The Ark
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The Ark is the sixth playable level in Halo 3. See The Ark (level) for general information.
Contents
Easy
At the very start of the level, hold your action/reload button to get out of the Pelican as soon as possible. There are some jumps that can be done on the cliff to the left to cut corners as you approach the first encounter. When you reach the first enemies, jump onto the wall from the rock to the far right. Immediately snipe the 2 Brutes in the center of the area and keep walking to the cave. Grab the Deployable Cover or Flare if either was dropped.
In the second area, if you have a DC or Flare, jump onto the Covenant crate at the cave's exit, grenade jump, then equipment jump on top of the cliff to the left. If you did not get either equipment, continue forward, hugging the left cliff, until you reach the support beam. Jump onto it, then turn left and jump onto the cliff. You need forward momentum for the jump, so take a step or two before jumping. When doing this jump, you need to walk along the edge of the cliff for a bit to avoid hitting a very long string of loadzones that causes a lot of lag. Continue to the hallway, ignoring the Grunts and the Brute.
In the Mongoose area, snipe the Brute that is straight ahead near the Mongooses. Jump down to the right of the crashed Pelican and swap your BR for the Rockets on the ground. Make sure you picked up the rocket crate that is right next to it (you should have 4 rockets). Take a Mongoose and drive up the hill. Stay to the right as you approach the jump to avoid getting hit by the incoming Prowlers. Do not hit the tree as you jump. Continue driving through the middle of the area between the 2 rocks and take the nearest Ghost before the Grunt reaches it. If you mess up, you can keep going and take the 2nd Ghost farther back. Boost through the mission until you reach the AA Wraith area.
When you reach the cave just before the AA Wraith area, get out of the Ghost, pull out your Sniper, and zoom towards the rock structure between you and the AA Wraiths. You can barely see the legs of a Brute there. Move your reticule onto the Brute's leg, switch to your Rockets without moving, and fire. This will clear all the enemies there. From now on, keep the Rockets with you, as they are needed at the end. Now you can get back into the Ghost and boost to the Wraith. Destroy it via boarding, then reenter the Ghost. Shoot the Grunt in the tower near the AA Wraiths with your Ghost, then kill the drivers of the 2 other Ghosts. Finally, destroy the AA Wraiths by shooting the circular vent in the back with the Ghost. At this point, the Forward Unto Dawn is on its way. While you're waiting, swap you Sniper for the Fuel Rod Gun in the ammo crate. Get your Ghost again, and wait in the rock structure. Make sure you don't get pushed backward as FUD arrives. You will be forcibly ejected from the Ghost; get back in. Now, wait just to the right of the rock structure until the cue for the next chapter appears ("Forward Unto Dawn").
Boost to the cave from which you entered, avoiding the Ghosts and the Prowler that come out. Continue past everything until you reach the large area with the bridge. Here, you need to hug the left side of the area and head towards the nearest Wraith. Take it and use it to destroy the other one nearby. Keep moving to the bridge, and kill every enemy on it with your Wraith. Once you reach the closed door at the end, get out and take the nearest Chopper parked on the bridge. Wait in front of the door until it opens (this can take quite a while). You can barely drive the Chopper through the door. Drive to the end of the hallway and turn your camera into the back right corner for a few seconds. This spawns 343 GS to open the door for you (the game will not spawn him if you are looking at the door). Keep driving your Chopper through, get out, push the button, and meander through the next 2 rooms to the next area outside.
As you exit the structure, immediately drive as fast as you can straight to the flat area to the back of the level. It is important that you don't flip along the way. Drive into the little building in the middle of the flat area. Slow down as you take the jump to avoid letting the Chopper go too far and dismount it. Grab a Grav Lift to your right and drive to the back right of the area. Throw down your Grav Lift (see vid for specific location) and jump into it the moment the Scarab hits the ground. You need to wait a few seconds before destroying the core with your FRG. All of this needs to be done before the Scarab spawns and jumps down. In the case that you flipped or something on your way to the Scarab, you can opt to skip getting the Grav Lift to save enough time to FRG jump onto the Scarab instead. If you still do not have enough time, you can grab a Grav Lift, drive on top of the building, place it on top, and drive your Chopper over it to jump onto the Scarab.
