Halo CE in MCC: Keyes achievement checklist

Halo CE in MCC: Keyes achievement checklist Major mission spoilers. This covers **Keyes in The Master Chief Collection**, not the standalone Xbox 360 Anniversary release or Campaign Evolved. The easy mistake on Keyes is leaving too soon. The escape Banshee is right there, the mission is nearly over, and it feels like the obvious thing to do. If you're working on the Elite challenge, that last room needs another look before you get in. **The six mission targets** - **Keyes:** complete the mission. - **Tying Up Loose Ends:** eliminate every Elite on Heroic or Legendary. - **Scurty Bump:** finish under the 15-minute par time. - **Headstrong:** beat the 20,000-point par score. - **Mind Games:** activate terminal nine. - **No Smoking:** look at Captain Keyes' abandoned pipe. **There is no skull pickup on Keyes in MCC's CE campaign.** Don't spend the mission looking for one. Also leave **Popcorn.gif** off the MCC checklist: the 100-infection-form challenge belongs to the standalone Xbox 360 Anniversary release. There isn't a mission-specific shotgun-only, no-human-weapons, or no-replacement-weapons requirement here either. You don't need to carry Two Betrayals' restrictions into this level. **Tying Up Loose Ends: make this a proper sweep** Heroic qualifies. Legendary is an option, not a requirement. This is an enemy-clearing challenge, not a deathless challenge, so choose the setting that lets you check the level thoroughly without making every encounter a struggle. The opening ship section, the surface, and the return through the cruiser all matter to a cautious full-route attempt. Don't jump straight to the escape portion using a speedrun shortcut and call that a normal all-Elites route. These are the places I'd deliberately stop and check: 1. **Before the opening drop outside:** inspect the fighting across the gap rather than immediately jumping into the coolant. Old reports disagree about whether those particular Elites must count, so clearing visible Elites here is the conservative approach, not a claim about a hidden counter. 2. **Before riding the gravity lift back aboard:** check the outdoor fighting area for surviving Covenant instead of assuming the Flood finished the job. 3. **Inside the cruiser:** clear the areas you pass through and check the side corridors. An empty stretch in front of you doesn't tell you whether an Elite is still tucked around a corner. 4. **After the Captain sequence:** the Special Operations troops arriving during the escape are still part of the mission. Don't treat reaching Keyes as the end of the challenge. 5. **At the final hangar:** inspect all three levels and the adjoining passages, then approach the Banshee area without boarding immediately. Deal with any reinforcements and recheck the nearby corridors before leaving. Don't use a fixed personal kill count as proof that you're finished. Community reports give different totals, and enemies can die during the fighting between factions. The published requirement is every Elite, not “reach 38” or “reach 41.” MCC player reports also document successful unlocks when the Flood killed some of the Elites. You therefore shouldn't assume the attempt is ruined merely because an enemy died to the Flood. The useful question is whether any Elites remain alive, not whether every kill appeared under your name. Since reports about individual spawns are inconsistent, this guide recommends a thorough ordinary route rather than claiming a precise internal spawn list. **Mind Games and No Smoking: two different things to check** Both are worth remembering when you reach the bridge, but they're separate targets. **Mind Games** is the terminal activation. Look below the raised central platform where the infected Captain is located and interact with the terminal. Walking past it, or triggering the Captain's cutscene, doesn't substitute for activating it. **No Smoking** concerns the pipe by the Proto-Gravemind on the command platform. After the Captain sequence, clear the immediate threats before searching around the tentacles on the platform. The achievement asks you to look at the pipe; it isn't an item you need to carry to the exit. Inspect the command platform around the growth before leaving. These are sensible additions to a careful completion. They don't belong in the middle of an unfamiliar timed attempt. **Scurty Bump: the name isn't an instruction** The time target is **under 15 minutes**, and any difficulty qualifies. You do not have to perform a “bump” glitch to satisfy the achievement just because that's its name. For a straightforward attempt, learn the normal route on Easy first: the outdoor section, re-entry, path up to the Captain, and return to the hangar. Then remove the collectible stops and unnecessary fighting. This checklist doesn't promise that a full-clear walkthrough fits inside 15 minutes; the Elite sweep and the timed run have different priorities. **Headstrong: use the right number** The par score is **20,000**, not 18,000. Select scoring and aim to finish above that target with some breathing room. There is no fixed difficulty requirement, although difficulty and scoring modifiers affect the points you can earn. A score run gives you a reason to fight; a speed attempt gives you a reason to leave. Don't assume a route designed to skip combat will also provide the score you need. Equally, repeatedly dying while chasing extra kills can work against the run. Pick a manageable setup, watch the score, and finish the mission. For timed and scoring attempts, Halo Support recommends completing the mission in one session. Check skull warnings, and on PC use the normal EAC-enabled game with unmodified files. If a completion unlock is delayed, check the achievement list before immediately assuming the whole attempt failed. I'd do the thorough Heroic sweep with the bridge discoveries first, then give time and score their own runs. The main thing is not letting that final Banshee tempt you out of a room you haven't finished checking.