Halo 5 Mythic Difficulty Guide

Halo 5 Mythic (LASO) Walkthrough by MythicTyrant

Halo 5 Mythic Difficulty Guide - MISSION 7: Reunion

The Tru7h About Reunion

Rating: Medium

Type: Covenant-Promethean Balanced

Admittedly there's a lot to love about this mission. Not only is it visually stunning and beautiful with a healthy mix of nature and Forerunner technology, but we also get to catch up with the Master Chief and Blue Team. This may be the only solid medium mission in the game. RNG has little to do with your success but rather your personal learning curve and ability to adapt to your surroundings. There's also a nice even split between both Promethean and Covenant factions. This first half of the mission will consist of Covenant encounters, and the latter half will be Promethean themed. There's also quite a bit of speedrunning here as well as a singular boss encounter. Enjoy it while you can, because after this, it will be quite awhile before we get to check back in with the legendary members of Blue Team.

War Was In The Gates

Welcome to Genesis! To this day, I still find the concept behind Forerunner ideology to be infinitely fascinating. Genesis alone is quite an anomaly considering every artificial Forerunner "planet" we've come across so far has been protected by some sort of outer shell and/or has been completely hollow. Genesis on the other hand doesn't appear to possess any of those traits. Regardless, that's where the Guardian brought us, and that's how the mission begins.

Travel forward on the Forerunner walkway and up the incline until you reach the circular light panel. Activate it, and the platform will begin its descent into the marshy and lively terrain below. There will be quite a bit of back and forth exposition as you cross the landscape and admire it's majestic nature (along with a amazing soundtrack to match).

The stroll here is indeed a lengthy one, but it will eventually lead you to a drop down where you'll meet back up with the Covenant. This particular group only consist of a single Elite Warrior accompanied by a few Grunts and Shield Jackals. Nothing too crazy. And while it's suggested that you immediately engage them, instead head to the right where you'll come across a cave. Don't worry about your allies. They'll hang back and won't engage the enemy until you give them the order. At the end of the tunnel you'll find a lone Grunt singing to himself (LA-DA-DEE! LA-DA-DA-DUM!) while cradling the Grunt Birthday Party Skull. And since you ARE playing this will all skulls activated, this little area should already be familiar to you. Grab both a Carbine as well as the Energy Sword, and backtrack to your squad.

First you'll want to highlight the Elite for your team. As soon as they engage, head back around to the right and start running as fast as you can while hugging the right wall. Some of the Covenant will begin to advance, but most of them will hang back to battle it out with your allies. Use the path in the video below to reach the right side rock formation that places you right across the way from a lethal Jackal Sniper. Don't be overly surprised if you get tagged by him, but it shouldn't kill you. At least there are multiple rock formations here you can use as cover. Edge your way to the left until he comes into view and down him with a headshot from the Carbine. If you miss, duck back into cover and wait a moment for him to lose interest. Then try again. Following the kill, again start running towards the right, jump down to ground level, and head across the area to the far left entrance to the cavern just ahead. While you're doing this, you'll also want to continuously attempt to summon your squad to your current location so that they won't be stuck fighting the Covenant. You'll need them for this next bit.

This is one area where I noticed some members of your squad seem to get confused. Sometimes rather than following your commands, they'll keep going back to fight the Covenant. Other times they won't do anything at all. They'll just stand there blankly as if they got sick of being ordered around decided to switch off their microphones. The best way to counter this is to consistently call them to you until all three of your friends are by your side.

Beyond the cave entrance will be a single Elite Warrior manning a Plasma Cannon on an elevated rock formation. On ground level will be a few Grunts and Shielded Jackals. Again nothing too jarring for the UNSC's first class team of Spartans. Highlight the Elite for your allies and let them engage. Feel free to join in with your Carbine to help down the Elite even faster. Then take out the cannon fodder. I'd recommend trying to leave at least one Jackal up for you to melee and recharge your shields as the next encounter will be made at least somewhat easier. There's a additional Carbine ammo near the Plasma Cannon as well, so feel free to stock up if you feel the need.

Looking forward, there are two exits. The one YOU want is the one on the far left which is currently being blocked via a soft barrier that you're intended to charge through. Not this time, though, as you will alert the Covenant ahead earlier than you should.

This next bit can be a quite frustrating as it requires you to perform a plethora of steps in a very short period of time. That's why I recommend practicing both this part as well as the next on Easy difficulty until you have at least the motions and locations down. This includes where you need to go, what enemies you'll need to target, and most of all, how to correctly perform the trick jumps necessary to succeed. Executing this successfully means avoiding a legion of Covenant that includes a large number of Elites, a pair of deadly Shade Turrets, and of course those frightening Jackal Snipers.

