Better pack some more ammo: the glasshouse battle just got even bigger!

(6:25) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Good news for serious covie slayers. You can add a whole bunch of extra covies to the glasshouse battle to make it even bigger! Here's a tutorial, with an explosive sample play at the end. I'm using Heroic here, for reasons relating to difficulty. But I'll be getting to Legendary later, so keep watching.

Released December 29th 2019, gameplay recorded December 25th-27th 2019.

00:02 (Standard method) I've detailed this method in my article so I won't repeat that here, but I'll comment on a few specifics.

00:12 Gratuitous window breaking for fun, with a plasma zap. I was only actually looking towards that second Elite to show you that he was heading to the start. I already knew he was going there.

00:23 The passage gauntlet goes well on my first try. It's very manageable on Heroic, unlike Legendary, and I only lose one health bar. But even if I'd lost more it would've been okay because I can subsequently use the medkit. As I ran up to the trigger line I was being evasive of course. Notice that I made the closer Jackal roll, then avoided a plasma ball from the other. On the return leg the red Elite is seen galloping along. The blue Elite got obscured by a pillar but there's a tiny glimpse of him if you look closely. During my run the covies took some friendly fire but all nine survive.

00:46 Some Grunts dawdle as usual but soon move along. For brevity I've cut about 11 seconds of waiting around. Around 0:55 the spawn checkpoint finally arrives, having been delayed by enemy threat.

01:20 I add further to my weapon collection and end up with my preferred combo for the battle, a plasma pistol and needler. I've now got every possible weapon at hand. The needler, sniper rifle and plasma rifle came from a pile of weapons I'd already assembled earlier. At the start of the movie, that pile was just a short way behind me in the passage. I was using a base save in which I had a rather extensive pile to draw from (including multiple needlers and a rocket launcher), but for this set-up demo I kept my set-up work quite basic in regard to the provision of spare weapons.

01:34 The extra covies tend to cluster near the entrance, and you see a few here (I only looked in order to show the situation). From experience I expect most of the others weren't far off, though some may've wandered away.

02:05 In trying to bump through the door it's a case of "third time lucky". Initially I get splattered, then there's a non-fatal failure (and I revert rather than reboard), then I get through.

02:29 In killing the newly spawned bridge troops I avoid the mid-bridge checkpoint, for which the trigger zone actually extends over quite a length.

02:46 I fly low near the end of the second bridge to end the music. But I do it past the final pair of stanchions (the things on the side), to make sure I don't trigger the mid-bridge checkpoint.

03:34 When I finally do trigger the mid-bridge checkpoint, I pause to make sure I did. The tell-tale signs: the exit door opened and covies ran out.

03:58 (A shorter variation) Here's a shorter variation of the set-up work, in which the bridge trigger checkpoint is delayed, so I don't need to trigger the mid-bridge checkpoint later. I also ignore the bridge guys and keep the music.

04:42 (Sample play) The music suits fast and vigorous play rather well, and on Heroic you can do that quite readily. Here's an example in which I start by storming the glasshouse with a rocket launcher and AR. The great thing about the extra covies is, they close in on you, adding an interesting and dangerous new element to the battling. Early in this play, you see some of them coming into the glasshouse - and regretting it!

05:25 This Elite is one of the three that spawned here. Two in the glasshouse and this guy patrolling. From up in the glasshouse I rocket him but he's not quite killed. I spray a bit of AR fire while he's growling, but he gets lucky and survives. He charges up the ramp into the glasshouse but I'm waiting, and I whack him as he overshoots. That bit of comedy was actually the main reason I chose this play for the movie, from among a bunch I had.

05:42 This red is one of the extras. I'd forgotten that there was still one left, so his plasma fire took me by surprise. No trouble though. He comes charging my way underneath the glasshouse and meets a rocket.

05:58 Oops, that was meant to be a tag, but I'd run out of plasmas without noticing, so a frag got thrown instead. Happily it didn't bounce my way though. I really hate fragging myself.

Closing remarks That second set-up turned out very well, insofar as there are no covies in sight when I enter the room. That may actually be a bit unusual. Other times when I've employed my technique of drawing covies away from the entrance, I've often ended up with an Elite in sight off to the right. I suspect that in such a case, he got blocked by the mass of Grunts when I was doing my attracting work.

You may've noticed that the layout of my spare weapons was exactly the same in both of the set-ups. That's because when I originally flew off to the tunnel, I saved a tunnel checkpoint, and subsequently used that as a base save from which to finish off in the two different ways.

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