HALO 3 (XBOX 360) - Skull Guide version 1.00 - 10/03/2007 created by: spooky8170 randy.choy@gmail.com ______________________________________________________________________________ Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Introduction....................................................[INTRN] 2. Gold verses Silver skulls.......................................[VS] 3. Unlocking skulls................................................[UNLCK] 4. Gold skulls.....................................................[GLD] 4.1 Iron skull..................................................[IRN] 4.2 Black Eye skull.............................................[BLKEYE] 4.3 Tough Luck skull............................................[TGHLCK] 4.4 Catch skull.................................................[CTCH] 4.5 Fog skull...................................................[FG] 4.6 Famine skull................................................[FMN] 4.7 Thunderstorm skull..........................................[THNDR] 4.8 Tilt skull..................................................[TLT] 4.9 Mythic skull................................................[MTHC] 5. Silver skulls...................................................[SLVR] 5.1 Blind skull.................................................[BLND] 5.2 Grunt Birthday Party skull..................................[BDAY] 5.3 Cowbell skull...............................................[CWBLL] 5.4 IWHBYD skull................................................[DDDY] 6. Closing.........................................................[CLSNG] ______________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction [INTRN] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Whether you find the campaign Legendary mode lacking challenge, or if you are obsessed with collecting and achievements then it's time to go skull hunting. The main reason I'm writing this guide is because there seems to be a lot of confusion on how to acquire the IWHBYD skull. It's been the hardest skull to find and you need all 13 to unlock the Hayabusa helmet. I submitted this guide to Gamefaqs but it was rejected because they already had much of this info under their cheats and secrets sections. Unfortunately much of the submitted info there is very vague. This guide will tell you exactly how to acquire each skull. If you want the highly coveted katana, then you need to unlock all of the achievements in addition to collecting all 13 skulls. ______________________________________________________________________________ 2. Gold verses Silver skulls [VS] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are 13 skulls total. 9 are gold skulls which make the game more difficult. The other 4 are the silver skulls. They don't really make the game anymore difficult but more fun/interesting with their effects. Gold skulls unlock achievements and silver skulls do not. Cosmetically the gold skulls have a gold/yellowish color. The silver skulls have a silver/gray color. If you collect any 5 skulls you'll unlock the Hayabusa chest armor. Any 9 for the Hayabusa shoulders. All 13 and you'll get everything inclusing the helmet. ______________________________________________________________________________ 3. Unlocking skulls [UNLCK] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unlock a skull you must start at the beginning of the level and not at an Alpha or Bravo checkpoint. You can however die and respawn at a checkpoint. You must also play the campaign on Normal, Heroic or Legendary. The skulls will not appear on Easy. When you locate a skull, walk up to it and press the RB button as if you were picking up a weapon. If it's a gold skull then the achievement message will pop up and you will have unlocked it. If it's a silver skull, obviously no message will pop up because there are no achievements linked to them, but you will still get credit for it. If you are playing co-op, your partners do not need to pick up the skull. Once someone picks up the skull, even if they already unlocked it themselves earlier, the achievement window will pop up for anyone in your party who haven't unlocked it yet. Once you pick up the skull you can immediately quit and save the game and when you go to edit the campaign settings you will see that the particular skull has been unlocked, EXCEPT FOR THE IWHBYD skull! More on that one later. ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. Gold skulls [GLD] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ These are the skulls that ratchet up the difficulty and come with 10 achievement points each. