Cairo Station
"Defend the station's MAC gun from Covenant boarders."Beginner Goals:
Easy: ~5:10; Legendary: ~9:00
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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Cairo Station is the second playable level in Halo 2. See Halopedia for general information.
HaloRuns record page: http://www.haloruns.com/records?lb=201 (click the timestamps for video links)
Contents
First Encounter + Courtyard
Wait to the side of the door. As soon as you see enemies on your radar, you can start moving. Try to get dual plasma rifles as fast as possible because they kill enemies quickly and don't need reloading. You can start with dual SMGs, get a plasma pistol/SMG combo, or noob combo to kill Elites and get the PRs.
On legendary
Jump up above the initial door, and wait for the 4 enemies to run out the door before you drop down behind them. If you don't get a plasma pistol here, drop into the first courtyard, take the route to the left and kill the Grunt for his PP. Otherwise, jump up above the courtyard as shown. If you don't kill the Elite in the hall, you can conserve some valuable plasma pistol ammo.
First Hangar
Kill everything with dual plasma rifles. After clearing the first room, look at the Malta - if you killed everything it will have white ships leaving it. Looking at it makes it blow up faster and saves time. When the dialogue finishes, stay out of the blast radius of the exit door.
On legendary
Stay up top and focus on noob comboing the Elites. When there's one Elite left from a wave, the next one will spawn. Throw frags as the Grunts drop out of the tube. Plasmas may cause the Elites to roll and take cover, slowing you down. If you run out of PP ammo, jump down. You can also BR blue Elites to conserve PP ammo.
When there's one Elite left after the third wave, an invisible timer starts. When it ends, a dual-wielding white Elite and two Grunts will spawn. Spawnkill the white Elite, or he'll tear you up. After you clear the enemies, you can kill your allies if you want more frags - they will drop 0-2.
When the door blows, stay up top, then drop behind the enemies. There's BR ammo by the turret - you'll need it.
If you stand and wait near the Pelican's left wing, you can sometimes get a CP before the drop.
Second Hangar
Second room is much like the first. Kill the turret grunts, then dual plasma rifle everything.
Look at the Athens after you clear the room, like the Malta it blows up faster if you look at it. Go into the back room during the dialogue to grab frag grenades, then go down the stairs.
On legendary
This hangar is much harder due to more cover and tougher enemy spawns. The turret grunts drop 100% plasma pistols - it's advisable to dual-wield them and jump up the boxes and to the walkway. Also, picking them up prevents them from deloading. Then noob combo like the first hangar, switching PPs as they run out. You can either jump back and forth from the large green box or strafe at the railing. You can also stay downstairs, but it's very risky and dependent on Elite behavior.
At one Elite left on the third wave, two dual-plasma-rifle white elites and a gold swordsman will spawn. Be very careful with the dual wielders. If you care to dance with them (very risky), you can piss them off so they pull out swords. This actually makes them less dangerous and you can engage from afar.
Once they're dead, get the ammo and grenades in the side room. Juggle a plasma pistol and sword down the stairs. The sword will allow for sword flying throughout the level, though most of the sword-flys are risky. You should continue juggling the sword through the next section.
If you wait before heading into the tunnels, you can sometimes get a CP. You can also backtrack to the first hangar for a CP.
The Armory
Run through to the armory. You can noob combo the camo Elite in the door if you have a PP. Take Master Guns' shotgun after the elites kill him. This will make the bomb room go faster. Turn right out of the Armory, shoot the glass and jump off the light fixture and up to the turret. (this will take some practice)
On legendary
There's 2 Elites and 3-4 Grunts in the tunnels below. Noob combo the Elites and BR the grunts. At the far door, stick the Elite as it opens, then turn and noob combo the Elite coming through the other door. You can also melee the Elite to stun him, so you can go around and backsmack. Juggle your sword forward once everything below is dead. Open the hatch, noob combo the two elites in the armory, then pick up the sword for good.
The yolo approach is to take the sword from the gold Elite and sword cancel off an enemy through the tunnel. Stick/sword lunge the Stealth Elites, as well as the two Elites in the armory.
Now you want to swordfly to the turret. To make it over the turret, you have to jump+swordfly+jump (A, YXR, A). In case you miss it, just revert to checkpoint, you should have gotten one immediately before. A safer strat is to go up onto the roof above the Armory, kill the sword fly target, and jump down.
Space
On legendary
You need to get down this hallway quickly, if too many enemies are killed before you reach the end, more enemies will spawn ahead of you. You can swordfly, but it can be risky. If you get into trouble, kill the Elite and the Grunts should panic and stop shooting you.
Sword both jetpack Elites in the airlock. Jump up the ramp, then turn around.
Method 1: Out of Bounds (1/5)
- Grenade jump up on top of the space station and walk around to the door. You shouldn't have to kill the reinforcements.
Method 2: The Swordfly (?/5)
- If there is a jetpack Elite floating between you and the door, and he is floating still, you can swordfly off of him. If you get the swordfly just right, you will loop up over and beyond the Elite, and land somewhere near the door.
- If you want to be safer, you can tap A while doing the swordfly, and you should land on top of the space station, beyond the Elite. Then you can drop down to the door.
- If you mess up and the Elite is moving, the swordfly will stop right above him. This is major trouble, and you'll have to sneak/kill your way to the door somehow.
Bugs
In the large hangar room, drones will fly up and land in a row on the lip of the ramp. Bounce a frag or two off the lip, and jump down to the door. You need to kill 4-5 drones to trigger the door at the bottom to open. Ideally, you want to get to the door right as it opens. If you're too slow getting to the door, the lift will start moving up, and you'll have to press the button to make it go down. Alternately, if you get down there and the door isn't open, kill more drones.
Killing all the enemies in the airlock makes the door open faster. Use grenades and you should kill pretty fast. You know you got slow doors if you are only able to exit after the line "follow my lead".
On legendary
If you go off to the right, save a nade for the murdersquad that will fly in behind you. They will often land near the stairs and a frag tossed below it should kill them, you can draw them there by shooting. Pick up a plasma pistol. If you want to try a risky swordfly off the space turret, juggle the sword to the bottom of the elevator. Otherwise ditch it.
The elevator will probably be coming up, so hit the switch. If you stay on the top level of the elevator, you can noob combo the Elites, kill the Grunts and get in the airlock. Be wary of the Grunts, they have a tendency to toss grenades when you're behind the switch. You can sometimes kill most of them by bouncing frags off the top level. Juggle the sword into the airlock if you want to go for yolo.
Space (again)
On legendary
The risky strat is to swordfly off the turret, as shown. If you don't get to the door fast enough, you will likely be killed by the jetpack Elites coming over the wall beyond the turret.
The safer strat is to pick up a PP and noob combo. If you're good at aiming, you can noob combo the turret, even though the PP won't track at that distance. Noob combo the two jetpack guys either way. If you have a plasma nade you can go for the MLG stick on the Elites coming over the wall - BR them from a safe distance.
Bomb Room (Pickle Room)
Shotgun+stick everything. The level ends when everything dies.
On legendary
It's really risky to attack this room with the sword. The safest strat is to noob combo (if you kept the PP) or grab a plasma rifle. It's generally best to engage the Elites from the left side, although you can try your luck from the far right cubby near the boxes.
