New Alexandria

New Alexandria

"Provide air support in a forest of crumbling skyscrapers."

Information

• Game: Halo: Reach
  

Beginner Goals: Depends on order of objectives


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New Alexandria is the seventh playable level in Halo: Reach. See Halopedia for general information.

HaloRuns record page: http://haloruns.com/records?lb=507 (click the timestamps for video links)

Easy and Legendary

New Alexandria is arguably the worst speedrunning mission in all the Halo shooters. It's not because the mission is difficult, it's because the mission is random. Completely random. Everything from the objectives to their order is determined by pure RNG. Fortunately, the mission itself is very easy compared to some others in Reach. The infamy comes from the fact that the amount of time it takes to complete the mission is based solely on your luck. So, without further ado, let's talk about the mission. Since there is no specific route here, I will just go over the objectives individually and go from there.

General Info

Before I start, here is some very basic info. The way this mission works is there are 5 objectives assigned to you before the final fight at the ONI Tower. Three of them are "main objectives" that you will always receive when playing this mission. They are the objectives that require you to enter a building and overload a jammer in the midst of a bunch of enemies. The other 2 assignments you receive are known as "side objectives." These are what can vary completely when you play through NA. Each one is chosen at random from a pool of 12 options (divided into 4 groups of 3--see side objective section below). They can range from helping Marines to escorting a Falcon to disabling a fourth jammer. If you can memorize the locations, dialogue, and other telltale signs for each main and side objective, then you can really cut down time on this level. The sequence of objectives you obtain is Main Objective - Side Objective - Main Objective - Side Objective - Main Objective - ONI Tower.

Banshees are scattered throughout the entire city, usually in pairs. They spawn at the very beginning of the mission and stay flying around the whole time. If you kill some, more will spawn to take their places. Where do they spawn, you ask? Take a wild guess. Yes, it's random like the rest of the mission. As you play through NA, there will be a pretty large group of them following you everywhere. While this may seem like a concern on Legendary, they don't pose much of a threat as long as you keep moving. Your Falcon can easily outrun them at full speed. If absolutely necessary, you can meander around buildings to shake them off. If you happen to land on a rooftop, the Banshees will circle around above you like vultures, but they never shoot unless you're flying a Falcon.

Also randomly distributed throughout the city are special Shade Turrets that shoot large, long range plasma bursts. They look like ordinary Shade Turrets, but instead of a driver, these turrets have a bright blue "screen" around the cockpit. If you see one on Legendary, stay away or kill it immediately. They will destroy an unharmed Falcon in mere seconds if they hit you directly. It is recommended to either fly out of their radius or underneath the rooftop on which they are located. If you decide to kill one, do it quickly so it doesn't have time to shoot back.

Other vehicles flying around include Pelicans and Phantoms, but they are pretty uncommon. Phantoms usually fly too low to pose a threat anyway, so don't mind them. If you do come across a Phantom during a side objective or the ONI Tower, know that the Grunts on the side turrets are far more dangerous than the Concussion turret in the front. Kill them and keep moving to dodge the concussion shots.

The Main Objectives

These are the three objectives you are guaranteed to get in each playthrough of this mission. Each one involves you fighting through some enemies in order to overload some communication jammers. Fortunately for you, the "fighting" part is optional. Their order is random. You can tell where to go before seeing a waypoint by the dialogue that precedes it.

The Hospital

Kat: "Standby Six. One of our trooper squads went silent after the Hospital got hit. I'll mark the location. Complete their mission and take out the jammer."

The Hospital is the tall building in the northeast corner of the area. It is easily identified by the small blue sign on it. On Easy, this objective is as easy as running in, overloading the jammer, and running out. On Legendary, however, things aren't so simple. There are tons of enemies in the first staircase room and the long hallway to the jammer, and there are lots and lots of Elite Rangers that arrive on the way out. All of this can be skipped, however, with the help of the famous Banshee skip. Note that the Banshee skip is the fastest approach to this area, so it should always be used in an IL run of this mission, even on Easy.

