THE ROOKIE Level 14: Coastal Highway

Posted on September 28, 2009 by haloboyy1928 |  

Find elevator to highway

Right away, you’re pushed into a hairy battle. The intersection ahead is crawling with brutes, grunts and jackals, and it’s further defended by a roost of turrets floating in the center square. Your first order of business should be to snipe out the turret gunner that’s facing directly at you. You should be able to kill him without getting so close to draw his fire. When the gunner is dead, turn your attention to the grunts to the right (the east). You can pick ’em off easy, getting rid of a lot of crossfire.

When you’ve cleared out the enemies from the southern portion of the intersection, push toward the gunner roost and float up. There are a total of three turrets and should be two gunners left. You can thwack ’em from behind to kill them, but don’t waste much time in the roost. The enemies to the north will unload all sorts of fire at you, including explosive shots that’ll destroy the roost (and you with it) if you’re too long. Be quick, and rip one of the turrets off its mount if you’ve got time.

If you steal a plasma turret, you can use it to mow down the remaining enemies in the area. When the last enemy is killed, your crew (including the dawdling engineer) sweeps through the block. Make sure to stock up on ammo before following them northeast. There are no enemies to watch for, so just continue into a doorway, follow a hall, and then open another door to ride an elevator to the next section.

Escort and protect Dare’s vehicle

Hop into the driver’s seat of the Warthog to your left—Buck will handle the turret—and start driving along the road. You’re now in charge of destroying any enemies that try to attack Dare’s romping vehicle. At first, you’ve got just some basic ground troops, which you shouldn’t have much trouble clearing out. You can stay ahead of Dare to mow down the Covenant, but watch out for grunts lobbing grenades at you. They stick one and it’s over.

Soon, Dare stops under an overhang to recharge her vehicle’s shields before you get a checkpoint and continue. Get used to this pattern, as it’ll repeat, with each section of the road getting more and more difficult. On the second stretch of road, expect brutes. On the third stretch, watch for grunts in the sniper roosts launching fuel rod cannon blasts. Throughout these early stages, you want to stay in front of Dare as much as possible.

After the third section with the fuel rod cannon snipers, the overhang Dare retreats into is filled with buggers hanging on the ceiling. Back away and let your gunner pick ’em off from afar. If you try to get into the thick of it, you’ll end up dead while Dare is in relatively little danger. The fourth stretch is filled with more basic enemies.

It’s on the fifth stretch of highway that things get really tough. You’ll have to fight off myriad Ghosts that swarm around Dare, and at this point it’s actually advantageous to let Dare go in front of you. Let her draw the fire of the Ghosts while you sit back and Buck shoots down the Ghosts. Try to keep the Ghosts facing away from you—if they start to attack you, either ram the Ghosts or do whatever else you can to keep them from facing directly at you. If a Ghost gets you square in its sights, you’ll die quickly.

The sixth section of highway is not only guarded by Ghosts, but also by Banshees. Similar to before, we suggest hanging back and doing your best to avoid the attention (and wrath) of all the enemy vessels. Above all else, do your best to avoid staying right in front of any of the vehicles ’cause they’ll tear you up in a heartbeat.

It’s more of the same for a while, but eventually Dare will stop in an overhang shared with a Scorpion tank. Get behind the controls of the tank (and wait for Buck to hop in the gunner’s seat) and get back to rolling down the ribbon of highway. Things sound be much easier from here on out—just shoot the things that move and don’t worry too much about your health. You’re in a tank! A couple of road sections further, a Scarab will sort of halfway threaten to kill Dare, but there’s nothing you can do—and nothing you need to do—as Dare simply rolls through the attack.

Soon, Buck makes the decision to take the next off-ramp, which means to dive down into the next tunnel that’s in the middle of the highway. Ride down and you’ll need to abandon the Scorpion tank to continue right and up the steps of a building to get a new objective.

Defend Engineer until friendly Phantom arrives

If you go inside the building you’ll find a bunch of ammo (including a rocket launcher at the back of the room) plus health packs. You’ll likely need to come back here, but you need to fight outside. Quickly gear up and then run back outside to engage the Covenant that get dropped off by a Phantom. The first batch of baddies is made of just grunts, jackals and brutes. Throw lots of grenades as necessary and watch out for one grunt armed with a fuel rod cannon. In fact, it might be worth picking up the fuel rod when he’s dead…

Regain your composure when the enemies are cleared, and regain your health via a pack from inside. Stock up on ammo and prepare yourself for the next onslaught of enemies. A dropship comes in and offloads a bunch of jackals. Try to hit ’em with an explosive, like a grenade, as they all land together, then start looking for a safer spot. The jackals spread, with a few going to the outskirts of the street to snipe while others push in. If you stay in front of the building with your buddies, you’ll have a tough time mounting any sort of offense without opening yourself to sniper fire.

