Cortana (level)

Looking for Cortana, the Human AI?

Cortana is the eighth campaign mission of Halo 3.

It takes place in a Flood infested High Charity. Your mission is to find Cortana in order to activate the New Halo ring.

Upon completing it on the Normal, Heroic, or Legendary difficulties, the player will earn the "The Key" achievement and 40 Gamerpoints.

A curious note to add to this level is that if you listen carefully, Cortana will say some quotes by Dr. Halsey from Halo: The Fall of Reach. Also when you recover Cortana, she says the phrase "Just keep your head down. There's two of us in here now," which is reminiscent of the phrase she says on the first level of Halo: Combat Evolved when you lose a bar of health.

This level has been infamous among the community for being overly difficult, frustrating and generally not very fun. . The entire level is covered with Flood 'sludge', meaning that enemies easily blend into the scenery, thus making the level very difficult. Some fans have even claimed it is one of the worst Halo single player missions ever made and few have even labeled it as the 'worst video game level ever designed'. These are often players who have only played Halo 3. In contrast, many other players enjoy the level for its challenge.

Transcript
{Cutscene}

''The Master Chief flies a Banshee to High Charity. He finds an opening into the hive. (In co-op, the Arbiter will follow the Chief and land his Banshee next to the Spartan's)''


 * Johnson (COM): "Chief, I'll round up our survivors, fall back to the Dawn."

Master Chief drops down (The Arbiter follows him in co-op)


 * Johnson (COM): "Arbiter will do the same with the Elites."

-(Co-op Change) Johnson (COM): "Shipmaster will do the same with the Elites."

The Chief shakes off organic material that stuck to his boot.


 * Johnson (COM): "Cortana's in there somewhere..."

Rampant
{Gameplay}

Chief begins searching, further in the hive.


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness; a father's sins passed to his son."

A little later.


 * Cortana (Cortana Moment): (A strange mix of cries of agony and manic laughter)

Deeper into the hive.


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): "Of course, you came for her.... We exist together now. Two corpses, one grave."


 * Cortana: (sounds distant, then when "stolen" is said, sounds suddenly close) "A collection of lies; that's all I am! Stolen thoughts and memories!"


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): "And yet, perhaps a part of her... remains?"


 * Cortana: (manic laughter)

(In the large room where the Tilt skull is located, a Terminal can be activated, but does not count towards the Marathon achievement. If activated, it displays another Cortana Moment)


 * Cortana (Terminal): It was the coin's fault! I wanted to make you strong, keep you safe. (drop in tone) I'm sorry, I can't...

Cortana begins to show clear signs of malfunctioning.

The Chief struggles through into more narrow, Flood contaminated tunnels.
 * Cortana: (casually and kindly, as though nothing is wrong) "May I speak with you, please? ... What's your name? It's very nice to meet you! ... You like games? So do I."


 * Cortana: (upset) "I'm just my Mother's shadow... don't look at me, don't listen! I'm not who I used to be..."

As the Chief nears a large room {with the route to the reactor room at the top}.


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): (angry) "Time has taught me PATIENCE! But basking in new freedom, I will know ALL THAT I POSSESS!"

En route to the reactor room.


 * Cortana (Cortana Moment): (panicking) "I have walked the edge of the abyss. I have seen your future.  And I have learned!"

The image of Cortana suddenly turns a tinge of green, and clutches its head and writhes in pain.


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): "SUBMIT! END HER TORMENT AND MY OWN!!"

The Chief enters the reactor room, passing by bones and skulls back at the entrance.

The Chief finds a door out the reactor room, and follows it.


 * Cortana (Cortana Moment): (panicking) "There will be no more sadness, no more anger, no more envy!"


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): "You will show me what she hides, or I shall feast upon your BONES!"

The Chief begins to reach the end of the hallway.


 * Cortana (Cortana Moment): ''(speaking in a flat, monotone voice as though brainwashed. Her image is green.) "This is UNSC AI Serial Number CTN0452-9. I am a monument to all your sins."

''The Chief rushes to the end of the hallway, to find Cortana lying prone in a Stasis Shield in one of the panels in the room. He beats and bashes the shield until it finally breaks.''

{Cutscene}


 * Cortana: "...you found me..."

Master Chief leans closer towards the panel Cortana's on.


 * Cortana: "But so much of me is wrong... out of place. You might be too late..."


 * Master Chief: "You know me. When I make a promise..."

She looks up at the Chief.


 * Cortana: "...you... keep it. I do know how to pick 'em."


 * Master Chief: "Lucky me. Do you still have it?"

Cortana slowly gets up, recovering her strength.


 * Cortana: "The Activation Index from the first Halo ring. A little souvenir I held onto... just in case. (she looks around) Got an escape plan?"


 * Master Chief: "Thought I'd try shooting my way out - mix things up a little."

''The Chief takes Cortana's old data chip out of his helmet and holds it in front of her. Cortana touches its core and uploads herself into the chip, and the Chief inserts Cortana back, at long last, into his armor. The music builds.''


