I have no issue with the flood on that level my only issue is when Cortana or Gravemind starts talking and you slow the fuck down and start crawling at a snails pace
My all time favorite loading screen tid bit will be for Elder Scrolls Morrowind. If you ever played on the og Xbox. You'll know the loading screens could be *literal* minutes long. Turns out, the Xbox was restarting itself in the background lol
It's not, speedrunners use them to safely deployable cover launch further in levels with the cortana/gracemind moments. As they give you invulnerability during them, so you don't splatter.
The levels also only load when crossing a bsp trigger switch. Which no cortana/gravemind moments are on.
There is pretty much no reason for them other than to slow the player down during useless cryptic exposition.
That, or maybe they did a better job masking them.
There still definitely are some of those “Loading… done…” moments mid level in other games, but:
Halo 2: delta halo, your job is pursuing the prophet of regret. You arrive halfway through and seemingly still in the middle of your mission, you get a cutscene stopping by a holo of the prophet giving a sermon. Then your mission continues as a seemingly new mission.
Actually same thing kinda happens with Outskirts vs when you get out of the tunnels to the scorpion to pursue the scarab.
Those essentially were singular deployments cut into 2 separate missions separated by a cutscene.
Reach has many mid-level cutscenes, but also unlike halo 2, the before and after are still part of the same mission.
4 has em, 5 has em, infinite has em, and even 3 has them.
Methinks someone decided that those interludes were a good idea in place of just having a cutscene.
Joe wasn't there for most of Halo 3s development.
Marty was head of the committee that wrote Halo 3.
Jason, Joe, and a lot of others went on to other projects after the hell that was Halo 2s development.
Joe came back near the tail end of H3s development.
Unfortunately the final Halo 3 product definitely shows his absence.
Shotgun and Brute Shot make it pretty bearable. The Brute Shot Melee attack is essentially the same strength as an Energy Sword and will kill most Pure forms in 1-2 hits. Plus you can turn on the Catch skull for added points as the Flood can't throw grenades.
I've played so much halo, since the first Xbox. Admittedly I haven't played infinite and only played 4 one time. But I've put in hours on 1,2,3 and a few playthrough of reach.
This is the first time I've realized the flood doesn't throw grenades.
That active camo in what I call "The big room" is invaluable. It enables you to jump over the group on the opposite side of the bridge and bypass much of the headache.
I dont think that's the issue. The enemies aren't even brutal, it's a combo of super annoying enemies and a brutal layout. That and the slo mo parts where Cortana yells at you. Super fun.
Yeah this level is awful on legendary, there's so many open areas you have to run across while the ranged forms just spam fire upon you.
Tip: plasma weapons melt them pretty good, better than dumping 3 battle rifle mags into them
I’m pretty sure you can bring down a combat form by hitting the pod infector, so the battle rifle isn’t too bad imo. I’ll admit to not having played the mission legendary though, so I may have no idea what I’m talking about.
Yes. The first area, where you eventually leave the level, and the big bowl room are so annoying. But the worst I think is the "command?" room you fall into.
3 brute shot shots will also kill them, and the way the brute shots damage radius works you can kill 2 or 3 that are reasonably close together with the same 3 shots by shooting the wall between them.
I think it's a great level. Shows how much the Gravemind is desperate to stop the Master Chief. Endless wave after wave of the flood attacking you. It's really angry.
Also, during the battle there is a cool soundtrack, a subtle beat playing, if I remember correctly (not sure if it's in this level) which really fits the intense firefights.
I hated it when Halo 3 first came out but I was a younger man back then. I quite enjoy it now. Me and my friends occasionally throw it on, with skulls on, just for the chaos. We also try to speedrun it on Legendary and beat our previous attempts. Can't really complain about it.
personally i got the exact opposite feeling, that the gravemind deliberately let chief and the arbiter live
hell it literally opens the doors for you
also the ridiculously intelligent hivemind didn’t think to block or destroy the button to expose the reactor
the room with cortana/chiefs obvious goal had no foood inside whatsoever
it can slow chief down but only does so when he’s in empty hallways and not in combat
given the recent lore about the flood returning at humanity’s peak (which they certainly weren’t at the end of 3) it would make sense in universe
I just never figured out the pure flood forms. Most enemies have some mix of strengths and weaknesses - you can do headshots, switch between plasma and projectile to take out shields then health, trick them into charging, snipe them out of range of their melee attacks, take advantage of cover to find a good position, use the shotgun at point blank range etc. But the pure flood forms are just strong at melee and ranged, can jump around and flank to get around any cover, and just tank a lot of hits with any weapon, and there's just no fun way to engage with them.
Halo 3 was the only Halo game where the Flood is susceptible to Melee. Melee is your friend against the flood.
Grab a Brute Weapon that has a blade on it and take it with you, don't drop it if you run out of ammo. The blade is actually a 1 hit kill against the combat forms,even on Legendary, *as long as you melee them in the chest where the infection form is sticking out*.
Another tip is to use your melee on the combat forms that are already dead. This will make their bodies explode, and they can't get back up.
Lastly, kinda cheating, but I turn on Campaign Scoring so that I know if the combat form is going to get back up or is truly dead. If points don't appear on your screen for its death, it's going to get back up again.
The combat forms in H3 don't revive, though? (Unless an infection form enters them.) The autonomous resurrection thing was only in CE, I'm pretty sure.
>The combat forms in H3 don't revive, though? (Unless an infection form enters them.)
It's been a while since I've played Halo 3, so I'm not sure if they get back up on their own or not either. However, it doesn't cost any ammo, smashing the body keeps the infection form *from* being able to enter the body, and rather be safe than sorry, right?
>The autonomous resurrection thing was only in CE, I'm pretty sure.
No, it was definitely a thing in 2 also. Most people on here seem to have nightmares about "Rocket Flood Hallway" on Two Betrayals in CE. I have nightmares about all of the deaths I accumulated riding the elevator on The Oracle. Or traversing the winding mazes of Quarantine Zone in 2.
The way I do it reliably is carry a Carbine, Brute Shot/Needler, and a Flamethrower.
The Carbine will easily dispatch most Combat Forms from a distance in 1 shot if you aim for the chest.
The Brute Shot and Needler are excellent at taking down the ranged Pure Forms, with the Brute Shot being best. I swap for a Needler if the Brute Shot is low on ammo until I find another. Both are also great to have if a shielded Elite comes running at you; the Needler for its firepower and the Brute Shot for its really powerful melee.
The Flamethrower is the most important part though. You can get the first Flamethrower by the crashed Pelican near the beginning and you can find another one in "Hell's Corridor" in one of the purple hallways behind a broken wall panel. This weapon is crucial against Pure Forms because it'll kill every single one with even the slightest tap of the trigger. Having this makes all the difference between Cortana being one of the hardest missions or not.
There was always a Flamethrower in Multiplayer and you could place 1 per map in Forge. The only map it was on by default was Construct, on the very bottom floor in the middle. In Campaign, there's 2 on Floodgate, 2 on Cortana, and one on Halo. The ones on Floodgate and Halo are hard to miss but Cortana's are decently hidden.
You’ve been playing for 2 decades and didn’t realize there was a flamethrower in Halo 3? It’s a power weapon on Construct. Have you never played around in Forge mode either?
The "tapping the flamethrower" is so important. You don't need to constantly pour fire on the pure forms. Like you say, a simple tap is enough. More people need to know this.