Start by tapping the rock barrier allowing it to shatter. The vast majority of the time, the Covenant at this point should still not be alerted to your presence. A pair of Grunts will be taking a casual stroll below. Ready your Carbine and take them both out. Quickly jump down and start hugging the left wall while ignoring the other enemies close by. While you're running, look 90 degrees to your right and take aim at the Carbine-wielding Ranger Jackal atop the rock ledge on the far side. Take him out and proceed to the soft barrier on the left wall. Charge through it but keep running. There are likely Grunts tossing Plasma Grenades your way so you want to avoid them as much as possible. Climb up the rock formation in front of you and switch to your Energy Sword. You should now be eye level with a Phantom that is slowly drifting back and forth.

This is where things can be tricky and why it requires practice as timing means everything. When the Phantom drifts towards you, there will be a point where it will slightly pivot its nose slightly closer before heading back the other way. It's at the point right BEFORE this is about to happen that you want to make your move. Aim for the nose of the ship, then run > Sprint > Jump > Boost towards the nose. If your timing is right on the dot, Clamber should be able to take it from there, allowing you to climb on top of the Phantom. If you find that you're about to fall short, you can also Stabilize via Smart Scope to remain in the air longer. From here, climb on top of the Phantom and run > Jump > Ground Pound to the plateau that will bring you into the next area. You'll mostly likely want to reference the video below as well. Note that landing too far from the landing zone in the video could get you killed by an invisible death barrier, but if you succeed, then you've just surpassed the halfway point of the mission!

There are a few additional things to note here. First off, the Phantom won't stick around forever. If too many enemies are killed by your allies OR if you take too long, it will fly off and you'll either need to restart the mission and try again, or you'll need to try and deal with the Covenant the normal way.

Following your success, you'll still need to run up to the door you were originally meant to walk through in order to activate the loading point. This will allow the rest of the team to join you as well as continue through the mission. Additionally, there's a specialized Fuel Rod Cannon atop the rocks to the right of the door (if you're facing the door) that I highly recommend you obtaining in place of your Energy Sword. Once you're ready, proceed forward and across the newly activated light bridge where Master Chief and the rest of Blue Team will come face to face with a taunting Warden Eternal for the first time.

The Mantle Of Responsibility

It's now time to perform the next major skip this mission has to offer once the cutscene has ended. It's not timed like the last one, but due to a lack of visual barriers, it can still be a challenge. Again I would recommend practicing on Easy before attempting this on Mythic.

Right out the gate all you need to do is turn 90 degrees to your left and walk straight through the wall. That's it. There's no hard barrier that you need to do any crazy trick jumps to get passed. The next bit, however, can be a bit more challenging. After passing through the wall, you'll find yourself outside trapped between a rock wall and the Forerunner structure. Look at the right wall and up. You'll need to scale those rocks that appear to be halfway inside the Forerunner building. This can take quite a bit of time. Essentially you'll need to keep crouch jumping until you hit the right spot and Clamber kicks in to hoist you the rest of the way up. I do highly encourage you to watch the video below for reference on not just how to do this, but also where to go.

Upon reaching the top you're going to want to jump as far as you can (without boosting) into the abyss. There will be no ledge for which you can land, so when you're far enough, you want to make a 90 degree right turn and Ground Pound to the small rock ledge below. Now you should be able to see the tunnel in which you are intended to traverse. The top will be invisible to you, but it's still a solid structure. Ground Pound to it and face forward.

This is where things start getting really tricky. To move forward, you'll need to jump. If you try to walk, you'll likely fall off into either the abyss OR you'll get stuck in the geometry and have to restart anyway. Move forward along the top of the tunnel by hopping from one point to the next. If you're unsure whether or not your intended landing spot is indeed a solid object, you can Ground Pound to it. I personally find this to be the safest way of getting from points A to B when you're first starting out.

Use the video below to get an idea of where you need to go. Eventually you'll reach a large stretch of tunnel that you safely hop from one point to the next without utilizing Ground Pound. You'll want to keep your eye on the "rock tower" further ahead which you can see from pretty far off. Basically it looks like a large stalagmite. This is the area in which you're going to use to get back down into the map.

You'll notice the Prometheans spawning in beneath you. Don't worry about them. The last area should remain completely Promethean-free allowing you to skip these battles entirely! When you do finally reach that stalagmite rock formation, you'll be directly above that last area. You'll notice that it contains a circular rock formation that leads down into the map. Carefully hop on this formation and trace it down via crouch walking. Eventually you should reach a point where there is no invisible barrier and you can simply drop down back into the map and proceed.

