If you like running around like crazy while blasting Flood with a shotty, this fight should be just the thing for you…

(5:07) Level 7 ('The Library') on Heroic. This shows three plays of a two door battle save in which I try to execute a speedy central defence each time, based around the shotgun. At the back of my mind is the 'wipeout challenge' of killing all allotted combat Flood before the door opens, but principally I'm just having fun. In the first play I limit myself to shotgun and grenades, then I limit myself to shotgun and rocket launcher which is harder. Then finally, shotgun only. There are easier ways to tackle this battle but a fast-killing central defence is the most fun. In this save I've removed all the medkits so I can't restore health in battle.

Released March 14th 2013, gameplay recorded March 12th-13th 2013.

00:02 (Play 1: Shotgun & grenades) These battles are all rather fast and chaotic so I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow description. I'll just remark on a few parts or events - whatever comes to mind. At the start here, that's where I triggered the checkpoint for my save. That also triggers the Monitor to leave.

00:19 Nice tag for openers, followed by a frag at the other outlet. I was using that opening a lot in my plays with shotgun & frags. That's six Flood down already.

00:34 After blasting a Flood I throw a frag to clear the area, but I guess it must've been long as an AR guy escapes. Dang, I could've sworn he was gonna go down! When I realise he's still with me I switch my attention to him quick because that AR fire is murder, but my first shot misses. All this puts me somewhat on the back foot for a while. Right after he goes down I throw a frag to try and guard against more fire from the right while my shield is weak, but I think it may've been wasted.

00:51 Just as I turn left to suppress some AR fire, I realize a Flood is running my way from the right. I'm half expecting to get whacked, and he indeed makes contact, but it wasn't too bad. I had to focus on the AR guys. Right after that I try to leave a grenade in front of the right outlet, but it turns out I've got none left. What a silly cyborg.

01:10 After blasting a raging Flood, I circle a shotgun guy who's just landed. He tries to swipe but my shotty gets him first. Hah, outmanoeuvred!

01:32 As you can see, the flow of Flood has dried up. If you kill the combat Flood fast enough, you can use up your allotment before the door opens (and the spores will stop too). In this case I finished the combat Flood with about 16 seconds to spare.

01:40 (Play 2: Shotgun & launcher) At the start of this next play I've included footage of my weapon swap, just to show you the collection of spares I'd arranged. Nice huh? I've even got a needler there, though I wasn't expecting to have much joy with it as it's somewhat slow for this hectic battle.

01:51 An easy two-rocket opening, but my second rocket isn't perfect. It only gets three of the four Flood there. A shotgun guy is just out of the blast radius, but luckily he doesn't fire while I reload.

02:07 When I try to blast an AR guy, my shot hits a spore. You'd think the pellets would go straight through, but they don't. The Flood is completely unaffected as far as I can tell. I delay my next shot slightly when I see the opportunity for getting another guy at the same time.

02:12 With shield bleeping I whip out the launcher to try and do some good clearing work and get recharged. I manage to recharge completely, thanks partly to evading the fire of the plasma rifle guy.

02:24 As I'm moving back towards the outlets I see an opportunity for getting two Flood at once with my shotty. I put them down, and then I get another pair with my next shot.

02:33 After a lot of shotgun work, I finally clear enough space to use my second tube. Scratch two more Flood. However, by the time I've reloaded I'm taking a nasty double dose of AR fire, giving me immediate cause to use up another rocket. I'm right on the verge of losing health at this point, but some shotgun work lets me recharge again.

02:51 My second tube goes on a pair of guys to the left, and sets off some loose frags. Dangerous stuff, but I was keeping reasonably far back. There's no time to reload the launcher yet though; I have to do more shotty work. Eventually, with Flood boxing me in I decide to leap over one guy and take the hit while reloading the launcher, otherwise I'll soon be out of Flood to use it on (and I want to use all ten rockets). Works pretty nicely - not much damage - and that sets me up for two nice rockets. One takes out three Flood, the other is carefully aimed to take out a pair of plasma rifle guys.

03:08 Last combat Flood blasted. Looks like he's the last of my allotment too, as the door hasn't quite started opening yet.

03:18 (Play 3: Shotgun only) And finally, the shotty alone, which is perhaps the most fun of all. I'm kind of stating the obvious here, but the key to trying to get through combat Flood fast is to get shot after shot on target with minimal aiming delay, and ideally with maximum blast effect so they stay down. Very few of my shots are wasted here, but at least one is blocked by a leaping spore, and in one case I deliberately shoot at spores because I didn't immediately pick up a better target.

04:43 The last two combat Flood bite the dust with some satisfying close-range blasts, and I've still got full health. I didn't quite crack the wipeout challenge here. He was the last of my allotment of combat Flood (examining the footage I count 43 of them) but he went down a few seconds late.

Closing remarks With all these ways of tackling the battle, I had other plays in which I got through the Flood more efficiently, but my main criterion in selecting plays to show here was entertainment value. Later I expect to return to the two door battle, quite possibly on Legendary, and either show more fun plays or go all out for speed.

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