Danger! More falling Grunts
Posted April 22nd 2006
I don't know if you're already familiar with the hilarious falling Grunts on the Silent Cartographer island, but there's another bunch of free-falling jokers in Two Betrayals. Namely the four needler Grunts up on the cliff in the spiral path area, above where you find a Warthog and supplies. If you approach the cliffside below, they'll lob grenades down (which is all they do; they don't fire their needlers). But it's such a tricky throw that they often stumble off. Turn on your flashlight and enjoy the impacts. Splat!
Sometimes they go over as they throw, other times they go over as they try to resume normal footing. Sometimes a Grunt dives off as a colleague throws. I've even seen one guy dive off to avoid his own grenade after it stuck near the top of the cliff. You might also see a Grunt come over when he's simply hopping around near the edge, not throwing a grenade at all. Sometimes you'll see a Grunt seem to take a running leap off the cliff as he throws; not the best of tactics! All in all, on a good day the whole lot can be lying dead on the ice inside thirty seconds. Yep, these guys are pretty fearsome troopers alright!
There's lots of fun you can have with these guys, and I'll talk about it in the rest of the section. Conveniently, there's a checkpoint just before you reach the area (namely as you reach the underpass and a couple of Jackals), so you can revert to enjoy things repeatedly, depending on just how Grunt-crazy you are.
Legendary aggression
On Legendary the Grunts seem to throw at a higher rate (one every few seconds, once they get in the mood), and they'll even keep throwing as they fall down to the ice! Actually you have to watch out for that, as there's not so much time to dodge those. One guy got me with a grenade just as he hit the ice. Little critter!
Grunty survival
Occasionally you might see a Grunt survive the fall if he comes sliding down the cliff face or lands on a sloping bit of ground, or (so it seems) gets cushioned by bouncing off your body. They make some odd sounds when they survive; a sort of high-pitched "Ahhhhh…" or the even stranger "Boooooo!". Then they'll usually toddle off back to the top, unless blown up by their own grenade! Actually, when they start heading off, that's a great opportunity to double-tag them on the feet, so they get blown miles high. Looks pretty spectacular in the darkness.
Grenades of your own
If you lob a grenade up, it sometimes causes Grunts to dive off as it flies past them. See them streak off overhead! Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's just another grunty fool who's forgotten that he can't fly. You might even get two at once. Even if they don't jump off as the grenade goes up, you might see them get blown off later when it does come down. Try lobbing your grenades from right up against the cliff, for an amusing straight-up view of Grunts who come flying off. Or, standing further back, see if you can actually tag someone. Those little faces make pretty appealing targets. You could also try tagging a Grunt as he throws; you know he's going to be stationary for a moment.
Target practice
See if you can shoot an airborne Grunt dead before he hits the ground. Good target practice for the pistol, and maybe you can get him with a headshot. In fact, here's a challenge: see if you can get all four with headshots. Also, when you've got two Grunts coming down at once (typically a thrower and a colleague who dived clear), see if you can kill both before they hit.
When a Grunt is close against the cliff as he comes down, hits cause blue splashes of blood on the cliffside. Very nice; definitely one of my favourite forms of exterior decoration. See how many splashes you can get from the group. With a pistol my best so far is 10, but with fast shooting and cooperative Grunts you could get at least 16, as it's certainly possible to get 4 splashes per Grunt. Try an assault rifle too. Note: Only splashes which are entirely on the cliff face count.
You may like to use Legendary for all this as the Grunts do more throwing, which gives you more shooting and less waiting.
Whack!
Another bit of fun to have: move to intercept a falling Grunt and whack him dead before the ice does the job. See if you can get all four this way.
On the head
You can also simply move under a falling Grunt so he lands on your head. You can get a pretty funny view as he comes down! Luckily he's not heavy enough to squash you. That would've been embarrassing eh? 'Death by falling Grunt' would be a sorry way to go.
Needles and plasma
Something else you might like to do is send a stream of needles up just as a Grunt starts throwing. Nice pink bang. Or how about sending up a spot of plasma to hear the cute things they say? "Ooh! Hot! Hot! Hot!".
Going out with a bang
Incidentally, something else to do with these Grunts is to go up the spiral path loaded with grenades, stand where they can all pile needles into you, and let yourself be blown miles into the air by a chain reaction.
Jackal bonus
Each time you revert, you get the extra fun of killing those two Jackals in whatever manner you desire. Yay! Alternatively, you could nip past and leave them until after the Grunts are dead. Get armed with a plasma pistol (did you bring one along with you?) and a needler, and you've got the most satisfying combo for Jackal elimination. Send in a plasma ball to take out his shield, and immediately follow up with an aggressively fired clip of needles. Boom! Bye-bye beak-face!