Some of these wave troops aren't going to have much of a battle at all!

(8:08) Level 3 ('The Truth and Reconciliation') on Legendary. Something I haven't featured in any of my grav-lift battle movies is tagging a covie as he descends to the platform. Scoring such hits is tricky! But with the aid of a convenient mid-battle checkpoint I've been able to make repeated attempts rapidly, giving some nice results to make into an entertaining montage. The movie also shows some mid-air sniping, as well as some interesting Jackal arrivals. All using that same handy set-up.

Note: a lot of my throws are 'anticipation throws', made before the wave has even spawned. But there are also some where I sight a target first, allowing me to throw reactively.

Released June 8th 2026, gameplay recorded May 26th - June 6th 2026.

00:02 (Grunt tag from rock) This is one of my early tags, obtained on my first day of recording. The action picks up right after the checkpoint I got, which was namely the wave 4 checkpoint (triggered along with wave 4, though typically delayed due to enemy threat and ongoing combat). I'm standing on a rock and have five Marines. We've had wave 5 and there are only three covies left, all panicking. A Jackal and Grunt on the right near a tree, and a Grunt at the grav-lift (they're seen quite wel in the third clip). The enemy count just needs to drop below two for the next wave to trigger.

After sniping the Jackal, I leave my Marines to hopefully kill a Grunt shortly, and meanwhile I throw two plasmas (all I've got), hoping one will intercept a Grunt. I've adopted a particular (but rough) aim for that. The first one connects with the nearest Grunt.

00:22 (Grunt tag) With a movie in mind, I wanted to have a good variety of tagging action, including throws from closer to the grav-lift. So you'll see plenty of that. Here I move along the left and score a nice hit on a Grunt.

00:34 (Grunt tag) Throwing from even closer now, I again get a Grunt. Not an anticipation throw this time; the wave is already coming down. I think I was specifically going for this Grunt. I knew the right sort of aim to use, to be in with a half-decent chance of success. You also see some stacked Jackals in this clip, a theme focused on later.

00:47 (Elite tag) Moving to another covie type, this was one of my first Elite tags from relatively close. Nice bit of growling there!

01:02 (Grunt tag) Another long-distance effort, targeting the grunty contingent. Not on my rock this time, but still near it. Also featuring: stacked Jackals again.

01:18 (Jackal tag) This tag was really nice, the way the plasma sails up and intercepts the Jackal high. I knew the approximate aim to use, after throwing a frag towards a Grunt to get the wave triggered.

01:32 (Grunt tag) This guy is saying "See him? See him?" without quite realising he's got a plasma fizzing on him. And then BOOM!

01:47 (Elite tag from rock) Here's another of the clips I got on my first day of recording (the opening clip is the only other one here). This time I score an amusing head-tag on the Elite, and there's a Grunt-snipe follow-up.

02:02 (Grunt tag) After having built up a pretty nice tag montage, I still wanted to try a few more things, and one of those was to quickly add a second plasma to a tagged Grunt, which could be good, especially if the first blast launched him up. I settled on the routine you see here, where I close in on the grav-lift Grunt, stunning him to keep him in place, then whacking him before waiting to spot my tag target, a needler Grunt due to land on the far side of the platform. I did a load of tries and got quite a nice clips, but this was the best in terms of getting a launch.

02:19 (Jackal tag) Got a Jackal here, and a 2x light-amplified view of it happening.

02:34 (Grunt tag) Grunt tagged, half the wave wiped out.

02:44 (Elite tag) Caught the Elite, and was a bit close on the bang!

02:58 (Grunt tag) As mentioned for the 2:02 clip, there were some late ideas I wanted to pursue. This was another. One new thing it adds to the movie is a bit of needler use. I'd realised that there was one nearby which I could quickly pick up. The other thing it adds is a quite carefully executed tag of an incoming Grunt, after getting sight of him with a zoomed sniper rifle.

03:13 (Jackal tag) In this amusing Jackal clip you can notice how his descent suddenly speeds up at the end, apparently due to going into a pointing animation. But it's also amusing how he then goes flying.

03:25 (Grunt tag from rock) Here's another of the late ideas I wanted to pursue. I started the movie with one of my early tries at tagging a Grunt from my rock, but here I'm using a more refined routine, taking up a more careful throwing aim with a zoomed sniper rifle, and maximizing my use of the sniper rifle's light-amplified view. And just for show, I'm only throwing a single plasma, rather than spamming a couple.

Thanks to the good lateral aiming, hitting my chosen Grunt was mostly down to fortunate timing, and on this occasion I'm lucky enough. On the platform, the blast sends other covies flying horizontally, which I found amusing, adding to the rationale for including the clip.

Something you can also see in this clip is one of the Jackals suddenly speeding up in his descent, which seems to be due to initiating a pointing animation.

03:44 (Grunt tag) This is just another take at the idea used for the 2:03 clip. I decided to throw it in for the comedy value.

03:56 (Elite tag) My second throw goes towards where the Elite was often coming down, and scores a late hit, amusingly getting him on the head. In the subsequent fighting I chase down a panicking Grunt and he becomes a Grunt bomb, obligingly taking out the next wave. That made for a good comedy ending to the mid-air tagging sequence I thought.

04:22 (Mid-air sniping) Mid-air snipes aren't as spectacular as mid-air tags, but here's a 5-clip montage, and there's also a sniping clip in the next section. Something you can notice is that when a covie is sniped, it looks like his body suddenly vanishes; but in fact his body suddenly went to the platform. Curious. In two of the clips I get killed thanks to a Marine frag. Great work boys!

05:46 (Stacked Jackals) Here's a montage focused on stacked Jackals, aside from the final clip. They don't always turn up like this, but it does happen often and you may've noticed examples in some of my battle movies. Interesting that on the descent, or much of it at least, they're practically merged. Sometimes they even begin walking while stacked, and I've included two clips on that at 7:16. Looks amusing!

Also included: a bit of mid-air tagging and sniping, now that I'd had all that practice from earlier. Plus some pre-emptive action with a plasma ball, taking down a shield.

The final clip at 7:53 is something different. The Jackals don't even come down smoothly. It's almost like they materialize on the platform, though actually there's a single frame in which they're part way down (it's just a flash). Tricksy fellows! Some of the other covies do likewise though. You may've already noticed such wave oddities in my movies.

Closing remarks The set-up used was derived from the one I've been using for my battle movies, but it wasn't planned. I'd been investigating checkpoint business, but when I got this particular checkpoint, I realised I had a good situation for making tries at mid-air tagging and more. So I saved it, and started working with the new save. All 30 clips show action occurring within a few seconds of the checkpoint.

The save did have a few shortcomings though. The most annoying thing is that I didn't have my flashlight on, so every time I reverted for a new play, I had to switch it on (wanting it for the movie footage). I also wish I'd been set for plasma grenades, and that I was fully stocked with them. However, at least I had two, which was much better than if I'd only had one. I'm glad also that I had a frag grenade. That came in useful here and there, adding variety in what I did with the initial three covies.

As you might expect, the movie did involve an awful lot of gameplay. I didn't count how many hours I put into it, making play after play in the hope of getting good candidate clips, but it must have amounted to quite a few. I did the recording from May 26th to June 1st, except that the 7:16 clip comes from June 6th when I spent a little time seeking to improve the stacked walking segment.

Now that I've had so much experience with mid-air tagging, I may try to work a mid-air tag into a full battle sometime, when I return to the grav-lift area for further rounds of glorious combat. It would be nice to see!

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