it go?

Finding strange/unusual paths through a level such as flying the falcon under a piller and into a building on New Alexandria makes dealing with ground troops much easier.

So many guns, so little time

Making sure you have a balanced arsenal of weapons. Never go into battle with a shotgun and a sword or a sniper rifle and any other long range weapon. Got to be prepared for all encounters. A DMR and shotgun make an exellent pair to have.

Cover is your friend

A simple strategy. Never run into an open area. Stay near a rock or any good source of cover to duck behind when your sheilds are gone.

Silence!

Where ever possible, opt for the role of the sneaky assassin. Either by taking out your enemies before they know your there or buy leaving a few marines or another spartan(AI) to keep the enemy busy while you go around the flanksor up behind them and drop them with a few well placed shots or grenades.

  • 10.10.2010 10:30 AM PDT

Its like holding onto an electric fence, and complaining that it hurts, yet you still do it. See the stupidity now?

How to make the Campaign worth playing

GT: I2edShift

I complete Solo Legendary a while ago.. But for my expereience, here's some tips.

1. The Plasma Pistol is your BFF.. For all the elites you'll be facing, overcharging the PP makes short work of them, just like the last couple games on legendary.

2. Take out the fodder first. Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers, and even brutes are easily taken out with headshots from the DMR.. Take these guys out first to give you some freedom to deal with the Elites.

3. Take things slow.

4. Be VERY careful around tanks.. They have really good aim now.

5. Play through the game on Heroic first. Having some knowledge as to what is up ahead, and where powerful weapons are that can make your life easier is a godsend.

6. Be patient. Legendary is slow going, and always has been. Rushing ahead will kill you every time. Take out everything you can from as far away as your weapons will allow.

  • 10.10.2010 10:50 AM PDT

Hello,

I have a suggestion for an asap update. On multi player, especially SWAT, the test on the left middle of the screen gets in the way of gaming in split screen mode. Mostly because especially in swat there is that extra "With a head shot" that is tagged onto each kill. And kills happen so fast where it becomes a major problem where anything on left left side of your screen gets lost, and the white cross hair starts to blend in with the white writing. Im sure there are other people who have noticed this! I do not see why the text just cant be moved to the bottom of the screen?

  • 10.10.2010 11:02 AM PDT
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Halo 2 isn't dead jorge...... its just missing in action.
MnF Elite Force <>Brigadier<>

Brown coat 'till the day I die.
Sheningans!
Wake me...when you need me.

Can i have a link to the file?

  • 10.10.2010 11:26 AM PDT

it will take forever to raised the level cap : 1 to 2 months ?! him at the maximum rank and theres no point to play this game anymore now they say that I got to wait 1 or 2 months !?

  • 10.10.2010 11:50 AM PDT
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Posted by: Hangman Delta
Legendary Solo Strategy

Finally, when shooting the carrier at the end of the game, don't get into the MAC cannon and try to shoot down phantoms and banshees. YOU WILL DIE OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Instead, take cover behind the MAC cannon until the carrier is in position. The ships will not hit you while you are there. Then just hop in, shoot fast, and it should be an easy win.


You can very easily get in the MAC gun and kill everything on Legendary. You just prioritize banshees, the phantoms that come from the top left and right off screen (they are shooting before visible) and then the phantoms in the midscreen that do not shoot ever.

It's a very simple pattern that is the same every time. Kill 2 phantoms in mid, 3rd one comes from offscreen left side, then there are 2 banshee on the bottom left with a phantom, then couple phantom on the mid/right side, one off screen and then another set of banshees and you should either have one or two phantoms left or the carrier is in position.

If there were variations to the pattern at all, it might have been difficult, but you do not have to wait for the carrier to come into view and you can rack up your campaign score if you kill the insane amount of ships at the end.

  • 10.10.2010 12:21 PM PDT

Jack n jet was HILARIOUS! great update bungie!

  • 10.10.2010 1:01 PM PDT

Not bad for a human.

I'll be honest getting pulled off a warthog turret then getting gunned down by the guy in the very same Warthog is hardly my most embarassing death. To be honest pretty thrilled to be in a video on the weekly update.

  • 10.10.2010 2:31 PM PDT

I completed the legendary campaign awhile ago on solo. The tips that worked best for me would be:

1) Take it nice and slow. Don't be silly and charge into open areas, there's no timer for how fast you complete the levels so take your time. Walk around as if an enemy is around every bend and in every nook and cranny.

