Long Night of Solace (level)/Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for Long Night of Solace, the sixth level in Halo: Reach 's Campaign. It is written for play at the Legendary difficulty, but contains notes for lower difficulties.

Your mission is to plant a Slipspace Drive aboard a Covenant corvette and deliver it to a Covenant Supercarrier for detonation. Your initial loadout for this mission is your MA37 Assault Rifle, M6G Pistol and two M9 Grenades. It is important to note that as this walkthrough at the Legendary difficulty, all strengths of enemies reflected are at the Legendary level.

This Is A Really Bad Plan
The opening of this mission is standard run-and-gun action; simply follow your squad and eliminate all hostiles on the beach. There are a couple of Elite Ultras and a few Elite Majors and plenty of Grunts. Once you reach the entrance to the launch facility, lob a couple of grenades at the Jackal Majors to break them up them go with your team and wade in and finish them off. There is also an Elite Major here, but he really shouldn't be much of a problem. When you've cleared the entrance, you can proceed into the facility, but be wary. You're going to encounter an Elite Major tossing a soldier like a ragdoll. Empty a clip from your Assault Rifle into him, and then melee to finish him off. Now you're clear of enemies. Find the Drop Shield near the entrance and a DMR. If you can find one laying around outside, swap your Assault Rifle for a Plasma Rifle. Load up all the ammo you can get, and then get in yourself planted in your ship with Jorge-052. Time to fly.

Welcome to the Danger Zone
OK, now you're flying your Sabre. Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the controls. Note how to apply aerobatic maneuvers, and that switching between your cannons and missiles is the same as in ground combat. Now, follow the waypoint icon and join up with the rest of your squadron. Now you're going to face off against your first starfighter enemies, Space Banshees. Stick to cannons, and blow them out of the sky. If you start to take damage to your shields, roll out using aerobatics. Once these enemies are dead, you will encounter a squadron of Seraphs. Use your cannons to pierce their shields, and then fire a volley of missiles at them. The missiles are fire and forget, so if you don't need to, don't stick around to watch the fireworks; just lock on, fire, and move on to your next target. At some point, a group of Phantoms will come to try and assault the station. Come in from above and behind to unleash missiles at them. They are unshielded and not very mobile, and are therefore easy kills. Once you've cleared the area around the station, go in to dock and drop off Jorge.

I'm a Leaf On The Wind, Watch How I Soar
Regroup with your squadron and approach the Corvette. As soon as you have a clear view of the engines take them out. Then start clearing the Seraphs and Banshees from the area. Don't bother firing at the escape pods that shoot from the Corvette; you can't kill them. You're going to have to make serious use of Aerobatics here, because the Seraphs will target you aggressively, and can push you into the corvette's firing solution and kill you right quick and in a hurry. When you've cleared the area and destroyed the Corvette's engines, land on the carrier and get ready for the hard part.

Prepare to be Boarded! Actually, We Don't Care if You're Prepared or Not.
Once out of your space fighter, two Elite Rangers will pop out of the shielded area. Kill them quickly before they drop back in to the ship. This will leave you with the not insurmountable goal of only six elite Rangers to kill. From where you start there is a walkway that lays perpendicular to you inside the ship. When you and the soldiers drop in stay to the right side. When you hit the bottom, head right to the door and get behind the Weapons holder with the Plasma rifles in it. Use your DMR to pick off the Rangers (It only takes about 5-7 headshots), any that get close, use the Plama Rifle to kill up close. This is not the only way to do this. If you're an absolute artist with the Plasma Rifle you can run around the upper ring and lay waste to them, but this requires tremendous skill as the Rangers are extremely agile and quick and if you get surrounded, which can happen quite easily, you will die. Another school of thought is to stay on that upper beam and hop out if you need to heal up, downside, you have plenty of blind areas and you can be attacked from multiple angles if not careful. In any case whatever strategy you choose here will have inherent drawbacks, but all are viable, it's simply a matter of finding which is most comfortable for you. When you're through here move quickly away from the door. As soon as it opens toss a grenade and follow that with a flurry of Plasma fire. That should kill anything in the hallway. Before you go down the hallway, head to the upper ring and right above the door there is a weapons case with Needle Rifles in it. Swap your DMR for this and head into the hallway. As you get to the far end, the door will open and you will see many grunts in the center with Engineer shielding, to the far left on a raised platform there are two Elite Ranges with Focus Rifles and to the far right on the raised platform there are two more Elite Rangers with Plasma Repeaters. Take out the two Rangers on the left. Then the two on the right. If Grunts come into your field of fire kill them, but otherwise leave them for now. Once the Elites are dead mop up the Grunts. If you need to, take out the Engineer first, then mop up. Go deactivate the shield to let the Pelican in.

