Three Falcons

Posted December 26th 2011

Here's how you can get to have three Falcons present after the battle at the evac zone.

Start by stealing Jun's Falcon. You can pick up Carter and Jorge in it if you like, but it doesn't matter. At the evac zone battle later, which can be in either of two locations, three dropships will come in. If you're in the Falcon sufficiently far away from the evac zone after the last dropship troop dies, the game spawns a replacement for Jun's Falcon just before the 'OBJECTIVE COMPLETE' message. It wants one for Spartan use at the evac zone, and apparently can't move yours while you're aboard. Reminds me of how you get an extra Warthog in AOTCR.

The replacement quickly descends to the evac zone. Meanwhile there's also the other Falcon, Charlie 2, which was either already hovering near the zone by now, or will be heading in. At this point you thus have three Falcons. You can fly back to join the other two at the evac zone before Charlie 2 departs with any surviving troopers.

Where is sufficiently far away?

There are a couple of things I need to expand on in that description. First of all, what places are "sufficiently far away" from the evac zone? Let's consider the lower zone first, down near a stream. Up the path in each direction was a pair of Skirmishers, and either of those Skirmisher locations will do - or anywhere beyond of course. You can be at any altitude. Now consider the higher evac zone. One sufficiently remote location is the far section of the broken bridge, or the break itself. If you prefer to go in the other direction, go a good way towards the lower evac zone, e.g. near the Skirmisher area.

Arranging the final covie death

Another matter is, how do you arrange that final covie death while being so far from the evac zone? Well, one way is to slaughter all dropship troops except one Grunt (or a couple if you prefer), then fly off to your chosen remote location and wait for your allies at the evac zone to finish him off. That can sometimes take a while because the Grunt may be quite keen on hiding, but I think it'll usually happen within a minute or so if my experiences on Normal are anything to go by (experiences in which I had Carter and Jorge aboard and thus left the clean-up work to the three troopers).

For better control however, get one or more Grunts on your Falcon, slaughter the other troops with cannon fire, fly your cargo to your chosen remote location and get them killed there. You could let them fall to their deaths, or do some more cannon work if any survive. Or you could land or get near the ground to let them hop off, then kill them. Actually, you can even dismount and kill them on foot, then quickly reboard. You don't need to be aboard at the exact moment the last covie dies; just shortly after when the game decides it needs Jun's Falcon for the evac zone.

One other possibility is to finish off the dropship troops with distant cannon fire (even though you may not be able to see them, courtesy of the game's inadequate draw distances). That can be done for the higher evac zone if you're over by the break in the bridge for example.

Exiting your Falcon

You won't be able to dismount from your Falcon after the new one has spawned, but if there's still an Elite around somewhere, you can get yourself yanked out and will be able to take a passenger seat in the replacement Falcon to reach the relay outpost.

However, it's possible to dismount from your Falcon just before the new one spawns. There seems to be a small window of opportunity just after the blue trooper indicators vanish, which happens shortly after the last dropship covie dies. If you were to exit before the indicators vanish however, you can expect the Falcon to get moved by the game, rather than creating a replacement.

Note: Once out of the Falcon, you won't be able to pilot it again; there won't be any onscreen prompt for that. All you can do with it is take a passenger seat; and if you do that, you can't get back out.

Further remarks

If you have Carter and Jorge aboard when the game wants Jun's Falcon for the evac zone, here's what seems to happen. All Spartans aboard your Falcon vanish, and right after that - literally one frame - the replacement Falcon spawns. Another two frames later, Jun appears on its rear right seat. However, Carter and Jorge are nowhere to be seen.

It seems that you do have to be aboard or dismounting from Jun's Falcon when the game decides it wants it for the evac zone, otherwise it's simply moved there, even if you're looking right at it or standing on it. If you were standing on it (e.g. having just clambered up to shoot the final covie after he hopped off), you end up standing unsupported in mid-air, but will fall to the ground when you move or if you take a grenade blast.