Winter Contingency
"There's a disturbance on the frontier."Beginner Goals:
Easy: ~ 6:30; Legendary: ~ 8:00
Intermediate Goals:
Easy: ~ 5:30; Legendary: ~ 7:00
World Class Goals:
Easy: ~ 4:35; Legendary: ~ 5:02
IL Records:
Easy: ~ 4:19; Legendary: ~ 4:37
Segmented Times:
Easy: ~ 4:10; Legendary: ~ 4:25
Winter Contingency is the first playable level in Halo: Reach. See Halopedia for general information, the routes and strats are the same for both Easy and Legendary, as well as co-op.
HaloRuns record page: https://haloruns.com/leaderboards/reach/solo/wc/Easy (click the timestamps for video links)
Contents
Video Examples
Examples of every trick mentioned here can be found on either the [1] or the [2] Records page. There are also multiple video tutorials for specific tricks indicated on this page. Be sure to check #reach-links in the Haloruns discord.
Mission Start
After 46 seconds inside the falcon, you will want to get out and sprint straight forward. You can either try the Barrier Jump on the hill on your left or do the classic route that involves some slide jumps around the hut. The barrier jumps save around 18 seconds but if you mix it with Earliest Falcon and Earliest Out Of Bounds you can save about 2 minutes. Keep in mind, with gate clip the classic route only loses the 18 seconds.
Starting Routes
- Barrier Jump Route
- In order to do the Earliest Falcon you need to do the barrier jumps, head up to the mountains on your left, and then after some precise jumps you will go over the elastic barrier and then do the Falcon Grab.
- You can watch an in-depth Video Tutorial on how to do all the Barrier Jumps.
- Classic Route
- Sprint down the hill to the house try to get some slide jumps to save some time. Skip the house by going to the right and jumping up the cliffside.
- Here is the optimal slide jump route, if you do it correctly you will outrun the camo elite on legendary.
Falcon Grab
You can hijack a falcon to go out-of-bounds to get to the Relay Outpost before you are supposed to, skipping the falcon ride later in the mission.
- As you near the trucks, stop right where the ground is about to slope downward and look at the Falcon with Jun in it. You'll notice that the Falcon is flying in a triangular pattern.
- When the Falcon is on your left and at its furthest point away from you, immediately run down the slope and if done correctly the Falcon will teleport.
- This process removes Jun from the Falcon, so that the Falcon Skip can be triggered later in the level (if you did the barrier jump route at the beginning of the level you don't need to do this process).
There are various methods to do the falcon grab, so they will be listed from fastest to slowest, listed by the color-coded names by the time barriers that can be achieved from the table at the top of the page. Outdated methods will be listed at the bottom of this page.
Gate Clip
- World Class/Easy IL Record Strategy
This is the current fastest method of grabbing the falcon as of 2023, and is done in both Full Game and Individual Level runs on the Easy Difficulty.
After the barrier jumps, you will see a building with a gate attached on the left side. There is a small hole on the right side of that gate that is slightly the wrong size to walk through. Simply binding crouch to scroll wheel on the mouse will allow you to clip through this gap while holding forward. This part is very difficult on controller.
Running through the building, you will want to jump and cut sprint while passing the pillar in the middle of the room headed towards the stairway door. This allows for the falcon AI to not break, and it will continue it's pathing over the building. Run outside, headshot a grunt or skirmisher, and EMP the falcon so it flips over. Sprint past the hut on the right side to trigger a load zone that spawns a spirit, the faster this load is hit, the better.
River Flip
- World Class/Legendary IL Record Strategy
This is the current fastest method of grabbing the falcon on both Full Game and Individual Level runs on the Legendary Difficulty. Tutorial may be found here.
After doing the OOB platforming over the building, you will want to run inside the building to load the falcon. When you run out, sprint to the right side into the bunker and kill an enemy for a plasma pistol. Run out the other side and quickly EMP the falcon so it lands in the river. This methods spawns in the spirit quicker.
Dyse's 10 Second Falcon
- Intermediate Strategy
Very consistent method of grabbing falcon. This is the strategy recommended to most newer runners who are planning on running full game.
After the OOB like in River Flip, go back into the building and jump over the fence on your left and wait there until you the the falcon spawn on your radar. When it shows up, wait under the stairs for 2 seconds, exit the building, and walk to the left side. You will want to stand in a specific spot in the left bunker to EMP the falcon. This can be seen in this example here.
Classic Falcon Grab
- Intermediate Strategy
Old method of grabbing the falcon from 2018. This is not the easiest, nor fastest method of grabbing the falcon, but has been a staple strategy for those interested in achieving intermediate-level times. A tutorial can be found here.
After the OOB like in River Flip, go back into the building and jump over the fence on your left and wait there until you the the falcon spawn on your radar. When it shows up, wait under the stairs for 2 seconds, exit the building, aim up and try to overcharge the falcon. A good hit will flip the falcon. This can be seen in this run here.
Hill Falcon
- Beginner Strategy
This is the first version of the trick from late 2014, and is the easiest method (however, slowest) for grabbing the falcon.
