The Latest Halo game from Bungie features an all new multiplayer game type called “Firefight”. Up to four players fight as ODST’s against multiple waves of Covenant (5 waves per set), sharing a limited pool of lives or “Respawns” between your team. Each new set increases the difficulty with the activation of skulls – see your game manual for a list of their effects. In this guide I’ll be giving you some hints and tips on how to play it!
A few Basic tips:
- Decide who will defend which position on the map. Each map is symmetrical with good defensible areas on either side, so placing each team member in the right place makes a big difference to your survivability and score! Make sure you have stairwells and vantage points covered and hold your position using stairs and doors as “choke” points to take out groups of enemies more quickly.
- Try to watch your team mates backs (especially if they are manning a turret) as they might be up against many Covenant troops while the area you are covering is quiet. Combining your fire will help drive ‘em back! Try to keep a team member ‘floating’ between positions giving extra firepower where needed.
- Communicate enemy positions and movements to each other so no-one gets caught out by a Brute Chieftain with a gravity hammer! If you need to run for ammo/healthpacks, tell your team so they know to watch your side of the map.
- Use the right weapon. The standard ODST weapons are good but not ideal in all cases. A brute can be dropped far easier with a carbine or Needler than with the SMG. The pistol is good for Grunts and Jackals at short/med range, but a carbine or sniper rifle is needed for long range. The rule of thumb is change to the best weapon for the type of enemy in the current wave. I will give tips for taking out each enemy later in this guide.
- Scout around the map and learn the locations of sniper rifles, rocket launchers etc- but don’t use them until you need them to take out a tougher enemy, as once you put them down they will disappear until the next weapon drop!
- Only use the health packs when you really need them as they have to last the whole set until the next weapon drop!
Increase your Score with Multipliers
Playing on the easy setting makes it easier to survive a round thats true, but your score will suffer as a result as it is multiplied by up to four times at the highest difficulty setting, but only X 0.25 on easy! Have a few practice rounds and work on your skills and strategies then give a higher difficulty a go to rack up the points much faster!
To boost your score further try to use the medal multipliers/combos such as grenade sticks, headshots, double kill etc. Try to group your kills together as this enables back to back headshots and multiple kill combos to earn lots of points. Try to target grunts and jackals using headshots when they first get off the drop ships as they are all bunched together and are easy to pick off. The Magnum pistol is an ideal weapon for this, and you’ll only use 4 or 5 shots per group of enemy.
Firefight Enemies - How to Take them out!
Grunts
The weakest opponent you will face but be careful when there are groups of them and don’t let them get too close especially when the “Catch” skull is on-they’ll stick you with a plasma grenade from behind before you know it! They are normally armed with a plasma pistols but you also get special ops grunts with Fuel Rod Guns which you need to watch out for. Both types are an easy kill however, and one shot to the head will take care of them. Use the pistol or carbine and always try for a headshot to save ammo.
Tip: To help with this watch your aiming reticle, when it’s on an enemy and turns red keep an eye on the centre. When a red dot appears it means you have a headshot lined up.
Jackals
These come in three flavours:
Standard with Plasma pistol and shield
There are a number of ways to take these out. As they hide behind their shields a headshot is difficult to do. You can deal with them by moving in close, melee their shield to one side and spraying them with SMG fire but it’s inefficient to say the least, and downright dangerous on harder settings! A well placed frag grenade works for groups but more often than not they dodge out of the way of the blast. The sure fire way to take them out is to use an overcharged plasma pistol to disable their shield, then switch to the Magnum Pistol/Carbine for a quick headshot.
Carbine without shield
Easy to take out with a Pistol/Carbine headshot. Take these out before standard jackals as they have a longer range weapon which will do you more damage. Make sure you collect their weapon/ammo as it’s ideal for taking out Grunts/Jackals/Brutes at arms length.
Sniper Rifle without shield
These need to be dealt with fast as they can kill you very quickly on harder difficulties. Keep an eye out for them and drop them before they drop you. The best way is again a Pistol/Carbine headshot.
Drones (Buggers)
Attacking in large swarms these can be frustrating and hard to kill. Try to get into cover where you can only be attacked from the front as being attacked from all sides will get you killed quickly. The best weapon for these is the SMG but try to fire in short accurate bursts to conserve ammo. You could also use a carbine but avoid using the pistol as it’s hard to get a headshot on a fast moving aerial enemy. Save your ammo. The red coloured drones have energy shielding which makes them a little tougher. I have used a needler on these quite successfully.
Brutes
Brutes are quite tough to kill without a strategy- it takes a lot of SMG ammo to kill one! Long time Halo players will remember how to take out Elites and the method here is the same. Overcharge a plasma pistol to drop their energy shield, then kill them with a headshot from your Pistol or Carbine. If you don’t have a plasma pistol, use a needler on overrun to fill ‘em full of explosive shards! This actually works well on Brutes and is fun to watch them go bang!
Cloaked Brutes
Kill the same as a standard Brute but be careful not to get caught out. Switch to your VISR periodically to check for them. They carry incendiary grenades which are good for roasting small groups of enemies at “choke” points so be sure to pick them up.
Brute Chieftains (with Fuel Rod Gun)
Use overcharged plasma to weaken them and switch to a carbine or pistol for headshots. Heavy weapons such as fuel rod guns and rocket launchers also work well on these. If you want to keep your distance, use a sniper rifle.
Brute Chieftain (with Gravity Hammer)
These are REALLY hard to take out sometimes! They have an Invincibility shield which lasts for a short while and cannot be killed during this time. This is what to save your heavy weapons for! Run and jump to avoid being killed until his shield drops, then use rockets or fuel rod gun rounds to take him out. You can also use turrets but detach them as you need to be mobile. If you don’t have any heavy weapons try to combine your teams small arms fire to get the job done, throwing plenty of grenades. Even though plasma/brute grenades don’t stick they will still do damage. When you have killed a Chieftain consider taking his Gravity Hammer as it makes killing the remaining Brutes a lot easier!
Hunters
The best way to take these out is either using heavy weapons, or working with your team mates to outflank them and aim for the Hunters weak spot in the small of it’s back ( A sniper rifle is best for this)
