HALO 2
Mythic Skull Boss FAQ.
Version 1.06
Guide to defeating the bosses of Halo 2 on the Mythic Skull
difficulty. With a skirmish aboard the Scarab cleared and the
Heretic Leader pinned. The Prophet of Regret defeated using the
‘Grenade Boarding Throw Technique’ Scheme. Furthermore,
Tartarus crushed with naught but a tried and true tactical means.
NOTICE: This may not be reproduced under any circumstances
except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web
site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written
permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of
any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of
copyright.
Copyright 2005, Robert D. Prez
*****************************************************
VERSION HISTORY
Version 1.06 changes:
Corrected some minor typos.
Version 1.05 changes:
Updated with a more thorough explanation on areas that needed
seeing to.
Version 1.04 changes:
Added an extra tips section for the Cairo Station on the Mythic
Skull difficulty. As well as that, corrected some minor punctuation
errors and sentencing as a result of Microsoft Words auto
correction function that meddled up some words.
Version 1.03 changes:
Added two more boss fight guides, both the Scarab skirmish and
the Heretic Leader battle. Also of addition were the weapons of
choice for both boss battles. Changed a bit more of the layout and
added more explanations for most of the contents.
Version 1.02 changes:
Few of the main layout changes were made, added more notes to
the Introduction, added notes on setting the Mythic Skull difficulty,
and better defined the explanations and corrected punctuation.
Version 1.01 changes:
Changed and added a more detailed explanation; a few minor
punctuation changes were also made.
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CONTENTS:
I. Introduction
II. Weapons combination of Choice against:
1. The Cairo Station horde
2. The Scarab crew
3. The Heretic Leader and his duplicates
4. The Prophet of Regret’s hordes
5. Tartarus and his group
III. Note on setting the Mythic Skull Difficulty
IV. Acquiring the Mythic Skull
V. Aboard the Scarab – Dual Wielding the Plasma Pistols
VI. Overthrowing the Heretic Leadership
VII. Performing the ‘GBT’ Technique on the Prophet of Regret
VIII. Video Link of the Grenade Boarding Throw Technique
IX. Defeating Tartarus on the Mythic Skull difficulty
*****************************************************
I. INTRODUCTION
Greetings!
This FAQ guide was created out of necessity, simply because there
isn’t one like it, especially when it comes to defeating the Prophet
of Regret on the Mythic Skull difficulty. The idea and method of
dealing with the Prophet of Regret on the Mythic Skull difficulty is
very much non existent, at present. Hence this is why I was
compelled to write one up after discovering the Grenade Boarding
Throw Technique.
As an after thought of one sort, I’ve also included tips of trade on
which to defeat the other bosses of this remarkable game as well.
Not to mention useful tips on conquering some of the toughest
Covenant hordes on this difficulty yet. So, I hope you’ll find them
to be of use. But for now, I’ll point you to the Grenade Boarding
Throw Technique which I’ll brief you on.
The Grenade Boarding Throw is a secret technique for those
brazen enough to have challenged the Prophet of Regret on the
Mythic Skull difficulty, but faced more than their share of defeat
and humiliation in the eyes of the Covenant leader. Up until now
there has not been an effective way of defeating this – what I assert
to identify, as the toughest game boss character ever devised or
conceived.
Those that claim the Prophet of Regret is easily defeated on the
Mythic Skull difficulty setting are outright boasting. Or, to put it
bluntly, foolish enough to assume he’s a piece of cake to finish off
in the Mythic Skull difficulty. Simply because Regret wasn’t at all
that hard for them to finish off on the Legendary difficulty. The
latter statement is perhaps the more common assumption that some
folks are drawing their conjecture from. Due to the fact that they
fail to understand just how big a gap there is between the
Legendary Prophet of Regret and the Mythic Skull Prophet of
Regret. I’ll tell you, it is immensely BIG, this difficulty gap!
He is unbelievably difficult and frustratingly hard to defeat, and no
amount of highly explosive projectile weaponry is capable of
finishing him off. Nothing will work; the only exception is by
boarding him and melee attacking him until he yields to defeat.
Now that, will take a great deal of time and luck, not to mention
skills. But eventually one’s luck will run out and defeat is only
inevitable. That is, of course, before I discovered the Grenade
Boarding Throw Technique which is similar in some ways to the
normal hijacking/boarding method – peruse on and you shall find
out how I discovered it, and put it to great use!
Tartarus on the other hand is another story altogether in this
Mythic Skull difficulty. A dismal one really, challenge wise. The
other bosses too aren’t that much of a challenge. You’d be taken
by surprise… or, then again maybe not.
So it is somewhat puzzling to me then, that the Prophet of Regret is
so darn difficult to defeat on the Mythic Skull difficulty. Where as
beating all the other bosses on the same difficulty was easy by
comparison. I can’t seem to figure out if indeed there is a glitch in
the program, which caused this huge difficulty gap, or that this
whole difficulty thing was intentionally programmed just for
Regret. He is truly the hardest boss I’ve ever come across in any
game to date! As no doubt you’ll agree, otherwise you’d not be
reading this FAQ.
However, to those playing him for the first few times, try going
against him without resulting to the Grenade Boarding Throw
Technique first; otherwise you may fail to see how tough he truly
is on this Mythic Skull difficulty.
To cut to the chase and see how the Grenade Boarding Throw
Technique is performed, refer to sections ‘VII. Performing the
‘GBT’ Technique on the Prophet of Regret’ or the video link on
section VIII.
Anyways, I should hope you have fun. And good luck!
