Halo: Reach

This is a story achievement and can not be missed.
*possible spoiler*
However I would like to add that when playing on Legendary, at the very end of the mission, you do not have to climb into the gun until the last second. Keyes will says when. I hit a checkpoint with only the 3 center health lit and tried at least a dozen times, unsuccessfully, to finish the game. However, when I ran and got a health pack and waited for Keyes to say the word, I jumped into the gun, almost died, but fired the shot. Hope this helps anyone that may have hit that same problem as I did!

Toughest level in the game, by far. My only tip to everyone is to save your DMR ammunition. There are not that many useful supply caches (unless you really like AR's and Shotguns) in this level.

Videos and written guides really helped me complete the game. Do your research before you start!

Good luck!

One of the hardest parts of this mission on Legendary is when you enter the "Holdout" multiplayer map area. You encounter waves and waves of enemies and there is seemingly no place to hide.

When you enter this area (10:30 mark in video #3 of GiTuCid's videos) run to the Crow's Nest (the area where he is at the 10:50 mark). You can get there faster by jumping over the railing of the catwalk instead of going down the stairs. Just inside the shanty lookout there is a sniper rifle. You'll want that, and preferably another zoomable weapon like a DMR, pistol, or needle rifle. Grab the sniper and take out a few enemies as the the dropships land with your other weapon. Focus on the grunts first As you begin to run out of ammo, there is a couple ammo crates in the room just under the crow's nest. Also along the back wall of that room (he runs by it at 16:51-52 of video #3) you can melee the wall from the outside to get an extra DMR/shotgun ammo crate. Eventually you'll want to go back to where you came into this area as you get to the harder parts. There is a large piece of sheet metal with a break in it about chest height near the door you exited out of to this area. You can use that sheet as a shield and zoom and headshot enemies through the crack. They can still hit you through the crack, but you'll have a lot more time between shots to line your shot up then if you camp anywhere else. Every now and then a few enemies will come up the stairs towards you, but for some reason most of the enemies won't figure out how to corner you. Occasionally you'll have to come out of your spot to make an ammo run, but overall you can get through most of the enemies without too much trouble from this single spot. All you need is a little patience and a few good headshots.

The achievement will come once completing the level. (Pillar of Autumn)

Hopefully this strategy helps for the end part where I was getting caught up at:

After Keyes shows up you will have to go back into the building from the way that you came out. Before entering back into the building, stand to the right side of the door way and watch for the mob (floating alien shield generator dude) that spawns the shields for the elites. There will be 4 or 5 elites (the tough ones), one has a fuel rod cannon and is located on the right side upper platform.

I was rather hard up for ammo in anything that would make an impact. I found a shotgun/magnum in the downstairs area of where you can pick up the sniper rifle from the previous fight area (where you defend and wait for Keyes).

I went back to the door and hugged the right side, I did not enter the building though. Using LOS (line of sight), I was able to use my DMR and kill it in 2 shots. If you pick your shots carefully you will be able to shoot off its helmet then its head *watch for its long neck*.

Once I removed that massive annoyance out of the equation I bounced in and out of cover using the door frame to make pop shots into the elite that patrols around just inside the door.

****Be careful not to run in very far! They are bloodthirsty beasts that will chase you down!****

Once the elite down low was eliminated, I crouched and snuck over to the far side of the room. If you hug the right hand wall and use your hologram you should be able to safely get there, and get a weapon (or ammo) that will allow you to finish the job.

Using my hologram again, I was able to divert attention away from myself and get back outside the building. Now that I had a full DMR, I "pieced the pie" through the doorway. Meaning I would move slightly and expose a new angle and site lines but was still mostly covered by the door frame.

Using that technique I cleared out the remaining mobs, using hologram as necessary.

Now you will need to get on the gun and pew pew bad dudes! The gun your supposed to use doesn't recharge fast enough to survive on legendary (at least not for me). I couldn't kill enough enemy aircraft before being turned into goo.

=> I would HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest using Tinynshorty's tactic that is at the top of this post for the last part. If you haven't read the strategy, I would suggest it. <=

What I did was: Get into the gun to trigger the event, get out of the gun and go down the stairs behind it. Wait there until Keyes says something about the Corvettes shield being down, he will say (shoot the belly, we cant take another hit like that" - or something along those lines. Hop into the gun and fire it at the huge red circle under the ship. If a cut scene queues then GG and congratz on finishing Halo: Reach!

^^^^ THIS STRATEGY WAS USED FROM TINYNSHORTY AS PER THE POST AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE^^^^ (In my own words)

Hopefully this proves helpful to someone and can save them from beating their head against the wall like I did. If anyone has a question or theres a problem with the post feel free to message me.

Happy Gaming!

Mission 10 – Pillar of Autumn

Mission starts at 2:16:42 in the walkthrough video below.

The final mission of the game, Pillar of Autumn, can either be extremely frustrating or only mildly frustrating. At the very beginning, you’ll want try for the achievement for saving yourself from a fall to your death via assassinating an Elite. This achievement is VERY finicky, and I suggest checking out its solution for more info. You may want to come back after completing the mission as it could take some time.



From the start, drop down off the cliff to the right, and sprint down through the lower area between the bridge and the higher cliff where the Elite is. Before getting on the mongoose and continuing on, go into the nearby building, and get a DMR and a Rocket Launcher. You’ll want to conserve the rockets for the Brutes at the very end of the mission. Use the DMR to deal with the buggers in the cave, then pick up a needle rifle from the Jackals with as much ammo as possible, which you will also want to conserve to fight the Brutes at the end.

There are two pretty significant shortcuts. The first requires you to sprint-jump onto the rooftops on the left just after the Mongoose section to skip past the Wraith and its Covenant buddies. The second requires a very tricky jump inside the building just before the two Hunters outside, where you get up onto an upper catwalk to cross through the area, which actually prevents the two Hunters from spawning. I highly advise watching the walkthrough video above and perhaps even RC Master’s speedrun of this mission on Youtube to get an idea on how to do these, especially the latter as the Hunters are a pain, and you don’t want to waste your rockets on them.

The Brute waves at the end of the mission are also pretty key. Try to get into position so you can rocket entire groups of them as they come off of the dropships, and then polish off the remaining enemies with your needle rifle.

At mission completion, you’ll unlock several achievements for a large chunk of this game’s Gamerscore, including "Send Me Out With a Bang" for this mission specifically.