Nightfall/Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for the Halo: Reach level Nightfall. It is written for play at the Legendary difficulty, but contains notes for lower difficulties. This is the fourth level of Halo: Reach. For this mission you are joined by Jun-A266. Your mission is to investigate the Covenant Presence, report on any Covenant Structures or devices, and pacify all hostiles in the area. Your initial loadout for this mission is your Sniper Rifle System 99 Anti-Matériel an M6G Pistol and 2 M9 Grenades. This mission places a heavy reliance on both Stealth and Ranged shooting. It is important to note that as this walkthrough is on the Legendary difficulty, all strengths of enemies reflected are at the Legendary level. Also of note on this Mission is that this is the first mission where your choice of equipment will actively effect how you approach this mission.

Silent. But Deadly.
As you start this mission, you're on a cliff side ledge with Jun advancing stealthily (as stealthily as a Spartan in a half ton of MJOLNIR armor can be). Arm your pistol, you will not need your Sniper Rifle here. You will encounter an Elite Major with his back to you. Slowly advance and assassinate him. On Legendary, don't hold down the melee button or you will alert all the other Covenant in the area. Use your pistol to clear out the Grunts and Jackals. Leave the Elite Ultra for last. Jun will help a little thinning out the enemies, and his sniper fire will force the Ultra back into the rocks. This is your cue to move down the hillside. quickly step up and grab the Active Camouflage. Activate it and slowly move around the rocks until you are behind the Ultra and assassinate him. This takes a bit of work, but is well worth it, since you're going to need every round in your Sniper Rifle that you can get. Before you advance here, let your active camo recharge. It's going to come in very handy in the next section.

Peek-a-Boo! I Shoot You!
Once your active camo is recharged, move forward. When you see the rocks you want to be right of them but behind them. Activate your camo and edge forward, bringing up your Sniper Rifle and peek over the crest. Across the way on the roof of the structure you will see several Elite Rangers and a Spec-Ops Elite with a Focus Rifle. Take out the Spec Ops Elite with a head shot, then as many of the Rangers as you can before they start to Jetpack away. Don't bother with them once they start jumping. Bring out your Pistol and start clearing all the Grunts and Jackals from the lower area. There are also a couple of Elites on the floor, an Ultra and a Major, but you can leave those for a bit as Jun will keep them distracted as long as you move out of sight. The remaining Rangers will come at you jet jumping in. Use good timing here and Melee them to death. They are easy kills, two hits and they're done. Once you are sure you've terminated all the Rangers and pretty sure you've finished off the Grunts and Jackals, it's time to move into the floor and deal with the Elites. If you are very lucky Jun may have killed the Elite Major. Circle to the left side and bring up your active camo as you reach the floor, remember the faster you move the more you are seen. Sneak up and kill the Ultra first with a swift assassination. Take cover if the Major hasn't been killed because he is now going to be focused on you. Jun will be shooting but it is unlikely that he will penetrate the Majors shields at this point. Don't zoom your rifle in and take a single shot at the Major while advancing on him. This will stagger him long enough for you to close and finish him with the Melee/assassination. Once you've sanitized this area, move into the building and go upstairs. Find your way to the next oven area. You will see a cylindrical tower in the center and a circular space with some interiors. Take out the Elite Major on the tower. It will take several shots, but you can't have him shooting at you as you run and gun this area. There is a Plasma Turret on the far building left side upper floor. Use a sniper round and take it out. Pull out the pistol and take out the Grunts and Jackals. The remaining Elites will hopefully be distracted and a little weakened by Jun. Try to get up high and finish them off with the Sniper Rifle, or you can sneak around and try and assassinate them. Once you've cleared all the enemies you can see run up to the plasma battery and look right there will be a couple of Jackal Majors trying to sneak up, use your pistol to finish them off. Grab the turret and remove it from the mount. Head out where those Jackals came from.

A Whole New Kind of Ugly
As you advance here you are going to see two very large creatures. These are Gúta, and they are indigenous to Reach. They are assaulting a squad of Covenant, sit back and watch the carnage. Grunts and Jackals flying about like ragdolls is amusing, but once the Gúta are done with the Covies, they will turn their attention to you. Use your Plasma Battery and aim for the head. They should go down fairly quickly. Move forward again. You're going to be greeted by the sounds of gunfire. Civilians are under fire from Covenant forces. Move forward a little and drop the Plasma Battery. It will be useful later for now you need range and quick. Bring up the Sniper Rifle and start downing targets. Focus on the Elites, but take any targets of opportunity that come into view especially the Skirmishers. Once you've downed the Elites (There should be three or four Elite Majors no Ultras, yet) pick up the Plasma battery and run forward. Use the Plasma battery to finish off any of the remaining original enemies here.

Man, And I Thought Things Just Couldn't Get Any Worse
Head to the center of the area. There will be ordinance here including DMRs, Rocket Launcher, sniper ammo and most importantly a Drop Shield. Swap your now nearly empty pistol for the DMR, grab the Drop Shield and head up to a roof. If you have civilians left they will die here, though on lower difficulties you may be able to save them. The first Phantom Dropship is going to let out a pair of Elite Majors and a bunch of Jackal Majors and Grunts. You are mostly going to play Hit-and-Fade here, moving into position killing a few enemies then moving to cover to recharge. Use the DMR to pick off the Jackals and Grunts and Snipe one of the Elites if you get the Chance. The second dropship will come near the bridge and will Drop more Grunts and Jackals and a couple of Elite Ultras with Concussion Rifles. Take out as many Jackals and Grunts as you can and if you get a clean shot at the Ultras take it. Eventually Jun is going to displace. You should too. Head towards the bridge as fast as possible, pick up some DMR ammo and pick a good place to Snipe. The third dropship is going to come in and drop a couple more Ultras and their entourage. Snipe the Ultras, the best method seems to be to pick one, kill it and displace, rinse, lather, repeat. Use the DMR to finish off any minor enemies that remain. Once you've pacified this area Jun is going to call you to the riverbed so you can follow up on Kat's theory. Before you go swap the Rocket Launcher for your Sniper Rifle and load your DMR with all the ammo you can find.