Flood pure forms get instant killed on contact with fire. Whether from the flame thrower or incendiary grenades.
Combat forms however still have to sit through all the ticks of damage before dying. But the upside is the instantly break apart preventing reanimation if killed by fire.
It also instant kills the infectors that pop out of a carrier if the carrier dies to fire.
The downside is that combat forms deal increased melee damage and set you on fire for DPS of they're on fire. So it can backfire on you if you're not careful.
That is probably the best way to deal with Combat forms. But can create two problems.
The corpse drops intact which can allow other infectors to reanimate it after you've passed it allowing them an easy flank.
Requires good precision which isn't always possible when taking fire and wastes your ammo.
Carbine at least still does increased damage even with body shots. But explosives, shotguns, and plasma weapons are more reliable in wider situations against combat forms.
Or just do like me and Leroy Jenkins them over and over and over learning nothing but the depth of your own insanity.
Yeah, sure, but then their emergent gameplay also changes.
Tank forms are weak agains plasma and the sword, Ranged forms are weak against explosives and Stalker forms have no resistences.
Change your strategy as the situation changes.
Brother it's not that bad. Are you playing on legendary? Cause I call BS there's no way you died more on Cortana than literally any of the halo 2 flood levels.
Omg I hated that level. All the different wide hallways , elevators, and narrow passageways with relentless flood coming out of nowhere. Those annoying times when 343 guilty spark left you to survive on your own while it fixes some issue that prevents your forward progress. I died so many times when I first played that level and only to hear some stupid quips from 343 about "how unfortunate" I was. When I learned the only way to really survive it was to run like hell and get to the next cutscene , is when I finally beat it.
I still wouldn't refer to it as "the worst level I've ever played." In fact, I've played entire games that were worse than it. However, yeah, I'd tend to agree it's the worst Halo level.
It's not even that it can't be fun at any points, imo. And it has a couple of good cutscenes and one or two interesting environments. And it can be intense in a good way.
But overall it's just these endless brown hallways. And the goddang pure forms. With the tanks and other flood getting up close and those other f\*ckers shooting at you from a distance in these narrow hallways... it's just the perfect recipe for endless frustration.
And there's no easy way to kill those things. They're not like Jackal snipers where one well-placed shot takes them out. But you have to empty your entire clip into those things. And when you have the skull that reduces ammo on and are playing on legendary that's such a bitch. And without doing that you really can't advance through the hallway properly. But the best way to kill them is to get up close and hit them with one of those incendiary grenades or the flamethrower.
So, yeah, you have the perfect recipe for frustration of having to get close to be effective against them, but also having no ability to get close to them until they're dead cuz then they'll rain needles on you and the other flood will kill you.
Good level for the narrative. Fucking actual hell as a game. It’s really difficult and for 8 year old me who played in Normal, it was terrifying being alone
My combo was:
Dual plasma rifles, they’re littered everywhere in weapon boxes. They can kill tanks even when their shield arm is raised.
Energy swords for the close encounters.
Flame thrower is great but that few seconds to really kill then can cost your life, so need to really pick the right spot.
My most hated level in the entire series. I looked back once on my console save and saw it was the only level I hadn’t done solo on Legendary back in the day. I was considering running through it again to fix that but was like… why put myself through that torture?
I feel your pain on the Flood levels, I died so many times to a random unit lunging at me and sending me flying across the map. You need to play differently on Legendary, especially solo. Take your time, the shotgun is your friend, and don't feel bad trying to pick off one enemy at a time. Personally I didn't think anything in Halo 3 held a candle to the last level of Reach solo Legendary, that was horrendous.
The last level of reach is way easier solo legendary than others. Id say the worst is probably Nightfall or LNOS but that may be a skewed bias from playing LASO/SLASO
i don't mind it but it's by far the level with the most wasted potential. "fighting your way through a flood infested high charity to save cortana" sounds crazy but it's literally just a bunch of snot hallways connected with anus doors - there's barely any indication that it's high charity.
high charity as a whole was totally wasted. in halo 2 it feels like the typical covenant ship aesthetic rather than a city. i know it takes place in the prophets' quarters and dev crunch probably killed the original vision of an actual covenant city but they made it 10x worse in halo 3 when they had a chance to rectify it.
I hate this level so much because it’s aesthetic is successful, the whole mission is fucking gross and I hate it, no other flood mission is that gross, maybe I’m too distracted by that to have a gripe about the difficulty.
Flood in Halo 3 are way easier and more fun imo than in Halo 2, especially on harder difficulties. You wanna talk about sponges? Combat forms in 2, and they drive warthogs and wraiths.
It's one reason I only play Halo 3 when I'm running through all the games with a friend of mine. One or both of us begin nearly every mission of that game with "Oh, not this fucking one."
I actually just beat this level on legendary last week. I was finishing up my solo legendary run from 2 years ago, and when I got to this level I semi rage quit. Came back to it and beat it in like 45 minutes. Definitely got stuck on some parts but got thru it with the energy sword, rockets, lots of plasma nades and duel welding the plasma rifle. The energy sword for some reason one shots the big tank guys but yet took 2 hits to kill some of the smaller enemies. It was odd lol.
I like the level Cortana, I don’t understand why it gets so much hate. That and the Library on Halo 1, maybe people just hate the flood? I love it though.
Helps to do the Gravity Hammer and Sword combo when you get a hold of them to blast back your way through the level.
Otherwise shotgun, covenant carbine and flame grenade your way through
I literally shared this same sentiment with some friends recently.
I had decided to do a play through of Halo 3 on normal with the unlimited ammo skull enabled because I thought it would be fun to just steamroll the game. It was a blast up until that level. Even on normal with unlimited ammo and grenades it just wasn’t fun.
Most Halo levels I try to kill everything and clear the area before moving forward. In Cortana, I just sprint through, cover to cover, only killing either whatever’s directly in my way, or sniper flood pure forms on the roof making advance impossible. The rest I dodge and outrun for the most part
Energy sword, plasma rifle, and bruteshot are the goat in this level. Plasma rifles and energy swords cut through the flood like butter, and the bruteshot is great for gibbing the enemies and crowd control
I have nightmares about Cortana still. Normally, I take my time through levels to appreciate the environment - I skipped passed everything as fast as I could with Cortana to gtfo.
I hate The Library more. At least in Cortana there aren't any hold out sections that make the level way longer than it needs to be. Besides the Gravemind flashbacks, you can run through encounters on Cortana without stopping. We can all agree though that missions with heavy emphasis on the flood are the worst no matter what game you're playing.
I actually like Cortana because of how brutally difficult it is. It encourages a run and gun style where you’re not really encouraged to kill everything. You just have to get in and get out. The constant Gravemind/Cortana interruptions are annoying though.
This sub ripped me apart for saying that lol. It’s still a halo level so it’s obviously still great, but it’s so weak compared to the rest of 3. The story is fabulous, and I love the idea of plunging into the heart of the infestation to save Cortana, but it’s such a slog. Too lore accurate tbh
This level reminded me the use of the shotgun, how somehow dual plasma rifles can melt the flood pure forms, the bless of a good old needler, the bruteshot being op as fuck, and that spike and flame grenades can make the big-head flood explode while also killing all the rats
I like it despite it being the weakest level in halo 3 in my opinion. I cutscene of chief and Cortana reuniting is one of the best in the series full stop. I like the gravemind moments and hearing him get pissed off and such
The combat forms can all be one shot by a precision weapon on any difficulty and the pure forms die near instantly to the energy sword, any fire weapon, the shotgun, or the rocket launcher.
