Grav lift Grunt
Posted March 22nd 2008
Around the back of the large rock which supports one of the AA gun legs, you quite often come across a Grunt stumbling up against the side, trying to get up, particularly if you've been attacking loads of covies as in the AA gun megabattle. Sometimes it's like he's doing step aerobics or something, jumping non-stop with accompanying cries of "Hup!" and suchlike. Drop a grav lift underneath and watch him float helplessly go up and down. Aw, that's cute. Sometimes they sort of wail semi-continuously, and one time my victim commented "Well this sucks, I'm going north". Quite appropriate!
You can now have some fun at your victim's expense. My favourite is to blow him out of the sky with a Brute shot. It's really excellent sport if you stand back at a challenging distance. You can do likewise with a rocket launcher or fuel rod gun (trickier due to the slower shot speed), or try to tag him or headshoot him. Floating Grunts don't seem to fire their weapons but they sometimes lob plasma grenades, so watch out. If he falls out of the updraft or the lift fizzles out, he's liable to emit a little cry as he comes down to earth with a bump. Reminds me of what H1 Grunts used to do when surviving a nasty fall in 'Danger! Falling Grunts'.
If you step into the lift when you deploy it, you can end up going up and down with your victim, practically face to face. While I was up there I whacked my co-passenger with a Brute shot and he ended up way over by the furthest leg of the AA gun. I did have the Cowbell skull on, but it was still a heck of a distance for him to go. Another thing you can do is stand on the rock and smack your floater into the void with a gravity hammer. Have a nice trip, grunty!
Sometimes you can catch Brutes in just the same spot. There's no cuteness factor this time of course, but on the other hand you may get more of a vindictive thrill blasting them out of the sky.
Handy checkpoint
If you want to play about with a grav lift Grunt repeatedly, here's what to do. Ideally be playing an AA gun megabattle, and preferably without the Arbiter else he might keep shooting your victim (although it can be quite amusing to see him firing his plasma rifle at the floating target). After clearing the area of most enemies except for a Grunt you've seen struggling against the rock, get a checkpoint so that each time you have some lift fun, you'll be able to revert for more. The best option would be to kill the last of the Hunters, suitably near the Grunt. That should give you a 'Hunter death checkpoint' as long as there aren't any enemies giving you a hard time. If there aren't any Hunters around though, you can go back to the entrance to the AA gun area (where the hill started levelling out) and wait around for a checkpoint there.
Ye noble art of foe lifting
More generally a grav lift can be used to incapacitate and toy with foes in almost any setting, if you can manage to deploy the lift underneath them when they're stationary (so they'll hopefully stay in the updraft). I'd say it's a skill worth trying to pick up, if only for the amusement and the coolness value. Usually you'll want to be close up; maybe you'll be having a momentary stand-off or something. Whip out the grav lift quick, and up they go. Jackals can make excellent targets for that because they tend to crouch defensively as you approach (e.g. try it on the ones you meet as you reach the top of the AA gun hill). But it's also possible to fling the lift quite a way if you jump as you deploy it. I got one of the Hunters outside the factory in The Storm like that.