Off on a journey through the level with a trigger-happy Shade gunner…

(8:05) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. This shows how you can move a crazy-firing Grunt onwards through the level to a place of your choosing. In this case I take him all the way to the area with twin bridges overhead, then have a spot of fun with him.

Released February 8th 2012, gameplay recorded February 4th-6th 2012.

00:02 The movie starts at the checkpoint seen in BCM45 at 3:20 - my save checkpoint for getting the Grunt crazy-firing. We're going to need a hog but I want to leave the Banshee here for use, so I switch to a Ghost and head back. On the bridge I drive at the blue Elite and he leaps over the edge. Long way down!

00:30 The crashed Pelican area is deserted as I skipped the trigger earlier, but now I finally trigger it, and you can briefly see the three Marines starting to struggle. Good luck boys! I get up over the step by raising the Ghost's nose, and soon I've got the hog. A pair of Jackals makes too inviting a target to ignore for squashing, but a later Jackal manages to dive clear. Just as I near the step, Johnson takes out the red Elite with a sniper round. You can see the trail.

01:19 In the windy tunnel I get a "Wort wort wort!" from a Ghost pilot who gets bounced out of the way. Enemies in the two-Wraith area are finally triggered, which is why you hear the music starting up (actually, two bits of music starting up; there's also the music associated with opening the first tunnel door, though it quickly stops). Where the snow ends I score another double squash, this time with a pair of Hunters. At the bridge two dozing Shade gunners get a rude awakening, and a couple of Jackals add to the mess. Nice.

02:02 Back past the Shade, I switch to the Banshee and trigger the dropship checkpoint just past the end of the paved section, but I keep it delayed with Banshee fire until back in my original position, ready to make attempts at getting the Grunt crazy-firing. But as it turns out, I get lucky first time - yay!

02:36 Now the pushing begins, initially using the Banshee as I can avoid the Shade fire. I take things gently because I'm pushing from the side and the Shade can quite easily topple over. Soon I switch to the hog as the Banshee would intercept too much fire, but I'm a bit tentative with some of my initial pushing as I was a bit out of practice. You can go faster than this when you're used to it.

03:02 Getting the Shade past the sloping paved section needs care. Keep the Shade off the hole on the left or it'll get caught up there; and keep it away from the wall on the right or it can be awkward to get it clear again. Things get easier after that, especially when the gradient lessens. Incidentally, the patrolling Jackals got removed by the game when I fetched the hog. Handy!

03:29 Time for a spot of enemy clearance. My Banshee takes a bit of damage here as I was being rather cavalier about things, but obviously you could avoid Banshee damage if you want. I could've just driven up in the hog and done some chain-gunning. Spot the diving Grunt when I blast the Ghost at 3:43! After bringing the Shade up out of the tunnel (losing two health bars at the end through a spot of clumsiness), I do a bit more clearing and grab a spare Banshee off the tower roof. I also used a medkit (not shown).

04:26 The continual Shade fire normally delays checkpoints unless or until you're in a sufficiently different area. Here I backtrack to the bottom of the tunnel and around the corner, which is far enough to end the latest delay. Getting a checkpoint is useful to consolidate progress. There's another delay-ending method mentioned in my article (pity it's not in the movie, but never mind).

04:40 On level ground the hog would take fire from the Shade if you're pushing against the gun. That doesn't have to matter - you can always exit the hog each time your shield is about to be breached - but it's better to push diagonally to minimize fire. You can tack one way then the other, as demonstrated here.

05:13 When I enter the spiral path area here, you might be wondering where all the other enemies are. In normal play there would've been Grunts with the Jackals, and also a patrol coming up the path. But because of all the enemies I left alive earlier in the level, they haven't spawned. I can still enjoy blasting those Jackals though! Marines need to be eliminated too, or they'll attack my Grunt. Here I opt for the fastest way, scything them down as they file along the ice. UNSC command is not going to be happy about that. The sniper gets one of the Shade gunners for me just beforehand, and I blast the other myself. After clearing this area the game gave me a checkpoint. Evidently the Shade was sufficiently remote that it didn't cause a delay.

05:37 Pushing the Shade across ice with a hog is a bit tricky as you have so little traction, but it's possible to make speedy progress if you get it right, as seen here. Taking it down the spiral path takes a bit of care. Here you see me shepherding it down, making sure it doesn't slide off the inner edge. I probably should've tried to keep it further away from that edge to start with. Down on the ice, I take the opportunity to do a bit of pushing with the Banshee when it becomes safe.

05:56 I haven't included all my clearance work but here's another bit I think you'll enjoy, making use of a rocket launcher from back at the tower. My attack on the cloaked Elite is a little confused. I threw a frag and then thought "Hold on a minute, I've got a rocket launcher. Let's give him a tube of rockety goodness!" So I did - and the panicking minors too. In the twin bridges area beyond I used the Banshee, and you see me taking out an Elite and three Grunts with one blast. I got a checkpoint there after also taking out the two Shades with long-range blasts.

06:09 Getting the Shade through the underpass isn't too much trouble but there's a danger of the Shade tipping over if it starts to ride up the side of a small rock. The rock just past the second light on the right was the one I soon learnt to be wary of. So try to keep the Shade clear of such danger. It could take a few tries so it's certainly worth getting a checkpoint just beforehand, like I did. Getting it up the zigzag path is another bit which needs care.

06:40 Having moved the Shade well into the twin bridges area, I give the door Elites a nice rockety greeting. When I backtrack in the Banshee, the delay for the door checkpoint soon ends, making it convenient to repeatedly play about with the Grunt.

06:56 But what to do with him? I hadn't formed any plan beyond the general idea of making him spray some needles around, but he was close to a large rock and I found that I could eject him onto it without too much difficulty, so I settled on the idea of doing that and having an explosive finale. In the footage seen here he doesn't land on the rock very well (other times it was better) but I zap him with a plasma pistol to get him to the very top. After letting him do a bit of needling, and blasting the Shade to adjust his aim away from me, I give him an explosive send-off plus a mid-air rocket blast when he comes back down.

Closing remarks The nature of this movie evolved considerably as I worked on it. My initial idea had been to show how to move the Grunt, and to show him firing his Shade and needler in various places. But I soon realized that the movement business would take up quite a lot of movie footage, and as well as that, getting footage of the Grunt needling in lots of places would take a lot of time to do. So eventually I decided to focus on a specific journey all the way to the twin bridges area (which I hadn't taken him to before, but I thought it would be possible) and then do something with him there. By chance he was near a big rock at the end when I got the delayed door checkpoint, and that turned out to be useful for making a reasonably nice ending.

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