Halo Reach Daily Challenges Guide - 6/5/12

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Check out my post talking about the Halo 4 gameplay trailer at E3!

The Challenges:
Blastin' and Relaxin' - Kill 180 enemies in any game mode in Reach. - 2343cR
This challenge, asking you to score a hundred and eighty kills in Reach, should be well taken care of today by the other Daily Challenges and not require any extra thought from you. The "There Are Many Like..." challenge has you hitting at least a hundred kills in Campaign and "That Pink Mist" has you in a game of Firefight. That alone adds up to well over two-hundred kills, not to mention the eight games you have to complete for "Credits for Completion." So, like usual, move along.

There Are Many Like... - Kill 100 enemies with precision weapons in the Campaign today. - 2500cR

So, you can take several paths for this challenge, but one is far easier than the other. The first path is the easier one and just has you loading up a level like ONI: Swordbase or Nightfall on Heroic and playing through until you hit the a hundred kills with precision weapons. This method will likely take multiple missions to complete. Now, the second option is only useful due to the Weekly Challenge. You can load up Tip of the Spear on LASO difficulty and complete it today while using the precision weapons on it to score kills for this challenge. Now, this will not get you a hundred kills, most likely, but if you are going to play it anyway, might as well make the kills in it count for something. Play a mission on Heroic without skulls afterwards to get the remaining kills.

That Pink Mist - Kill 70 enemies with a Supercombine from the Needler or Needle Rifle in Firefight Matchmaking. - 2000cR
This challenge can actually be difficult to get and I am actually going to recommend that you play in Firefight Doubles for this challenge. First off, a Supercombine is when you shoot enough Needles into an enemy and an explosion occurs killing your opponent. With Grunts, an explosion does occur, but the Grunt is already dead so it doesn't count. Elites, Brutes, Skirmishers, and Grunts with Mythic on are your best bet for this challenge. Now, load up Firefight Doubles and pick a gametype like Score Attack. I do not think any of the loadouts start with a Needler or Needle Rifle, but if they do, pick it. What you will need to do is pick up a Needler or Needle Rifle from an enemy and just start blasting away. Depending on the enemy, the Needler takes about half a clip and the Needle Rifle takes about three shots but, remember, that shields must be taken down fist. This may take two games to complete.


Credits for Completion - Complete 8 games in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2800cR
343i is really infatuated with us playing multiplayer Matchmaking recently, aren't they? Eight games today maybe be a tough one for anyone who currently has a job or school, since the other challenges will take up some time. Team SWAT tends to have fast games but they can be long if you have a long map. Living Dead can also be quick but also excruciatingly long if you are a Zombie. Try to stick to Slayer gametypes on small maps with two teams of no greater than five players each and you should be fine.

See the Weekly Challenge here.

Halo 4 at E3 2012: Dissecting the Trailer

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So, if you were paying attention to E3 today, and more specifically Microsoft's show, you are at least mildly aware of the Halo 4 trailer and news that dropped today. This trailer has brought forth a lot of interesting tidbits and showcased some rather impressive Halo 4 gameplay. Hats off to 343 Industries for presentation, but can they deliver? Let's dissect this sucker, but where to start?



The Plot:
So it seems that the UNSC Infinity is probably going to take a more central role in the game then previously discussed. In the gameplay trailer, the Infinity crashes, descending past the Chief who of course plans to follow.

The UNSC Infinity crashing

Now, before that happens, a large Orb de-cloaks and zooms after the Infinity after emitting what looked like a scanning laser. That same effect is seen in the live action portion of the trailer. Clearly, this Orb has taken control of the Infinity and is causing it to crash. At the end of the trailer, a voice showing only a hexagon like symbol says "I have long dreamt of this day, Reclaimer." Bets are that the Orb is either Mendicant Bias or the Didact.

Mendicant Bias or the Didact?

As well, the game will also cover the eventual rampancy of Cortana. As she states she was "put into service eight years ago. AIs deteriorate after seven." There is also a short shot of her screaming in Rage at someone claiming that she will not allow them to leave the planet. Who she is shouting at, is still unknown.

