Reach:Long Night of Solace/Walkthrough

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Long Night of Solace
Level overview
Player(s):	SPARTAN-B312
Objective(s):	Destroy Covenant supercarrier with a hijacked Covenant corvette.
Location(s):	Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
Gameplay overview
Default weapons:	MA37 Assault Rifle M6G Pistol
Enemies:	Covenant Sangheili Sangheili Major Sangheili Ultra Sangheili Ranger Special Operations Sangheili Sangheili General Kig-yar Kig-yar Major Kig-yar Sniper Unggoy Unggoy Minor Unggoy Major Unggoy Ultra Huragok

This is a walkthrough for the fifth mission of the Halo: Reach campaign, Long Night of Solace. It is written for Heroic and Legendary difficulty, with specifying notes for either, and does not involve skips or hacks.

Level notes

• Long Night of Solace has three unskippable cutscenes, which are the beach landing, the Sabre takeoff, and the docking at Anchor 9. They are thirty seconds, a minute forty, and two minutes eleven seconds long, respectively. Have patience when doing this level.
  • These cutscenes are skippable in the MCC version, however.
• This level has the most energy swords available, with three fully charged ones and one available on Legendary from an enemy.
• Enemy projectiles travel faster on Legendary, in addition to being stronger.
• If you're disorientated flying upside down on the Sabre, let go of the control stick for a few seconds and it will automatically right itself.
• The Black Eye skull has no effect on the Sabre, as it is nearly impossible for it to "melee" opponents short of ramming them, which usually destroys the Sabre in the process.
• A BOB can spawn on this level in one of five possible locations. Refer to this guide for where to find them.
• Make sure you save magnum ammo! On lower difficulties you can go wild with it, but on higher ones, its headshot capabilities are priceless.

Level Start: First Floor: Aliens, Beaches, Secret Launch Stations

The Rocky Beach

• Jorge-052: "Bit of a hike to the launch facility..."

• Carter-A259: "Any closer's too hot to land."

• Kat-B320: "Copy that, Commander."

• Carter-A259: "Move up the beach, Noble!"

The first encounter is on the beach heading to the launch facility. You'll be on even ground with lots of rocks fighting four Grunts, three Jackals, and four Elites. You'll be armed with an assault rifle with 400 rounds, two frag grenades, and a pistol with 60 shots. You'll be accompanied by Jorge with his turret, Kat with her pistol, and Carter with his DMR.

As you run past Noble Team towards the beach, you'll enter through a somewhat narrow crevasse to see a Spirit dropping four Grunts behind the rocks just ahead of you, with a drop pod following afterward. On high difficulties, you may want to wait a bit for the Spirit to start flying away so that it doesn't shell you from above. Then head for the rocks, circle around, and toss a grenade into the pack of Grunts. Mop up any that are left with your assault rifle, but watch for the Elite that just landed in the drop pod by them. Usually it's a Minor and Major Elite, with another landing further to the right of the beach. They'll tend to fight a bit then flee. Three Jackals will be by the second Elite. They'll retreat too, but they'll be hard to headshot from this range, so you can ignore them for now.

As you move up the beach, you and Noble Team will battle the Elites. The Elites will often retreat behind the rocks, so try flanking them. The Noob Combo, using a plasma pistol from one of the Grunts, can be helpful here, but the Elites will be fairly far away and they have greater accuracy than you. Approaching from the left, by the coast, can be safer, since the Elites will be farther away, but this will still put them rather far for good accuracy. Try to flank them when they're more focused on your allies then on you. Sometimes the Elites will charge if their shields are down and you're fairly close; whip out your pistol and rapid-fire at their head before they reach you.

After killing the first three Elites, the last Elite will land, and he’s an Ultra. He isn't shy about tossing grenades and any surviving Jackals will be on a hill behind him providing covering fire. Once again, wait for him to engage your allies. The best time to noob combo is when he's tossing a grenade, as he'll be stuck in place. If you do it too late, you will be in some serious trouble so hurry. Once he's dead, Noble Team will aid you with any remaining Jackals and then advance to the next area. Leave your plasma pistol or assault rifle behind, keep your magnum and grab a plasma rifle, and look for any spare plasma grenades by the dead Elites or Grunts. Then move with Noble over the hill.

The Beach Hillside and Into the Launch Station

• Jorge-052: "More hostiles in the rocks to the south."

• Carter-A259: "Root 'em out."

