Oracle
Beginner Goals:
Easy: ~13:00; Legendary: ~14:00
Intermediate Goals:
Easy: ~11:45; Legendary: ~12:30
World Class Goals:
Easy: ~10:00; Legendary: ~11:20
IL Records:
Easy: 9:44; Legendary: 10:51
Segmented Times:
Legendary: x:xx
Oracle is the sixth playable level in Halo 2. See Oracle (level) for general information.
HaloRuns record page: https://haloruns.com/leaderboards/h2a/solo/oracle/Legendary
Contents
[hide]The First Room
Easy
First, sword the Grunt in front of you and stick the other one. Activate camo before the grenade explodes to avoid drawing aggro from your allied Elites. Doing this skips a lot of dialogue and saves time. In the big room past the Elites and Flood fighting, the one with the hologram of the Heretic Leader, there are five combat flood forms on the ground. Sword all of these bodies so that they don't get revived. Next, pick up a new sword and pick up a sentinel beam (both found on the dead bodies of the flood combat forms). Dropping your carbine near the exit door is recommended; this way when the door opens you can swap it with your sentinel beam without losing any time. Afterwards, jump up onto the pillars, or further up into the rafters of the room. It is about to flood (literally) with infection forms. The waves can spawn in any of the various holes around the upper walls. Three initial waves spawn in these holes, then two in the center, then two in the holes again, then two in the center followed by a final wave from the holes. Be ready by the door as the final wave spawns.
Legendary
This section plays the exact same on Easy and Legendary. Take special care to avoid aggro from your allied Elites on Legendary, as they kill you very quickly.
Dialogue Skip
This is a skip that causes the Heretic Leader and Half-Jaw's dialogue to overlap, saving 8 seconds. This is performed the same on both Easy and Legendary. To perform this skip, follow the setup above by breaking all 5 Flood bodies and picking up the Sentinel Beam. Jump up to the wall, and from there onto one of the pillars. Wait for the audio cue of the Heretic Leader's holo-drone to start. The room will be entirely silent right before this cue plays so it's pretty easy to pick out. When this cue starts, walk back towards the door you came into. Walk down the hallway until the door shuts. You will hear a booming sound effect play. Wait a second after this cue, then move back into the room. If you've done everything right, the Heretic Leader and Half-Jaw's dialogue will overlap, and you've hit the skip!
The Elevator
Easy
The elevator is an auto-scroller. So long as you avoid death, there is no real timesave or timeloss for the first few minutes. The flood combat forms can be killed from afar before they reach the elevator, and a lot of the time the real threat is posed by your elite allies, who can melee you to death and stick you. Step onto the elevator as quickly as possible to start it and then kill enemies at your leisure. Once your allied Elites follow you onto the elevator, kill them. It will save time later on in the mission. Note that you can draw aggro from doing this.
Ride the elevator down. We currently cannot skip this section.
Eventually, there will be a wave of sentinels that spawns. A canister of gas on the elevator floor will begin to rise, and if you watch it you will see it change color when it emerges fully. At this precise moment, the kill barrier beneath the elevator despawns and you can drop down to the platform to continue the level (be sure to drop down on the correct side, with the canister on your left if facing the center of the elevator). The audio cue that plays shortly afterwards can alternatively be used as timing. You have to drop down in two stages to avoid dying to fall-timer. It will likely take some practice to consistently drop down without bouncing off into empty space. If you're having difficulty with the timing, watch this example from the current WR: [Elevator Drop Example]
Sword cancel off the Combat Forms in the next hallway and enter the Lab Fight.
Legendary
The elevator section plays the exact same on Easy and Legendary, with the minor caveat that enemies can kill you. At the start, kill the enemies on the elevator as fast as possible, preferably before killing you allies. Note that additional Sentinels spawn at the top of this room. There are two ways to ride the elevator down. The first is to fight every Combat Form and Sentinel that spawns before dropping. The second is to headglitch the entire way down until the drop. To do this, walk over to the "arm" that pulls barrels out of the wall. At just above head height there will be an alcove that you can jump into. Do this and ride the elevator down until the drop comes. One method isn't better than another, it comes down to personal preference. Example: [Headglitch Method Example]
Lab Fight
Easy
This room takes some practice to execute correctly. There is a Sentinel Beam by your feet as you enter, which you should pick up before dropping down. The initial wave of enemies that are already in the room include a number of Carrier Forms, two Heretic Grunts on turrets, and one Heretic Elite. Also, there are dead Combat Forms on the ground. Take care of the Grunts and Heretic Elite first, destroying the Combat Form bodies as well if you can. Next, kill the Carrier Forms with the sentinel beam as fast as possible. Take note that when you kill the carrier flood there will be a lot of infection forms running around. After you eliminate all those enemies mentioned, the next wave will spawn. This wave will include three Heretic Elites, who enter via the same door that you did, and four Carrier/Combat Forms that spawn near the roof of the room. Kill the Elites first by catching them as they enter the room; you can jump back up to the upper level through any of the windows if you first jump onto one of the ledges that sit between them. The flood will sometimes sit up in the rafters for some time, so be sure to check that they've all jumped down or been killed. After you kill all of them, take note of the time. For the next minute the room will continually spawn more combat forms as you kill them, keeping the total at four. It's therefore futile to kill more flood during this time. Instead, it is best to jump up onto the small ledge atop the exit door, herding the combat forms to that area. Keep an eye on your timer and kill them as soon as one minute has elapsed. The exit door will then open, with Heretics on the other side. Kill these as quickly as possible and wait in the airlock for the door to lock behind you. It is not necessary for all enemies to be dead; if they are sufficiently far from the airlock it will lock anyway.
