Place needs more needlers. More I say!

(6:24) Level 8 ('Two Betrayals') on Heroic. Here's my opening movie on a new topic, the pyramid descent fight. Using the anti-spawn door trick I create a custom set-up, and then there's a sample play with needler and rocket launcher. I've elected to use Heroic for this, which allows more gung-ho play than Legendary while still being fairly challenging.

Released March 15th 2025, gameplay recorded March 12th-13th 2025.

00:02 (Setting up) All pretty self-explanatory here I think, but I'll mention a few details.

At the start, I deliberately let the Elite step forward out of the corner before killing him, because otherwise his plasma rifle might easily have vanished into the scenery. I want his rifle. I later pick it up (not shown), and at the end of my set-up work I'm equipped with that plus the Jackal's plasma pistol.

At 1:02 when I'm going back to start harvesting needlers, notice that there was a blue Elite with a needler. That's the reinforcement guy. With needler provision in mind, I had made sure to get an Elite with a needler, because that would give me one more needler than otherwise.

In regard to the needlers I postioned down the pyramid, they were all reloaded, and I also made full ones as much as possible. However, if such strategically placed needlers are intended primarily as ammo sources, it would be better to not reload them, because that would potentially decrease the number of needles you get when doing an ammo pick-up (bearing in mind that you don't get what's in the current clip).

At 1:26 when I position a needler on the pyramid's bottom level, that position turned out to be dubious. Multiple times in battle, it got blasted away by a Wraith shot, along with the plasma pistol. In future I think I'd put spare weapons further back along that stretch of path, so they're less likely to get blasted. Putting them in the tunnel would be another option.

At 1:36 when pushing the Wraith, I could've pushed it faster if I'd overturned it first. But at the time, I hadn't thought of that. It's only just crossed my mind today, March 15th.

02:47 (Sample play with needler & rocket launcher) Having positioned all those needlers, I thought I'd show a needle-heavy play, working my way down with a few amusing tactics. There's a mistake when I get spooked by an incoming Wraith shot and rocket the ground, and another slip when I let a blue Elite sneak up on me near the end. But aside from that I do okay, and there's a spectacular needle-assisted Grunt launch at the end, which was a good reason for choosing this play out of a whole bunch I did.

One thing you might notice if you're sharp-eyed. That needler I put at the bottom on the left ended up floating! It was slowly rising.

Closing remarks In my movie BCM554 on the anti-spawn door trick, there were hints at doing some of this sort of stuff, and I even showed myself getting the rocket launcher and then a resumption checkpoint. But here with the pyramid descent battle, things are much more developed, in terms of setting things up.

Coming next, further plays of this set-up. Need to get my money's worth!

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