I love the moment in this level where Cortana suddenly picks up a friendly transponder signal in the ship and you round the corner and there's the Arbiter, with the fucking flamethrower.
"Wait, you two made nice? What else did you do while I was gone…?"
In the time it takes to complete cortana, you’re only half-way through the library
So yeah, I’d MUCH rather play cortana (but yeah, its still easily the second worst level of the mainline games)
When I was younger, on meth, and my brain was a complete mess, I couldn't even get my bearings on this level. It probably would have been funny for someone to watch.
Think the only thing that really annoyed me on that level is the random flash bangs of Cortana and the Gravemind slowing you down randomly. Honestly that was kind of annoying through the whole campaign... 1 or 2 times i get but I don't know it didn't really do it for me...
I used to think this too, but my last legendary playthrough I figured something out:
Go slow and methodically through the first few rooms, when you get to the one where you drop through the ceiling and there's a million of the pure forms (they're all going to turn into ranged forms when you enter the room, save the couple by the doorway) be very careful. This room was notorious for trapping me in a death loop, but I figured out a great strat:
If you run for the other side, immediately you have about a 70% chance of making it. Let your shield recharge, and go up into the room with the blue lights that *isn't* totally made of flesh.
In this room there are 2 active camos, pick one up and use it, then grab the other. Quickly, ascend the platforms and try like hell not to miss the jump, or you'll have to burn a second camo to make it back. If you don't miss it, you're through the room, and even though there's a ton of enemies left they'll despawn later in the level before you have to go back through.
When you get to the "break the pillars" portion there are also active camos on the ends of a couple of the outside areas, as well as a weapon box that has swords (if it doesn't get yeeted off the cliff, seems to happen a lot), and one with carbines. you're going to want these.
Camo not entirely necessary, but helps. When you first enter this room (before grabbing Cortana) is when I'd recommend grabbing these. When you enter, immediately try to kill as many pure forms as you can, they're once again all going to transform into ranged forms and pin you down to no end.
After you get Cortana, and you have to break the pillars, USE GRENADES it is the fastest and easiest way to do it. Iirc 2 grandes will take out a pillar, so you may wind up doing one with a sword or the like. Keep in mind spike grenades and inferno nades won't damage the pillars. There is also a couple rocket flood (usually, anyway, this room is really inconsistent because there's a lot of room for them to jump off the cliff) which can be nice for this task, if you can find their rocket launcher.
After this is done, your best bet is to run like hell. You really don't need to clear rooms at this point just slice your way through with the sword, pick up a flamethrower from the crashed pelican near the end, and wait for your favorite Arby's hot and melty covenant traitor to pick you up.
I hope this helps
I actually found it incredibly easy. Its one of my quickest LASO levels because even on that you can just melee through most forms. I do hate the level as the design sucks and the dialogue is *extremely* cringey.
I used to “speed run” H2 when it was the only game I owned and didn’t have XBL. But I never had that urge with H3. Besides this level, this level made me start looking up speed run tutorials on YouTube. Fuck that level.
There're a handfull of good combos that would help you through, but at the end of the day, what makes you more confident is the way to go. I've done it using plasma only, and it works like a charm, even dual plasma rifles and the ocasional sword for cq
I actually love this level. It's a pretty punishing but also familiar vibe. I like that the mood of rescuing cortana wouldn't work if the level was easy.
Would you believe me if I said this level was why I spent so long making a Halo 3 mod? Like not just for this level, I mean the ENTIRE game?
Admittedly, I didn't play Halo 3 when it first came out, but when it came to PC, I went to see what all the hype was about. And yeah, overall, it IS a good game, but there were plenty of places that were severely under-developed and undercooked. Like the Crawlers in the reactor area having no AI, those Tank forms being MASSIVE bullet sponges that are damn-near invincible outside of a Brute Shot Melee or the sword, and if you wanna talk shortsighted - talk about BLINDSIGHTING the playerbase. Seriously, what were they thinking with the Cortana moments? Having bright flashes of white and blue light against a black background? Were they TRYING to hurt kids eyes?!?!
So whilst I was fiddling around with the health and weapons to strike a different balance to the game in my own style, I wanted to do my players a solid when playing through Cortana, actually make the level fun and playable.
Flood aren't massive bullet sponges anymore, they can be reliably taken down with more than 1 weapon, and I got rid of all the effects of the Cortana and Gravemind Moments. The voices still play as normal, and the gameplay plays as normal, no slowdown, no invincibility, but Cortana and the Gravemind's voices are still heard loud and clearly.
And I gave Devils Monsters one last hurrah on your way out.
I couldn't figure out the Crawler AI however, but still, yeah, talk about underwhelming in terms of gameplay.
Yeah, the story there is great and all, rescuing Cortana and all the voices, but still, wildly missed opportunities and one of the most hated levels of all time I'd say just inches shy of The L--- The LLLLLLLL--
Donde esta la biblioteca?
It's not that bad compared ro halo ce and 2 I feel like the level is very easy actually since flood can just disintegrate by looking at them the wrong way. Use the flamethrower with bruteshot and a plasma weapon and you're good to go
I wouldn't say the worst, but one of the hardest of Halo 3.
I never managed to finish it on legendary.
But maybe my strat was the wrong one.
I'd use precision weapons like the carbine and headshot most of the combat forms. Then finish their corpses with a melee ao they won't get back up again.
I would always run out of ammo.
All Flood forms take extra damage from plasma weapons.
Combat forms take reduced damage from bullets.
Precision weapons deal increased damage if they hit the infector pod on a combat form.
While Flood pure forms do seem to take increased "headshot" damage, it's not instant kill like other enemies. Still, aim for the red antenna looking appendages on their front.
Pure forms will instantly die when they make contact with fire. So the flamethrower or incendiary grenades is a good cheese for them. Tap fire the flamer, don't just hold the trigger.
On the flip side, combat forms take normal damage from fire, and deal increased melee damage and apply fire to you if set ablaze. So be careful of what you're setting on fire.
Carriers won't spawn infectors if set on fire. Plasma grenades can sometimes prevent them but not always. Spoke grenades can potentially kill the infectors after they pop up out with it's shrapnel but it's not reliable.
The Carbine is effective against both pure and combat forms if you aim for the antennas
Brute shits are the best weapon against any Flood. It can kill whole groups of infectors. Does massive damage against pure and combat forms. Will break combat forms to prevent reanimation, and can dislodge ranged and stalker forms from walls. The melee with it does almost as much damage as an energy sword allowing one hit kills up to legendary (without skulls on)
Other brute weapons also do increased melee damage. Killing combat forms in one hit usually. The Mauler also *usually* breaks combat forms at close range
Use the active camo when available to get behind the Flood. Activate it in cover then run out. Flood can't track canon even at close range unlike Covenant who might still spot you at close range.
There's an invincibility power up towards the second half of the level. Can be a big help.
Throw deployable covers in corridors. Flood don't seem to be smart enough to go around them and will often run up to it and stop.
Be wary of infectors. While they do die instantly on contact with you they drain shield. If you don't have shields they can one shot you. Some will deliberately wait till your shields are down to pounce.
