Halo: Reach Mythic Guide

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

The Package

Full run, Bungie.net Fileshare

Jump to Page 1

    Before heading through the exit, go ahead and trade out your secondary weapon for a needle rifle and collect as much ammo as you can. You should be taking a full DMR and a partially full needle rifle with you into the next zone.
    Follow the intended path, and when you reach the blast door separating you and your team from the Sword Base atrium, you'll hear a brief conversation between Auntie Dot and your team revolving around the lack information regarding your mission. That's comforting... This will queue the opening of the blast door. Take a few steps back and make note of your surroundings. You may also want to make note of the chest of armor abilities near the door, DMR cache in the back, and two full plasma pistols back closer to where you entered. Temporarily switch out your needle rifle for one of the plasma pistols and begin engaging the enemies in your next skirmish.
    The atrium is occupied by six cloaked Special Ops Elites, one Engineer, and a General who, at the start of the battle, will hold back inside a room on the second floor. You can actually see him from the blast door, but more on that later. For right now, let's focus on the Elites.
    This may seem like an intimidating bunch, but fortunately Special Ops Elites, like the Rangers, are among the "weak-shielded" crowd. I'd recommend grabbing Armor Lock from the crate just in case any stray grenades happened to get tossed your way, but other than that, simply pepper their shields with the plasma pistol, then follow up with a single DMR head shot. Once you've managed to kill four, the remaining two will retreat to a spot further back. This opens up an opportunity for you to grab that needle rifle and down the floating squid (Engineer for you non-ODST veterans) towards the back of the room. No more overshields for the survivors!
    Switch back to your plasma pistol. It's time to deal with that pesky General before he becomes a real threat. Remember me mentioning how we could already seem him through the window? Simply pepper him with the plasma pistol until his shields finally pop (it'll take quite a bit more than the Special Ops to pull it off), then down him with a single DMR head shot. Believe it or not, he won't move the entire time! Ah, reminds me of the good 'ol days of ranged-shooting back in Halo 3. Oh the memories! The video below gives you a visual demonstration on how to clear the room.

Download: QuickTime (70.1 mb) | WMP9 (61.4 mb)
(Right-click, Save As)

That wasn't so bad, was it? It's time to prep for the next section of the mission. Grab a fresh plasma pistol, load up on DMR ammo, and make Sprint your AA of choice before heading through the... secret passageway? Hmmm... methinks there's more to this mission than just a simple demo-operation.

This Cave is Not a Natural Formation

    If you knew the above title was one of Cortana's most memorable quotes from Combat Evolved, +1 interwebz cookie for you. If not... for shame!
    Halsey is alive! And apparently our intuition was correct. There's more to this mission than meets the eye. She's got a package for you, and NO it's not X-rated. As you descend into darkness, a towering, alien formation looms before you; neither human nor Covenant in origin. Wow. Is there a world out there the Forerunner haven't desecrated?
    Your objective here is simply to defend the entrance to Halsey's secret underground lab while she prepares the package for delivery. The catch is that the Covenant are going to do everything in their power short of glassing the glacier to stop these events from unfolding.
    Prepare yourself for one of the most epic battles in the game. Not only are you given the glorious, cavernous backdrop of the Forerunner artifact, but you'll find yourself smack dab in the middle of a massive standoff with hordes of Covenant, with only our Spartan allies to help you defend Halsey's lab. This is what your comrades died for.
    This is a two-stage battle. Clearly the intended avenue here is to activate the four defense turrets and then meet up with your squad outside the lab while you fend off wave after wave of Covenant troops of all types. You could do that, and it's certainly possible even on Mythic, but I can assure you that even with eight health packs and a massive arsenal of ammunition, none of it is enough to effectively battle the Covenant without spending roughly an hour cowering on top of the structure praying that the aerial Banshees and distant Wraiths won't melt your face into the graded metal. As you can imagine, I've opted for a slightly different approach.
    I'd advise activating the two closest turrets to serve as a distraction. They won't actually cause any noticeable damage to your enemies, which is why we aren't even going to bother with the back two. Use Sprint to dash from one to the other, or else the two Banshees whizzing above your head will burn you into the ice. Once you're done, head up to the lab, swap out Sprint for a Jetpack and use it to boost on top of the neighboring building (not Halsey's lab). One of the Banshees will casually meander your way, and it does this nearly every time. When it's in range, boost upward with the Jetpack, and hijack the Banshee... with no driver might I add.
    Around this time, Phantoms will begin dropping off squads of Brutes, Grunts, and Jackals on the far side of the battleground. Your first temptation may be to use the Banshee against them, but I can tell you from experience that it's far too easy to get EMPed by Grunts and Jackals here, and worst of all, if you wander too far out of bounds, you'll be killed by the infamous Return to Battlefield death clock. Instead, land it on top of the overhang covering the lab, and set up camp. Don't bother dogfighting with the other Banshee since they have an infinite respawn and will just keep coming as long as you keep blowing them up.
    For the first few waves, you'll be using the overhang as your spot to pick off enemies as they emerge. Don't worry about running out of ammo. There's a DMR weapons cache located on either side of you on ground level. Here's a brief visual tutorial.

