Grenade crazy Grunts

Get a Grunt throwing plasmas non-stop, just across the bridge.

Posted May 7th 2019

You may recall my level 5 article Grenade crazy Grunts and associated movies, concerning some places where you can get a Grunt throwing plasma grenades non-stop. Much later, I've found that you can easily get similar behaviour near the start of level 2. I noticed it while working on getting prolonged grunty panic.

Setting up

This is best played on Legendary because it gives the highest rate of throwing, namely up to 20 grenades per minute (like those level 5 situations). In addition you'd best have a red Grunt. My experience on Legendary is that they go grenade crazy very readily, whereas orange ones seem reluctant and may also be prone to having lower throwing rate, though I haven't investigated fully.

The Grunt needs to be across the foot bridge and to the right a bit, in the area backed by some trees and a rock. That's no problem because Grunts tend to gravitate there, though it depends on your location. Meanwhile, you'll need to be on the bridge.

To achieve this situation you could use the following routine, sketched out in BCM354. Initially cross the bridge and destroy a Banshee (the other will fly off). Let at least one Grunt cross the bridge. If any Elites cross too, kill them. Then drop down to the stream to circle back to the start of the bridge, and kill the covies that didn't cross yet. Subsequently you may also need to kill superfluous Grunts which crossed.

Typical behaviour

With a suitably enthusiastic Grunt, things go as follows. When you get into throwing range he starts throwing, and continues even when you move out of sight (you might want to crouch, though it isn't always needed). He seems to throw at where he last judged you to be. If you fire a shot in the air, he'll adjust his aim to your location even if he still can't see you. Sometimes he might stop, but you can typically get him started again with a shot.

It's fun playing about, watching the grenades and taking avoiding action when appropriate. With high throwing rate (on Legendary) you can get interesting effects (repeating effects, typically) whereby an incoming grenade gets blasted away by the previous one. You can potentially even engineer such effects, by getting the grenades aimed for some particular place.

Bear in mind, the Grunt moves around a bit while throwing, which can make the grenade trajectories vary. His movements could lead to his spotting you, in which case he'll target you. A hazard to be aware of!

Getting behind him

It's actually possible to sneak around behind to watch him throwing. Makes a nice challenge too! But I think you'll need a wrecked Banshee for cover. From the bridge you can potentially make it to the small rock just past the end without being spotted (though you often do get spotted), and the Banshee wreck can then enable you to reach the trees. From there it's easy.

Warning: when you finally creep up on him, or peer down from on top of the big rock which you can easily hop onto, you need to have your flashlight off or he'll be alerted.

Arranging the Banshee cover is actually quite easy. First, destroy a Banshee so it falls in the right general area (reminder: on Legendary it takes 23 pistol rounds for destruction). The wreck's position can then be adjusted with grenades and melee. The pilot himself might provide you with a few plasmas to usefully augment your frags.

Grunt getting shooty

One other thing. Sometimes a Grunt's throwing can change into non-stop shooting, an example of which is shown in BCM354. In that case it's likewise fun to get behind him to watch.