**Halo 4 Spartan Ops: Didact's Hand, all five chapters**

**Halo 4 Spartan Ops: Didact's Hand, all five chapters** **MCC guide. Episode 4 spoilers.** The chase through Requiem's portals makes this episode easy to lose track of. You arrive somewhere familiar, get sent to a different control, and suddenly you're somewhere else again. The important thing is to finish the current objective before treating a familiar tower as an exit. **1. Hairy Call** Push through Sniper Alley toward the communications equipment at the top of the structure. The Shade turrets cover the approach, so remove their gunners before walking into the open. Around the bridge, check the platforms below the turret positions as well as the ground directly ahead. Reach the first marked communications control and use it. Reinforcements arrive between you and the second switch. Clear enough space to reach that switch, then complete the tap into the Covenant network. Now retrace the route toward extraction. This is a fighting withdrawal: Hunters and fresh Covenant troops appear along the return, and the landing zone has to be secured before the Pelican can collect you. On Heroic or Legendary, save a precision weapon for the return trip. An empty rifle and a turret that leaves you stationary are a poor combination when fresh snipers arrive. Fight from the upper approach to the landing area when possible, then move down once the dangerous firing positions are cleared. **2. Rally Point** Cross Two Giants from the canyon tower toward the waterfront tower. Prometheans defend the shoreline objective. Clear them, investigate the marked power reading inside, then prepare to make the return journey. The next objective is the rear tower. Covenant and Prometheans reinforce the valley as you move back, including heavy resistance around the tower. Watchers are worth removing early so they aren't supporting Knights while you're trying to cross open ground. Warthogs are available, but a vehicle doesn't make the crossing automatically safe. If you're solo and find yourself repeatedly driving into concentrated fire, get out before the vehicle is ruined and work between the rocks on foot. In co-op, keep the gunner's view clear rather than driving directly underneath an enemy position. Once the defense is finished, operate the **two marked consoles**. Use the activated launchpad to enter the portal and end the chapter. Optional radio: from the starting area, scope toward the far spire and inspect the ridge to its right. Shoot the small box to trigger the Red vs. Blue music and later dialogue. Bring a scoped precision weapon for this one; the box is distant. **3. Random Transport** You appear on an outlying structure at Fortress with enemies already nearby. Get behind a wall first. There is no benefit to standing in the landing position while trying to understand the radio conversation. Reach the marked UNSC relay and activate it to restore clear communications. Then climb to the control at the top of the central structure and turn on the portal hub. Reinforcements arrive as these objectives develop. The hub reveals **two outlying portal activators**. Investigate the marked activators until Miller identifies the one Jul used. If you check the unused one first, you will be directed to the other; that is ordinary mission progression, not a failed attempt. The correct one can be found first, so you don't need to insist on pressing both after the exit objective becomes available. Clear the resistance blocking your movement and return to the portal at the top of the central structure when it is marked. The central tower is the exit; the smaller controls are how you identify and activate it. For the climb, I'd keep a shield-stripping weapon alongside a rifle. Trying to wear down every Elite with rifle fire alone makes the exposed approaches much longer than they need to be. If you use a jet pack, land behind cover rather than spending the entire charge hovering above the fight. **4. The Chase** At the Cauldron, follow Jul's marker to the sealed doorway. Hold off the Covenant while Miller locates its controls. Activate **both switches** to open it, then push into the complex. Watchers begin deploying beam turrets farther along the route. Take them out while you can see them; leaving them overhead creates another source of fire while you're already dealing with Elites. Continue through the defended passage toward the next objective. Palmer calls in a strike, but Jul escapes through another portal. Continue to the marked artifact he leaves behind—the Didact's Gift—and finish the retrieval sequence. Don't spend the ending searching for a hidden route that lets you catch him. His escape is part of the story. On Legendary, the narrow approaches are where I'd slow down. Clear a lane to the next piece of cover, take it, and check behind you before engaging the next group. The dialogue urges you onward, but running into several active firing positions is more likely to delay the chase than a controlled advance. **5. The Didact's Gift** Back at Galileo, the Covenant attack while the artifact is being examined. Fight through the initial drops until the base-defense power control is marked. Reach the **basement console** and activate it. This restores the turrets, which help with the aircraft, but you still need to clear the ground troops. Keep a weapon suitable for the Hunters rather than assuming the defenses will handle everything for you. After that attack, you're ordered to restore the mini-reactor's power. Follow the new marker to the **lower level of the far building**. Prometheans appear as you enter. Make room to use the control, activate the reactor, then fight the subsequent waves. This is an awkward place to let yourself get boxed into a doorway. If several Knights are pressing the same entrance, pull back far enough to make them expose themselves instead of trying to win a melee fight against the whole group. In co-op, cover separate approaches so the player dealing with a Knight isn't also taking fire from a Watcher behind them. Keep clearing the marked survivors until the final attack ends. Majestic arrives to collect the artifact, completing the episode. **Completion check** The five chapters are Hairy Call, Rally Point, Random Transport, The Chase, and The Didact's Gift. Completing all five earns **Didact's Hand** in MCC. For a solo Legendary completion project, check that each chapter has the correct record before moving into Memento Mori.