The Package/Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for the Halo: Reach level The Package. It is written for play at the Legendary difficulty, but contains notes for lower difficulties. This is the ninth level of Halo: Reach. For this mission you are joined by Noble Team. Your Mission is destroy Sword Base to keep valuable information out of Covenant Hands. Or is it?. Your initial loadout for this mission is your trusty MA37 Assault Rifle and the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. It is important to note that as this walkthrough at the Legendary difficulty, all strengths of enemies reflected are at the Legendary level.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Before you run forward, grab your DMR and zoom in. Look at your enemies. You have two Shade turrets, two Ghosts (though one may be hidden at first it is there) a sniper in the Deployable lookout tower with a Focus Rifle and a plethora of Grunts with Fuel Rod Guns. Now you can go in and pick off your enemies at your leisure but if you want to make the next section a cake walk you'll have to do this fast, to keep your soldiers alive as long as possible. There is a building directly in front of you and you can enter from the back right side. This will bring you into a room that has decent cover and good vantage points for killing. turn to the right and move until you can see the low ground Shade. You should be able to easily snipe the Grunt in it before anything else starts. Turn left and quickly move to take the sniper in the Tower before he can really start on your troops. The next one is a little harder. The high ground turret is going to focus on you. At this point it is easiest to kill the grunt inside aim a little high of the center line and take out the Grunt with a head shot. You'd think the next move would be the Ghosts, but it's not. Concentrate on killing all the Grunts with Fuel Rod Guns. They'll do the most splash damage and kill your guys faster than the ghosts. If the opportunity arises quickly headshot the Ghost Grunts. Other than that once the Fuel Rod Grunts are dead you can hijack a ghost to kill the other one or Snipe them to death. Before you advance have a look around the Tower and in it. Grab the Focus Rifle for your Assault Rifle, not so much for the sniping ability as the zoom is going to be a great aid in the next section. If you have only one soldier left don't do anything with him, but if you have more than one you can give one or more Fuel Rod Guns. Make sure to leave at least one with regular weapons.

My Gun Is Bigger Than Your Gun
You will advance and find a Scorpion Main Battle Tank. The reason you left one of your guys without a Fuel Rod Gun was so that he will man the turret, if everyone has a Fuel Rod Gun, they just sit on the treads. While it is advantageous to have many Fuel Rod Guns, should your Scorpion take damage they are the first to die, where if you have someone in the turret they will last much longer and be able to provide support. Your Scorpion is like every vehicle, destructible and extra assistance will keep you intact for a greater period of time than on your own. So get in, your guys will hop on and you immediately want to hit the tower on the left, then back up and hit the tower on the right without going around the rocks. Edge around now aiming right, a Shade will become immediately visible. Kill it quick, then proceed. At the far end of the road here is another Shade and various baddies. Hit them at Range then move forward. Make sure any Elites are dead before proceeding. Although the Scorpion's shells are more accurate than the Wraith, the tank has a large dead zone where the main gun can't target enemies. If any Elites get close, you can easily be hijacked and killed. As you come to the turn you will be faced with several Ghosts, which you should blow into tiny little pieces. Proceed forward and there will be a turn left and you will see the first of the AA batteries you need to kill. However, unlike the previous time there is no need to attack the structure and kill it. Just start firing your 90mm Tungsten projectiles at them until they explode. Once both AA batteries are dead you will be attacked by Banshees this is where your troopers are most useful in keeping the enemy at bay long enough for you to kill them. There will also be a few ground enemies here but with some aggressive cannon fire and your turret gunner you will make short work of them. Next is another deployable lookout tower, destroy it and advance. There will be an outcropping of rocks here with more Ghosts for you to send flipping into the air. Now before you advance, it is important to note how to do it. One way will almost certainly render you without ground transport and with a high probability of being dead, the other should provide you with just enough of an advance that you can engage without getting slaughtered. Go around the rocks, clockwise, do not go through them. this will leave enough declination in your cannon to engage the Revenant. Once dead, do not advance. Get out of the Scorpion and pull up the Focus Rifle. Aim at the outcropping of rocks that should be directly at your 12 o'clock. Here there is a Fuel Rod variant Shade you can probably make out behind some trees. In the gully directly right of the Shade there is a Ghost. At your 2 O'clock there is another Shade. Hop back into your Scorpion and hit the Shades and Ghost. be careful not to advance to far. Do not clear the building on the left yet. once you've taken care of the first threats Turn your turret to the 10 O'clock high position and slowly advance. There is another Fuel Rod Shade up on the ridge. It's hard to notice until it starts shooting at you, but it is directly to the right of some Red/Maroon containers. Shoot a few rounds and wait. If you see Green, retreat then try again. Eventually you'll kill it, then pull out and turn left. There will be a Revenant waiting for you and a Shade at your 5 O'clock, but if you kill the Revenant quick, you can deal with the Shade at leisure. Hop out of your Scorpion because unfortunately you can't take it with you and go under the wall into the base.

