And with a better view this time!

Posted January 11th 2026

In my earlier article Spawn-launched Wraith, I described how you can get the level's first Wraith launched into the air the moment it spawns, by having sneakily placed the Scorpion at the spawning spot in advance, so the Wraith gets repelled away from it. Well, you can also do this with the level's second Wraith, which spawns as part of the second expansive ground battle, namely in what I call the 'two-Wraith area'.

This time however, there are multiple advantages, making the situation considerably better. For starters you can be closer to the launch, giving you a better view of the airborne Wraith whether you're on foot or flying. You can also be watching with a zoomed sniper rifle, getting a really good view, and can enjoy trying to snipe the pilot, who'll be boarding as his machine sails through the air. It's good too that the Wraith is in a bright area, rather than being in murky shadow like the earlier one.

A further advantage is that there's a lot more variation available in how and where you trigger the launch. And to mention one more thing, the post-launch action (if you care to go in for some) is more rich and engaging, and you can also have Marines quickly joining in with it because they automatically advance when the battle is triggered (unlike in the earlier case, where you'd need to go over to link up with them).

So, let's get on to specifics. In covering things, I'll assume that you have some familiarity with the earlier spawn-launching situation.

Setting up

My tutorial BCM622 shows an example of the set-up work in the first two minutes or so, but I'll cover things here also, including more detail.

As before, you'll be wanting a Banshee. At the first bridge, either grab the bridge Banshee if any, or perform a descent trick and fetch a Banshee.

Move the Scorpion to where the target Wraith will spawn. As a guide, see the accompanying picture or my tutorial. Indentations on the ice can serve as guide marks for relatively precise positioning, once you've become familiar with things and established a position you're happy with. If your positioning is only rough though, don't worry; you'll be able to adjust things later.

Note: see also my tutorial's written commentary for some details on how I positioned the tank that time.

Head back in your Banshee and get the first ground battle triggered. The fastest way to do that (which incidentally also gives you seven extra Marines) is to land at the end of the bridge, go inside and trigger the next room, come back out and fly down to the door, then dismount and go though it. Unlike before, there's no need for delaying the post-bridge checkpoint triggered in the upper passage. But if you want, you could delay it until ready to trigger the battle. That way, if your Banshee takes more damage than intended, you could conveniently revert to start the battle afresh.

From here on (i.e. toward the two-Wraith area), I suggest killing most or all covies. There's no strict need for that, but when it comes to the eventual spawning in the two-Wraith area, you don't want the game to be straining due to the number of existing personnel or because of ongoing heavy conflict, else you might notice some stuttering. Best therefore to keep enemy numbers down I think. You can make use of your Banshee in doing this, but you'll probably want to keep it in good shape.

Along the way you should also acquire a sniper rifle, highly useful for giving you good views of the launched Wraith later, as well as allowing you to enjoy some pilot sniping. I suggest having a rocket launcher too, because there's fun to be had with that as well!

In the crashed Pelican area, there's a checkpoint triggered when you're about level with the Ghost (sufficiently low down). Keep it delayed as you do any final killing, and fly up over the trigger zone for the coming battle. Flying at the height of the first ledge is high enough. Get the checkpoint near the Scorpion ready for trying adjustments, and save it for safety.

Launching, and avoiding the battle start checkpoint

To get the Wraith launched, you now just need to enter the trigger zone for the battle, which you can do on foot or in the Banshee, in various ways and places. The main part of the zone is back near the start of the battlefield, stretching right across and going up almost to the height of the first ledge. But there's also a part which is at the exit of the curved tunnel leading through from the crashed Pelican area.

There's a bothersome issue to cope with however. A checkpoint is triggered along with the battle, but you probably don't want to get it, as you wouldn't then be able to revert to your save point. Accordingly, some checkpoint delaying is in order. You can cause an initial checkpoint delay by throwing a grenade beforehand (throw high for maximum delay), or by using Banshee fire if you're flying. Thereafter, enemy threat may soon become sufficient to continue the delay.

On the ground you won't quite be able to see the whole Wraith at the moment of spawning (unlike when in the Banshee), but in the right place you can at least see some of it, and the rest will almost immediately come into view if the launch is near vertical.

Note: the explosion at the launch spot is unrelated to the presence of the Scorpion. It's just an effect which always accompanies the spawning of the Wraith.

Consolidating and honing

Just as with the earlier spawn-launching situation, you can potentially adjust the Scorpion to get different launch effects, and can always re-checkpoint to consolidate, perhaps in a process of honing a particular launch. You could also checkpoint at a place where you're ready to spawn the Wraith (rather than being at at a place near the Wraith, ready for trying adjustments).

In regard to getting a new delayed checkpoint, the bridge checkpoint may still be available (there's also one you can trigger after the next room, namely at the start of the ramp that leads up towards the lift), and you can always use a tunnel checkpoint.