Look around the corner to the left or right from the building entrance for stairways that lead to upper landings of the building. Follow the stairs all the way to the top and you’ll find a couple of sniper rifles, more health packs, and a pair of mounted turrets. Grab one of the rifles and use it to snipe the sniping jackals that are in the far distance, to the southwest and southeast. With the snipers killed, you can focus on the other jackals below, at least until the hunters come…

Another dropship releases two hunters into the streets and they’ll slowly make their way to the building. You can hop behind one of the turrets to drill away at the hunters, but they’ll fire back so you need to keep hopping on and off the turret. If you’ve still got the rocket launcher available, use it. Or use the fuel rod cannon. Or nail the hunters with sticky grenades. Throw all you’ve got at ’em, though don’t expect this to be the last Covenant hurrah. If the hunters make it to the building entrance, they’ll sort of get stuck in the doorways making it pretty easy to finish them off.

When the next dropship rolls in, it releases two large groups of jetpacking brutes. You can meet them with turret fire as they land, but don’t hang onto the turret for long. They’ll concentrate their fire on you which will quickly kill you if you don’t seek cover. At this point you can start using the sniper rifle to pick off the brutes, slowly and methodically. You’re mostly safe on the upper platform of the building, though a few brutes will find their way to you so be ready to react to fire from behind.

There are a couple of Wraiths in the far distance, but you can ignore them completely. If you don’t fire on them they don’t seem to ever lob their mortars at the upper platform. Once all of the brutes are killed, a friendly Phantom floats in from the south and destroys the Wraiths (with ease!). Run to the Phantom’s underbelly to hop inside and end the game.

Congratualtions! You have now officially beated Halo 3 ODST ! Now try beating it on a harder level!

THE ROOKIE Level 13: Mombasa Streets Completion; Data Hive

Posted on September 28, 2009 by haloboyy1928 |  

You start this mission at Mombasa Streets for a short time period:

Locate UNDERGROUND ENTRANCE to search for Captain Dare

Once you’ve completed all objectives, you’re given a new one: Find the underground entrance amid Mombasa’s streets. The entrance is located right near Tayari Plaza, in the western half of the map. Make your way there and follow the stairs down to where you (much) earlier found an abandoned drop pod. Make your way down the stairs and look in the dark corners of the lower area for a door. Approach it and you’ll get a cut scene that brings you to the data hive.

Now the Data Hive Mission begins:

Find Dare on sublevel 9

Hop down to the ground level and you’ll see that the door to your right is jammed closed. Start heading northeast and collect ammo (and the guns you want) on the way. You’ll eventually come across a couple of grunts, but nothing serious. Just keep pushing through the tunnel as it winds around. When you reach a seeming dead-end, look to the left for a door that leads southeast.

Through the door and to the left, expect a small batch of shielded jackals (plus a grunt or two) that you’ll need to clear before continuing southeast. Before long, the path leads to a small series of small, octagonal rooms, each loaded with enemies including brutes. These rooms are prime for grenades, though you don’t need ’em.

At the end of the series of octagonal rooms, you’ll run into another human who waits for you to activate a control panel. The panel opens a data stack in the center of the room and lets in a bunch of flying done enemies you can quickly kill off before dropping into the hole.

Continue southeast and in the dark, dark tunnel you can expect to run into a bunch of enemies, including a number of brutes. If you let your sucker, I mean buddy go ahead of you, he’ll draw their fire and let you attack the brutes from behind.

The tunnel leads to another series of octagonal rooms. In the first one, look to the right as a host of buggers swarm in and surround you and your buddy. Clear ’em out, then continue to the next couple of rooms. Just a couple rooms ahead, you’ll run into some grunts and a brute, so be ready. Again, grenades work great in these close quarters. As you push through the rooms, expect many, many more brutes. Hopefully you’ve collected the many dropped napalm grenades from the earlier dark area as they’ll offer immense help.

The series of octagonal rooms again ends in a room with a control panel you can activate to open a data stack in the center. Drop down and your sacrificial buddy won’t follow you. Instead, he’ll just yell and scream as buggers attack. Hop around and blast ’em. When you clear the room, head southeast.

The next hall goes down deeper, its walls and contents slightly glazing over with ice. Just a bit further in are a couple of grunts and many, many brutes. The brutes are so numerous that any aggressive play will likely get you killed. Instead, stay up at the top of the ramp and hide behind a pillar. If you’ve got a rangy weapon to snipe with, that’s fantastic. If you don’t, try to get one.

As you start clearing the hall, push forward just enough to lure out more enemies before retreating back to the top of the ramp to take cover while you kill from afar. Be careful as you make progress around the bend at the base of the ramp. When you’re sure the area is clear, look for the flamethrower in the northeast corner of the hall, just sitting on the floor in the corner. Grab it, then continue southeast.

