Cortana (level)

Looking for Cortana, the Human AI?

Cortana is the ninth campaign mission (eighth playable mission) of Halo 3.

It takes place in the 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. Earning over 15,000 points in the campaign meta-game on this level will give the player the Orpheus achievement and 10 Gamerscore.

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. The Gravemind will also repeat his line "two corpses, in one grave" that he first said in the penultimate Halo 2 level - High Charity.

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', which is thought to be flesh of dead bodies. This means that enemies easily blend into the scenery, thus making the level very difficult. It also contains uncountable amounts of enemies that can drain you of your ammo very quickly, not that there is a shortage, but every time you reload you are easily open to be killed. Some fans have even claimed it is one of the worst Halo single player missions ever made and a few have even labelled 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. A few players have commented that the levels layout is simply too confusing for those playing it the first time. This is because the enormous amount of enemies and maze like pathways.

Transcript
{Cut scene}

''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 Banshee)''


 * 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 is stuck to his boot.


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

Rampant
Graverobber.

{Game play}

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 maniacal laughter)


 * Cortana (coming out of a speaker within a crashed Pelican): "I tried to stay hidden, but there was no escape! He cornered me, wrapped me tight and brought me close."

As the Chief goes deeper into the hive.


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

''In the large room where the Tilt skull is located, a Terminal can be activated, but does not count towards the Marathon Man 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...

(Referance to earlier sections of Halo: Fall of Reach in which Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey examines John-117 as a potential Spartan II candidate)

Cortana begins to show clear signs of malfunctioning.


 * 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."

(Also referance to earlier sections of Halo: Fall of Reach in which Docter Catherine Elizabeth Halsey examines John-117 as a potential Spartan II candidate) The Chief struggles through into more narrow, Flood contaminated tunnels.


 * 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): (Shouting angrily.) "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 CTN 0452-9. 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 a centre podium. The room resembles the Sanctum of the Hierarchs. He beats and bashes the shield until it finally fails.''

{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 armour. The music builds.''


 * Cortana: (jokingly exasperated) "Just keep your head down... There's two of us in here now, remember." (This is a 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 first loses a health bar on the first level, Pillar of Autumn.)

Nor Hell A Fury...
Shoot your way out.

{Game play}

If the Chief continues to stay in the room Cortana was in.
 * Cortana:(weakly) "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) "Now, at last, I see! Her secret is revealed!"

The Master Chief makes it back into the reactor room.


 * Cortana:(weakly) "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 plan. However he 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 the Chief takes too long
 * Cortana: "An explosion just made us an exit! I'll mark it on your HUD, Chief, go!"

When the Chief reaches 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."

Cortana: "Corridors ahead have all collapsed. I'll find another way, Chief; be careful."


 * Cortana: "There, Chief, into the maintenance tunnel."

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 while I was gone...?"

{Cutscene''}

The Master Chief and Arbiter find a Pelican, possibly from the In Amber Clad'' nearby and board it. The Chief uploads Cortana into the Pelican's holotank and 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, smoke pouring lightly from the left engine. The tentacle comes back and tries to wrap around the Dropship, but the Chief escapes its grip. The Pelican barely 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
If you have the Black-Eye skull, now is the time to use it.

Drop down onto the ground and get the fire bomb then move forward and pop the Infection Forms with about 2 clips. Go up a ramp and take out the Infection Forms and switch the energy sword for your Assault Rifle. Head straight through the Porta and then down, take cover behind the pillar as the Flood come down, using your shotgun and energy sword together to 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). (For those of you who don't trust regular weapons, there is a Flame Thrower and a Rocket Launcher by the crashed Pelican), however it is inadvisable to take the flamethrower as it takes a while to kill the Flood and they can easily charge you and burn you to death in the time it takes them to die.

When you get to the room with the Infection Forms, use a grenade to clear them out and collect as many grenades as you can before heading out. Drop down to the room with the Elite next to you and just run to the centre. Now activate your bubble shield before the Ranged Forms kill you, pick up an active camouflage and you sword thrusts to get through quicker and improve your "living ratio". 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 head shots as possible and proceed into the camouflage room on your left. If you're swamped activate your cloaking immediately and kill the Flood.

Once your camouflage starts to fade grab the second one and activate it. After you jump over the ledge your camouflage will go away so find cover now. Kill the Flood in the next room with 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 camouflage 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 camouflage so the Flood can't see you.

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. It is good to have a Brute Shot handy when you run out of ammo because of the blade on the bottom.

Another way to beat this mission would be to use a better player to escort you in Co-op. You follow them and do not stop to take out anything just run to each point. Keep the Energy Sword handy if you run into some trouble but you can take whatever weapons you feel like. This only works on lower difficulty and you will still die a lot.