*****************************************************
II. WEAPONS COMBINATION OF CHOICE AGAINST:
1. The Cairo Station horde:
This isn’t a boss fight but I thought I’d include it in my guide for
good time’s sake. Especially of note are the Ultra Elites, who are
now tougher than before on the Mythic Skull difficulty. Requiring
two overcharge shots from the Plasma Pistols to completely drain
their shields.
So if you face these Ultra Elites (greyish, white Elites), be sure to
adopt the dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle or Energy Sword
combination to deal with them. See below for the preferred
combination:
*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle
*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Energy Sword
With the dual wielded Plasma Pistols overcharged, unleash the
plasma shots on these High Ranking Elite Commanders. Then
quickly tap the ‘Y’ button twice to change to your secondary
weapon, either the Battle Rifle or the Energy Sword, depending on
your combination. And prepare to take them out with a headshot or
the sword lunge. A normal sword swipe will not yield a successful
kill. So it MUST be a sword lunge.
Dual wielding the Plasma Pistols is both the faster and the more
efficient way of finishing off these Ultra Elites. Take the case with
the Ultra Elites boarding Cairo Station for instance, where at times,
if you’re unlucky there maybe two or more Ultra Elites bent on
destroying you. They spawn from beyond the doors to the hangar
bays, from which these alien vessels are intertwined and married as
the gateways of hell; through this means they’ll board the station
with the sole intent on annihilating humankind. So bearing those
perils in mind, and prior to nearing those doors, pick up two
Plasma Pistols and dual wield them to unleash the two overcharged
shots on one of the Ultra Elites first. Then tap the ‘Y’ button twice
to drop the left Plasma Pistol and to change to your secondary
weapon to take out the first one with a headshot. Now, take cover
by proceeding to another hiding spot whilst picking up your
dropped Plasma Pistol. Dual wield them again and take out the
second one in very much the same manner. Very fast, very
efficient.
No need for firing one overcharged shot, then waiting for it to cool
down while taking cover and finally firing the second overcharged
shot.
Anyways, that’s the basis of dual wielding the Plasma Pistols, but
for more information on dual wielding these pistols, and their
advantages or disadvantages, please refer to section “V. Aboard
the Scarab – Dual Wielding the Plasma Pistols” for a more
thorough explanation.
===============================================
2. The Scarab Crew:
There will be little exchanges in weapons selection on this battle.
But generally start off with the Rocket Launcher/ Battle Rifle or
Energy Sword combination first. Then work your way to the
Plasma Pistol/Energy Sword combination, once you board the
Scarab and procure an Energy Sword, if not already obtain from
previous battles.
The combinations are as follows:
*Rocket Launcher/ Battle Rifle
*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Energy Sword
*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle
Pick up as many grenades as you can, they’ll come in handy for the
Scarab battle.
===============================================
3. The Heretic Leader and his duplicates:
The most useful weapon against the Heretic Leader is the Fuel Rod
Cannon. But hauling such a cumbersome weapon around for
almost the entire level of ‘Arbiter’ is taxing. There isn’t much of a
grouping of weapons to rely on for this ‘Arbiter’ level. As pretty
much anything you can grab works against the Heretic Elite and
Grunts. It’s a different story for the boss though.
Perhaps the best weapon against the Heretic Leader, after all,
would be the dual wielded Needlers. Your Plasma Grenades on the
other hand come in handy against his holographic counterparts. Or
even the Heretic Leader himself. The Energy Sword does not have
much of a use on this Mythic Skull difficulty though. So you can
pretty much scrap that out of your weapons inventory list.
===============================================
4. The Prophet of Regret’s hordes:
The preferred weapons of choice in this Mythic Skull difficulty
against the Prophet of Regret’s hordes are almost the same as one
would use for the Legendary difficulty, except for a few changes.
The combinations are as follows:
*Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle
*Plasma Pistol, Magnum/Battle Rifle
*Plasma Pistol/ Energy Sword #
Well, pretty much what ever weapons combination takes your
fancy is best, but the above is recommended. The combinations
above will make light work of this heavy challenge on the Mythic
Skull difficulty.
The Plasma Pistol/Energy Sword combination should be
implemented in the same way and manner as the tried and true
formula of using the Plasma Pistol/Battle Rifle combination.
Overcharge, then headshot, but instead of a headshot you perform
a sword lunge at the enemies. A normal sword swipe at the Honour
Guards will not suffice, even if their shields are down, so beware.
That goes for the Silver Spec Ops Grunts as well, unless swiped
from behind, they are best disposed with a sword lunge. Take note
of the fact that this is now a close range weapons combination.
So, to dispose the Honour Guards at a safe distance with the
Plasma Pistol/Energy Sword combination; what you can do is
overcharge at them with the Plasma Pistol. And once when they
are stunned for a split second, you quickly stick a Plasma Grenade
on them for a satisfying kill. It may take a lot of practice but
definitely worth it for the thrill. Their shields have to be low for the
stuck Plasma Grenade to finish them off, hence the overcharge
shot first.
# Please note that the Energy Sword is pretty much useless without
the Plasma Pistol combination on this difficulty. Although it makes
up for a deep challenge, it is not recommended to use the Energy
Sword without the Plasma Pistol. So Energy Sword/Battle Rifle
players are once again forced to change their tactics. Also of note
is that the plasma grenades are now useless on their own in this
difficulty against the Honour Guards. But on the retrospect they
are very handy against the boss, the Prophet of Regret, as you’ll
soon find out.
One last piece of advice: keep plenty of Plasma Grenades and
Fragmentation Grenades in stock, you’ll need them absolutely.
Regret doesn’t know what’s coming or this guide as yet!
Also, make sure to arm your marines with the Sniper Rifles or the
Beam Sniper Rifles, as they can prove to be helpful to your cause.
