Sierra 117
Beginner Goals:
Easy: ~x:xx; Legendary: ~x:xx
Intermediate Goals:
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World Class Goals:
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IL Records:
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Segmented Times:
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Sierra 117 is the first playable level in Halo 3. See Sierra 117 (level) for general information.
Easy
Chapter 1
The first half of Sierra 117 is mainly focused on movement.
In the area with the sleeping grunts, there are a few ways out. The most difficult, but the fastest way is to follow the cliff-face along the right hand side of the area. You can ramp the log on a rock there to get on a standable part of the rock wall, and then long jump straight to the exit of that area. Currently the Individual Level World Record (or IL WR) does this. [1] [2]
The second fastest method, which is a lot easier, would be to just jump up from the pipe. [3]
If you're finding the pipe jump difficult, you can use one of the crates just left of the pipe.
Once you're past that area, you'll want to do the Cortana skip. The skip itself is easy. The hardest part is the first jump of the skip. Jumping from the sloped part that sticks out the rock down below can be difficult. If you let go of forwards in mid-air for a second, you wont hit your head on the overhang. Do not hold crouch on landing. If you play "the floor is lava", you wont trigger the moment. [4]
Here is a fairly detailed explanation of the skip: [5]
As you're going through the river area, grab a Brute Shot from the final Brute. Use either a Plasma Pistol or Needler to quickly kill the Brute and grab the Brute Shot. [6]
As you're going through the sniper forest, you can do a cone launch [7]
Once you're past the sniper forest, you'll want to do the gap jump. There are many ways to do this jump.
Here's a clear detailed description for the gap jump with a Frag Grenade: [8]
You can do the jump with a Brute Shot, which is one of the most common ways on Easy: [9]
You can do the jump with a Frag Grenade, which is also a common method: [10]
You can do the jump with a Plasma Grenade: [11]
You can do the jump with no explosion whatsoever, which is quite a bit harder: [12]
There are a few backup strats you can do, such as dropping down and Brute Shot jumping up from the ground. [13] [14]
Chapter 2
Once you reach the final area, you'll want to make your way straight to the prison. You'll want to kill enemies on the way there, because this is part of the trigger for the Pelican to arrive. Release Johnson, kill the hammer chieftain, take his hammer and use it to kill as many people as you can while heading back to the area you first dropped down from. There's a low chance the Chieftain will drop a Flare, this usually helps to make Early Pelican a lot easier. It doesn't always drop, so you shouldn't rely on it, he usually drops an invincibility. The end of the level trigger is once you're inside the Pelican. You can do a trick known as "Early Pelican" which involves either a hammer + grenade jump, or a grenade + flare jump.
Line your left foot up with the crack on the ground, wait for the audio cue "Everyone down" Jump and nade the ground after that. Wait a split second after you land, then start walking backwards of the edge and Hammer jump into the pelican, remembering to hold crouch and turn towards the pelican while in mid air. [15]
Stand on the crack in the railing (the dark spot). Angle yourself so that you are perpendicular to the edge of the railing directly in front of you. Wait until the pilot says "Going loud," then crouch, throw a Frag onto the dark spot, back up, jump, and swing the Hammer immediately. In the air, turn left toward the Pelican and hold crouch. [16]
Early Pelican is one of the harder tricks in the speedrun, which isn't recommended for beginners. You can just wait for the Pelican to fly to its normal spot then end the level. Early Pelican saves about 20 seconds.