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.1 Iron skull [IRN] Level: Sierra 117 Effect: If you die you will have to start over from the beginning of the level. If you are playing co-op and someone dies, then the entire party starts over from the last checkpoint. Difficulty: 2/5 How to acquire: This is located on the section where you need to rescue Johnson and his men. You start off at the cave opening where you can freely snipe the Covenant who are down below. Once you hop down you have to make your way across a bridge. On the other side are a bunch of Covenant and a hammer chieftain. On the right side of the bridge at the far end is a large concrete block with a couple Jackals. That's where you want to head. You can either choose to rescue Johnson first and then mop up or go straight for the skull. When you've cleared enough Covenant, hop up on that block the Jackals were on. Then hop up on the catwalk and make you way all the way around. At the very end in a nook will be the skull. If you don't understand which block it is, after you save Johnson the Pelican you eventually leave in appears. If you are facing the rear of the Pelican, the place you have to jump up to is to the left of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.2 Black Eye skull [BLCKEYE] Level: Crow's Nest Effect: Your shield will not regenerate unless you melee an enemy. Difficulty: 1/5 How to acquire: This is the easiest and fastest skull to get. At the start of the level you are in the Ops center. Head to the back of the room (towards the locked door with the red light; away from the big computer monitor). If you look up there is a huge gray AC duct and a red scaffold that runs underneath it. Hop up on the scaffold and then on the AC duct. Walk to the end of it to collect your skull. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.3 Tough Luck skull [TGHLCK] Level: Tsavo Highway Effect: Enemies become much more elusive. They dodge just about everything; especially grenades. Difficulty: 3/5 How to acquire: You'll be cruising around in a Warthog and have to assault the shielded tunnel. After you deactivate the shield or just run through it, head to the end of the tunnel. When you exit it there will be a long pipe that runs parallel to the highway on your left. Hop up. A little ways down there will be a yellow fence. Like those you see by bridges to keep people from climbing around on the pipes. It may take an attempt or two but hop over it. Now immediately to your left and down there is a brown concrete walkway that extends over the chasm. Jump down to it. As you walk along you will see a small landing to your left that's part of the rock wall. Jump to it to get your skull. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.4 Catch skull [CTCH] Level: The Storm Effect: It's a grenade fest. Enemies and NPCs throw nades at a much higher frequency. You can also loot more grenades from their bodies. Difficulty: 4/5 How to acquire: After you open the gate to let your allies in, mop up any remaining Covenant and Ghosts. Open up the next gate and immediately kick out the driver of the Warthog. Drive out and head down the ramp on your left. There a quick conversation between Hood and Keyes. Race underneath the small bridge past the Grunt piloted Ghosts and the anti-air Wraith. Behind the Wraith is a silo (There are 2 here. This is 2/2). Park behind it in the silo's shadow and wait. A couple Ghosts eventually attack you and your gunner kills them. Soon a Phantom comes and drops off another anti-air Wraith in the back corner on the platform as well as a couple more Ghosts. Wait in the shadow for the Ghosts and your gunner will take them out as well. The reason you are in the shadow is because your gunner can't target either Wraith from there and the Wraiths can't target you as well. If either Wraith is destroyed the skull disappears, you should just suicide to try again. After all of the Ghosts are destroyed get out of the Warthog. If you wander off, the passenger Marine will get out and drive the Warthog and destroy the Wraiths. But when you get out, melee both Marines to death. If you shoot them instead you may accidentally destroy your Warthog. Your objective is to get to the top of the silo where the skull is. You have a few options. Either grenade jump (but you could die and have to start over) or climb up on vehicles. There are certain sides of the silo where the ground is higher and easier to jump up. But you are exposed to the Wraiths. Sometimes they will just ignore you, but sometimes a gunner will pop out and start shooting at you. What I did was grab a few Ghosts and stack them up. Then I took the Warthog and drove on top on them like a monster truck rally. Hop up and collect your prize. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.5 Fog skull [FG] Level: Floodgate Effect: Your motion radar is deactivated. Difficulty: 3/5 How to acquire: At the beginning of the level make your way to the city. If you look up and to the right on one of the rooftops you'll see a Flood beastie make a Neo building leap. He has the skull. You start off with a battle rifle. Pick him off just as he is about to make the jump. Too soon and he drops the skull on the inaccessible rooftop. Too late and he drops it beyond your reach. If you hit him as he starts his jump, the skull will go flying and land on the street below. Make sure you track it with your scope to see where it lands. It may take you a few tries, but if you fail you can reload the last checkpoint just outside of the city. