**Halo: Reach — Winter Contingency, from the farms to the relay**
**MCC. Mission spoilers. Normal, Heroic and Legendary advice; conventional route.**
Winter Contingency takes a little time to let you see Reach before everything starts falling apart. Follow Noble Team, listen to the civilians and get comfortable with the movement. Unless you're doing a timed run, there's no reason to turn the opening investigation into a sprint past the setting.
There is one exception: **the Legendary data-pad carrier leaves immediately.** If you're collecting MCC's Data Pad 10, pursue the cloaked Elite as soon as you can move after landing. Don't leave that until after exploring the farms. The separate collectible guide covers that chase.
Also decide now whether you're doing **They've Always Been Faster**. Use Normal or harder for that run and stay out of drivable vehicles. The ordinary route below offers the truck, but you can travel the roads on foot instead. The unlock is commonly reported at the Falcon extraction; until your own unlock is confirmed, leave the later forklift alone too.
**Follow the investigation into the buildings**
Move down from the Falcon toward the wreckage and follow the team through the farm structures. The opening cinematic is Noble Actual; Winter Contingency is the first playable mission, even though some guides number it as mission two.
Use night vision in the dark interiors if the bodies, doorways and stairs are difficult to distinguish. The route continues through the buildings toward the first courtyard with Covenant activity. Your pistol is useful here: the moving Skirmishers are easier to deal with before they've spread through the lower rooms.
Use the window to pick out an exposed target, then clear the stairs and basement rather than jumping straight into the middle of the group. Keep enough room to back away when a grenade lands. Your team can draw some of the attention while you work around the edge.
Once the building is clear, move outside and continue across the water toward the fields. Don't assume the enemies beside the first building were the whole encounter.
**The first Elite fight**
The next groups mix small infantry with shielded Elites. On Normal, an assault rifle can still get useful work done while you learn the fight. On Heroic or Legendary, a plasma pistol plus a precision weapon gives you a much better answer to the shields.
Charge the plasma shot from cover, expose yourself only long enough to release it, then switch weapons when the shield breaks. If the Elite dodges, don't keep walking forward because you expected the shot to hit. Reset behind the rocks and try again. A headshot weapon doesn't bypass an intact shield just because you're aiming carefully.
Clear the Grunts and Skirmishers that interfere with this exchange. Being shot from three directions while concentrating on one Elite is usually the problem, not a shortage of spectacular weapons.
Continue with the team until you reach the available truck.
**The valley and the distress call**
For a normal completion, drive the Spade and let your companions board before leaving. Jorge brings his own heavy weapon. On higher difficulties, keep the vehicle moving between useful cover rather than parking it in an exposed position and hoping his gun solves everything.
For the no-drivable-vehicle achievement, stay on foot. You still follow the same valley and objective markers. The required scripted Falcon ride later is not permission to enter an optional truck now.
There are several farm buildings in this valley, and the distress call can send you to a different defended position. Follow the actual objective marker rather than treating one guide's compass direction as a guarantee. If you're collecting the ordinary data pad, visit its building before taking the Falcon out of this area.
At the troopers' position, clear the attackers and prepare for the reinforcements. Search the nearby supply area for a DMR and health. Fight from a doorway, raised position or solid corner with a way back inside. Don't stand under the arriving dropship trying to shoot through its hull at the passengers.
Use the DMR to remove exposed infantry. For an Elite, strip the shield first; then use the accurate finishing shot. Wait for the landing zone to be cleared and board the marked Falcon with Noble Team.
**Hold the relay entrance**
The Falcon drops you at the communications facility. Clear the courtyard approach, then move toward the entrance where Kat is working.
This is a holdout, not an invitation to chase every enemy away from the building. Use the entrance and nearby walls, watch the upper approach for Skirmishers, and keep the doorway available as your fallback. If you need supplies, look inside the sheltered entrance rather than running out into the reinforcement route.
On Legendary, the safest useful contribution is often controlling whichever enemies can fire into that entrance. Your Spartan allies can keep fighting outside while you avoid becoming the one person whose death restarts the encounter.
When the door sequence is ready, get everyone inside. Don't stay in the courtyard after the game is telling you to leave it. Continue down the interior passage to the body and the story scene.
**Jorge, the dark corridors and the last Elites**
After the cutscene, check the wall-mounted weapon rack for a DMR. Work with Jorge through the dark interior. Stay out of the forklift on the no-vehicle run; it isn't required for this fight anyway.
Clear the smaller enemies from the side passages and use the corners to divide the room. The final Elite encounter is much less forgiving if you run directly onto its central platform before checking where the sword carrier is.
Keep a retreat path. When the sword Elite charges, back away while breaking its shield rather than trying to trade a normal melee strike with the blade. Grenades can punish an approach, but don't throw one at your own feet and then discover the passage behind you is blocked.
The other Elite's ranged fire makes lingering in the open dangerous. Work from the cover Jorge is helping you hold, remove one threat at a time and recover before making the next push. Don't assume a particular number of shots or a fixed Elite rank across all difficulties.
Once the room is clear, use the marked relay control to finish. If the objective hasn't advanced, check for a surviving enemy and the marked interaction instead of wandering back through the whole facility.
For the first clear, that's enough: investigate the farms, answer the distress call, reach the relay, survive its entrance and finish the interior fight. Collectible routes and the fifteen-minute target can wait until those transitions feel familiar.
**Halo: Reach — Winter Contingency, from the farms to the relay**
· Games / Halo: Reach