A little bit of extra work, for a lot more flexibility!

(5:27) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. My third rockslide megabattle tutorial shows how you can set things up with spare weapons and Marines outside the area, for more flexibility in your battling. Well worth doing, and quite easy. In my case I'm planning to end up with an armoured Stacker on the gun, and I also intend my other default passenger to be armoured too. Armour will make them considerably more resilient.

Released August 4th 2026, gameplay recorded July 28th - August 1st 2026.

00:02 (Lifeboat) The point of saving here is so that if the Marines in the hillside area don't satisfy you, you can eject and reload to try again. You'll be getting them spawned afresh, something which happens when you get close enough). In my case I had to do that a bunch of times, because not only did I want Stacker armoured, I also wanted a second guy to be armoured, so my eventual set-up would have three armoured guys.

00:25 (Tunnel drop-off) Dropping your initial passengers in the tunnel should keep them pretty safe from the Banshees which will be spawning later.

00:39 (Hillside extractions) On this particular try, I see (with my sniper scope) that Stacker is armoured, and there's a second armoured guy too. So it's full steam ahead! I drive them straight out to the waterfall area, then take the other guy out of the other entrance, ready to tackle the Banshees. It wasn't good that I got hit by a plasma ball on the way, but fortunately I didn't lose health, so it didn't matter.

01:54 (Destroying the Banshees) To get the Banshees destroyed I initially take advantage of my chain-gunner. It didn't matter than I was putting him in danger. If he'd got damaged, I would've just reverted to the exit checkpoint I'd just had, and tried again. However, by keeping the hog on the move, he was fairly safe anyway. After one Banshee is down, I dismount to try and finish the second with pistol fire, in such a way that I'll be able to find the plasma rifle easily. In this case I actually catch it. That'll be added to my forthcoming weapon stash.

02:19 (Cleaning up and assembling spares) There's some leisurely work now to assemble weapons and Marines in a handy place. Along the way, I also get rid of the valley dropship which spawned (you only need to look at it), plus its grunty cargo. The less stuff the game has to deal with, the better. I also wipe out the hillside covies, and use the area as a supply source.

I namely get a full needler and AR from there. As well as the full plasma rifle I got earlier, I add a full plasma pistol which I made a point of bringing along from the level's first survivor area. It was from a Grunt on the final dropship who never got a chance to shoot. Sometimes you can get a full plasma pistol from a dropship Grunt in the hillside area, but I wasn't counting on that.

I also bring my original passengers to the spares area, deliberately keeping the armoured guy separate, because out of all the spare guys I'm going to have, he's always going to be my first choice.

03:39 (Saving again, then rockslide work) After saving a checkpoint at the hillside entrance by the waterfall, it's time for my rockslide work at last. Wanting maximum covies and six Marines, I used the refined routine demoed in BCM653, as you'll be able to tell from the snippet of footage I show. But you could go with the simpler BCM648 routine if you prefer.

04:07 (Finishing off) A few things left to do. Need to get my default team aboard. Namely, Stacker on the gun, and the Aussie seated. Need to top up the sniper rifle (but not my pistol; it was already full when I entered the rockslide area, and I didn't use it there). Need to top up my health too. As I do that, Cortana pipes up with "What are you doing? We have to stay with the Marines." That's a very belated response to my leaving the rockslide area.

Then I get set with my default weapons and do some waiting. I didn't need to be up on the big mound of course (could've been standing at my weapon collection for example, ready for potential swapping), but I did anyway. Eventually the dropship 4 checkpoint comes (a few seconds before you actually hear or see the ship), and I save it. Set-up complete! And by the way, all weapons at hand are full, and all my Marines have full health, as planned. Nice!

05:06 (Into battle) This final short clip is just there to emphasize out that you now have the option of switching weapons and/or personnel, prior to getting into a session of battling.

Closing remarks That turned out quite nicely, and I got maximum covies and 6 Marines as desired. Only two of the seven Elites are red, which is a relatively favourable split for me and the boys.

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