Halo: Reach Mythic Guide

Halo 3: ODST Mythic (SLASO) Walkthrough by Daniel Morris

Nightfall

Full run, Bungie.net Fileshare

The Tru7h about Mythicfall

    The "tru7h" is... it's the Floodgate of Halo: Reach. Come on. You knew there had to be one. For those of you who need to be brought up to speed on exactly what that means, allow me to elaborate.
    In Halo 3, Floodgate was considered to be BY FAR the easiest mission in the game. There were a number of factors that played into this point of view. It could be conquered in under five minutes. You could get through the entire mission without killing a single enemy. And of course, the Flood were (for the most part) a complete pushover in Halo 3 overall. There were even contests help to see who could zip through it the fastest. Yes, it was that simple.
    In Halo 3: ODST, the "New Floodgate" became Uplift Reserve. Yet again, we were presented with a mission which could be conquered in under five minutes (three minutes in fact!), and could be done without killing a single enemy, leaving little to no major conflict from start to finish. In fact, I accidentally received a Vidmaster achievement on my first successful completion on this mission due to not killing any enemies in the process of racing through on a Ghost!
    In Reach, Nightfall just happens to be that mission. It's not quite as carefree or forgiving as the previous two. There are a few enemies you'll need to kill in order to complete the "speed run" successfully, but they're typically pushovers and require very little effort to conquer.
    For the sake of organization, we have the following chapters:

Too Quiet...
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
I'll Just Leave This Here...

And let the race begin!

Too Quiet...

    This mission brings a lot of Halo Combat Evolved nostalgia to the table. In many ways, it reflects Truth & Reconciliation all the way from the nighttime setting to the rocky cliff-side environment. You even start the mission off with a sniper rifle packed with tons of extra ammunition. In Combat Evolved, though, you had the upper hand. Your enemies couldn't snipe back...
    When the mission begins, you'll find yourself clinging to the cliff wall of a towering plateau with Reach's awe-inspiring night sky dominating the background. In the center, a beautiful ring world casts its celestial light on the path ahead.
    As you round the next bend, you'll find an Elite Ultra standing at attention with a small group of enemies patrolling below. Jun, the sniper of the group, instructs you to land an assassination. For once, we're going to listen, though you'll need to be careful when doing it. If you make too much noise, you'll awaken the Grunts nearby. Not a big deal, but the more quietly you can sneak around without being spotted, the smoother things will go.
    There are two ways you can pull this off. If you simply tap him out, it will end his life quickly and without repercussion. However, if you're just itching to land that Yoink move, then be sure to jump up first and come down on him from above. This will cause your Spartan to stomp on his head, keeping him from letting lose a bellowing death scream. Then you can sneak up the sides of the elevated rock and assassinate the two remaining Grunts without alerting the enemies lurking below. Here's a visual demonstration.

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Things are about to speed up. As you round the next bend you'll find yourself looking down on an enemy encampment; a human settlement that has fallen into Covenant hands. It'll be patrolled by several Ranger Elites wielding the new focus rifle as well as several Grunt Ultras and a blood-craving Elite General wearing striking gold armor. Now, you could take the time to try picking them off with your spotless, new sniper rifle if you choose, but I have a slightly faster way...

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    As long as the Ranger (sometimes located on the roof of right-most building) isn't looking straight at you, running this section is relatively simple, and the patrols won't even notice you at all. If they do, you're pretty much screwed. On the bright side it's still the beginning of the mission, so even if you manage to screw things up here, you wouldn't have lost much time in the process.
    Basically you need to hug the right-hand side of the area, hop onto the catwalk, make your way around the building, and slip through the door to safety. You shouldn't need it, but in case you do, there is a health pack right near the exit door.
    Head through the exit, jump up to the next platform, and go around the right side of the tower. You'll alert a few Grunts in the process, so wait until they notice you before sprinting to the far building. That way you'll miss all the stickies in the process. Run up the stair to the second floor balcony and jump off the side to head back into the cliffs. You may encounter an Ultra in the building, but usually he's paying too much attention to Jun to notice you until you're back on the ground. By then it's really too late for him to do anything about it.
    The last obstacle in this section is a dynamic duo of cannon fodder; a Grunt Ultra and a Jackal Major. Don't bother engaging them. Usually you can run past them just fine without suffering too much damage, but in case you have trouble, tossing a grenade will cause them to stop shooting momentarily so they can dodge the explosive. This will buy you enough time to jump past and be on your way.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

