Halo: Reach

The easiest level to get this done on is right at the start of Pillar of Autumn. At the start, you will come to the edge of the cliff. If you look down, you will see a semi truck on the left and a car on the right. Between the semi truck and car, you will see a elite and three grunts. As soon as start the mission, Emile will say, "Race you to her". The Elite will back up and put you in reach to hit him. *Sprint off the cliff, and immediately hit LB to stop the sprint*. As you are falling, fall on his back. Just before you hit him, hold down RB to perform the assassination. This may take a couple tries.

* - You must stop the sprint as soon as you jump. The game still thinks you are running and doesn't recognize that it would be a height big enough to kill you.

Thanks to Sidedish120 over at x360a for the description.

Found via Youtube, posted by iSteezy801. Thanks, Steezy, and if you're part of the TA community, let me know and I'll gladly take this down so you can post it under your own creds.

Worked for me in about six tries, after being robbed repeatedly by Pillar of Autumn and giving up on that method.

Load up Nightfall, on Legendary just in case it matters. Take out the first elite with a melee attack, not an assassination, which could alert the enemy. Now peer over the edge cautiously and you'll see an elite patrolling below. If a grunt and a jackal run over to him, then you've been spotted, restart from the checkpoint.

Wait for him to turn his back, and do everything the same as the Pillar of Autumn method. Get out of sprint before you reach the elite, and try to end up a bit further back so you get the right animation.

Note that the fall in this part is actually not enough to kill you, and yet this area actually works for the achievement, while there are people with dozens of "successful" attempts on Pillar of Autumn who have never got the achievement to unlock there. Nice one, Bungie.

After a ridiculous number of failed attempts I empathize with all the people having trouble with this one. I failed over and over and over again, and it wasn't until I read about it in several different places that I finally was successful, and I think that I now know why.

I did it on Pillar of Autumn.

First thing's first. On my successful attempts the assassination started well above the elite. I never touched the ground, and my shields did not flare. I had no damage whatsoever. And I did not do the headstomp animation. In fact my successful one did the animation that cuts his leg out from under them and ends with jabbing the knife into his throat. I came down very close behind him, almost on top of him. When I started the assassination my crosshair was on his shoulder, though it never turned red. So, none of that matters for the achievo.

I had tons upon tons of failures, including a great many where I would assassinate the elite without getting the achievement, even when I deactivated sprint pretty early. It wasn't until I finally got it that I think I figured out what I was doing wrong.

The achievement isn't bugged, glitchy, or random... it's just that the terrain is less than ideal for it. It's doable, but it seems like the outcome is pretty inconsistent. This is not due to the height of the fall. The height is sufficient to kill you. Thus using a grenade to take some damage did me no good whatsoever. I noticed that even with grenade damage whenever I did not assassinate I would either die outright or survive with zero fall damage. This is significant.

The key is that the terrain is not entirely flat down there. It slopes away a bit, especially at the nearest spot the Elite stops at, near the grass. What happens is if your forward velocity is high enough you will simply slide to a stop instead of dying.

So, here is my miniguide. This is the procedure I used on my last attempt which netted me the achievement in about 10 minutes of trying after hours of trying other times.


First, skip the cinema by pressing A then Y.
Immediately push forward on the left stick.
Once you start moving activate sprint.
Jump over or on top of the rock and pass Emile to get to the cliff first.
Optional - Switch to the pistol if you prefer it. I found it less obtrusive than the AR in my view.
As you come to the cliff don't stop at all.
Strafe just a bit around the big rock on the right to line yourself up. To the left of the big rock are two flat medium rocks, then to the left of them are many little rocks. Forward towards the edge of the cliff where it comes to something of a point are two identical pairs of tiny rocks. I used these like runway lights strafing until I was lined up then I would run strait through.
Begin sprinting early enough to get up to full speed.
Look almost but not quite all the way down and wait until the last moment to jump. You can jump later than it seems you would be able to because the edge is a little rounded. You might lose a little altitude, but you need the distance you gain. There is plenty of altitude.

(Here you will have a decision to make. On the first run you don't even need to attempt the assassination, just setup your run and see where the elite is once you jump. If he is in a bad position or moves before you hit the ground then pause the game and restart the campaign. It only takes a few seconds to setup your run over again, but it pays off because if you setup the run quickly enough then your checkpoint save will be just before you jump off the cliff and the Elite will always be in the same position from that save. You can try as many times as you like with exactly the same circumstances that way and do each attempt very quickly as long as you don't die too many times, but even if you do just setup your jump the same way again.)

