This passage network is way too crowded if you ask me. But I can change that!

(6:51) Level 3 ('The Truth and Reconciliation') on Heroic. At long last I'm giving some serious movie treatment to the fabulous passage horde battle you can set up with the Grunt-Jackal spawning trick. I did indicate the potential in my original trick tutorial BCM145 back in 2015, but that was just on Normal and was more to give you a look at the horde I'd built. Now I'm stepping things up to Heroic and properly focusing on the battling. There are three battles here for starters, featuring my newly created horde of 63 covies who I'm stopping from reaching the muster bay. But buckle up because there's a lot more carnage coming with these guys!

Released August 13th 2026, gameplay recorded August 9th-11th 2026.

00:02 (Play 1 - Corner hold-out with AR) I thought that a fairly easygoing corner hold-out would be a nice way to start the movie, introducing you to the horde. Should give you a good sense of how they seem to just keep on coming. I stick with my AR throughout. The last of the 17 Jackals is at 1:04, then it's all Grunts.

02:52 (Play 2 - AR & needler) This time I get more vigorous, pushing forward and also bringing my needler into play. Along the way I top-up my ammo multiple times, using the spare needlers I'd strategically positioned during the set-up work. The set-up actually has five spare needlers, four of which are full. There are also three spare full ARs and 3 spare plasma pistols, as well as a plasma rifle and sniper rifle.

Near the end of the battle, one Grunt gets past me and I let him go while finishing off the stack remnants. Then I chase him down to kill him before he reaches the muster bay.

05:01 (Play 3 - Plasma combo) An even faster play now, using plasma weapons. In regard to the plasma pistol, I exclusively use plasma balls. The final Grunt is a bit of a grenade-dodging expert, but I finally tag him with my third try.

Closing remarks Just to clarify, with a standard set-up such as this, and where I'm not doing a rear attack, the rule I play to is that no covie must reach the muster bay.

Some information on the set-up. To get my horde, I let the spawning go for 26 minutes after I'd initially got a pair of Grunts. That pair spawned when I moved a bunch of weapons out of the spawn trigger zone, which I'd thrown them all into beforehand. I ended up with 63 covies, which was quite closely on target with the 60-ish I wanted. Of the 46 Grunts (making about 73% of the horde), there are 23 each of red and orange, a perfectly even split. Of the 17 Jackals, 8 are yellow-shielded and 9 are blue-shielded.

I decided on having an AR and needler as my initial weapons, and that turned out to be the right choice I think, because (1) the AR is a lot of fun to use here and (2) I am of course rather keen on needling, as witnessed by the fact that I also arranged five spare needlers to keep me well stocked with ammo!

© 2004-2026 by Rockslider