See, And Everyone Said This Was Going to be Hard
Follow the riverbed. You'll eventually take cover from a Phantom that flies overhead. Move slowly into the next area. You'll be directed towards the Covenant Spire on the other side. You may be asking why you left your Sniper Rifle behind. There's plenty of Turrets and you can see at least one Elite Major with a Plasma Launcher. Move towards the bridge slowly. All the Grunts are asleep and the One Elite Major hasn't noticed you yet. If you get noticed just revert to the last checkpoint and try again. Sneak up and Assassinate the Elite, then the Grunts on the Bridge. If you don't open fire neither will Jun, yet. quickly go up the Spire and kill the Grunts stationed there. Now that Elite Major with the Plasma Launcher is Going to notice you. Take cover on the other side of the Spire and Start clearing out enemies with your DMR. There's plenty of Skirmishers and Grunts to keep you busy. Once you've got a clear shot up the ramp you have two choices as to dealing with the Elite. With the Shotgun head past the Elite you just killed. There is a second set of buildings here. Use caution because there is an Elite Ultra here with another Plasma Launcher. Use the Shotgun and Grenades to kill him and grab his Launcher for the Shotgun. Now you have a Plasma Launcher and a rocket Launcher. Drop down into the water and pick up some ammo for the Rocket Launcher then head back towards the Spire. Two Phantoms are going to fly in. The first will drop two Hunters, the second will drop two cloaked Spec-Ops Elites. Concentrate on the Hunters. The Elites will reveal themselves and you can tag them with the Plasma Launcher but for now, the Hunters are your main concern. Use the Rocket Launcher to blow off their back armor and then use the rest of your rockets to do some damage. You probably won't kill them but you'll do enough damage that a couple of shots from Jun or a quick Shotgun blast will finish them off. Once you've cleared them pick up your DMR and keep the Plasma Launcher. There's some ammo for the DMR under the structure where you got the Shotgun. Advance to the fence and prepare to finish your romp through the countryside.
 * Drop back off the spire and use it for cover. Use your DMR to Penetrate his shields and then kill him with a head shot. This is an ammo drain as but a little safer, as you are at range and have a chance to dodge those tracking plasma shots.
 * Head up the stairs and run into the structure nearest to the Spire. You'll find a rack of Shotguns. Swap your DMR for it. Toss a Grenade into the area where the Elite is, this will stun him long enough for you to close and finish him off with the Shotgun. This is much more risky but it conserves DMR ammo which will come in handy later.

Run, You Covenant Scum. You'll Only Die Tired.
When the fence opens you will immediately be confronted with a Shade. Use your Plasma Launcher to make short work of it. With the ordinance on the ground you'll see another Sniper Rifle. Note it but leave it for now. Head up the Right side of the track and keep an eye out. There are a couple more Shades, but you can tag the closest one and kill it giving you a little more freedom. Tag any other enemies you can before retreating to swap the Plasma Launcher for the Sniper Rifle. Follow the cliff on the left to get shots at the remaining Jackals and Grunts. Kill enough of them and you'll trigger Two Elite Rangers with Focus Rifles. Kill them with single shots from the Sniper and withdraw the top of the hill. There are three more Elites, two Majors and an Ultra. The Two Majors can be killed by a combined effort from you and Jun. The Ultra is near the Far Shade. Use the last of your Sniper Ammo to kill him. Advance and grab a Focus rifle. Try to keep out of Shade number three's line of fire as you advance. Use the DMR to kill the gunner Grunt then finish it off with a Plasma grenade. If you are low on ammo grab a needle rifle and finish off the last wave of Jackals that approach you then move forward out of the valley and into another cutscene.

Legendary Notes

 * Range is of the utmost importance on this mission. You cannot play at close range here unless the enemy is either unaware of your presence or distracted by Jun. Make the most of both opportunities.
 * Elite Majors and Ultras all take several hits to bring down their shields. Don't go fancy and try and headshot them all the time. Work the body to drop shields then headshot when the opportunity arises.
 * Jackal Majors are by far the most annoying enemy on this level. Their penchant for overcharged plasma rounds will leave you shieldless and wounded. When faced with multiple threats they should be right under anything that has a ranged weapon, and first otherwise.
 * You can easily do this mission without ever exposing yourself to danger, but it will take a long time. Use your judgement on when you think you will be able to handle enemies in close range without too much risk.
 * There are times when Sniping will not be to your advantage and assassination is far less risky overall. Don't be afraid to risk a little to gain much.
 * Good Skulls here are Iron, Thunderstorm and Catch. If you're sneaky and you can shoot, you're rarely going to be at risk and increasing the Ranks of your enemies just makes it that much sweeter when you defeat them. And, well, Catch is never a bad skull to have on.

Notes for Lower Difficulties

 * Most Elites on this level can be downed with a single round through the head. Take advantage of that fact to practice your sniping skills.
 * The enemy AI is less aware of their surroundings, so as assassinations are silent, you can kill far more enemies with it if you can get the first few undetected.
 * If you can get the armor off the Hunters, you can let Jun deal with them and wander off into a corner and do nothing until it's over. It just takes a while.
 * There don't seem to be any Spec-Ops Elites on easy, nor are there replacements for them.