Get hog after hog, and have some excellent fun with them.

Posted January 8th 2008

• The Warthog spawning phase
• Setting up
• Attacking manned hogs
• Collecting hogs and having fun with them
• Chain reactions
• Weakening hogs
• Deserted final section

After getting past the rally point alpha battle in Tsavo Highway, you go through a short curving tunnel and emerge to see two Brutes near two parked Choppers. Just ahead is a small gap in the highway. Once you cross it, the game enters what I'll call the Warthog spawning phase, during which it tries to keep you supported by at least two hog-based Marines. Any time this support count falls below two, a new hog manned by a driver and gunner spawns near the tunnel after a few seconds. Or at least, that's what usually happens. Spawning gets quirky if you accumulate enough hogs, but I'll talk about that later. The phase can actually continue even after all enemies have been killed. In fact, it only ends when you reach about halfway between the two overhead road signs on the final section of highway.

Hog after hog spells fun

The great thing about all this is that by repeatedly killing Marines, you can keep getting new hogs to do with as you wish. In particular you can have fun blasting a steady stream of hogs as they come your way, or you can form a spectacular collection - I've had up to 93 - then blow it to bits in an orgy of destruction. An eye-catching highlight is the possibility of setting off a linear chain reaction that goes through hog after hog like a slow burning fuse, something to make any self-respecting cyborg cackle with glee. All of which I'll elaborate on.

Here's my advice on setting things up for playing about with spawning.

Use Easy, and maybe the Cowbell skull

You can jump into the level at rally point alpha if you like. In fact I'd recommend it if you're interested in very large collections because it seems you can get more hogs that way. I've had 93 like that, whereas the most I've had when playing the level from scratch was 64 (possibly because the game had less memory available for hog-spawning, due to devoting more of it to earlier parts of the level).

I suggest using Easy so you're as resilient as possible, which for example is a big help if you ever caught in an explosion when having destructive fun. You may also like to use the Cowbell skull so you can really send stuff flying when blasting it.

Reach the tunnel alone

At the rally point alpha battle, steal the Wraith to have fun with later (jump on and bash until the occupants die). Use it to kill all the Marines here, and the enemies guarding the tunnel. Be armed with a full carbine and battle rifle, for headshooting Marines. Be fully stocked with grenades, and have a grav lift to play with (there was one on top of the water pump house for example).

Go on through

Once through the tunnel, kill the two Brutes without destroying the useful Choppers. Also kill the two Marines in the corner.

Optional extra: Before the next phase you could bring additional weapons through the tunnel before it gets sealed off, which will happen when you get a loading point as you head down to the battlefield. I'm mainly thinking of an extra fuel rod gun and Brute shot, to have more ammo available for later fun.

Cleanse the battlefield

Over in the battlefield are lots of enemies and it's generally best to get rid of them so they won't pester you. I suggest you destroy everything there, to give the game as much capacity as possible for spawning hogs later. Even kill the two 'battlefield Marines' that were off to the left, if they're still alive.

As for how to tackle this phase, that can make quite a difference to how convenient things are afterwards for commencing your spawning fun. Here's my favoured 'two gunner method' for keeping in full control. Jump across the gap, then jump straight back (quite safe if done right; advice below). Intercept the hog that will have spawned, and kill the driver. Another hog will spawn. Again, kill the driver. Move both hogs to safety from any eagle-eyed Wraith, then board a Chopper and head off to destroy stuff. While you're away, the two gunners will stay safely in place as they don't have the wit to switch to a driver's seat; thus no more spawning will occur. A two gunner configuration like this can always be used as a way of suspending further spawning - and keeping Marines where they are - until you're ready for it. Useful tip!

Form a base save if you want

You'll get one or more checkpoints when wiping out the enemy (there won't necessarily be one right at the end), and you may like to save the final one. That would give you a base save you'll be able to use as a time-saving starting point for doing different things with spawning, maybe even creating multiple saves for multiple hog collections.

Getting back across the gap

If you ever need to get back across the gap, it's a pretty safe jump if you do it at the right place. On the higher side there's a bit that sticks out and you can jump up onto that quite easily. I recommend a diagonal jump from just to the left (as you face the high side), seemingly off a chunk of ground that slopes down a little. That may seem like an odd choice, but actually you'll be on a bit of invisible surface higher up which extends further than the sloping chunk, so things are better than they look.