Legendary
Chapter 1
As you approach the first fight, you can skip it entirely. You can do a jump up on a rock just before the first area to skip a load which triggers the enemies and the Phantoms to drop in. [17]. This jump is not necessary, it's good for full game. You can alternatively just run past. Hug the left hand side of the area, make sure you don't get shot in the back by Grunts. Make sure to grab a Plasma Pistol in this area, even if you do the skip. You can sit under the Phantom and get your shields back if you take damage. As you're approaching the exit of the area, watch the Brute Shot Brute coming from the right hand side. Plasma Pistol and headshot him with the Pistol so he doesn't kill you. [18] [19]
Once you come to the sleeping grunts area. You'll want to assess the situation really fast. It's entirely possible to just run through this area without worrying about anything, but it's hard. You'll want to switch your pistol our for a Carbine, so you now have a Carbine and a Plasma Pistol. Your first focus should be on killing only three carbine Jackals in the trees. If you kill four, you'll have more enemies spawn by the exit. Focus on the rightmost Jackals and kill them, and make sure to kill the Jackal by the exit to the area. If you don't kill the Jackal by the exit, you wont get a checkpoint as you enter the next area. Kill a few Grunts around the pipe, just to help survive. You can leave this area using the same methods on Easy, however you'll die a lot faster. The recommended ways are to use the pipe jump up, or the supply crates just left of the pipe. [20] [21] [22]
For the next area, the area with the Brute holding the Marine on the log. You'll want to just crouch jump up the right hand side cliff-face and skip that first fight. [23] If you can't quite make the jump up, you can jump on the rock just before then jump up. Kill the carbine Jackal that approaches you. Take out your plasma pistol and begin to charge. Fire it at the Brute in the cave and kill him. Feel free to throw any grenades you have at this part, to clear out some enemies. Sometimes the Grunts here go kamikaze and will try to kill you, so be careful. [24]. You can grab the Brute Shot from this Brute here if you like, it helps for a faster Cortana skip. Also sometimes he drops a Bubble Shield which you should hold on to if you can.
Now we come to the Cortana skip, which is the same as Easy. Here's how to do it with a Brute Shot: [25]. It's basically a slide jump with a brute shot explosion to further the distance you go. Here's a detailed explanation of the skip: [26]
As you arrive at the river pick up a BR, either switch it out for the Brute Shot or Plasma Pistol, depending on your current weapons. You'll want to have either a BR and a Plasma Pistol, or a BR and a Carbine at this point. You'll want to head down to the first group of enemies. Punch the Brute in the back, if he drops a Bubble Shield and you didn't get one earlier that's good. If he doesn't, it isn't a huge deal. Punch the enemy that's sitting on the turret (if there is one) and you'll grab extra BR ammo. Jump into the water and kill the two Beam Rifle snipers on the far side. You'll want to head towards the exit of the area, while remaining in the water. There are two ways out of the water. You can use a grenade jump boost to get out, or just a jump which is slightly slower. [27]. Then enter the sniper forest.
There's no special strategy for the sniper forest, just learn the spawns and kill them all as you move through at a steady pace.
Gap jump is the same as on Easy. You'll want to kill some snipers as you approach though. Across the other side of where you are, there is a Beam Rifle Sniper that sometimes spawns, if he does, you'll want to kill it. There's also two on a ledge to your left. Focus on those three, then do your preferred gap jump method. You'll want to learn the gap jump on Legendary, because the backup strats are pretty hard. They take a lot of time. If you have a bubble shield at this point, deploy it mid gap jump. It'll save you from potentially being sniped. You don't need one, it just helps. If you want to be risky, you don't need to kill any snipers, you can just do the gap jump and run through the area.
Gap jumps: [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
Chapter 2
Now we arrive at the end of the level. The idea here is the same as Easy, make it to Johnson's prison. However because we're on Legendary, we'll want to take a slightly safer route. The first thing you should do is see if the enemies are awake. If they're not, and the Jackal below you is facing away, you can drop straight down and make a run for under the bridge. If they aren't awake, but you feel the Jackal might spot you, or are they already awake. Follow the cliff face along to the right hand side, drop down and follow it all the way around. Pop out and make a dash for under the bridge again. As you're running under the bridge, you can jump to avoid beam rifle shots. [35] [36] Once you arrive at the other end of the dam, jump up on the crates and up to the right. Fall back into the back room straight ahead of you and follow that back room down all the way to the bottom. As you arrive at the bottom, be careful of a sniper on top of Johnson's prison. Release Johnson and you should start killing enemies. If you're near the Chieftain and Johnson at the same time, the Chieftain will focus on Johnson most of the time, leaving him open to assassination. There's a few ways to approach this fight. You can go back into the side room, and use those red engine things to grav hammer jump onto the roof and sit up there and be safe. But that's slow, the ideal way to deal with this fight is to just stay put behind Johnson's prison and kill all the enemies as they approach you. You can do Early Pelican as it arrives, but it's from the other side as Easy. Early Pelican is quite a bit easier from this side.
If the Chieftain drops a flare, you can just do a grenade jump then equipment jump into the Pelican using the flare. This is by far the easiest way to do the trick from this side. If he doesn't you can use a grenade and hammer boost into the Pelican. It's possible to get in with just the flare. Here are a few videos: [37] [38] [39]
