IWHBYD skull (Halo 3)

Were you looking for the Halo 2 Skull?

"I would have been your daddy, but a dog beat me over the fence."

- Sergeant Johnson



In Halo 3, the IWHBYD (I Would Have Been Your Daddy) Skull is located on the level The Covenant. To get this skull, you must start at the beginning of the mission, and be playing on the difficulty level of either Normal, Heroic, or Legendary.

The name of the skull is based on a statement, uttered by Sergeant Johnson in the first Halo: "I would have been your daddy, but a dog beat me over the fence!" It is also the name of the first chapter of the campaign level Assault on the Control Room in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Walkthrough
In order to get the IWHBYD skull, you must complete the entire mission The Covenant until you reach the final battle scene, where the Prophet of Truth is planning on lighting all seven rings. Once you reach the bridge, battle your way across with the Arbiter and Flood, neutralize all Covenant, watch/skip the cinematic, and kill all the Flood (this is optional, but makes the procedure much easier). Once the bridge is devoid of enemies, you will have to literally jump through the 7 rings in a complex order. Once you have completed this, the IWHBYD skull will appear at the beginning of the light bridge leading to Truth's podium. Make sure you do not touch the rings or jump through them before you kill Truth.

Each number corresponds to the ring you must jump through. The ring at the elevator is 1. The ring next to Truth is 7. The ring with red on it is 4. (Be aware that the order in which the rings are numbered for this sequence does not represent their actual installation number. In fact, the ring closest to the elevator is Installation 07)

Sequence order: 4, 6, 5, 4, 5, 3, 4. The sequence is 7 rings long. This is another 7 reference.

Once you have completed the sequence, the skull will appear at the beginning of the light bridge leading to Truth's podium. If you are not sure you got it then look at the rings when you complete the sequence, they will be blinking. The Halo theme will play as you get the skull. You must then finish the level, or the skull will not be saved to your profile and you will have to get it again.

Each of the holographic rings sound a different tone of the E Dorian scale when you stand near it. The sequence, if you pay attention, plays part of the Halo theme song. Also, the rings in the citadel are holographic projections of the 7 Halo installations, the fourth being the newly reconstructed (and unfinished) Installation 04, the yet-to-build areas indicated by the red-glowing sections.

FAQ
Q. I still can't get the Skull! What am I doing wrong?

A. You must kill the Prophet and then jump through the rings in the correct order. This page once stated the opposite; You can only achieve the skull after you have stopped the rings from firing.

The three most common mistakes with the Skull are:
 * Doing the level on Easy. You must do it on Normal, Heroic, or Legendary for the skull to appear.
 * Starting the level from Rally Point Alpha or Bravo. You must start from the beginning of the level.
 * Jumping through the rings in the wrong order.

Q. I successfully got the skull, but it's not recorded as an Achievement on my screen name, and it doesn't seem to play any of the new dialogue. What am I doing wrong?

A. When you get the skull, you must finish the level to have the skull afterwards. However, you are probably not noticing the new dialogue. It's there, all right. The reason you do not get an Achievement is because it is a silver skull, not a gold skull. Check your skull page to make sure you have it activated.

Q. I got the skull and then I quit, but when I tried to turn it on, is said it was locked, what am I doing wrong?

A. You must finish the rest of the level to unlock the skull.

Q. What is the origin of the sequence, was the pattern picked at random, or is there some meaning behind it? And had the hackers not found the code how would the public know about it, cane you find the code subliminally in the campaign?

A. According to www.cheatcc.com "This is the Halo theme if it was played on a phone by dialing the numbers."

Effect
The IWHBYD Skull unlocks the extra dialogs in the game, which usually comes from the UNSC Marines and Elites, but some ridiculous dialogs does come from enemy forces with this skull on. For example if in a group of two Brutes one is killed, the remaining Brute has a chance to say "You killed my lover!" Here is a list of quotes from their respective races. However, there are much more quotes than what are being listed.

Strategies

 * Kill all enemies before you attempt the sequence.
 * Do not kill your Flood allies until all Covenant are dead, they will help a lot with the fighting.
 * An easy way to wipe them out is to melee them right off the bat and then use lesser weapons for mop-up (save the Fuel Rod Cannons and Brute Shots for later).
 * Take this chapter of the level extremely slow and wipe out all enemy turned Flood, especially on Legendary so that you can complete the "ring-jumping" sequence unharmed.
 * A good idea is to get the skull after you have killed Truth and all of the Flood.
 * A good idea is to play on Normal if the Flood or the Covenant are too hard.

Trivia

 * The skull was intended to be the hardest skull to find. However, it was discovered very quickly by hackers.
 * Many players are confused by the order in which the rings are numbered for this sequence. The IWHBYD ring numbering does not represent their actual installation number. In fact, the ring closest to the elevator is Installation 07.
 * The ring sequence was originally thought to have been much longer than it actually is.