**Halo 3 in MCC: the finale's achievements and the four-player Ghost run**

**Halo 3 in MCC: the finale's achievements and the four-player Ghost run** *Ending spoilers.* The final mission has several very different objectives hiding in the same achievement list. A fast Warthog finish, an opening terminal visit, and four people keeping their Ghosts alive are not the same kind of run. Give each one the setup it actually needs. **Basic mission targets** - **Return:** complete Halo; Easy is sufficient for the MCC mission-completion achievement. - **Go, Chief! Gun It!:** finish below **20:00**. - **Torchbearer:** beat **24,000 points**. - **Skulltaker Halo 3: Mythic:** collect the physical opening-area skull on Normal or harder. - **Sword and Shield:** activate and fully read the final regular terminal. - **Whispers Across the Galaxy:** read that terminal's Mendicant Bias message on Legendary. Torchbearer is MCC's finale score achievement. The original game's Reclaimer name and 15,000-point target are not the checklist to use here. **Par time and par score** For time, learn the climb to the control-room door and the final driving route. Use an Easy attempt if you only need Go, Chief! Gun It!, keep optional detours out of it, and start from Mission Start. Reaching the door doesn't immediately end the defense; clear the attackers required to advance rather than waiting against the closed entrance. For score, enable scoring and choose a difficulty and positive multipliers you can manage. The exterior defense gives you enemies to work with, but the escape is not a good place to stop farming kills. Once you're driving across collapsing ground, protect the run you've already built. Catch is less disruptive against Flood than grenade-heavy Covenant encounters. Other modifiers still have real consequences. In particular, don't add Iron to an ordinary score attempt unless you deliberately want its death penalty. Zero-score modifiers do not belong in a par-score run. Check the final recorded result, not just the midmission display. Deaths, lost time, and a failed escape can spoil an otherwise promising attempt. **Annual: set it up before launching** **Annual requires four-player Legendary co-op, Iron enabled, and everyone finishing in Ghosts.** Start the mission from the beginning, not a late rally point. This is a dedicated group run. Play through the control room and Spark fight. After leaving the control room, look underneath the exterior walkway/ramp for the four Ghosts. Each player needs their own. Don't continue to Johnson's Warthog and assume that any vehicle will satisfy the achievement. With Iron active, one player's death sends the group back to its checkpoint. That makes communication more useful than charging ahead. Take turns through tight passages, avoid bumping a teammate off a ledge, and regroup before starting the collapsing driving section. During the escape, stay close enough that the lead player isn't triggering the route far ahead of the slowest Ghost, but don't drive directly on another player's bumper. A little separation gives everyone space to steer around trouble. Tell the group immediately if you've overturned, lost the route, or fallen behind. Don't tack the talking-Grunt detour onto an Annual attempt. Get all four players to the ship in their Ghosts. Save the sightseeing for a less fragile run. **Cool Story Bro: stop before the last jump** The Final Grunt is near the end of the escape, before the ramp that launches you into Forward Unto Dawn. Take the narrow right-hand side path near the pale rock arch and approach the lone Grunt. Let him finish his dialogue. In solo play, the Arbiter can shoot him from the Warthog turret. Leave the vehicle far enough back that the gunner can't immediately kill your conversation partner, then approach on foot. Don't run him over while pulling in. This is **Cool Story Bro**, not a requirement for campaign completion. The road can continue collapsing while you stop, so plan a separate cleanup attempt and accept that finishing the escape afterward may no longer be practical. The achievement is for listening, not for listening and then completing the drive in the same attempt. **Finish the checklist you actually started** For a collection run, verify Mythic and the terminal records. For Annual, verify all four players' unlocks. For time and score, inspect the mission result. The ending cutscene alone doesn't prove every optional condition was met.