When you reach the trucks get in and drive to the first structure, there will be a hill on your left where the falcon will remain still, make sure you have a plasma pistol, if you don't, you can take one from the skirmishes on your way to the hill, climb it and shoot an overcharged Plasma Pistol shot at the Falcon. A good place to aim is the nose, just behind the chaingun. Keep doing this until the Falcon flips over and the cockpit opens. Flip the Falcon back over and pilot it.
Out Of Bounds
For the OOB part there are multiple ways to do it, two of them are done with the same drop ship and are explained here.
For all methods, getting Carter into your falcon will save time, so it is suggested that losing a few seconds to grab Carter while waiting for the drop ship is suggested.
First Spirit OOB
- Intermediate/World Class/IL Record Strategy
Here is a quick explanation of this trick.
This is the hardest one to do and it is done with the very first dropship seen in the game, first you need to get the Earliest Falcon.
Wait with your falcon hovering over the big three that is near the right side of the hut that is located in the left part of the river. You will see the dropship coming, when it starts to go down quickly, move forward to trigger the dropship to leave. If you are using a mouse, watch the dropship and follow it's path, landing in the middle of the two dropship arms while being pushed OOB. For a consistent path, you can wait a few extra seconds until the dropship doors open up.
Marine Spirit OOB
- Beginner/Intermediate Strategy
For this one use your falcon to fly via the right side of the biggest hill so you can activate the dropship landing in the correct area, approach the marines and make sure to trigger the blue markers over their heads (YOU MUST DO IT), after the ship drops some grunts it will always fly in same path, if you want you can destroy it's turret, follow the ship and try to get stuck on it after it flies over (sometimes through) the hills. After a while it will push you through the elastic barrier, you will know you are done because you will take some damage (you sometimes don't take any damage). This is the most consistent way to go OOB, however much slower than the First Spirit OOB. Example seen here.
Relay Outpost
Here is a quick tutorial on how to do all this strat.
Once you load the relay outpost, do not land in there. Instead, stay out of bounds above the outpost and kill every enemy with your Falcon. After you make sure every enemy is dead (use your radar to double check) get out of your Falcon and then re-enter your Falcon, for safety land on top of the relay outpost but you can do this in mid air. This is a vital trigger that you must hit or else the level will not continue, after this you will get a checkpoint and if you did it right you will listen a Kat's dialog, if you do, it is safe to proceed with the deload, if you don't go back and make sure every enemy is dead.
For the next part, it is recommended that you watch the world record run to see where they go as it is hard to explain, but you need to deload the outpost by loading previous area of the level, avoid going too far and too high or else you could get teleported into solid space and die, wait outside the now deloaded relay outpost. Around the time the second spirit spawns you should load the relay outpost again, then either scale the nearby rock to get back into the relay outpost or use the Falcon to fly over the wall - using the Falcon is risky as there is a chance for you to get locked in the Falcon. On your way inside the building pick up 2 frag nades, one is located upstairs in the yard and the other one is with a marine's dead body by the middle truck, get inside the building and position yourself between the DMR ammo frame and the left pillar (you will see a 3rd frag nade, you will use it soon). You should notice that the door you need to go through is deloaded but it's hit box is still there, this is normal. Wait for the enemies being dropped off to die and the sky to change color, when that happens throw the 3 nades making them bouncing with the floor, if you do it right the hitbox of the door will be gone and you can continue with the level as usual, if not you will have to wait between 5 to 15 secs for the hitbox to disappear.
Final Area
Easy
After the cutscene, run for the first Zealot and back smack him. This is not necessary, but is a consistency strat. If you run past the first Zealot, he will sometimes follow you into the last room, where you will have to kill him to proceed. However, sometimes he will not follow you. It seems to be random. Ignore the rest of the enemies and head up to the very last room, throw some grenades to kill the grunts and run to the switch, the Zealot will be there messing around with the switch kill him with a noob combo a ninja or however you want to and finish the level. If you can't hit the switch bad luck friend, an enemy from the previous hall followed you and he needs to die.
Legendary
After the cutscene you want to kill everyone, grab a DMR and walk a bit to trigger the Zealot movement, don't go too far or he will go to the next room, shoot at the red tanks to make them explode and while they are in fire shoot to the Zealot, you will want to walk backwards while shooting at the tanks. If the Zealot aggros you hide behind the DMRs and let him engage Jorge, kill him and then proceed with the level while killing enemies. After the hall do the same as on easy, throw some grenades to the grunts and noob combo the final Zealot.
Potential Strategies and Knowledgebase
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:
- The date of discovery, by who, and how it could improve the level
Historical Strategies
- Falcon Teleport Unknown, 2015. Replaced by early falcon grab
- Soft Falcon Grab Wolfy, 2015. Replaced by faster falcon grab
- Early Marine Group OOB Unknown, Unknown. Replaced by Early Spirit OOB
Potential Strategies
- Ezhno Launch Ezhno, Dec. 2019. No consistent method exists
- Window Jump SleeplessBlue, Feb. 2018. Not consistent
Knowledge Base
- Gpro's Spiritless OOB Gpro, June 2018. Potential OOB area
