Part 1: The Devil His Due

In this mission, there are no Elites and a large number of Brutes. Furthermore, there is little DMR ammo, so you will not have enough ammo to remove every Brute’s helmet and then get a headshot with the DMR. For this reason, you will need to adjust your loadout to use other weapons to kill the Brutes. I wrote this walkthrough demonstrating how to play mainly using the Sniper rifle and gravity hammer as your secondary weapon. However, there are also plenty of assault rifles and shotguns scattered throughout the level, so use whichever loadout works best for you.

You begin this level with a 24 ammo magnum, 1 frag, sprint, and only 9 bars of health. You have just landed from orbit in the city New Alexandria after destroying the Covenant Cruiser and immediately begin assisting the evacuation efforts. You begin in a large plaza, which is the “Courtyard” multiplayer map. Turn to your right and head up to the top of the tower, where you will find more magnum ammo. Then head down the courtyard and exit through doors underneath the second floor ledge. After passing through a second door, you will see two Skirmisher minors and a Skirmisher major, so kill them with magnum headshots and take the more full plasma pistol as your secondary weapon.

Continue through a parallelogram shaped door to your left, and you will enter a dark corridor. A UNSC soldier over the radio will then warn you of suicide Grunts ahead, so swap to your magnum. You will soon be confronted by four suicide Grunts. As soon as you see the Grunts, immediately begin killing the closest Grunts with magnum headshots as you walk backwards down the corridor. If they begin getting too close to you, turn around and sprint back into the open plaza where you will have plenty of room to finish them off. As you continue down the corridor, you will be confronted by groups of two, three, and five more suicide Grunts. Use the same tactics as before to safely eliminate them as well. The corridor will eventually bring you to a slightly larger room with stars up to a second level. Here you will find six Grunts on the top level. As soon as they see you, some number of these Grunts will begin suiciding while the others will remain on the top level to shoot you. Stay in the corridor and first shoot the suicide Grunts, then kill any remaining Grunts on the top level. In a closet at the top of the stairway, you will find a health kit that you should use to restock the health you lost when falling from orbit.

As you exit to your left, you will come outside to find a handful of civilians and a spirit with Brutes inside. Step back inside to avoid damage until the spirit leaves. Once heading outside for the second time, you will find two marines attempting to protect some civilians from a Brute. Next to a marine carcass directly outside of the corridor, you will find two assault rifles and a magnum. Restock on ammo and trade your plasma pistol for an assault rifle, then help the marines finish off the Brute with this assault rifle.

Move up the stairs along the left wall, where you will find an 8 ammo sniper rifle, a Sprint crate, two assault rifles, a health kit, and two marines. Swap your assault rifle for the sniper rifle. Even when you are playing on Legendary, this powerful weapon is capable of killing both Brute Majors and Brute Minors with a single headshot. Below you will find five Brute minors, all of whom you should kill with sniper rifle headshots. Back up and use the elevation of your perch as cover when the Brutes return fire. Be sure to only shoot when you are positive that you will get a headshot because any leftover ammo will help you greatly in the next fight. One strategy I use to conserve ammo is to kill the last Brute with a sticky grenade, but only attempt this if you are an experienced grenade thrower, because if you miss, you will have no good weapons for killing the Brute up close.

If you are a poor sniper: I personally find it very difficult to headshot enemies with a sniper rifle, despite the higher accuracy and better zoom. However, I have developed some strategies which greatly help me, even with my poor aim. First of all, patience is the key. Although it may be too difficult for you to headshot a moving target, you should be able to at least follow them with your reticule while they are moving. Then, once they stop moving, move your reticule over their head and fire once you see a dot in your reticule. Be sure that the Brute is standing still long enough for you to hit it; it is very important that you hit with nearly every shot in this mission because your ammo level is quite low. Another key problem a beginning sniper may encounter is that you will stop zooming in once you have been shot. To avoid this, either constantly keep moving, or if this is too hard for you, stand in an area where only part of your body protrudes from behind your cover. Keep in mind that when standing in a higher position than you enemy, this can mean simply moving backward enough that only your head is visible to them, while their entire body is visible to you.

After finishing off all of the enemies in the plaza, jump down from your sniping perch and hug the left wall as you push forward. After you move far enough, three Skirmisher majors and a Brute minor will come out of the door to the right. Use the back wall with the trashcan symbol as cover, kill the Skirmishers with your magnum, and kill the Brute your sniper rifle. If necessary, there is a health kit, assault rifle, and frag grenade to the right of the food vendor building.