 * Cortana: (jokingly exasperated) "Just keep your head down! ... There's two of us in here now, remember." (This is an reference to Halo: Combat Evolved, where Cortana would say "Hey, keep your head down, there's two of us here now, remember?!" when the Master Chief lost a bar of health on the first level)

Nor Hell A Fury...
{Gameplay}

(If you stay in the room Cortana was in)
 * Cortana: "Chief, get me out of this place. I... I don't want to stay."

The Chief heads back up the hallway.


 * Gravemind (Gravemind Moment): (roars) "At last, I see! Her secret is revealed!"

The Master Chief makes it back into the reactor room.


 * Cortana: "Wait, we need to buy some time. This reactor... start a chain reaction. Destroy High Charity."

''The Flood begins to swarm the reactor room, realizing the Chief's plans. The Master Chief successfully destroys all three reactor pylons.''


 * Gravemind: (Roars in pain)


 * Cortana: "You hurt it, Chief. But not for long. We need to get to Halo - destroy the Flood once and for all."

{If you take too long}
 * Cortana: "An explosion just made us an exit! I'll mark it on your HUD, Chief, go!"

(When you have reached the halfway point escaping)


 * Cortana: "Analyzing the route ahead... I have it mostly figured out. Just keep moving, I'll update your HUD as you go."

The Chief finds his way back when...

(Single-Player Only'')
 * Cortana: "I've got a friendly contact! But who would be crazy enough to come in here?"

''Chief and Cortana find the Arbiter battling Flood with a Flamethrower. The Chief assists.''


 * Cortana: (amused) "Wait, you two made nice?! What else have you been up to...?"

{Cutscene''}

''The Master Chief and Arbiter find a Pelican nearby and board it. The Chief uploads Cortana into Pelican's holotank and he starts up the engines. One of the Gravemind's tentacles advances to the Dropship, but the heat from the thrust forces it to retreat. The Pelican takes off. The tentacle comes back and tries to wrap around the Dropship, but the Chief escapes its grip. The Pelican just escapes from a massive explosion caused by the reactor going critical as High Charity is finally destroyed, and the Pelican makes its way to the new Halo ring.''

Walkthrough
Okay, this is the original walkthrough speed run style. Drop down onto the ground and get the fire bomb then move forward and pop the Infection Forms with about 2 clips. Go up the ramp and take out the Infection Forms and get the energy sword in place of your assault rifle. Head straight through the portal and then down, take cover behind the pillar as the Flood come down and use your shotgun and energy sword together and pick them off until they're all dead or they jump off. Trade your shotgun for the brute shot and pick up the bubble shield. Kill the Carriers and RUN as fast as you can to the door, it may take two or three tries though (don't use your bubble shield). When you get to the room with the Infection Forms, use a grenade to clear them out and collect as much as you can before heading out. Drop down to the room with the Elite next to you and just run to the center. NOW activate your bubble shield before the Ranged Forms kill you, pick up an active camo and you sword thrusts to get through quicker and improves your "living rate". Stick the Carriers and move forward. When Cortana speaks move into the narrow corridor and kill as many Pure Forms as possible if you have Scoring on. Right after you see the first Combat Form come out, turn on your Cloaking; they won't see you unless you're 2 inches next to them. This is possibly the hardest part now so this WILL take many times to master. Grab a carbine as you enter the room for the brute shot. Get as many headshots as possible and proceed into the camo room on your left. If you're swamped activate your Cloaking immediately and kill the Flood. Once your camo starts to fade grab the second one and activate it. After you jump over the ledge your camo will go away so find cover now. Kill the Flood in the next room will the sword and grenades. Take out the Ranged Forms with the carbine and well aimed grenades before proceeding. Pick up the brute shot and move on. There really is no strategy for this part in the reactor room. Take it one step at a time and use your bubble shield when in danger. When ready, go into the next room and save Cortana! Again there is no real strategy for combating the Flood, for fun kill everything then destroy the reactors (pick up the camo in the room before leaving). Even a Spiker will blow a reactor at a fair distance. Kill the Brute and move on. When you drop down move fast for a bit then activate your camo so the Flood look stupid. Move into the next room where you would find the Tilt skull and kill the Flood and this fight will be very tough unless you use cover if your shield goes down to a fourth of its energy. Go on and just rush through the whole thing. If you don't get the time you wanted try it with a friend and it will be much easier with two or more players, then try it alone.

