Detailed walkthrough for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, covering mission objectives, enemy encounters, and essential tips for each level, starting with 'The Pillar of Autumn'.
Before starting the walkthrough, there are some things you should know. Before starting a level, you can choose 1 of 4 difficulties to play the level on, between Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. If you are new to this game, try it out on Easy or Normal, which is what I did. Heroic is obviously a step up from Normal, and it's a little more fun to play on. Legendary is what it says - enemies fire more quickly and accurately, and Elites are a lot harder to kill. And don't expect your marines to be much help either.
Another thing you should note if you are new to this game is how your health works. At the beginning of the game, you will get your health and shields set up. It will look like this in the top right hand corner of the screen.
The 8 boxes above are your health. These will not be affected until your shields, which is the rectangular, pistol looking shape above, has run out. When you get hit, your shields will drain, and when they get low, they will make beeping sounds. Don't worry, your shields will recover automatically after a few seconds to full. They will recover if lowered as well. But ones your shields drain out, you will be vulnerable to attacks. Your health will go down when hit, and you'll lose a health bar if hit enough. You can recover these with Health Packs found throughout the game. So when your shields drain, take cover and let them recharge before attacking again. With that, let's move onto the walkthrough.
8a. The Pillar of Autumn
Objective: Escape Intact as Covenant Forces board your ship.
In the Pillar of Autumn, you, the Master Chief, will be woken up from Cryo Sleep after Planet Reach has fell to the Covenant. Being in the Pillar of Autumn and being your first level, you will learn the basics of this game, what to do, and how to play and such.
Cutscene
First you will get a glance of outer space and the Pillar of Autumn will come flying in. You'll get a view inside the bridge and you'll hear Captain Keyes and Cortana talking about how the Covenant escaped from Reach faster than they did, as Covenant ships are faster. Cortana will also mention how Covenant forces will be all over the Pillar of Autumn in about 90 seconds. Captain Keyes will combat alert the ship.
You will get to see the marines, vehicles, and Pelicans in the next cut scene (How did that first one get plasma swords?). Now, you'll see Sergeant Johnson yelling at a group of marines. If you are playing on Legendary, he will scream out something more different and with language in it. Now, after he talks, you'll be taken to the Cryo room. The technicians will thaw you out and you will wake up.
Note for Difficulties
The following two paragraphs are for when you're playing on Easy, Normal, or Heroic. If you're playing on Legendary, skip the next to paragraphs. On Legendary, you won't do the shielding testing or the looking test. You'll start the level with your shields, health, and motion tracker already online. On Easy, Normal, and Heroic, you won't get your motion tracker until much later in this level.
Before you get out of the tube, your health will be put online so you'll be able so see them. Now hit your action button to get out of the tube. As you get out of the tube, take the time to run around, look around, and to get used to the controls as well. Now follow the technician in this room and you'll see a red square. Step into this red square and face the 5 yellow lights on the wall. The object is to look up and down at each of the 5 lights. They will turn green once looked at. When you have all 5 green, your mouse settings will be changed to inverted. Look at the lights in inverted mode. If you want to remain inverted, hit your action button. If you like it the normal way, hit Escape and THEN your action button to change it back.
With that out of the way, follow him to the other end of the room, and there will be a yellow square. Step in the middle of it and let the technicians put your shields online. Once they are fully charged, hit your action button and they will discharge your shields and show you how they work. Now get out of this yellow square and Captain Keyes will request you to get up to the bridge immediately. Elites will break into the upper room and kill the technicians up there. Now to exit this room and start our way through the beginning of the game.
Mission Objectives
- Find Captain Keyes on the Bridge
Follow the technician and he will unlock the door, so enter it. Turn right in this hall. Now there will be an explosion that will kill him and jam the door, so let's go through the opening to the left. Jump over the pipes and go into the opening in front of you. In here, turn right and enter the door across from you. Enter the door across from you in this hallway and you will be in a bigger room. Turn left and you will see a door that is half open. Crouch under this door using your crouch button to get under it. There are Elites to your left, but the door will shut on them. Turn right and go through the first door to your left. In here, enter the door across from you. There may be an Elite in front of you, but there are marines to take it out. Head left and follow this hallway to an opening. You'll get to a room with more marines fighting. Head through the opening in front of you, and a marine will guide you to the bridge, but ignore him. You'll be in a room with marines on their "break". Just head through the entrance at the other side of this room, as there is nothing else special in this area.
In this hallway, head left and you'll see an entrance to
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