I Don't Think They Want Us on Their Boat
So, this may actually be the easiest part of the level. Don't touch any of the Human Weapons for now, it's a waste and you're going to need them later. head into the ship. There will be some Elites and Grunts here, but a few Grenades and some Plasma fire turns them into hamburger. Load up your Needle Rifle, swap for a new Plasma Rifle. Keep going. You will come to a larger area with two Elite Ultras, Use the Plasma Rifle to kill them quickly, then advance. Be very sneaky getting on the bridge. There is a small barrier directly in front of you. This is your start position. Everything here is done from this position. From the start position go right along the wall, look to the inner bridge near the Globe, you will see a Case of Energy swords. Grab one, for your Plasma Rifle. Go back to the start position. To the left in the bridge pit there should be a lone Grunt Ultra. take care and sneak up on it. Assassinate it, and retreat back to the start position. If you have been careful, the bridge crew should not have yet been alerted to your presence. Sneak along the left hand wall keeping the Elite General in your sights. When his back is to you run up and kill him with the Energy Sword. It should take two swipes unless you are very lucky and get a quick assasination, then he'll be dead and you'll almost be home free. From here retreat back to the start position stay behind the wall. There are three Cloaked Spec-Ops Elites that will advance on you. Kill them with the Energy Sword when they close, then use the Needle Rifle to finish off the small-fry left behind. Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of your very own Corvette. Too bad you're going to blow it up.

Wait, I'm Sorry, You Want Me to do What!?
Turn back to the door you came through, some baddies are going to show up to try and take their ship back. You are going to deny them this boon. Grenade and Needle fire will wipe most of them out. Your Energy Sword will take care of the rest. Use your Drop Shield to heal up if you need it and reload your Needle Rifle. head back up the hall. When you get back to where you faced those two Ultras before you'll face two more and an accompaniment of Grunt Ultras. take them out with the Needle Rifle and advance. For this next section in the Large Hangar, we will refer to the Pelican as right, the door you just came through as back and the door you originally came through as front. Immediately when you enter the Hangar there will be a group of Jackals, mixed Majors and Snipers coming from back left, ground level. Grenade and Needle them. You should make quick work of this group because next group will come through from forward left ground level. This group is a mixed assortment of Grunts and an Elite Major. Next, is directly forward as the door opens toss two grenades at the door and kill everything that comes through. Retreat to the pelican and Swap out your weapon set for a DMR and a Sniper Rifle. Use the DMR to take out the few Elite Majors on the top front area as you move back to the left and to where you came in from. When these are dead retreat into the small hallway you came into this section in. It will provide you with adequate cover and there's only one way for hostiles to get at you. Now there will be a great number of Elite Ultras with heavy weapons, ranging from Concussion Rifles to a Plasma Launcher. Aim across the bay at the far door, and attempt to take out the ones from across the bay first. Jorge will be doing damage and hopefully saving you a round or two. Ultras should still only require three rounds from the Sniper Rifle giving you six kills which is the majority of the enemies in the room. If you need it, directly in front of your little hallway is a Plasma Launcher. But with good sniper fire aided by Jorge, you can prevail quickly. Once this is over, steel your self cause the first step is a doozy.

Legendary Notes

 * When in space, aerobatics are essential at the Legendary Level. Simply boosting will not break an enemy's lock on you. You can roll out and come up to attack your attacker.
 * Stay away from the Corvette Batteries. Instant death, two shots if you're lucky. It's already been said but it's worth repeating.
 * Against Elite Shielding in the confined space, Covenant weapons are faster, but they also deplete more quickly too. You'll have to swap more often, but you'll be able to kill more quickly, giving you a chance to breathe during fights.
 * Try to let Jorge do a lot of the heavy lifting during the final fight. If you can get a good angle you can watch for shields to drop and kill Ultras with a single round.
 * Being sneaky on the bridge eliminates almost all the effort from this area. You can kill the General with the heavy weapons and make this whole area almost a walk.
 * Be careful of Grunts sneaking behind and sticking you. Keep an eye on your motion tracker.
 * Good Skulls here are Catch, Iron, and Thunderstorm.

Notes for Lower Difficulties

 * Your fighter is more forgiving in taking enemy fire, but keep an eye on your damage. You'll recharge quickly but you'll need to break off.
 * There seem to be more enemies on Heroic, but they are much easier to kill.
 * Use your DMR or Needle Rifle effectively. You can do significant damage, and there's plenty of ammo around for both.