Once the Scarab is destroyed, get back your Chopper and drive up the ramp to the right side of the flat area. The Chopper is no longer needed. You need to kill at least 2 Carbine-wielding Jackals and reach the top of the ramp to trigger the Pelican to come. While you're waiting for it, go back down the ramp a little and see if you can obtain a Deployable Cover from one of the 3 Brutes there. It is not absolutely necessary, but it saves a fair bit of time later. When the Pelican arrives, wait for Arby and Marines to get out and throw a plasma grenade at them. You want to kill both Marines in order to skip some dialogue while waiting for Guilty Spark to open the door inside the structure.
Run through the first room without waking the sleeping Grunts. You can do a small slide jump in the next hallway, but make sure to jump a little down the ramp to avoid hitting the ceiling. Stay to your right in the next room, then drop down through the beams and descend the staircase. Go to the door to the back left of the Brute room. If you did not obtain a DC before, now is a good chance to get it. Keep going and activate the cartographer.
Turn left after the cutscene and run back to the door you came from. Walk straight ahead to the door near the Jackals and avoid the Brutes in the staircase there. In the next room, you need to quickly kill the Chieftain by firing three fuel rods before he activates his Invincibility. Drop down to the door. Turn around and block it with your DC after walking through. This blocks all the Stalker Brutes and allows you to skip killing them (the door locks later). Sometimes, one does not despawn and makes the level impossible to complete, but that is very, very rare. Kill the 2 Jackals with your FRG and descend to the last area. Now, pull out the Rockets you've been carrying this whole time. Fire the first rocket between the 2 rightmost Brutes. Fire the second between the next 2. Switch to your FRG and kill the last 2. Quickly turn around and try to throw a grenade at the 2 Jackals that spawn in the back. If you miss, you have to get to them and kill them yourself. Once all the enemies are dead, you'll hear Johnson say he'll be there "damn quick." Walk to the back of the area and wait near the edge for the Pelican. Do not stand right on top of the edge; stay a few steps back. Otherwise, you miss the trigger to end the level.
Legendary
For the first 20-30 seconds of the level, you will be, just like on Easy, sitting in the Pelican with nothing to do. Once Johnson says "Stand to, Marines," hold Action/Reload to exit the Pelican 2-3 seconds earlier than usual.
Moving ahead, move towards the left rather than the normal path to the right. Jump over the first rocky ledge and jump onto the rock ahead. From there, couch-jump to the ledge above and jump across the gap to the next rock. Afterwards, move forward a few paces and try to do a slide jump towards the right. There will be a rock that you can use to get onto the ring for the first fight.
First Fight
In this area, there are 3 Brutes, one of which is a Captain with a Brute Shot, and several Grunts and Jackals. Your primary target is the Captain. There are two routes to dealing with this area.
The safe strategy is to snipe the Captain with your Sniper Rifle 2-3 times and reload. Move towards the right and there will be two Grunt Heavies. Take them out with your Battle Rifle and move along. If you require ammo, there is a Weapon Pod with a Sniper Rifle. Ahead, there are two more Jackals before entering the Cave. Take them out with the Battle Rifle and move into the Cave, where there are two Jackal Marksmen; take them out as well. This route takes about 5 seconds longer than the risky strategy for this area.
The risky strategy instead would involve moving forward instead. Once you jump onto the ring, shoot the Brute Captain. He will usually flinch backwards, and the Brute next to him will line up with you, setting up a 2-for-1. Try to line up both the Captain and the Brute next to him, and you should be able to take them out with one clip of the Sniper Rifle. If they drop grenades and equipment, it is recommended to pick them up if possible, especially if there is a Deployable cover, and there is time to reload your Sniper Rifle if these two Brutes have been killed properly. Moving ahead, there are two Jackals; take them out with the Battle Rifle. If you managed to reload your Sniper Rifle in time, you can pick up some ammo in the nearby Weapon Pod. Going into the cave, take out the two Jackal Marksmen and move to the AA Gun section.