As a side note, it's also possible for you to miscalculate exactly where you need to drop down and instead you'll fall into a different part of the invisible geometry. While it's not completely set in stone (Ha! See what I did there?) that you won't be able to make it back up to where you need to be, it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to and you may need to restart. This is why I encourage you to practice beforehand on Easy so you can get a better idea of where everything is and how this area works. When you do, this whole thing becomes a LOT easier! When you're safely back inside the map, proceed towards the exit and prepare for your second encounter with the Warden Eternal.

Things to note here. As best I can tell this is the only Warden battle where there is no cheap and easy way to beat him. You'll have to fight it out via conventional weaponry. While I have seen speedrunners perform a trick that causes the Warden to launch you high into the air via his sword allowing you to Ground Pound into the next area, even these speedrunners admit that this is an RNG-heavy trick that will most likely result in getting you killed more than anything else. In short, don't do it. And while he also has Promethean backup this time around (consisting of Crawlers, Watchers, Soldiers, and Knights), there's a set number of them rather than infinitely respawning AND they'll tend to hang towards the back, doing little to interfere with the boss battle itself.

There are a number of ways to succeed here. Given that there are quite a few Promethean weapons crates in the area, you can easily arm all three of your allies with Suppressors while keeping all of the heavy weapons to yourself. Personally, I usually let Linda keep her Nornfang while giving the Fuel Rod Cannon to another teammate. There's a Binary Rifle at the top of the left-most incline (that you'll need to charge through a soft barrier to access) along with additional Promethean weapons. This upper area is where I tend to try and keep the rest of the squad while I remain at the bottom. From here, you're squad is not only safe from the Warden, but they'll also keep his back facing you exposing his weak spot for your Binary Rifle.

When the battle begins, you'll want to charge directly to the Warden's spawn location and hit him with a Spartan Charge. This will take him off guard while also giving you a chance to recharge your shields. Often times (though not always) this maneuver will also keep him from retreating to the back of the area to regroup with the Prometheans. Now you want to head to that upper left ledge and keep your allies there. Note that you'll have to run back up from time to time to keep them there. Otherwise they'll run down to ground level with you and further complicate things.

A combination of your squad's firepower and your own should be enough to bring him down with your current set of weapons. Again, it takes five critical hits for him to disappear, and due to his current Mythic health, don't be surprised if this takes a while. Depending on how well your squad behaves and participates (along with the Warden himself), this battle may last only a few minutes, or it could drag out for over half and hour. The key here is patience as well as keeping your squad where they need to be. If you're able to do those two things, the Warden should be fairly feasible to conquer.

Now it's time to focus on the remaining Prometheans. You'll need to decimate them all before proceeding to the next area. There are a number of Light Rifles around, so use one of those to pick them off from afar. Start with the Watchers. Then focus on the Crawlers. After that, I tend to focus on the two Knights (one in which is a Commander wielding an Incineration Cannon). With only the Soldiers left, pick them off one by one from a safe distance and use the last one as a way to get your shields back via Spartan Charge. Then let your team finish it off. You can finally proceed forward where Cortana finally chimes in on the action and reintroduces herself to Blue Team. It's not difficult to tell, however, that there is most definitely something different about her.

Cross the light bridge to activate the final panel. This will lead you into the final area in which a set of Promethean Phaetons are there waiting for you to pilot. This last bit is fairly straight forward as long as you have full shields.

As far as the Phaeton itself is concerned, there are two weapons you can utilize, however, I almost always recommend using the high-powered secondary guns even though they need to briefly recharge after every barrage. They also have a phase-boost capability you'll want to make heavy use of during this encounter.

The layout is pretty straight forward. There's a series of tunnels you'll need to make your way through that are littered with Focus Turrets and soft barriers. Fortunately, the barriers are easily broken via a single barrage from your heavy weapons, and the Focus Turrets take so long to charge that you can easily boost into the next area before they can do any real damage. Don't bother engaging them unless you find yourself in the position of not knowing where to go next. You can use the video below as a point of reference regarding the layout of the tunnel run.

There's also a series of side passages you can utilize as well should you chose not to fly. But seriously, why punish yourself?

When you reach the final exit there will be a large group of Prometheans that spawn in to defend it. Don't panic, just simple fly over them, boost, exit the Phaeton, and Spring > Boost to exit the area and end the mission. It'll be a while before we get to catch up with the Master Chief and Blue Team again, but at least our brief mission with them was indeed an epic one!