Time to assemble a mob and get them ready for battle in the tower zone!

(6:17) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. This demonstrates my refined routine for setting up a tower zone megabattle without any advance preparation. The resulting set-up gave me 32 covies to fight (including the cloaked Elite in the tower), and the mob location I chose turned out to be excellent, allowing convenient battling in multiple areas. Lots of plays coming up next in a sequence of movies, to highlight the great variety of battling available even with just this one set-up.

Released August 4th 2023, gameplay recorded July 27th 2023.

The tutorial is mostly self explanatory and in any case it follows my refined routine which covers things fully, so I won't try to talk you through the process here. I'll just make some comments on certain bits.

07:10 My initial Ghost flip actually wasn't ideal because it looks like I caused an Elite health damage, judging from the blood. Normally I'd want my covies in full health for maximum challenge. But in this case I played on. I was more concerned to get a tutorial done.

00:42 I decided to have the front Shade in a novel place for fun, plus I wanted the movie to show the possibility, so I do a bit of blasting. I didn't shift it much, but as you'll see at the start of my next movie, one bit of fun I can have with the Shade there is to blast and ram it, sending it and the occupant flying.

01:01 I didn't want either of the two enemy designated tower Ghosts to get manned, so I flip them. But the second one I also move for personal use in battle. I wanted it a bit more distant from where the mob is going to be, so I'll be able to board it more safely. Actually I could've done with moving it a bit further, but never mind; I just wanted the movie to show the principle.

01:21 I didn't want an enemy Wraith in the set-up, so I disable it with an easy flip. Could've destroyed it, but you can have more fun in battle if it's merely flipped.

02:11 At this point I right the Ghost I moved, so boarding will be quicker for me. No Elite will run to board it. Those two tower Ghosts are one-chance deals for the enemy. If a pilot can't board it when he spawns, he never will - and nor will any other Elite.

02:40 There's a bit of a jink in my flying at this point. That's because the delayed checkpoint was taking longer to come than expected. I thought maybe I'd got too low (too near the enemy) and would need to get higher again. But just as I started to do that, the checkpoint came. Hence the jink. As a result of all that I end up somewhat high and have to come in on the Shade at quite a steep angle. Normally I'd like a shallower approach; see BCM70 around 3:11. However, things work out fine. The Grunt is ejected and the balcony Elite jumps down onto the snow, so there's no need to revert to the checkpoint for another try.

03:22 The movie doesn't show the actual killing of the two Elites from the pass; only a first blast. Took a while before I completed the task, as I had to wait for some earlier covies to go past. Namely the troops that came out of the front door, who were only freed up to chase once the pass guards were triggered.

03:58 Having delivered two blasts to the first Hunter, I switch to plasma fire. I have to say, my example here isn't ideal as I'm firing relatvely intensively, whereas I instead advise being more circumspect so you don't go too far (weakening him more than necessary, or even killing him). So this is a slight flaw in the tutorial. Fortunately I don't kill him though; nor the other one, whose weakening process isn't fully shown.

Incidentally, I did like the impact effect from that near miss on my Banshee around 4:14. That highlighted the first Hunter's rage pretty well I thought!

05:11 For the final mob position I elected to have them at the corner of the tower. I'd actually already done that with an earlier set-up and it seemed like it would present lots of battle possibilities, so I repeated it for this set-up.

05:40 Having got my final checkpoint, which I subsequently saved of course, I initiate a spot of Banshee fun on which to end the movie. That's partly so you can get a closer look at the mob at last, but also it serves as a teaser for all the action that's coming up.

Closing remarks This turned out to be a very satisfying set-up, and before long I was enjoying lots of battling in various places. Check out the movies coming next!

In regard to the composition of my free-roaming mob, two of the seven Elites are red. As for the Jackals, all eight are blue-shielded. I would've liked a few yellow-shielded ones for variation, but never mind, I'm sure I'll get some of those in a future set-up.

Incidentally, the movie doesn't fully show it, but my weapon combo is a plasma rifle and rocket launcher, a solid and powerful pairing. There's just a brief glimpse of the plasma rifle when I'm moving the Ghost; and as you can see, it's on 100% charge. It came from a Ghost pilot or Wraith pilot earlier in the level.

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