Halo 4 Mythic Difficulty Guide

Halo 4 Mythic (SLASO) Walkthrough by Daniel Morris

Halo 4 Mythic Difficulty Guide - MISSION 5: Reclaimer

The Tru7h about "Mythaimer"

After the whirlwind of Promethean/Covenant chaos you just experienced, you're being treated to what I consider to be the easiest mission in the game. Without a doubt "Reclaimer" is my personal favorite mission in the game. Much like Halo 3's "The Ark" and Combat Evolved's "Assault on the Control Room", "Reclaimer places the player in vast, open areas with lots of different combat options. For that reason, I highly recommend heavy exploration (Tyrant likes to explore things) on lesser difficulties to gain a full appreciation for everything this mission has to offer. On Mythic, we're going to be using a lot of tricks to our advantage to blaze through the majority of it. In fact, it's entirely possible to truck your way through "Reclaimer" (even on Mythic!) without killing a single enemy—not counting the Covenant Lich.

We'll divide this into the two given chapters already planted in the mission since we won't be spending much time in either one.

Size Matters
Gravity of the Situation

You begin by boarding the UNSC super-vehicle called a "Mammoth" and you'll spend the first half of the mission either defending it or helping it plow through certain obstacles. The second half grants you access to another UNSC titan... the Scorpion Tank. So let's get rolling! And yes. Pun intended.

Size Matters

Well it'd better! I didn't answer all those bits of spam mail for nothing! But it's all good. I'll get my investment back when the Prince of Nigeria comes through.

Your weapon selection here doesn't really matter, but for good measure I tend to steal the Sniper Rifle from one of the other Spartans in case I get the urge to go Jackal hunting. Head through the tunnel and you'll be greeted by the galaxy's largest Hummer...

The Mammoth in and of itself is nothing short of impressive. It has just about everything you could possibly ever need (except a DMR). I'm betting this is the successor to the Elephant and Oliphant from Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST.

Run inside and up to the top floor where you'll rendezvous with Lasky. You'll only need to wait for him to acknowledge you before heading to the back of the vessel to retrieve a Jet Pack. We'll definitely be using this later. If you'd like, you can also grab a Battle Rifle from inside the hull. Again, you won't really need it, but if you enjoy having the knowledge of being well stocked just in case, it certainly can't hurt you.

Cue the Mammoth. When it starts rolling you'll be treated to the spectacular view of the Grand Canyon wannabe around you. The scenery is nothing short of breathtaking, and you can tell that 343 put a lot of love into their craft. Rounding the bend will trigger a mini Death Star to fire a beam of pwnage at the three airborne Pelicans. Guess they should have heeded the hit box warning after all.

Dead ahead you'll see a small Covenant force preparing for your arrival. The route the game suggests you take here is to man one of the Mammoth's side-mounted Missile Launchers to bombard the enemy installments, but we're going to sit this one out and throw our fellow Spartans under the bus. Meander back inside the belly of the Mammoth and let them do the work for you. It does take a bit longer for the Mammoth to pass when the Chief isn't involved, but your goal is to maintain your shields at their fullest strength.

Shortly after, you'll be coming up on one of the downed Pelicans packing a target locator that you'll end up using against the scattered Particle Cannons. Of course the Covenant have already gotten there first and their forces are comprised all sorts of hazards like Ghosts, Wraiths, Phantoms, and Jackal Snipers. The Mammoth will stop a short distance away from the Locator, and if any of your Spartan allies survived the previous encounter, they'll be rushing down the stairs towards one of the Warthogs—whispering vengeful remarks no doubt. Take the rear Hog and let your buddies go first as soon as the doors lower themselves. If you really want to play it safe (especially if all of your allies bit the dust), exit from the rear and take out the Jackal Sniper in the nearby watchtower.

There are three paths leading up to the Locator. The leftmost path has generated the highest success rate for me personally as it seems to give you the most cover in relation to where all the enemies are initially patrolling. Follow the nav-point all the way up to the Locator. At this point, you'll be taking some flak from the Covenant so use the rocks for cover. Grab the Locator, but instead of heading back for the Hog—which is currently under fire anyway—go for the parked Ghost further down to the right. Jump in and boost back to the Mammoth using the same path you took for your initial approach. Don't be overly shocked if you lose your shields here. It's perfectly normal. Drive straight into the mouth of the Mammoth, and head up to the top level.

