A frozen Hunter becomes a mid-air stepping-stone to a gold Elite in this novel bridge descent. Three cheers for covie teamwork!

(5:42) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. For PAL Xbox this shows how you can descend from the first bridge by dropping to a Hunter frozen in mid-air as a stepping-stone, then continuing down to get stopped on the ledge by a gold Elite. In fact it shows my first successful attempt. The method is probably not viable on NTSC or PC due to the fall distances. See here in my bridge descent guide for an account of the method.

Released November 3rd 2012, gameplay recorded October 31st - November 1st 2012.

00:02 The movie starts from a delayed checkpoint saved just before reaching the trigger line for the one on the bridge. Ideal if anything goes bad with the next bit of work. I start delaying the new checkpoint by jumping, but soon it gets delayed by enemy threat. I kill everyone except the Elite, and get him to the lower deck by shooting a glass panel from underneath him. Then I get the checkpoint by getting clear of him so the game stops delaying it.

00:31 Now here's the first tricky bit, and that's why I wanted the checkpoint. I need to dodge his sword at the edge to get him down onto the ledge. As it turns out, I manage it on the first try. His position looks fine, so I head off to fetch a Hunter.

00:51 In the exit passage I start jumping to delay the checkpoint triggered there. In the room I kill the covies down the left, then move on around and get the first Hunter plus another Grunt. There's still one Grunt left but I get him with a pistol shot while leading the Hunter to the door (kill not shown as I edited out some leading to speed things along). I didn't need to kill all those covies, but it's not as if it took much time. At the door I dodge a swipe and run off hoping to leave him standing there. I stop at the start of the ramp leading up to the lift and save the delayed checkpoint to consolidate.

01:42 My first attempt at the forthcoming Hunter work didn't go well enough. I got him frozen in mid-air and got my checkpoint at the edge, but I found that I couldn't reach him because he'd been standing too far from the deck edge. This gave me a better sense of how near the edge he needed to be, and I restarted from the saved checkpoint for my second attempt, shown in the movie.

Triggering the lift checkpoint, I start delaying it with a few grenade throws so I can move more easily than if I were jumping. It's going to stay delayed quite a long time and I variously use jumping, enemy threat, and grenades. The Hunter turns out to've moved away from the door but that's no biggie. I lead him out to the bridge, which is quick and easy if you keep a short way ahead of him.

02:07 On the bridge I easily get him down to the lower deck, and now I want to get him standing close to the edge where the Elite went off. My first two tries are no good at all. I don't get away fast enough, so he pursues. The way to leave a Hunter standing is to be facing him as he swipes, then dodge and run past. I should've done that from the start, but I was a bit distracted by the importance of positioning him at the edge. Anyway, I finally use the correct technique, and when I look back, I see that he's very near the edge as desired. I almost lose health from a blast though, which would've wrecked things because I want full health for the falling. It would've been better to peek down through a panel hole, but this was only my second go at doing the Hunter work remember, so it's not surprising that there were a few rough edges.

02:52 Still keeping the checkpoint delay going, I make the Hunter fall a short way and freeze. When the first loading point is crossed, he starts falling (see the red dot on the tracker?), which I assume is because the bridge is no longer there to support him. When I come back across the reverse loading point, he freezes. I threw a grenade right after crossing the first loading point so I could briefly dispense with the jumping and get to the second one quick, so he wouldn't fall too far. On the edge of the lower deck I finally get the delayed checkpoint, ready to make descent attempts.

03:35 My first two tries at landing on the Hunter are shown, and as you can see, I don't fare too well. After another failure (not shown), I land on the fourth attempt. However, I fail to get stopped on the ledge, skimming off the Elite to my death. Assorted failures continued for quite some while, which I've sparsely represented by another two failure clips, but at least I got better at landing on the Hunter. When I finally did get stopped on the ledge, I wasn't sure where best to drop to the ground as I'd neglected to do any advance scouting (with the aid of a Banshee), and I ended up dying after slipping off the ledge at a steep bit I tried to get past. The movie shows the second time I made it to the ledge, deflecting off the Elite and then doing my best to stop myself going off. There's actually a very easy drop to the ground, as shown.

05:19 Finally, for an extra spot of amusement I've included a clip (done the day after) which shows what happens if you kill the frozen Hunter while standing on him. He becomes insubstantial (like any dead covie) and you fall to your death. Also, when you get near the height of the ledge, he's released from his freeze, giving a belated death cry and potentially falling right on top of you. I would've liked to let the camera dwell on this death scene longer but I was obliged to let the clip fade out before the Hunter had fully settled, as the game reverted me to my falling checkpoint quite quickly.

Closing remarks I had the idea for that descent method back in February 2011. Originally I'd been trying to get stopped on the far ledge by the gold Elite after falling from the bridge support, but the impact with the Elite always killed me. When I found how to get a Hunter frozen in mid-air however, I realized I could use one as a stepping-stone to the Elite, allowing me to fall to him from lower down. I put the idea aside until now, and it's nice to see that it works. It's hardly a practical method but it does have novelty value!

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