If you're nervous about an unassisted jump, there are two other options. One is to park a hog or Chopper on the jumping side so it's partly sticking over the edge. You can hop onto its front then jump across what is now a smaller gap. Or you can use a grav lift. Deploy it then head into the updraft to sail over. That method can even get you back over in a hog or Chopper, if you ever want to get a vehicle back.

Ok, so now let's get to some fun! For starters, once you get the spawning restarted you can have good fun attacking and destroying hogs as they spawn and head your way. You can vary things according to where you attack from and what you use. The game will gradually remove bodies and wreckage, allowing the stream of hogs to continue indefinitely.

A Wraith will give the most explosive results of course, while a Chopper will batter hogs back with the force of its cannons (all the more so if you've got the Cowbell skull on, though that can sometimes be inconvenient because your target rapidly gets further away from you). You can also have fun with a fuel rod gun, Brute shot and grenades. There was a fuel rod gun near the parked Choppers and there are three more in the battlefield, along with a full Brute shot. If you want extra ammo, you could also have brought a fuel rod gun and Brute shot along from the rally point alpha area.

Different positions

There's nothing to stop you attacking right near the spawning point if you like, but for a better feel of combat I suggest going across the gap and down to the ground or thereabouts, to blast hogs with a Wraith or Chopper as they come across and down the shattered highway. Or maybe station yourself up the highway a bit to intercept them earlier, e.g. trying to blast them in mid-air as they jump the gap.

Spawning rate

When you're destroying hogs close to the spawning area, you'll notice that it can sometimes take many seconds for a new hog to spawn, yet other times it happens much quicker. If my understanding is correct, this is simply because the game insists on a minimum of 12 seconds between spawnings. When the support count falls below two, a new hog will spawn almost instantly if at least 12 seconds have elapsed since the last hog spawned. Otherwise the spawning is held back until those 12 seconds have elapsed.

By killing Marines to get hog after hog, you can build up a large collection, perhaps arranging them in some formation as you go. Good scope for some striking screenshots there! You can then get a final checkpoint and enjoy some replayable destructive fun. Read on for tips and ideas.

Efficiency tips

Headshots are the best method for killing Marines, so be armed with a carbine or battle rifle; preferably both if you're planning for a really big collection. But if you ever run out of ammo you can always use melee, which is particularly easy against drivers (you could say they're sitting targets - ho ho). Try not to get declared a traitor. I find that as long as you leave at least 7 seconds between each kill, the Marines remain friendly. Not too bright! Even if you do rile them however, they forgive you very quickly, unlike in Halo 1 where you had to wait quite a while.

If you're forming your collection on the short section of highway before the gap, you can work fast by leaving one hog aside with just a gunner, then performing the following routine with each new hog. Intercept it (making sure it doesn't go whizzing off over the gap), kill the driver, position the hog, then kill the gunner to trigger the next hog now you're ready for it. With this method you can form a closely packed array of 30 hogs in about 10 minutes, for example.

If you're collecting well beyond the gap, perhaps out on the battlefield, a slight variation on that plan is generally better. With each new hog, kill both occupants as soon as you intercept it, position the hog, then run off to intercept the next. This method wasn't really suitable for collecting prior to the gap, because a hog might spawn and whizz past you over the gap before you're ready to intercept it. With this variation it can be preferable to not keep one hog aside with just a gunner. This way, each new hog will be triggered when you kill the first of your latest hog's occupants rather than the second, hence it can be speeding on its way to you marginally sooner.

When I say 'intercept' a hog, I mean get near it so the driver comes to a stop, which he generally will if you're close enough. For maximum efficiency try to be relatively close on the driver's side as it comes to a stop, ready for a quick headshot or two before boarding. There's a bit of knack to it.

If you're finding it awkward to intercept hogs out on the battlefield due to drivers whizzing around annoyingly (they don't always come your way), you may prefer the following method of working. Standing near the bottom of the collapsed highway, intercept a succession of hogs as they come over and down. When you've got enough - perhaps just a first batch - suspend the spawning with the usual two gunner method and move the empty hogs into their desired final positions. You can continue with further batches as desired.

