BCM624 - Elite on a Scorpion via spawn-launched Wraith

(7:37) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Spawn-launching the second Wraith lead to something I don't think I've seen before: an Elite standing on top of a Scorpion! Here's the story, with some excellent Ghost explosions along the way. And don't miss the fun-filled sequel coming shortly!

Released January 20th 2026, gameplay recorded January 16th-19th 2026.

Commentary

00:02 (How I got the freaky set-up) This 53-second opening sequence outlines how I ended up with my freaky set-up. It's just re-enactment footage though, because I hadn't been recording at the time.

I'd wondered whether I could spawn-launch the Wraith onto the Shade hill, although I wasn't very hopeful as it was quite a distance. Using with the Herbie-enhanced set-up from the last movie, I began by pointing the Scorpion at the hill and consolidating with a tunnel checkpoint. That initial configuration was no good as expected, and I began tweaking, with further consolidation along the way. It looked like the hill would be a no-go, but never mind. After one particular change (which I checkpointed), I had something interesting!

Note: because of triggering a tunnel checkpoint, my Marines advanced into the tunnel, towards the cavern. So they don't feature any more.

00:56 (First example) In this first example using the set-up, the Wraith pilot is blue. As you can see, the launched Wraith comes down on edge, hitting the Scorpion and ejecting him onto the turret.

01:46 (Another example) The dynamic is the same every time. On this play, in which I trigger at the tunnel, the pilot turns out to be a nasty red.

02:14 (Ejection close-up) Standing in a relatively elevated spot as I get the Wraith spawned, my sniper scope provides a good view of how he ends up on the turret. Very neat too; suddenly he's just there. With the spot I'm standing at, the top of the turret is just visible, unlike at my usual triggering spot a short distance away.

02:48 (Dodgy footing, fixed with a nudge) As clearly shown here, the pilot has rather dodgy footing, being visibly off the edge. You may've noticed it earlier. With a Banshee nudge though, I'm easily able to get the tank to slide underneath him a bit, so his footing is better.

03:32 (Set him up better?) However, I was interested in the possibility of setting him up better, i.e. so he wouldn't be off the edge in the first place. I tried tweaking the tank, with one whack each time, but such adjustments failed. The dynamic was always lost. It seemed that things were super-sensitive - which also suggests that I'd been very lucky to see him settle on the turret at all.

Two such adjustments are shown here, along with their outcomes. He's ejected both times, but with other adjustments he stayed aboard, or in some cases ended up standing on the Scorpion's rear left track cover. Very satisfying 2-Ghost rocket in the second clip, which is really why I selected it for inclusion.

04:22 (Solution via down-whacks) Eventually though, I realised that a 'down-whack' caused much less movement than a normal whack, thus enabling finer adjustments. Two down-whacks to the right hand side produced the sort of fix I wanted, as shown. I could also stand on the tank to administer them, by the way. In this play I end up getting killed by a Wraith blast, which was unexpected. I thought those plasma balls were sailing well past me!

05:32 (Again, but getting the camo) Another play after doing the two down-whacks, but this time I grab the camo so I can get closer to the Elite without taking fire. Bit hazardous when the camo wears off though!

06:53 (Camo mischief) Originally I was going to end the movie by just continuing the previous clip for longer, as there was some hectic survival work to be done and it was a nice bit of action. But then I had the idea of instead using some sort of comedy clip involving mischief with the camo. That would keep the focus on the Elite, which would be better. After a while I settled on getting Wraith-flipped onto the turret to end up behind him. Not terribly easy, but I got a handful of nice takes. In this one I get an excellent high flip, which is part of why I favoured it.

Note: for this mischief I was using the original freaky situation, in which the Elite has dodgy footing. The clip incidentally shows another way of giving him better footing: give him a surprise!

Closing remarks I'm not done with this novelty yet. In the next movie I'll be getting a load more fun out of it, so watch out for that. I've been having so much with that, it's pretty much the reason I didn't get this current movie out a few days earlier. But finally I've got back to it, to get it finished and released.