===============================================
5. Tartarus and his group:
Well the weapons of choice this time around are a range of
weapons at your disposal. Anything you can get your alien claws
on.
The dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles are best suited to taking
Tartarus out as well as the Covenant Carbine at a long or short
range. Carbine shots to the heads are also effective against the
Brutes at a distance. The Shotgun is very effective at close range
battles as are the Plasma Grenades against Tartarus and his hordes.
So distinguish your choice of battle tactics and go for your
weapons of choice that correlates to your strategy.
*****************************************************
III. NOTE ON SETTING THE MYTHIC SKULL DIFFICULTY
#The Mythic Skull will only appear on the Legendary difficulty, so
you MUST play through the Sacred Icon level on that difficulty
setting to acquire it!
#The Mythic Skull will not take on its full effect unless the
game/checkpoints are/were played on the Legendary difficulty. For
instance, if you’ve played a game up to the boss Regret on the
Easy setting, the game difficulty will not be that of the Mythic
Skull difficulty. So, you MUST play the game on the Legendary
difficulty for the Mythic Skull to take its full effect of increasing
the difficulty factor beyond Legendary. Remember that!
#The effects and values which the Mythic Skull adds to the game
do not in any way stay in your Xbox. All effects will be wiped
clean when the console is turned off, even if you save and quit
after acquiring the skull/s.
*****************************************************
IV. ACQUIRING THE MYTHIC SKULL
What the Mythic Skull does is it not only increases the difficulty
level beyond the legendary difficulty. It also increases the enemy’s
defence and offensive attributes as well. Making the game much
harder and challenging to beat. But the boss, the Prophet of Regret,
will become the TOUGHEST of ALL, and he’s all that much
harder to deal with on this new difficulty than before.
The Mythic Skull is found on the Sacred Icon level, so cloak and
run through the entire level until you come across the sub mission
named "Buyer's Remorse". This sub mission name will appear
once you’ve destroyed the Enforcer (that big double shielded
robotic levitating sentry… thingie).
The huge containment gates will then open once you’ve activated
the switch on the panels, revealing yet another Enforcer added to
your-to-do list. Take the enforcer out, and enter through a small
gate that opens up on the wall of that section, where four gold
Sentinels come out from.
Head on through here, running past all the omnipresent Floods
using your Optic Camouflage to cloak yourself. Activate all those
energy shafts and keep on making your way through the horde of
enemies, which include the Sentinels both gold and normal,
Enforcers and of course the Floods.
Eventually you’ll come to a dark, dank and murky area… this is
where the Mythic Skull lies hidden. Look for a mass of 5 clustered
boxes stacked together. Two boxes next to each other and another
two stacked on top of the first two, with a fifth box sitting atop it
all in the middle, kinda like a pyramid.
Cloak yourself a moment before passing one of the human Flood
forms and jump atop these boxes to remain unseen. Then jump to
the platform above where you’ll notice three alcoves or hollow
compartments housed into the walls. Proceed to the very last one,
and there’s the Mythic Skull floating above the dead human Flood
form. Pick up the skull and the screen should flash white with the
words “Mythic” stamped on the upper left side of the screen. Once
you’ve picked it up, drop it, then save and quit. And you’re set.
Do not head to another checkpoint once you’ve picked up the
Mythic Skull. If you do, don’t save and quit, otherwise the Mythic
Skull will not take effect the next time you start the game again
from that checkpoint. The skull will only take effect when picked
up from its original location. So starting a game from any
checkpoint before picking up the skull is all good.
*****************************************************
V. ABOARD THE SCARAB – DUAL WIELDING PLASMA
PISTOLS
If you made it past the notorious Cairo Station level with either the
Legendary or Mythic Skull difficulty selected. Then you shouldn’t
have too much trouble on this section at all. It isn’t that much
harder than the Cairo Station, in fact it’s painless in comparison.
Due to the choices you have on an arsenal of fire power to choose
from and to side with.
Arm yourself with the Rocket Launcher, and pick up all the
ammunition for it. These are all littered along the plank walkways,
but keep your Battle Rifle or your Energy Sword as your
secondary weapon. If you don’t have an Energy Sword from
earlier battles, you can acquire one from the Ultra Elites (the
greyish white Elites). Approach close enough to an Ultra Elite and
he’ll be sure to show you his priced possession. If you’re not
comfortable with the idea of approaching one in that fashion, then
fire an overcharged shot or stick a Plasma Grenade on one first
before approaching any closer. You’ll see him wail in a fume of
rage, and hungry for human blood he’ll come after you brandishing
an Energy Sword. Kill him and the sword is yours. Alternatively
you can procure one from an Ultra Elite aboard the Scarab as well,
in very much the same manner.
Pick up the grenades on the first bridge section near the supply
boxes and proceed to jump aboard the Scarab. Try landing on the
top part of the Scarab to remain hidden. Then make your way
down to the rear section of the walking destroyer and advance to
fire away with the Rocket Launcher. Throw your fragmentation
Grenades into the mix as well for some added destructive fire
power. If you’re lucky you should be able to procure one of those
Plasma Pistols which hopefully enough has landed relatively close
to you. Pick one up and it will make this whole ordeal easier. If
you don’t have a Plasma Pistol close to you, but spot one near the
Elites. Then simply fire off one of the rocket missiles and toss a
grenade their way and make a quick dash for the Plasma Pistol.
Take cover by running back to the same spot again, at the rear.
Pay particular attention to the dual wielding Plasma Rifle Elites or
Ultra Elites. They are deadly! You’ll be finished off in a matter of
seconds if you’re not careful. So, try to deal them out first, and be
quick about it, won’t you?