Pause mid jump. If the Elite is in a position you like and behaving how you want then restart from the last save. If not then restart the campaign until he is.

Once you have a checkpoint save you like simply jump off the cliff the same way each time, but adjust the direction you jump off the cliff based on where you know the grunt is from previous jumps. If that proves difficult then run to the edge and look, then backup and try to note the closest edge of the cliff to him. Then restart from save and see if you can make the jump at the right angle. (The more accurate your initial jump is the less correction you will have to do mid air. This means you will be able to turn off sprint sooner and freefall without adding forward momentum sooner as well. Both of which can cause achievement failure if done too late.) I think the best position the Elite can be is the one on the right, though it's a further jump than the middle position next to the grass. The left position is doable, but I had terrible luck with him usually running up the road out of range mid jump from that one so I trashed it anytime he was there or up the road.

Keep looking down and make any corrections you need to as early as possible. I found it easier to make my initial horizontal correction by aiming left or right and pushing forward on the left stick rather than attempting to air strafe, but use whatever works for you. Looking down while doing this seems to help, though I couldn't say if it actually adds velocity to your fall or not, but it definitely lets you see your horizontal velocity clearly and helps you know how much you need and when to cut it down.

Keep sprint on until you feel like you have enough momentum to make the distance to the Elite you are aiming for. I kept it on what seemed like a full 1/3 or the jump.

Once you are heading horizontally directly at the Elite aim your crosshair directly at him and track him with it. Keep sprinting and pushing forward, and use a little strafe on the left stick to make minor corrections. Don't turn off sprint until you have almost enough velocity that you could turn it off and put the controller down but still land right behind him.

Once sprint is off you can make a few more corrections, but very soon you need to stop pressing forward at all. In fact if you have too much forward velocity you may need to even pull back on the left stick. The objective here is to be falling as close to strait down as possible by the time you would hit the ground. It may help to aim to land initially to land on top of his head while you're still sprinting then once you turn it off aim for just behind his back. I would estimate that the last half of the fall you should not add any forward momentum at all on the left stick. You shouldn't even touch it except to maybe pull back on it or make small horizontal corrections, but really you should be perfectly lined up by then and have no need for it or you very well may fail anyway.

Once you are closeish to the Elite (maybe 2 to 1 times his own hight above his head) hold down the melee attack button down to start the assassination. (Be sure to be aiming at him by now at least, though you should have been already.) The timing can be tricky, but isn't that difficult, and you do not have to wait until the last possible moment. Keep in mind that the further behind him you fall the trickier the timing will become because you will have less time in range of the assassination before you hit the ground. On my succesful attempt I was so close I might have actually bumped him before the ground if I didn't assassinate him.



Really the key to the whole thing is the proper jump off of the cliffside and the first 1/3 of the jump with sprint on. Just try over and over. If you've setup the save like I said then you can cram in jump after jump after jump. Just be ready to pause halfway through the jump if you aren't lined up. If your jump isn't perfect by halfway then you'll probably fail to get the achievement anyway even if you do manhandle yourself into position for an assassination. So go ahead and restart from the checkpoint. That way you won't die trying as many times. Remember to pause and restart as soon as you deem a jump a failure. And anytime you get an assassination without getting the achievo restart before the grunts kill you. (Not really a huge threat unless they use a grenade, but they tend to sometimes.) Try to prevent yourself from dying because once you die too many times you'll have to setup the check point again from the start of the campaign. As long as you don't die you can retry over and over again with only seconds per attempt. In fact the sooner your pause and restart the faster it goes. So abuse it. Pause and restart as soon as you jump off the cliff until you are jumping off at just the right angle. Then let yourself fall a little further and restart at or before the 1/2 mark until you think you've nailed the jump. It's just like the movie Groundhog's Day, only compressed into mere seconds.

Finally, somebody made a suggestion that I think can be good training. Try doing the jump several times, but without actually using melee at all. Just try to make sure that you consistently die doing the jump exactly the same way each time. If you survive any attempts then you are doing something wrong and need to come down with less forward momentum at the end.

I've uploaded to file share a short movie showing me setting up my check point and 2 failed jumps before my finale successful one if anyone wants to see it. You can just lookup by my gamertag (BADmannon).

Also, don't lose hope. Keep trying. In this case it is very very possible to get the assassination without meeting all the achievement requirements. Failed attempts can look very similar to successful ones. Even doing everything pretty much right it may take many tries. Just strive to get closer and closer to the perfect jump where you stop sprinting or using left stick 1/3 of the way down, fall strait down 2 inches behind an elite with your crosshair right on his head, and die every single time if you don't assassinate him. It doesn't actually have to be perfect, but if you strive for perfection then you will be pleasantly surprised when you actually do get the achievo.

