**Halo 3: The Storm — the Wraiths, the Scarab and the gun that actually ends the mission**

**Halo 3: The Storm — the Wraiths, the Scarab and the gun that actually ends the mission** **The Master Chief Collection. Mission spoilers. Conventional route with Normal, Heroic and Legendary advice.** The Storm has a very good way of making you think you've just finished the important fight, then showing you the next one. Destroying the Scarab is the big spectacle. It isn't the end. You still have a warehouse, Hunters and the main anti-aircraft cannon ahead of you. One warning before anything else: **if you're collecting Catch, stop at the first outdoor battlefield and follow the collectible guide before destroying its Wraiths.** A normal combat clear and a skull-preserving approach aren't the same thing. **Open the factories and bring your support through** After the opening ride, get out and use the green door controls. Work through the factory rooms, opening the connecting gates as you progress. Some controls allow the Warthog to follow; don't leave your support behind because you've walked through a side entrance and forgotten the large door. Take a battle rifle from the upstairs supplies. Clear the nearby infantry from the walkways before exposing the vehicle to the whole room. Watch the stairs and the far openings for enemies moving into your firing position. Toward the outdoor exit, there are Ghosts that enemy infantry can use. Remove the occupants or capture an available one rather than standing in the corridor while it accelerates toward you. **First lakebed: distinguish the two Wraiths** Outside, you're fighting Ghosts around **one anti-air Wraith and an ordinary artillery Wraith**. They aren't both AA variants. The artillery tank can make an exposed position miserable while you're concentrating on the anti-air objective. If Catch is on your list, do that detour first. Otherwise, use the dockside building's roof supplies—a sniper rifle and missile pod—to improve your options against the vehicles. Remove exposed gunners, keep cover between yourself and the artillery fire, and avoid chasing a Ghost into the firing lanes of both tanks. You can destroy the ordinary Wraith or capture it if you can safely reach it. Either way, don't confuse that optional vehicle choice with an instruction to perform the special AA-Wraith hijacking exploit. This route doesn't need it. Finish the anti-air target and clear the approach to the next factory door. Watch for the aerial response, then move through the exit rather than staying outside trying to shoot every aircraft in the sky. **The second factory and the Drone room** Clear the next room's infantry and Brutes. On higher difficulties, be cautious about driving a vehicle into close quarters with enemies carrying Power Drains. Getting out behind cover can be safer than discovering the vehicle has stopped moving in the middle of the room. Continue through the controlled doors. Drones enter through the upper openings in the following room. Work from the doorway and retreat to recover shields rather than letting the swarm spread around you. A carried turret or automatic weapon is useful here; you don't need to wait for a supposed guaranteed despawn. Collect rockets and battle rifle ammunition before leaving. The next area offers Mongooses with rocket-armed Marines, but you don't have to spend the entire encounter in the driver's seat. **Second lakebed: clear the remaining anti-air vehicles** The next outdoor battle contains the remaining AA Wraiths, with light vehicles and aircraft complicating the approach. **Normal:** driving a Mongoose while a Marine fires rockets can work well if you give the passenger clear shots and keep away from collisions. **Heroic and Legendary:** the fixed missile pods on the far dockside provide another approach. Reach one without blindly driving through every enemy, then use it against vehicles while retaining access to cover. Leave it mounted if you're using that position for sustained fire; carrying it away gives you a limited supply instead. Prioritize whatever can immediately kill you. A missile pod doesn't make the operator invulnerable, and an enthusiastic passenger can still struggle to hit something that your driving has put behind a wall. Once the anti-air resistance is dealt with, the Scarab enters the battlefield. **Bring down the Scarab and destroy its core** The basic method is straightforward: 1. Use heavy fire against a **leg joint** until the Scarab drops low enough to board. Concentrate on a joint; you don't need to strip every leg before anything can happen. 2. Move in while it is lowered and climb aboard from the rear access. 3. Clear the crew covering your route and work around to the **power core at the back**. 4. Destroy the core, then get off and move away before the explosion. Don't keep shooting the legs after you have a boarding opportunity and assume that alone is the finishing step. The core is the target that destroys the walker. There is also a legitimate alternate boarding route: use a crane's elevator and jump onto the deck when the Scarab is underneath. It's an option, not a guaranteed stationary landing. Check its position before committing to the jump. On Legendary, take a moment to remove visible deck defenders from range. Arriving on top with depleted shields and several Brutes looking straight at you is a much harder start than it needs to be. After damaging the core, leave promptly; don't stop to collect every dropped weapon. **Follow the Arbiter into the warehouse** After the Scarab goes down, head to the exit side of the lakebed and regroup with the Arbiter and Marines. Follow them through the factory entrance and the area with the wounded. Inside the warehouse, fight through the Brutes in sections. Use the containers and side lanes to change your angle rather than walking straight into the center of the next group. Keep track of civilians and Marines before throwing explosives through an occupied doorway. The Hunter pair is the next major obstacle. Aim at exposed orange tissue, especially when they turn, rather than spending all your ammunition against the front armor. Rockets are useful if you saved them. A shotgun can exploit a close opening, but don't treat getting beside one Hunter as safe while the other still has a clear shot. After the Hunters, take the onward route through the low buildings. There's a hammer Chieftain and more infantry ahead. Let the fight develop from cover; don't assume the Arbiter will kill the Chieftain for you immediately. **Destroy the main anti-air cannon** Resupply on the approach to the hill. Watch the fuel-rod Chieftain among the defenders and use cover as you work toward a view of the cannon's underside. The vulnerable part is **not the long barrel**. After firing, the cannon opens the lower access/vent and exposes a bright core. Shoot that exposed target when it opens. If it closes, preserve ammunition and wait for the next opening. Clearing nearby defenders makes the shot safer, but destroying every last ground enemy isn't the actual completion requirement. The cannon's destruction triggers the ending. You don't need to climb inside it, plant a bomb or find a terminal.