Halo 2 in MCC: Cairo Station's terminal and Thunderstorm skull

Halo 2 in MCC: Cairo Station's terminal and Thunderstorm skull Halo 2: Anniversary in The Master Chief Collection. Includes a separate optional stop in The Armory tutorial. Cairo Station has one terminal and the Thunderstorm skull. You pass the terminal first, then reach the room where the skull is hidden overhead. The actual climbing isn't the hardest part. Getting through Cairo's hangars on Legendary without rushing into a room full of Elites is the bigger problem. There is also a skull in **The Armory**, the short tutorial before Cairo Station. That is a separate mission, not a second skull hidden somewhere inside Cairo's weapon room. I've kept it separate below so those two places don't get mixed up. **Set up the right attempt** For **Skulltaker Halo 2: Thunderstorm**, load Cairo Station on **Legendary**. Start at the mission's beginning and follow the normal route for this collection attempt. You do not need Thunderstorm enabled in the skull menu to collect its hidden object. For the terminal achievement, **Curious**, any difficulty works. If the skull is already done and you only missed the terminal, there is no reason to make the return trip Legendary. Switch to Anniversary visuals when searching for the terminal. Use your actual interaction/pickup binding rather than relying on a guide's controller button: MCC has different control layouts. Unlike the CE skull collection route, here you should actually **pick up the skull** instead of expecting merely walking over it to be enough. **Terminal 1: the armory during Cairo Station** Progress through the two boarding-hangar fights. After the second, the route takes you through MAC Storage and into the station's armory, where the Master Gunnery Sergeant is attacked. Clear the immediate enemies before looking around. You want **Armory A-01**, with weapons laid out inside. This is later in the combat mission, not the place where you adjusted your aim and tested your shield in the preceding tutorial. Find the doorway leading from the armory toward **Commons B-01**. The collectible is a computer console on the wall **to the left of that exit**. In Anniversary graphics its screen flashes **INCOMING MESSAGE** in red. Approach that screen and activate it. Let the terminal presentation open so you have actually interacted with the collectible, rather than just looking at the display and moving on. This is Halo 2's first terminal and the one tied to Curious. If you are already fighting beneath the high beams in the next large room, you've walked past the terminal room. Turn back before continuing farther through the station. **Thunderstorm: above the next large room** Leave the armory and enter the large Commons room. Clear the Covenant and the turret positions before climbing. Trying to balance on the overhead structure while enemies can still shoot you is an unnecessary extra problem. The conventional route goes up the **right side as you enter from the armory**: 1. Locate the raised structure beside that wall and the nearby wall-mounted light. Use them to reach the higher ledge. The light is a stepping point, not decoration you need to shoot. 2. Use a crouch jump where the ordinary jump catches the ledge: jump first, then crouch as you reach its height to bring your feet up. 3. From the upper ledge, find the sloping structural beams. Walk up one toward its higher end. 4. Crouch-jump from there onto an overhead rail. Aim for the solid rail itself; the space between the parallel rails is not a floor. 5. Follow the rail until you can jump across to the high platform holding a trashcan. 6. Move the trashcan away from the wall with melee if it obstructs your view. The skull is behind it. Get close and use the pickup control. That awards **Skulltaker Halo 2: Thunderstorm** when the required conditions register. There is no additional wave of Elites to defeat afterward for this collectible. Don't import another skull's instructions into this one. If you slip onto a lower surface and survive, reset at the light-and-ledge route rather than throwing grenades at your feet. If you die, use the checkpoint the game actually gives you. Avoid continuing through the next part of the mission until you have checked the pickup. Collecting the object and selecting its gameplay modifier are separate actions in MCC. Picking it up does not suddenly promote every enemy still standing in your current game. **Optional earlier stop: The Armory's That's Just... Wrong skull** Older guides also call this **Whuppopotamus** or the unnamed skull. In MCC, look for **Skulltaker Halo 2: That's Just…Wrong** in the achievement list. Load **The Armory on Legendary in solo play**. Complete the aiming and shield-test tutorial. When Johnson comes down to collect you, do **not** immediately step into his elevator. Wait in the room while he runs through his impatient dialogue. The important cue is: “Would it help if I said please?” Use that line, not an exact stopwatch reading. Once he has said it, take the elevator and board the tram with him. Inside the tram, move to the windowed side opposite the entrance. Look ahead along the ride for the stack of crates with the skull on top. Get close to the window and hold your pickup/action binding as the tram draws alongside the skull. You collect it from inside the moving tram; you aren't meant to get off and explore the platform. If you board the elevator too early, you miss the dialogue condition. If the tram passes the skull before you grab it, use an available checkpoint before that pass, or restart the short tutorial if necessary. Don't continue all the way through Cairo looking for another chance at the same object. Finish these as two distinct entries: **The Armory's tram skull**, then **Cairo Station's terminal and overhead Thunderstorm skull**. The shared location and repeated word “armory” make the descriptions sound more confusing than the actual checklist needs to be.