When things get quirky

If you keep collecting, eventually the game starts to feel the strain and things get quirky. Probably the first symptom will be that when you kill a Marine, he instantly vanishes. Presumably the game is keen to do its garbage removal promptly to help alleviate the strain. Not long afterwards you'll get hogs spawning with only one occupant - invariably a gunner - or none at all, and possibly no chain-gun! Curiously, you'll sometimes get a succession of two hogs spawning, without you doing anything to prompt the second. Weapons and vehicles may fire blanks, grenades may not throw, and equipment may not deploy.

When you start getting short-changed on Marines you'll soon end up with none to kill, so spawning seems to be at an end. However, if there are still things to destroy or kill - possibly that you overlooked earlier - you can go and do that (they'll probably vanish instantly), which can allow further hogs to spawn. It can even help to use up superfluous weaponry and equipment lying around.

Incidentally, if you ever want to destroy a vehicle but your weaponry is firing blanks, you can still destroy it with melee attacks. For a Wraith, strike at its weak spot on the back.

Final checkpoint

Once you're happy with your collection, I suggest you get in a hog or Chopper, get armed with a full fuel rod gun and Brute shot, and get a checkpoint part way towards the Brute blockade along the next section of highway. It's triggered where the fencing ends. You'll now be able to repeat any fun you care to have with your collection. Go back, have fun, revert for another go.

Tip: If your collection is back near the spawning area, drive back along the highway and launch yourself off the end, as elaborated in Highway long jump. You can have grav lift assistance and a bit of Shade combat on the way if you care to, just as described there. The jump will be a nice little extra to look forward to each time you revert.

Fun with your collection

After getting a final checkpoint, you can repeatedly have fun blowing your collection to bits with a Wraith, Chopper, fuel rod gun, Brute shot or grenades, in a massive carnage fest. Let yourself go! Here are some specific ideas.

If you've got the Cowbell skull on, try striding through your collection, carving yourself a path by blasting hogs aside with a fuel rod gun or Brute shot. It's the next best thing to being an actual superhero! Just make sure none of them land on your head.

Again with the Cowbell skull, a Brute shot is great for repeatedly blasting a hog along. There's skill to it; try to make every shot hit, and keep it moving.

When you've got lots of hogs close together you can get some impressive chain reactions of destruction. There's even scope for deliberately engineering them to maximize the spectacle. See Chain reactions for advice.

Try deploying a grav lift into a bunch of hogs, before or after you've wrecked them. You'll see one or more bouncing up and down in the updraft, which is particularly impressive if any of them happen to be on fire - a fantastic effect. You can try to blast other hogs into the updraft; a fuel rod gun or Brute shot is good for that if you've got the Cowbell skull on. It's also fun to blast a hog as it reaches the top of its bounce. You could actually have a couple of grav lifts to use - maybe together. How can you do that? As well as having brought one with you through the tunnel, there was one in the battlefield; and bear in mind that you can move equipment by doing swapping, just like with weapons.

If you've got your hogs out on the battlefield, you can test your long-range skills with a fuel rod gun or Wraith. Possibly from a high vantage point.

Arrangements

Obviously you've got huge scope for where and how you arrange your hogs. It just depends on how inventive you care to be and how much time you're prepared to devote to it. The quickest collecting can be done near the spawning area. Out in the battlefield it'll take longer per hog as they have further to go, but you've got all that open space and the lighting is nice and bright, unlike before the gap where you're in shade. Here are some ideas to consider.

Form a solid rectangle of hogs, packed so they're touching. Particularly good for chain reactions, as you might expect.

You could line a cliff edge with hogs and have fun blasting them off. Should be pretty spectacular!

You could put hogs up on a sloping hillside, good for blasting.

Consider having hogs scattered quite closely over a large area in the battlefield. It'll be fun to run around (or drive around) blasting them later. Or maybe have them in a long line weaving about the place.

You don't have to have all your hogs together. There's nothing to stop you having various arrangements at various locations, giving you lots to choose from.

You could have a collection even on the final section of highway, not far from where you'll be getting your final checkpoint. Spawning ends once you've gone about halfway between the two overhead signs, but that doesn't mean you can't arrange hogs beyond. As long as you get all your hogs first, you can then move them along up the highway to make the final arrangement, before getting your checkpoint. It'll be relatively slow to build a collection here, but on the other hand, each time you revert to have your destructive fun you won't have far to go.

