**Halo 3 in MCC: The Covenant achievements, including the Phantoms and hidden music**

**Halo 3 in MCC: The Covenant achievements, including the Phantoms and hidden music** *Mission spoilers.* The Covenant has enough going on that I would separate the long collectible run from the quick cleanup attempts. You don't need to repeat both Scarabs every time you want to practice one small Easter egg. **Fixed mission targets** - **Last Stand:** complete The Covenant. - **Scarab Slide:** finish below **20:00**. - **Vanguard:** beat **25,000 points** in MCC. - **Tipping Point**, **Unto Dust**, **Babbling Dead:** terminals 4–6. - **Skulltaker Halo 3: Thunderstorm** and **Skulltaker Halo 3: IWHBYD:** both physical skulls, Normal or harder from Mission Start. - **Phantom Hunter:** destroy three total Phantoms on this mission. - **Dirge of Madrigal:** trigger the hidden music at the Citadel exterior. **Flipyap** can also be pursued here, but it is a rare-dialogue achievement, not a fixed object sitting at a guaranteed spot. **Phantom Hunter: use the hostile dropship** The requirement is cumulative: three total Phantoms on The Covenant, not necessarily three distinct ships in a single uninterrupted clear. A documented cleanup setup is **Easy, Rally Point Bravo**, at the Hornet flight. Attack the hostile Phantom near the island with the Hornet's guns and missiles until the ship actually explodes. Breaking a turret or killing its passengers is not destroying the Phantom. Community guides document repeating that enemy through a checkpoint reset, and also accumulating the kills across separate playthroughs. Use a checkpoint that actually precedes its destruction; a later saved state cannot bring it back. There is no need to destroy allied green Phantoms to make up the total. Old guides may call this discontinued or suggest downgrading the game. Halo Support's **February2024 update explicitly fixed Phantom Hunter**. Don't delete anti-cheat files, uninstall updates or follow old destructive workarounds as a first response to a delayed unlock. **Dirge of Madrigal: keep a Hornet for the Citadel** Use Easy if this is just the music cleanup. A later Rally Point Charlie start is documented, so you don't need the whole opening tower sequence for this specific achievement. At the snowy battlefield, take a Hornet before the pilots fly away with the available craft. After the two-Scarab fight, retain it and face the enormous Citadel structure. Fly to the narrow gray beam/ledge high on its **left side**. Land carefully, get onto the ledge and follow its slope upward to the far end. Reaching the music trigger awards Dirge of Madrigal. Clearing the Scarabs first is a safer, calmer approach and lets you hear the cue without the battle dominating everything. It is not itself the unlock condition; guides document flying directly to the ledge. The requirement is reaching the hidden trigger, not a special difficulty or a particular number of kills. Don't leap out while the Hornet is still drifting. Take a moment to establish where your feet will land, and keep a recoverable checkpoint if you have one. **Flipyap: dialogue, not a guaranteed script** Enable **IWHBYD** for a separate dialogue attempt. The line concerns a Grunt's dead companion and can occur when you kill one Grunt while another survives nearby. Leave a potential speaker alive and listen rather than immediately clearing the entire group. It isn't guaranteed every time. Repeating a useful encounter may produce different dialogue, and other campaign locations can be used too. Don't confuse the physical IWHBYD pickup with activating its effect in the mission setup. Hearing unrelated Grunt chatter does not satisfy Flipyap. **Time and score are different passes** For Scarab Slide, skip tower-two collectibles and the ring puzzle. Know the return from tower one, the third-tower control and the post-Truth escape so you aren't losing minutes at transitions. The Hornet gives a reliable way to approach the Scarabs; learning a clean rear-core attack is more useful than trying a dramatic jump you can't repeat. For Vanguard, destroy valuable enemy vehicles and keep the scoring display visible. MCC uses **25,000**, not the original game's50,000. Don't sacrifice a healthy vehicle just to chase a minor infantry kill while several heavy enemies can hit you. Finish with a buffer above the score target and check the end result. For the collection pass, use Normal or harder from the beginning. Terminal5 and Thunderstorm are at the optional secondtower; IWHBYD comes only after Truth's scene and the return Flood fight. Those are the two places most likely to get lost in a rushed attempt.