You’ll go a while without seeing any enemies, but after opening a door expect to see plenty in the next hall. The flamethrower will make quick work of any enemy in front of you (just a quick puff of juice is all you need) but you’ll need to be close for it to hit—the range ain’t great. Move in toward the myriad enemies behind cover and only open yourself up once you’re in close. Clear the hall, then move to the end so you can tap on the wall for a brief cut scene.

Fight through hive to data-center

You regroup with Dare, who begins leading you further down the data hive. Follow her around a couple of a bends before you run into any enemies. You should have plenty of ammo in the flamethrower to get through this stuff easy, so just repeat the strategy we outlined before: Stay close to the walls and cover while working your way close to enemies and pop out only when you’re close enough for the flamethrower to connect.

Dare soon leads you to a hole that she asks you to jump into. You’ll take damage from the fall, but there are plenty of health packs at the bottom so don’t sweat it. You’ll move through another couple of oddly-shaped halls with brutes and other assorted baddies before meeting Dare at an elevator. Activate the elevator to move up.

At the top of the elevator, follow Dare as she darts around through a complicated, open series of catwalks. You’ll be swarmed by buggers as you progress, so be careful. It’s even worth abandoning the flamethrower for a bit to engage the buggers from a distance using a more rangy gun. Keep following Dare, and let her stay far ahead of you. She’ll attract the early attention of the buggers, letting you sit back and snipe while she absorbs infinite damage. You’ll eventually reach the respite of a narrow hall.

Rescue Superintendent

You get a new objective as Dare runs ahead and dives into another tall hole. Follow after her to a lower area and from there drop down again. Run up the ramp and you’ll come up behind a couple of brutes trying to get into a doorway. You’ve got the jump on them so they should die easy, but watch out for the brute chieftain and his amazingly rad hammer. Kill the lot (and seriously consider grabbing the hammer), then open the door they were banging on for a cut scene.

Escort Engineer to safety

Time to play escort. The engineer you’re trying to keep alive doesn’t do much to help out, as it basically moves forward blindly, without stopping or trying to care for itself. Try to stay far out ahead of it to clear out a path, though don’t expect to keep a perfect record. Run through the first set of doors and you’ll run into a bunch of brutes. If you grabbed the hammer from the slain chieftain earlier, it’ll be a huge help in killing off the brutes very quickly.

After tearing through the first few, a dropship floats in further ahead and offloads a ton of brutes. Toss grenades into the fray to clear them out quick and then get to hammering. This is where you can expect the engineer to start taking some fire, but if you’re quick to kill the enemies the floating buddy shouldn’t be in trouble for long. Just ahead, you’ll meet up with Buck who opens a door for you. Move through and drop down the hole.

There are buggers clinging to the ceiling of the lower room. Shoot ’em down and start frantically clearing the room before the engineer haplessly floats through. When the area is clear, move to the end of the hall and wait for the engineer to unlock a door. It takes a while.

There are more buggers clung to the ceiling of the next hall. Charge forward to kill them early and some will retreat into the next room. Barge in and keep killing. When the room’s clear, approach the far end of a cut scene elevator ride.

 

THE ROOKIE Level 11: Mombasa Streets Continued

Posted on September 26, 2009 by haloboyy1928 |  

Search KIKOWANI STATION for ODST squadmate

As soon as you’ve got control of the rookie again, look out for a dropship that floats in to the east and offloads a couple of jetpacking brutes and a couple of sniping jackals. Try to take out the jackals with your pistol (one shot kills, baby) and then go after the brutes. When you’ve cleared the area, start heading east down the only road that leads easy from this intersection.

Expect more enemies as you crawl toward Kikowani Station, including mostly grunts with a few brutes mixed in. If you grabbed a beam rifle off of the dead jackals earlier, you should use the snipes to kill the brutes and then use less awesome ammo to clean out the grunts. You’ll walk by a data terminal with a ViSR audiolog that we already covered in the last rookie scene, but if you missed it then, now’s a good time to get it.

The road brings you to the upper level of the next big open area. There are multiple squads of Covenant made of a few grunts and a leader brute. Keep your position at the western end of the area, on the upper level, and try to pick your fights one at a time. Pick off the easy guys, and watch for a sniper that’s hanging in the northeastern corner of the area, inside a building that’s overlooking the square.

If you go to the southern edge of the area, expect a trio of jetpacking brutes to hop down from the rooftops and attack you. Immediately take cover behind the pillars in the area to fight off the brutes. Or you can do your best to avoid them altogether and just head north out of the intersection, heading to the next block.

You’ll need to open a large route doorway to reach the next open area. It seems pretty empty, but to the far eastern side is a brute overlooking the square with a couple of sleeping grunts behind him. You can sneak up along the southern walls to get in close and kill the brute before he knows what’s happening, and then finish off the grunts.