Ramshackle pile at the spawning area

If you stand near the spawning point so hogs don't go driving off, and repeatedly kill Marines, a nice ramshackle pile of hogs will evolve. When a new hog spawns, it tends to displace earlier ones. Sometimes the old hogs are sent flying as if popping out of a tight spot, but other times they just stack up. When you've got a good number of hogs, get your final checkpoint and come back for some destructive fun. It's a great little environment for that because of the cliffs on most sides, keeping things relatively contained. Er, unless stuff flies off into the wild blue yonder… which it will if you're using a Wraith!

Hogs back through the tunnel

It's possible to form a collection of hogs in old areas back through the tunnel if you really want (as far back as the previous section of highway), but you'll need to work things a bit differently than normal.

To prevent the tunnel getting sealed off, avoid getting the loading point across the gap, triggered near the bottom of the slope. Just jump over the gap then straight back. It would actually still be possible to destroy some enemies using long-distance Wraith or Chopper fire, but I suggest you avoid that to begin with; I'll say why in a moment.

Having triggered the spawning phase you can form your collection with the following method, designed to make sure no newly spawned hog goes inconveniently charging over the gap. In batches, use a normal method to obtain a group of hogs near the spawn area (staying hidden from any Wraiths), then add all the empty ones to your collection back through the tunnel, leaving just two gunners waiting.

When you've finished your collection, you can't get the usual final checkpoint because the tunnel would get sealed off. Instead, use a Wraith or Chopper to start killing enemies. At some point you should get a checkpoint. This is why I suggested avoiding such destruction earlier. If you'd destroyed stuff earlier, it might have used up any such 'destruction checkpoints'. Actually, it can be ok to destroy some stuff earlier - potentially even both Wraiths - but that's up to you.

Going for the max

Bear in mind that if you keep collecting hogs until the game will give no more, weaponry may no longer operate, preventing you from having destructive fun. And even if you can start blowing stuff up, hogs are liable to be instantly removed on destruction, which isn't very appealing. Still, if you only want your collection for gloating over, none of that will matter. To get as many hogs as possible, keep the following points in mind.

(1) Jump into the level at rally point alpha rather than starting it from scratch. This seems to raise the game's hog-spawning capacity. I've had 93 like that, yet never more than 64 when starting the level from scratch.

(2) In the early work, make sure all the enemy vehicles and turrets in the battlefield get destroyed. In particular, count the enemy Choppers to make sure you see all eight destroyed. Choppers often attack the two battlefield Marines before you even reach the battlefield, and end up in the deep chasm nearby. If you see any down there you can destroy them with a fuel rod gun for example. But you don't want any Choppers to go whizzing off the long open edge of the battlefield because they'd probably end up intact yet untargetable. So it's probably safest to do your Chopper battling away from that open area.

(3) Use up any superfluous supplies lying around on the battlefield or near the spawning area. Weapons, grenades, and equipment. The less stuff the game has to deal with, the better. In regard to equipment, it's best to use that up before the game is really straining, otherwise it might not deploy (you'll throw the item forward but it won't do anything, and you'll be able pick it up again). In the case of trip mines, deploy them and set them off.

If you've got a load of hogs together, a blast can trigger a massive chain reaction of destruction, propagating with the aid of one or both of the following mechanisms. One is what I'll call instant propagation, where hogs get instantly destroyed even when outside the initial blast radius. I think what's happening is that as hogs blow, their blast effects contribute to making additional hogs blow; but this chain of cause and effect is so quick as to be practically instantaneous, so it actually just looks like a group of hogs is blowing simultaneously. The other is what I'll call delayed propagation. When a hog with a chain-gun is destroyed, the gun blows off after about 1.5 seconds if still attached (which it might not be as it can get blown off sooner by nearby bangs). These secondary explosions can apparently be enough to make further hogs instantly blow.

There's scope for deliberately engineering spectacular chain reactions, and that's what I'll focus on now, starting with the neatest example.

Line of hogs, nose to tail

In this example you'll get a succession of hogs to blow one by one via delayed propagation, like a slow burning fuse. It's quite glorious. This linear chain reaction works whether you have Cowbell on or off, though I'd recommend off.

