I've got big plans for this Grunt, but it's going to need some careful preparation…

(8:13) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. After a teaser segment this shows my preparation work for getting a crazy-firing Grunt up the tower, a special goal I was attempting for Bad Cyborg's tenth anniversary. The movie also serves as a tutorial. Update: See also my article Crazy-firing Grunt on the tower.

Released April 29th 2014, gameplay recorded April 21st-26th 2014.

00:02 (Teaser) This was a relatively special project so I decided to open my first movie with a 'teaser' segment, showing the Grunt somewhere on the tower. I thought he looked pretty striking at the far end, needling into the void. So I waited for black needle marks to vanish from the snow, then made a flight as if discovering him there. Actually I did that a bunch of times, flying in different ways or trying to get good views of him. I liked this play best, partly due to how the needles bounced off the Banshee when I arrived at him.

00:55 (Hog fetching) The set-up work starts at the checkpoint seen obtained in BCM45 at 3:20 (which I saved). For this work I'm going to need a hog to do some Shade pushing, just like in BCM46, so I bring one back. For the sake of movie entertainment I put some effort into splattering covies along the way, so I hope you'll enjoy that. I got five in one go, just before Johnson wandered into my path. Silly fool was a gonner anyway. Sniper rifle versus Wraith? Yeah that's gonna work.

02:03 (Crazy-firing initiation) After parking the hog in a good pushing position, I switch to the Banshee and clear the tunnel of Jackals (which are sometimes no longer there, such as happened in BCM46), keeping the checkpoint delayed for the subsequent crazy-firing initiation - which doesn't take me many attempts (I show one representative failure here).

02:40 (Journey begins) Using the Banshee and hog, I push the Shade towards the tunnel exit. As this work is just like in BCM46, I've given it briefer movie coverage here. Up near the top of the tunnel, I go back and consolidate progress with a delayed tunnel checkpoint (which I can't get at the Shade itself, as the airborne plasma would keep the delay going).

03:27 (Initial tower area work) Then I fly out to clear any dropship troops, but there aren't any. That's due to my having gone back over the loading point while the ship was coming down. Depending on the timing, that can cause some or all of the troops to be absent (I remember doing some tests to figure out the details, but I can't find them now, drat!).

03:35 I advance the Shade towards the back of the tower, then switch to the Banshee for moving the front Shade while keeping out of the tower's trigger zone. Later it's going to be manned and cause the very useful delay of a checkpoint while I'm lifting my Grunt up the side of the tower. There are various options for the positioning, but here I move it near the rock at the corner, but making sure to leave good space around it or the gunner can fail to board. I also destroy the Wraith and overturn the back Shade. After which, I consolidate by saving a delayed tunnel checkpoint.

04:30 (Clearing the back) Next I need to make the back of the tower safe. Partly for the sake of mixing things up a bit, I use a Ghost. But also, if I'd used my Banshee I would've wanted to keep high for safety, but that would've made less exciting footage. With a Ghost I can really get in the covies' faces. The work is pretty easy and I take the opportunity to kill the balcony Elite when I see him on the ground. He often jumps down. After switching to the Banshee and blasting the back gunner, I check that the front gunner boarded his Shade.

05:51 (Onwards to the balcony rock) Now to get the Shade to the balcony rock. Pushing it along the side of the tower past the ice is a bit awkward because there's not much snow there and it's hard to avoid the Shade fire, so I prefer to take him across the ice using the Banshee. Wheeee! At about 6:22 you'll notice a checkpoint. That's the tower checkpoint, which has been getting delayed by airborne plasma (and earlier, also enemy threat). As we skirt a plateau, the plasma is intercepted close enough that the game is finally able to deliver the checkpoint.

06:33 I get the Shade positioned and angled fairly carefully at the balcony rock, having previously done some experimentation for what's best. Then I get the hog positioned ready for the ejection. You don't have to be very far away, but you should be aiming to hit the side pretty much square on.

06:53 (Tower Banshee) The tower pilot will be spawning in a while and I don't want him flying around; plus I think it might be handy to have a spare Banshee on the tower, in connection with Grunt manipulation if I ever get him up there. So I switch to that Banshee, leaving my old one there. The pilot won't use my old one.

07:06 (Getting the right rock) After triggering and delaying a tunnel checkpoint, I fly back to look at the balcony rock. It's the wrong one among the five possibles, so I recross the loading point to get it re-randomized. And bingo, I get the high pointy one. It has the best shape near the corner, for getting the Grunt onto the nose of the Banshee.

07:54 (Final checkpoint) All that's left is to keep the checkpoint delay going (I use jumping) until seated in the hog, and then to save the checkpoint. Importantly, note that the Shade fire isn't causing checkpoint delay, because it's getting intercepted closely enough. Actually, just as I board the hog I decide to move it a touch further back, which was messy. Ideally I should've sorted that out earlier, but it doesn't matter.

Closing remarks This set-up routine was something I spent time honing in advance, even though I still wasn't sure if I'd then be able to get the Grunt all the way up the tower. In particular it contains the key element of arranging for the front Shade to give me a very useful mid-lift checkpoint later. Happily, it turns out that all that honing work wasn't a waste. See BCM104!

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