The Package (level)/Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for the Halo: Reach level The Package. It is written for play at the Legendary difficulty, but contains notes for lower difficulties. This is the ninth level of Halo: Reach. For this mission you are joined by Noble Team. Your Mission is destroy Sword Base to keep valuable information out of Covenant Hands. Or is it?. Your initial loadout for this mission is your trusty MA37 Assault Rifle and the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. It is important to note that as this walkthrough at the Legendary difficulty, all strengths of enemies reflected are at the Legendary level.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Before you run forward, grab your DMR and zoom in. Look at your enemies. You have two Shade turrets, two Ghosts (though one may be hidden at first it is there) a sniper in the Deployable lookout tower with a Focus Rifle and a plethora of Grunts with Fuel Rod Guns. Now you can go in and pick off your enemies at your leisure but if you want to make the next section a cake walk you'll have to do this fast, to keep your soldiers alive as long as possible. There is a building directly in front of you and you can enter from the back right side. This will bring you into a room that has decent cover and good vantage points for killing. turn to the right and move until you can see the low ground Shade. You should be able to easily snipe the Grunt in it before anything else starts. Turn left and quickly move to take the sniper in the Tower before he can really start on your troops. The next one is a little harder. The high ground turret is going to focus on you. At this point it is easiest to kill the grunt inside aim a little high of the center line and take out the Grunt with a head shot. You'd think the next move would be the Ghosts, but it's not. Concentrate on killing all the Grunts with Fuel Rod Guns. They'll do the most splash damage and kill your guys faster than the Ghosts. If the opportunity arises quickly headshot the drivers of the Ghosts. Since these Ghosts are driven by Grunts, their methane tanks stick up over the cowling of the Ghost. Hit the methane tank with a few bullets and the Grunt will die. Before you advance have a look around the Tower and in it. You can grab the Focus Rifle for your Assault Rifle. If you have only one soldier left don't do anything with him, but if you have more than one you can give one or more Fuel Rod Guns. Make sure to leave at least one with regular weapons.

My Gun Is Bigger Than Your Gun
You will advance and find a Scorpion Main Battle Tank. The reason you left one of your ODST's without a Fuel Rod Gun was so that he will man the turret, if everyone has a Fuel Rod Gun, they just sit on the treads. While it is advantageous to have many Fuel Rod Guns, should your Scorpion take damage they are the first to die, where if you have someone in the turret they will last much longer and be able to provide constant support. Your Scorpion is like every vehicle, destructible and extra assistance will keep you intact for a greater period of time than on your own. Hop in. Your ODST's will hop on the treads or the machine gun turret. Destroy the tower in front of you, but don't move just yet. Traverse the turret to spot another lookout tower between two rocks. Fire at the tower to destroy it and ease your progress. Start moving down the road. A Shade emplacement is on your right, near where the second lookout tower was. Kill it quick, then proceed. The Scorpion is powerful but it's quite fragile for a tank. Try to avoid taking damage if at all possible. At the far end of the road here is another Shade and various baddies. Destroy the Shade first, then bombard the ground troops at range. Make sure any Elites are dead before proceeding. Although the Scorpion's shells are more accurate than the Wraith, the tank has a large dead zone where the main gun can't target enemies. If any Elites get close, you can easily be hijacked and killed. As you come to the turn you will be faced with several Ghosts, which you should blow into tiny little pieces. Proceed along the road and you will see the first of the AA batteries you need to kill. Stay in the tank, there's no need to go inside the AA guns this time. Pound both into oblivion with the Scorpion's main gun. Once one of the AA batteries is dead you will be attacked by Banshees. Line up with the turret and let fly, one hit will take out a Banshee. You will need to lead your shots slightly at long range, the Scorpion's cannon does not fire hit-scan projectiles. The few ground enemies here will be slaughtered by friendly Falcons once the AA turrets are down. Proceed along the road. Another deployable lookout tower will be in your way, destroy it and advance. The Grunts on this tower are equipped with Fuel Rod Guns and can survive the destruction of the tower so be careful. There will be an outcropping of rocks here with more Ghosts for you to send flipping into the air. The terrain makes targeting them a bit irritating. Hang back until they expose themselves, then snipe them with the main gun. Now before you advance, it is important to note how to do it. One way will almost certainly render you without ground transport and with a high probability of being dead, the other should provide you with just enough of an advance that you can engage without getting slaughtered. Go around the rocks clockwise, do NOT go through them. This will leave you enough declination for your cannon to engage the Revenant in front of you. There is a Fuel Rod Shade on an outcrop directly behind the Revenant at your 12 o'clock, destroy it quickly before it notices you. The Shades in this section (there are four) are hard to spot if they aren't firing. Look for the muzzle flashes and follow the projectiles to discover their locations. At your 2 o'clock is a standard Shade that is probably firing at the Falcons helping you out; destroy it as well. To the left of this Shade, at approximately 1 o'clock, is a second standard Shade. It's much farther away, so give it a few rounds to ensure its destruction. DO NOT move past the wall on your left yet. Once you've dealt with the Revenant and the first three Shades, turn your turret to the 10 o'clock high position and slowly advance. There is another Fuel Rod Shade up on the ridge across from you. It's hard to notice until it starts shooting at you, because it's so far away and blends well with the landscape, but it is directly to the right of some maroon containers. If you're lucky, it will be shooting at your Falcons and you can kill it easily before it fires at you. Line up your shot and plaster the area with shells. If you see green, retreat! The Fuel Rod Shade will destroy the Scorpion very quickly if it hits you. Rinse and repeat, eventually you'll kill it. then pull out and turn left. There will be a Revenant hovering near the door of the base, destroy it. Hop out of your Scorpion and go under the wall into the base.

