Gold Elite stop method

In this method you get the gold Elite onto the near right ledge and use him to stop you from bouncing off when you fall from the V. From there you can move along and drop down at a safe spot of your choosing. Suitable only for PAL.

Full description

Kill everyone except the gold Elite who emerges from behind the exit door, and lead him back towards the start of the bridge. His chase instinct gets triggered when you get close enough. At the corner of the lower deck, dodge a sword swing at the last possible moment so he falls off towards the near right ledge. His swing is very fast though, so it's not easy. In BCM27 you'll notice that as he approaches, I'm looking off to the left somewhat, rather than at him, and I then run forwards that way to get clear. You can judge the time to move by the sound of his approach and by catching a glimpse of him to the side. I find that the best way of avoiding the swing, but do things however you like.

You want him heading off in the direction of the chevron feature. If he hits the chevron he'll slide towards the edge, and with any luck he'll end up stopped there. It's also possible for him to survive an impact with the ledge elsewhere, but if he ends up beyond the chevron he may be too hard to reach later.

Assuming he has a good landing, get to the bottom of the V. If you want to do things fast, there's the possibility of reaching the V before he's landed on the ledge, by running off the deck as part of your dodge.

Run off the V almost parallel to the cliff face, and bounce off the chevron to then get stopped on the ledge by collision with the Elite. There's no need to crouch as you hit the chevron. Typically you'd want to hit the apex if he's directly opposite it, as commonly happens. It's useful to have a plasma pistol at this point, to stun him if he's about to take a swing at you. You could even stun him in advance as you're heading down to him. That would also keep him stationary for a few seconds, to help you collide with him. He may otherwise dodge, causing you to sail past.

Now you're stopped on the ledge, get away from any potential swipe quick, and kill him if you want. From here you can move along and drop down at a safe spot of your choosing, as described elsewhere. If you want to get more fun out of things though, let him chase you to your drop-off point. He's quite likely to follow you down, in which case you may can let him get into a fight with the Marines or whatever (he does seem to go after them with relish, like Christmas has come early). The possibility of this sort of fun is a nice bonus of this descent method.

Note: If you only take a glancing deflection off the Elite and end up going off the ledge, you could still survive if you get sufficient cushioning from the cliff face, or possibly a rock. Another variation on things is that it's possible to end up stopped on the ledge by a direct collision with the Elite, rather than bouncing against him via the chevron. He can provide enough cushioning. However, survival would be very fickle.

Checkpoint advice

Getting the Elite onto the ledge is the hardest part and is likely to take multiple tries, so it's good to get a checkpoint to minimize how long each try takes. Here's a routine I showed in BCM27, starting from just before where you trigger the bridge checkpoint, having killed all earlier enemies.

Keep the bridge checkpoint delayed while you deal with the enemies at the far end of the bridge and lead the gold Elite back towards the start. At some point get sufficiently clear from him so the game will finally give you the checkpoint, ideally with him on the lower deck. One trick you can use for this is to lead him along a glass panel then shoot it so he falls to the lower deck, giving you some separation. Going into the entry passage would be one option for then getting the checkpoint, but I suggest you merely try hanging around topside out of sight.

When you get the checkpoint, you're ready to make repeat attempts at getting him onto the ledge. Things will probably be easiest if he's a good way back from the end of the deck. What you can then do is get close enough to him to start him growling (see pic), then run into position at the edge of the deck, similar to how you'd handle a patrolling Elite. I didn't get that situation in BCM27 (it was only my first attempt), but I was able to improvise by first drawing him away from the corner then stunning him.

Once he's down, preferably get another delayed checkpoint at the bottom of the V, having gone back to trigger one in the exit passage. You'll then be ready to make multiple attempts at being stopped by the Elite. But it's pretty easy, especially if he's opposite the apex of the chevron, so it shouldn't take more than a few.

Difficulty and system differences

This is a rather hard method I think, the main difficulty lying in getting the Elite onto the ledge. As with using a patrolling Elite, he has to be heading off in a fairly specific direction, but this time it's considerably harder to control, and a sword swing is a lot harder to avoid than a melee attempt. Dodging a sword is an unnerving business at the best of times, let alone when you're right on the edge of that deck and also concerned about getting him approaching at the right angle! It might be worth practicing a bit of sword dodging somewhere beforehand (right after a checkpoint), to help calm any possible jitters. That's always assuming the practice session doesn't get you even more scared of course! If you do get him onto the ledge however, things are fairly easy from there, especially if you get a checkpoint on the V.

I suspect the method is impossible for NTSC and PC, with the Elite dying before he hits the ledge.

History and links

I showed my original descent with this method in BCM27, released on February 3rd 2011 and advertised in the HBO forum and also in the High Impact Halo forum. I'd had the idea of being stopped on the ledge by the gold Elite months earlier, but at that time I'd been thinking of using the far ledge. It's easy to get him onto that, by jumping onto the bridge support. If he's chasing close behind he's liable to follow and drop, ending up almost directly below. There are other ways too. Falling down to him however, I found that the collision would kill me, so it looked like the idea was no good. It was only in 2011 that I explored the potential at the near ledge, having thought that a collision after falling from the V could be survivable. In part I was prompted by having just managed FrogBlast's Shade stop method after falling from the V. After things worked with the gold Elite, I managed to get down in similar manner using a Hunter, and later using the patrolling Elite.