Halo Reach Daily and Weekly Challenges Guide - 6/4/12

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The Challenges:
Gunslinger - Kill 40 enemies in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 3500cR
So, there is a lot of multiplayer in your Halo Reach gaming today including this one asking you to score forty kills in multiplayer Matchmaking. Though this is not your longest or hardest challenge of the day, it is boasting the best credit output. Regardless, forty kills should not even be a problem and should be taken care of by all the other challenges today. "Home Field Advantage" has you playing at least seven games. If you only average six kills a game in those you will complete this challenge. Pretty simple.


Neuroscience - Kill 10 enemies with headshots in a multiplayer Matchmaking game. - 2400cR
To kill an enemy with a headshot, you must shoot an enemy with no shields with a headshot-capable weapon (DMR, Magnum Pistol, Needle Rifle) or shoot an enemy in the head with a weapon capable of penetrating the shields as well as killing him/her (Sniper and Covenant Focus Rifle). Team SWAT will allow you to easily score headshots with the DMR due to all players missing shields in that playlist. Team Snipers gives everyone Snipers and standard shields, so you can likely figure that one out. These ten kills need to be in a single game and that is definitely possible in either playlist mentioned. Should only take two games if you are having trouble.


Streaky Shooter - Earn 10 sprees in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2500cR
A spree in multiplayer Matchmaking is awarded whenever you get five kills in a row uninterrupted by death or the end of a round. Now, this challenge does not stipulated "Killing" sprees versus sprees in general which means that weapon sprees should count, as well as Zombie Killing Sprees. As you can likely tell now, this means you should play in the Living Dead playlist but I will urge you to complete "Home Field Advantage" first and see what sprees come out of that. Afterwards move on to Living Dead if you still need sprees. You will do best at getting sprees if you are a survivor and any spree will also be a Zombie Killing Spree. As well, any five kills with the shotgun will be a Shotgun Spree. You can ride the Shotgun and Zombie Killing Sprees up to fifteen kills each, but by that time you will probably be dead.


Home Field Advantage - Win 7 games in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2050cR
Well, this is one of those challenges that we all dread because there just isn't as much time for them on a Monday. Thankfully, every other challenge today, sparing the Weekly Challenge, is in multiplayer Matchmaking so that should help this challenge along. You will possibly finish the other challenges before this one which means you can play in whatever playlists you want. I would suggest sticking to playlists that only have two teams since more teams decreases your chances of winning. I would also suggest playing with friends since you will likely play better with them. Good luck hitting seven.

The Weekly Challenge:
Tip of the Spear: LASO - Complete Tip of the Spear, Legendary, All Skulls On (LASO). - 13000cR

Ahh, the return of random LASO Weekly Challenges. So, do not fret, because Tip of the Spear was hardly one of the hardest LASO missions as long as you know the strategies. Now, it is definitely a long mission however with some parts taking ten times longer than normal. However, follow the strategies and you should be all set. I would suggest playing this solo, though co-op has its advantages (like actually getting to use checkpoints). If you do die in a solo run, you can hit "Start" and quickly "Save and Quit" before you actually die. Then you can resume campaign and start from the most recent checkpoint. Another reason for going solo is that Co-op will scale the difficulty up making enemies harder to kill. They are hard enough with LASO, why make it harder? Video guide can be seen here and the written guide here.

Halo Reach Daily Challenges Guide - 6/3/12

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The Challenges:
One Spartan Army - Kill 100 enemies in Firefight Matchmaking. - 2000cR
You should have no problem completing this challenge today thanks to another Firefight-oriented Daily Challenge. The "Scoped" challenge has you getting two hundred kills in Firefight Matchmaking via precision weapons. Those two hundred kills should twice over take care of this challenge. All in all, no need to worry about it. Just move on to the other challenges which might actually need some time.


The Magic Number - Complete 7 games in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 3000cR
Short of "Chaddlesby's Justice," this is the only other challenge asking you to play in multiplayer Matchmaking today. Seven games is bearable, especially considering the twelve games you had to win yesterday. Now, if you have yet to complete the Weekly Challenge, today is the last day. I would advise some games in the Grifball playlist for that. If you are done with the Weekly, then just play whatever you want. Try to have fun playing with friends or just try to meet completely new people. Take a break if you get aggravated, though. No point playing if you are pissed off.

