NationStates Jolt Archive

I have beaten every single level in Halo on every single difficulty, know dozens of the secrets in the game, have perfected a method reloading without losing ammo (Gotta love the minor glitches), and am just damn good at the game. But Elites on Legendary are just ridiculous.

The Rocket Launcher, a personal favorite do to the big 'boom' that it makes, is an exquisite weapon. In multiplayer it almost guarantees you a kill, in single player it allows you to clear out masses of enemies with a single shot, and I've even figured a way to use to it jump very far without dying. It is the most powerful infantry weapon in the game, second only to the Cannon on the M808V Scorpion Main Battle Tank if you throw vehicles into the mix. On Legendary, an Elite can take a direct hit to the head with a Rocket and not die. A minimum of two Rockets is required to kill an Elite, and that is only if you manage to hit it twice very quickly. If you give it time its shields will recharge and that second rocket just wont do it, and if you just managed to explode a rocket near the Elite instead of hitting it head on you will need three, maybe even four rockets.

Now, merely the ability to take a Rocket and not die is not what makes them amazing. Even on Easy the Hunters can take a Rocket and be fine (it actually depends on where you hit them, but I trust that you get my point). But that's not where the shockness ends. On Legendary, the strength of the enemy weapons is greatly increased. Actually, it could just be that your own defences are decreased, I'm not really sure. But that isn't really important. What is important is that the Plasma Rifle, standard weapon of the Elites, is an exquisite weapon against shielded targets (Which you are). It takes three shots (if perfectly aimed) to completely eliminate your shields (provided an over shield isn't in effect). But people point to the Hunters Fuel Rod Cannon, almost equal to the Rocket launcher in power and capable of penetrating your shields and even inflicting damage to the body with a single shot, and point out how it is obviously superior to the Plasm Rifle. Unfortunately for the Hunters, the Fuel Rod Cannon shots move even slower than the Rockets, are easily dodged even by the human Marines, and have an extremely low rate of fire (In fact, Hunters usually only get two shots off before the enemy has already closed to Melee Combat range). The Plasma Rifle is rapid fire, three shots can be fired in less than one second. So, not only can their weapons effortlessly defeat your defences, it can be done so fast you don't even have time to react and return fire.

So, they can take insane amounts of damage and can kill you easily. Big deal you say, the Hunters have that even on Easy. But we're not done yet.The Hunters, though actually capable of great speeds in short bursts, are horrible starters, stoppers, and turners. It is quite easy to, literally, run circles around them. In fact, I often take pleasure in killing Hunters simply by hitting them over and over again. It takes a really long time on Legendary but as long as nobody else is there you have that time, since it you can just side-step their attacks and toy with them for hours on end. The Elites, however, seem built like Cheetahs, bursting into motion at an instant and easily twisting, dodging, and even jumping out of the way. I have seen Elites move fast enough that two Rockets launched at the same time (Co-op with both players having Rocket Luanchers), launched at very close range where even their slow velocity and obvious visibility are negated, are both dodged.

Let's recap. They can take insane amounts of damage, where even the weapon described as being cheap and godmoddy can't kill them easily. They can dish out intense damage rapidly so that your shield is gone within two seconds. They are startlingly fast, able to dodge shots and easily maneuver out of the way of your physical blows and even moving vehicles. I, personally, would rather face two Hunters (they always come in pairs) than even a single Elite. Like I said at the very beginning, the Elites on Legendary are just ridiculous.

noob. The only difficult opponent in the entire game is another human. You need to learn how to use grenades effectively.

Did you just call me a n00b at Halo? Tell me, how many Halo tournaments have you won? How much cash have you won? How many times have you played the entire game on Legendary without dying once? Talk to me when you grow up.

Yeah, those Elites are godmoders!

Also Gymoor human opponents are typically stupid and have poor aim, the only point of multiplayer is to alleviate the boredom of jumping the warthogs off the indoor pit of Silent Cartographer, or going off in flights of fancy imagining the flood to be cleaning droids that just happen to deplete shields.

Alrighty, I AM a noob at Halo, I've played Multiplayer probably a few dozen times with just a few groups of people, and I've played campaign once...on heroic, with a experienced partner. (I don't own the game)

I have found that human opponents are catagorically easier to beat because you can use their playing style against them. Snipers can be tracked down, Infigthers can be lured out, Mid-rangers can be sniped or cornered into infighting. Very few people are universally excellent players, this goes for all games, Halo is no exception. The most dangerous thing about human players is "cheap" tactics such as base-sniping, camping, etc.