This Used To Be Such A Nice Neighborhood
Bring out your DMR. Rejoin your team and help clear the exterior. Then head into the Garage, there are a couple of Plasma Turrets here. Term them and grab one. head to the right between the trucks and you'll find some ammo for your DMR. Head up and you'll come to a room with some Armor Locks, swap your sprint for now. There are going to be many Kig-yar in this room as you go up there are Majors, Minors and Snipers. Term them all with your DMR and move forward. As the top is the snipers' Focus Rifle which may have more ammo than yours, grab it and reload your DMR from the case on the right. Grab your sprint from the bottom because in a little bit it's going to be handy. head out and your going to come to the same large room you had to fight to the top in ONI: Sword Base, only now it looks like the day after a Superbowl victory party, only more charred. There are a number of Cloaked Spec-Ops Elites here. Wait for your team to reveal them and then finish them off. A Elite General will come out. Use your Focus Rifle to cook him crispy golden. Laugh with Glee at the ease of this mission and move on to detonate the facility.

The Lady Gave Us A Job To Do
Well, that sucked. Thought you were getting off easy huh? Not a chance. Get a move on, run over to the door (you kept the sprint for a reason. Load up your DMR off the Wall and if you want grab a M6G Pistol for your Focus Rifle, but if you're still over 50% you may want to keep it. Grab a Jet Pack off the wall and head away from the door to get to work. Activate the turrets using your jump jet to stay in the rocks for a straight line, in this order D, A, B, C then you have a choice to make. Choice A is to take the easy way out. Choice B is a little tougher, but Oh, so rewarding.

A. Ring Of Fire
Don't rejoin your buddies after activating the fourth turret. stay in the rocks between turrets B and C and pick off whatever you can see and hopping out only to reactivate the turrets creating a circle of death that will quickly annihilate the Covenant forces. Eventually you'll get to the point where there's a Wraith dropped to your left. Snipe the turret operator and then board and hijack it. Now drive around and kill everyone. Enjoy the carnage. Go to the door and head in. Another method is to go activate the turrets and retreat. Grab a Grenade Launcher and wait for a Banshee to attack you. EMP it and steal it. Fly high. Drop bombs. Laugh maniacally. Keep in mind that this strategy is only really plausible early in the fight when the Wraith isn't bombarding you and the turrets have the attention of the infantry. If you wait, hijacking a Banshee gets much harder.

B. Remember the Alamo
Once the last Turret is active go back to the defensive position at the door. Hold fast against the vast hordes of Grunts, Jackals, Brutes and Elites that assault. There is enough ammo and equipment at the door to hold off five times the number of enemies that appear here. You can use the Spartan Laser to finish off the General with the Energy Sword and open the door. Unfortunately because of your position, exiting to rearm turrets is problematic, as death is a distinct possibility. Stay in and use your DMR and the Grenade Launcher to kill. Once the General is down, Dr. Halsey will call for you to enter the lab.

Legendary Notes

 * The Scorpion is not invincible, don't take chances, fire lots of rounds into the areas ahead of you to clear them out. Especially if you don't have support troops on the turret and treads.
 * Watch for the explosive canisters, you can detonate them to help clear enemies in certain areas or they can kill you.
 * There's plenty of DMR ammo here, you can pretty much complete the level using only your DMR.
 * Your squad is ruthlessly efficient in the open spaces, let them stay to the front and bear the brunt of the attacks while you sit back and pick off the enemies that they leave weakened and stunned.
 * When in the cave, if you choose to defend the door, stay under the center in order to avoid being killed by Wraith Plasma or Phantom cannons.
 * If you can hijack a Banshee (as suggested by Emile-A239) you can strafe and clear the areas really quickly.
 * Good Skulls here are Catch, Thunderstorm, Tilt, Black Eye and Cloud. They make this level infinitely more challenging and leave you feeling like a god when you finish.
 * The Hologram can be an valuable aid in distracting the Jackals.
 * Using a Plasma Pistol to overcome shielding can increase your effectiveness for those who have difficulty with accuracy, or those short on ammunition.

Notes for Lower Difficulties

 * The only real difference between approaching this level on lower difficulties is that you can get away with jetting around, reactivating turrets during the firefights to assist in the killing.

Achievements

 * Tank Beats Everything- Reach ONI: Sword Base with your Scorpion intact on the Legendary Difficulty. There are many ways to achieve this, depending on your individual strengths as a player. You can use a second vehicle to complete then go back, you can walk (although this is really long and not reccomended) or just play through and use the tank as effectively as possible. One of the easier achievements to earn.