2) Always try to get a hold of a DMR or needle rifle and try to conserve ammo. Don't shoot wildly at enemies. Also guns that work long range and have high damage are good too for secondary's. Ex: Needler, Sniper, Focus Rifle, Concussion Rifle, etc.

3) The level that I had the most trouble with (although not a lot) was Long Night Of Solace. The only reason being is that the other tips aren't AS effective they still are, but not as much. Make sure that if you are very low on shields try evading between ships that aren't moving around the environment.

4) Be careful of vehicles. When you are in vehicles you can be overrun sometimes and find yourself dying while trying to run away. Just follow the first step when driving vehicles and you should be able to have the A.I. sometimes snipe the enemies. NOTE: DON'T LET A.I. DRIVE. The A.I. will most likely drive into open areas and get you both killed (Sorry Bungie no offence to the games A.I.).

Hope that's helpful! Goodluck to everyone who takes the challenge.

  • 10.10.2010 2:43 PM PDT

<3 Forky

This is probably going to get lost in the mountains of comments, but I would like to point out that Legendary becomes much easier if you always carry a plasma pistol on you and aren't afraid to retry a section a hundred times before you finally figure how to beat it.

  • 10.10.2010 3:03 PM PDT

My big revelations....

Take it slow, conserve ammo, think things through before you make a big move across the battlefield.

Do not doubt the plasma pistol, not just for over charge: the actual bolts do a lot of damage and are nice against grunts/jackals. Bungie really amped up the damage it can do and it is a nice alternative to using pistol/dmr rounds on cannon fodder enemies.

  • 10.10.2010 3:24 PM PDT

Hehe. I'm one of those 5% for the Solo Legendary, and 10% for that "If They Came to Hear Me Beg" achievement. =P I feel special.

Here's a tip: Use checkpoints wisely. They usually happen when you run back and forth to certain areas, or you kill a certain amount of enemies, preferably Brute or Elites.

[Edited on 10.10.2010 4:13 PM PDT]

  • 10.10.2010 4:12 PM PDT

charles swiger

I agree with Pilule, now that I'm capped, I play less because I can't see how close I'm getting to that next rank. I mean really I spent more time on it because "I'm just a couple matches away". I understand that you don't want people to get the highest rank, but us 1% of players are getting bored with the game because of not seeing the next ranks. I strongly believe that it is counter productive. Yes, our credits still goes towards our rank but that makes things worse. People are still going to be close to the highest rank after you take the cap away, right. So I don't see why you are leaving the cap in place. Honestly you are losing more people because of the cap than if people see that really high rank that they want. Please lift the cap on the next update and ignore the people that think that cussing is going to solve anything. Before I'm flamed I did not boost I done all of the challenges every day and the commendations are from that except multiplayer and maybe 5% of my firefights and those were while waiting for my friends to end their matches.

  • 10.10.2010 4:38 PM PDT

I'm a captain grade 2 :3 but I play offline so when I get that wireless kit I'll lose a lot of cR and armour, I was saving for inclement weather then I just remembered about going online for the first time thing -.-
Does the cap affect offline players as well ?
I also got that 'If They Came to Hear Me Beg' achievement :3
I got the 'A Monument to All Your Sins' achievement 2 - 3 weeks ago also.. The only level I didn't die once in solo legendary was 'Winter Contingency' and the most deaths was 'The Package'

Well in Halo 3 ODST, 200k took 90 - 100 minutes in normal solo firefight, 1 million would take ages

Only achievements I don't have is the one that need to be online, need more than 1 player or the rank of Lt. Colonel

[Edited on 10.10.2010 4:57 PM PDT]

  • 10.10.2010 4:51 PM PDT

I beat the campaign on legendary, and my best advice is to never ever ever ever rush an elite ever ever. Also, take it slow. running in there and just shooting at random enemies is horrible. Take your time, find a DMR, and take out elites one by one and slowly advance through levels. On New Alexandria, when you reach the part with multiple hunters in one room, don't be intimidated. Get a checkpoint and just run past them. Activate the switch and run out of there. Don't think you are cheating: you would never have enough ammo to deal to those hunters anyway. Most importantly, if you keep dying don't give your hopes up. Keep finding new ways to advance through a level. Trust me, when you get those achievements on your screen (baboop.....3 for 325) you will actually have an orgasm all over your xbox.Hope this helps.