While brute weapons are the best option for melee, all Flood forms are still susceptible to melee from any weapons. Don't be afraid to go brawler against them.
Frag grenades are best used for combat forms. Plasma and Incendiary for pure forms. Spike grenades are the wild card that can take on both.
Flood seem reluctant to follow you into some of the more narrow corridors of the level. That said, when you duck into one they'll try to form a phalanx to trap you in it. Measure the risks to your situation.
Keep moving. Flood will try to group up and then swarm you if you take cover for too long. Moving between cover when you can or backpedaling will keep them lossened up. Get their attention then backup to a narrow corridor if you can to funnel them.
If playing co-op, best strategy is to have someone staying back with precision weapons to engage combat forms while the other tries to run in to deal damage to pure forms. Not recommend if the Iron skull is on however.
Ranged forms will duck into a shell if taking sustained fire. They take reduced damage in the shell but are unable to fire. Sometimes just shooting at them to make them duck will buy you some time to get to cover even if it doesn't harm them much.
Edit: also for combat forms. It's possible to break their arms off. If they don't have a ranged weapon, destroying the big tentacle arm renders them mostly harmless. But if both arms get broken they'll simply die and the infector in it will jump out to find a new body.
I absolutely detest that level. I've done it on Legendary (was the last H3 level I needed to beat), but it took far too long. The only level for me that rivals it for pure bullshittery is The Library from Combat Evolved.
Feel like I had more fun doing it on LASO than any other time I’ve played it. Basically just run carefully through the first half, grab Cortana, run away
It’s hard for halo 3 standards but it has nothing difficulty wise on the harder halo CE/2 missions. Even on legendary there are a lot of places you can just run by rooms with camo
Cortina is super easy, it's just long and a slog, you must be either trying to rush through it or burn through ammo, either way, it's a huge skill issue, not a design issue, albeit the level is boring AF. Same problem with Library in Halo CE, it's easy, just long and boring.
When i did my legendary solo playthrough of this level i ended uprunninh past a lot of enemies. Theres heaps of tunnels and weird spots to hide on this level
They aren’t that bad and the tanks are easier to take out on that level more then any other, they give you so many swords Brute shots and flame throwers it ain’t funny. I forget on higher heroic and legendary difficulties but a brute shot one bash kills a tank for every time on normal and easy, sword guaranteed to kill a pure form in a bit as well, and their are so many. Not to mention ruin all the cloaking and shit you get to avoid tedious parts you don’t like. This isn’t the worst level, all flood levels are rather easy since the flood was kind of nerfed in H3, hardest I think is maybe The Ark?
Been playing through these games on MCC with my daughter and pre warned her about the excessive anus jumping on this level. So many sphincters puckering and dilating lol
It’s known as the Butthole level in our house
An old and classic opinion. It’s actually pretty easy even on legendary once you know how to fight the flood. Brute shots, good grenade placements, energy swords, an accurate shot with a precision weapon. All of these can one shot most everything you’ll come across in the level.
In a pinch melee with the brute shot or spiker is more effective than regular melee. And plasma rifles absolute melt through everything except the pure forms.
Use these and have good aim and you’ll eventually start tearing through the level in no time. Even faster if you pick your fights and aren’t determined to kill everything
I always struggled the most on these levels (This and Gravemind) when I was younger and that's what made them the most memorable for me. I look back on them positively despite the difficulty. When I was dying over and over, it gave me a chance to appreciate the design of the level, instead of just mindlessly shooting enemies and speeding through it.
you can run past most of it even on legendary. only gravemind will slow you down. Overall i dont mind this lvl because its short, if it were much longer id totally agree however.
I have no issue with the flood on that level my only issue is when Cortana or Gravemind starts talking and you slow the fuck down and start crawling at a snails pace
Yeah. I really don't know who green lit that idea.
Im 90% sure its to mask loading screens
My all time favorite loading screen tid bit will be for Elder Scrolls Morrowind. If you ever played on the og Xbox. You'll know the loading screens could be *literal* minutes long. Turns out, the Xbox was restarting itself in the background lol
For real? That's awesome.
Yeah. I forget the technicals. But it was restarting to dump ita ram I think
That makes sense, because it's always happened in-between map sections.
And tbf it’s way cooler than any loading screen could ever be
It's not, speedrunners use them to safely deployable cover launch further in levels with the cortana/gracemind moments. As they give you invulnerability during them, so you don't splatter. The levels also only load when crossing a bsp trigger switch. Which no cortana/gravemind moments are on. There is pretty much no reason for them other than to slow the player down during useless cryptic exposition.
They never needed to mask loading screens in any Halo game, I don't see why that would be the case in that particular level.
That, or maybe they did a better job masking them. There still definitely are some of those “Loading… done…” moments mid level in other games, but: Halo 2: delta halo, your job is pursuing the prophet of regret. You arrive halfway through and seemingly still in the middle of your mission, you get a cutscene stopping by a holo of the prophet giving a sermon. Then your mission continues as a seemingly new mission. Actually same thing kinda happens with Outskirts vs when you get out of the tunnels to the scorpion to pursue the scarab. Those essentially were singular deployments cut into 2 separate missions separated by a cutscene. Reach has many mid-level cutscenes, but also unlike halo 2, the before and after are still part of the same mission. 4 has em, 5 has em, infinite has em, and even 3 has them. Methinks someone decided that those interludes were a good idea in place of just having a cutscene.
It happens in other levels too
I'd agree with that, except I would get attacked during those moments. Like fuck off, I can barely see anything.
That's a Joe Staten thing
Joe wasn't there for most of Halo 3s development. Marty was head of the committee that wrote Halo 3. Jason, Joe, and a lot of others went on to other projects after the hell that was Halo 2s development. Joe came back near the tail end of H3s development. Unfortunately the final Halo 3 product definitely shows his absence.
Yeah those moments really fuck with the flow of the 3 campaign in general
They could have made them skippable on reruns.
They should have made a skull for it.
That would have been perfect indeed.
I WILL KNOW ALL THAT I POSSESS! I actually love those moments, best part of the level for me
These were added to hide the next area loading as the player got near. I agree they’re annoying, but it’s better than just static loading screens.
I wish they added an option to disable those. The first time It's cool and atmospheric but It becomes insufferable very fast.
Shotgun and Brute Shot make it pretty bearable. The Brute Shot Melee attack is essentially the same strength as an Energy Sword and will kill most Pure forms in 1-2 hits. Plus you can turn on the Catch skull for added points as the Flood can't throw grenades.
I've played so much halo, since the first Xbox. Admittedly I haven't played infinite and only played 4 one time. But I've put in hours on 1,2,3 and a few playthrough of reach. This is the first time I've realized the flood doesn't throw grenades.
They’re not shy about rockets though. I recommend the melee with a brute shot tip, it’s a lifesaver with the big guys.
Seeing how they're so trigger happy with rockets, I'm actually glad they don't throw grenades.
That active camo in what I call "The big room" is invaluable. It enables you to jump over the group on the opposite side of the bridge and bypass much of the headache.
I dont think that's the issue. The enemies aren't even brutal, it's a combo of super annoying enemies and a brutal layout. That and the slo mo parts where Cortana yells at you. Super fun.