See below for a means to defeating the Ultra Elites in this Mythic
Skull difficulty.
Once you’ve taken care of the Elites on the Scarab deck, proceed
to go below decks.
Now, be very careful, as you’ll be meeting with an Ultra Elite
below the decks of the Scarab. In this case you’ll need more than a
Plasma Pistol to dispose of him. With the Mythic Skull difficulty
activated these Ultra Elites are now tougher to kill than before. The
one overcharge shot from the Plasma Pistol no longer works, as it
now requires two overcharge shots to completely exhaust their
shields. So if you are willing, I would recommend picking up
another Plasma Pistol for your own benefit.
With two Plasma Pistols dual wielded you can take out the Ultra
Elites on the Mythic Skull difficulty with very little effort. Charge
up both Plasma Pistols and release both triggers together. Or one
overcharged shot after another, very quickly. For instance, release
the left trigger followed by the right trigger, almost right away.
You may need to unleash the overcharge shots in this manner
because at times the combined overcharge shots, when released
together, do not completely remove their shields.
Once you’ve released the two overcharged shots. Watch the hot
plasma make its way toward the Ultra Elite. As its about to make
contact with the enemy, you’ll need to press the ‘Y’ button TWICE
very quickly to change your weapon to either the Energy Sword or
the Battle Rifle. Then take him out with a sword lunge or a
headshot respectively. Since this is a close quarter’s combat zone, I
recommend using the Energy Sword aboard the Scarab. Prepare an
overcharged shot, fire, and then simply sword lunge at the low or
unshielded Elites or Ultra Elites. However, if you’re not too
familiar with the Energy Sword then by all means stick to the
Battle Rifle; it too will serve you well, if not better in the noted
circumstance.
Now of course, you could use just the one Plasma Pistol to drain an
Ultra Elite’s energy shield. First by firing one overcharged shot,
then waiting for the Plasma Pistol to cool and finally firing the
second shot. But that process would take too long to deal out the
enemies. Since the first overcharged shot that’s fired, and made
contact, will give the Ultra Elite a chance to dart for cover and to
recharge his energy shield. All the while during this time your
second overcharge shot is ready to be fired. But it’s all too late,
there’s nothing to fire at, the target is in hiding. And you now have
all the other Elites to worry about as well. Not to mention the fact
that you’ll have to take cover after firing the first shot, or face an
onslaught of searing hot plasma slugs. Again, with the dual
wielding of the two Plasma Pistols one can quickly take care of
these Ultra Elites in no more than two seconds. Unleash the two
overcharged shots, tap the ‘Y’ button twice and go for a headshot
or if you’re daring, the sword lunge.
The other negative aspect of not dual wielding the Plasma Pistols
is that once you’ve fired the first overcharged shot at an Ultra Elite.
A second Ultra Elite could very well come into your line of fire
when your second overcharged shot was intended for the first Ultra
Elite, with his shield already half downed. That is why it’s at times
better to be dual wielding the Plasma Pistols for a multiple
overcharged shots on the Ultra Elites in this difficulty. It’ll make
your efforts short and sweet.
The only disadvantage is that you cannot throw your grenades
without first dropping one of the pistols. And if you venture away
from your dropped weapon you’ll have to go back to pick it up,
and dual wield again. One method of countering this is to drop it
on your hiding spot. That way you can pop out to throw your
grenades, then quickly pop back to take cover and to dual wield
again. Thus proceeding to the next accessible cover if available,
and unleashing the dual overcharged shots from the two Plasma
Pistols.
If you’re unlucky, you may encounter a few extra Ultra Elites on
the Scarab deck. So just adopt the dual Plasma Pistol method to
deal out these Ultra Elites. In this situation they come in real handy,
the dual wielded Plasma Pistols.
Well, there you have it then that pretty much sums up the defeat of
the Scarab crew.
# Just a note: The dual wielded Plasma Pistols are very, very
effective not only with the Mythic Skull difficulty activated, but
also with the Thunderstorm Skull activated as well. What the
Thunderstorm Skull does is it turns every Elite into an Ultra Elite,
and every Grunt into silver Spec Ops Grunt. So every Elite that
you encounter would be an Ultra Elite. This dual wielding Plasma
Pistol technique will come in very, very handy indeed with the
above purposes taken into consideration.
*Here’s a challenge: So, if you’re up for a deep challenge. Use the
dual wielded Plasma Pistols/ Battle Rifle or Energy Sword
combination on Cairo Station. With the Mythic, Cowbell and
Thunderstorm Skulls activated. These three skulls will turn Halo 2
into one of the best games there is, period! Awesome fun!
*****************************************************
VI. OVERTHROWING THE HERETIC LEADERSHIP
The Mythic Skull Heretic leader is pretty much the same Heretic
Leader as the one on the Legendary difficulty. However, the
weapons to use against him will have to be looked at again. The
Energy Sword no longer comes into use, as it requires far too many
hits to deal him a decent amount of damage. The Covenant
Carbines really aren’t that useful; nor are the dual wielded Plasma
Rifles.
Perhaps the most powerful weapon against him would be the Fuel
Rod Cannon. This weapon works mighty fine, but getting it all the
way to the Heretic Leader can be taxing. If you wish to use it, then
by all means do so, just be prepared to lug it around without
shooting too many things with it. You can procure this weapon
from the dead Grunts that haul it around atop the structures on the
station facility. Simply land your Banshee and resort to picking it
up and scavenging for the ammos. You’ll need to save up a few
shots for the Heretic Leader himself. So don’t get trigger happy
with it. Since you have to save up the ammos, you’ll be dropping
and swapping it for other weapons more appropriate to your
mission, and then picking it up again. As not to leave it behind
since you won’t find the weapon anywhere else in the game again.
