Wandering Banshees
Posted December 17th 2006
After saving the survivors hiding underground, a funny thing happened with one of the Banshees in the valley.
When the Pelican was coming in to pick up the survivors, I left in a Warthog. Out in the valley, one of the newly triggered Banshees got attracted by the departing Pelican. As it flew past the waterfall that shoots off the nearby cliff, I went over to take a look.
By the time I got there, the Pelican had disappeared as expected (you can see it suddenly vanish if you make sure to get to the cliff edge in plenty of time). But what of the Banshee? At first I couldn't see it, but then I noticed a small dot moving around below. I took a closer look with my sniper rifle and sure enough, it was the Banshee. Apparently it had gone so far down that it was now having trouble navigating back up. It was wandering around looking totally lost, occasionally bumping into invisible walls some way out from the cliff.
Before long, it had got right down to sea level and was barely perceptible to the naked eye. It wandered leftwards around the coastline and I had to drive to the cliff edge back in the survivor area to try to spot it again, which I eventually did. I tried taking pot-shots at it with the sniper rifle but had no success at attracting it back up. Looked like the pilot was lost down there for good!
Seeing it for yourself
To see the phenomenon, you'll need one or more Banshees to get attracted after the departing Pelican. Try the following.
Save the underground survivors. As the evac Pelican arrives, depart in an empty hog via the entrance nearest the landing zone, and save an 'exit checkpoint'. Get the attention of the Banshees in the valley. They will have just materialized if this was the first survivor area you dealt with. Drive past the lifeboat and turn left up the other entrance. Wait at the top. Hopefully the Banshees will lose you and instead get attracted after the Pelican as it comes over. If not, eject the disc and reload to try again (starting from that exit checkpoint you saved).
When you see one or more Banshees pursuing the Pelican overhead, wait ten or more seconds to let them get well clear, then drive to the cliff edge in the survivor area. Off to the right, you'll probably now see the Banshees starting to wander around. If they catch sight of you when still relatively high, they're liable to get attracted back up, either directly towards you or up past the waterfall. To try to avoid that, keep out of sight until they're further down and more thoroughly lost.
Banshee return
Using that method I was able to get a pair of wandering Banshees after only a few tries. I also observed some new behaviour. When a Banshee flew off around to the left, I drove out of the survivor area and down to the cliff edge at the bottom of the valley (near the exit of the underground tunnel). Banshees seem relatively able to navigate their way back up at that section, from a long way down. Looking through your sniper scope, you may see a distant Banshee starting to head straight for you. If so, chances are it'll keep on coming. So, you may like to be ready with an AR or something, to give it a warm welcome. Tagging with plasma grenades is another idea.