**Halo Wars: Cleansing — clear the hull without losing the airlocks**

**Halo Wars: Cleansing — clear the hull without losing the airlocks** *Campaign spoilers. Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, mission 11.* Shooting a Flood structure down is only part of the job here. The cleansing field has to finish removing it. Until that happens, you can find yourself fighting the same growth again. The field also damages your units. Watch its timer from the start rather than discovering the problem after your army has been swept across the deck. **Use the ship's facilities** You're fighting on the Spirit of Fire, not building an ordinary ground base. Supplies arrive without constructing Supply Pads. Use the vehicle airlocks to produce Hornets and the available turret sockets to establish support around the hull. Clear the opening fight, then start expanding your aircraft force. Hornets can reach the growths attached to the sides of the ship without spending time negotiating every deck ramp. Their mobility is also useful for protecting an airlock on the other side when an attack starts there. Build and upgrade turrets where they support threatened areas. Don't spend everything on units and leave the airlocks taking damage while those units are somewhere else. **Remove the sources of the infestation** Prioritize the Flood Dens and the Launchers supporting them. Killing the creatures they produce without attacking those sources keeps you occupied without getting the hull clean. Work across the upper deck, then the remaining deck areas and the structures attached to the ship's sides. Bring the Hornets around a dangerous position instead of flying the entire group directly over every Launcher at once. Remove the anti-air threat, then concentrate on the growths. Keep an eye on the minimap for the remaining infestation. If the main deck looks clear but the mission continues, check the exterior edges. Growths hanging off the hull are easy to miss when you're looking only where the infantry can walk. **Shelter before the field passes** As the cleansing pass approaches, send infantry into infantry airlocks and vehicles into the vehicle airlocks. Don't wait until the field is touching them. Slow units need time to get there, and a movement order is not proof that they've entered. After the pass, eject the units and resume clearing. Remember that sheltered troops won't carry on fighting outside until you bring them back out. Keep suppressed Flood structures from recovering before the field reaches them. A small holding force can watch a cleared section while the main group handles another, but don't leave that group somewhere it will be caught by the next sweep. At least one airlock must survive for the mission. **Battened Down the Hatches** requires all of them to survive. If you're pursuing that achievement, check the less active side of the ship as often as the current fight; an airlock can be lost while you're celebrating progress elsewhere. **Collectibles and the Sentinel count** The black box sits on the western outer flank of the ship, beyond the fence on the sloping hull. Use a Hornet to reach it. It's outside the normal walking area, not hidden inside an airlock. For **Sugar Cookies**, destroy **100 Sentinels**. Later fighting provides the opportunity, but the mission can finish before you reach that count if the final Flood structures are permanently cleared. On a collection attempt, leave a remaining infestation to deal with after the counter and pickup are complete, while keeping the airlocks defended. Once the skull spawns, fly a Hornet to the **front of the ship, below the observation deck**, where it floats outside the hull. Collect it before finishing the remaining Flood. Don't use the black box's flank location as the skull location; they're separate pickups. **Finish cleanly** Return to the remaining infestation, keep it suppressed and let the cleansing pass remove it. Continue protecting the airlocks until the mission actually ends. On Heroic and Legendary, make the shelter cycle part of your routine. Damaged units caught by the field are losses you didn't need to take. Don't assume the starting defenses are identical across difficulties, either; inspect what you have before relying on it. **Most Valuable Deck Hand** is the Definitive Edition completion achievement. Gold requires **30,000 points**. The 100-Sentinel collection attempt may take longer than a clean gold run, so don't feel obligated to force both into the same playthrough. Getting the ship clear efficiently and waiting for enough Sentinel kills are different priorities.