Two Juns

Posted December 29th 2011

By chance I found that you can get an extra Jun at the end of the evac zone battle. In fact it's very easy to do, and you can even ride to the relay outpost with your two Juns if you want. There are various ways of working things, but I'll start with a specific recipe.

Suggested method

Bring down Jun's Falcon at rally point alpha. Drive to it alone in the truck and fly off solo down the right hand side of the valley to trigger a battle at the lower evac zone. When you arrive, do enough killing to trigger the two reinforcement dropships ("Noble leader be advised, I have visual on inbound Covenant dropships"), then continue on up the valley to where there's a truck, some way past a portable mast. Land nearby, take the wheel, and wait for Jun to appear in the Falcon's rear right seat, something which happens about 80 seconds after the reinforcement ships were triggered. Let him switch to the truck, then drive him to the evac zone and finish off the covies. He can help out with his sniper rifle. If you want to get him out, get the truck overturned or destroyed.

At the end of the battle the now distant Falcon gets moved to a position high overhead (rotors initially not moving) and it'll have a new Jun in the rear right seat, so you've now got two; Jun 1 and Jun 2.

Getting them standing together

It's possible to get Jun 2 out of the Falcon by bringing it down with a plasma ball so it ends up overturned. If you want to do that, be ready with a plasma pistol near where the Falcon initially freefalls. Try to hit it before it's moved off towards the landing spot, so it bounces off the bottom of the nearby cliffside. It may take a few tries, so it's good to've got a checkpoint just before. There's one triggered at the end of the battle, so as long as it didn't get cancelled for any reason, you can use that one.

With a bit of pushing or attacking, you can subsequently get the Juns standing close together, perhaps to take a snapshot of in Theater mode later. You can also get them to other parts of the level using a truck (ferrying them one at a time), if you fancy some snapshots elsewhere.

Using the higher evac zone instead

Much the same can be done using the higher evac zone after going down the left side of the valley to trigger it. You can even use that same truck I mentioned. The main difference is that it's harder to overturn the Falcon to get Jun 2 out, if desired. The Falcon appears in the air closer to the ground, and when that happens you'd best be looking up and ready to hit it with a plasma ball pretty early.

Getting them to the relay outpost

You can get both Juns to the relay outpost aboard the Falcon if you want. Jun 1 can take a passenger seat and also the pilot's seat, but it's a slightly fickle business getting him aboard. When the Falcon touches down, Carter and Jorge will normally run to board, and if they beat him there, he's liable to get left behind though he may still take the pilot's seat. I suggest having him near the landing spot in advance. You can position him by leaving him in the truck to begin with. As the Falcon comes down, destroy or overturn the truck to break his connection with it (make sure you had plasma grenades; and it's best to have Cowbell off so they don't move him too far). Then board the Falcon and hope he gets aboard. Actually, sometimes he'll run for a passenger seat even before you board. Carter or Jorge may get left behind (most likely Carter), or you may be lucky and take off with everyone.

At the higher evac zone, which seems easier for getting Jun 1 aboard, there's a tactic I used with a plasma pistol (couldn't get it to work at the lower one). Hit the Falcon with a plasma ball before it's low, without causing the canopy to pop open when the Falcon comes down. Maybe hit it some more times as it tries to reach the landing spot - but this isn't always needed. What often happens is that when it reaches the landing spot, Carter and Jorge don't run to it (and maybe the nose is strangely angled up). Or maybe at least Carter doesn't run to it. If you now get Jun 1 standing close to it (after breaking his connection to any truck as before), he'll hopefully follow you aboard. Carter and Jorge may board too - sometimes the game seems to teleport them aboard from distance - but it's more likely that Carter will get left behind.

NB: In doing any of this, don't cause the Falcon's canopy to pop open, else the navigational AI is seemingly lost and you won't reach the outpost, even if Jun 1 or Carter hops into the pilot's seat and takes off. The Falcon will typically get fouled up in the scenery.

