More ascent work at the first tower - and the amusing sport of plasma zapping!

(6:35) Level 2 ('Halo') on Legendary. Following up on the last movie, here's an alternative checkpointing strategy which allows you to take more time positioning the hog (you can also eliminate the music if you want). There's also some fun, including my new hobby of plasma zapping! Incidentally, you can also use this checkpointing strategy for a hog zapping save.

Released December 14th 2018, gameplay recorded December 11th-13th 2018.

00:02 (Base save) Things are initially the same as before, but I delay the final dropship checkpoint and save it just before the final kill, to get a base save. Incidentally, at the start of the second clip, the checkpoint had been triggered but was being delayed by enemy threat. When the Grunt ran off however, I started jumping to make sure the delay continued. He was going out of view, so I wasn't sure he was going to continue to be counted as a threat.

00:35 (Securing the pile) After killing the final covie, I blow some bodies away and let them vanish, hoping to get a secure plasma pile. You can look away to check. Could've done some plasma culling before leaving, but I left it for later instead.

01:28 (Hog positioning) After waiting for the Pelican to get out of the way (I want to make my usual right turn), I get the hog to the pile, keeping the delay going with some high throws (though the first wasn't very high). After an inspection though, I decide to move the hog forward a bit, to be more directly over the main plasma concentration.

02:50 (Finishing off) Now happy, I cull some plasmas and ditch the gunner, then wait a short while (it was about 20 seconds) to get Cortana's beacon line out of the way, so I won't get driven nuts by hearing it over and over. Up on the chain-gun, I wait for a beam then do 6 auto-jumps and stop, to arrange good timing (try using 4 if you have NTSC/PC). I'll be able to launch fairly promptly and just miss a freeze.

03:39 (Low plasma zap) This ascent is relatively unusual as I go up the channel. I then introduce my new hobby of plasma zapping. Get a plasma into the path of the beam and it'll get zapped!

04:16 (Backwards style) Ascending backwards style now. Hadn't done that before, but it makes for a nice change of view.

04:29 (Zapped) Nasty accident there. Flew into the channel and paid the price.

04:38 (Hog spin) I've heard of going for a spin, but this is ridiculous!

04:52 (Static plasma zap) This time I land on the lower half (which is what I was going for), and show how the beam will zap a plasma which has settled near the edge. In doing this, I was timing my throw by the beat of the music, to ensure that the beam would arrive at a suitable time. Specifically, I threw on beat 24 after the revert. The beats last almost exactly 1 second. As the plasma flies away, you can hear a faint whizzing sound.

05:19 (Elite zap) Spectacular Elite zap there!

05:32 (Landing in the recess) Here I land in the 'recess', which also happened in my original tower ascent adventure as seen in BCM321. By now I've landed there lots of times though, and found an easy way down, cushioning on this rock.

05:51 (High plasma zap) An amusingly smooth arrival this time; I reach just the right height. For my final plasma zap I throw high and it gets zapped into oblivion. I did quite a few such zaps and never once was able to follow the plasma, nor did I see an explosion. I assume they were flying beyond the scenery.

Closing remarks That alternative checkpointing strategy was actually something I'd already thought of for a hog zapping set-up, and I described it in my article on that topic. But I've ended up doing a movie about it for an ascent set-up instead.

I think there's more fun I could have with plasma zapping, so I might come back to that for a dedicated movie sometime - and maybe do some frag zapping too!

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