Brace yourself for a triple dose of almost non-stop shotty blasting on Legendary, in my wipeout challenge…

(6:09) Level 7 ('The Library') on Legendary. After an intro this shows three plays of my wipeout challenge in the two door battle, using shotgun only (no grenades) - a rather hard task. The challenge is namely to kill all allotted combat Flood before the door opens, i.e. before you get the message "Follow the Monitor to the Index". You get around 50 on Legendary so you have to work fast!

Released March 21st 2013, gameplay recorded March 18th 2013.

00:02 (Introduction) I decided to include a little introduction to the wipeout challenge, mainly to briefly explain it. The battle start checkpoint is triggered near the start of the light-panel on the second buttress; I went a few metres further than necessary here. I begin a battle and you can see the sort of treatment which lies in store for you if you're too slow or casual. You can be dead in just a few seconds. Here I was kind of imitating how I might've started out before I got experienced and really sharpened up my game. Nowadays I wouldn't die that soon at least.

00:52 (My first success) After quite a lot of trying over the course of a few days, I achieved this first shotty-only wipeout. I'd been experimenting with different ways of starting and seemed to be faring better by starting on the left, so that's what I stuck with. I blast two Flood as they emerge, but there's no immediate third so I elect to turn around to deal with the guys from the other outlet. There's four of them and I manage to avoid most of the AR fire - the biggest enemy threat in the challenge.

01:11 I spot a Flood just landed in the outlet and get him as he leaps, then work my way back to the other outlet with a nice sequence of five kills. I'm doing my best to make each shot a killing shot, trying to be close and accurate. None of those five should be getting up again. Turning around, I kill two shotty guys plus an AR guy who never even gets chance to turn and face me.

01:24 Next I get two guys jumping from the outlet, then I bring down a pistol guy who was just about to lash me, ha ha. After shooting another guy up high, I head back to the left getting a few more kills. A plasma rifle guy gets stunned but retains his weapon, but I manage to make my next shot a double hit. Most of it goes on the one just landed - a kill shot I think - but part of it goes on the former guy, bringing him down.

01:37 As I head back to the left where an AR threat is developing, I get whacked by a Flood who'd just landed behind me (which I heard). Dang, I hate getting whacked. I continue on though. The AR guy takes two shots; my first was more distant than I'd like but I wanted to stop him firing. After that, there's a fairly hectic phase near that right outlet, during which I briefly back into recesses a few times, to make attackers pause their firing.

01:54 Finally I push back towards the left, decking a plasma rifle guy who'd been giving me trouble for a while - then another beyond him. Two pistol guys get it at close range, but there are no more targets coming down from the outlet so I turn to head back to the right, picking off an armless Flood on the way, partly obscured by spores.

02:00 With so few Flood on the ground I know there must be a blockage in at least one of the outlets, and sure enough, the outlet on the right has a bit of a pile-up in it. Looks chock-a-block with shotgun Flood. After killing an AR guy on the ground, I deal with them before heading back left. My shield is bleeping but I manage to avoid further fire for a while as I bring down a few Flood, then return for an AR guy on the right.

02:13 Back at the right outlet there seems to be more congestion, so again I do some clearing work. Blockages are bad; ideally you want enemies flowing towards you. When a shotgun guy jumps down I track him, but then I instead aim for the one I thought was remaining up high, as he might be keener to fire. However, he jumps down too, so I'd have been better off shooting the first. When I do shoot at the first, he retains his shotgun and needs another blast when I come back out of the shallow recess. Meanwhile there was also a weaponless guy leaping around at me who'd come in from the far side. I thought I'd brought him down with my turning shot at 2:18 but it turns out I was mistaken, as I find out when I get whacked. An annoying mistake which takes my health down to only two bars. Am I going to die so close to the end?

02:22 I briefly back into the long recess, then emerge and promptly blast the two approaching Flood before they fire. The plasma rifle guy needs a second shot but I've achieved a shotty-only wipeout at last, with 3.4 seconds to spare! I mop up two spores at leisure afterwards. Inspecting the footage later I count 51 Flood losing their weapons, so I know the allotment was at least 51. I expect it was 51, as I've never counted more.

02:40 (Fastest wipeout so far) Ok you've probably had enough reading by now and these battles are pretty hectic anyway, so for the final two I'll just pick out a few particular bits to comment on.

02:49 Just after blasting a few of the Flood on the right, I move right to get momentary cover from the buttress before moving out and blasting the final AR guy. I saved myself a bit of damage that way. You'll see that tactic used in other places too.

03:02 With this AR guy I didn't fare so well. He sets my shield bleeping and then I take a shotgun blast for good measure, bringing me down to only three health bars. It's not looking good but I keep plugging away. Nevertheless, back near the left outlet I go down to only one bar and I know I need to reach the medkit fast. I take down a few Flood on the way then get the requisite health boost - though I then have to take quick action against AR fire before I lose a lot of bars again. Close call.

03:29 I like this bit. With shield bleeping I blast a newly landed AR guy then a shotgun guy as I back off. I'm backing off to be moving across the field of view of the plasma guys I'm under fire from. Flood are slow to track, so that's a basic tactic. It works nicely here and I take them down without further damage. Right after that, I can't see a new target and didn't immediately notice that the second plasma guy hadn't gone down, so I blast some spores - something I wouldn't normally spend time on.

03:49 Spores get in the way of my shot at a running plasma guy; a common problem on Legendary where there are so many. Sometimes I jump to try and get above them.

04:01 There's some nasty AR fire to suppress in the closing moments, but evasive movement keeps my six bars of health intact, and I achieve wipeout with a whopping 8 seconds to spare. Didn't get whacked either - hooray! I later counted 50 weapon losses, so the allotment was at least 50.

04:23 (Fastest med-free wipeout) Doing things without medkit use is a further target for you to aim for, and here's my fastest success so far. I'm off to a fairly ideal start with four Flood going down pronto, before I curve left to take out two from the other side.

04:47 This pistol guy was going to lash me but I cut him down just in time. And after a trip back to the right, I do the same to another pistol guy in almost the same place!

05:21 After narrowly missing a lash from a jumping Flood who then gets blasted, I head back to the left to try and deal with some nasty AR fire. I miss my shot at the shotgun guy, so I have to take a second; and then I get the AR guy just before his aim improves. As I closed in on him, I remember thinking it was going to be touch and go whether he got me or not. It could've been the end of me.

05:38 After blasting a few Flood near the left outlet I pan left and kill a close Flood shaping up to lash me. There are two AR guys to deal with after that, but for once the numerous spores work for me, blocking some of their fire. I go down to two health bars but soon I'm blasting the last Flood to achieve wipeout with 6.7 seconds left. I also make an effort to clear the spores in time, and just manage it. I later counted 50 weapon losses, so the allotment was at least 50.

Closing remarks Once I got my first success, things became easier though still tough. For example it might take me half an hour's play to succeed. I expect to return to the challenge at a later date, when I'll try to achieve wipeout even faster. Also I'd like to manage it without losing any health.

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