Running with Elites
Posted March 24th 2005
Have you ever run casually alongside an Elite, without even being cloaked? Well now you can, courtesy of a bit of Ghost rearranging.
In the twin bridges area there are two Ghosts which Elites run to. I expect you've seen the nearer Elite popping out from cover and running to his Ghost many times. The other guy is right at the back of the battlefield. Move either of these Ghosts so the pilot will have to run a long way to get to it; e.g. near your entry point to the area. When you play through later and trigger the pilot, you can intercept his course (in a vehicle if you want to be quick) and then run alongside.
It's quite a novelty to see Bungie's superb character animation close up like this. He's so focused on getting to his machine that he won't even stop to shoot at you, even if you take a few potshots yourself. A similar principle can be used to get to run alongside Grunts that are programmed to run to a Shade; see Grunty fun with shades.
Don't bother getting comfy, squid-face
The moment the Elite steps into the seat, I suggest letting him have it with a rocket launcher, or timing a vicious stream of needles so he goes up in a nice pink bang just as he gets comfy. Dear me; all that running for nothing!
Face to face with a blocked pilot
One time, I'd moved the nearest Ghost back through the underpass to the base of the spiral path. The pilot still went running for it. I then chanced upon an interesting bit of behaviour. Halfway through the underpass, take a stance between two rocks in the narrowest bit as the Elite approaches. This seems to block him entirely, and he'll stop and stare at you blankly. You can be eyeball to eyeball like that for about 30 seconds, after which he suddenly loses interest in the Ghost and reverts to his normal aggressive self; so watch out!
Running the gauntlet
Here's another activity you can enjoy with such a set-up. With suitable positioning of the Ghosts, you can ensure that the Elites will have to run a gauntlet of Marine fire to get to their machines, which should be quite entertaining - especially if you've got a big squad! Eliminate any snipers beforehand though, or they'd quickly shoot the Elites dead. It's more fun to see them suffer under a prolonged barrage of weaker fire.