Top of the first map via rock-hop

Get up top with an easy rock-hop near the structure entrance!

Posted November 25th 2017

After the long fallen tree, there's a slope leading up, and there's a Shade on the right. Not far past the Shade, there's a huge rock against the hillside. You can get on top of this, and from there it's trivial to get the rest of the way to the top of the map (you can make a small jump off the rock, or simply run off).

The first way I was getting onto the rock was with a grenade jump, on the near side of the rock. Fairly easy - and actually you can grenade jump on the other side too, though it's harder.

But then I started trying to get up without a boost, and eventually found an easy way of doing it. You start at a particular spot (or near enough), jump late (as close as you can to where the ground becomes too steep) and bounce off an almost vertical surface to end up on the rock. It's shown in BCM260, along with the now redundant grenade jump method. I use a small clump of four growths as a guide for where to initially stand (see first pic), but it's not like you need to be exact.

Alternative version, found long ago

It turns out that a version of the rock-hop was found long ago, which doesn't surprise me at all, because this rock does look rather inviting. It's in an exploration article from January 2002 by Ben Kane and Greg Mouland. Three co-op screenshots are given, from which I surmise that they were talking about a direct jump onto the rock, seen recreated in my movie. The jump was described as being hard, and I'd agree. It would usually take me multiple tries, because it's a stretch that you can only just make. You need to be jumping as late as possible, else you're likely to fall short.

Attacking covies from above

As well as being a way up top for exploration, the rock-hop also allows you to attack the entrance covies from above, which is novel. The rock itself provides the best spot for this, as it provides good cover. But you can move all around the area of course, to attack from different places and angles. Try some grenading!

Bear in mind also that you can potentially get the spawning checkpoint beforehand, e.g. while sheltering behind the rock like I do in BCM260. Then you'll be able to replay the fight; you won't have to get up again. If you want such a checkpoint, it's best to manually delay the checkpoint by jumping until making your rock-hop attempt, otherwise the game might give you the checkpoint before you even get to the rock (it's a bit random).

Incidentally, you can also set things up similarly after flying to the top of the map. If you clamber down onto the rock, you'll trigger the covies, because the top of the rock lies within the trigger zone. Very convenient. The only drawback of this method is that you wouldn't have a plasma pistol to use.