Legendary
The room plays exactly the same as on Easy in its mechanics. Kill the enemies in the exact same order as on Easy. The caveat is that you can die very fast on Legendary compared to Easy. Don't be afraid to take the fight slow at first to ensure you don't die and eat a big revert. This is one of the hardest fights in the game, be sure to practice it extensively.
Outside
Easy
After the exit door opens, there will be a carrier form in front of you. Jump and hit a swordfly off of it, aiming to land in the area beyond the grunts. Shoot a grunt midair if you can. If you successfully shot a grunt, two Heretic Elites will spawn coming down the ramp in front of you that you can sword cancel off of. Walk up the ramp and continue into the next room. 4 Combat Forms and 3 Sentinels spawn here. Kill all of them.
Legendary
This section plays the exact same as on Easy, with one exception. After killing a grunt midair, activate your camo to avoid being shot. Proceed with the level.
Ascent and Cutting the Cable
Easy
After skipping the cutscene, walk to your right. Jump on the supporting pillar for the ramp heading upwards. Follow the ramp up to the elevator button. On H2A only, press the elevator button once, then again after a short delay. Stand under the elevator as it descends. This should pressure launch you upwards into the cable room and will make you invincible! From here, cut each of the three cables. When you cut the last cable, note the time and walk towards the elevator shaft. 11 seconds after you cut the last cable, drop into the elevator shaft. If you don't do this, you will be softlocked and will have to restart. On H2C, just ride the elevator up normally instead of pressure launching and follow the same steps.
Legendary
On Legendary, perform the same steps. The pressure launch is very beneficial because it makes you completely invincible for the rest of the level!
The Escape
Easy and Legendary
As you travel back down, look slightly to the right, at about a one-o-clock orientation from the panel at the top. Drop down to the bottom level and continue through the door in front of you. Drop down the elevator shaft. In the next room, you can either attempt a sword cancel across (spawns permitting) or simply go around to either side. A cutscene triggers once you pass through the door on the opposite side. A very brief Banshee section ensues. Continue through the level normally, backtracking through the rooms of The Arbiter in the opposite direction. Eventually you'll find your way back to the hangar room and will fight the Heretic Leader. As you cannot die except to kill volumes, this section plays the exact same on Easy and Legendary on H2A. On H2C Legendary you'll need to be very careful as enemies can and will kill you.
Heretic Leader Bossfight
Easy
Skip the cutscene that triggers as you enter and move to the right side of the Seraph Fighter. The real Heretic Leader is the one furthest from you when you start. Kill him as quickly as you can, using sword lunges, a Plasma Grenade, or your Carbine. The two at the front are holograms and will vanish when the real Leader is dead.
Legendary
The area that is most different on Legendary is the Heretic Leader fight. Instead of simply dying the first time you attack him, the Heretic Leader will fly up to one of the four tubes on the walls (the same ones that Sentinels appeared from in The Arbiter). From these tubes he delivers three different pieces of dialogue, and during each one he is passive and invincible. After each bit of dialogue he spawns more holograms and tries to resume the fight with you in the middle of the room. You should disallow this by swordflying to him each time, and swording him into submission as he finishes the dialogue. It is best to attack his side or back, as unlike other Heretic Elites his melee is typically an insta-kill and he can perform one if you attack him from the front. After each repetition of this he will fly up his tube and appear again, sometimes in the same one. He can get stuck whilst doing this, if this happens just sword-lunge him and he should go up. If he takes too long to do this on the second one in particular, you will sometimes get additional dialogue from the Oracle that loses time. Another complication can arise if you knock him out of the tube; he will not fly back up once you deal enough damage to him if he is too close to the wall. If you do this, just push him closer to the center of the Hangar using your sword and he should resume as normal. On the third and final bit of dialogue, drop his shields with the sword, and back off to shoot him in the face with your Carbine as his dialogue ends. He will now finally die, and the level will end.
Potential Strategies and Knowledge Base
Throughout the development of this level, there have been many strat discoveries that have either been lost with time or have been proven too difficult to be executed consistently across runs. The following sections is for maintaining a list of potential developments that may be referenced for a future date, and will be listed with:
- Who discovered the trick, date of discovery, and various notes
Historical Strategies
- N/A
Potential Strategies
- N/A
Knowledge Base
- N/A