This Used To Be Such A Nice Neighborhood
Bring out your DMR. Rejoin your team and help clear the exterior. It may be tempting to assassinate the two Elites in front of you while they are distracted by your squad members, but this is dangerous at best even on Heroic. If you assassinate one, the other is almost guaranteed to berserk charge you, and you'll be hard-pressed to kill him before he smashes your head in. If you do try, assassinate the Elite that's higher rank to give you a better chance. Mop up the rest of the enemies, consisting of a third Elite, a few Grunts and some Jackals who will be preoccupied with your squad. Head into the garage. There are two Plasma Turrets here, manned by Grunts. Your squadmates will probably kill one of them. Either way, once they're dead, head to the right between the trucks and you'll find some ammo for your DMR. Head forward and you'll come to a small room with some Armor Locks and a Shotgun lying on the ground. Swap your sprint if you want. The next room has multiple levels. On the ground floor, there is a fully-charged Energy Sword lying under the ramp on the right. The Sword isn't incredibly helpful here, but if you prefer it to the Shotgun, grab it and use it. There are many Kig-yar in this room, usually in groups. Majors and Minors will usually try to shield the Snipers that fire on you as you ascend. Grenades, the DMR, and the Energy Sword work just fine in taking them out. There's are cases of DMR and Shotgun ammunition on the walls as you move up the levels so ammunition shouldn't be a problem. Continue along the corridor to get to the next area, which you may recognize as the security office. There is a crate with more armor abilities here, including Hologram, Armor Lock, and Sprint, so switch up to suit your taste. In addition, there is a crate of Assault Rifle and Magnum ammunition (not too helpful on Legendary) and a fully-charged Plasma Repeater on the ground (even less helpful on Legendary). Head through the door. You will find yourself in the same large atrium that you had to fight through in ONI: Sword Base; it's now completely mangled, with wreckage all over the place. There are around four cloaked Spec-Ops Elites in middle of the atrium, plus an Engineer hovering at the other end. The Engineer's shields actually make the cloaked Elites easier to spot, but kill it first anyway; the shield is too much of a problem. Stay behind your team. When the Spec-Ops Elites fire at them, they will reveal themselves. Hit them with the DMR. They are quite fragile, so taking them out shouldn't be too difficult once you spot them. Once you've taken the Spec-Ops Elites out, a Elite General will come out on a ramp to your right. He's only got a Concussion Rifle, so you can strafe back and forth and chip away at his shields with the DMR from long range without too much trouble. If you're a bold sort and close to the ramp, charge up to him with the Energy Sword and introduce it to him before he can fire at you. Laugh with glee at the ease of this mission and move on to detonate the facility.

The Lady Gave Us A Job To Do
Well, that sucked. Thought you were getting off easy huh? Not a chance. This is where Sprint comes in handy. Run around activating the turrets in a counterclockwise pattern and you should have all four of them up and running before the first Covenant troops hit the ground. You can choose to fight this battle defensively or offensively; either will be successful if done correctly.