Scoped - Kill 200 enemies in Firefight Matchmaking with precision weapons. - 2500cR
So, precision weapons as we use them in Firefight include the DMR, Sniper Rifle, Needler, and the Covenant Beam Rifle. In the right playlist, you can get a hundred plus precision weapon kills per game. That gametype, if you were wondering, is Gruntpocalypse in the Score Attack playlist. Two games in that playlist, and you should be well over two-hundred kills. You will automatically start out with a DMR so just keep using it and going for ammunition when you need it. Choose a small map to make games go faster and you should be all set. Just remember to aim for the head. It makes things go faster.

Chaddlesby's Justice - Avenge your teammates' deaths 5 times in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2100cR
We have all probably gotten this medal hundreds of times but you typically do not aim for it. To "Avenge" a teammate, you will need to have a teammate get killed and then kill the opponent that killed your teammate. Now, there is a time limit of some sort on this so you need to get to it quickly. Once the opponent has been killed, you need to find someone else. It should not be hard to snag one or two of these per game and you need to play seven games anyway for "The Magic Number" challenge so it should not be too hard.

See the Weekly Challenge here.

Halo Reach Daily Challenges Guide - 6/2/12

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See the "Thanks" post if you want to hear about future plans!

The Challenges:
Blastin' and Relaxin' - Kill 180 enemies in any game mode in Reach. - 2343cR
Like usual, this is not much of a challenge today as all the other challenge will take care of it. First off, the "Short, Controlled Bursts" challenge is asking you for two-hundred kills. I do not even need to write anymore on this. That, straight out, takes care of this challenge ignoring the other two challenge which will put you well over the meager score of a hundred and eighty kills. Nothing else to see here, move along.


Short, Controlled Bursts - Kill 200 enemies with automatic weapons in the Campaign today. - 3000cR

Two challenges today focused on automatic weapons which probably has some of you grumbling while others are simply shrugging their shoulders. On the bright side, this challenge is the easier of the two and just requires time. Now, automatic weapons in Reach are the Assault Rifle, Needler, Plasma Rifle, and Plasma Repeater. Strangely enough, mounted weapons do not count in this group. I would start with Winter Contingency and just play through until I hit the two-hundred kills. Set the difficulty to Heroic so your AI Teammates do not steal valuable kills from you. As well, you do not have to actually score the kills so long as you have damaged the enemy. Then if a Noble Team member or a random Marine gets the kill, you get to count it. On lower difficulties, a lot of kills will be gained by the AI without you even getting a shot in, therefore hurting your numbers.

Now I have a Machine Gun - Earn 30 kills with automatic weapons in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2343cR
This challenge can actually be slightly challenging due to the way gamers play Halo nowadays. So much focus is put on precision or powers weapons that automatic weapons are often not used or dropped as soon as possible. You will need to shirk that mindset and try to only use these "machine" guns. Now, a great playlist for this challenge is Multi Team since everyone will almost always start with an automatic weapon, be it Assault Rifle or Needler. Typically, the Needler is the better weapons but you cannot carry as much ammunition and, to me, the Plasma Rifle trumps the Plasma repeater any day. All of that is up to personal preference, however. And, as you need to play at least twelve games today, this should be right up your alley.

Who's the Big Winner? - Win 12 games in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 10000cR
So, this will pretty much be your focal point challenge of the day. Winning twelve games will definitely take a while and possibly as many as twenty or so games to complete so start early. As well, you will rake in a nice number of credits due to not only the challenge but also due to all the games you will complete today. There really are no specific gametypes that you should stick to, but I would tend to stay away from playlists with more than two teams, as those will lower your chances of winning. Try to play with friends as you will likely play better with them than you would with complete strangers. Finally, do not do this all in one sitting. About every five or six games, take a break. Get up, walk around, just do something else.  Good luck.

See the Weekly Challenge here.

Thanks

How's it going?  Good?  Bad?  Mediocre?  Just simply "meh?"  Either way, let's have a talk.  NO! Not that talk.

I know a lot of people have moved over from other sites that shut down recently for the Halo Reach Challenges Guides.  I can tell so because this last month the blog has received the most traffic ever at 17,000 views.  For this blog, that is a drastic increase and has helped push the blog past a 100,000 views all-time.  Now, that is not a lot compared to other sites but, still, the most ever for this site.  For those that are new, follow on Twitter here and Youtube here.

