Tips for efficiently hearing a character's Firefight lines.

Posted September 21st 2012

• Introduction
• Preliminaries
• Arming lines
• Damage lines
• Jackal lines
• General kill lines
• Headshot lines
• Melee lines
• Assassination lines
• Reload lines
• Overheat lines
• Throw lines
• Boarding lines
• Loss lines
• Stuck lines
• Impact lines
• Hurt lines
• Death lines

If you're interested in hearing the lines for a particular Firefight voice, this article should be a help. For various groups of lines, it suggests ways of setting up Firefight to try and hear them as easily and frequently as possible. I used such methods in exploring Cortana's lines, and decided to collect them into a standalone article as they can equally be used to explore any voice efficiently.

These are all single-player methods, and for the sake of reference I've named them (possibly I'll add more later if I develop any). In co-op there may be more convenient methods in some cases, but I don't cover that a present. Maybe later. Some methods are little more than common sense with a few trimmings, but some involve a bit more cunning, sometimes involving a careful balance of settings so things behave just right. The method advice is usually fairly specific, but feel free to use your own variations if you want to do things a bit differently.

If you're interested in recording lines, you might want to go to extra care to minimize any background noise to get the purest samples, and part of that would involve investigating the best maps and places to use. That's more specialized than what I'm trying to cover here, but my advice should still be useful (and see my note about exploiting Theater mode).

Before we get to the various line groups, here are a few general preliminary issues.

Map choice

With most groups any map would do for hearing the lines, but sometimes there's an advantage to using one map or another, for example because of the nature of the spawning area. I'd suggest using Beachhead as standard, but it's up to you.

IWHBYD

The IWHBYD skull alters some of the relative frequencies with which the various lines can be heard, and for some lines you may need the skull to be able to hear them at all. Make sure it's on if you want the widest variety of memorable lines.

Getting rid of music, for greater clarity

The initial music stops when the second wave is triggered, and you may like to take the time to do that before you get down to business, so you can hear lines more clearly. Not that the music is loud, but you do notice a difference when it's gone. A concussion rifle with damage modifier 200% or more is one good way of clearing enemies fast, and it would help if you've boosted your player speed. Preferably have your motion tracker set to enhanced mode with boosted range, so you can more easily locate enemies when needed. In my Cortana work I routinely had an unlimited jet pack (and usually low player gravity) which made any clearing even easier - plus more fun!

Minimizing covie hassle

For some of the methods you'll want to minimize the amount of hassle you get from covies, so you can concentrate on whatever you're doing. In regard to settings, my core suggestion is to play on Easy and use deaf near-sighted grenadeless Grunts (hazards disabled) - which you'd do through a custom skull. Minimize their damage resistance too if you want. Having them deaf and near-sighted will help minimize their activity and make them easier to deal with when necessary. But often (depending on where you are), they can simply end up standing around a short distance away, oblivious of you, so you won't even need to bother killing them. For getting rid of any nuisances though, a suitable weapon with bottomless clip would obviously be good, with boosted damage modifier if you didn't make enemies weaker.

Safe or quiet spots

A further aspect of minimizing covie hassle is to be in a suitable place. You could try some isolated area on the edge of the map for example, and Beachhead is good for that. But also, some maps have high perching spots which can be safely landed on with a jet pack to be completely out of covie reach. There's a cluster of them on Beachhead, near the stationary shield which is off to the right as you exit from the default spawn point (or as you choose to respawn on grass, the final option). There are seven grass-topped patches sticking out on the cliff face between the shield and the building, and five can be perched on (though one requires you to be pretty near the edge). Go check them out with an unlimited jet pack and low player gravity!

Invulnerability

In many of the methods I'll suggest that you make yourself invulnerable. This doesn't just ensure your safety, it also means your character won't be caused to utter any hurt lines ("Ahh!" etc.), which could interrupt the lines you're interested in hearing. Note that setting the enemy's damage modifier to 0% wouldn't give you quite so much protection as invulnerability. It doesn't even protect you fully from enemy fire, because if a covie dies before his shots reach you, those shots apparently lose their covie status and would be allowed to damage you - a flaw in the implementation.