Good luck.

PS. Sorry this is so long, but it was getting really frustrating for me until I finally figured out what was going wrong and why and I've seen a lot of other people with similar problems. Simply knowing what worked for others wasn't enough for me, I had to figure out why some things worked and actually understand the problem before I could fix it. So this is for people like me that just need more info.

PPS. If you setup your jump as I suggest by simply sprinting ahead and jumping off the cliff ASAP when the campaign starts you will mercifully cut off a lot of the chatter and only have to listen to a few words of it over and over each time you jump and restart from last save. ;3 In fact once I started doing this I think it actually helped me with my timing and no longer really registered as a sentence, but just sounds because I was focused on the jump and he really only said a couple of words each time. A nice fringe benefit... Also since you're in front of him he never gets in your way.

VIDEO 1

Level 10 - Pillar of Autumn
Difficulty Setting - Legendary
Location - First Checkpoint as you enter this level

Most annoying sentence you will have burned into your brain....

"Stay Low, let me draw the heat just deliver that package. There's our destination six, pillar of autumn, race you to her"

The key to this achievement is in the description of the achievement.... Perform an Assassination against an Elite to survive a fall that would've been fatal.

At first i thought it was all about assassinations, diving ones where you push him over.... this is wrong!

The key is in the achievement description "survive a fall that would've been fatal", meaning that you must cancel your death to perform the assassination.

This means that the moment your a about to hit the ground press RB, you must have damage to your shields, you must be "behind" the Elite and you must perform a standing assassination.

You must also not aim at the elite prior to the assassination, if you must aim at his feet (or the bush on the right side next to the container) - this is also the best area to assassinate him as...

You jump using the two stones on the cliff top as a marker they lead perfectly to this back! (two stones are at the feet just prior to leaving the cliff top on below video)

VIDEO 2

Level 4 - Nightfall
Difficulty Setting - Legendary
Location - First Checkpoint

This is an alternative that has worked for many people. You must set it as Legendary or the Elite will not be there.

You will also notice on video 2 that the character has yellow shields at the moment of the assassination, hence damage.

I have not gained this achievement in this manner, i got it using pillar of autumn (video 1) however this seems to work for others.

On the mission package where you have to defend the science lab from the covenant attackers you will notice that there are alot of elites. Also you have access to jetpacks. So for me this was the place to do it.
Jet up onto a ledge above the elites (I was fortunate enough to get a checkpoint), wait till your jetpack fully recharges and jump off the ledge boosting your jets to max altitude. DO NOT use it whilst falling because it will prevent you from falling from a sufficient height to die from. Try to orientate yourself behind an elite and press 'Melee' as your about to hit them.
Sorry no fancy video but its an alternative.

After 18 minutes of performing the same motions, I finally got this.

First, to do this on Legendary Nightfall make sure you have a second player or controller active on split screen. Have this person hang back at the beginning of the level. This prevents Jun from sniping and ruining the achievement for you.

Next, punch the first elite that Jun tells you to, but don't perform an assassination as this alerts the Elite below and wakes up all the grunts. Punch the two sleeping grunts that are around this area.

Finally, make your way up the cliff face and observe the White Elite below. Wait for him to have his back facing you, sprint off the cliff and as soon as you are behind him before you hit the ground, hold the melee button to perform the assassination.

I tried this achievement numerous times on both pillar of Autumn and Nightfall. and like many others i did not get it. However, after switching off my recon armor, turning off all skulls, and turning off scoring, I got it first try on Pillar of Autumn. I don't know if this was pure coincidence or not, but I'm posting it just in case it actually helps.

Watch the video as a guide: Start level 10....go to the edge and give the elite time to come as close as possible(wait to long and you will get shot)....then run to the edge of the the cliff (this is where most people have trouble....you have to free fall from a high enough height to die (sprint will not do it)....so as soon as you run off an jump let go of sprint and use your gun to control ur height (looking down causes you to drop slightly....

hopes this helps cathodes....

Ok, much like many others I have had serious issues with this achievement! I have had about 50 successful attempts (getting the animated assassination scene) on the 'Pillar of Autumn' mission on normal difficulty (as suggested on the achievement hunter video) but no pop.
I decided to change the difficulty to Legendary and my button layout to the 'bumper jumper' layout - got the achievement 1st time after altering the settings!!
I noticed that the Elite was Gold on legendary (not silver on normal) which may make a difference, and to be honest i'm not sure what the 'bumper jumper' change did to help, but it worked 1st time.
Give the above a try and post if it worked for you as it may save other TA gamers buying a new controller (and a new piece of glass for the window) after it has been launched!!