Because of that, it then falls short of being the weapon of choice
against the Heretic Leader.
The Needlers, dual wielded are the weapons of choice here. Light
to carry around, conveniently littered next to the dead Heretic
Grunts. It doesn’t get any better than this. So let’s press on.
Alright, now, when you face the Heretic Leader, he’ll deploy two
holographic duplicates of himself. At this stage you can either
engage them or ignore them. If you decide to engage them, a
tagged Plasma Grenade ought to do the trick. But This of course
will alert the Heretic Leader and the other duplicate to take you on.
The chances of survival are minimal here.
So what I’d suggest you do is to cloak and make your way
underneath the dais. If you haven’t yet procured the dual Needlers
prior to entering the boss fight, do so now. They are located
underneath the middle and the far end of the Seraph Fighter, more
toward the hangar doors. You may need to hide in the hollow
tunnels of the walls for your camouflage to energize before
proceeding. Hollows such as these are present through out the
stage; so hide in them to replenish the active camouflage should
you find the need to do so. Extra ammunition for the Needlers is
located to the left of the hangar doors, near the closed doors up
from the slope. Pick that up and you have enough ammunition to
take the Heretic Leader out.
Now while you’re up the slope, proceed to move forward until you
reach a tunnel cavity in the walls, on your right. This will serve as
your hiding spot. Under a watchful eye, and using your radar as
guidance, engage the enemies the moment you see them. Duck left
and right or jump up near the end of that hollow tunnel to avoid
their fire. There is a huge hunk of a pillar wall blocking their line
of fire that will serve you well. This slab wall will also obscure
their line of sight as well, so use it to your advantage. And from
here try and stick the Heretic duplicates or the Heretic Leader with
your Plasma Grenades if you can. Drop one of the Needlers about
halfway on the hollow tunnel and align the reticle directly above
the Heretic Leader or his duplicates to about the height of them,
then toss the Plasma Grenades. It should stick to them. With
alignment and distance taken into account; you should be able to
work out how much to arch up or to adjust for tagging your
enemies with the Plasma Grenades. Use this method as a guide to
better tagging the enemy with the Plasma Grenades for future use.
The thing to do here is to isolate the Heretic Leader from his
duplicates, and to engage him with the twin Needlers. Use your
cloak to your advantage as well. As sometimes they’ll remain still
after a while, especially the Heretic Leader. Your radar won’t pick
them up if they remain motionless. The Heretic Leader is also the
one who usually remains stationary when you’re cloaked. So
surprise him when you’re cloaked, with your twin Needlers. You
may have gotten the best of him, but still, you ought to watch out
for this dual wielded Plasma Rifles, they are deadly. You have less
than a second to hide from the plasma fire. So take note on where
to strafe or fall back to.
If you’re unlucky, the enemies, including the Heretic Leader may
come in to the hollow alcove. In which case you’re as good as dead,
but that doesn’t happen often. On the other hand, if you’re lucky
you might just hit the Heretic Leader on your first go. If the
Heretic Leader is hit in any way, he’ll let out a loud cry when
enough hits are sustained on him. He’ll then fly off into one of
those big alcoves in the walls of this chamber hall. The
holographic duplicates will vanish once the Heretic Leader is hit.
So that takes care of them.
The moment you see him fly off, run toward the Seraph Fighter
and jump on top of it. Look out for him in the huge alcoves on the
walls. There are only four alcove posts to look out for. Spot the
one where you’ll only just see two dimly lit lights of his dual
wielded Plasma Rifles. That’s where he is, so wait until he’s
finished uttering his cause and scorn for the Prophets values before
engaging him.
Here’s the trick, take note of the huge pillar like flat post in
between the two alcoves of the walls on one side, and on the
opposing walls. Now, as he is about to finish his speech, move a
little to the side of this flat post whilst still staying on the Seraph
Fighter. Move just enough for you not to see him in the alcove.
Since you can’t see him, he won’t be able to spot you and start
firing before leaving the alcove. Doing it this way beats him to the
punch. You can also cloak yourself if you choose not to move to
the side a little to obscure his view.
Now then, as soon as he finishes his speech, and your reticle
aligned on him pull both triggers on the dual wielded Needlers for
a few seconds whilst running toward the underside of the dais and
behind this flat pillar post for cover. If done correctly you should
have avoided majority of the fire from his duplicates and sustained
enough shots on him for him to let out a cry. After which his
duplicates will disappear, once more, and every time you deal
damage to him. So you don’t have to worry about his duplicates at
all during this battle procedure. Keep in mind that you can fire
your twin Needlers even if the reticle hasn’t turned red, meaning
that as long as it’s aimed and fired toward him, they’ll home in on
him.
You should trigger a checkpoint by this time if not earlier. So be
bold and take risks. Jump onto those raised stumps on the bottom
of the pillars holding the dais up, to get atop the Seraph Fighter
again. Keep repeating this method until he is dead. And you should
have no problems defeating him in this fashion.
If you’ve made the effort of hauling the Fuel Rod Cannon around
with you all the way to this boss fight. Then you should definitely
use it in the same manner and method as you would use the dual
wielded Needlers above.
So there you have it, another boss down, and two more to go!
*A note: Mike Miller is the author who wrote an excellent
Legendary walkthrough on the method to taking out the Heretic
Leader with the Fuel Rod Cannon. So, full credits go to him on
that front.