The Banshee Skip

Step one of the Banshee skip is the hardest by far: obtain a Banshee. There are two main methods of doing this. The faster and very risky method is to perform a midair hijack directly from your Falcon. The safer method is to shoot one down. Start by killing the two Marines on your Falcon's side turrets. You'll get new ones after the Hospital, and you don't want them shooting your Banshee while you're trying to hijack it. Next, locate the Banshee you'll want to take. This seems obvious, but the randomness of their spawns can make it harder than you might think. If you're performing this trick at the very beginning of the mission, look around the edges of the map. Your Falcon's radar has exceptional range so watch it carefully. If you're looking for a Banshee midway through the mission, the best place to look is behind you. Chances are, there are five or six of them following you. Now comes the hard part.

Rule number one of skyjacking is to always approach the Banshee from the front. You can technically go from behind, but the Banshee almost always swerves around a lot, especially on Legendary. If you're in front of the Banshee, it flies toward you to try to shoot you, giving it much more predictable behavior. Just make sure to watch out for the occasional Banshee bomb. Rule number two: stay above the Banshee. Try to stay a good 100-150 meters above as you approach the Banshee. You don't want to drop down below it during the hijack. Now, as you near the Banshee, start slowing down your Falcon and beginning the descent. Try to make it so that the cockpit of your Falcon lands on one of the wings of the Banshee. Just before you "land" on it, look toward the side of the Banshee and get out of the Falcon. Time your dismount so that you're out just as the Falcon makes contact with the Banshee. Now hope and pray that luck is with you and allows you to board and jack the Banshee. Voila! This technique takes a lot of practice and you will mess up many times before getting used to it. Until then, I recommend using the other method of obtaining a Banshee.

The easier way to get a Banshee is to land on a rooftop and shoot down a Banshee with a PP or jack one using a jetpack. Besides the obvious fact that it's slower, this method requires you to have gone through a different main objective before the Hospital in order to obtain your PP or Jetpack and gather a group of Banshees to follow you.

So, now that you have a Banshee, you can fly to the Hospital and land it by the door. Get out and immediately press down on your D-Pad to call for evac. You won't be teleported to the start, but a Falcon will now begin flying to the Hospital so that you have a vehicle to fly after you get out. Next, either punch or shoot the right wing off your Banshee. Get back in the Banshee and position it right in front of the entrance, slightly to the right of center (so you fit through). Since the door won't open while you're in a Banshee, you have to get out again, approach the door so that it opens, then get back in and fly into the building. There is a pretty large risk that your Banshee can get stuck in the doorway then crushed by the closing doors, so make sure to line it up well before attempting to enter. Now fly down to the bottom of the room by circling around it counterclockwise in the small walkways. Now fly through the small doorway into the long hallway that contains the jammer. Make sure to fly through to the right of the plants in the doorway (this is why you broke your wing off). Now fly all the way to the jammer and disable it. Note that the hallway is completely deserted. After disabling the jammer, get back into the Banshee and fly into the wall behind the jammer. Keep an eye on the 2 jetpack AA's on the ground. They will despawn after a few seconds. When they do, get out of the Banshee and wait. After a few more seconds, you suddenly teleport to the exit of the Hospital! This skips having to fight through the Rangers and walking to the exit. Assuming you called for evac before entering the Hospital, a Falcon should be just now arriving for you to take with a new pair of Marines. And the Hospital is done! The Banshee trick may seem long and difficult in text O_o, but a quick glance at a speedrun reveals the trick's actual simplicity.

IMPORTANT!!!!! This trick will only work if the Hospital is the first or second main objective you receive. If it is the third one, DO NOT get back into the Banshee after overloading the jammer! You will not teleport outside, and the door to exit will lock, trapping you inside. You can still fly into the building, but stay out of the Banshee after disabling the jammer. Even if you end up receiving it last in a full game Legendary run, it is highly recommended to snag a Banshee and fly inside as it allows you quickly reach the jammer and skip a large number of spawns in the process, including the Rangers that normally arrive.

Sinoviet

7D19: "Mayday, mayday, 7 Delta 1-Niner to all UNSC forces."

Kat: "What's your status 1-Niner?"

7D19: "We found the jammer, but we're getting hit. Request immediate assistance. Sinoviet Center is *augh!*"

Kat: "You still with me 1-Niner? 7 Delta 1-Niner, do you copy? Six, I'm uploading coordinates now. Get to SinoViet Center. Help those Troopers if you can, but get that jammer offline either way."

Sinoviet Center can be found to the south of the area. It is the large building with the big green arrow pointing down on the sides.