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.6 Famine skull [FMN] Level: The Ark Effect: Ammo is scarce. When you loot ammo from bodies there isn't much so you need to make every shot count. Difficulty: 5/5 How to acquire: After you get past the Hunters, through the Forerunner base, you'll come across some Marines who have been seperated from their vehicles. Hop on a Mongoose and take off past everything. When you get to a big opening it will lead up to a bridge with a well guarded closed gate that the Monitor eventually opens later in the campaign. Instead of heading into this big area, hang a right. In the campaign you go this direction and later double back with a Scorpion tank, but this is where the skulls is. After you make the right there will be 2 Grunt piloted Ghosts. Take them out. You will be underneath a non-descript portion of a bridge. Hop around the rocks to get up on the bridge. Now head left to the far end. Part of the bridge's architecture extends out. There are two outcroppings. The second on the far end has the skull. You will have to do a grenade jump to reach it though. Toss a grenade (preferably plasma) at the point where the outcropping and bridge meet (not on the slanted decline) and then make a jump out towards the ledge where the skull is. If you did it right you will be propelled to the ledge. If you mess up and fall, just reload your last save which should be at the point where you hop up on the bridge. It's a little tricky but eventually you'll get it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.7 Thunderstorm skull [THNDR] Level: The Covenant Effect: All enemies are upgraded to their highest forms; captains, chieftains, etc. Difficulty: 2/5 How to acquire: After you deactivate the barrier in the first tower you hop into a Hornet. Fly to the second tower that was deactivated by the Arbiter. The outside of the tower has a lower and upper landing. You can park your Hornet on the lower level and just run up or park directly on the second level. From there run up the long narrow walkway that extends away from the tower to get the skull. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.8 Tilt skull [TLT] Level: Cortana Effect: You need to kill enemies the hard way. Basically you use plasma based weapons to knock off shields and then bullets to finish them off. Going about it any other way makes killing enemies a lot harder. Difficulty: 5/5 How to acquire: In the third main chamber (you drop into it and there is an energy sword on the floor) kill everything. A little annoying with those Flood that shoot at you and corpses continually reanimate. Head to the center of the platform. To you left and above you can see some mushroom like platforms. The lower platform group has 3 mushroom ledges. From there you need to jump to the second platform group that's higher and has 2 ledges. Once you are there run up that walkway that leads to the skull. These jumps are irritating. The way that I did is if you are facing the first platform group look to the right of it. Slightly below is a purple terminal like thing. You can actually jump on the tip of the gravestone looking part to get as high as possible. From there you can jump to second ledge on the first platform group. Then jump up to the third ledge on the first platform group. Now comes the tricky part. You have to get to the very edge of the third platform. If you don't, then you'll bump your head on the ceiling and fall all the way down. If you get on the very edge you can jump to the second set of mushroom platforms. From there it's a hop, skip and a jump to the skull. Run up the walkway to get to the roof of the center purple platform below. Get your skull. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.9 Mythic skull [MTHC] Level: Halo Effect: All enemies are buffed and have 2x their normal health. Difficulty: 1/5 How to acquire: Another fast easy skull find. You start outside the crashed Pelican. Run up the snow covered mountain and hug the right side. This will lead to a small nook that would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. It's right there. Cake. ______________________________________________________________________________ 5. Silver skulls [SLVR] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are no achievements linked to these skulls, but they make the game a little more fun and interesting. Plus you need them if you want to get all of the cool Hayabusa armor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5.1 Blind skull [BLND] Level: Sierra 117 Effect: Completely shuts off your HUD. Difficulty: 2/5 How to acquire: After you rendezvous at the pond, you'll fight one group of Covenant and then a Phantom will drop more off. When you've mopped up head to the spot where the drop ship came. This is past the bunker on your right that has a ladder. You will end up at the lake shore. To your right you can hop up to a narrow path. If you look down, at the tip of a rock is the skull. Hop down to pick it up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5.2 Grunt Birthday Party skull [BDAY] Level: Crow's Nest Effect: Every head