Turn west and follow the road that’ll eventually lead you further north. We ran into a number of enemies on the way, so proceed slowly to make sure you don’t end up surrounded. The road eventually leads you to the last open area before you reach the target location. There’s a square in the center that’s packed with jackals and a brute or two. Try to snipe your way in close and toss a grenade into the center of the square to clear it.

Look out for a sniping jackal on the far, eastern side of the courtyard as you move around. When you’ve killed everyone, head north to the next intersection. Just ahead, look on the ground to the left, under the overhang, and inspect the bio-foam canister on the ground to cut to the next chapter.

THE ROOKIE Level 9: Mombasa Streets Continued

Posted on September 25, 2009 by haloboyy1928 |  

Search NMPD HEADQUARTERS for ODST squadmate

Another dead lead for the rookie. Now it’s time to check out the NMPD headquarters, which is quite a ways to the north. Look for the big tunnel that lead you to the dead-end you’re at now and start heading north. As you reach the first open area to the north, a dropship unloads a couple of jetpack-equipped brutes while snipers try to pin you down from the surrounding high platforms.

Take cover from the dropship fire and wait for the brutes to approach you. Gun them down from the cover of the narrow space just outside the large route doorway you used to get here and then turn your attention to the sniping jackals. If you’ve got a beam rifle of your own, you can simply return fire. Use your map to locate them (or just follow the streams of their beams) to clear the area.

Head through the route doorway at the northeast corner of the block to return to familiar ground and then take a hard left turn just beyond the door to start trekking west. Just past the wrecked big rig, look to the right for a path that dead-ends at a route door that won’t open. But just around the corner, to the right, is a narrow passage that leads to what looks like an open-air mall. Watch out for a sniping jackal in the mall.

Also in the mall, in a covered area to your left (assuming you’re walking northwest) is another bit of data to download to your ViSR. Check your map from this location and look at the first open area directly north of you (it looks like a Superman logo). It’s a completely enclosed room with yet another audiolog for the ViSR. There’s a security door on the western side that’s hard to see but can be opened. Expect a couple of jackals inside, but nothing else between you and that data.

Head straight north to a large route door that you’ve got to open to reach the next block. Hug the right wall and follow the walkway to find another obscured security door under the “SLOW DOWN” sign. Inside the room are a couple of Covenant engineers (harmless) plus another audiolog to download to the ViSR.

Exit the indoor area and head northwest toward a dead-end road. On street level, you should be able to clearly see yet another yellow-glowing terminal where you can download an audiolog to your ViSR. From this position, head due northeast. In the next block area, look for a jackal sniper to the southeast, plus a brute and a small squad of grunts. Clear them out and you can easily locate another data terminal right off the street, on the inside square.

There’s one more ViSR audiolog terminal you can find before going to the destination. From the location of the last one we described, go northwest and turn right at the next corner, walking away (eastward) from the navpoint on your map. Just down the street and around the corner on the left is the data terminal.

Download the goods, then backtrack to the targeted square at the NMPD headquarters. Look up to the power lines running over the sculpture in the center of the square and inspect the hanging sniper rifle. On to the next chapter…

THE ROOKIE Level 7: Mombasa Streets Continued

Posted on September 25, 2009 by haloboyy1928 |  

Search ONI ALPHA SITE for ODST squadmate

As soon as you’ve got control of the rookie again, a Covenant dropship floats in and offloads a couple of brutes wearing jet packs. If you’ve got a rangy weapon still, you can pick them off pretty easily while they float around—they seemed to have sacrificed armor for the ability to fly—but watch out for incoming sniper shots from the buildings around you. When the brutes are dead, turn your attention to the snipers. There are two of ’em, the nearest to the east and the other to the south.

When you’ve secured the area, look to the area east of where the dropship landed for a small alley. There’s a door you can open up that lets you into an indoor hall inside which you’ll find another bit of data for your ViSR. The next area to check on the streets of Mombasa is the ONI Alpha Site which isn’t far away. It’s almost directly south of your initial location.

Move southeast to the next block and then turn straight south. There’s a set of stairs on your left that you should climb up to appear behind a pair of brutes that are busy looking the other way. You can toss a sticky grenade onto one of them to blow up the pair, and then watch for a sniping jackal that’s nearby, just west. Further west from this location is another data terminal to download some audio to your ViSR.

Go back up the ramp behind you and open up the massive route door to continue south. On the upper level of the next area, on your left, is another data terminal you can use to download to your ViSR. Go south past that and on your left is another massive route door.

Before going through the route door, go into the smaller door to the left of it. It leads to an underground station-looking area at the bottom of which is yet another ViSR data terminal. Get the good stuff, then return to the aforementioned route door and open it up. Move through the long, empty hall and it’ll soon spit you outside again. Look to the left for a yellow-glowing remote detonator on the ground and inspect it to trigger the next chapter.