Tayari Plaza (level)/Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for the Halo 3: ODST level Tayari Plaza. This is the third level of Halo 3: ODST. For this mission you play as Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck. Your mission is to reach Captain Dare's pod. While your initial loadout for this mission are the Assault Rifle and Pistol, there are plenty of other weapons on the map, so you can test out what works best for you. This mission is also a very good practice mission. It will give you a chance to practice skills that you haven't yet had a chance to work with in Mombasa Streets. It is important to note that as this walkthrough is at the Legendary difficulty, all strengths of enemies reflected are at the Legendary level, but contains notes for lower difficulties. Good Skulls here are Catch, Grunt Birthday Party, Iron and Cowbell.

I Don't Think My Insurance Covers Slipspace Crashes...
When you get out you're going to see 12-15 Grunts and 2 Brute Minors. Equip your pistol, and put a round in each of the Grunts' heads. This is good practice and you can reset over and over again to work on your aim if you need to. With your pistol you can kill grunts all the way out even without the reticule turning red if your aim is steady. Once you've killed all the Grunts hop down and bring up your MA5C and get close, strafing the Brutes. You should be able to draw one of them towards you and stick it with a grenade, so you only have to deal with one at a time. Once you've killed these two, swap out your MA5C for a Needler, there should be plenty laying about, and move forward. You'll run into two Marines, who will direct you to use the building interiors for cover. Take the advice these Jarheads don't use. Following them blindly into the fight in the open street is quick death.

I was really looking for something with more space, and fewer bodies
Go into the building on the left and go upstairs. The balconies provide you with cover and ammo. Start taking out the Brutes in the square with supercombines from the Needler, then use the Spiker on the ground if you run out. Grenades are also good here, but beware of Brutes coming up the stairs behind you. Once the area is clear of Brutes, head in on the other side from where you came up and go up another level. There's a health pack here and a really good angle to look down the road. Once again pull out your pistol and kill the Grunts before heading back down. If you're playing on Legendary, you'll come across a Brute Captain with a Carbine and on on lower difficulties you'll get either a Plasma Rifle or Spiker. Either way you want to swap your Needler for whatever he's carrying. Take out the Grunt at the Plasma Cannon and take it. It's not very accurate but sometimes you just need firepower. Stay to the right and move as quickly as possible to the far staircase. Beware, there's a Sniper Jackal in the Deployable Lookout Tower with a Beam rifle and your head in his sights (on lower difficulties he has a Carbine). Kill the Shield Jackals on the left with the turret and then drop it for now. Stay behind the stairs and you should have complete defilade from the sniper and a good shot at his head, kill him with your pistol, then start clearing the area. There are plenty of Shield Jackals and Grunts and a couple more Sniper Jackals with Carbines. Take out everything you can see, then pick up your turret to mop up. Once you've cleared the area swap your Carbine for the Beam rifle, don't worry if your pistol's running low, there's an ammo pickup in the next area, and the pistol is more useful than the carbine. Drop the turret, it doesn't matter if there's ammo left in the turret, you need to be light and speedy for the next area.

Nag, Nag, Nag..... (Or Why I Refuse to Rush)
Enter the big intersection and you can see a few Marines being pinned down by Covenant from all sides. Don't rush in to help them, on Legendary this is a fatal mistake. They are all scripted to die anyway and you can't save them. For the next part remain in your "box", with defined borders of the building immediately to your right, the one to your left, the blast door behind you and the short overpass directly in front of you, nothing will come into your area and you have a clear vantage point on most of your enemies. On the left building, staying along the wall you will find a Carbine, pistol ammo, MA5Cs, grenades and a Shotgun. Stay to the right of the "box" and while crouching, zoom in with the beam rifle and take out the five sniper jackals to the left side (three on the catwalk, one on a balcony behind the catwalk and one on an upper balcony behind and left of the catwalk). Once you've cleared them, don't move into the lower plaza area as you'll be surrounded on three sides and you're in range of the plasma turret. Take your time moving from your position on the right across the overpass at the front of your "box" and aiming at the left side, to the left and aiming right, taking out the Brutes, Shield Jackals and Grunts (in that order is best for your survival). Use your Beam Rifle, to kill the Brutes efficiently. When you're done killing all Covenant in the plaza you need two quick shots so if you have it in your beam rifle use that, if not switch to your pistol. Go inside the left hand building and creep out the first door on the right. Look above the turret and find the last Sniper Jackal and kill him then kill the grunt at the turret.

Excuse Me, I have another Appointment
Now you shouldn't have gotten the checkpoint yet, unless you've moved forward, so don't. Go back to the mini ammo dump and swap in the Shotgun for the beam rifle and make sure you're loaded up on grenades. Run forward towards the door and stay to the left side near the turret. You'll get your checkpoint and the doors will open to reveal a pair of Hunters that are really eager to kill you. Jump onto the garbage bin, then crouch jump onto the platform where the turret is. From here you have two choices:
 * 1) Run, run, run. Once you're through the doors, they'll close and the Hunters can't follow. He who fights and runs away, lives.
 * 2) Using grenades and the Shotgun kill the Hunters. Tempting though it is, stay away from the turret. It slows you down and you can't dodge nearly fast enough. On Legendary two grenade sticks and a couple blasts from the Shotgun in the back each will kill the Hunters. The key is to not stop moving, and stay away from anything big enough to kill you (i.e. cars, buses, Hunters). There are plenty of Plasma and Spike grenades around (if you have Catch on) so use them to your advantage.

Once you've dealt with your Hunter problem, open the large door and move into the next area. You will see a large sunken plaza. Move all the way down to the bottom, killing the three odd Grunts around, open Dare's pod and.......

Notes for Legendary Play

 * On Legendary, the turrets are really ineffective and they slow you down considerably, and the muzzle climb on automatic fire is annoying, so only use them to supplement and clear out the remainders after you've killed most of the enemies. On lower difficulties, they're an invaluable asset to quickly clear areas with quick controlled bursts.
 * Use your pistol effectively. Don't waste shots on Brutes. There are plenty of good weapons for killing the Brutes out there, but your pistol is the best weapon for clearing Grunts (headshot) and Shield Jackals (shoot the weapon groove then target its head) so don't waste it.
 * Your MA5C is a good all-rounder, but limited at range. Low ammo and the fact that range is real handy here limit it's usefulness unless you're a real artist with it, stick to ranged weapons on Legendary. On lower levels it's an effective killing tool that gets the job done quickly when you're in close (almost better than the Shotgun).
 * Use your cover effectively; natural defilades are present so use them to your advantage and try to use cover that can't be moved, like buildings, and when facing Brute Shots and the Hunters, stay clear of vehicles and objects that can be shoved or blasted into you.
 * Plasma grenades and Spike Grenadess are plentiful even without Catch on so grenade tagging is a good tactic to take out Brutes. Just watch out for them sticking you back.

Notes for Lower Difficulties

 * On Lower difficulties, there are fewer Jackals and no Beam rifles so you can close in, and use the carbine effectively. However, there is a beam rifle next to a dead Sniper Jackal where Buck mentions the dead Elites.
 * If you're fast and accurate, the first Marines you encounter will provide you with assistance all the way to the big plaza.
 * Practice aiming with your pistol in the beginning. On Legendary, headshots are the same so, practice your distance shooting with the pistol. The pistol is accurate at great distances if you are sharp enough, so practice.