Bear in mind however that if a tunnel checkpoint is used, some related music will get triggered when the Wraith spawns (it was held back until such time as the battle had been triggered). At that point, you might have two lots of music playing; the battle music and the tunnel music. Not ideal!

Pilot sniping and other fun

The pilot spawns quite a distance from the Wraith, but is then rapidly (and progressively) moved to the Wraith, despite how it may be flying through the air, and then his boarding animation begins, keeping in sync with the Wraith's orientation. An excellent and challenging bit of fun you can have is to try and kill him with a sniper rifle before he's inside and protected. My tutorial includes five examples.

Note: on Heroic, only a headshot will give a 1-shot kill. On Normal a body shot can do the job, but only on a blue Elite (the majority of the pilots would be blue though).

To help yourself and to get more shooting done, the thing to do is get a delayed checkpoint at your chosen spot, ready to launch the Wraith (having done any Scorpion adjustment desired). This way you can get used to the particular launch dynamics (which will repeat exactly) and hone your tracking and shot timing. I used that technique with the third sniping example in my tutorial, and you might notice how smooth the tracking is.

The pilot can also be rocketed (so could the Wraith of course), or even tagged! These feats are harder than sniping him as you'd probably guess, and certainly you'd want to have a checkpoint when ready to launch, so you'll be able to hone your aiming and timing with launch dynamics that are going to repeat exactly.

You get a lot of purple blood from a rocket hit, but judging from my experience so far, it seems that the pilot won't be killed! Apparently he gets some protection from the Wraith, even though not fully inside yet.

As for tagging, various entertaining outcomes are possible and I expect things are similar to what I experienced with a different Wraith and pilot, featured in BCM108.

Eliminating the battle music

Normally you'd get the battle music when triggering the battle. However, there's a way to avoid getting it, if you prefer. Sometime after triggering the crashed Pelican area, briefly board the Scorpion. The battle music will start but quickly fade out (strange!), and it's now done with. You could do this during your set-up work, or it could be done afterwards and you could then re-checkpoint if you want.

Automatic checkpoint delaying

Earlier I mentioned the side-issue of needing some checkpoint delaying, to avoid getting the battle start checkpoint. Specifically, I spoke of throwing a grenade or using Banshee fire. However, if you had a covie close enough, enemy threat could cause the delay automatically, which would be nice. For this you can use 'Herbie', who mans the Shade near the door in the first ground battle.

When he spawns, he immediately gets moved to wherever his Shade is. So here's the idea. Move his Shade in advance (as part of the set-up work), to a place in the two-Wraith area where he'll be relatively near to you when you trigger the battle there. That should give you the checkpoint delaying you want.

Where to put the Shade? A good place I tried was near the rock seen in the accompanying picture. I deliberately put it very near where I routinely stand when spawn-launching on foot. So near that the Grunt won't actually fire at me when I'm in position. That way I'm not inconvenienced. It worked well, and he also provided reliable checkpoint delaying when I was triggering the launch in my Banshee (at the start of the area that is, not at the tunnel exit).

Marine issues

If you have Marines around, they initially hold back until the battle is triggered, then they advance to join you in the field, potentially adding to any post-launch combat fun. You'll also get Marine intercom chatter after the battle trigger (if you advance), such as "Enemy mortar tank sighted at my position. It's gonna be busy day!" If you want to avoid such chatter (it could get repetitive), just make sure the Marines are killed during the set-up work.

I said that Marines initially hold back, but actually, if you've got a Marine-retaining Warthog, you could have Marine occupants nearby when doing the triggering. That way you could for example get some appreciative remarks when doing pilot sniping.

Further remarks

In my set-up advice I didn't mention the platform Banshee at all (found in the two-Wraith area), but you could of course make use of it in some way. It's a pristine machine, and might come in useful as a replacement if your original Banshee becomes too damaged. Then again, by leaving it in place, you can potentially enjoy tackling it in post-launch combat fun. There are other Banshees available too of course.

Instead of using the Scorpion to launch the Wraith, you can actually use another Wraith! Namely the one you'll find in the tower zone. With a Banshee you can push it all the way to where it needs to be. A tip there: have the Wraith upside-down for the pushing, as you can move it faster (it has less friction with the ground). When I tried this out and configured the Wraith upright for the spawn-launching, launches seemed noticeably lower than what I was used to with a Scorpion, so that was disappointing. But when I instead had the Wraith inverted, launches went higher, on a par with what a Scorpion can produce. I may get better information on this later, if I check into things more fully.

As well as triggering the spawning in a Banshee, you could equally use a Ghost or Warthog.

I mentioned earlier that if a tunnel checkpoint is used for consolidating, tunnel music will start up when the Wraith spawns. However, if 'Rolling Thunder' has been triggered at some point, the music will quickly come to an end. In this sense, you can almost eliminate tunnel music.

© 2004-2026 by Rockslider