A dedicated game variant

If you're going to be doing a fair bit of voice exploring, it's worth creating a dedicated game variant in which you've made various settings, so as to minimize the amount of changes needed when you want to use the various methods. I recommend the following. Make sure IWHBYD will be on. Set things for minimizing covie hassle, including having a bottomless clip and good weaponry. Have dropships disabled, unlimited waves, unlimited starting lives, minimum respawn time, invulnerability (there'll only be a few cases where you'd want to turn that off), maximum grenades, boosted player speed (e.g. 200%) and an unlimited jet pack. I favour using low player gravity too because it makes flying easier, but if you're not used to that, skip it. Set your sensor to enhanced mode with boosted range to aid target locating and to give you more warning of anything coming your way.

Exploiting Theater mode

For the more dedicated investigator, Theater mode can be a very useful tool. It's not only useful for replaying lines to review them, but also for clarifying lines which occur in noisy conditions, because you can make the playback give you sound clips one at a time, to hear a line in isolation. For example, after using a fuel rod blast to kill yourself for a death line, you can edge the film forwards to get first the explosion sound effect, then quite separately the death line.

Cortana occasionally says things when arming herself with a fuel rod gun, plasma launcher, rocket launcher or Spartan laser, and the line sets are different for each one. I don't know if that's the case for all characters, but here's how you can efficiently check out any arming lines for two weapons at once.

I don't think there's there's any point switching back and forth fast, because the game's decision over when to give you another line for a given weapon seems to be time based, rather than being based on the number of times you've switched to the weapon since you last got a line for it.

If you only have one special weapon to hear lines for, don't expect more than two lines a minute as you keep swapping. With two you get a higher combined line rate because the game is (I think) keeping track of line delivery for each weapon type separately. That was the main point of the rotation method.

The rotation method can be extended to test four weapons together if you like. Kill yourself to drop your initial two weapons, and on respawning select a loadout giving you the other two. Keep switching among the four and you'll get higher combined line rate than with two, if they all have lines. However, picking up weapons repeatedly is more work and gets tiresome fast, and it might even make you a bit dizzy, so I'd actually recommend sticking to the simpler two-weapon version.

Lines for causing damage are not just used for damaging enemy troops but also manned enemy vehicles, including dropships (even though those seem to be indestructible). I found Cortana to be anomalously silent when using a Wraith's mortar though, and maybe it's the same for other voices.

If you want things to be especially quiet so you can hear the lines more clearly, here's another method. The basic idea is to get a situation where you can damage enemies easily from safety for a long time.

I chose Hunters because they make large targets which won't move about much, and for line clarity it also helps that they don't make much reaction noise. You could try other covies if you like, or apply the general idea in other maps if you can find a suitably safe spot from which to fire. Incidentally, if the Hunters have normal vision they'll tend to crouch defensively, making a larger target than normal (not that it matters much), but on the minus side it takes them longer to settle down compared to being near-sighted. Hitting their shields is fine by the way; that does cause damage.

A few general notes on damage lines, while I'm here. (1) No distinction is made for the manner in which the damage is caused, and thus you can get some incongruous results with lines alluding to gunfire (e.g. "Target is taking rounds") when you actually used melee or a vehicle impact. (2) You can get a damage line or general kill line as a plasma grenade sticks, because that actually does a bit of damage. (3) With weaponry that does cumulative damage fast, such as a focus rifle or assault rifle, it sometimes seems like you're getting a damage line for a kill, but I assume you're actually getting it for damage incurred fractionally before the kill. A slight flaw in the programming I'd say; the reaction is coming too promptly. (4) You get damage lines even if covies have been made invulnerable. But you don't get them if you've given yourself damage modifier 0%.

Cortana has a few special lines relating to Jackal damage, which can occur several seconds after damaging or killing one (which may or may not have triggered a damage or kill line). I don't know if all characters have such 'Jackal lines', but you can soon check your own. Here's a relatively sedate method I used with Cortana.