*****************************************************
VII. PERFORMING THE GRENADE BOARDING THROW
TECHNIQUE ON THE PROPHET OF REGRET
The following technique is used to defeat the Prophet of Regret on
the Mythic Skull difficulty setting. So to begin, allow me to say a
few things worthy of note:
I’ve jumped (boarded) on the Prophet of Regret’s throne exactly 48
times, say again 48 TIMES!! And each successive jump consists of
five melee attacks – that’s an astounding 240 melee attacks all up
if you do the math – alas, all to no avail. The bastard still lives! It
was all hopelessly disappointing and painfully frustrating to go
back to square one after ALL those efforts. Then I simply thought
of something out of this inevitability; what would the Master Chief
do in a circumstance such as the one I’m overwhelmed in. Surely
there has got to be another way, instead of the 48 plus jumps and
five melee attacks per jump. I collected my thoughts and recounted
the options I had, had another hard look at the weapons at my
disposal.
It then hit me! Nothing can penetrate his immensely resilient force
field. Other than the fact that once you jump on him you have the
advantage of striking him with your melee attacks. So what to do?
Well, it is quite simple; you throw a Plasma Grenade or a
Fragmentation Grenade on him a split second before you board his
throne. Picture it like this, your throwing arm penetrating his force
field before you throw the grenades, with this objective the
grenades will land or stay inside his force field. Therefore it is
important that you throw the grenades inside his force field before
you are unable to do so when you board.
Remember that our Master Chief cannot throw or use his weapons
when he has actually boarded the throne. Adversely if you throw
them too early they will not stick or stay inside the force field. Or
as in the fragmentation grenades case they’ll simply rebound off
his force field, thus musing the already contempt Prophet of Regret.
At other times, if you are unlucky the plasma grenades will also
bounce, though feebly off his force field and may end up adhering
to you instead, a big no-no to avoid. So you MUST throw the
grenades a split second before you latch onto his throne and not a
moment too soon.
If done correctly the Plasma/Fragmentation Grenades will drop
inside his force field and not fall off. The resulting explosion will
then knock him hard, so for added effectiveness commence
punching him straight afterwards or before the explosion (you’ll
only land in two or three punches, as shortly afterwards he’ll
teleport in a fragile panic).
Don’t worry about getting killed or damaged by the plasma
grenade since the explosion occurs inside of his force field. It will
not harm our Master Chief. Just be sure to throw the grenade
before you press and hold on to the ‘X’ button with which to board
his throne. If he is at a higher elevation than you are at, then all
you need to do is press the jump button, throw the grenade and
then quickly board him. This is simply a brilliant tactic on
Bungie’s forward thinking.
You will need to perform the Grenade Boarding Throw Technique
about five times to finish him off entirely or maybe more if your
grenades do not fall inside his force field. Use your EARS to listen
in and to home in on the location he’ll spawn to next. It’ll
guarantee and reward your efforts with a far better success rate.
Your radar is your best friend in these given circumstances, as the
battles to follow are hectic to outwit.
You can also drop the grenades inside his force field without
boarding his throne. Run up very close to The Prophet of Regret’s
throne and throw your grenades at point blank. If done successfully
the grenades will drop inside his force field. Please note that this
method will not yield the desired effects on every attempt as it is at
times harder to penetrate his force field and to judge how close you
are to the Prophet of Regret without boarding him. And amidst all
the battle commotion and pandemonium it is especially harder to
pull off.
If at times you find that Regret is a bit too far out of reach for you
to board, and you have the right weapon combination. What you
can to do is you can jump toward him whilst quickly aligning your
Energy Sword’s reticle on him so that it turns red, and thus
performing the sword lunge. At the precise moment you strike
Regret with the lunge – he’ll have to scream for this trick to work –
that’s when you throw the grenade and latch on immediately. Both
the explosion and the Energy Sword will deal him some heavy
damage. And since you’re on a roll here you might as well punch
him for a good measure while you’re at it.
You won’t be able to perform the Grenade Boarding Throw
Technique on him if the sword lunge goes ill. See, if you lunge at
his throne you’ll hear a clunk noise, and rebound backwards or
sideways instead. That’s a sign when the trick goes astray and
you’ll be wasting your grenades. It has to make full contact with
Regret himself as he’ll scream to verify that your trick is in
working order. This is when you immediately throw the grenades
and then board his throne. So the short end of it is; you lunge and
he screams, you then throw the grenades and board him
immediately. It may take a few tries to get used to this fancy sword
lunge trick, but it’s a very satisfying technique to pull off.
Don’t forget to PATIENTLY take out the re-spawning Honour
Guards as well as the Grunts who’ll make certain of your efforts
being anything but a smooth success. Take heed though, for the
Honour Guards are now on par in strength with the Ultra Elites
from the Legendary difficulty setting, on this Mythic Skull
difficulty. So a simple stuck plasma grenade will not finish them
off – unlike the Legendary difficulty, whereby the Honour Guards
were easily eliminated with just a stuck plasma grenade. So do
keep that in mind when taking them on.
Proceed to take the enemy hordes out before engaging the Prophet
of Regret. You’ll fare a far better chance this way. Reserve a keen
sense of awareness and alertness for the dual wielding Plasma
Rifle Honour Guards as they’ll finish you off in a second. The best
way of dealing with these Honour Guards is to run back up the side
ramps and look out for them on the top central level. Track their
advancement from this vantage point. Use the walls and the slopes
of the ramps as your cover. They cannot shoot you if you’re
situated above a slope and they down below. If they get a hit in,
just keep retrieving, or toss a grenade their way to stop their
advancement. The Energy Sword wielding Honour Guards
however will advance regardless. So keep all those in mind, they
may come in handy.