You'll want to climb up on the rock ledge to the left before charging into the next area where you'll witness one of the coolest moments of the game; a group of Grunts getting their tiny, little methane asses handed to them by a pair of raging Rancors—erm, I'm sorry. I mean Gutas. It's the only instance in the game where you'll find two enemy factions wailing on each other, which is a shame considering how much fun it was to watch the Flood and Covenant go at each other's throats in Halo CE.
On Legendary and lower, the Gutas will usually stomp the Grunts out of existence (I wonder what a battle against Hunters would have been like?!), but on Mythic, due to the significant boost in Grunty health, the battle tends to be a bit of a coin toss. There are really two ways you can approach it. The first is to simply run through it like so...

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Usually, the two sides will be too occupied with each other to even notice you. However, if you're feeling extra cautious, feel free to wait out the battle and mop up the survivors. As long as you're attacking from an elevated position, you shouldn't have trouble dealing with them no matter who survives.
After breezing through this area, you'll have a brief lull of activity as you maneuver through the rock valley and past the flock of Moa. You'll hear gun shots from up ahead, and Jun will inform you that it's likely the Covenant are attacking a group of local militia. Personally, I'm not one to intervene on other people's issues, so we're going to just skip this one too.

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    This is the segment of the mission where things are least likely to go wrong. All you need to do is stick close to the side as shown in the video, hop up to the road momentarily, avoid the Phantom's gunners, jump down, and disappear into the night. We'll let the UNSC bitch about it later. For now, we have more important issues to deal with.
    Had you decided to stay and fight it out (which is purely up to you), you'd be contending with several waves of Covenant dropped off by Covenant dropships from all directions and angles. Even on regular Legendary, the odds of you being able to save even one civilian are pretty slim, so don't feel bad about passing this one up. The extra ammo is nice, but we have yet to even pull the trigger on the sniper rifle.
    Again, you'll receive a short break. The Moas will mysteriously vanish right before your eyes as you receive a useless checkpoint before linking up with Jun in the next area.

I'll Just Leave This Here...

    This time, you'll arrive to at a "big pylon" heavily guarded by a large force of sleeping Covenant. Good to see they're protecting such a high-valued device with some of their best men... Among the group are Grunt Ultras, Elite Ultras, and a cocky General. If you decided to fight this one out, you'd be greeted by three separate waves of enemies. The first to are mainly made up of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals, and the big guns finally arrives with Wave 3... a pair of ruthless Hunters, and this time there isn't a Gauss Hog around to help you circumvent the fight. Sounds a bit lopsided, right? Fortunately for us, thanks to Legendary Smile, there is a small trick that not only allows you to breeze through this battle, but also the remainder of the mission!
    First, sneak up to the small bridge ahead. It'll be occupied by a group of sleeping Grunts and a single Elite Ultra on patrol. The key here is to kill the Elite without disturbing the rest of the group. Wait until he's facing away from you. Then sprint forward and tap him out (do NOT try to pull a Yoink assassination, or else you'll awaken the Grunts!). Now carefully kill the remaining Grunts on the bridge while they sleep.
    When you look ahead, you should notice a forklift on the pylon side of the bridge. It's drivable, so hop in and make your way to the locked gate ahead. Despite all the noise it makes, it won't usually draw attention from the rest of the Covenant, so you shouldn't have any real issues here.
    Normally, you'd be fighting out the next three waves of enemies in order to get the gate open, but the method ahead has been proven to be far easier.

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I know it looks cheap, but it's FAR easier than fighting out the battles at both the pylon and beyond. All you need to do is pull the forklift up next to the gate and jump out into the wall. If you managed to do it correctly, the game will actually clip you through the wall and into the next area. Because you chose to do it this way, the enemy spawns won't have triggered, and now you can freely waltz to the end of the mission without any opposition whatsoever to stumble upon what appears to be the Covenant equivalent of Woodstock!

BAM! Nightfall in five minutes or less.