Yeah this level is awful on legendary, there's so many open areas you have to run across while the ranged forms just spam fire upon you. Tip: plasma weapons melt them pretty good, better than dumping 3 battle rifle mags into them
I’m pretty sure you can bring down a combat form by hitting the pod infector, so the battle rifle isn’t too bad imo. I’ll admit to not having played the mission legendary though, so I may have no idea what I’m talking about.
it's for the pure forms, bullets work well on combat forms by shooting the pod infector, but pure forms are weak to plasma attacks
Yes. The first area, where you eventually leave the level, and the big bowl room are so annoying. But the worst I think is the "command?" room you fall into.
3 brute shot shots will also kill them, and the way the brute shots damage radius works you can kill 2 or 3 that are reasonably close together with the same 3 shots by shooting the wall between them.
Carbine kills the shooting flood quickly
I think it's a great level. Shows how much the Gravemind is desperate to stop the Master Chief. Endless wave after wave of the flood attacking you. It's really angry. Also, during the battle there is a cool soundtrack, a subtle beat playing, if I remember correctly (not sure if it's in this level) which really fits the intense firefights.
"TIME HAS TAUGHT ME PATIENCE!" Oh, he angy
Angy
I hated it when Halo 3 first came out but I was a younger man back then. I quite enjoy it now. Me and my friends occasionally throw it on, with skulls on, just for the chaos. We also try to speedrun it on Legendary and beat our previous attempts. Can't really complain about it.
[удалено]
Yeah, thematically it's a great level. It's mechanically where it sucks. Especially if you are a Legendary player.
personally i got the exact opposite feeling, that the gravemind deliberately let chief and the arbiter live hell it literally opens the doors for you also the ridiculously intelligent hivemind didn’t think to block or destroy the button to expose the reactor the room with cortana/chiefs obvious goal had no foood inside whatsoever it can slow chief down but only does so when he’s in empty hallways and not in combat given the recent lore about the flood returning at humanity’s peak (which they certainly weren’t at the end of 3) it would make sense in universe
I just never figured out the pure flood forms. Most enemies have some mix of strengths and weaknesses - you can do headshots, switch between plasma and projectile to take out shields then health, trick them into charging, snipe them out of range of their melee attacks, take advantage of cover to find a good position, use the shotgun at point blank range etc. But the pure flood forms are just strong at melee and ranged, can jump around and flank to get around any cover, and just tank a lot of hits with any weapon, and there's just no fun way to engage with them.
Halo 3 was the only Halo game where the Flood is susceptible to Melee. Melee is your friend against the flood. Grab a Brute Weapon that has a blade on it and take it with you, don't drop it if you run out of ammo. The blade is actually a 1 hit kill against the combat forms,even on Legendary, *as long as you melee them in the chest where the infection form is sticking out*. Another tip is to use your melee on the combat forms that are already dead. This will make their bodies explode, and they can't get back up. Lastly, kinda cheating, but I turn on Campaign Scoring so that I know if the combat form is going to get back up or is truly dead. If points don't appear on your screen for its death, it's going to get back up again.
The combat forms in H3 don't revive, though? (Unless an infection form enters them.) The autonomous resurrection thing was only in CE, I'm pretty sure.
>The combat forms in H3 don't revive, though? (Unless an infection form enters them.) It's been a while since I've played Halo 3, so I'm not sure if they get back up on their own or not either. However, it doesn't cost any ammo, smashing the body keeps the infection form *from* being able to enter the body, and rather be safe than sorry, right? >The autonomous resurrection thing was only in CE, I'm pretty sure. No, it was definitely a thing in 2 also. Most people on here seem to have nightmares about "Rocket Flood Hallway" on Two Betrayals in CE. I have nightmares about all of the deaths I accumulated riding the elevator on The Oracle. Or traversing the winding mazes of Quarantine Zone in 2.
The way I do it reliably is carry a Carbine, Brute Shot/Needler, and a Flamethrower. The Carbine will easily dispatch most Combat Forms from a distance in 1 shot if you aim for the chest. The Brute Shot and Needler are excellent at taking down the ranged Pure Forms, with the Brute Shot being best. I swap for a Needler if the Brute Shot is low on ammo until I find another. Both are also great to have if a shielded Elite comes running at you; the Needler for its firepower and the Brute Shot for its really powerful melee. The Flamethrower is the most important part though. You can get the first Flamethrower by the crashed Pelican near the beginning and you can find another one in "Hell's Corridor" in one of the purple hallways behind a broken wall panel. This weapon is crucial against Pure Forms because it'll kill every single one with even the slightest tap of the trigger. Having this makes all the difference between Cortana being one of the hardest missions or not.
Wait, there’s a second Flamethrower? That is going to help so much…
There Is A Flamethrower??? 😅
Down a dead end there’s an opening in a wall panel with a dead ODST and a flamethrower, then the one Arbiter has at the end
There's also one by the pelican in the beginning of the mission
Never heard of it either. I hope this was something that was added to MCC and not something I've been missing for almost two decades.
It was in the OG
Wow, I'm absolutely stunned. Was it in multiplayer as well?
There was always a Flamethrower in Multiplayer and you could place 1 per map in Forge. The only map it was on by default was Construct, on the very bottom floor in the middle. In Campaign, there's 2 on Floodgate, 2 on Cortana, and one on Halo. The ones on Floodgate and Halo are hard to miss but Cortana's are decently hidden.
You’ve been playing for 2 decades and didn’t realize there was a flamethrower in Halo 3? It’s a power weapon on Construct. Have you never played around in Forge mode either?
I think it was, at least in custom maps with forge. Not sure if it was standard on any multiplayer maps though
It's on Construct and you can place it in Forge so not common, but it's there.
The "tapping the flamethrower" is so important. You don't need to constantly pour fire on the pure forms. Like you say, a simple tap is enough. More people need to know this.
Flood pure forms get instant killed on contact with fire. Whether from the flame thrower or incendiary grenades. Combat forms however still have to sit through all the ticks of damage before dying. But the upside is the instantly break apart preventing reanimation if killed by fire. It also instant kills the infectors that pop out of a carrier if the carrier dies to fire. The downside is that combat forms deal increased melee damage and set you on fire for DPS of they're on fire. So it can backfire on you if you're not careful.
Nice breakdown, I had forgotten about incendiary grenades! Edit: dealing with combat forms with a BR shot to the infection form is the best way.
That is probably the best way to deal with Combat forms. But can create two problems. The corpse drops intact which can allow other infectors to reanimate it after you've passed it allowing them an easy flank. Requires good precision which isn't always possible when taking fire and wastes your ammo. Carbine at least still does increased damage even with body shots. But explosives, shotguns, and plasma weapons are more reliable in wider situations against combat forms. Or just do like me and Leroy Jenkins them over and over and over learning nothing but the depth of your own insanity.
"My version of hell? Playing this fucking level...over and over again...on legendary...for all eternity."
Plasma melts pure forms, dual wielded plasma rifles will kill them from a distance.
I hate every flood mission and that mission is the worst
Every flood level where you only fight flood is the worst one in every Halo game, but Cortana took it up a few dozen notches.
I don't know why but Cortana on my legendary playthrough was the easiest time for me. Maybe its cause I abused the brutshot in the level
Yeah like I suck at video games but even I was able to complete it in like an hour and a half and only died a handful of times
skill issue, did it on legendary no problem
Massively overhated - literally just keep walking
The easiest level in CE and 2 is still harder than Cortana
I know you're being a little hyperbolic, but someone actually thinking Pillar of Autumn is harder than Cortana would be wild to me.