If you don't want to be so fussy, just go around shooting at Jackals while invulnerable and you'll probably get your first Jackal line pretty soon. Jackals can be shielded or unshielded.

Here I'm talking about the lines used for killing covies or destroying manned enemy vehicles, except for killing by headshot, for which there are separate lines.

Outpost makes an especially good map for that method. You can just perch on the deck and pan around taking shots at the Grunts arrayed before you. You don't even need to move!

Note: I don't know if this is the case for all voices, but Cortana didn't give me any lines at all when dishing out hurt with a Wraith's mortar. Too engrossed in her work?

Headshot lines apply to the DMR, magnum, needle rifle and sniper rifle. When you kill with a headshot and get a line, it's always a headshot line, never a general kill line.

Outpost is great for that; you can go up on the deck and just pan around performing easy headshots on the Grunts scattered around. I found Courtyard good too, for the compactness and simplicity.

These lines are options to the general kill lines, for use when killing an enemy with melee or using an energy sword, gravity hammer or golf club.

If Cortana is anything to go by, assassination lines are typically two-part affairs involving various grunts of effort and sometimes verbal send-offs. Separately, you may also get a general kill line afterwards.

Larger maps are probably best for that, so the groups are better separated and so there's less noise from shooting. With an unlimited jet pack and low gravity you can easily fly about and drop in on groups from above, if you like. Kinda fun.

I don't have anything terribly special to say for these lines, but here's the fairly obvious method.

The weapon overheat lines apply to the focus rifle, plasma launcher, plasma pistol, plasma rifle, Spartan laser and spiker. You only get them occasionally and you mustn't have a bottomless clip, else overheating doesn't occur. If Cortana is typical, you don't get overheat lines on a machine gun turret or a Wraith's plasma cannon turret, despite those things overheating.

If you only have one overheat weapon to hear lines for, don't expect more than a few lines a minute as you keep overheating. With two you get a higher combined line rate because the game is (I think) keeping track of line delivery for each weapon type separately. That was the main point of the rotation method.

The focus rifle and Spartan laser are the best to play with if you want to be killing covies from a safe distance as part of the play, but you can always just fire at nothing to get an overheat. If you do shoot at covies, an overheat line can immediately follow a kill line[**or damage line?].

Does your character say anything interesting when throwing high-explosive about the place? Time to find out!

Another idea to repeatedly kill yourself to build up a lot of grenades, so you can then throw them without the repeated interruption of respawning. But you'll want to be able to kill yourself in a manner that doesn't set off any grenades. Here's how I worked it.

With Cortana there are identical driver's seat boarding lines for the Warthog, Mongoose, Ghost and Forklift, and there are also lines for the Warthog's passenger seat and turret. She has no boarding lines with the Wraith however. Assuming it's the same for other voices too (but you might want to check yours just in case), all you'd need to do is use the Warthog, for which I have an efficiency tip.

Some of the lines will probably just be exertion noises, which aren't so interesting of course.

By loss lines I mean lines for the loss of an ally. In single-player, which is all I'm covering here, you can get these on the Installation 04 map for the ODSTs, even if you're nowhere near the event. For ODSTs you need to have hazards enabled.

An alternative to hiding behind the hog is to be invulnerable and stand ready with weaponry capable of quickly taking down anyone heading your way, or indeed to fly off with a jet pack to join your allies or go someplace else. But the drawback is, you may be busy shooting when a loss line comes. Also, hiding behind the hog works best for minimizing noise.

These lines apply when a plasma grenade attaches to you, even if thrown by yourself. So let's go do something foolish in the name of science!

Don't stand too close to the bounce surface or the tag line may not to have time to kick in after the throwing line. In Beachhead you can use the ceiling by throwing vertically from where you spawn then moving forward fractionally. That was the easiest and most efficient method for me.

With a little refinement you can do something similar but with less respawning, which leads to a higher rate of lines (about 12 per minute compared to 9) and certainly the clutter on the floor will be much slower to build up.