Form a line of empty hogs touching nose to tail, possibly snaking around in a curve if you like, each hog weakened to its 'recovery point' as described in Weakening hogs (e.g. deliver 4 close up blows to the middle of the side with a carbine or battle rifle).

Get a checkpoint when you're done, as usual. When you start the chain reaction with a plasma grenade at the front end (e.g. dropped into the seating), you should get a chain reaction going right along the line via delayed propagation, one hog at a time. Why did I say the front end? That's because you can only get a reaction to propagate backwards through the line, not forwards. When a chain-gun blows, the blast is close enough to the hog behind to set it off, giving propagation. To get propagation going the other way, each such blast would have to be close enough to the hog in front to set it off. But it's not.

Patterns made from lines

Following on from that, you can be more creative than just making a line. You can form a shape or pattern out of lines, in such a way that all hogs will get blown. Once the destruction is under way, chain reactions could potentially be eating through multiple lines at once. It's a bit like when people set up stuff with dominoes. Get the idea? Lots of scope here for impressive displays if you care to put the work in. Save some good films. In Theater mode you'll be able to watch your chain reaction from all angles!

Line of hogs, side to side (Cowbell off)

Here are some chain reactions you can get with a line of empty hogs touching side to side, after weakening them to certain degrees. When building your line, you can periodically use a hog to compact the end you're working on by nudging or pushing, to keep things neat and ensure hog-to-hog contact.

Variation 1

This first variation will give you a striking demonstration of instant propagation at work. With Cowbell off, weaken each hog to its recovery point. A plasma grenade to one end should set off a chain reaction that destroys the entire line in one go via instant propagation.

Variation 2

In this second variation we'll try to get some delayed propagation going, like we did with hogs arranged nose to tail. With Cowbell off, weaken each hog with 5 blows to the back or front with a carbine or battle rifle, except do extra weakening for a few hogs near where you plan to trigger the chain reaction, to help get it off to a good start. I suggest an extra 2 blows for hogs 2, 3 and 4.

Try starting the reaction with a plasma to the windscreen of the first hog; I find that a good method. The first 3 hogs will probably blow together, but hopefully things will then settle down to hog-by-hog destruction. However, it's not as reliable as with hogs nose to tail. You can often get multiple hogs blowing at once, and sometimes the reaction stops when the force of an explosion shifts adjacent hogs so much that the subsequent gun explosion from the first is no longer close enough to the next to set it off. You might reduce the likelihood of stoppages by weakening the hogs a bit more, but that would also increase the likelihood of multiple hogs getting taken out together. Pre-weakening is a matter of careful balance.

If you've got a nice long line, there's nothing to stop you starting a chain reaction in the middle to see it spread out both ways. You'll get double the bang.

Cowbell concerns

With hogs side by side I said to have the Cowbell skull off. With Cowbell on, things are more troublesome and I think a big factor there is that the line tends to get badly disrupted due to the extra violence of explosions. That's a potential concern for other arrangements too. Hogs get shifted about more, and apart more, altering the geometry and making any reaction prone to breaking down or having irregularities in the way it propagates (if you're trying to get it to propagate in precise jumps). So if you want to do a lot of experimenting with chain reactions, my advice would be to do it with Cowbell off, at least to begin with. I think it'll be more manageable. Besides which, whacking hogs is easier with Cowbell off because they don't move as far when struck, so you don't have to reposition yourself much for successive blows.

Packed rectangle

If you've got a large solid rectangle of hogs, packed so they're touching, you can get a chain reaction taking out the whole lot with a combination of instant and delayed propagation. Try a grid formed from rows of 4 for example. By a 'row' I mean hogs that are side to side. Maybe have 8 rows, giving you a long and narrow 8 x 4 grid. It only takes about 10 minutes to build such a grid on the section of highway near the spawning area. The railing on the right can serve as a brace along one edge. Grid building can be done quite quickly because the majority of hogs can be slotted into place easily, braced by older hogs in front and/or to the right.

A couple of plasma grenades to the back or front row can get a chain reaction started. The reaction might go all the way if you've got Cowbell on. With Cowbell off the reaction is likely to proceed in smaller jumps, but on the other hand it can last longer and you may be able to produce more regular jumps, more reliably.

