**Halo 3 in MCC: The Ark, from the sniper landing to the Cartographer**

**Halo 3 in MCC: The Ark, from the sniper landing to the Cartographer** *Full mission spoilers. Normal route, with Heroic/Legendary cautions.* The Ark gives you room to fight, but it also gives the Covenant room to shoot you from somewhere you haven't checked. The first useful habit is to stop at a new ridge and look before driving over it. That matters much more than keeping the accelerator down. This route uses vehicles. If you are attempting **Who Needs Them?**, don't follow the driving instructions: that achievement requires a separate Legendary run without entering a vehicle. **Landing and the Hunter encounter** Follow the ODSTs to the first camp and use your sniper rifle before moving into the open. Prioritize Brutes and enemy marksmen; use the battle rifle on exposed weaker targets rather than spending every sniper round on Grunts. Resupply from the UNSC drop pods before moving through the passage. The next position includes an anti-aircraft emplacement and a Hunter pair arriving by Phantom. Remove supporting infantry so you have space to move. Use the rocks to break a Hunter's firing line, then hit exposed orange flesh when it turns. Don't try to absorb both Hunters' attacks while aiming at one. Continue up the cliffside path into the structure. **Terminal 1** is the early left-side doorway off this interior route, opposite the purple panel. Visit it before emerging toward the crashed aircraft area. **Wrecks, vehicles and the landing zone** Past the structure, the route opens near crashed UNSC aircraft. Gather the heavier weapons around the wrecks and use a surviving Warthog or Covenant vehicle for the desert travel. A passenger with a rocket launcher can help, but wait until that passenger is actually seated before treating the vehicle as an anti-armor solution. Follow the sandy route through the vehicle encounters, keeping an eye out for Choppers approaching from the side. At the large basin, use distance against fuel-rod carriers rather than driving straight under their shots. Continue through the rocky passage toward the defended landing zone. Destroy the anti-air Wraiths controlling that landing area. The Forward Unto Dawn arrives and delivers Scorpions. Clear away from its landing footprint and take a tank once it is available. **Tank return and the wall** Drive back through the canyon toward the Forerunner wall. The tank is powerful, not indestructible. On Heroic and Legendary, shoot fuel-rod infantry and enemy vehicles from a useful distance instead of letting several threats hit you simultaneously. **Famine** is on an elevated support of the large structure in the canyon; stop here if collecting it. That is a climb, not something you pick up by driving underneath. At the wall, leave the tank and enter the control area. Activate the light bridge so the friendly armor can cross. **Terminal 2** is behind the bridge controls and becomes accessible after that activation. Cross through to rejoin the vehicles beyond the wall. **The Scarab basin** Clear the enemy armor before committing to the Scarab. Keep cover between you and its main weapon, and don't park where a foot is about to come down. The central structure offers cover and contains portable gravity lifts—**take one for Cowbell before leaving this basin**. Damage a leg joint to make the Scarab kneel. Board from the rear, fight through to the exposed rear-core compartment and destroy the core, then leave before the explosion. You don't need to disable all four legs. If a tank is badly damaged, another vehicle and a cautious boarding approach beat sitting in a burning hull hoping for one more shot. Afterward, climb toward the large entrance. Deal with fuel-rod fire and elevated marksmen before ascending the exposed ramps. Higher difficulties add particularly dangerous sniper and cloaked-Brute threats along this approach. Let Guilty Spark open the route into the structure. **Interior, Cartographer and extraction** Move through the sleeping-Grunt area and descending corridors. Check beneath the ramp in the plasma-battery room for **Terminal 3**. The following tall descending hallway contains **Cowbell** high in an alcove; use the gravity lift you brought rather than spending it during an ordinary fight. Fight through the Brute-held rooms to the Cartographer and activate it. The story scene is not the end of the level. Return inside afterward instead of staying exposed to the Phantom outside. Work back through the interior encounters, including cloaked Brutes and their radar disruption. Keep to cover and check the actual room rather than trusting a jammed motion tracker. The final outdoor fight includes a hammer Chieftain and his pack. Give the hammer carrier space, remove the other threats and don't let a challenge animation persuade you to stand still in front of him. Once the final opposition is dealt with, approach the arriving Pelican to finish. There is no vehicle race or countdown at the end of this mission.