AA Gun Section
Your next destination upon entering this section is a door above you on the left. Though there are quite a number of enemies here, it is possible to skip them all with tactical jumps.
The safest way to deal with these enemies is to skirt around the perimeter, maximizing distance between you and the enemies. While this is arguably the easiest way, it takes a considerable amount of time to take this route.
The next easiest way is to move towards the left, where there is an antenna-like structure. Crouch-Jump to this structure and jump forward to the rock ahead. Keep moving ahead towards the leg of the AA Gun, and do a slide-jump from the base of the leg to the slope. Then move up the slope to your next destination. This will take about 10 more seconds to do than doing the Antenna Jump.
One of the quickest ways is to do the Antenna Jump. Again, on the left, there is the Antenna-like structure. Jump on the right part of the antenna. Look to the left, at the cliff, move forward slightly, and jump. This jump is quick, but it will require extensive practice. Upon getting up to the cliff, it is strongly advised to take out the Jackal in the AA Gun.
At the top of the cliff, there will be a Brute Captain, with a Brute Shot, and 7 Grunts. The safest and most consistent way to take them out is to take out the Grunts with the Battle Rifle while keeping one Grunt between you and the Brute Captain as you approach the Captain. Approach the Captain and melee him to stagger him for 2-3 seconds. During this time, you can either run past him or run around him to back-smack him.
After dealing with the group, move along towards the Crashed Pelican area.
Crashed Pelican Area
The Crashed Pelican area is quite a simple area, though getting out will require luck. Your objective here is to pick up the Rocket Launcher under the crashed Pelican and to get to a Ghost in the next area as fast as possible. Coming into this area, there are plenty of Plasma Grenades on the ground; pick them up if you do not have any.
There are quite a few enemies in this area, but the only concerns here are a Brute on the far side and some Grunts under the downed Pelican. The typical way of approaching this section is to take out the Brute on the far side. The Brute can be killed with a long-ranged Plasma Grenade, 2-3 Sniper shots, or 1 Sniper shot with 2-3 Battle Rifle shots. After killing this Brute, move to the downed Pelican, where there are a few Grunts; take them out with the Battle Rifle. Then, swap the Battle Rifle for the Rocket Launcher, and make sure to pick up the nearby Rocket Launcher ammo. Make your way towards the Mongoose and drive onto the next section. Initially, take a hard left and then drive to the next area to minimize time spent driving uphill. Pray to RNGesus that the 2 Prowlers along the way do not start shooting you as you jump the cliff.
Alternatively, if the player has a Deployable Cover, it is possible to launch from this section to a Ghost in the next section. As usual, pick up grenades going into this area. However, it will not be necessary to take out the Brute on the far side. Make your way to the downed Pelican, dispatch any Grunts, and take the Rocket Launcher. Turn right and move up the hill. Aim in the direction of where a Ghost is in the next section. At the top of the hill, launch from there to the next section.
Vehicle Section
If you exited the last section on a Mongoose, there will be a Chopper in the area. Try to make it to the downed Longsword as fast as possible since the Chopper can shoot the Mongoose and cause it to spin out or to flip. As you approach the crashed Longsword, there is debris near the left wing through which the Mongoose can drive. Drive through this debris, but slow down before going through as there is a panel on the ground that can mess up everything if the Mongoose is going at full speed. Ahead, there is a Grunt about to board a Ghost. Make your way to this Ghost and hijack the Ghost. Then drive on to the cliff area.
If you did a DC Launch from the last area, you will typically land near the Ghost parked by 2 Choppers. If the enemies in this area are not active upon landing, revert to the last checkpoint or the game will softlock later on. If the Brutes are approaching their Choppers, then board the nearby Ghost and drive to the left side of the downed Longsword. Unlike the Mongoose approach, drive over the debris rather than under it. The Grunt in the next area will have likely boarded his Ghost so try to move past him as soon as possible. If your shields are down, shoot a couple shots towards the Grunts near the downed Phantom to get one Grunt off his Turret; this will reduce incoming fire and increase chances of survival.
