Grav-lift battle tactics
Posted May 17th 2026, based on material from 2007
When it comes to the grav-lift battle which you need to fight before boarding the covie ship, one thing you can do is make sure to get extra Marines to help (see pic), and another is to make sure you brought five healthy Marines along, making an excellent squad of ten. But whether you've got a boosted squad or not, how do you actually tackle the incoming waves?
In this article I'll lay out some ideas. Originally I had most of this talk in that 'extra Marines' article; but it wasn't actually part of that trick, so I've finally separated it out to this new article.
Just to mention in advance, each of the main waves (i.e. prior to the Hunters) seems to comprise 1 blue Elite, 2 Jackals and 3 Grunts. On Legendary you get eight main waves, which amounts to 48 covies! Quite a marathon, and quite a strain on your reserves of sniper ammo if that's what you're basing your defence on. With all the other difficulty levels you only get four main waves. It does strike me as odd that Heroic only has four though. Bit easy! I would've thought six would be more appropriate.
Sniping
My usual tactic is to stand somewhere I can snipe enemies the moment they come down. Sometimes you can get them while they're still in the air - a nice challenge! I'll typically have a plasma rifle as backup, for toasting any enemies that get too close.
Often I'll be up on a rock so the Marines don't get in my line of fire. There's a good rock up on the right, just past where an Elite was patrolling; I've used that a lot. Rocks on the low ground near the area entrance are also good fun; you get a dramatic low view of enemies on the grav-lift, and quite often they stand around having failed to spot you.
But possibly my favourite vantage point is up on the high ground on your immediate left as you enter the area, where a Shade is often located. Stand on the edge to avoid Marines getting in the way, and you've got an imperious view. In addition, you can always jump down and retreat back to the safety of the passage if the situation goes bad.
Wave decimation via grenading
There's also a sneaky grenading tactic I like to employ. As you may've noticed, each new wave seems to be triggered once the enemy count drops below two. So, when you see that the count is at two or just over, lob a plasma grenade so it's going to land near the centre of the grav-lift, then quickly reduce the count below two to trigger a new wave. Just as the new wave arrives, the grenade hopefully takes out the whole lot as they're standing there, or possibly even before they've quite touched down. Nice!
Of course, that potentially triggers another wave; so if you've confidently lobbed another grenade in the meanwhile, you might take that wave out too! See how many waves you can get like that. Throws are relatively hard to aim from the low ground, so ideally you should be higher up.
Admittedly this tactic is a bit of an unfair trick as it rests on unrealistic advance knowledge of when a new wave is going to come down. But it's fun! Naturally, you could also simply wait until you see a wave coming down before you throw. But in that case a fast-acting frag grenade is probably the best choice.
On the move
Another idea is to keep moving around the raised outer perimeter. The Marines get strung out behind you and the enemy gets quite unfocused with the dispersed targets. Fire and grenade as you go. It's probably also good that the Marines are being encouraged to run along to keep up with you. That makes it harder for the enemy to hit them.
Down below
If you want to live a bit more dangerously, you could just hang around in the area below the grav-lift and enjoy a general free-for-all at fairly close range. An Elite will often get distracted by Marines, allowing you to give him a nasty surprise of some sort!
Close and personal
Gung-ho corespondent One One Seven has a fine recipe for even greater chaos. Go stand on the grav-lift itself and defend from there. You'll have enemies beaming down all around you!
A plasma pistol would be good here, ideal for close-range zapping and whacking. Maybe a plasma rifle or AR as backup, for delivering hurt into anyone starting to get away. Oh, and take a moment to look up at the enemies as they descend sometime; it's a novel view!
Shade use
Here's a novel idea. Blast a Shade down so it's closer to the grav-lift, and use it to try and slaughter the arriving waves. That's certainly viable on Heroic, and it's good fun too, though you do have to watch out for Grunts throwing plasma grenades. On Legendary things might be a bit tough, but you might be able to manage if you've got the support of a nice large squad.
You might even try having a Shade on the grav-lift itself. I'll leave you to check out what that's like!
Hunter tactics
When it comes to the Hunters, I quite like to run in to start whacking them and drilling them with an AR. It can all be over in seconds. But if you fancy something more spectacular, try streaming needles into them as you move around the raised perimeter. If you're feeling cocky, you could try luring a Hunter over to the cliff edge. Dodge as he swipes, and watch him plummet to his doom - perhaps with a plasma grenade attached for good measure. What a chump.
There are other ways to handle things too of course, including just standing back and seeing what your squad can do, if it's still in good shape. Time to earn your pay boys! Marines can also be useful for making the Hunters swipe, giving you the chance for scoring a sniper round in the back.
Checkpoint avoidance
A checkpoint is triggered by finishing the last of the main waves. It can be annoying to get the checkpoint, because then you won't be able to revert to your battle start checkpoint (assuming you took the trouble to get one). However, it's fully delayable, so here's what you can do if you want to avoid it.
Once you've finished the main waves, delay the checkpoint with some jumping or by throwing a grenade (perhaps throwing it over the plateau edge so it lasts a long time). Once the Hunters arrive, enemy threat plus active ordnance in the air will automatically continue the delay. When they're dead, either revert immediately or do some more delaying until ready to revert for another battle.