What do the valley Banshees typically do after they spawn? Just watch this!

(7:35) Level 2 ('Halo') on Easy. After the valley Banshees spawn, their most typical behaviour is to circle and sink, eventually drifting off the clifftop somewhere, and down to the ground. Here I show two examples of how that can go, using two set-ups created like in BCM302. Plus there's the fun activity of seeing them up close and getting some combat. Quite a bit of tagging to enjoy here!

Released August 10th 2018, gameplay recorded August 7th-9th 2018.

00:02 (Example 1) The Banshees quickly get circling (right-circling) and sink to the clifftop where they skim around. After drifting for about a minute (I've edited things down of course), they go off the edge, by which time I've backed off a bit to avoid being spotted. They continue down to the ground, touching down almost two minutes after spawning. The set-up I was using seems to always give this outcome, including that specific touchdown area. You may well have encountered the Banshees circling there, in standard play.

01:03 (Getting closer) To see the Banshees up close you can get down and checkpoint for repeated playing. Here I show a quick and spectacular way down, rather than driving down a slope. I was actually a bit left of my intended landing area and almost hit trees, but it worked out fine. The clips show various vantage points being tried out, and I get spotted a few times. Notice how the hog's third-person view can be exploited to get a fuller peek without being seen. The pilots seem blind to the hog itself, seeing only you.

03:40 (Example 2) Here's the behaviour I seem to always get from another set-up. Circling and sinking again, but this time it's left-circling and the eventual touchdown is near the tunnel entrance on the right. I've edited this even more than the first example because the clifftop skimming lasted a good few minutes, with the Banshees actually going out of sight for a while. Touchdown took something five minutes.

04:27 (Hitting trees, playing, patrolling) After drifting along the ground for about 40 seconds (not shown), the Banshees start hitting a tree and it breaks things up. What happens thereafter can vary, but in this case they did a bit of random playing for about 25 seconds, then started patrolling of the valley (their default behaviour I'd say). I was using a slope for cover, which potentially allows you to watch them patrolling a long time, but here I got spotted early and enjoyed some grenade work. Almost got splattered when doing the tag though; cut that a bit fine!

05:42 (Lying in wait) Here's a fun idea I had: lying in wait for the Banshees to come down! In these two examples I end up having some tagging fun - including a very nice second tag in the first example.

Closing remarks So, now that I got the set-up movie out of the way, finally we're getting into the Banshees' behaviour (when left undisturbed). I've known about this sinking and circling for years and it's one of umpteen topics I've wanted to cover in my movies. More on this theme coming later!

In my first example the final two clips are actually from a different spawning using the same save. I got those when I went back to do more play, in pursuit of better clips.

Let me also clarify on my second example. While the Banshees were still drifting on the clifftop I went out into the valley with the intention of lying in wait, but I soon realised it was going to be quite a while before the Banshees came into view, so I let some time pass and then got another checkpoint. That checkpoint was the basis from which all the footage comes (via multiple plays), after the initial clip. I did some 'lying in wait' plays, and later did some plays where I quickly returned to the cliffside hilltop to get footage of the descent. When it came to the movie though, I decided it was better to show clifftop footage first. Consequently there's a bit of patchwork going on. The clip where the Banshees are drifting down the slope is from one play (the play which had the best footage of that part), but the footage afterwards (where the circling breaks up and I end up being spotted) is from another play (which was the most entertaining).

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