Regardless of how you acquired a Ghost in this section, you will be approaching a cliff. Instead of driving off this cliff, drive up the slope to the right of the cliff. Hold Jump to make it easier to climb the slope as you boost onto it. After boosting up the slope, there will be a steep slope towards the left; descend slowly down this slope and use your boost upward to maintain stability. Once about halfway from the top of the slope to the ground below, there will be another sloped area. Boost along this area towards another hill ahead and climb the hill, but avoid driving too far to the left as you are climbing or a set of enemies will spawn.
After boosting off this hill, make your way to the AA Wraith Section.
AA Wraith Section
Ahead, there is a cave leading to an area with 3 Wraiths (2 Anti-Air Wraiths and 1 Standard Wraith). There are multiple ways to tackle this section.
The safe method is to swap out your Ghost for a Chopper before heading into the cave leading to the AA Wraith Section. Then boost into the Cave, but stay in the cave. Get off and take out your Sniper Rifle. In the distance, there is a cove. Zoom into the cove and target the thigh of a Brute. Next, take out your Rocket Launcher and shoot; the Rocket will hit the Brute and kill all all enemies in the cove. Get back on your Chopper and target the Wraith towards the right side. The cave will protect you from any mortars that the Wraith sends. Kill the Wraith and the nearby Shade Turret. Once those two targets are down, get off your Chopper and take out the nearby Grunt who is on a Plasma Turret and the 4 Brutes on the left side. Get back on on your Chopper and make your way towards the AA Wraiths. Along the way, there will be 2 Ghosts; dispatch them and move on. Once you see the 2 AA Wraiths, take out the nearby Sniper Tower and Grunt or their Turrets will kill you. Once these two threats are gone, target the cores of each AA Wraith and take them out. The trigger for the Forward Unto Dawn landing should occur once both Wraiths are destroyed.
The risky method of this section is to keep your Ghost and boost into the cave. Like the safe method, target the distant Brute in the cove and fire a Rocket to dispatch a group of enemies there and reload your Rockets. Then, target the group of enemies on the right side. Kill the Grunt on the Turret and the Brute on the Wraith Turret. Next, focus on the 4 Brutes on the left side. Kill 2 of those Brutes and weaken the other 2 if you wish, but do not take out a third Brute or 2 Ghosts will spawn early and make killing the Wraith very difficult. Get back on your Ghosts and head towards the Wraith and Shade Turret. Ram into the Shade Turret to kill it and board the Wraith. Kill the Wraith and then stick your Ghost to prevent the remaining Brutes form boarding it. Make your way to the AA Wraiths and snipe the Grunt in the Sniper Tower; if you have bullets left in your clip, shoot the remaining 2 Brutes if possible, but do not take too long. Afterwards, there will be a Grunt on a Plasma Turret to your left; throw a grenade to kill him. Take out your Rocket Launcher as 2 Ghosts approach you and take them out. If you killed only the drivers, you can use the Ghost to kill the AA Wraiths; else, board the Wraiths.
Once everything is dead, pick up a Fuel Rod Cannon and ammo at the cove and scour the area for grenades. At this point, you should at least have a Fuel Rod Cannon with 22-24 shots in the reserve.
Forward Unto Dawn
At this point, the Forward Unto Dawn will land, dropping off 3 Scorpion Tanks and a Warthog. A Pelican will also arrive to drop off 4 Marines. If you need extra ammo for your Rocket Launcher, trade with one of the Marines who gets off and kill him/her.
Afterwards, board the closest Scorpion Tank and make your way back to the cave, where you entered this section. As you approach the cave, 4 Ghosts will come out of the cave. Attempt to blast each of them with one direct hit. Then, a Prowler will emerge with 2 Brutes riding; 2 direct hits will destroy it. Then, 2 more Ghosts and 2 Hunters will come through the cave. Kill all of them with 1 direct hit each.