shot to a Grunt will cause them to burst with confetti to children's delight. Good times. Difficulty: 3/5 How to acquire: After you see the bomb in the Ops center you are sent to rescue marines in the barracks. When you get to a tunnel with holes on the side, drones will pop in and out like an old Scooby Doo cartoon where they randomly run back and forth in different holes. I suggest killing them first. The easiest way is to run to the end of the tunnel and turn around. They will all pop out and just mow them down. You should now be standing at the mouth of an opening. Below you is a big fan. The skull is in a hidden room directly beneath you. Edge very slowly to the ledge. If you look down you can even see a green arrow pointing to the inside of the room. As you carefully inch off the ledge pull back towards the hidden room when you drop down to slide inside. The skull is just laying on the floor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5.3 Cowbell skull [CWBLL] Level: The Ark Effect: Master Chief has a fever and the only cure is well... explosions that would make Michael Bay proud. Everything that can go boom goes big. Difficulty: 4/5 How to acquire: After killing the Scarab go into the outdoor bunker and pick up a grav lift. After you beat down a bunch of sleeping grunts you'll soon start heading down a series of spiraling ramps. When you get to the base of first one, look up. You'll see 4 different shelves stacked on top of each other. If you toss the grav lift on the flat base of the first staircase you can't get high enough. The skull is on the top shelf. Instead toss the grav lift about 1-2 feet on the slanted incline. Then go back up the incline and jump into the grav lift towards the shelves to get a little extra lift. If you did it right the lift will propel you high enough and your forward momentum should carry you to the highest platform to get your prize. It may help to crouch jump (press the left stick at the last second for a few more inches of clearance). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5.4 IWHBYD skull [DDDY] Level: The Covenant Effect: This unlocks some additional cutscene dialogue but more importantly unlocks the Hayabusha helmet. Difficulty: 5/5 How to acquire: I Would Have Been Your Daddy is what this guide is all about. It's not the hardest skull to get, but it's by far the longest and most confusing. You have to play through the entire level. When you team up with the Flood, you fight your way across a long bridge towards the Prophet of Truth. If you look up you'll notice a series of blue neon glowing rings. The bridge is divided into 3 chambers by sliding doors. The first chamber houses rings #1 and #2. The second chamber houses rings #3, #4, and #5 (note: ring #4 is easy to identify because at the 3 o'clock position it's red instead of blue. Finally the third room houses rings #6, #7 and where the Arbiter executes Truth. First kill everything. Kill all of the Covenant, Truth, and then fight your way back plowing through the Flood. Kill everything. Even the little annoying Flood that reanimate corpses. When you get all the way back a few more of those buggers will drop from the ceiling. Go up to the glowing blue portal but don't go in yet. If you've killed everything the Flood music should stop (On one run one Flood zombie ran away and it screwed the next part up until I doubled back and killed him and re-did the jumps described below). Now you need to go back and jump through these rings in this order: #4, #6, #5, #4, #5, #3, #4 It does not matter which direction you jump through them. Supposedly they play the final notes to the Halo theme song and the entire song should play if you did it right, but I heard nothing both times I did it. You know that you did it correctly when all of the rings start blinking white. If you messed up I recommend you just suicide off the side and starting the sequence again (you won't have to do any fighting again). If you did it right and the rings are blinking, head to the energy bridge that you crossed to get to Truth and the skull is sitting there. After you pick it up DO NOT quit the mission. Hold on to the skull and run all the way to the blue glowing portal and jump through to complete the level. You can skip the cutscene. If you played co-op make sure one person does the jumps. Also make sure everyone gets to pick up the skull once and the original person is holding the skull at the end to ensure he gets the unlocked skull as well. Total run time on Normal solo mode is 40-50 minutes. ______________________________________________________________________________ 6. Closing [CLSNG] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ More and more people are popping with with the helmet. It's not hard but takes a little work. There will be those 12 year olds that'll ask you, "HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY! HOW DID YOU GET THAT RAD GEAR?! TELL ME PLZZZZZZ!!!" I suggest making up some ridiculous thing like, "You have to melee 4 Hunters with a pistol." Too bad if they don't know how to use the internet.