Okay, so here's a quicker one which is a bit easier: (however i appriciate and respect what the others have said)
So on the night mission: Nightfall, where you start off with Spartan Jun and a sniper rifle, follow through the beginning until Jun tells you to assasinate an elite, before you do you get a checkpoint, so its all good. Right in front of you, down in a pit, there's two sleeping grunts, two jackles, and one elite, you can get it this way.
So:
assasinate the first elite
Sprint off the edge
Stop sprinting in mid air, so that you dont just fly right over the elite
Be ready to assasinate him as soon as you fall near him, you may need to wait a while before he's got his back turned

Any problems, simply reload the checkpoint, if you find it hard, you'll also get bored of Jun repeating the line "Not bad" when you assasinate the elite, just keep trying, i got this on my 7th attempt, but i was on legendary, so i reccomend easy difficulty for achievement hunters

Hope this guide helps
Happy hunting!

LOOK AT YOUR FEET.
Aiming all the way down ensures that you are jumping at the "true" last moment, and not as much sideways movement is needed to get behind the Pillar of Autumn Elite. Obviously look up more on the way down.

You must be in freefall for the landing to be fatal, so let up on the movement stick relatively quickly before landing. It wasn't until I did this that there was actually a second or two to think about getting in freefall, and the achievement popped not long after.

Credit goes to....the guy from Bungie who posted this oh so helpful hint.

Be forewarned that this achievement is very glitchy, and lots of folks (myself included) have completed the necessary assassination without getting the achievement.

Follow the videos and avoid having your crosshairs directly on the Elite - if the crosshairs are red, you might not get credit for the assassination.

I'd recommend aiming for the back of the Elite's feet and waiting till the last possible second to hold down the RB. Also, if you fail to pop the achievement, go kill all the grunts and such running around to earn a few commendations. It soothes the pain of another failed attempt.

Like Robert i kept performing succesfull assinations but the chievo not popping so what i did to get it was threw a frag grenade at my feet then did the jump/assasination on pillar of autumn and it popped for me the first time

Okay this is how I got the achievement is by using the default controller setup and playing on legendary.

The thing is before I was doing it I was using Recon and playing on Normal difficulty with scoring on.

Here is what I gathered so far on this achievement
:: Play on Legendary (At least when I got it)
:: Default Controller Setup
:: No scoring or skulls

However there is the matter with one of the guys who posted a solution that did it with the Bumper Jumper setting. So it could be any setup but I would recommend doing it on default first.

Ok, after an hour of successful attempts at the attack with no achievement, this it what finally worked for me.

The key here is you have to be DAMAGED to get the achievement to pop.

Pillar of autumn on Legendary.

On the first run through, just walk to the edge so the checkpoint will setup then jump off and die.

As soon as you reset, throw a grenade in front of yourself and start heading for the edge (normal run), as soon as you have gernade damage hit the LB (sprint) and jump off the edge, you DO NOT need to hit LB again.
If you look down as you hit the edge you can aim for the elite a little better and right before you land on him hit and hold the RB.

POP! First try with damage and it popped.

Hope this helps.

Mission: Pillar of Autumn
Difficulty: Legendary
Skulls: Cowbell, Grunt Birthday, IWHBYD
Controller Configuration: Default

I do not think skulls, difficulty (except easy), mission, or controller config. affect this achievement. But those were the settings I had when I got the achievement.
After about six hours in total of trying to get this achievement, and watching my failed attempts of the assassination in theater, I found no visible difference in between my successful assassination and my failed ones. When the achievement popped, I had no shield damage and it was the same jumping assassination as all my other attempts.
So the only difference that I did on my successful assassination was holding RB earlier than my instincts told me to. Before, I was trying to assassinate the elite as close to the ground as I could get. But the achievement never popped even though I performed the assassination perfectly. On my successful attempt it seemed like my player automatically went into the assassination even though I held RB before I was directly behind the elite (I activated just a little bit above the elite).
Another trick that helped was after tapping sprint to turn it off, I never adjusted anything afterwards. I just did a straight free fall. If the elite moves while you fall you can try adjusting your direction to assassinate him but you might not be successful in the achievement popping. Also do not touch the elite before performing the assassination because sometimes you land right on top of him which I believe ruins your chances of getting the achievement.
One other thing to mention is when I attempted the achievement by throwing a grenade at my feet before jumping, because some say you need damage to be successful, the achievement never popped. Perhaps I was doing it wrong but possibly with the technique I used it might also be successful. I do not think you need damage because when I examined all my assassinations including my successful one I never even touched the ground on any of them.
I will post my successful assassination in my file share soon if anyone wants to analyze it. If this helps or does not help please comment about the solution before voting negatively. I will try to respond as soon as I can.

