**ONI: Sword Base — clear the courtyard, restore the defenses, then fight your way upstairs**

**ONI: Sword Base — clear the courtyard, restore the defenses, then fight your way upstairs** **Halo: Reach in MCC. Mission spoilers. Conventional campaign route.** Sword Base sends you outside to restore the base's defenses, then makes you fight your way back into the place you just left. The outdoor objectives can be done in either order. This route takes the communications station first, then the anti-aircraft gun, so the Legendary data-pad detour fits naturally along the way. **Take the courtyard's upper route** Start by clearing the enemies you can reach from cover with the DMR. Watch the elevated walkway as well as the courtyard floor. Climb the side ramp when its approach is safe and use the upper level to change your angle on enemies below. There is a sniper rifle along the upper left-side route, near its far end. It helps against the tougher Elite and enemies across the yard, but don't stand in the open admiring the scope while a dropship fires into the position. On Heroic and Legendary, preserve your shield-stripping option for Elites. A charged plasma pistol followed by an accurate headshot is usually more economical than spending your DMR ammunition against intact shields. Finish the courtyard and move with Kat toward the downhill exit. **Use the target locator outside the gate** Collect the target locator from the marked ordnance inside the vehicle-access building. Outside, two Wraiths control the approach. Call in the strike from a protected angle and keep moving when their artillery starts landing nearby. If you're attempting **Two Corpses in One Grave**, wait for both Wraiths to be close enough for one barrage. A strike centered between them is useful when they converge; hitting one tank in isolation and then the other with a separate call isn't the challenge. For an ordinary clear, surviving and removing the tanks is what matters. Clean up the nearby infantry, collect the delivered Warthog and wait for your support to board. A captured vehicle is another option, not a requirement to perform a special hijacking trick. **Farragut Station: two switches, not one** Take the route toward the communications objective. The Revenant around the station is a real threat to a stationary Warthog or an exposed player on foot. Use the buildings and terrain to interrupt its firing line, and don't drive directly into infantry carrying charged plasma pistols. Clear enough of the compound to reach the generator building. Activate the marked generator control first. Then move to the other building, clear the reinforcements guarding its stairs and climb to the communications array on the roof. Activate that control too. If the objective hasn't updated, check which of those two steps you've actually completed. The generator supplies the array; it isn't the array itself. On Legendary, this roof also leads to **Data Pad 11**. The broken wooden extension toward the adjacent cliff is the starting landmark. Take that detour before leaving if you're collecting it, then return to the road. **Airview Base: reset the gun** Continue along the connecting road toward the anti-aircraft site. Take the hills carefully: driving over a crest at full speed can expose the Warthog to several vehicles before your gunner has a clear target. At Airview, clear the infantry around the building and identify the Elite guarding its upper level. Get out behind cover if the vehicle is attracting too much fire. Supplies in and around the buildings give you alternatives to trying to win every fight from the driver's seat. Climb the building beside the AA gun and use the reset switch at the top. The large gun is friendly equipment you are restoring, not a Covenant cannon to destroy. Once both outdoor systems are running, follow the order to return to Sword Base. **Back through the gate and into the Hunter room** Expect new Covenant vehicles near the return route. The delivered Gauss Warthog can help, but it still needs space to turn and a usable line of fire. Don't stop sideways in a narrow approach while a Revenant fires down it. At the base entrance, get out and use the exterior gate control. Advance through the courtyard again, clearing the resistance up the ramps, then enter the interior route. The Hunter pair is the main obstacle before the elevator. Remove the surrounding infantry first. Let one Hunter face your allies while you move for exposed orange tissue, using the room's edges rather than getting pinned between both shields. Heavy weapons are useful if you brought them; don't fire explosives into the back of an ally who has just stepped across your shot. On Legendary, make a deliberate retreat when the second Hunter gains an angle. There is no benefit in landing one more shot if it leaves you unable to avoid the next blast. **Climb the atrium** Take the elevator into the base's upper interior. The route alternates between rooms, ramps and bridges across the atrium. Follow the accessible upward path, but stop at each bridge long enough to check the opposite doorway. Use room corners to break the Elites' firing lines. Jorge's support helps, particularly against enemies you can draw into his view. Keep looking for ammunition and health rather than carrying an empty weapon through the entire climb. **Data Pad 2** is under a staircase along this ascent, on the fourth-floor route toward the fifth. Check the underside of the ramp in the room with large square windows before continuing to the damaged upper level. **Rockets at the broken wall** At the top, the wall is torn open and Emile is fighting the aircraft outside. Clear the immediate infantry and watch for cloaked Elites brought in by the Phantom. Don't turn your back on a live enemy in the room just because the Banshees are more obvious. Collect a rocket launcher and ammunition from the nearby supplies. Use the lock-on against the aircraft while taking cover between shots. Keep away from the Phantom's gun and avoid letting a wall edge catch your rocket as you fire. Destroy the attacking aircraft and allow the ending sequence to trigger. You are helping clear the airspace here, not firing your launcher until you personally destroy the enormous corvette.