**Halo Wars: Arcadia Outskirts — survive the retreat, then take the fight back**

**Halo Wars: Arcadia Outskirts — survive the retreat, then take the fight back** *Campaign spoilers. Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, mission 5.* The opening instruction really does mean retreat. Trying to hold your starting position is a good way to arrive at the crater with almost nothing left—or never get there at all. Move south toward the marked crater. Fight the enemies blocking your path, but don't turn around to take on everything pursuing you. Keep the starting armor protected and use the Spartans to help your force break through rather than letting the tank absorb every shot. **Secure the crater and get established** Clear the Covenant at the base location and begin building. Collect nearby supply crates, get your income running, and add production and technology as resources allow. You need working defenses before you need an enormous catalogue of buildings. Use the available infantry cover around the crater. Position vehicles where they can support the entrance rather than leaving them scattered down the road. Add turrets and adapt their upgrades to the attacks actually reaching you: aircraft and ground vehicles shouldn't be treated as the same target. The abandoned reactors elsewhere on the map can provide technology when occupied by infantry. They're helpful, but an isolated garrison is still something you have to defend. Don't count that technology as permanently secure and then forget the unit holding it. Keep an eye on both the main road and the damaged freeway approach. A group guarding one doesn't automatically stop enemies using the other. **Deal with the Mega-Turret** The Covenant Mega-Turret near the second-base area becomes a serious problem, especially on the higher difficulties. Leaving it untouched while you slowly build the perfect army lets it keep imposing a cost on everything else you're doing. Once you have enough force to make the trip worthwhile, attack it with concentrated fire and support from your available leader powers. Coordinate your damage instead of sending fresh vehicles one at a time. Keep the crater defended while this group is away. After clearing the area, establishing the second base gives you more room for income and production. Don't immediately fill every slot with expensive upgrades if your first base is still under pressure. The second base should make the mission easier, not become another undefended thing you're struggling to save. Hornets offer useful mobility here, while armored vehicles can support the main road and the eventual attack. Choose a force you can actually maintain. There isn't a prize for mixing in every unit type and then having too few of any of them to win a fight. **Six hijacks, not five** **He's Got The Jack requires six Covenant vehicle hijacks in this mission.** Use a Spartan's special ability on an eligible enemy vehicle. Merely destroying it—or putting a Spartan into a UNSC vehicle—doesn't satisfy a Covenant hijack. Keep your other troops from killing the vehicle before the Spartan reaches it. Ghosts are convenient targets because they are common and less durable than Wraiths. A Spartan already driving something cannot simply perform another hijack while remaining inside it. Track successful hijacks across your available Spartans, including the reinforcements, and take further opportunities when a Spartan is back on foot. Don't sacrifice your entire defense to chase the achievement. If you're trying to rescue the mission at the same time, leave the remaining hijacks for another attempt. **Both collectibles before the final assault** The black box is in the grassy area west of the abandoned reactor platform between your original base and the northern Covenant base. Look near the ferns and infantry cover. You pass the wider area during the retreat, but collecting it after stabilizing the crater is less distracting than stopping your whole opening column. For **Fog**, destroy **five Wraiths**. After the objective completes, follow the abandoned freeway along the western side of the map toward the buildings where the skull appears. Take a mobile unit to collect it while the main force remains useful. Meeting the kill total is the spawn trigger, not the pickup. Check both collectibles before committing to the final base. It's much easier to make a controlled detour while you still have a stable position than to realize you forgot one as the mission ends. **Push north with the reinforcements** Once Omega Team has arrived and your army is ready, advance toward the Covenant base. Use the Spartans with supporting units, not as a substitute for an army. Remove defending troops and turrets, then work through the base's defenses and buildings. Keep badly damaged vehicles out of the front line. The objective includes the base's guards, so if the central structure is gone and the mission hasn't ended, check for surviving required defenders rather than assuming the game is broken. On Heroic and Legendary, preserve units through the defense so you aren't rebuilding from nothing when it's time to attack. The stronger enemy pressure makes an unattended approach or ignored Mega-Turret much more costly. **Mission checklist** - **Patience IS a Virtue:** complete mission 5 on any difficulty in Definitive Edition. - **He's Got The Jack:** six Covenant vehicle hijacks. - Black box collected near the abandoned reactor's grassy western side. - Fog collected after destroying five Wraiths. - Gold target: **40,000 points**.