Ok so you want your own freaky little turret to play with? Start here!

(5:54) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Relating to the curious business of a detached dropship turret, this demonstrates setting things up for making detachment attempts, using the late preparation method for organizing bridge transport. For the actual detachment technique see BCM99, which follows on from this set-up.

Released March 31st 2014, gameplay recorded March 23rd-26th.

00:02 (Stealing the platform Banshee) The full details of the set-up work are in my article, so in this commentary I won't be explaining lots; just making a few comments, mostly on this particular play. At the start here I have a bit of fun with a red Elite, making him look a right chump. That was really just to get the movie off to an amusing start; normally I would've just sniped him. I make sure to replenish my plasma grenade supply, as I like to keep the full complement. After getting the battle start checkpoint as usual, I dislodge the Banshee and I'm soon on my way. No need to bother killing all these covies. Down the tunnel though, I enjoy squashing a few Hunters and rocketing the pursuing Ghosts. The Ghosts make easy targets down there.

01:29 (Speeding through the cavern) I'm likewise fairly brisk at the cavern. After sniping the initial two patrolling Elites, I snipe the distant ones and the Hunters. There are also a few patrolling Jackals over there who could bother me, so I take care of those too; one with a Banshee blast as shown. The other covies I didn't bother with.

01:46 (Rising tunnel and tower area) I kill later covies with a combination of sniping, Banshee fire and rocketing. I could've been more gung-ho with the Banshee actually, as I was always planning to switch to the tower Banshee. It only loses one health bar, but I switch anyway (or if I hadn't, I would've at least overturned the tower Banshee so it couldn't attack me later). Oh, and before that I get a pistol and top up my sniper rifle.

02:52 (Preparing bridge transport) I put the Banshee in my favoured position, being careful not to squash myself as I dismount. When I later pause to watch the lift go up, that was just for the movie, to show it going up. You don't need to pause.

03:37 (Heading back in the final Banshee) After getting the twin bridges Banshee I disable all Ghosts and Shades on the way back, to save me getting attacked by them later. Poor covies; they won't have any toys to play with!

03:52 (Back in the tower area) Back in the tower area I mop up a few remnant troops then trigger the pass guards and kill them, taking care to keep the Banshee healthy. Actually, it might've been good to trigger the guards before blasting that Ghost, because then the two Elite guards wouldn't have spawned (they don't seem to spawn if there's a manned enemy Ghost around). That would've saved me a spot of extra killing.

04:13 (Saving the pass checkpoint) I keep the pass checkpoint delayed with Banshee fire at first, and later let it continue via enemy threat (which is quite safe, as long as you've got a good feel for how close you need to be to covies, for the game to consider you under threat). When the covies are wiped out, I sink down to ground level well back from the cliff edge, and get the checkpoint. Then I save it in case the final bit of work gives me a bad checkpoint and I have to retry things.

04:44 (Getting the detachment attempt checkpoint) Skimming towards the cliff edge, the Marines and Hunters are triggered and I'm already making sure to keep the associated checkpoint delayed. Letting the Banshee fall, the dropship is triggered just before I hit the ground, and at that point I've glanced at a seconds timer; then I get into my favoured position backed up against the bridge support. I continue my delaying fire until 40 seconds after the dropship was triggered, hoping to then get the checkpoint just before the ship arrives in the twin bridges area. Works perfectly this time; but there were a few unsuccessful attempts before this one, when I didn't get the checkpoint in time. Note: the 40 seconds figure is for PAL Xbox. I'm not sure if the timing for NTSC/PC will be the same (see my article).

05:34 (First detachment attempt) I make a first detachment attempt, but I'm a bit rusty and hit the ship too high, and I don't think I even cause a flip. This failure was ideal for ending the movie with though, as it's certainly the most likely outcome you'll face when you try this to begin with. See BCM99 for technique tips!

Closing remarks I chose to show the late prep method rather than the early one mainly because I think people might find its directness more inviting (rather than having to do a descent off the first bridge). But another reason was that I expected it to give slightly more entertaining footage, with more covies encountered.

In regard to getting the detachment attempt checkpoint, I opted for the simpler variation in which you end up with the dropship music still playing. It's also possible to set things up with the music ended, which is how I set things up for the play in BCM88, but if you're interested in doing that you can read about it in my article, along with other details and variations to the set-up work.

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