First off, I would like to say "Thank you!" for that and would also like to say that I plan on keeping up those guides at least until the release of Halo 4 and possibly beyond depending on what Halo 4 presents.  If Halo 4 has Daily Challenges, which I have not seen any talk about, I will start doing Daily Challenge Guides for that.  If not, I will possibly keep up with the Reach Guides for at least a little while.

There was also talk by myself of a BoB/Datapad Guide for Halo Reach that was to come out this summer.  This was already partially in the works with several BoB kills and Datapads having been captured but I am going to have to axe this project, unfortunately.  Time is simply against me in this at the moment.  However, I did some looking around and already found a substitute set of guides.  LordFriendship, over at the Halo Waypoint Forums, has already compiled an extensive guide of all the BoBs in Reach.  His videos can be found here on youtube.

Now in terms of Halo 4, I will be doing guides and videos for Achievements, levels on various difficulties (if requested), and I also plan on doing guides for all the Spartan Ops missions as soon as they come out (within reason).  I think, so far, they are looking at one release a week and with my new comp, I can pump out HD vids pretty fast.  No clue about how difficult or long these missions will be but, hopefully, I can put up strategies for co-op and solo runs.

Now, at the moment I am employed and that takes away pretty much all of my free time but that employment will likely end in mid-July.  At that point, I plan on branching out to doing guides on different games besides Halo.  It isn't the only game I play and likely isn't the only game you play.  Once I am in a position to make guides, I would love to hear what guide you all want to see on this site.  I do have all the current systems and I can capture video on all those systems.

(Just a few other things to bring to light and I promise this post will be over.)

I will also try to get into reviewing games and other gaming products for anyone who wants to hear my meager and probably biased opinions.  The likelihood of me getting advanced copies is very low, as I couldn't even get those at an actual news website, but I will try to pick some titles, get them early, and get reviews up quick.

Finally, there are other projects in the works that are not directly associated with this blog but will be talked about through here.  One such project is a rather large mod for Skyrim which I am currently co-developing.  I can't say anything else about it at the moment, but definitely expect some news on that this summer.  As well, there is at least one other project going but I am not ready to discuss that in any details at all for the moment.  Sorry.

Well, there you have it, a lengthy post of solid text, the kind of post that people definitely read through and actually pay attention too.  Allow me to post this for you.

Thanks, for reading.

Halo Reach Daily Challenges Guide - 6/1/12

Please subscribe above this and/or follow me on twitter! Have any ideas or comments about the challenges? Post them down below!

The Challenges:
Fire When Ready - Kill 50 enemies in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 3000cR
It is all multiplayer today, as it normally is on Fridays, and this challenge, like usual, is one that you do not even need to worry about. The "Close Talking" challenge has you scoring seventy-five kills and the "Put Your Quarter Up" challenge has you completing ten games. That should pretty well put you over fifty kills as it is mathematically impossibly to have less than fifty and seventy-five. Next challenge.


Close Talking - Earn 77 kills with close quarters combat in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2800cR
Close quarters combat kills in Reach are any kills via the Shotgun, Energy Sword, Gravity Hammer, Melee via other weapon or objective, or Assassination. You can do all of those except the first one in, you guessed it, Grifball. Seventy-seven kills should actually only take about two to four games to complete in Grifball, but remember the Weekly Challenge and the "Put Your Quarter Up" challenge. Today would be a great time to settle in and finish off the Weekly Challenge if you have not already done so. As well, you need to play ten games anyway, so there should be no problems.

Neuroscience - Kill 10 enemies with headshots in a multiplayer Matchmaking game. - 2400cR
If you are going for headshots, your best bet is any playlist that starts you with precision weapons and that will also allow for one-shot, head-shot kills on the map. That means a game of Team SWAT or Team Snipers (guess which one has Snipers and which one has DMRs) is likely your best bet. You should not really have a problem getting at least ten kills, but the issue is whether they are headshots or not. Be prepared to play two games for this challenge and, remember, "aim for the head, one-shot dead."

Put Your Quarter Up - Complete 10 games in multiplayer Matchmaking. - 2900cR
So, ten games today should not be too bad to finish off as the other challenges today will already have you playing three to five games. The question is, "What about the others?" Well, If you need to work on the Weekly Challenge, now looks like a great time since you need to play games anyway. After that, just finish off the remaining games having fun and playing with friends. There is no stipulation that you win any of these ten games so, again, just have fun and do whatever you want. Enjoy.

See the Weekly Challenge here.