Trivia

 * During the cutscene where you finally locate Cortana, small (abeit scripted) glimpses of real-time reflection is shown in the Chief's visor
 * The new multiplayer map, Assembly, is located near the level.
 * In the room where the second blind skull can be found, make your way to the lower level where an active camo sits. Once you pass that, you will see a few structures lined up to where there is the hidden Terminal. Activating this will cause Cortana to go into a raving fit.
 * There was going to be a Secondary Objective. Where the crashed ship was, Bungie was going to make a marine stand off behind some barriers. then the objective was to find the missing pilots (the two ODST bodies with flame throwers)
 * The Mausoleum of the Arbiter can be seen in the distance when standing near the crashed Pelican. This and the Prophets' Inner Sanctum are essentially the only recognizable features of High Charity in Halo 2 that can be seen in Halo 3. One can see in the Bungie feature "Flood Autopsy" that they had originally planned to have the Flood re-animate all Arbiter corpses in the room, creating an Arbiter army for the player to fight.
 * 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 the genius, Dr. Halsey.
 * 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.
 * Earlier in the game when Cortana speaks through the Cortana Moments her voice is normal, but as you play through this level her voice sounds more demonic and corrupt.
 * Thematically, this level also has much in common with the levels Keyes and The Maw. It depicts the Chief venturing alone into a vessel to rescue a comrade or friend, 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.
 * The line "We exist together now, two corpses in one grave," is said by Gravemind in both this level and in Halo 2 on the level High Charity.
 * 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 Hierarch's 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 gravity 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.
 * There is a area with a dead ODST (not the crashed pelican). It is unknown how he made it so far from the Pelican or if he was from the Frigate In Amber Clad before the Flood attacked High Charity. There is also a flamefthrower in this area.
 * After obtaining Cortana, there is a skull on a ledge-like structure (It's purple and is kind of bulbous at the end) 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 game play.
 * 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 in Halo 3 where almost the entire level in Single player mode features no ally support(The Arbiter A.I. comes in at the end of the level). In Halo:CE, there were three levels where there were no allies at all and in Halo 2, only one level.
 * The line "It's the coin's fault," is a reference to where John was brought into the Spartan program. He identified the side of a 20th century quarter that was about to the hit the ground before it did.
 * On Single player campaign at the end of the level, go out to where the Pelican is, and look to your right. You will see the Banshee the Arbiter rode in on. While you can get to it and destroy it, you cannot enter it, and oddly, grenades will not stick to it.
 * Later on in the level, in a tunnel where Flood may come out from a room, there is an Elite corpse with greenish-blue and some silver parts on his armour, theorizing that his armour might have been burnt.
 * Much of High Charity is flooded with water; the reason for this is that it crash-landed in a large body of water near the Ark's Control Citadel. This can be seen by going out to the crashed Pelican and looking towards the Mausoleum and looking downwards.
 * There are several Brute skulls and rib cages that can be found near the beginning of the level, before the first Porta leading into the floor. The skulls can not be picked up like the hidden skulls, but can be meleed or kicked around.
 * There is a small weapons cache below the large room where you can grab the Tilt skull in the level.
 * This Level also shares similarities with the Halo 2 level High Charity (level) and Halo 1 level, Keyes. All three are the second to last levels of their respective games, take place in Flood infested capital-ships, feature a large number of lines from Cortana, feature no allies(except the Arbiter at the end of Cortana), and all three end in the Chief escaping on a flying vessel.
 * In the entire level on High Charity not a single Grunt, Drone, Jackal or Hunter corpse is seen at all. Only Brute and Elite corpses are seen.
 * Sometimes in the level, you will walk above a room where Infection Forms are running on top of each other.
 * In the tunnel like room where you can find the flamethrower next to the dead marine if you walk back a few feet and jump, when you hit the ceiling repeatedly tap the A button and you will seemingly float in midair, this may take a few tries and moving to different positions.
 * Around halfway through the level, there is an Elite corpse that is floating in the air.
 * In co-op, after saving Cortana and destabilizing the generators, if one player stays behind in the hallway with the hole, the generator room will disappear and the room will be replaced by the other player's point of view.
 * The Flood Portas have 7 parts, a direct reference to the number seven. There are also 7 Porta's in the level.
 * During the level, you will find dead Elites wearing Assault Armour. One of them should be glitching by doing his death position in mid-air although; it looks like his foot seems to be stuck on one of the corrupted Flood rock-like. If you stick his body or deck it, the corpse will fall. That is the only way except for a Brute Shot grenade or other explosive.
 * If you go to the crashed Pelican while going to save Cortana she will talk to you through the Pelicans radio. She says "Tried to stay hidden, but there was no escape! He cornered me, wrapped me tight and brought me close."
 * In the Piggyback Guide for Halo 3, the walkthrough map shows that there is no Rocket Launcher at the crashed Pelican.
 * When you find cortana she refers to the promise master chief made in halo 2.
 * This is one of 3 levels in Halo 3 that a player has access to Flamethrowers with Floodgate and Halo.
 * If you are playing Co-op, and you attack your ally during Gravemind and Cortana 'moments', they will not get injured. This is only known to work with melee attacks of any kind, but may work with ranged attacks.
 * This level completes the patterns shown in all three Halo games in which during the penultimate level of the game the Master Chief is on a Covenant Ship fighting the Flood. Except this time it is the final battle, with High Charity as the citadel of all levels.
 * Because this level has skull's and ribs lying around with blood and creatures everywhere it has been promptly called the "Doom" level.
 * This is the only level where the Arbiter is using a Support Weapon by default.