Note: If you're keen to get everyone to the outpost, make sure to save the checkpoint at the end of the evac zone battle, because when you fly off you may not be sure whether Jun 1 took the pilot's seat or got left behind. If it turns out that he got left behind, you can eject the disc and reload to get back to the battle end checkpoint for another try. Incidentally, if he takes the pilot's seat you still get the usual scripted pilot's voice ("LZ's a little hot sir"), not Jun's voice.

When the Falcon lands in the outpost's forecourt, if Jun 1 was seated he'll probably dismount, but he may then reboard. If he was in the pilot's seat though, I don't think he'll dismount. To get all Juns out, you'll need to bring the Falcon down with a plasma ball to try and get them ejected. Try to bring it down so it bounces off the perimeter wall and overturns. It's likely to take multiple tries, but you're due a checkpoint when you dismount, so that's convenient. After both are out you can move them indoors if you want, by pushing or attacking. I got them to where the cutscene takes place, but they didn't show up in it. I've tried to mess with that cutscene before but I suspect it always plays as scripted.

General principles

I gave a fairly specific recipe for getting two Juns, but here are the key requirements as best I can judge from my testing. Aside from needing to bring down Jun's Falcon at some point, I think that just before you get 'OBJECTIVE COMPLETE' for the evac zone (which won't happen before Jun appears), (1) Jun must no longer be aboard the Falcon or even trying to board it (basically he must have no connection to it), and (2) the Falcon must be far enough from the evac zone that the game will either move it into its scripted position high above the zone (if you're not aboard) or will spawn a replacement as described in Three Falcons (if you're aboard).

There must also be some other detail, because when I was using a different method to the one I suggested, there were times when Jun vanished from a truck I was driving, at a particular spot near the higher stream. Apparently the game had taken him instead of creating a replacement. I'm not sure what was going on there. When I investigated to try and pin things down, the vanishing seemed fickle and rare.

In my suggested method, Jun gets tempted off the Falcon using a nearby truck. That's effortless, but another way is to take a passenger seat so he gets out to take the pilot's seat, then take it yourself (maybe beating him to it) and fly clear. Might take a few tries though, as he's pretty quick to hop back aboard. Another way is to let the Falcon tumble down some cliffside or something, so he gets ejected.

Again in my suggested method, Jun is taken back to the evac zone for the conclusion of the battle (thus he's conveniently on hand to be moved near Jun 2 for visual impact, or to board the landing Falcon), but that's not essential. Anomalies aside, I don't think it matters where he is, as long as he no longer has a connection to the original Falcon.

Fastest method?

Here's another way of working things which I think may be fastest, but you won't be at the evac zone when Jun 2 appears, so it's not necessarily best for you. It starts the same way as my original method, but when you've triggered the reinforcement ships, stick around and slaughter the covies fast with cannon fire. After that, quickly fly to the truck I mentioned, switch to it, and wait for Jun to appear (he won't be present yet, if you got here fast enough after triggering the reinforcement ships). He'll dismount, and then the game will move the Falcon and create a new Jun.

Two Juns and three Falcons

Finally, here's a recipe for getting not only an extra Jun but an extra Falcon too, if for some reason you want both. Fly off solo in Jun's Falcon as usual. Trigger an evac zone battle and get one or more Grunts on your Falcon. Slaughter the remaining covies then fly to the area of the truck I mentioned in my original suggestion. Drop your covie cargo off on the roof of the nearby shelter, and land. Switch to the truck and get Jun aboard once he's appeared. Drive him a good way clear of the Falcon so he won't be tempted your way when you reboard the Falcon shortly. Run back to the Falcon, get airborne and kill your dropped cargo. The game should now spawn a replacement Falcon and a new Jun aboard it.

Note: As mentioned in my Three Falcons article, it's possible to dismount from the Falcon right after the blue trooper indicators vanish, to avoid being trapped inside.