Defeating enemy AI in Legendary is (as the original poster so exhaustively explained) difficult because Elites in Legendary have far too many strengths to be balanced out, considering their few weaknesses. Yes, you can bombard them with a few Grenades, but you can't always pitch several grenades, since there are MANY elites and only 8 grenades can be carried at a time. You might be able to snipe them, but sometimes Elites can survive head shots on Normal, let alone Heroic or Legendary. Many times you simply have to out-fight them, and the odds are severely stacked against you.

I'm curious about the reload-without ammo loss trick. The only good one I've heard of is the "double melee" trick, whereby you attack/hit the grenade button/attack in rapid succession. If you do it right you don't drop the grenade, but rather melee twice in a row with almost no wait time.

The other tricks I've seen are a little too cheap for my tastes, I mentioned base sniping (Blood glutch), but parking a Jeep near the Overshield/Optic Camo in Sidewinder allows for a quick-access point between bases if you park it just along the bars.

Another "trick" is to name yourself " " (nothing) so that snipers can't pick up on your when searching for you far afield. I played a pair of people using that trick and it was @($@$%! irratating because they refused to play with radar on...I usually found them by being shot.

In the useless but fun catagory I've got a friend who can park Jeeps ANYWHERE on multiplay maps. He can park Jeeps, tanks, you name it on top of buildings, cliffs, in caves, anything. Totally useless but fun to watch a Warthog fly up over your head and ontop of the blood gultch base.

I've always found that an effective strategy for dealing with Elites is to tag them with a plasma grenade and then go to town on them. They freak out when you tag them for a few seconds that gives you enough of a head start to take them down without getting hurt yourself.

Now, those invisible Elites with the one-hit-kill swords? Those guys are bastards.

I know this is somewhat off topic, but in response to the parking jeeps everywhere, that's just fun :P

I once parked every vehicle except for one tank, that is - 1 tank, 2 warthogs and 2 ghosts, in the one base. I had the ghosts in the middle - they were easy, the warthogs in from the top, and the tank wedged in the top too :P that was fun. But i don't actually own the game, so i've never played it on legendary enough (at all :P) to get up to elites.

I know this is somewhat off topic, but in response to the parking jeeps everywhere, that's just fun :P

I once parked every vehicle except for one tank, that is - 1 tank, 2 warthogs and 2 ghosts, in the one base. I had the ghosts in the middle - they were easy, the warthogs in from the top, and the tank wedged in the top too :P that was fun. But i don't actually own the game, so i've never played it on legendary enough (at all :P) to get up to elites.

Have you ever gotten the trucks into the top part of the bases in Sidewinder?

Hey Niccolo,long time no see.How is life?

anyway,regarding Halo:CE,I have played the PC and XBox versions and I can say that playing multiplayer over the Net against human players is in fact more challenging,as you not only need to cooperate with your team but you need to be alert to the predictable unpredictability of human players.

While computer AI you eventually get a hang of,humans are more adaptable and unpredictable and can change their styles.I haven't played Halo in a long time though so I can't remember the map names.

For example,in that map which is an island based off the Silent Cartographer,imagine someone parking a Scorpion above and below both access points to your base,or being ambushed by 3 Scorpions while driving a Warthog(and surviving,barely).It is playing on the Internet against unpredicatable human players that makes it challenging.

With AIs,you can eventually think ahead of them and trick them,while it is harder to trick humans.AIs have a higher tendency of falling into patterns and becoming predictable while human players essentially adapt,innovate and imitate you.

In the useless but fun catagory I've got a friend who can park Jeeps ANYWHERE on multiplay maps. He can park Jeeps, tanks, you name it on top of buildings, cliffs, in caves, anything. Totally useless but fun to watch a Warthog fly up over your head and ontop of the blood gultch base.

Even funner...Park a warthog inside the blood gulch base with the gun pointed at the entrance. It is really funny to see someones reaction when they flip around a corner, in a narrow hallway and see a large vehicle. Even funner when you're at the gun. Really hard to get out of the base though.

Hey Niccolo,long time no see.How is life?

anyway,regarding Halo:CE,I have played the PC and XBox versions and I can say that playing multiplayer over the Net against human players is in fact more challenging,as you not only need to cooperate with your team but you need to be alert to the predictable unpredictability of human players.

While computer AI you eventually get a hang of,humans are more adaptable and unpredictable and can change their styles.I haven't played Halo in a long time though so I can't remember the map names.