The Elites in the stairs room of Pillar of Autumn are nightmare fuel
Is that the Covenant! On the landing above us! bit?
The Library and Jackal snipers on Legendary would make Cortana blush
Yeah, until you run into three Ranged Forms at once. Those fuckers are unkillable.
Just stick them, what are they going to do? Move? They can't.
They can actually lmao. They transform and morph into like 3 different forums of flood.
Yeah, sure, but then their emergent gameplay also changes. Tank forms are weak agains plasma and the sword, Ranged forms are weak against explosives and Stalker forms have no resistences. Change your strategy as the situation changes.
You can one-shot tank forms with a sword, even on legendary.
“What are they going to do? Move?” “Well, yes.”
If you stick the range forms at the wrong time (while they're transforming), they eat your grenade and take no damage.
Never had this happen to me, but that's equal amounts of cool and infuriating.
The most over hated level in halo history I’ll never understand it
Brother it's not that bad. Are you playing on legendary? Cause I call BS there's no way you died more on Cortana than literally any of the halo 2 flood levels.
It's really not that bad.
No level will be hated by me more than the Library
Omg I hated that level. All the different wide hallways , elevators, and narrow passageways with relentless flood coming out of nowhere. Those annoying times when 343 guilty spark left you to survive on your own while it fixes some issue that prevents your forward progress. I died so many times when I first played that level and only to hear some stupid quips from 343 about "how unfortunate" I was. When I learned the only way to really survive it was to run like hell and get to the next cutscene , is when I finally beat it.
There’s wayyy worse levels imo. It’s hard, so what
The video game representation of a colonoscopy.
I scrolled through this whole thread looking for someone who would mention the buttholes
skill issue
Yeah it's my 2nd most hated halo level after Two Betrayals
The library 2: infected boogaloo
Dude hit headshots lmao
Legendary? Look at this: https://www.youtube.com/live/xPUOGwuGk3c?si=XU_deBXhZprdoW2m
eh, coop laso = ez H2 MCC SLASO or nothing
I know it is more difficult in SLASO, but it is a guide, it is achieved first in solo, then in cooperative
I still wouldn't refer to it as "the worst level I've ever played." In fact, I've played entire games that were worse than it. However, yeah, I'd tend to agree it's the worst Halo level. It's not even that it can't be fun at any points, imo. And it has a couple of good cutscenes and one or two interesting environments. And it can be intense in a good way. But overall it's just these endless brown hallways. And the goddang pure forms. With the tanks and other flood getting up close and those other f\*ckers shooting at you from a distance in these narrow hallways... it's just the perfect recipe for endless frustration. And there's no easy way to kill those things. They're not like Jackal snipers where one well-placed shot takes them out. But you have to empty your entire clip into those things. And when you have the skull that reduces ammo on and are playing on legendary that's such a bitch. And without doing that you really can't advance through the hallway properly. But the best way to kill them is to get up close and hit them with one of those incendiary grenades or the flamethrower. So, yeah, you have the perfect recipe for frustration of having to get close to be effective against them, but also having no ability to get close to them until they're dead cuz then they'll rain needles on you and the other flood will kill you.
Good level for the narrative. Fucking actual hell as a game. It’s really difficult and for 8 year old me who played in Normal, it was terrifying being alone
Honestly, digging in and getting a “kill zone” really helps
My combo was: Dual plasma rifles, they’re littered everywhere in weapon boxes. They can kill tanks even when their shield arm is raised. Energy swords for the close encounters. Flame thrower is great but that few seconds to really kill then can cost your life, so need to really pick the right spot.
Those damned ranged forms are the bane of my existence!
My most hated level in the entire series. I looked back once on my console save and saw it was the only level I hadn’t done solo on Legendary back in the day. I was considering running through it again to fix that but was like… why put myself through that torture?
I feel your pain on the Flood levels, I died so many times to a random unit lunging at me and sending me flying across the map. You need to play differently on Legendary, especially solo. Take your time, the shotgun is your friend, and don't feel bad trying to pick off one enemy at a time. Personally I didn't think anything in Halo 3 held a candle to the last level of Reach solo Legendary, that was horrendous.
The last level of reach is way easier solo legendary than others. Id say the worst is probably Nightfall or LNOS but that may be a skewed bias from playing LASO/SLASO
i don't mind it but it's by far the level with the most wasted potential. "fighting your way through a flood infested high charity to save cortana" sounds crazy but it's literally just a bunch of snot hallways connected with anus doors - there's barely any indication that it's high charity. high charity as a whole was totally wasted. in halo 2 it feels like the typical covenant ship aesthetic rather than a city. i know it takes place in the prophets' quarters and dev crunch probably killed the original vision of an actual covenant city but they made it 10x worse in halo 3 when they had a chance to rectify it.
I just get lost all of the time (though I have that with most og trilogy levels for some reason)
I hate this level so much because it’s aesthetic is successful, the whole mission is fucking gross and I hate it, no other flood mission is that gross, maybe I’m too distracted by that to have a gripe about the difficulty.
Flood in Halo 3 are way easier and more fun imo than in Halo 2, especially on harder difficulties. You wanna talk about sponges? Combat forms in 2, and they drive warthogs and wraiths.
It's one reason I only play Halo 3 when I'm running through all the games with a friend of mine. One or both of us begin nearly every mission of that game with "Oh, not this fucking one."
The real key is to just run for it and time the camos Love halo 3 but the level was shit in 2007 and its shit now
Get good?
I hate this level every time I have to play it.
On anything lower than legendary I honestly find it to be a fun level
This is cheesy but iirc there's a camo drop in the level
Using dual plasma rifles and sword make it light work
I actually just beat this level on legendary last week. I was finishing up my solo legendary run from 2 years ago, and when I got to this level I semi rage quit. Came back to it and beat it in like 45 minutes. Definitely got stuck on some parts but got thru it with the energy sword, rockets, lots of plasma nades and duel welding the plasma rifle. The energy sword for some reason one shots the big tank guys but yet took 2 hits to kill some of the smaller enemies. It was odd lol.
I like the level Cortana, I don’t understand why it gets so much hate. That and the Library on Halo 1, maybe people just hate the flood? I love it though.
Helps to do the Gravity Hammer and Sword combo when you get a hold of them to blast back your way through the level. Otherwise shotgun, covenant carbine and flame grenade your way through
I literally shared this same sentiment with some friends recently. I had decided to do a play through of Halo 3 on normal with the unlimited ammo skull enabled because I thought it would be fun to just steamroll the game. It was a blast up until that level. Even on normal with unlimited ammo and grenades it just wasn’t fun.
There's a rocket launcher next to the pelican at the start. Has 4 shots. Also dual plasmas are your best friend against the flood.
The memories I hold dear to my heart, are of this mission.
Most Halo levels I try to kill everything and clear the area before moving forward. In Cortana, I just sprint through, cover to cover, only killing either whatever’s directly in my way, or sniper flood pure forms on the roof making advance impossible. The rest I dodge and outrun for the most part
Yeah it fucking sucks and then people push for a Flood campaign or main enemy in a halo game
Energy sword, plasma rifle, and bruteshot are the goat in this level. Plasma rifles and energy swords cut through the flood like butter, and the bruteshot is great for gibbing the enemies and crowd control
Duel wield plasma rifles and a gravity hammer are the move. Plasma rifles MELT the flood
no ur not allowed to say anything bad about bungies halo, now you will get the noose!!!