Check your radar as well if you cannot see them from this central
elevated vantage point. The radar does not show stationary foes,
only ones that are mobile. So be alert as sometimes they’ll stay in
hiding and ambush you instead. Their preferred method of attack is
to overwhelm and to surround you. So if you see two from the
central vantage point, but only one is attacking you – then what
that entails to is that the other has gone the other way to intercept
you. So pay attention to the number of enemies in the vicinity.
A good way of detecting enemy presence is to use your ears to
listen in for the chamber doors opening and closing. That’s when
you know the enemy has entered the chamber to seek you out. So,
again, make your way to the central vantage point and track their
presence. React accordingly to the indication of their presence and
you should have no troubles dealing with them. And lastly don’t
forget to MOVE! Otherwise the pesky but cute little grunts will
find you an easy target for plasma grenade shelling.
Just for fun, I used the dual wielded Needers against the Prophet of
Regret; it doesn’t do anything of course. But it is fun however
hearing him scream in agony like a pansy once the needles explode.
Scream after scream. It also slows down the entire progression of
the game, and everything happens in slow motion if the triggers are
held down. This is fun, but too bad there isn’t a whole lot of
ammunition for it, except from the weapons rack below the lobby
to the Prophet of Regret’s Ceremony hall. And a few scattered
about the outside of the building and all.
So there you go that’s pretty much it, the ‘Grenade Boarding
Throw Technique’ in a nutshell.
Anyways, hope you have fun performing this trick!
*****************************************************
VIII. VIDEO LINK OF THE GRENADE BOARDING THROW
TECHNIQUE
# Refer to the link below for a visual representation of how to go
about doing this Grenade Boarding Throw Technique.
Please bear in mind that the clip is filmed with a mobile phone
camera, so the quality is very low.
http://useruploads.mythica.org/cgi-
bin/viewfile.cgi?f=grenade_boarding_throw.wmv
*****************************************************
IX. DEFEATING TARTARUS ON THE MYTHIC SKULL
DIFFICULTY
Tartarus is not as difficult to defeat as one is lead to believe –
especially after the fiasco with the Prophet of Regret on the Mythic
difficulty. One would be hard pressed not to shudder at the thought
of dealing with Tartarus on this difficulty. He is in fact, the same
Tartarus as the one we fought on the Legendary difficulty.
So if you’ve defeated him on the Legendary difficulty before, you
should have no problems whatsoever defeating him again on the
Mythic Skull difficulty. However, if you’ve had previous problems
on defeating him, then please read on, as I’ll try and provide the
easiest methods of dealing with him first.
The easiest way of course is the Banshee trick, but I’ll skip that
part altogether, simply because that glitch wasn’t how Bungie
intended for us to play and to defeat Tartarus by. So let us press on
then…
You’ll be starting off at the checkpoint where Tartarus and his
boys confront you with an arsenal of weapons ready to blow you to
hell and back. You can avoid this battle altogether by immediately
cloaking yourself as the Arbiter. Run past Tartarus and his boys
and stand by for Sgt. Johnson to take out his shield.
Or, if you wish to collect their weapons, you may hang around
behind them, cloaked of course. Stay here until your brethrens
eliminate all the Brutes before jumping down to the platform
beneath you. You should help out too though by striking the Brutes
on the back for a quick one hit kill. This will speed up the process
for Tartarus to haul his rather large behind to get the action going.
Be mindful though, as it can get very hectic and confusing
sneaking behind the enemy lines.
Once Tartarus retrieves to the central platforms, you can cloak
again to avoid him or just stand clear of his hammer. Anything you
do will not work on him at all prior to Sgt. Johnson taking out his
shield. You may feel hopeless at the sight of seeing your brethrens
run to their deaths engaging Tartarus. That can’t be helped though,
so save up your ammunition. Your que to engage Tartarus is when
you hear three distinct but direct shots from the Beam Sniper Rifle
making contact with Tartarus. At this point you can pretty much
use any weapon at your disposal: Shotgun, Brute Plasma Rifles,
Covenant Carbine, Brute Shots and Plasma Grenades.
The most ideal and the safest place to be is at the top level of the
third platform. So run up to the central beaming beacon which
ushers you up to the top level. From there fire your weapons at
Tartarus and his hordes through that hole in the middle of the
platform. The Brute Plasma Rifles dual wielded are particularly
useful against Tartarus because of its firing rate. Once Tartarus’
shield is depleted by Sgt. Johnson’s dexterous ability, nip at both
the left and right triggers to fire the Brute Plasma Rifles without
overheating them.
By nipping your fingers on the triggers in a frantic but successive
chain, one trigger pressed after the other, you’ll avoid overheating
them. Use the Carbine or any long range weapons to dispose of the
other Brutes giving you hell. They can fire through that hole at you,
so be mindful of their lethal Brute Shot Grenades which will make
minced meat out of you in a matter of seconds
If Tartarus comes after you by entering through that levitation
beam cavity, simply run off the top platform. Be careful not to
back into the beam beacon if you choose not to run away from him.
As you’ll be hoisted high into the air and thus you’ll land as a
dormant nail for Tartarus to hammer you to death. This is why it is
safer to just run off the top platform. Don’t worry you won’t fall to
your doom as the top platform is smaller in circumference than the
other two larger platforms beneath it. He’ll take chase after you. So
simply run up to the beam to levitate the Arbiter to the third level
again. And rinse and repeat this progression of shoot, shoot, shoot,
take cover and run for your life until Tartarus is well taken care of.
If you happened to run out of ammos – the two dual wielded Brute
Plasma Rifles are sufficient enough to finish Tartarus off. But in
any case should you run out of ammos, there is a fresh cache of
Brute Plasma Rifles on the top platform and on the lowest platform.