For example,in that map which is an island based off the Silent Cartographer,imagine someone parking a Scorpion above and below both access points to your base,or being ambushed by 3 Scorpions while driving a Warthog(and surviving,barely).It is playing on the Internet against unpredicatable human players that makes it challenging.

With AIs,you can eventually think ahead of them and trick them,while it is harder to trick humans.AIs have a higher tendency of falling into patterns and becoming predictable while human players essentially adapt,innovate and imitate you.


Not bad, my car is acting up, so I'm kinda stranded from any social activities. Thus the nationstates binge. How are things for you?

I agree that human, er...I...is better than computer AI in theory, but people fall into patterns too, and beyond the initial game or two (my friends usually play in parties, binge gaming and all that), the surprise dies off for me.

Perhaps its the people I play with, but I've found that exploitable patterns exist within everyone I've played thus far. After one or two games the fighting styles and such become increasingly transparent.

This is not to suggest that I don't enjoy myself or that I'm never caught off gaurd, but just that Legendary AI enjoys being godlike at all times, wereas humans have flashes of brilliance and spurts of energy.

They're agents from the Matrix in disguise. :)

agents in disguise damn right i keep finding elites dodging bulets before i pull the trigger regardless of if they actiualy know i am there (no this is not a noob excuse seriously try it out on truth and reconciliation they just start doing theyr battle dodge when you are ment to be sniping the gun turrets)

I don't understand the cult of this game. I don't find it anything special and at times it can be downright boring. And yes, I did play it on legendary. It only heightened the boredom, because i would have to repeat every scene ad nauseam. So I got about halfway on heroic before giving up and deciding I didn't like it. And worst of all, theres no suspense in it whatsoever. Maybe that was just the result of playing it on console, but I don't think so.

Personally, I find the way to tell a crap FPS game is to see how long it takes for you to start shooting your teammates. I resorted to it on the first level.

Frankly, there are many better FPS games out there, at least for the PC, and many of these were released several years before Halo...Half-Life, System Shock 2, Aliens Vs Predator and Rainbow 6 spring to mind. These games inticed me a lot more and I can load one of them up and still have more fun than I would with Halo.

Multiplayer Halo is slightly better, but only because you can use vehicles. Eventually the novelty on that wears off, though.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Kamabia......wow. I've seen people who don't like Halo, but that's usually because they've never played it or when they have played it they are the ones killed by their teammates. A person who actually played it and doesn't like it........wow.

Regarding the question about not losing ammo, here's what you have to do.

Stand on top of another weapon, where it says "Hold X to switch for (here it has the picture)"

Press the reload button

When your character is in the process of reloading hold down X to pick up the weapon you were standing over. This has to be done before you finish reloading.

Wait a few seconds, you'll notice that the reloading sounds are still there and you can here the clicking and such.

Once the reloading sounds stop go forward and pick up that weapon again. You will have reloaded without using any of the ammo in reserve.

Essentially, it gives you unlimited ammo because, as long as there is another weapon on the ground, you can just keep reloading.

Oh, I forgot, I can't get it to work with the Shotgun since that loads each shell individually and there isn't enough time to pick up the new weapon after you start reloading.

neat trick...
Elites are extremely difficult if you aren't careful with them...they are the first covenant i go after in a firefight. After you get the hang of fighting them, it becomes somewhat easier...but those black special ops elites are the worst...taking on more than one is usually suicide. The rocket laucher can usually kill a blue elite in one shot...if you manage to hit a red elite with a direct hit, than pull out your other weapon to finish him off. The problem is usually you can't take on more than one elite before you have to find a place to recharge. Plasma grenade are a must against a group of them.
Elites in legendary have an extremely fast rate of fire, highly agile, and are speedy

Klonor - I guess its because i've been there, done that...I started with Wolfenstein 3D back in the day. LOL. But really, the game isn't anything special.

Anyhow, the most fun I ever had in Halo was playing Co-op on one level where there are those alien fighter plane things that you can jump into and fly around...we got into one each, and flew around trying to shoot eachother down.

You are so right.

It's really hard to kill something that is 3l33t!

Yes, Elites are definitely much harder than Human players.

For one, as you said Klonor, they seem to be given an advantage of some sorts.

Either it's increased defenses or increased weapon power for the enemy or decreased defenses or decreased weapon power for the MC.

Incredibly hard to kill those buggers. They easily dodge vehicles, grenades pose no threat to them, the Pistol (the ultimate weapon against other Human players) is no use against them, the Shotgun is only effective at short range and by the time you close in you're nearly dead, and as you said, the Rocket Launcher is more of a slingshot against them.