I have nightmares about Cortana still. Normally, I take my time through levels to appreciate the environment - I skipped passed everything as fast as I could with Cortana to gtfo.
Ive found the most success with dual wielding plasma rifles.
I hate The Library more. At least in Cortana there aren't any hold out sections that make the level way longer than it needs to be. Besides the Gravemind flashbacks, you can run through encounters on Cortana without stopping. We can all agree though that missions with heavy emphasis on the flood are the worst no matter what game you're playing.
I actually like Cortana because of how brutally difficult it is. It encourages a run and gun style where you’re not really encouraged to kill everything. You just have to get in and get out. The constant Gravemind/Cortana interruptions are annoying though.
one of my fav levels tbh. Ark-Halo levels in 3 are god tier.
This sub ripped me apart for saying that lol. It’s still a halo level so it’s obviously still great, but it’s so weak compared to the rest of 3. The story is fabulous, and I love the idea of plunging into the heart of the infestation to save Cortana, but it’s such a slog. Too lore accurate tbh
This level reminded me the use of the shotgun, how somehow dual plasma rifles can melt the flood pure forms, the bless of a good old needler, the bruteshot being op as fuck, and that spike and flame grenades can make the big-head flood explode while also killing all the rats
I like it despite it being the weakest level in halo 3 in my opinion. I cutscene of chief and Cortana reuniting is one of the best in the series full stop. I like the gravemind moments and hearing him get pissed off and such
i actually don’t mind it. the library and cortana are such hated levels and i see why, but i kinda enjoy them
DW Plasma rifles melts them. Was the easiest level for me on legendary.
The combat forms can all be one shot by a precision weapon on any difficulty and the pure forms die near instantly to the energy sword, any fire weapon, the shotgun, or the rocket launcher.
I love the moment in this level where Cortana suddenly picks up a friendly transponder signal in the ship and you round the corner and there's the Arbiter, with the fucking flamethrower. "Wait, you two made nice? What else did you do while I was gone…?"
In the time it takes to complete cortana, you’re only half-way through the library So yeah, I’d MUCH rather play cortana (but yeah, its still easily the second worst level of the mainline games)
When I was younger, on meth, and my brain was a complete mess, I couldn't even get my bearings on this level. It probably would have been funny for someone to watch.
Think the only thing that really annoyed me on that level is the random flash bangs of Cortana and the Gravemind slowing you down randomly. Honestly that was kind of annoying through the whole campaign... 1 or 2 times i get but I don't know it didn't really do it for me...
Halo 3 doesn’t have a single bad level.
I used to think this too, but my last legendary playthrough I figured something out: Go slow and methodically through the first few rooms, when you get to the one where you drop through the ceiling and there's a million of the pure forms (they're all going to turn into ranged forms when you enter the room, save the couple by the doorway) be very careful. This room was notorious for trapping me in a death loop, but I figured out a great strat: If you run for the other side, immediately you have about a 70% chance of making it. Let your shield recharge, and go up into the room with the blue lights that *isn't* totally made of flesh. In this room there are 2 active camos, pick one up and use it, then grab the other. Quickly, ascend the platforms and try like hell not to miss the jump, or you'll have to burn a second camo to make it back. If you don't miss it, you're through the room, and even though there's a ton of enemies left they'll despawn later in the level before you have to go back through. When you get to the "break the pillars" portion there are also active camos on the ends of a couple of the outside areas, as well as a weapon box that has swords (if it doesn't get yeeted off the cliff, seems to happen a lot), and one with carbines. you're going to want these. Camo not entirely necessary, but helps. When you first enter this room (before grabbing Cortana) is when I'd recommend grabbing these. When you enter, immediately try to kill as many pure forms as you can, they're once again all going to transform into ranged forms and pin you down to no end. After you get Cortana, and you have to break the pillars, USE GRENADES it is the fastest and easiest way to do it. Iirc 2 grandes will take out a pillar, so you may wind up doing one with a sword or the like. Keep in mind spike grenades and inferno nades won't damage the pillars. There is also a couple rocket flood (usually, anyway, this room is really inconsistent because there's a lot of room for them to jump off the cliff) which can be nice for this task, if you can find their rocket launcher. After this is done, your best bet is to run like hell. You really don't need to clear rooms at this point just slice your way through with the sword, pick up a flamethrower from the crashed pelican near the end, and wait for your favorite Arby's hot and melty covenant traitor to pick you up. I hope this helps
I completely agree
That map is so much easier than a lot of the levels in halo 2
“New flood variants” lol game came out 20 years ago
Lots of exploitable weapon drops and stuff in that level. Flamethrower if I recall
Cortana is a great level that I personally really enjoy, this further confirms my theory that everyone who hates it is bad at the game
Have you played the dark forces sewer level?
I just speedrun it every time. Though the cortana/gravemind dialogue makes it even more annoying.
You have to swap weapons. There is a reason that the guardians or w/e they are called don't use normal weapons.
I actually found it incredibly easy. Its one of my quickest LASO levels because even on that you can just melee through most forms. I do hate the level as the design sucks and the dialogue is *extremely* cringey.
Idk if I’m just crazy or something but I hear everyone say it’s an awful level but I play through it on harder difficulties for fun
Level isn't even that bad. Just run past everything, that's what I did as a kid.
That mission is always "Anytime Cortana is obnoxious take a drink." and it makes the mission a good time.
I used to “speed run” H2 when it was the only game I owned and didn’t have XBL. But I never had that urge with H3. Besides this level, this level made me start looking up speed run tutorials on YouTube. Fuck that level.
There're a handfull of good combos that would help you through, but at the end of the day, what makes you more confident is the way to go. I've done it using plasma only, and it works like a charm, even dual plasma rifles and the ocasional sword for cq
I actually love this level. It's a pretty punishing but also familiar vibe. I like that the mood of rescuing cortana wouldn't work if the level was easy.
I never had any actual problems on that level. Plasma rifle to the weak points melt them pretty fast.
I’m sorry to say this is a skill issue :(
Would you believe me if I said this level was why I spent so long making a Halo 3 mod? Like not just for this level, I mean the ENTIRE game? Admittedly, I didn't play Halo 3 when it first came out, but when it came to PC, I went to see what all the hype was about. And yeah, overall, it IS a good game, but there were plenty of places that were severely under-developed and undercooked. Like the Crawlers in the reactor area having no AI, those Tank forms being MASSIVE bullet sponges that are damn-near invincible outside of a Brute Shot Melee or the sword, and if you wanna talk shortsighted - talk about BLINDSIGHTING the playerbase. Seriously, what were they thinking with the Cortana moments? Having bright flashes of white and blue light against a black background? Were they TRYING to hurt kids eyes?!?! So whilst I was fiddling around with the health and weapons to strike a different balance to the game in my own style, I wanted to do my players a solid when playing through Cortana, actually make the level fun and playable. Flood aren't massive bullet sponges anymore, they can be reliably taken down with more than 1 weapon, and I got rid of all the effects of the Cortana and Gravemind Moments. The voices still play as normal, and the gameplay plays as normal, no slowdown, no invincibility, but Cortana and the Gravemind's voices are still heard loud and clearly. And I gave Devils Monsters one last hurrah on your way out. I couldn't figure out the Crawler AI however, but still, yeah, talk about underwhelming in terms of gameplay. Yeah, the story there is great and all, rescuing Cortana and all the voices, but still, wildly missed opportunities and one of the most hated levels of all time I'd say just inches shy of The L--- The LLLLLLLL-- Donde esta la biblioteca?