After getting through the cave, there will be quite a few enemies, including the set of enemies that were skipped on the way to the AA Wraith section. There is a Phantom deploying a Sniper Nest; destroy the turret and the Sniper Nest as soon as they are visible. Then, there will be 3-4 Jackals on the left side. They are top priority due to their ability to disable the tank. Shoot 1-2 shots at the group of Jackals to kill them and move along. As a safety tactic, kill the Brute Captains, who wield a Brute Shot and a Fuel Rod Cannon, so your allies behind you will join you in the next section.
Moving along, drive the Scorpion Tank down the valley. Around the corner, 2 Ghosts will confront you so take them both down. Up ahead, there is a Wraith. Though it takes 4 shots to completely destroy the Wraith, it is faster to take down the driver with 3 shots and let your gunner finish it off. At the top of the hill ahead, there is a camp with a Sniper Nest with 2 Turrets and a group of Grunts and Jackals near the bottom-right base of the tower. Additionally, 4 Ghosts will start to approach. Prioritize the Ghosts if they are closing in, but try to send a shot into the group of Grunts as soon as possible as there are Grunts with Fuel Rod Cannons in that group. The Sniper Nest is the last priority as the turrets will not shoot until you are relatively close to it.
After everything is dead, move onto the Ark Door section.
Ark Door
This area has several vehicle enemies, including 3 Wraiths, 2 Ghosts, 2 Choppers, and several Shade Turrets. The terrain of this area features 2 cliffs on the left side; one upper-level and one mid-level. The upper level is safer but a bit slower while the middle level is more direct but slightly riskier.
As you enter this area, there are 2 Wraiths being dropped off in the distance. Target the one on the left first and hit it with 4 direct shots. There is a tree that can block your shots; this can be remedied by aiming slightly below and the lowest branch. After killing that Wraith, focus on the other Wraith and shoot 4 direct shots at it. Shoot 3-4 shots at any nearby enemies and then look to the right and above the wall. A Phantom will spawn in the sky with a third Wraith; kill this Phantom with 5 direct shots (though it's possible but more difficult with 3 shots). If done correctly, the Phantom will explode and the Brutes in the Wraith will die. Make your way to the platform and kill anything in the way. Once on the platform, make your way to the door and kill the Shade Turret there. At this point, get out of the Tank and switch to a Chopper while Guilty Spark unlocks the Ark Door. If Guilty Spark is still saying "Reclaimer, come to the upper doorway; the others can take the lower route," then shoot him to skip a bit of dialogue and save about 6 seconds.
Once Guilty Spark unlocks the door, drive your Chopper through the door and boost down the ramp. Once down the ramp, there is a locked door to your left. Turn your camera away from this door for a few seconds and Guilty Spark will spawn there to open the door. After Spark opens the door, drive to the middle of the next room, but do not drive onto the circular platform. Get off and activate the panel to unlock the door on the far side. Get back on the Chopper and drive through the next 2 rooms. In each of these rooms, there are two nodes; driving between the closest node and the wall is the fastest way of navigating these rooms while driving between the nodes is usually easier.
As you navigate the second room, get ready to boost into the Scarab Section.
Scarab Section
==Ark Door== (NEEDS TO BE TESTED)
The Ark door will open on a 35s timer once the 3rd Wraith that spawns by the door has been killed, and when there are no more than 3 enemy AI left in the area. If every enemy AI is Killed including the 3rd Wraith a 25s timer will begin for the door to open.
- Note: The 3rd Wraith is the only enemy that needs to die. If the 3rd wraith does not die the door will never open.
The enemy AI in the area consist of: - The first two Wraith tanks that are dropped off by the Phantom drop-ships. - The two Ghosts that spawn next to the first Wraith. - The two Choppers that spawn on the ground. - All the Shade Turrets that spawn on the bridge that have enemy AI within them. - The enemies that spawn along with the 3rd Wraith on the bridge. - The 3rd Wraith that spawns on the bridge next to the door.