I had tried for about 1 month with probably over 5,000 tries using every method on the internet. I even went as far as to call Xbox live. After I was about to give up I moved my gamertag to a memory card (just in case) and recovered my gamertag.

After I did that I got it on my 6th try.

I did it on the Pillar of Autumn on Legendary and sprinted to the cliff until I got the elite spawned where I wanted him. Also I held down RB earlier than normal, as in before I even touched the elite.

I even muted my TV. Not only did it cut out the repetitive dialogue but it allowed me to concentrate more.

If you get reverted back to the previous checkpoint it is because you killed yourself too many times.

Hope this helps anyone still having problems

After watching my wife finally get this achievement and watching her videos of the 7 assassination without the popped leading up to it, I've notice that if you preform the assassination but don't have at least one foot on the ground( damage taken or not) before the animation starts then it doesn't count. Unfortunately, you only know if you hit the ground after you view the video of your a tempts.
Sorry this isn't more helpful but at least it explains why this is a bitch of an achievement
I've added videos on bungie.net on my file share, the titles are no foot on the ground and foot on the ground. You can download and control the camera on your xbox are see what I'm talking about

I spent hours upon hours trying to get this. Tried Pillar and Nightfall, different tactics, difficulties, control setups, skulls, read all the solutions here and on other forums... And finally I was able to get it (Pillar, Heroic diff.).

For me the determining factor was definitely the BLACK EYE skull. You want permanent very low health for this and that skull is the key. At the very start throw one frag to get rid of your shield. Then with some luck, your second frag will get you to a low health state. It is vital that your health bar is its lowest. I had only 3 bars left. Then I triggered the checkpoint. Retry til you get it this low. I tried it using orange/mid health and it didn't work.

This is the most important step. From then on out I found that all the other precautions don't matter at all: I kept sprint pressed and got a landing assassination (not from the back). Recon controls. Second try with ultra low health and it popped. If you fail, revert to save from menu. You don't want to lose your low health checkpoint from dying too much.

The fall needs to be fatal and somehow landing near or on the Elite with full health made sure I was still alive. All I know is that after long hours trying this with full health, permanent low health got me through. Thank you Black Eye.

I dedicated 4 hours one day, trying to get this achievement; with no luck. I attempted for about 1 hour each day for about a week until I got it. I believe there is no exact science to unlocking this, just some thing's that may help. I will list below what I did to unlock it.

1.) Disable Sprint once you have reached the correct altitude to land on the Elite.
2.) Hold RB, I didn't just tap it. I held RB.
3.) My shield did not take any damage.
4.) Playing on Normal Campaign
5.) No Skulls 'On'

I assassinated him multiple times. The discouraging part is when the Achievement did unlock, I replayed it on Theatre, there was no visible difference in any attempts.

After multiple failed attempts I finally got the achievement. I have it on my Halo: Reach file share if anyone wants to check it out. I have it in first person and third person views. I got the achievement after the assassination cutscene where you stamp on the Elites head. Some people claim that is the wrong cutscene and it won't unlock after that one but I can confirm that it will. I got it on Pillar of Autumn on co-op legendary after about 40 minutes of continuous attempts. I had 6 failed assassinations and I got the achievement after my seventh. It's a horribly awkward achievement to get so good luck to everyone trying for it!

Got mine after a couple of tries on pillar of autumn. Took 12 minutes :P (expecting negs for that)

I did the following:

*Legendary (gold elite)
*Standard controller setup
*Black eye, cowbell, dialogue skulls on
*Team scoring
*Sprinted from as soon as the "once more unto the breach" title came up (i was in mid air as whats'his'face said "race you to her")
* Jumped from almost past the edge of the cliff. You run until it feels you're going to just fall off, then you jump.
*Orientated myself to the right angle for hitting the elite. You want to ensure that you actually hit his back with your feet as you're landing. Upon playing it back in theatre you hit him with your feet which makes his shields flare, you slide off him backwards which makes your shields flare, then you jump straight onto him to assassinate him.
*Hit LB to stop the sprint as soon as i look like i'm going to make the distance. For me i still had 3/4 of the fall to go.
* Don't touch anything aside from the right stick and RB on the way down.
*Jump off the cliff looking forwards'ish, then as you near the elite (4-5 elites height from the floor) look down a bit. My cross-hair was red and aimed at his head as i was holding RB.
*Hold RB quite early, i was holding it about the height of two elites from the floor.