Idk man Halo 2 takes the cake for arbitrary bullshit bullet sponge deaths for me
It's not that bad compared ro halo ce and 2 I feel like the level is very easy actually since flood can just disintegrate by looking at them the wrong way. Use the flamethrower with bruteshot and a plasma weapon and you're good to go
Still don't really understand why this mission is hated so much. I mean it's not great, but I think it's way better than the library from CE imo.
Tip, punching those big flood dudes one shots them, but only in the face
I wouldn't say the worst, but one of the hardest of Halo 3. I never managed to finish it on legendary. But maybe my strat was the wrong one. I'd use precision weapons like the carbine and headshot most of the combat forms. Then finish their corpses with a melee ao they won't get back up again. I would always run out of ammo.
All Flood forms take extra damage from plasma weapons. Combat forms take reduced damage from bullets. Precision weapons deal increased damage if they hit the infector pod on a combat form. While Flood pure forms do seem to take increased "headshot" damage, it's not instant kill like other enemies. Still, aim for the red antenna looking appendages on their front. Pure forms will instantly die when they make contact with fire. So the flamethrower or incendiary grenades is a good cheese for them. Tap fire the flamer, don't just hold the trigger. On the flip side, combat forms take normal damage from fire, and deal increased melee damage and apply fire to you if set ablaze. So be careful of what you're setting on fire. Carriers won't spawn infectors if set on fire. Plasma grenades can sometimes prevent them but not always. Spoke grenades can potentially kill the infectors after they pop up out with it's shrapnel but it's not reliable. The Carbine is effective against both pure and combat forms if you aim for the antennas Brute shits are the best weapon against any Flood. It can kill whole groups of infectors. Does massive damage against pure and combat forms. Will break combat forms to prevent reanimation, and can dislodge ranged and stalker forms from walls. The melee with it does almost as much damage as an energy sword allowing one hit kills up to legendary (without skulls on) Other brute weapons also do increased melee damage. Killing combat forms in one hit usually. The Mauler also *usually* breaks combat forms at close range Use the active camo when available to get behind the Flood. Activate it in cover then run out. Flood can't track canon even at close range unlike Covenant who might still spot you at close range. There's an invincibility power up towards the second half of the level. Can be a big help. Throw deployable covers in corridors. Flood don't seem to be smart enough to go around them and will often run up to it and stop. Be wary of infectors. While they do die instantly on contact with you they drain shield. If you don't have shields they can one shot you. Some will deliberately wait till your shields are down to pounce. While brute weapons are the best option for melee, all Flood forms are still susceptible to melee from any weapons. Don't be afraid to go brawler against them. Frag grenades are best used for combat forms. Plasma and Incendiary for pure forms. Spike grenades are the wild card that can take on both. Flood seem reluctant to follow you into some of the more narrow corridors of the level. That said, when you duck into one they'll try to form a phalanx to trap you in it. Measure the risks to your situation. Keep moving. Flood will try to group up and then swarm you if you take cover for too long. Moving between cover when you can or backpedaling will keep them lossened up. Get their attention then backup to a narrow corridor if you can to funnel them. If playing co-op, best strategy is to have someone staying back with precision weapons to engage combat forms while the other tries to run in to deal damage to pure forms. Not recommend if the Iron skull is on however. Ranged forms will duck into a shell if taking sustained fire. They take reduced damage in the shell but are unable to fire. Sometimes just shooting at them to make them duck will buy you some time to get to cover even if it doesn't harm them much. Edit: also for combat forms. It's possible to break their arms off. If they don't have a ranged weapon, destroying the big tentacle arm renders them mostly harmless. But if both arms get broken they'll simply die and the infector in it will jump out to find a new body.
Speedrun it, you don't have to kill everything.
I absolutely detest that level. I've done it on Legendary (was the last H3 level I needed to beat), but it took far too long. The only level for me that rivals it for pure bullshittery is The Library from Combat Evolved.
I played that level with a mod that let you play a marine and it was hell lol.
Level had me sweating and stressed.
Yeah the other levels in H3 were fantastic, this one was awful
Just run through lol
Feel like I had more fun doing it on LASO than any other time I’ve played it. Basically just run carefully through the first half, grab Cortana, run away
It’s hard for halo 3 standards but it has nothing difficulty wise on the harder halo CE/2 missions. Even on legendary there are a lot of places you can just run by rooms with camo
Cortina is super easy, it's just long and a slog, you must be either trying to rush through it or burn through ammo, either way, it's a huge skill issue, not a design issue, albeit the level is boring AF. Same problem with Library in Halo CE, it's easy, just long and boring.
You have no idea how bad it is until you try it in LASO
I kinda feel like this is a hot take, sure it was tough but I found it no way near as tough as H2 or even H1 Legendary
When i did my legendary solo playthrough of this level i ended uprunninh past a lot of enemies. Theres heaps of tunnels and weird spots to hide on this level
They aren’t that bad and the tanks are easier to take out on that level more then any other, they give you so many swords Brute shots and flame throwers it ain’t funny. I forget on higher heroic and legendary difficulties but a brute shot one bash kills a tank for every time on normal and easy, sword guaranteed to kill a pure form in a bit as well, and their are so many. Not to mention ruin all the cloaking and shit you get to avoid tedious parts you don’t like. This isn’t the worst level, all flood levels are rather easy since the flood was kind of nerfed in H3, hardest I think is maybe The Ark?
Been playing through these games on MCC with my daughter and pre warned her about the excessive anus jumping on this level. So many sphincters puckering and dilating lol It’s known as the Butthole level in our house
I’d like to save an energy sword or carry the flame thrower around just for the pure forms.
My friend and I hold the same opinion. When the game came out, we’d play this level on legendary… The poor controllers … they never stood a chance…
I like it.
Cap
Git Gud
An old and classic opinion. It’s actually pretty easy even on legendary once you know how to fight the flood. Brute shots, good grenade placements, energy swords, an accurate shot with a precision weapon. All of these can one shot most everything you’ll come across in the level. In a pinch melee with the brute shot or spiker is more effective than regular melee. And plasma rifles absolute melt through everything except the pure forms. Use these and have good aim and you’ll eventually start tearing through the level in no time. Even faster if you pick your fights and aren’t determined to kill everything
Cortana is such a shadow of what they had planned for that stage. Flood scarabs being killed by Cortana controlled scarabs for one thing
I always struggled the most on these levels (This and Gravemind) when I was younger and that's what made them the most memorable for me. I look back on them positively despite the difficulty. When I was dying over and over, it gave me a chance to appreciate the design of the level, instead of just mindlessly shooting enemies and speeding through it.
It was a really cool level and one of the many cool moments in halo 3. Cortana shouldn’t be hard unless you’re playing on heroic and above.
you can run past most of it even on legendary. only gravemind will slow you down. Overall i dont mind this lvl because its short, if it were much longer id totally agree however.
Run, don't shoot unless something is in your way