This is the easiest main objective of the three. Normally, you'd have to fight off a couple of Shade turrets on the building's landing pad and then several enemies to reach the elevators, but you can instead go to the back left corner of the building and fly up into it. There is a large opening big enough for a Falcon to fit through underneath the elevators there. Simply fly into the building, land right in front of the elevators while ignoring the enemies, and wait for the elevators to open if they aren't already. When you come back, the enemies will be gone.

Take the left elevator to the top of the tower. Sprint to the jammer and overload it. Suddenly, a bunch of Drones will appear. Ignore them and sprint immediately back to your elevator before they even have time to be aware of your presence. Even on SLASO, sprinting to the elevator is perfectly safe. After that, fly the Falcon out of the building the same way you came in and move on.

Vyrant

4C27: "4 Charlie 27 to command. Request immediate assistance."

Kat: "Go ahead 27."

4C27: "We're at the Vyrant Telecom Tower. Got Hunters between us and the jammer."

Kat: "Copy 27, help is on the way. Noble Six, I'm sending you coordinates for the Vyrant Tower. Go get those troopers un-stuck."

The Vyrant tower is located to the north of the city. It is easily identified by the big orange sign near the top. The landing pad is located on the side of the building, guarded by a pair of FRG Shades.

The easiest way to enter the tower is to kill the Shades, fly the Falcon directly toward the door without landing on the pad, and run straight into the building. The enemies will be gone when you return, and they will not shoot the Marines on your Falcon while you are gone. The only way the Falcon could be destroyed when you return is if they threw a grenade at it as you were entering. If you arrive before the enemies even spawn, you can shoot all of them while they pour out of the building; the doors inside take a while to open. Inside, there are about 4 Hunters fighting some Marines. The jammer is in the back, guarded by 2 of them. Run around the right or left side of the room (depending on the side you entered) and up the stairs to the jammer. Watch out for the Hunter at the top; he will try to melee you or shoot you on your way up. Hit the jammer and immediately run and jump down to the bottom of the room before the 2 Hunters can shoot you. Sprint past the Hunter at the bottom. Try to induce it to melee attack, but dodge it. This will buy you enough time to be well on your way to the exit before it can try to shoot you. Get back in your Falcon and fly out the same way you flew in.

The Side Objectives

Two of these are chosen at random for you to complete in each playthrough. There are a total of 12 side-objectives, divided into 4 groups of 3 based on what they are. For example, the helping Marines group involves saving Marines from some enemies, and the Buck group has all the escort missions. In an individual playthrough, you cannot get 2 side objectives within the same group. As I detail each side mission, I will state the fastest approach to each.

Helping Marines

As the name suggests, these missions tell you to go assist some Marines in killing enemies. For all 3 of thee missions, the fastest way to complete them is to actually kill the Marines instead of the enemies. If you kill the enemies, you'll have to wait for a Pelican to slowly fly to the building, pick up the Marines, and fly away. This process can cost more than 30 seconds. So make sure to kill the Marines.

Vs. Brutes

1A3: "1 Alpha 3 to Command. Covies got us pinned down on a roof top. We need help pronto. Uploading the waypoint, over."

Kat: "Copy 1 Alpha 3. Noble Six, proceed to waypoint and give those Troopers a hand."

This objective is located NE of the ONI Tower, just outside the ring of structures that Shades are put on at the end. There are bright blue lit up signs with a very faint DEK on them. Note that this objective can be detected before the dialogue starts if you spot the Phantom that drops off the Brutes. It comes up from the bottom of the map next to the building.

Vs. Hunters

F21: "This is Foxtrot 21 on the DNBM Financial Tower, is anybody out there?"

Kat: "Copy 21, go ahead."

F21: "We got Hunters tearing us a new one!"

Kat: "Hang on. Noble Six, uploading coordinates."

This building is located immediately east of he Vyrant Tower. You can't miss it. Since it begins almost immediately and ends immediately if you kill the Marines, this is one of the fastest side objectives in the mission. There are no Phantoms that drop off the Hunters.

Vs. Jackals

7C40: "7 Charlie 40 to HQ, we've got incoming hostiles on top of the Maines-Traiger building. Requesting immediate assistance."

This objective is located on the purple-lit tower to the west of the Hospital. There are several Jackals with PPs and Needlers, so be on watch for EMP shots.