As you continue on through the door, you will come to a large indoor area with four marines, two health kits, a magnum, and many of assault rifles scattered across the floor area. First, run up the stairs to your left and kill the two Grunts directly in front of you in order to prevent them from flanking you in the future. Then return down stairs and snipe as many Brutes as possible while staying in this initial room. In the Courtyard ahead of you, there are three Grunts, three Jackals, five Brute minors, and one Brute major. Once you have expended all of your sniper ammo sniping Brutes, swap your sniper rifle for one of the many assault rifles on the floor. Sprint out of the room and into the first hallway to your left, where you will find a DMR crate with a 45 ammo DMR. Swap your magnum for the DMR. Continue up the staircase behind you and pick up more DMR ammo from behind tree planter. Using this as cover, pick of all of the enemies that you can see with your DMR. At this point, you have enough DMR ammo to pop of the Brutes helmets and then kill them with a headshot, although it is important that you hit with almost every shot.

Once you have killed all of the enemies that you can see from this cover, turn to your left and head up the staircase along the wall. Be prepared for one or two Brutes (depending on how many you killed before) to attack you as soon as you reach the top of the staircase. Kill them both with helmet and head headshots. After killing them, you have a good view of the remainder of the area, so can easily kill any remaining enemies with your DMR. After you have cleared out all of the enemies in the plaza, run back to the front of the room to restock on DMR ammo, then return to the elevator and restock on health from one of the health kits. Once you are fully rearmed, activate the elevator.

By activating the elevator, you trigger two phantoms to drop many more covenant outside. Sprint through the open door to the right of the elevator and detach the machine gun turret to your left. Then run into the inlet behind you along the left wall and drop the turret. At this time, one phantom will deploy directly in front of you, and the other will deploy from the side opposite of the elevator in the courtyard. The Phantom near you will initially deploy four Grunts and two Brute minors. From your inlet, you have the perfect angle to kill the Brute minors with helmet headshots as soon as they hit the ground. However, if you exit the inlet to kill the Grunts, the phantom’s turret will kill you, so only kill them if they cross in front of your line of fire. Meanwhile, the other phantom will deploy three Skirmisher majors, two Brute minors, and a Brute major with a gravity hammer. However, these enemies do not pose an immediate threat. The phantom near you will drop a Brute major with a gravity hammer and then leave. Depending on your preference, kill the Brute major either with a helmet and headshot combo or with your detached machine gun turret. Once killing him, trade your assault rifle for his gravity hammer. Finish off the Grunts from the first phantom, then kill any remaining enemies in the courtyard with either the gravity hammer, DMR, or detached turret. Once you have completely cleared the area, restock on health and enter the elevator, but be sure to bring your turret with you if it has any ammo remaining.

Part 2: Too Close to the Sun

Exit the elevator and move through the room to a damaged ledge overlooking a tangle of steel and cement structures. You will find a full DMR and shotgun crate on this ledge, so restock on DMR ammo. In front of you there are find three ODSTs fighting two banshees. Help them kill the banshees with any ammo left in your machine gun turret. Follow the ledge right to two more ODSTs, all equipped with jetpacks. Swap out your sprint armor ability for a jetpack in the storage room directly behind you. This is required to continue the level. Drop the turret and use the jetpack to follow the ODST group (the Bullfrogs) along the ledges. After jumping across the first few ledges, the remainder of the bullfrogs will join you. Stop on the last ledge before the large platform, on which you will see many covenant. The Bullfrogs will almost immediately try to rush forward, but you should stay back and kill as many covenant as possible from the ledge you are currently on. You should see six Grunt majors, one Grunt heavy with a fuel rod, two Jackals, and a Jackal sniper at the edge of the platform, all of which you can easily pick of with your DMR. Be sure to kill the Grunt heavy first. Once you have cleared out as many enemies as possible, jetpack across to the left side of the first floor and run into the dark tunnel in the left wall.