Download: QuickTime (9.9 mb) | WMP9 (8.9 mb)
(Right-click, Save As)

So here's how this battle basically works. It's very comparable to Firefight in the sense that you'll be forced to deal with several waves of enemies while defending a single location with your allies. Expect to deal with four rounds of Phantom drop-offs with each drop off letting loose anywhere between 1-3 separate waves of enemies. It's not as cut and clean as Firefight, but you get the basic idea. For the majority of the first round, you'll be taking up a position on the overhang and picking off Covenant troops as they charge. The turrets will provide a fairly decent distraction so you can take out the Jackals with little trouble while they face their shields towards the turrets rather than you. Whenever you start running low on ammo, simply jump down, snag what you need from one of the weapons caches, and boost back up to the overhang. It should look something like this.

Download: QuickTime (25.1 mb) | WMP9 (21.5 mb)
(Right-click, Save As)

As soon as you're warned about the Wraith, that's your cue to hop inside the Banshee and rush over to the other side of the battlefield where the Wraith is located. Park behind it (preferably on the upper ledge). This Wraith (and the two later on) work differently than the rest of the ones in campaign. The driver won't actually make a conscious effort to attack you, but you will need to worry about the secondary gunner.
When you're ready, jump down behind the Wraith, and use the Jetpack to jump on top of it. Bash the secondary gunner to death. Then board the Wraith, bust open the hatch, jump off and back on top of the Wraith, and kill the driver. Now the Wraith is yours! Watch and learn.

Download: QuickTime (44.9 mb) | WMP9 (39.3 mb)
(Right-click, Save As)

    Here's where things get a bit tricky, and you'll be doing some feeling around on your own... in terms of the game of course. Now, you may think that it's a good idea to stay where you are and mortar your enemies to your heart's content. Problem is, every time a new round of Phantoms arrives, not only are you going to get slammed by the ensuing salvos of concussion rounds, but you'll also be surrounded by Covenant. A far better spot to pitch your tent is closer to the entrance where you originally entered the cavern (across the bridge). So during the course of the next wave, start making your way up towards Halsey's lab and ultimately over the bridge while being careful not to take too much damage in the process.
    Taking the left route seems to be the safer option since it's far less likely that you'll have enemies attacking from behind. Bear in mind that while you're in your Wraith, you are extremely durable to enemy fire and can absorb massive amounts of damage, but if you're not careful you can also easily get overrun, and you've made it too far to die now!
    Once you've made it safely to your designated camp site, you can now freely wreak havoc on everything that moves. You'll want to keep one eye on the skies since from time to time Banshees tend to get a little bit curious, but they'll be little to no threat to you since it only takes a single mortar, even on Mythic, to bring one down.
    What you will want to watch out for, though, is the next round of Phantoms. Usually between each round you'll notice the music change. Don't rely on Halsey's voice since it tends to be a false positive, and usually they'll either be right on top of you at that point, or nowhere near. When the next round is on the approach, retreat back to the following area until the Phantom drops off its troops and leaves. Note that you can also destroy the Phantom here if you find that it's been lingering around for far too long.

Download: QuickTime (28.2 mb) | WMP9 (25.2 mb)
(Right-click, Save As)

Round two will replace Brutes with Ranger Elites and also throw Skirmishers into the mix. A Ghost will be dropped off as well, so be sure to make it one of your top priorities. Round three will consist of Ultra Elites, cannon fodder and Hunters so watch out! Those deadly fuel rod bolts can demolish a Wraith in seconds. Also, two additional Ghosts will show up to crash the party, but of course they are no match for your uber purple juggernaut of death! Round four will try to spice things up a little bit by throwing Brutes back into the mix in addition to Elites, thereby making this the only battle in the entire franchise where Brutes and Elites literally fight together side by side. I'd shed a tear of joy if it wasn't my ass they were after...
In addition, two Wraiths will be dropped off as well but will focus their full attention on the lab. Again, their secondary gunners will attack you if close enough, but you really only need to worry about destroying the Wraith that's in front of you. You can either get creative and board it from the back, or just simply mortar the hell out of it with your Wraith. It's up to you. Either way works fine. Then proceed to deal with the enemies in the middle, where you'll witness one of the most canon-breaking scenarios in the universe—a Phantom (after dropping off an Elite General, Ultras, and Fuel Rod Grunts) magically transforming into an Engineer. Go figure. Clear the way, but be wary of those Grunts. When you've killed enough of the final wave, Halsey will give you the okay to enter. Make sure the path is clear, watch out for mortars from the surviving Wraith, and beeline it for the door. And don't forget to activate the switch beside it too.

Download: QuickTime (60.1 mb) | WMP9 (53.4 mb)
(Right-click, Save As)

With the mission behind you, sit back and enjoy an amazing and surprising cut-scene, because the final mission will be putting all of your skills to the test.

Jump to Page 1