Situated at the top platform is also a fresh pair of Covenant
Carbines secured to a weapons cache near those towering pillars.
Use those if you run out of Carbine ammos. You can also pick up
the weapons dropped by the fallen Brutes and your alien brethrens.
It is said that the Covenant Carbine is much more effective against
Tartarus from the top platform because of its large ammo capacity.
This is true, but to a certain degree. And I seem to reflect
differently, as my reflections are solely based on the individual’s
skills. The combined firing rates of the dual wielded Brute Plasma
Rifles make it much more suitable for gamers to take out Tartarus
quickly and efficiently. Essentially it is well suited for gamers who
aren’t proficient at headshots with the Covenant Carbine. With the
dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles there are two lines of fire firing
at Tartarus, at extremely high speeds, as opposed to the single line
of fire from the Covenant Carbine. The odds of firing two Brute
Plasma Rifles at Tartarus with no need for aimed headshots, is far
more efficient than a single firing weapon such as the Carbine in
unsteady hands. Sure the Carbine is much more accurate than the
Brute Plasma Rifles. But unless you’re an expert
marksman/woman, the dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles will serve
you just fine.
The alternate method of dealing with Tartarus is to go after him
when his shield is down. This of course sounds a lot easier than it
actually is, not to mention it’s also riskier to execute to full effect.
In this approach, the shotgun comes in very handy and provides
moments of fun, as does the Plasma Grenades. Stick the Plasma
Grenades on him the moment his shield is down. You have to be
dead accurate and very quick. Aim to throw the Plasma Grenade
the moment Sgt. Johnson fires his second shot from his Beam
Sniper Rifle out of three. By the time the third beam shot hits, the
thrown Plasma Grenade should have just stuck to his body right
then, just as his shield is depleted by the third shot. Thus giving
your grenade enough time to explode and deal him the damage
before his shield is back up again. Therefore do not throw the
Plasma Grenade when Sgt. Johnson has finished firing his three
shots. By this time it’s too late as Tartarus’ shield will be back up
before the stuck grenade explodes. Throw it right after when Sgt.
Johnson’s just fired the second shot. Not sooner, nor later than that!
Accuracy counts in your throws, as sometimes it looks like the
grenade will stick to his limbs, but instead they’ll just fall off. So
aim for his chest or back, the largest parts of his anatomy, or is it
his head?
Whilst doing battle against Tartarus on close combat quarters it is
advised that you keep back pedalling or circle strafing to avoid his
gigantic hammer. You’ll know when he is about to slam you with
his hammer as he’ll leaps high into the air to land with an
enormous crash. This is when you back pedal at full speeds when
he’s in the air. Whatever you do, just keep your distance from him
so that the gap between the two of you is effective enough for your
shotgun to deal him damage. That’s a medium to a close range
distance. You’ll have less to worry about if you cloak whilst your
brethrens are engaging him. He’ll turn his anger and attention on
them instead of you, and once his shield is down and attention
elsewhere – thanks to your brethrens and Sgt. Johnson – engage
him!
If you fancy taking Tartarus out at close range, but find the
shotgun method a bit too challenging. Then you can always fall
back to using the dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles. They’ll give
you a better chance of dealing with Tartarus because of the rapid
fire power. More importantly however, they never run out of
ammo, something that plagues all the other weapons. Having the
dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles on your side helps you to better
understand how Tartarus’ tactics work. As you don’t have to stay
as close to him as you otherwise would, had you had the Shotgun.
In this approach you can gauge how he works from a safer distance
and thus engage appropriately.
Should you meet more Brutes in hostility, just engage those beasts
in the same manner as you otherwise would on normal </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
circumstances. Carbines are very effective against them, as are the
dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles. Shotguns too will fare you well
against them, and don’t forget your plasma grenades, they help a
great deal too. Remember to take cover, especially from the Brute
Shots; they can be hell to avoid in crowded spaces. If you find
yourself overwhelmed simply run back up the beam lift and
commence firing at them from a higher and safer elevation. Take
note of the cavities on the second platform, these are your
emergency escape routes. So if you cannot make your direct route
to the beam lift, drop into one of these cavities and run to the beam
levitation beacon at the bottom platform.
The Brute Shots are also fun against Tartarus at close range
skirmishes. The only drawback is the slow firing rate and ammo
capacity (that plagues many of the projectile weapons, except the
Brute Plasma Rifles, as mentioned earlier). So be mindful of what
you’ll be getting yourself into should you choose to equip this
cumbersome weapon. Adopt this battle method once you’ve
become more acquainted with Tartarus’ tactics and manoeuvres,
and feel more comfortable taking him on with other weapons. But
instead of aiming the nozzle or reticle at Tartarus, point it slightly
lower than you would otherwise aim at a target. The idea is to fire
these Brute Shot Grenades so that they rebound off the floors or
walls and explode.
This is a great illustration on taking advantage of this powerful
weapon – as it is the explosion that does the heavy damage to the
enemy. Aim in a manner so that the explosion deals him the
damage just like a Fragmentation Grenade would. Think about it,
you don’t throw the Fragmentation Grenade on your opponent for
it to rebound off them, you throw it close enough so that the
explosion envelopes them, think of it in that fashion. Look to other
surroundings as well to ricochet these Brute Shot Grenades from.
Again, back pedal and circle strafe by keeping your distance.
Taking all the above into consideration, and with a bit of practice
you’ll do well!
Best of luck, and remember to have fun!
That’s that then, congratulations, you’ve beaten the game on the
Mythic Skull difficulty.
*****************************************************
END
Copyright 2005, Robert D. Prez