Hopefully after doing all of that you should be able to admire the little noise of the achievement popping and sit back in the knowledge that there are still thousands of people struggling to get it still :D

P.S. I was sent someone else's video of them getting the achievement and they too, hit the elites back with their foot before they land. This also flared the elites shield the same way mine did. Though other videos i've seen seem to have people aiming to land behind the elite. YOU NEED TO LAND ON HIS BACK!!!

It's Pretty simple.
all you have to do is go to the last mission. At the very begining there will be a cliff and you will see a couple of grunts and a elite at the bottom.
focus on the elite's path, the best time is when he stopes close to the bottom of the cliff.
when you are ready to jump get a run up, use sprint ability and jump.

when you have jumped you need to make sure you turn off. or when you land you wont die so this means if you make the assasination you will not get the achivement becouse you havent made a fatal jump.
make sure you stop when you are above the elite so you are falling on to his head.
when you are about to land hold the meele button.
you wil know if this works becouse he will fall face first then you snap his neck.
this will take a couple of tries to get it right.

If you did this right you will get the achivement.

I recently got the achievement and thought I'd share how. Of course it was on the Pillar of Autumn level but I had to do it slightly different from most guides here. Almost all the guides say that it won't pop if you're still sprinting or to let up sprint as soon as you jump, well letting up sprint made me fall short every time. after about ten tries like that I reloaded the checkpoint and immediately ran towards the ledge turning on sprint halfway there and continuing to sprint the whole way. This actually brought me to the elite for the first time and I kinda hit at a topish back angle and did the assassination which animated as me jump stomping his head into the ground and the achievement poped right away. Unfortunately I died soon after and had to reload but using my method I was able to redo this every time to take the elite out with no trouble. Also played on normal with grunt birthday party and i would have been your daddy if people wanna know.

Right this one really annoyed me for quite some time, I finally tried something new, aim for the elite below you on the start of the Pillar of Autumn level, this is by far the easiest place to jump on the elite and most predictable, what I did different was that I tried not to look down or hold forward on the left analouge stick, his means you are in a free fall and will not slide as you land which causes you to survive a fall, I got the achiement first time I killed the elite this way and have been trying since launch for this, my character animation was the one where you slash sideways with the knife and not the head stomp everyone believes you need for the achievment.

Hope this helps, oh and I did have sprint on at the time of free fall so this makes no difference on or off!

Hey! I've uploaded a guide for the german part of this community!
But I guess everyone could follow this.
If you liked it feel free do subscribe.
I'll upload a bunch of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Dead Space 2 and, as soon as its released, Crysis 2 Achievement Guides.
Enjoy!
Greets Roughneck

Ok, I know there are a lot of guides to this achievement, but for me, none of them really helped that much...I did everything they said:
-Turn off sprint mid-air
-Turn Black-eye on and get some damage before jumping
-Got damaged when I hit the ground and got yellow shields during the assassination
-Tried on Pillar of Autumn and Nightfall
-Tried all difficulties
-Turned all skulls and scoring off and on

None of this was really working for me. I spent a 7 hours total on this really really annoying achievement. In the end, this video helped me out, but it wasn't because of the 'turn your sprint off' tip. What I focused on was making sure I wasn't aiming at the Elite and that my reticle wasn't red. I think what turning sprint off does is that it makes sure that you are directly behind the Elite because if you even touch the Elite before the assassination then it won't count because that cancels the 'death'. I did turn off sprint, but like I said, I don't think thats why it worked. The MAIN THING is to focus on keeping the reticle off of the Elite. I tried to keep it a couple inches on the screen above his head. Now, I've seen people get the achievement by having their sprint on and the reticle being red, but after I started focusing on this (and, I guess, turning sprint off mid-air), I got it within 6 minutes.

Pretty much, this achievement sucks and is really glitchy and stupid, but keep trying, and you will get it. :D

i just wanted to add tip to rayvenmorriganas post i found that if you equip the handgun it gives you a wider viewing range to be more accurate and also the trick with the sprint is that as soon as you stop the sprint your spartan will drop so id advise stopping it wen you know your just behind the elite so your actually falling behind the elite because i had reall trouble with hitting him, landing on top of him etc id recommend just trying to get the jump right first you hav to sprint to the edge and as you feel your spartan slightly drop hit jump this should help you get the right amount of distance needed i hope this helps ppl good luck and keep trying its just a trial and error achievement!! also make sure its on legendary because its less awkward to get on this difficulty and your not able to unlock achievements on easy and the fall wouldnt kill you anyway!!

