**Halo 3 in MCC: get Catch before clearing The Storm's first lakebed**

**Halo 3 in MCC: get Catch before clearing The Storm's first lakebed** *Halo 3 in The Master Chief Collection. Mission spoilers.* Catch is the one skull in The Storm, and this is a place where “kill everything, then explore” can work against you. The skull is on top of a short round silo in the **first outdoor lakebed**, around the opening anti-air Wraith encounter. Keep the tanks alive until you've collected it. There is **no terminal in The Storm**. The big Scarab battle is later, and you don't need to reach it for this pickup. **Set up before entering the level** Start The Storm from **Mission Start on Normal or harder**. Don't use Easy or a later rally point. Normal is sufficient for the MCC achievement; this isn't a Legendary-only Halo 2 skull hunt. Leave optional modifiers off for this conventional route. Bring the Warthog through the opening warehouse section so you have a platform for the climb. You do not need to hijack an anti-air Wraith or rely on an unusual vehicle-entry trick. If you have armed Marines in the Warthog, remember that they choose their own targets. Keep them away from the tanks while positioning the vehicle. Going straight for the skull is more controllable than leaving a gunner beside the lakebed to fight while you wander around. **Find the right silo** Continue through the opening industrial interiors until the route opens into the first lakebed. You'll encounter Ghosts and the anti-air Wraith. A **standard purple mortar Wraith** is associated with the raised area and exit ramp farther across the encounter. Don't confuse those two vehicles. The anti-air version fires upward from its launcher assembly; the ordinary Wraith is the tank that lobs plasma mortars. Move past the central wall and look for the **short, round, silo-like structure** near the anti-air Wraith side of the area. The ramp leading toward the standard Wraith's raised position is another useful landmark. You're looking for the top of that round structure, not a warehouse roof or the later construction-site platforms used around the Scarab. Deal with nearby infantry or Ghosts only as needed to make the approach manageable. Avoid broad explosive attacks around the Wraiths. This isn't the time to let a fuel-rod passenger clear the whole area for you. **Climb using the Warthog** 1. Drive the Warthog snugly against the silo on the side toward the Wraith position, using the slightly higher ground around its base. 2. Get out and climb onto the vehicle. Use its upper body as the step rather than trying to jump straight from the ground. 3. Face the silo roof and jump toward its edge. Crouch during the jump to help your feet clear the lip. 4. If you fall short, reposition the vehicle closer or on the higher part of the ground. Don't repeat the same low approach and expect a different result. 5. Once on top, locate the skull and use your pickup control to claim it. Check for **Skulltaker Halo 3: Catch** before resuming the normal objective. You don't have to carry the skull through the rest of the level, and having Catch selected in the modifier menu isn't a substitute for the physical pickup. In co-op, another player's head can provide an alternative step onto the silo. Agree where they're standing before jumping; don't have both players trying to climb at once while the vehicles are firing nearby. **Which Wraith matters?** The important specific warning in the location references is the **standard Wraith**: destroying it can remove the skull. Keep its hull and driver untouched until the pickup is done. You'll also find MCC guides telling you not to damage either Wraith, and others reporting success after destroying the anti-air Wraith. Those accounts do not support a simple claim that every hit on the AA tank always removes Catch. For this route, the practical recommendation is deliberately stricter: **leave both tanks alone and collect first**. That's a conservative way to avoid the disagreement, not a claim that both tanks have identical scripted requirements. Once the skull is registered, return to destroying the anti-air target and advancing normally. **If the roof is empty** First check the things you can establish: - Did you start from the beginning on Normal or harder? - Are you on the silo in the first lakebed, not a later structure? - Has the standard Wraith encounter spawned, and is that tank still intact? - Did an ally or another player attack it while you were climbing? Don't sit on the roof for an invented number of seconds or start killing extra tanks as a supposed guaranteed fix. If the standard Wraith has already been destroyed, restarting the mission is the cleanest retry. Reverting to a checkpoint after its destruction won't restore the earlier encounter state. Older discussions also disagree about needing a prior campaign completion, sometimes claiming Heroic specifically. I haven't verified a current MCC requirement to complete the whole campaign on Heroic before Catch can appear, so I'm not sending you through that on the strength of an old guide. The verified MCC collection difficulty is Normal or higher; unresolved spawn trouble should be described as such, not turned into a made-up prerequisite. Make this a separate cleanup run if necessary. Getting the skull first and then clearing the vehicles is a much better plan than finishing a difficult fight and discovering that the collectible went away during it.