Follow this tunnel, and it will take you to the second level. Once you come up to the second level, six Brute minors and a Brute major with a gravity hammer will move towards you from farther back on this level. In addition, some of the initial infantry from before often retreat to these Brutes, and will now face you a second time. To eliminate these enemies, walk a few steps out the tunnel, kill a few enemies with headshots, and then run back into the tunnel for safety once your shields become low or the covenant throw a plasma grenade at you. If a Brute comes too close to the tunnel entrance, kill him with your gravity hammer. This strategy will take some time, but with some patience, it will be very successful. For optimal results, do not to stray too far from the tunnel entrance and to run back inside the tunnel immediately once your shields fall below 25%. Once you can no longer see any more enemies from the tunnel entrance, move forward up to the red cargo crate and use it as cover to eliminate any stragglers.

After you kill all of the covenant on this level, four more ODSTs will arrive to assist you, and more enemies will begin moving down from the floor above you. However, they will not move down to your level, so this provides a perfect opportunity to restock. Restock your health on the health kit on the far right corner of the second level and restock your DMR ammo from the DMRs of fallen Bullfrogs. If you are using an assault rifle or shotgun instead of the gravity hammer, there is an assault rifle and shotgun crate in the tunnel with the green arrow on the first floor, opposite of the tunnel you used before.

Once fully restocked, you can push farther up the complex. On the third to fourth level staircase, there are three Grunts, and on the fourth level, there are two Brute minors and a Brute major with a concussion rifle. First, pick off the Grunts on the stairs, and then either walk or jetpack up to the first room on the fourth floor. Use the same strategy that you used in the tunnel by stepping into the doorway and pulling as many helmet headshots as possible before hiding back in the room. I found that these Brutes are much more aggressive and are more likely to charge you, so if you see one charging, stand directly to the side of the door and gravity hammer it as it walks in. If you become injured during this fight, there is health kit near the stairs on the third floor and a health kit far back on the fourth floor, past the Brutes.

After clearing out all of these enemies, continue to the through the door at the far end of the fourth floor, where you will meet a marine. You will then walk into a large, multi-floor complex. As soon as you walk into it, turn directly around a jet pack up to the top floor. Exit through a door marked New Alexandria Concourse. You will come outside, where you will find four marines and an ODST attempting to evacuate many civilians. Up against one wall, you will find a large assortment of weapons, but I would suggest only taking the DMR. Assist the marines in killing the three Grunts and three Jackals that are attacking them.

After killing this small group of enemies, you will be confronted with a much more difficult task. You need to evacuate the civilians up the tower to the landing pad, but it is heavily guarded by covenant. In the area ahead of you, you will find a Grunt major, two Jackals, two Jackal snipers with focus rifles, and three Brute majors (two with concussion rifles and one with gravity hammer.) It is incredibly difficult to push up the main staircase due to the constant pressure of the concussion rifles and focus rifles, so you should instead take a much less guarded route. Run along the ledge until you come to the right side of the last planter. Here, jump and jetpack across to the other side. It is very important that you keep an altitude lower that the ledge you are trying to reach until the last second so that the Jackal snipers cannot shoot you while you are flying. Once you land, the enemies will begin to chase you, so run away from them until you see a turn in the wall marked with a blue sign with a five on it. Using the wall as cover, you can wait and kill all the enemies chasing you with your DMR and gravity hammer from here. Push forward and use the planters and blocks as cover to eliminate any remaining enemies. Swap your gravity hammer for the Brute major’s gravity hammer if it has more energy.

As you continue up the next flight of stairs, you will find six Grunts, a Jackal sniper with a focus rifle, and any enemies that retreated from the lower levels. Worst of all, there is a Brute chieftain with a fuel rod on the top level. Begin by killing all of the lighter infantry with your DMR from the cover of the first staircase. When the Brute chieftain fires his fuel rod at you, simply walk backwards a few steps and it will fly over your head. Once only the Brute is left, you will need to get close to him without him killing you with his fuel rod. Once you get close to him, he will be unable to shoot you without hurting himself, so you can easily kill him with your gravity hammer. To do this, run up to the wall to the right of the first staircase, and then jetpack up this wall between his shots. You can then take cove behind the black triangular wall here at the top of this ledge. The next time he stops firing to reload, run to the bench below the New Alexandria Concourse sign. Here, you are at too steep of an angle for him to shoot you. Carefully walk up the stairs and then charge him. Once you get close, he will no longer shoot you, so all you must do is hammer him three times to kill him.