Was trying this on Pillar, Legendary, No scoring, and no skulls for about 2 hours. Would perform assassination animation but no cheevie.

Changed difficulty to Heroic, 1 skull (birthday), and Free for All scoring. Got it on my 2nd jump (1st actual assassination). Glad this is done. :)

I finally got this after about 3hrs of trying all different ways from this thread, normal, legendary, scoring, no scoring etc etc, finally i settled on normal, black eye skull and no scoring in the pillar of autumn, i waited for the elite to move to my left a little, lined up the run, jumped off the cliff and a split second before hitting the elite i held RB, i didnt stop the run.. to my surprise i performed what seemed to be a perfect assassination and the achievement popped ;-) the worst part was hitting the elite, either he would move or i was way out and most of my attempts were basically hitting ground, hope you all manage this one ;-)

I got this achievement today, I was reading up on bungie.com about ways to do this.

Difficulty: Legendary
Level: Pillar of autumn
Other: Turn sprint off just before, Also Jump on his head

Make sure you run to the cliff edge as fast as possible to where I am on the video. Wait for the guy to say "race you to her" elite moves and you pounce. X

I finally got it.
How? The same way you're trying so much, the same way i manage to assassinate the elite hundreds times.

I was in heroic, simple, campaign (no skulls, no scores)
I was at Pillar Of Autumn starting point with full shield (no grenade trick).
I deactivated RUN in the middle of the jump as you all do.
I noticed a difference from my other tries:

i was quite vertical over the elite (targeting the neck)
i hit RB with much anticipation, nearly too early

i think that the theory that if you hit the elite with your body before you start assassination hit voids the achievement is true.

So, try to anticipate the hit and avoid stomping the elite before the assassination.

Good luck, keep trying, i really tried this many many times, don't waste time clearing cache, changing modes/skulls etc.

just keep trying

One thing I noticed that helped me save time during numerous failed attempts. As mostly recommended play Pillar of Autumn on Legendary difficulty. Now to save time turn the THUNDERSTORM skull on. The elite on this level will now be white. I made a research (namely played the beginning over and over again) and i noticed that 80% of the times he will immediately go to the right next to the flipped car. You don't have to wait for him to go there. You can start sprinting during the "Once More unto the Breach" title. You should kill him even before Emile starts saying "Here's our destination"

Juuuussssttttt got the achievement after two and a half hours grinding on it, the last one I needed to complete the game for a long while, what I did was on legendary, no skulls no scoring, retry after retry, but when the achievement popped for me was my "last try" I DID NOT stop sprinting, when mine popped I had three bars of health left FROM THE FALL ITSELF, from what I can see you need PERFECT timing to where your shield pops and the assassination occurs, and I mean SIMULTANEUOSLY when u hit the ground u need to assassinate, good luck guys!

Hello TA gamers,

I finaly got this one :-)

This is not a solution, this is only way how I got it.

like all of you I perform more than 50 right assassination without score achievement.

I look more solutions on this sites and there is some reasons how to get it.

I play local co-op with my second controler ( signed another gamertag )
Pillar of autumn
Legendary
Skull: none
score: team

I perform assassination where my spartan jump Elite to head
I have activated run for half of jump for more lengh jump
I not to hit elite before with legs, I land behind him and hold assassination ( meelee button )
My crosshair is red aimed on elite foots and I think red disapear if I land ( this is fast, I am not sure for this )
I lost all my shield in land and not take any body damage ( i am not sure if is important or not, but this is only one thing another than other succesfull assassinations where I not got achievement. If I perform assassination, my shield been down and around my body I see amination with light for lost shield.

I think this achievement is only lucky or random. Biggest help there is to try and try until you got this achievement, no go to cleaning system cache and recover gamertags. This is only take time without any help.

I lost more time trying some solutions with take care about jump to back or not have crosshair red, I think this is not too important. I thing problem is only timing, because this must to be like achievement say, survive fatal fall with assassination.

Please sorry for my English, I just try help other peoples there and I hope you understand me well :-)

This is my first "solution" and I hope if you vote negative, write me there why :-) Thanks

Good luck with this trycky achievement.

Redjonin1

Contrary to public belief (by some), this is NOT a glitched bug. I did, however, figure out why a bazillion people (myself included at one point in time) could not, for the life of them, get this achievement.

I would highly suggest you use this solution guide in conjunction with another one with a video (because I'm poor and don't own my own Xbox, yet.)