A. OFFENSE
Take a Jetpack, a DMR, and your choice of secondary weapon. The Grenade Launcher is the best option if you're comfortable with it. Establish yourself in the rocks between turrets B and C. Pick off whatever you can see and hop out to reactivate the turrets when they go down, creating a circle of death that will quickly annihilate the Covenant forces. Alternatively, you can play defense but go on "raids" with the Mongoose to reactivate the turrets during relative lulls in the fighting. Either strategy is challenging, but very effective. Eventually you'll get to the point where there's a Wraith dropped on the right side of the map, relative to the lab. The Wraith will shell the entrance to the lab but will otherwise ignore you. Snipe the turret operator and then board and hijack the tank. Drive around and wreak havoc, enjoying the carnage. Another method of this offensive rampage is performed with the Banshee. Play defense initially. Grab a Grenade Launcher and wait for a Banshee to attack you, they'll come in on strafing runs early in the battle. EMP the Banshee with the Grenade Launcher's secondary fire and skyjack it. Fly high. Drop bombs. Laugh maniacally. Keep in mind that this strategy is only really plausible early in the fight when the Wraiths aren't bombarding you and the infantry are busy fighting with the turrets. If you wait, hijacking a Banshee gets much harder.

B. DEFENSE
Once the last turret is active go back to the defensive position at the door. Hold fast against the waves of Covenant that attack the lab. There is plenty of ammo and equipment at the door to hold off the number of enemies that appear here, but the DMR and Grenade Launcher should be your primary weapons for most of the fight. Unfortunately, exiting to rearm turrets is very dangerous if you defend here, you'll have to get through a lot of Covenant to get to the turrets. If you want to chance it, take a Mongoose to get to the farther turrets. Otherwise, stay near your squadmates and use the DMR and the Grenade Launcher to kill. The first few waves will consist of Brute Captains, Grunts, and Jackals, and the turrets should take a pretty big toll on them before being knocked out. Use the Grenade Launcher to fire into clusters of Brutes and Jackals while they're busy fighting the turrets. The next waves will see some moderately ranked Elites, a large number of Elite Rangers and some high ranking standard Elites, including Ultras. A Wraith will begin shelling the lab from stand-off range. Stay under cover unless you need to grab ammunition and you should be well protected from the Wraith. The final waves are the hardest. Trying to reactivate turrets here is very dangerous. The final waves add additional Wraiths to the bombardment group, several Ghosts to prevent you from escaping the area to go reactivate turrets, Grunts equipped with Fuel Rod Guns, and a Elite General with the Energy Sword. You can use the Spartan Laser to fight off the General, but he can sneak up on you if you aren't careful. Try to make him attack your allies, and they should take care of him for you. Once the General is down, Dr. Halsey will call for you to enter the lab.

Legendary Notes

 * The Scorpion is not invincible, don't take chances, fire lots of rounds into the areas ahead of you to clear them out. Especially if you don't have support troops on the turret and treads.
 * Watch for the explosive canisters, you can detonate them to help clear enemies in certain areas or they can kill you.
 * There's plenty of DMR ammo here, you can pretty much complete the level using only your DMR.
 * Your squad is ruthlessly efficient in the open spaces, let them stay to the front and bear the brunt of the attacks while you sit back and pick off the enemies that they leave weakened and stunned.
 * When in the cave, if you choose to defend the door, stay under the center in order to avoid being killed by Wraith Plasma or Phantom cannons.
 * If you can hijack a Banshee (as suggested by Jun-A266) you can strafe and clear the areas really quickly.
 * Good Skulls here are Catch, Thunderstorm, Tilt, Black Eye and Cloud. They make this level infinitely more challenging and leave you feeling like a god when you finish.
 * The Hologram can be an valuable aid in distracting the Jackals.
 * Using a Plasma Pistol to overcome shielding can increase your effectiveness for those who have difficulty with accuracy, or those short on ammunition.

Notes for Lower Difficulties

 * The only real difference between approaching this level on lower difficulties is that you can get away with jetting around, reactivating turrets during the firefights to assist in the killing.

Achievements

 * Tank Beats Everything- Reach ONI: Sword Base with your Scorpion intact on the Legendary Difficulty. There are many ways to achieve this, depending on your individual strengths as a player. You can use a second vehicle to complete then go back, you can walk (although this is really long and not reccomended) or just play through and use the tank as effectively as possible. One of the easier achievements to earn.