It should be noted that unlike in Halo Reach, the Target Locator isn't actually a weapon and it operates independently from your current arsenal. Push up on the D-Pad to access it and target the first particle cannon. Remember the Covenant Cruiser you had to destroy with the MAC in Halo Reach? Much like that encounter, it will require two shots from the Target Locator in order to bring it down thanks to the boost granted by the Mythic Skull (as a side note, it's not the Locator doing the actual damage, but rather the powerful rail gun crowning the Mammoth).

The Mammoth will begin lurching forward again once the particle gun is in pieces. It will stop briefly to pick up any surviving allies (whether you have any or not) before proceeding forward to the next objective. Again, this is your cue to duck back down into the Mammoth's interior to avoid the upcoming Phantoms and Banshees. If you're feeling adventurous, you're more than welcome to meander back out to the roof and take potshots at the Phantoms using the Locator, but if your goal is to survive, don't risk it as the Banshees tend to get a tad bit aggressive.

Soon the next nav-point will wink to life on your HUD and you'll be asked to take down three power generators in order to bring down the energy barrier located at the far end of the cannon. On lesser difficulties I actually recommend fighting this one out. It's not so much that it benefits you, but given the fact that you already have a Ghost in addition to the Rockets, Snipers, and other weapons stashed in the Mammoth, you can have quite a bit of fun here. On Mythic, however, it's a different story. Since the bad guys tend to hide out inside their little bubble shields while the Shade turrets try to pick you off from afar, things can sink to a rather frustrating level very quickly. So once again we're going to have to cheat the system by using a tactic that has graced the franchise since Combat Evolved—clipping.

Hop back in the Ghost, and when the doors lower, boost to the opposite side of the canyon while hugging the right cliff wall to avoid Shade peppering. If you have trouble climbing the smaller rock ledges, use the lift feature to lift to the nose of the Ghost slightly off the ground. Once you reach the shield barrier, park the Ghost parallel to it and hop on out—pushing the joystick in the direction of the barrier. Voilà! You just magically skipped past the last objective without firing a single shot! Don't worry. When you move into the next area far enough the barrier will disappear on its own and the Mammoth will eventually catch up. Also, WAIT until the Mammoth reaches you before firing off the first shot at the next particle cannon.

This next bit gets a bit tricky, so you'll want to watch the video at the base of the page for reference. 343 is about to throw a brand new Covenant vessel your way—the Lich—classified as a high capacity Covenant drop ship. If you were to play this section out normally, the Lich would rise from the backside cliffs, EMP the Mammoth, and you'd be forced to take out several waves of Covenant on your trek to boarding and destroying the new ship. What's the Mythic answer to this dilemma? Beating the Lich to the punch...

Use your jetpack to scale the cliff wall and peek over the side to see the Lich clipped into the rock formations below. Do not stray too close, however, or you'll cause the craft to sink. While it will eventually make its appearance again, it will be invincible, and you'll be unable to proceed forward. Taking the second shot at the particle cannon will cause it to rise up. This is your signal to jump down on top of the Lich for infiltration. OR if you aren't comfortable with that method (since you really do need to time your descent correctly not to be pulverized by the impact), you can wait for it to settle above its usual location on the plateau where you'll be treated to an empty Lich! Apparently approaching it early despawns all the enemies inside.

Either way, you'll need to destroy the core in a similar fashion to the Scarabs from Halo 3 and head back to the Mammoth while dodging the enemy reinforcements. It's now time once again to ride the Mammoth across dangerous terrain to your next objective. While it's possible to ride one of the Ghosts on the battlefield the rest of the way, apparently Requiem gets its drinking water from BP's last oil spill. It will kill you quickly if you don't jet over it fast enough.

Your next objective is Halo 4's very own Sniper Alley. Can't get enough of these in Halo games *vomits*! Fortunately, this skip-heavy mission has yet another solution to this problem. Again, you'll need to watch the video at the bottom of the page to get a firm grip on exactly where you need to go, but trigger the checkpoint to load Sniper Alley and backtrack to the nearest cliff drop-off. At this point, I'd also recommend grabbing a Battle Rifle and a Rocket Launcher from the Mammoth. While you may not need these for the upcoming encounter—I didn't—it does serve well as a Plan B.

Use the jetpack to boost on top of the plateau. Turn left and Sprint-jump and boost to the next high ledge. You'll trigger a "Return to Battlefield" warning so don't wait around too long. Jump down to the visible rock ledge below, round the rock wall, and boost up to the next rock ledge. At this point, the wall is merely cosmetic and you can walk right through it. Don't rush though! Pass through it into blackness. You'll drop a short distance. Lightly tap the joystick forward again to trigger the next short drop. If you go too far, you'll fall off the map, so I do stress to take these drops lightly!

