Scarab (level)/Walkthrough

This section of the page is tips and strategies to help readers accomplish this level, particularly on the Legendary difficulty.

On Legendary, destroying the Scarab at the same time you protect your base, as well as not having your units completely destroyed before you scratch the surface of the Scarab's health bar can be extremely difficult. There are various ways to beat this mission on Legendary, that work just as well...

Note: while it is strongly encouraged for you to buy the Halo Wars Strategy Guide, do not feel that you are under bondage to do exactly what it says 100% of the time.

In the initial construction of your base, destroy your armory, and build a barracks in its place. Build all supply pads in any other open spots, except for one field armory.

Immediately start building marine squads, and upgrade them all of the way, as quickly as possible until you have reached maximum population. (even 40, once you buy the "reinforcements" upgrade from your field armory).

Note that there is no set way that you should do this, but you'll be advised to be destroying at least 2 or 3 power nodes before assaulting the Scarab.

From your field armory, buy "reinforcements", "booster shots", "reserves", and all of the "turret" upgrades. After you have done this, destroy your field armory and replace it with a supply pad, and make the supply pad heavy.

To prepare your base against the Covenant onslaught, upgrade 2 of your turrets to "flame mortar", and the other 2 to "rail gun". Also, lock your 2 Rhinos down to act as additional turrets.

Once you have all 40 population reached, basically all fully upgraded marines, you are ready to begin the attack. Send all of them in one massive wave, and run back and forth, from side to side of the Scarab as its head turns. Use your rocket abilities whenever you can. As your units are destroyed by the Covenant opposition, make your main waypoint at the position of the Scarab, and keep a steady flow of marines to aid in the battle. Make use of your MAC blast on the Scarab whenever you can.

As the level progresses, there will come a time when there is very little of the barrier protecting your base left. This calls for desperate measures. When your base is in actual danger of being destroyed by the Scarab, literally command your marines to stand in front of the blast to draw the Scarab's fire. The reason to build marines is because vehicles such as Warthogs and Scorpions are too big, and there are too few of them, so that the Scarab immediately blows through them. Marines, on the other hand, are whittled down more slowly, but it is still difficult on Legendary.

Keep on sending salvos of rockets, and reinforcing the assault, and eventually if done right, the Scarab will fall. Good luck...

General strategies

 * A tip which may help inexperienced commanders here is to divide and conquer. The basic strategy involves mass-producing Wolverine units and keeping them under cover, then have other forces attack the power nodes to cut off the Scarab's head movement while also erecting multiple Base Defense Turrets as well as other items to protect your site from enemy Locusts. When the Scarab's head cannot move, get your fleet of Wolverines right in front and have them launch barrages of missiles at the target to slow it down. Obviously, you must repeatedly improve your Wolverines to ensure that they are at the maximum level of upgrades so that defeating the enemies is a breeze.
 * A good way to destroy the power nodes is to train 9-10 Warthogs. Drive one pass all enemies until you get to the node, then fire a MAC blast onto it. If done properly, it should be a one hit kill.
 * There is a glitch in the level, which effectively gives you infinite time, if done properly. There is a garrisonable sniper tower - if you have the "New Blood" upgrade, garrisoning Marines in there will make the Scarab constantly fire at the tower. Due to the floating nature of the sniper tower, the Marines take no damage and an invisible wall stops the shot from penetrating. However, if you send a unit in the way of the Scarab's fire, it will return to normal and the glitch becomes useless. There are also spots near the Scarab where a squad of Marines can stand firing at the Scarab, while the Scarab beam always misses them; it's possible that the Scarab will keep firing at that squad of Marines for a long time.


 * The MAC blast may at times be unable to recharge. This gives you an extra shot afterwards.