These dopey fellows just don't seem to be looking where they're going…

(6:46) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Relating to my new article Suicidal Elites at the landing zone, this shows how you can get Elites to run off into the chasm, and fun you can have with it.

Released April 11th 2015, gameplay recorded April 7th-10th 2015.

00:02 (Intro) In this introductory example involving a red Elite, I use a frag in the course of making him mad, but more normally I'd start with pistol fire (often bringing down his shield), as you'll see in later examples. It's more reliable and controllable, though you do have to be careful not to administer a killing headshot by accident.

00:43 (Tricky corner) After I thought I'd finished the movie, I decided to make a change, thinking it would be good to actually show the tricky corner the Elites have trouble negotiating. It's a right-angle but the rim itself comes to a pretty sharp point, and the Elite AI just isn't up to getting around it reliably. In this example I put him out of his misery with a headshot as he falls. Good scream with this one too!

01:09 (Hiding advisable) These two clips give examples of Elite behaviour when you expose yourself too much. In the first, the blue Elite pauses to face me, and although he resumes his run when I duck to briefly hide, he later stops again and ends up going off backwards, something I've seen many times. As for the red, he likewise stutters in his running, and just after he starts falling he about-faces to give me a "Wort wort wort!". So naturally I give him a dose of lead.

01:51 (Clumsy at the near end too) The Elites are better at negotiating the near end of the rim, but there's still a good chance they'll mess up, as you see here. Another headshot finish; it's fun to do.

02:18 (Sometimes they stay on) Here are two examples of an Elite managing to access the ledge. In the first, you'll notice that the red Elite pauses very slightly during his run to the end, which I think indicates that he may've been on the verge of turning to face me. It's possible that his hesitation helped him get around the corner. He takes me by surprise when he stays on and whacks me, but I give him a headshot in return.

As for the blue at the near end, I'm less surprised that he managed to stay on, as he wasn't even approaching the ledge from an acute angle. That was my mistake really; I should've let him run further along before getting him mad. Anyway, I have fun executing an improvised 'plan B', consisting of repeatedly backing off from swipes until he finally goes off the far end. You can potentially dodge about 15 swipes like this! I thought about showing that, but decided to stick with this unplanned play instead.

03:15 (Following them off) Now here are four examples of following an Elite off, to have some fun on the way down. The first three are headshot finishes, then I use melee on a pointing red. In regard to the second of the headshot clips, you'll notice that I don't bother to do any hiding yet the blue still runs off without any stopping. It shows that you don't always have to include some hiding.

04:17 (Two on Legendary) On Legendary you get two Elites, and it's possible to get them both raging together and running off in quick succession, as seen here in a brief exception to the otherwise Heroic footage. Harder than it looks though; I had to persevere to get this nice example.

04:40 (Fun with plasmas) To end the movie there's some fun with plasma grenades stolen from massacred Grunts. Here I set things up with a handy new checkpoint in the passage, but actually you could instead delay that passage checkpoint longer until you're actually on the ledge (see my article). I show six plays from the checkpoint, including the very first (I just cut a bit of footage from it, to get to the suicide part quicker).

The first is basic; I tag him as he's leaving. In the second I aim well ahead of him and it's interesting to see that he does a dive in mid-air (and there's a sound effect for ground). Gets tagged on his right foot though. Next there are two double-tags, then an example of following him down to tag him close. In the final example I tag him from distance and the blast really rockets him downwards. Aided by his excellent drawn-out death cry, that made for a good comic ending I thought.

Closing remarks This is yet another movie I've been meaning to make for ages, so I'm glad that's another one off the books. There was one aspect I would've liked to show, namely when an Elite gets a good way around the bend at the far end and departs into the chasm at a significantly different angle from normal. But that only happened once in the whole time I was recording for the movie, despite spending time at the end trying to get it by not hiding as much as usual. That clip wasn't very satisfactory though, so I left it out.

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