The next section is a hill covered in boulders that leads to the launch station's entrance. Several Grunts will be hiding behind the first rocks, but they'll soon retreat. Move around the rock to take them out, either with your plasma rifle or pistol. (And watch your aim if the Seraph crashing into the facility shakes the beach.) Noble Team will aid in tearing them up, then they'll focus on the Jackals guarding the hill by a metal barrier and their shields. Those Jackals you can ignore at first; your next priority is the two Jackal marksmen with needle rifles. They're on top of a rocky hill firing at Noble Team, and their needle projectiles will strip your shields quickly and force your teammates into Armor Lock. Since the marksmen will strip your shields if you get too close, use your pistol to peg them from afar. The shot hits a little higher than center on the reticle, so remember than when trying to headshot. If you can’t kill in one shot, consider moving closer as to not wast ammo. When they’re dead, you can concentrate on the several shield Jackals defending the hill. Use your plasma rifle to get them; it has much better range than the assault rifle or pistol, has a fast rate of fire, will greatly weaken their shield, and your pistol is likely low on ammo now.

The last few enemies will retreat to the top of the hill near the entrance, and an Ultra Elite in a drop pod will land. He's the biggest threat with his concussion rifle, but Noble will quickly distract him. Keep your distance with potshots while he fights your teammates, or flank him by heading to the far right of the hill, around some large rock dividers, to get him from behind. Use your plasma rifle at close range to mow down infantry and pop his shields. Once all the enemies are dead, a Pelican will land and drop troopers to reclaim the beach.

The Launch Station

• Army Trooper #1: "Everybody inside, more hostiles on the way."

• Carter-A259: "Inside, Six, let's go!"

There are only two enemies of note at the launch station, a Wraith and an Elite Major, but they’re still very challenging if you don’t have the right weapons to deal with them. You’ll want to assemble a good louaout to board the Sabre with, but you also need a good loadout to make it through the facility. Here’s what to do.

When you reach the entrance with Noble Team, grab grenades, health, Drop Shield, and a DMR from the weapons posted by the door. Two troopers will be guarding the door, and the one on the left has a sniper rifle. You’ll need this for the corvette mission, so swap a weapon for his sniper; it will have at least seven to ten rounds. Then wait at the door for ten seconds or so, and a trooper will come down carrying a rocket launcher. Swap your other weapon for his laucher, it will come with three or four rockets. These rockets are for the Wraith. Head to the left of the base, and you’ll see a Wraith parked at the dock some distance away. It takes three direct hit rockets to destroy it, four if one glances. If it fires a mortar at you, deploy your drop shield to protect yourself. If it won’t blow up and you run out of shots, look for another rocket trooper to swap with. Once it’s dead it’s safe to head in the base.

You have an Elite to deal with in the base, usually a Major or Ultra. You’ll be rather close quarters with him, and with Drop Shield you can’t run fast enough to assassinate him. So you’ll need rockets once again. As you head into the base you reach a room with the wall blasted out; the Wraith would’ve been below here lobbing mortars at you. As of now, there will likely only be a Spirit harassing soldiers with its turrets and dropping a few troops. One of those soldiers has a rocket launcher; trade him for it and you’ll get four rockets. You can fire a few to the dock below to get a small multikill, but keep at least two rockets. The first is to kill the Elite; the second is if you miss.

Go further into the base with Noble Team, and the Elite will arrive. He tosses a trooper down the hallway, waits a bit, then turns to fight you and Noble. If you have rockets, fire it center of mass to blast him away. If not, then go back for a DMR or let Noble Team fight him. It’s not a good idea to try for a point-blank snipe or melee kill; he’s much stronger than you at close range. Therefore, rockets are the definite way to deal with him.

Head into the control center and to the Sabre. If you're playing on Legendary, then before you climb in the Sabre swap out your Drop Shield for Sprint. The former armor ability is more useful but you need the latter for a tricky spot on the corvette in Legendary. Then grab an Energy Sword lying by a dead Elite, leave your sniper rifle as your alternate, head up to the Sabre, and fly off with Jorge into space.

Rally Point Alpha: Operation Upper Cut

• Colonel Urban Holland (COM): "Noble Actual to Sabre Bravo Oh-Two-Niner, over."

• Jorge-052: "Copy, Actual. Colonel Holland?"

• Holland (COM): "Affirmative, Noble Five. Welcome to Operation: UPPER CUT."

It's time for a first in the Halo series, space fighter combat. The Sabre section consists of four waves: a Banshee wave, a small Seraph wave, a mixed Banshee and Seraph wave, and a Phantom wave. Because projectile speeds and strength are different on Heroic and Legendary, one's strategies will have to be different for either difficulty. If you're playing on high difficulties, presumably you'll be familiar with the Sabre's controls by now. But just in case, here's a refresher.

The Sabre controls similar to the Banshee in control scheme and mechanics. Like the Banshee it has two firing modes: one automatically firing bullets, the other firing lock-on missiles, which Colonel Holland points out work as a Noob Combo in space; bullets for enemy shields, missiles to finish them off. For faraway targets, it will adjust the retic