1. Load up The Pillar of Autumn level on normal difficulty or higher (Yes, you may be tired of it, I know, but it's still the quickest).
2. Quickly make your way to the cliff

Now, here's where I start to deviate from the first solution guide you may read:

3. Give yourself SIGNIFICANT distance from the cliff (relative to your definition, but you'll figure it out)+
4. Run and start your sprint about a quarter/halfway into Emile's dialogue, and then jump over the edge (which should be before he's finished talking), WHILE keeping your sprint active*


Situation check:
At this time, after completing 4., you should be in the air, with the elite-to-be-assassinated somewhere on the ground below/in front of you. If not, tinker around with the timing of your jump so that you find him closer to you after jumping.

5. While you're in the air, steer your fall so that you fall directly above the elite. When he is clearly below you (while a smidgen bit in front of you, so you can perform the necessary assassination), disengage your sprint. Please note, it does NOT matter so much when you disengage sprint, so long as you've had a solid running start before jumping.
6. Smash that B button right as you fall behind/above him to perform the assassination. If you do this right, you will hear the delightful bleep-bloop achievement sound Xbox players have come to know and love.

Insightful notes which are key to everything above:
*Keeping your sprint active while you are in the air will allow you to keep forward momentum, to the point where you're above the elite
+Distance makes a difference here, for whatever reason. If I had to guess why, I'd tie it to the fact that it takes a moment to reach maximum sprint speed in Halo 5. If you have maximum sprint, you get maximum velocity, which translates to a higher jump, etc.

P.S. If you don't mind, please give me feedback to prove/disprive/propose a revision to my solution.

Here is my 2 cents....

I did with the bumper jumper layout. It helped me keep height. The key, after trying sooooooo many times was a solution that stressed landing on his head. When I did that, and I mean landed dead on his head, it popped.

Couldn't get this after too many tries and too much time. Decided to give it one last go following the skull recommendation by StressyGit Xx on Pillar of Autumn. Jumped off and aimed for on top of the Elite's head, got it 3rd try.

I wanted to post a guide after completing this to both confirm it is doable in 2020 and provide a consolidated post with links to show how it can be done. I will provide links to other posts that contributed and a clip of my success can be found in my Halo Reach File Share, gamertag iGetHitmarkersX.

Mission: Nightfall
Difficulty: Legendary

I started this mission with two controllers active to ensure that Jun from advancing and sniping the elite as I was setting up. Credit for this tip goes to BERRYLEGEND for this tip (Link: Solution for If They Came to Hear Me Beg In Halo: Reach)

At the beginning of the mission you will see an elite looking over a camp, melee him in the back. DO NOT assassinate him as this will alert the enemies below you. Next, move to your right and melee the two sleeping grunts as you make your way up the path along the hill.

As you get to be directly in front of the tower in the camp you should see an elite pacing below you. Wait for him to move towards the cliff-face to your left and then sprint jump and assassinate him. This may take you several attempts (I completed a dozen or so assassinations on this level, and hundreds on Pillar of Autumn) but you will get it.

I have uploaded the clip of me finishing this achievement to my Halo Reach File Share if you'd like to take a look at it. It's time stamped with today's date (8/3/20) and begins just before I melee the first elite.

I hope this guide helps at least one person struggling with this achievement. It was very frustrating and I empathize with anybody who is still dealing with it. Good luck!

So i just got this today on 22nd of January in 2021, unlocked it after 5 hours and 30 minutes of total time. 2 days ago i tried to get it for 5 hours without a break, i read some of the TOP solutions here but none of the worked for me, i had over 180 successfull assassinations but it never popped, i gave up. But i came back to it today, again tried to do it the way like 2 days ago, but everything was the same, but then i had an idea to DISCONNECT myself from the XBOX LIVE a go OFFLINE and launch a game, BOOOM! I got it only after my 3RD TRY! So if you REALLY STRUGGLING to pop this chievo TRY TO DISCONNECT FROM THE XBOX LIVE, it worked for me perfectly! This is my first guide ever so i hope it helps to anybody who reads this :) (there is like 40 guides under this achievement, in sorry in advance if solution like this is already here, i didnt read all the solutions, thank you)

For me, the most important part for getting this to pop (at least on the Pillar of Autumn spot) was meleeing before getting into lunging range. The lunge seems to cancel out your falling momentum and the game won't see it as a potentially fatal fall. If you melee pre-emptively and fall into the Elite while the melee animation is still playing, it will trigger a different assassination animation than the one where you jump on his head, and that was what got it to pop.