The Package/Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for the ninth level of Halo: Reach, The Package. It is written for play at Legendary and Heroic difficulty. Your initial loadout is a M392 DMR and MA37 assault rifle.

Level Notes

 * The glassing of Reach has lit up the atmosphere and scorched the surface, and a result everything looks brown and black. Turn up the brightness in the gameplay options to make the level easier to see.
 * Musical cues are your friend in this level. Use the music to know when a new wave is coming.
 * NOBLE Team is of limited help here. Because some parts of the level are so cramped, they tend to bunch up together. This also holds true for the lab defense, as they will not leave the holdout area. That said, they can whittle down enemies on their own, even on Legendary. Jun's sniper rifle will be the most useful for weakening troublesome targets.
 * You might be familiar with the method of hijacking a Wraith by leaping into the gunner seat to force out the driver. In this level that doesn't work. You'll have to break the cockpit door and kill the driver, leaving the Wraith a little damaged and you a bit more vulnerable. Stand on top of the Wraith and killing the driver, don't use the board command, and melee the door then the driver. This way is slower but will damage the Wraith less than boarding.
 * Each difficulty has less waves than the higher one. Normal has three, Heroic has four, and Legendary has five.

Heavy Defenses

 * Carter-A259 (COM): "Covenant own this sector now. They are defending for a full major strike, not a small-group infiltration. Eliminate all hostile ground air-defense so the rest of Noble can land at Sword Base for the torch-and-burn. Keep a low profile - we'll take them by surprise, this will be a hell lot easier."

The start of the level puts back at Farragut Station, but not as you remember it from ONI: Sword Base. The area has flooded and there's tight Covenant defenses. Looking out from the ridge, you'll see two Shade turrets, a Ghost driven by a Grunt, three Heavy Grunts with Fuel Rod Guns, a lookout tower with a Jackal Sniper, and many more Grunts behind what was the comms building. You have three Orbital Drop Shock Troopers as teammates, but they won't last long against all those turrets or Ghost. As for yourself, you have enough DMR ammo, a Hologram armor ability in the building in front, and the high ground.

Your first plan is to stay back and pick off everything you can from up here. As soon as you drop down from the cliff you're on, the Covenant will be alerted and your teammates will rush ahead and get themselves killed. The cliff is pretty narrow and invisible walls prevent you from climbing higher, but you still have a decent amount of room to shoot at the Shade turrets and the Jackal sniper. It's also harder for them to shoot you at this distance, though still easy enough if you stay put while they shoot. Also look for the Fuel Rod Grunts. You'll be able to headshot two of them for now; the third is behind the generator building and can't be seen yet. Also see if you can kill the Ghost's driver. This is much harder because it doesn't stop moving and because the Grunt driving it has his head protected by its cockpit. So aim carefully with bodyshots, and you might possibly take him out. If you can't from here, move up into the comms building and use the Hologram there to distract it.

Once the Ghost is dead, move up. There's still a lot of Grunts left, including one more Fuel Rod Grunt. Your teammates will cross the lake and attack the Grunts from the right, so you can either join them or come from the left as a flanking maneuver. Sometimes they'll even drive the Ghost, which can be pretty helpful. When you hear Emile and Jun start chatting over the comm, that means everything's dead. Hand Fuel Rod Guns to your teammates before they run off to the next area, grab a plasma pistol for yourself, restock on DMR ammo before heading off with them.

A Spare Tank

 * Carter-A259 (COM): "Might be a Scorpion still operational, Six. Check it out."

Unlike the tank sections in Halo 3, the Scorpion should be used with caution than with reckless abandon. It responds to enemy fire more, having weaker armor and a screen heating effect when it's shot at. It's more powerful than in Halo 3 but has a slightly slower firing rate, and your teammates, even armed with Fuel Rod Guns, don't have much effective range. The key word of this area is vigilance. Stay alert of everything coming and shoot before you can get shot at.

Anyway, first headshot the Grunt gunner on the lookout tower overlooking the Scorpion. Then jump in and slowly go around the boulder it's parked at. On the other side is a Shade turret, past it is another, and then past them is a bunch of Elite and Grunt infantry. Coming down the mountain after them will be two Ghosts. Try to engage everything one at a time and watch your reticle for when it turns red. Corners and boulders are ideal cover, and if you see an glowing blue explosive plasma batteries, shoot them to mop up infantry with them. Once they're all destroyed, drive up the mountain to where Airview Base used to be.