Even through the blackness, you'll still be able to see the checkpoint you triggered off in the distance. This is the direction you want to be facing. Sprint jump again and you'll be through the rock wall and right at the endpoint of Sniper Alley with zero enemies waiting for you! In order to reach the opposite ledge, you'll want to carefully time your jetpack boosts. You should have just enough fuel to make it to the other side. Once this is accomplished, simply exit Sniper Alley through the exit door on the top platform and proceed with the mission.

You'll enter a vast and shiny Forerunner structure where a few harmless Sentinels will guide you through a series of corridors leading you to the particle cannon's core system. Inserting Cortana into the terminal will allow her to disable the guns, and then... she gets kidnapped! By who? We're about to find out.

Start heading back the way you came, and you'll notice a light bridge extending to a recently opened door. Head through and make your way through the next series of corridors until you're lead to a room where the Chief literally gets sucked into a blinding beam of light.

Cue an epic mid-game cutscene depicting an ancient war between Humans and Forerunners, the plight caused by the Flood, and the Didact's thirst for vengeance. Who is revealing all of this juicy gossip? It's none other than the Didact's defensive ex! Perhaps this is why the Didact is so angry. He didn't get the house in the divorce settlement. I imagine that spherical studio apartment can get rather cramped after 100,000 years. Especially with no cable...

Long story short, the Prometheans have skull faces because they used to be human. The Didact was able to acquire such a powerful weapon in the Forerunners' quest for immortality via transcending biological and digital realms. Well, I can't say I blame them. Je souhaite un grand pouvoir et une longue vie!

After a little augmented juicing up from the Librarian, the Chief is now ready to tackle the Didact head-on! The closing of the cutscene drops you right back into the action. A swarm of Crawlers and Knights are heading your way and blocking the exit. Fortunately, you can skip this bit as well by retrieving Cortana and using the jetpack to boost up to the small side platforms. I prefer the one on the left. Race to the other side and use the Battle Rifle to take out any Crawlers that are blocking your exit. The Knights will usually resort to grenade spamming, but if they too are hindering your progress, you can use a combination of the Rocket Launcher with a little bit of Cowbell to knock them out of the way. It won't kill them, but at the very least it will clear you a path.

Jetpack back down and head through the door. Cortana, now safely back in the hands (or should I say head?) of the Chief is kind enough to open up another portal for you leading back to the outside world.

Gravity of the Situation

Plop! You're right back in the middle of outdoor chaos. This bit reminds me of the Dawn landing on the Ark and giving you a fleet of vehicles to plow through the Covenant forces to get to the Cartographer. It's an excellent throwback, and I consider this battle to be nearly as epic. A large Covenant force is now standing between you and the barrier. They spare no expense and through everything your way including Wraiths, Ghosts, Phantoms, and Fuel Rod troops. Fortunately you've got quite a bit of firepower to help level the playing field. While the Mammoth has suddenly gone missing, a cluster of Scorpions in my opinion is equally as good if not better.

Your mission is to penetrate the barrier to reach another Target Locator and use it to lock on to the gravity well keeping Infinity from escaping through Requiem's roof. Wait... the Librarian didn't just take Cortana, but she snatched our Target Locator too? Spartans died for that thing, woman!

There's little to tell here aside from commandeer the tank your allies are generous enough to leave for you and use it to blow through the Covenant resistance. Nothing beats a Scorpion backed up by more Scorpions! Though your allies will almost surely perish by recklessly barreling into the middle of a plasma storm, you shouldn't have any trouble here as long as you hang back, deal with the enemy armor from afar, and keep an eye out for groups of infantry wielding Fuel Rod Cannons. When you push forward far enough, Phantoms will swoop down to drop off additional Wraiths. Again, simply hang back and shell them with tungsten from a safe distance.

As far as the barrier itself goes, it's once again implied that you need to disable the generators keeping it up. I wouldn't recommend, however, trying to clip through it this time. Even if you were able to snatch a Ghost, the area is still heavily saturated by enemy forces. Instead, hop out of the tank and use the jetpack to boost up the cliff wall on the right. From there, you can simply walk past the barrier and slowly descend to the ground using a light boost. Remember to trigger the checkpoint so as to spawn the Target Locator ahead. Walk to the edge of the cliff, pick it up off the ground, and use it to target the majestic gravity well with tons of pieces of Requiem swirling around its core.

With Reclaimer now winding down to a close, you can now sit back and watch Captain Del Rio make an ass out of himself in front of our story's beloved hero...