But in the end, I can't wait for Halo 2. :)

I think that it humans could be more difficult depending on who you're playing against. I'm able to beat Halo pretty well, and my brother can beat legendary no problem, but when we go up against my cousin, who beat the game only once on normal and had an extremely hard time on the Library (first level witht the flood), he completely owns us. It doesn't matter how many people are playing, he always seems to be able to come out of games way ahead of everyone else because he doesn't rely on quite as many patterns to kill people and AIs.

By the way, who else has seen the special scene during the ending when you beat legendary? I won't ruin it for those who haven't, but I thought it was hilarious.

Klonor - I guess its because i've been there, done that...I started with Wolfenstein 3D back in the day. LOL. But really, the game isn't anything special.

Anyhow, the most fun I ever had in Halo was playing Co-op on one level where there are those alien fighter plane things that you can jump into and fly around...we got into one each, and flew around trying to shoot eachother down.

That would be either Assault on the Control Room (Where technically you're not supposed to get the Banshee but I do it anywa) or Two Betrayals (Which is just working backwards on that same level). God, I love those two levels.

EDIT: And I've seen the legendary ending. I have it on my computer, in fact. Quite amusing.

Have you ever gotten the trucks into the top part of the bases in Sidewinder?

have you ever gotten a tank _on top_ of the sidewinder level?

Did you just call me a n00b at Halo? Tell me, how many Halo tournaments have you won? How much cash have you won? How many times have you played the entire game on Legendary without dying once? Talk to me when you grow up.

Relax, I was just giving you a hard time. I usually play with a group of pretty darned good players, and they're all more difficult to beat than any halo creature. My buddy has two projection screens and we usually play 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 system link.

I don't quite know what's worse...

1) The fact that you spent that much time play such a shitty remake of a 1996 games (Tribes). The interesting thing is that some idiot told me that Halo was 100% completed before the original Tribes was released...uhu...fucker needs to go beat off on his Halo manual again...

2) The fact that you spent the time to tell us how good you are at such a shitty game...

or

3) The fact that you argued with people about whether or not you're a noob. That's the dumbest thing. If you're not a noob, you say "Here's my IP. I'm starting up a server now." You don't talk about how good you supposedly are. I used to play Ghost Recon in a clan and we got called noobs all the time because we were a newer clan (which was originally a branch of a different, larger clan that mostly played Counter Strike), and we didn't have many members. No one in our clan ever talked about how good our clan was. We put in about 6 hours a week in practice and played about 3 matches a week. If someone called us a noob, we just gave them our IP and said "Put up or Shut up." We only got challengers about 30% of the time, and whoever lost stop talking trash.

I don't quite know what's worse...

1) The fact that you spent that much time play such a shitty remake of a 1996 games (Tribes). The interesting thing is that some idiot told me that Halo was 100% completed before the original Tribes was released...uhu...fucker needs to go beat off on his Halo manual again...

Tribes was 1998. I have Starsiege (the mech version, which ownz mechwarrior), and Tribes. They were both released at about the same time.

Tribes was 1998. I have Starsiege (the mech version, which ownz mechwarrior), and Tribes. They were both released at about the same time.
Okay, I was off by two years, but what does Starsiege have to do with Halo?

Okay, I was off by two years, but what does Starsiege have to do with Halo?

Meaning that Halo was only predated by 5 years, not 7 :p

I mentioned I had starseige as well as tribes 'cause I bought them in a pack at the same time.

have you ever gotten a tank _on top_ of the sidewinder level?

Yeah, but that's easy.

ah yes ok good.. there's people who havent done that yet. beat halo (the day it came out) on easy first, then legendary (ok actually a nonstop week after it came ou)

1) I've never played Tribes in my entire life or even heard of it until you mentioned it just now. I take your word that it is in any way similar to Halo. Even if Halo is an identical copy then I merely say "Good for Tribes, Halo is still a good game."

2) I have not spent my time telling you how good I am at this game. I spent five sentences telling you how good I am, and that is only in responce to an insult against my gaming skills. You think five sentences, after my several paragraph opening post, is me "Spending my time"?

3) I did not argue with anybody whether or not I am a n00b, a statement is not an argument. An argument would be if we continually went back and forth, not merely each making one post.

4) I think clans are the most ridiculous things to come to on-line FPS, I do not see any point to continuously playing with the same people over and over again. You might change opponents, but I think changing teammates it just as important.

5) The last time I checked, X-Boxes don't have IP addresses