Trivia

 * Cortana is acknowledged by Bungie to be the hardest level in the game.
 * The Mausoleum of the Arbiter can be seen in the distance when standing near the crashed Pelican. This is the Prophets' Inner Sanctum, and are essentially the only recognizable features of High Charity that can be seen.
 * Nearly all of the Cortana Moments are quotes from The Fall of Reach, such as at Crow's Nest it is a direct quote from the speech Dr. Halsey, and many in Cortana (level) involve or are quotes from Dr. Halsey, possibly referring to, but unlikely, that Dr. Halsey was attempting to contact Cortana, giving Cortana flashbacks and images of Dr. Halsey's past, which would also technically be Cortana's.
 * The section of the level after saving Cortana is called 'Nor Hell A Fury...', referencing the poem by William Congreve 'The Mourning Bride'. The entire line is 'Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned', possibly referencing Cortana, who, after months of torment, now has the ability to light the newly constructed halo ring and destroy the Ark, as well as the Flood.
 * Thematically, this level also has much in common with the levels Keyes and Maw. It depicts the Chief venturing alone into a vessel to rescue a comrade, from the Flood, most specifically for a data construct in their possession; and detonate the fusion reactor core. In this case the objective is the Index to fire Halo; in Keyes it was the Captain's neural implants to destroy The Pillar of Autumn.
 * Somehow even after destroying High Charity the Gravemind survives. The next level when Cortana says, "It's trying to...rebuild itself on this ring" hints that the Gravemind might have escaped before High Charity's detonation.
 * It has been confirmed that the room where Cortana is located, is a remake of the room from the level High Charity from Halo 2. This room is located before the final gravity lift, where Cortana says, "Apparently these are the Prophet Hierarchs' private quarters, their inner sanctum". In the "inner sanctum" there are three doors, two located opposite one another, with a third, opposite a large view screen. In the level High Charity, the Chief enters through the third door, and exits through the door on his right; in the level Cortana from Halo 3, he enters through the door that was locked in Halo 2 (opposite the door that leads to the final grav lift). The graphic design of the room and the rest of High Charity's interior has been remodelled in Halo 3. It resembles the interior of the CCS-Truth and Reconciliation from Halo: Combat Evolved.
 * In the area with the dead ODST and where you can get the flamethrower (not the crashed pelican), on the ODST's stomach armor there is a Marathon symbol.
 * One Cortana Moment may be another reference to Fall of Reach. "May I speak with you, please? What's your name? It's very nice to meet you. DO you like games? So do I." (I am assuming that the transcription here is correct) This is strikingly similar to a set of phrases spoken by Catherine Elizabeth Halsey to John. "Can I speak with you, please? What's your name? It's very nice to meet you. I wanted to ask you what you were doing. You like games, so do I." Even if the transcription of the Cortana moment were incorrect, and it was exactly as it was in the Fall of Reach, this actually makes sense. Cortana, who was created from an imprint of Dr. Halsey's mind, would retain some of Dr. Halsey's memories. If that memory were to have been the most prominent during the creation of Cortana, it is entirely possible that Cortana would have that memory. This would also be supported by her statement "A collection of lies; that's all I am! Stolen thoughts and memories!" and "I'm just my Mother's shadow..."
 * After obtaining Cortana, there is a skull on a ledge-like structure overhead after you exit the hallway that lead to Cortana. To get it, you need to get the Deployable Cover, deploy it on the floor directly in front of the edge of the roof, jump on the deployed cover and crouch jump onto the roof. Once on top of the roof, locate the skull towards the apex of the angled roof and get the skull. Please note that this skull has no affiliation with the "13 required skulls" list and, if carried for the rest of the level, will start Master Chief with a Spartan laser on the next level. Caution, this may only work with certain skull combinations and/or other factors in gameplay.
 * One of Cortana's lines, "There will be no more sadness. No more anger. No more envy," appears to reference Marathon's stages of Rampancy; Melancholia, Anger and Jealousy respectively.
 * This is the only level where almost the entire part of the level in Single player mode, there are no allies.(The Arbiter A.I. comes in at the end of the level.) In Halo:CE, there were three levels where there aren't any allies at all and in Halo 2, one level.
 * The "It's the coin's fault" is a reference to where John was brought into the Spartan program. He identified the side of a 21st century quarter that was about to the hit the ground before it did.
 * On Single player campaign, when you meet up with the Arbiter at the end of the level, there is a Banshee at mid-distance near the crashed Pelican. The Banshee is destroyable but it is currently unknown whether it can be piloted as it is rather hard to reach, even with a Grenade jump, the Cow Bell skull might be able to aid.
 * Later on in the level, in a tunnel where Flood might come out of in a room, there is an Elite corpse with green-blue like armor and some silver parts on his armor, theorizing that his armor might have been burnt.
 * It is unknown why the Ark survived the detonation of High Charity's reactor cores, whereas it was destroyed by the detonation of Installation 04 (II) and the explosion of the Pillar of Autumn demolished the original Installation 04
 * Much of High Charity is flooded with water; this reason for this is that it crash-landed in a large body of water. This can be seen by going out to the crashed Pelican and looking towards the Mausoleum and looking downwards. Due to High Charity still having electricity running through some of the system, there are electrical discharges as broken lines are grounded in the sea.
 * Rarely, if you are standing next to one of the vines that look like Gravemind's, they can whip out and hurt you.
 * Taking into consideration the carrying capacity of High Charity, the organic matter contained in Flood structures mounts up to a huge quantity of organisms to attain that calcium density, more so than what High Charity can possibly carry.
 * When you get to the Pelican for the first time there's 1 Flamethrower on the ground. But when you meet up with the Arbiter at the end of the level he wields a Flamethrower.
 * In the area nearby the Spec Ops Elite stuck on the Flood gunk is a hole in the ceiling. If you can get up there with 2 Deployable Covers. It leads to the hallway you go into after you destroy the reactors.