Though not really a shortcut but more of a technique, this can save you some trouble on harder settings.

During the Silent Cartographer mission, after you have deactivated the security door and have returned to the map room building, drive the Warthog, with two decent non-player marines aboard, down the stairs to the room where the door locked. Park the nose of the Wathog right against the door, then jump onto the hood, crouch, and smack the hood of the jeep a couple times (B button) until you have knocked it away from the door just enough that you can crouch-walk from the hood into the hallway where, if you're on your mark, you've already killed the gold sword-wielder once with well-placed grenade back when you were trying to keep the door form locking, leaving a few plasmas there for you to pick up if you're currently out. The nose of the jeep should be blocking the door enough that you cannot get out of the hallway without jumping onto the hood.

Once you have activated the map and worked you way back up to that very hallway, you normally would be in for a nice fight with a gold sword-bearing elite, who are tough dudes. Not so if you've parked your jeep againstthe door. The goldie will charge them but not be able to get out the door, as he isn't smart enough to try to crouch-jump onto the hood and strike form there, where he might actually succeed. Your dudes will chain-gun him down for you, at worst you have to put a plasma grenade on his rear to finish him off.

When goldie is gone, take his grenades - again - and rifle-butt the jeep back enough that you can get out of the hall and jump in. Get turned around and drive upstairs. As you drive back outdoors, you may run over one or two of the invisible elites, and will certainly have an easier time dealing with them after you can get out on open ground and have a chain gun for supporting fire.

Another Warthog-related trick on this level is to take the jeep all the way into the center of the island, all the way down to the two Hunters in the "junk" room just before the security override room. The trick is getting past that damned tree where the path to the interior starts, the chokepoint. You have to hit the gap to the left of the tree at the perfect angle, and at top speed. Failure will mean you get stuck for a moment, at which time a plasma grenade lands on the hood or worse, in your lap. Sometimes when you try to force your way through this choke point, the jeep will flip in such a way that you jump out of the jeep and materialize inside the canyon wall, where there is no floor in the model and thus you fall into the ocean and die. But, if you hit it just right, you can take the jeep to the first two Hunters at the circular portal area that leads to the next mission (the Shaft), where you can just run the blokes over, and then keep on running and gunning things down until you get to the junk room.

After finishing activating the security override, you can take the Warthog straight off of the right hand end of the cliff, over where the 3 overshields are, and have an even chance of at least one of your marines surviving to be your gunner. If you've already lost them in earlier action, abandon that jeep to the junk room, but still jump down that cliff face. Before jumping down, use well-placed plasma grenades against the wall to intentionally wreck your probably-damaged overshield without killing yourself and take a fresh overshield from that pile of three, then look down over that cliff edge. You should see a path of walkable slope that is higher on your right, away from the building, that runs underneath the platform that sticks out over the beach. Walk down it, then drop the rest of the way, but when you drop, try to face the cliff wall and walk into it. This slows your fall enough that you may not lose much if any of your overshield. You can then dispatch whatever is still alive around the downed dropship, gear up, take the Wathog that is there, go pick up a couple more dudes from the rendezvous point on the first beach and head off to make use of the first shortcut I described in this post.

Porter wrote on Wednesday, 04/10/2002 - 8:39 pm:

:
: Where can I find this Fall of Reach I keep hearing about?

The internet: Amazon or Barnes and Noble

I have two answers #1:The anti-grav generaters on the ghost cancell out the anti-grav waves on the grav lift and it gets all fucked up!!! #2:Fucked up game designers that don't want to make it easy for you!!! What do you think?

How about developing a version for the platform that started it all for bungie. I mean of course the Mac!
Thanks alot guys!

Ha Ha Ha. That was so...NOT FUNNY,actually it was GAY

shadow wrote on Friday, 05/10/2002 - 11:27 pm:

: me and my friend were flying around with the banshees and
: i shot a midget missile at him and i just saw him speed down
: hit this sharp thing and get chopped in half so i went and
: landed got out of the banshee so i was on the ground he was
: alive again so i saw a wart hog speeding at me i jumped and
: the gun hit me and i flew of a cliff and died it was
: freaking funny.
b

shadow wrote on Friday, 05/10/2002 - 11:37 pm:

: go to the assalt on the control room level you have to be
: ouick thow cause the aliens will take them.

Thats not nultiplayer.

shadow wrote on Friday, 05/10/2002 - 11:37 pm:

: go to the assalt on the control room level you have to be
: ouick thow cause the aliens will take them.

All your base belnong to us.

1480 Pembina, WInnipeg, Manitoba.

It is possible in multiplayer in "Assault on the Control Room" (though I have been freakishly lucky to succeed in doing this on single player as well,) to play the level through without any aliens.
Regarding the vehicles of the level, if one plays the level through without the Covenant, one can overturn each Covenant vehicle in the level, then go back to the beginning and play the level through again, but with the Covenant present. It is often amusing to see them scramble to a vehicle only to find they can't operate it, then turn the vehicle over and use it against them.

I can give further information to registered users on bungie.net - look for grenrock.

Assault on the Control Room, first canyon, riding in the Warthog:

"See that thing on the left? It's a brake! USE IT!!"
...after doing a 360 backflip off of the then-busted mortar tank...

-Sta7ic

Sta7ic wrote on Tuesday, 06/25/2002 - 10:47 pm:

"Nice job jackass"

first i've heard this one

'oh, you wanna get shot some more?'

I always like the "You killed him mate, you killed..." it ended because I killed him too.