  • 10.10.2010 6:28 PM PDT

I just beat the campaign on Legendary solo today (only played a mission or two a day for a week or so) having previously beaten it on Heroic. In many ways Heroic prepped me for Legendary. Many times I found I had alot less trouble with the same parts on Legendary than Heroic because I knew what to expect.

Tricks I used to in Legendary were as follows:

Charged plasma pistol to take down elite shields quickly.

Needler works great against brutes who have no shields. Pump off half a clip and run and the super combine explosion does the rest. Further, many grunts have Needlers so ammo is generally not an issue.

Anything that has a scope for sniping is good. The Magnum works well against grunts and you wont have to waste your precious DMR ammo on them. In general keep at range when ever possible and make sure every shot counts (headshots galore).

Whenever you see purple shields, there is an engineer (floating blob like thing) nearby. Always kill it first, but be extremely careful to not expose yourself while doing so.

Get check points whenever you can but be careful to not get them if you wasted a bunch of ammo from trying to kill one enemy. I found that it's often better to die and restart at a checkpoint than to continue with low ammo. And there are alot of places where check points either spawn to frequently for their own good or not frequently enough. Always be aware of when and where a check point is triggered.

Avoid the super brutes (not sure the name of the big green heavily armored ones who take forever to kill) whenever possible. In many parts, you can simply go around them to complete a mission objective. Just watch out for their weapons.

Additionally, avoid combat whenever possible. There are parts where the cloaking device is useful to simply get around things. Save that ammo and health for when you really need it.

Spoilers: On the almost final part of the last mission, the 4 elites, couple of grunts and an engineer, the hologram worked wonders. I was able to take out the engineer while the elites were chasing my hologram and run back out for the check point. I then proceeded to take out the grunts quickly with the magnum (found in the storage shed in the previous area). Once they were dead, I used the Hammer on the elites (which worked surprisingly well). After every kill I ran back out into the previous area to get a check point.

Further, on the very last part, make sure you have full health before you trigger the check point near the giant cannon. I had minimal health, so whenever I'd die, I had to run back to get a health pack which was extremely annoying.

One final mission area I had alot of trouble with was the 6th mission after the sabre fights. You land on the covenant corvette and need to enter through the giant shield. Ultimately, I found that, once you kill the 2 jump jet elites and your allies drop down to their deaths, you are left with like 4 or 5 elites to contend with and no check points in sight. That's not entirely true. On a whim I decided to explore around the top of the corvette for a while and eventually the next stage mission sequence triggered. I was then able to get several check points which helped immensely. Then it's just a matter of dropping down to the top most catwalk (dont drop all the way down until all elites are dead), fire alot of rounds at an elite while avoiding fire yourself, jumping back out of the shield, letting your shield regen, checking for the next elite target you are going to take down, and repeat. This part is a testament to your halo skills. I had more trouble with this one part than any other in the whole game (except maybe the "endless wave" part on the final mission when I first played it on heroic... Second time through was actually really easy).

Youtube has alot of decent videos on getting through the game on legendary. I used them when I got completely stuck in parts and they are really useful. Just search halo reach legendary campaign and a bunch will pop up. Probably add the mission name as well.

Anyway, those are my experiences with Legendary solo. I hope they help others with getting through as well.

  • 10.10.2010 7:01 PM PDT

-Wally17 (formerly Wally16)

I just beat the campaign on Legendary solo, which was my first time playing through it. It was awesome. The ending made me sad face, especially the Lone Wolf level. Haha. It took me 22 hours and 27 minutes to beat it.

  • 10.10.2010 7:54 PM PDT

thats under 100 dumb a** lmfao
Posted by: ArbiterRock3624

Posted by: TFallout 3T
dear god you finished the momument to all your sins achievement with 259 deaths lmfao im way better then you if i where to guess id probobly had gotten less then 100 maybe like 60 to 50 deaths when i got that achievement

I hate to burst your bubble, but you have over 50 deaths alone on the seventh mission and over 40 on the tenth on your Legendary solo.

Can't wait to see what is being teased next week.

  • 10.10.2010 7:56 PM PDT