Against the large planter, you will find a DMR, two health kits, two frag grenades, and an assault rifle. Restock on ammo as well as health if necessary. Continue across the bridge, where you will find three Grunt majors and two Grunt heavies with fuel rods. As usual, kill the Grunt heavies first. You will then come to the last fight of this section, in which you will need to clear the building in front of you and secure the landing pad. This is one of the hardest fights of this mission due to very poor cover and difficult enemies. Inside of the building, there are three Grunts, two Jackals, three Brute minors, and a Brute chieftain with a fuel rod. Outside on the landing pad, there are also two shade turrets, both operated by Grunt heavies.

First, enter through either of the side entrances. These will take you to the second floor of the building. Kill any enemies on the same floor as you, starting with the closest enemies first. Then, kill any enemies on the first floor, but do not attempt to kill the Brute chieftain. If possible, kill the Brutes with helmet headshots to avoid damage, but use your gravity hammer if they get to close. Do not walk outside, or else the shade turrets will easily kill you. If you need to restock on health or ammo, there is an assault rifle and shotgun crate, health kit, and frag grenade on the second level directly above the main door. There are also health kits along the wall in front of each side entrance. Midway through your fight, a phantom will drop two more Jackals and a Brute major with a gravity hammer on the landing pad. Stay on the second floor to kill them if they come inside, and if they stay outside, you can deal with them later. Once only the Brute chieftain remains inside of the building, you can safely kill it with your gravity hammer. Remember, it takes three hits too kill the Brute chieftain if you are playing on legendary. I find that the safest way to kill it is to jump down on top of it from the second level. As long as you stay close to the chieftain after your first hit, it will be unable to shoot you, and will only growl a lot. Now that the building is clear, you can kill each shade turret by quickly stepping outside, killing the Grunt with a headshot, then stepping back inside once the other shade turret returns fire. Finish any remaining enemies that stayed outside from the doorways as well.

After clearing out the shade turrets, two falcons and a pelican will arrive. The pelican will evacuate any surviving civilians, and the falcons will take you to your next fight.

Part 3: I Should Have Become a Watchmaker

Enter either of the machine gun turrets on either of the falcons and the pilot will fly you to a makeshift missile base overrun by covenant. On the way you will fly by many marines combatting covenant forces, whom you can assist by killing the most powerful covenant infantry and vehicles. All of these covenant forces will be focused on fighting the marines, so will be little threat to you. However, after around 1 minute 15 seconds, two to three banshees will fly behind you. Be sure to shoot them as soon as possible.

After around two minutes, you will arrive at a small outpost a short distance from missile batteries. Your falcon will hover for a while before landing, providing you time to kill the four Grunts two Jackals and in front of you. In the outpost, you will find three marines, plenty of ammo for many guns, and two health kits. In addition, falcons will deploy five more marines. Restock on health and DMR ammo and trade your secondary weapon for a plasma pistol from one of the Jackals or Grunts.

The area ahead of you is the “Beachhead” firefight mission. This area is surrounded by many covenant vehicles, so you will need to kill these first. Move forward and jump over the rocks into the shallow bay, where you will find a Grunt heavy operating a ghost to your left. If possible, kill the Grunt from a distance with your DMR, but if he is facing towards you, you will need to stun him with your plasma pistol and then jack the ghost. Either way, take control of the ghost and drive it into the garage labeled New Alexandria Caracalla Park so that no other enemies can renter it.

Head up the stairs to the right of the garage, and begin charging your plasma pistol as you walk up the last flight of stairs. Continue facing the door at the top of the stairs marked exit, and back into the door to your left. This will trigger two Brute chieftains, one with a gravity hammer and one with a fuel rod, to come out of the exit door. The gravity hammer chieftain will come first, so remove its shields and then stick it. As soon as you stick him, immediately back into the room so that the second chieftain cannot fuel rod you. Stand in front of the bench in this room and watch your radar to determine from which door the chieftain is entering. Escape through the other door, swap your plasma pistol for the first Brute chieftain’s gravity hammer, and then hammer the second chieftain as it exits the room you were in. Remember, it will take two to three hits depending on how much damage it took from the sticky you threw.

Continue out the door from which you did not enter. You will find one or two Grunts underneath the covered walkway below you. Kill them with your DMR and trade your gravity hammer for the more full plasma pistol. Notice where you leave your gravity hammer because you will need it in the future. Turn left and renter the ghost that you stored in the garage. Drive all the way to the water and hug this water line as you continue right until you will come to a wraith directly below the sky bridge. From the safety of the rocks, kill the Grunt gunner with your DMR. Then, jetpack towards the wraith at around 15 feet of the ground as you charge your plasma pistol. This way, the wraith will be unable to hit you. Once you achieve a lock-on, stun the wraith and then plant a grenade to kill it.

