Glorious musical carnage on the beach!

(6:57) Level 4 ('The Silent Cartographer') on Heroic. Partly in light of further probing, I wanted to add some tips or suggestions in regard to set-up work. I do that in the first two minutes here, while creating a set-up in which battle music has been triggered, with the intention of arriving from the normal direction. The rest of the movie comprises four glorious battles using that set-up, and I must say, the music really adds something.

Released January 25th 2025, gameplay recorded January 23rd-25th 2025.

00:02 (General set-up tips) At the start here, I mention about going right to freeze the battle ASAP, a worthwhile detail which wasn't covered in the last movie. The other key detail I wanted to cover here was that it's good to complete your set-up quite fast, because the battle-end Pelican (Echo 419) is on a countdown (see here for details) and could thus turn up early if not triggered via combat.

The indication of the battle freeze line is based on my experimentation, though I should mention that freezing doesn't seem to be instant. You can still see blips on your tracker for a few seconds after crossing.

In regard to the fighting on the path at 0:42 (for which I'd recommend a plasma weapon), that got a bit nasty and I tried to tag the red Elite after connecting with a plasma ball, but I somehow missed. Got him with another plasma ball though, so it was okay. I was left with only four health bars, but I was expecting the overshield to see me through, so I didn't bother with a medkit.

By the time I reached the substation I was two plasmas short of a full load, but I was expecting to be able to top up from the Grunts, and indeed I did.

01:56 (Music trigger and set-up completion) The preceding clips showed snippets of a set-up procedure, and now here's where I do the final stage, getting battle music triggered. It's triggered by reaching a certain tree, then I drive back to get into position (deliberately stopping a good way back from the Jackals) and save a checkpoint. Action coming up next! Incidentally, the set-up took about four and a half minutes from when I hit the beach.

02:14 (Rocket play) After splattering two Jackals on the way, I dismount to focus on rocketing. Things go well and there's also a nice pair of Grunt tags near the start. Five Marines survive.

03:09 (Needle play) This time I get more ambitious with the initial Jackal splattering, getting five, then I launch into some hectic combat with my needler. Nice explosive finale, but it looks like only one Marine made it through.

04:11 (Warthog play) There's a novel start to this play when I make an excursion up the Grunt hill. Quite good fun, and by the time I spin off to the ground, the top is Grunt-free, with two of them killed. As for the landing battle, I pick up passengers and do a lot of driving around. A highlight comes around 5:24 when the hog gets blasted into a corkscrew and splatters a blue Elite which had dodged me earlier. That may be my first ever corkscrew splatter!

05:54 (Rocket play) A rocket-based finale now, and this time I drive to the right of the Grunt hill, though still recrossing the battle freeze line near the cliffside so things unfreeze as late as possible. I make a rather enjoyable entry into the battle, letting the hog slide into the second covie area and adding a plasma grenade for good measure. Pretty soon only the group 3 covies are left, but they don't last long either. A fine victory, with no Marines lost.

Closing remarks This has been the best fun I've had with rejoined landing battles so far. I'm wondering what things would be like on Legendary. I may explore that.

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