Implicitly your damage modifier should be the normal 100% there, otherwise it would obviously adjust the balance of things. The only negative aspect of the 4-bounce method is that unlike the 1-bounce method, you'll get a lot of ringing in the ears.

Note: Because a plasma causes damage as it sticks (which by the way, can amusingly cause a weak covie to die from the impact), you sometimes hear part of a damage line before the tag line kicks in.

When you suffer a heavy impact of some type, you can expect some reaction. In the case of Cortana, her lines include some which refer to landing (e.g. "Landing!", in protest) but which, surprisingly, seem to be used just as readily for impacts suffered in other ways, such as colliding with a dropship. So I have the impression that the game makes no distinction between impact types, in selecting lines.

In the following method you make your character suffer with some heavy landings, an activity which is pretty amusing with Cortana as she has such a great array of cries. I'm not sure anyone's going to be able to match her there.

The reason I said normal player speed is that with high speed you become strangely more resistant to landings, so you'd need to fall from higher to get lines (e.g. after boosting yourself up further with a jet pack). Even a mere 120% speed throws things off, though actually 110% is ok.

You could do things with normal damage resistance, but a heavy landing will wipe your shield and you'd need to wait for some recharging before jumping again, which isn't so convenient (though it would obviously help to boost your recharging rate).

I also found a method which can give you the lines at even higher rate, by bumping your head.

Although the line rate is higher in that method, the lines won't be heard quite as clearly as before because you'll get the sound of feet landing too. There's also the issue of occasionally getting a jump line instead of an impact line, though if you're experienced you'll probably recognize it. Personally I prefer the high-jump method. It has more graceful dynamics and seems more comical; and if your character is sometime referring to landing, it suits the lines better of course.

Based on my Cortana work, I think there are two groups of lines for taking damage, other than by heavy impact, and not including the slight damage incurred when a plasma grenade sticks. There's a group used if some shielding remains (which for Cortana comprised relatively light cries and intakes of breath), and a group for when any shielding has gone (which for Cortana comprised severe cries plus some spoken lines). I have various methods to suggest, but let's start with the simplest.

A rather less noisy method uses a needler and a stationary shield, as follows.

If you don't want to bother having to needle yourself, why not get a Grunt to do it for you? Here's a recipe.

The point of wanting the Grunt to stay focused on you is partly so that your shield and/or health won't have time to recharge. If you want to be damaged slower so you can listen longer without needing to do anything, reduce the damage modifier to 25%. And if that still isn't slow enough for you, increase your damage resistance. Basically you can control things how you like.

With all those methods, if you're only interested in hearing the more severe lines, be shieldless to save having to remove shielding in play. If you ever do want to remove it though, concussion rifle blasts are good for that.

Here's some advice for hearing the more interesting death lines, which typically arise from covie assault. I'm not covering other types such as those for falling to your death. Those lines are likely to just be various cries, if Cortana is anything to go by.

To get more specific, try using eagle-eyed marksman Grunts with damage modifier 300%, on Normal or higher. Normal will give you a bit more time to kill enemies when you respawn, which can be useful when you decide you've got too many, but there won't be any Grunts with fuel rod guns. You can get excellent results with a single plasma pistol Grunt. A needler Grunt doesn't seem as good, because you tend to get lines for being injured which then get cut off by the death line, making things messier. A plasma pistol works faster, giving injury lines less time to kick in.

If you want to focus on the lines for severe death, which in the case of Cortana involve some really long screams, here's a separate method.

In that method I didn't bother suggesting to arrange minimum covie hassle, because they tend not to even turn up for ages, if at all. Your brief spells of absence impede their usual homing. But if anyone does turn up, you've always got that handy FRG of course. Also you have the option of quickly selecting alternative spawn points, to stay clear.

Using a concussion rifle instead, you can get a different group of cries:

As for death by headshot (Cortana seemed to have such lines), here's what I'd suggest.

I tried using Normal so there wouldn't be any focus rifles, but I got the impression that the Jackals weren't as good at doing headshots, so I think Heroic is preferable.

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