You can vary the effects by weakening hogs to encourage propagation. There's a lot to experiment with here and maybe I'll look into it further sometime. But if you do any experimenting with this or other arrangements and get any interesting results, I'll be happy to hear about it; maybe you can save me some time!

Instant hog removal by the game

One general thing I should mention. During a chain reaction the game may instantly remove a load of hogs as they get simultaneously destroyed, which can spoil the spectacle a bit. That's something I've seen quite often when playing about with large packed rectangles of hogs. The more strain the game is under, the more likely I imagine such removal is. Because of this, having a larger collection is not necessarily going to result in greater spectacle.

Starting chain reactions

Plasma grenades seem the best way of starting a controlled chain reaction, but the positioning of a plasma can be relevant. For one thing, the blast radius is going to extend to more than just the hog you target (if you target a particular hog at all), and the positioning can affect how much damage it does to those hogs. In turn that can affect the reaction's propagation - or lack of it - at the start. Another thing to be aware of is that if your initial blast shifts hogs too much - particularly the targeted hog if any - that can affect whether the reaction gets started at all. In general you'll need to experiment with the most reliable way of starting your reaction.

An initial blast may need to destroy more than just one hog, to get things going. It can help to specially weaken some hogs near the starting point. Alternatively you might try using two plasmas.

I've tried using trip mines to set things off, but with no success. They just don't seem powerful enough. That's a pity because it could've given you a way of remote-detonating things. You could be way off on a high vantage point, then shoot a mine to set it off. Fortunately however, you'll always be able to watch your chain reactions however you like by using Theater mode.

In trying to engineer a chain reaction, you may need to weaken hogs to certain degrees beforehand to get propagation to proceed as desired. Here's some advice to bear in mind, based on experiments I've done to try to understand things better.

Hog damage and the recovery point

Here's my current understanding of how damage works for a hog that is empty or manned only by Marines (not yourself).

In effect the hog has a health meter and will blow when it reaches zero, except for a quirk I'll mention in a moment. Damage reduces health bit by bit, but once below a certain point which I'll call the recovery point - namely around 45% of full health - it can start recovering back to that point if damage ever lets up for more than about 2 seconds. Recovery takes up to 3 seconds, depending on how low the health got.

The damage done is unaffected by whether the hog contains Marines. But while a hog contains Marines, health can be reduced to zero yet the hog will not blow unless the incoming damage has also been enough to finally kill them. In the case of small-arms fire and melee, that's impossible because such damage is not transmitted to Marine occupants in any way. Only heavy-duty damage will be able to make it finally blow - damage caused by explosions, plasma cannons, chain-guns and the like - because that sort of damage affects occupants as well as the hog. I suspect all this is largely for the sake of entertainment, as it's more spectacular for a hog to be destroyed by heavy-duty means.

Weakening to the recovery point

If you want to weaken a hog to its recovery point, just weaken it anywhere past that point then let it recover. Striking the middle of the side close up, it suffices to use 4 blows with a carbine or battle rifle, or 2 with a Brute shot.

Lesser weakening

In trying to fine-tune a chain reaction, you may wish to weaken a hog to some lesser degree than right down to its recovery point. I suggest using a combination of blows from a carbine, battle rifle, or Brute shot. Here's some advice on that.

The carbine and battle rifle seem to do identical melee damage. Over most of the paintwork it's about 3.45% per blow, but you do about 4 times that if you hit the middle of the side close up. By using a combination of such blows, you'll basically have 15 damage levels to choose from above the recovery point (bearing in mind that it would take 16 of the normal blows to reach or pass that point), providing plenty of scope for fine-tuning. In one of my chain reaction examples I suggested weakening a hog with 5 blows to the back or front, but that was just for simplicity of description. You could achieve the same effect quicker by doing a close up blow to the middle side, then a normal blow delivered a step to your left or right.

The Brute shot does more damage. Over most of the paintwork it's about 4.46% per blow, but you do about 8 times that if you hit the middle of the side close up.

If you collect sufficiently many hogs, you can find that when you head along to the Brute blockade and beyond, there's nobody there. That happened to me after I'd maxed out with hogs (specifically, when I got 64 having started the level from scratch). Presumably the game had no capacity available for spawning enemies, which resulted in a somewhat easy stroll home for MC the all-conquering hero! Not much fun in that of course, but it's novel to see the place deserted.

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