Get covies into a lifeboat - and have some explosive fun with them!

Posted October 26th 2018

In regard to the topic of inactive hillside covies, one particular thing you can do is move them into the nearby lifeboat, something demonstrated in BCM314. It makes a nice task and there's some fun you can have with them afterwards. Even Elites will fit; they're not too tall.

In regard to the overall operation, obviously you should checkpoint along the way (at the nearby entrance) to guard against accidentally splattering anyone. I suggest getting a checkpoint before starting on each new covie, and another checkpoint once you've got him to the entry hole.

A gentle push will get him up onto the platform (though there's splattering danger as usual), and if you want, you can then get him through the door by delivering a gentle 'wheel tap' like I did with my first Grunt in the movie, though I didn't bother doing that with the other three as they weren't going to go so deep.

To make room for more covies, you can get your covie in deeper by shooting him in the back. With Grunts I used a pistol, but with Elites I used plasma balls. Of course, you don't want to overdo it and kill your covie. With that in mind, it's worth checking beforehand (i.e. before the entire operation) to see how many shots each covie can stand. That may affect the order in which you need to insert them.

I suggest using Heroic or Legendary, to be sure the Grunts will be resilient enough for the shooting needed. They'll be toughest on Legendary of course. Legendary will also give you the most dropped plasmas, which should make later fun even more explosive than seen in my movie, for which I was using Heroic.

Bumping inside

After getting your selected covies in, you can potentially get inside ahead of them by bumping through the shell, as seen extensively in my movie. Basically, you drive the hog at the lifeboat and dismount when getting close, so the hog then gives you a tap. However, that's easier said than done. Expect it to take a lot of tries, during which you'll die a lot and get sent in various directions - including through the ground! Of course, you may be able to do better eventually, if you pick up a knack of angling the hog just right and dismounting at just the right time.

Bear in mind, you don't need to get slammed by the hog. In my movie I mostly used an aggressive approach like that, but my final entry (near the end of the movie) used a quite different approach in which the hog ends up with very little speed by the time it reaches the lifeboat, and gently slides against you. I can't say whether it was better or not though, in terms of success rate. Try both ways for yourself.

Sometimes you might find yourself bumped into the cockpit rather than the seating compartment. Usually when this happens, your viewpoint will be low down, in the pilot's foot-space. But it's also possible to end up with a viewpoint above the dashboard. Either way, your movement will be extremely limited. When you do try to move, you might even end up ejected from the lifeboat - which I assume indicates that you weren't fully inside.

Explosive fun

Needless to say, it's fun to lob grenades into a crowded lifeboat and watch the resulting carnage. Chain reactions can also be set off by needling. You can potentially get more impressive pyrotechnics by having some grenades dropped inside beforehand (or even outside actually), ready to be detonated. On Heroic I killed two Elites to get five plasmas. If you're killing personnel to get loose grenades, checkpoint beforehand so you can make repeated attempts, bearing in mind that the dropping of grenades is randomized.

© 2004-2020 by Rockslider