Who needs overloading anyway? Let's get that Banshee in normal play!

(5:47) Level 10 ('The Maw') on Easy. If you ever wanted to get that Maw Banshee but couldn't face the work needed for overloading the game, your time has finally arrived, because I've found a way to snatch it in normal play - no overloading needed! You could actually be airborne within nine minutes of starting the level. This tutorial shows two ways of working (according to checkpoint use), plus some bonus fun at the end. For more about the new method see my related article.

Released November 9th 2015, gameplay recorded November 4th-7th 2015.

00:02 (Snatch via standard plan) This shows my standard plan in action. Arriving at the rendezvous I hop into position and take aim, ready to throw just as the Banshee has levelled out, or thereabouts. The pilot gets tagged and bails, then I board by jumping up and mashing X. I quickly get clear of enemy threat to try and get the checkpoint, which is initially getting delayed and which will be cancelled before long.

01:17 (Elaboration) You can easily get the grenade on target as shown, but even so, it may not go through; or it might go through yet miss him. So, it may take multiple tries, requiring a re-drive each time - as briefly represented by my clip of an Elite amusingly diving out of the way. When you do get the Banshee, you should get clear fast for the checkpoint, though it's still not certain that you'll get it. It's a bit fickle. You're clearly safe inside, but apparently the game doesn't always think so (same as with the overloading method).

02:06 (On through the ship) With my first snatch example I flew back outside, so this time I illustrate the other option - heading on through the ship. These two clips also give me the opportunity to mention a couple of benefits of tag-snatching compared to using overloading. You've got more enemies to have fun with, and firing is agreeably problem-free. Didn't need firing to finish off that Shade gunner though, heh heh! The clip with the five running covies was from the same fly-through you saw me starting. The second was from another, done a few days later when I decided a spot of hangar footage should be included.

02:34 (Bailing behaviour) The odd bailing behaviour only seems to last during the scripted phase of the Banshee's flight. Once the pilot 'activates' a short way past the bridge, he'll no longer bail if tagged. I tested it, and this clip provides an example. He screams, so he was definitely tagged. Actually I tested it a lot. I found that if I stood in that position, the Banshee would almost always curve around for an attacking run like he did here. That allowed me to get a feel for how best to throw, to target the Banshee's nose. However, although I got plenty of long spins which I suspect indicates tagging, it was hard to get a good scream out of him. It seemed like he'd usually take too long to start, if at all. This clip had the clearest scream.

02:53 (Fast retry plan) My other plan for doing the snatching involves getting the checkpoint in advance. That way you can keep retrying the throwing fast, and you'd typically get the Banshee sooner. Good way of getting used to the throwing and snatching too. Can't checkpoint afterwards though; that's the main disadvantage. In one of my try examples the grenade goes through (the sight of which triggers me to jump) but misses him. Must've tagged part of the Banshee instead. That's pretty common. When I get the Banshee, I spiral down and blast the pilot; then both of us get blasted by the other guy! Wasn't expecting that!

04:35 (Bonus fun with bailing) This closing part of the movie demonstrates some bonus fun you can have with bailing, using the set-up for the fast retry plan. The basic idea is to cause bailing and enjoy what follows - whatever that may be. I'll probably do a whole movie on this later, because there are so many possibilities. With the first five bails, I moved to a particular position and aimed at a particular spot, ready to throw at the right time. With the left Banshee it was instead a matter of judging the correct elevation by instinct, after getting my horizontal aim lined up with the Banshee. I left my second rocket rather late, but the impact slowed the Banshee enough to save me getting splattered.

Closing remarks Glad to get this stuff done at last. Ever since I tag-snatched by accident on September 29th, I'd been wondering if that was going to make a practical new method of snatching; and it certainly does!

In the second and third tries you saw with my fast retry plan, those weren't my true second and third, but that doesn't matter. For tutorial reasons those were other tries which I edited in, to create an example sequence. After an initial failure of grenade pass-through, I wanted a try where the grenade passed through but missed him (needed to show that at least once in the movie), and then for the sake of movie brevity I wanted success. Well, that's not how things actually happened, and I certainly wasn't going to keep on redoing the whole set-up until it did, so I just edited to create the semblance. In addition I wanted a nice entertaining success clip. The one you see was actually my fourth success (over the course of a few minutes play). It had the best post-snatch action.

You may've noticed that I had a full rocket launcher. In Engineering I used plasma grenades to blow the cores, for the sake of keeping all my rockets for possible later fun. It was no trouble. I topped up on plasmas at the lift; I knew the covies would drop plenty.

In the course of making this movie, I finally pulled off a 3:51 drive, woo-hoo! Previously my best was 3:50 (see BCM160 for an example). A small change I've made to my routine is to go out left (on the slope) before entering the weaving section in the first chamber, so I don't have to make such a tight right turn to enter it. That makes entry easier to judge, and a higher speed can be maintained. Also I think I've got slightly better at the actually weaving - although it remains very easy to mess up!

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