Renter your ghost and continue to hug the waterline. You will come to a second wraith somewhere next to the second missile battery, although its position will vary due to how it chose to move past its spawn point. Kill this wraith using the strategy described above. Shortly after killing the second wraith, a ghost will come from the main building to kill you. Hid in the rocks, stun it with your plasma pistol, and then jack it when it gets close. With your first ghost, drive it off the edge into the water, jumping out at the last second. This will prevent any other covenant from entering it. Then enter the second ghost you jacked and drive it back to the same garage as before. Now that you have cleared away the largest enemy threats, you can retake the missile batteries.

First, trade your plasma pistol for the gravity hammer you had before. Continue down the covered walkway towards the first missile battery. Around the missile battery, you will find up to seven Grunts, two Brute minors, and a Brute major. However, depending on the success of the marines and/or the Grunts you killed for their plasma pistols, there may be less Grunts. Using the pillars holding up the covering as cover, DMR snipe as many Grunts, Brutes, and Jackals as possible. If it is too difficult for you to kill the Brutes from this distance, only focus on the Grunts and Jackals for now. Once you have killed all of the visible enemies, continue moving forward, but remained zoomed in with your DMR so you can quickly kill any more enemies that move out of cover. Once you come close to the battery, run behind either of the two planters directly in front of the walkway. From here, you will have a perfect shot at any remaining light infantry. Kill any remaining Brutes with your gravity hammer.

Now you are safe to activate the first missile battery. This triggers a falcon to deploy four marines at your position. Around the battery, you will find a health kit, a DMR, assault rifle, and magnum crate, frag grenades, an active camouflage and drop shield crate, and a rocket launcher. Restock on DMR ammo and health. You may wish to swap your jetpack for a drop shield if you find you are frequently losing health. You may also want to swap your gravity hammer for a rocket launcher if you find that you are more experienced with this weapon.

After fully restocking, you will need to reactivate the second missile battery. Jetpack up to the sky bridge. Somewhere in the middle of the bridge, you will see a Brute chieftain with a plasma launcher. Run towards him and dodge any plasma grenades he shoots or throws at you. However, once you get within around 25 feet, you will be too close to doge. Jetpack over the side of the bridge, and continue to jetpack towards him while using the glass siding as cover. Once you reach him, jetpack over the siding once again, land next to him, and kill him with your gravity hammer. At this point, you are too close for him to shoot or stick you.

Stop at around halfway across the bridge. From here, you have a good position to DMR snipe the covenant defending the second battery. You will find two Jackals, two Brute minors, and a Brute major with a gravity hammer. You will need to kill all of these enemies with your DMR before you move up because you have no cover when crossing the second half of the bridge. If your shields fall below 25%, walk backwards and the curvature of the bridge will protect you.

Once all of the covenant defending this missile battery are dead, move across the bridge and activate the second missile battery. To the left of it you will find an assault rifle and shotgun crate and a health kit. More importantly, if you head back towards the main building, you will find an eight ammo sniper rifle next to a barricade with which you should swap your gravity hammer.

All that remains is to fire the missile batteries to destroy the corvette. However, activating the second battery triggered both a spirit to drop off reinforcements and for more covenant to spawn within the base. In total, you will have to kill the following; three Grunts, two Jackals, three Skirmishers, two Brute minors, and two Brute majors with concussion rifles. In addition, a second spirit will drop a ghost directly behind you. The Skirmishers will immediately rush you, so kill them with your DMR. Next, kill the ghost by repeatedly shooting the top of the Grunt’s methane pack with your DMR until it ruptures. Move out onto the sky bridge and kill the Brutes with your sniper rifle and the light infantry with your DMR. This is by far the best sniping position because the spirits do not shoot you as they leave and you are too far away for the infantry to return fire at you. Once you have killed as many enemies as possible, follow the walkway and jetpack onto the large glass cover. From here, you have a clear shot at any of the remaining enemies, and you can simply walk backwards for cover. Once you have killed all of the covenant protecting the base, trigger the missile batteries from the room that you fought the chieftains in earlier. These missiles successful take down the corvette, concluding the Exodus mission of the campaign.