Entry chamber Ghost descent
Posted September 25th 2024 (expanding on the original mention in my 2017 article Exploring the entry chamber)
Associated movies
Did you know that it's possible to drive all the way to the bottom of the entry chamber in a Ghost? Or at least, it's certainly possible on PAL Xbox. I currently don't know the situation for NTSC/PC (it may be that you can't survive the fall distances; on PAL Xbox you can fall further without dying).
How it developed
This activity grew out of my interest in exploring the entry chamber, and more specifically in getting below the barrier, a bouncy invisible barrier that stops you if you're trying to fly down through it in a Banshee.
Initially I'd managed to at least drop to an alcove below the barrier (cushioning my fall with a Shade), but that's as far as I got. Then later, 3rdPerson alerted me to his 2006 video showing how you can go the rest of the way to the bottom by using a Ghost. See BCM242 for a tutorial based on his method.
Shortly after that, I found an easier type of 'platform drop' in the Ghost, which helped. But it also gave rise to a whole second method of getting down. Namely, the ease of that drop method made it practical to make the entire journey in a Ghost, i.e. driving all the way from the LZ to the bottom! I demonstrated that in BCM243, with the importance of the new platform drop being emphasized towards the end.
Excellent skillful fun!
Such a descent needs a fair bit of skill but is a lot of fun, and definitely one of the most engaging things to do in the chamber. But it's more than just a 'trick' to potentially achieve just once. You can make a performance sport out of it by doing speed runs! See BCM244 for my best efforts. In regard to timing, I opted to do a stationary start, with the time starting as soon as I started moving.
Anyway, the recreational aspect is really the impetus behind creating this article, to help highlight the fun you can have. I originally mentioned the activity/trick in my article Exploring the entry chamber, but in this subsequent dedicated article I'll get into some advice on the technique, and on setting up.
Setting up
How do you get a Ghost to the chamber? You'll need to blast it up onto the bridge from below, using frags dropped by Marines you kill. You can use the seven extra Marines trick to get enough frag donors. It can be useful to also tag the Ghost before the blast, so it'll get an extra shunt (which may or may not be helpful). See BCM242 to see how I got mine up. Also read my written commentary on the movie for a few details.
Of course, once you've got the Ghost onto the bridge, it's a simple case of driving it to the chamber, briefly dismounting at any doors to make them open.
You may like to have music playing during your Ghost descents, as I did. I namely got the music which is triggered by heading into the tunnel leading to the underground cavern, after covies have been triggered in the two-Wraith area.
To complete your set-up you'll want a delayed checkpoint when ready for action. Just bring along a delayed tunnel checkpoint, or potentially some other delayed checkpoint.
Before or after your final checkpoint, you may like to shunt a Banshee to the bottom of the chamber, just so you can enjoy riding it back up via force-launching, like I did in my movies. It's just a bonus.
Descent technique
Some talk on the technique now. The first part of the descent is a long drop from the LZ to the annular plain. Survival relies on getting slowed by the wall on the way down. There's a risk of being ejected and killed, but with an appropriate knack it's fairly routine to survive. Then there's an easy short 'platform drop' down to one of the platforms sticking out from the shaft wall.
From there, the shaft geometry becomes repetitive and you alternate between doing an alcove drop (dropping to an alcove), and a platform drop featuring a speedy lateral trajectory (the new type of drop I found). Doing that two-drop cycle four times gets you to the lowest platform level, and then you have two options. The standard one is to do a further alcove drop and then a short drop to the bottom. The other, riskier but faster, is to go for the column. As long as you don't get ejected from the impact, you can survive to the bottom. In a test however, I found that I was killed around 35% of the time. So it certainly is risky.
Thick mist becomes a factor in your last few drops. At your fourth platform you'll be at barrier level, where the mist becomes significant. You're not too badly handicapped for the next alcove drop, but the final platform drop is relatively hard. From that final platform, a last alcove drop isn't so hard though, because the drop dynamic is intrinsically easier. You may have to strain your eyes to see the edges of the platform you're about to leave, but as long as you can see them, you should be okay.
In heading down, you have directional choices of course, and that's up to you. On a speed run you may want to keep going the same way, smoothly spiralling down either clockwise or anti-clockwise.