**Halo 3 in MCC: The Covenant's terminals, Thunderstorm and IWHBYD**

**Halo 3 in MCC: The Covenant's terminals, Thunderstorm and IWHBYD** *Full mission spoilers. Normal or harder, starting from Mission Start, for this combined route.* The Covenant has **three terminals and two campaign skulls**. Thunderstorm is a detour during the first Hornet flight. IWHBYD is a puzzle at the very end. Don't leave the second-tower detour until after reaching the third, and don't start the ring puzzle before the story sequence that makes it available. **Terminal 4 — Tipping Point** Fight through the first tower's ground-floor room. At the elevator, don't ride upward yet. Cross the elevator area to the dark ledge on the opposite side from the approach. The terminal is in that recessed space. Interact and allow the display to progress. Return to the elevator, ride up and complete the tower objective. This terminal is near the lift, not the switch that disables the barrier above. **Tower two: Thunderstorm and Terminal 5** After shutting down tower one, return to the beach and take a Hornet. Fly toward the **second tower**, the one the Elites already deactivated. It is an optional landing during the flight to tower three; a radio reminder that it is already clear doesn't mean there is nothing there to collect. Land securely instead of trying to jump from a moving aircraft into the sea. For **Thunderstorm**, climb the long steep ramp onto the narrow projecting section extending out over the water. Walk to its far end and pick up the skull. For **Terminal 5 — Unto Dust**, go into the tower's entrance corridor. Near the closed inner door, turn around: the terminal is on the opposing wall. You do not have to somehow reopen and complete an already-disabled tower. Check both pickups before leaving. The next part of the flight can close the route behind you through loading boundaries, so “I'll come back later” isn't a reliable plan. **Terminal 6 — Babbling Dead** At the third tower, clear the Hunters and Drones and approach its elevator. Again, the terminal is **past the elevator control on the ledge across the lift area**, rather than upstairs beside the mission switch. Cross to the ledge, interact with the terminal and then return to the lift to continue the mission. The similar tower interiors make these easy to confuse: terminal 4 is tower one, terminal 5 is the already-cleared optional tower two, terminal 6 is tower three. **IWHBYD: finish Truth's sequence first** Continue through the snowy vehicle fighting, both Scarabs and the Citadel. In the long room with seven holographic rings, advance to Truth, extend the bridge and complete the story scene. Fight the Flood on the return through that hall. **Do not take the final exit before doing the puzzle.** Number the rings from your original entrance toward Truth: **Entrance → 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 → Truth's bridge.** With the room safe enough to move around, jump cleanly through this sequence: **4 → 6 → 5 → 4 → 5 → 3 → 4** Travel around the other rings between jumps rather than accidentally passing through them. A useful consistent approach is to make each actual jump facing toward Truth's end of the hall. Take your time lining up; you do not gain anything by rushing and clipping the edge of an opening. On success, the rings respond and the skull appears at the extended bridge near Truth's end. Go back there and physically pick it up for **Skulltaker Halo 3: IWHBYD**. Completing the sequence and leaving without collecting the skull is not the intended finish. If nothing happens, first check the ordinary causes: difficulty, starting from the beginning, the completed Truth scene, your ring numbering and whether every jump actually passed through its ring. Start the short sequence again from ring 4 if you made a mistake. In co-op, have one person perform it while the others stay clear of the rings. Older guides also circulate a much longer sequence and conflicting checkpoint advice. The seven-jump sequence is documented for MCC. Don't immediately restart an entire mission because one imperfect jump didn't register; verify the setup and repeat the clean sequence first. The IWHBYD skull makes rare dialogue more common when enabled for a later run. Collecting it here does not retroactively turn on that modifier for all the conversations you've already passed.