**Halo Wars 2 — The Signal: the opening drive, all six logs and the escape**

**Halo Wars 2 — The Signal: the opening drive, all six logs and the escape** **Main campaign, mission 1. Story spoilers for the opening.** The Signal is a short introduction, but it is worth getting the controls straight here. You are not driving the Warthog like a vehicle in the shooters. You select it and give it orders from above. You are also not building an army yet. The other friendly units you see do not turn this into a normal base-building mission. Your job is to investigate the signal and then get Red Team out. Take the collectibles on the quiet approach. Once the escape starts, trying to fight everything behind you is a very good way to lose the Warthog. **Clear the approach** Follow the road to the barricades. Let the Marines finish preparing the explosives at the first blockage, then target the charges. Advance through the opening and clear the next barricade as directed. Use this early stretch to practice selecting the Warthog again after interacting with something else. A movement order should send the vehicle down the road. An attack order can make it stop and engage a target instead. That distinction is easy to ignore now and much more important during the chase. Continue through the jump and the abandoned research area to the lightbridge. Interact with its control panel and activate it; clicking the empty canyon is not going to build the bridge. Cross, continue past the crashed Pelican and take the portal down toward the research outpost. [Opening route](https://t.co/HnccmzdYtf) **Six Phoenix Logs before the chase** Do these as a route, not as six trips back through the map: 1. **Healing of Old Wounds I:** on the road between the first two barricades. 2. **Healing of Old Wounds II:** after the Warthog's drop/jump into the next stretch. 3. **Healing of Old Wounds III:** among the damaged research buildings before the lightbridge. 4. **A New Bridge to Cross I:** by the lightbridge controls. 5. **A New Bridge to Cross II:** at the crashed Pelican after crossing the bridge. 6. **A New Bridge to Cross III:** beyond the portal, near the fenced approach to the research outpost. Move through each pickup and watch for it to register. The important check is having all six before you push into the outpost and start the next story sequence. If you have only five, look at which part of the route you rushed instead of assuming the final collectible is somewhere in the escape. These are the mission's six collectible logs, not six skulls. **The Signal has no skull unlock.** [Log names and locations](https://t.co/Hga6x2odyv), [route cross-check](https://t.co/0Ym2jgHavA) **Get out rather than fight a battle** After the outpost scene, immediately start following the escape markers. Keep moving through the jumps and along the available road. You are trying to reach the evacuation route, not clear the map. I would use short, deliberate movement orders through bends rather than click somewhere distant and leave the vehicle to sort everything out. If it catches on an enemy group or scenery, give it a fresh order toward the open road. Do not spend several seconds watching it remain stuck while the pursuers shoot it. The bonus objective asks for **five Grunt squads killed with Warthog Ram**. Use the special attack on Grunts already along your escape path. Check the recharge before trying the next one, and check the objective counter rather than counting every collision as a successful kill. Ordinary machine-gun kills do not fulfill a Ram requirement. After the final jump, head for the lightbridge controls to trigger the escape sequence. You do not need to turn around and destroy the pursuing army. [Mission objectives and sequence](https://t.co/IZR949bilU) **The damage objective** The optional requirement is to finish with **under 50% damage**. That is a reason to keep the vehicle moving, not an invitation to sit still and trade fire until it barely survives. If you are struggling, separate the goals. Learn the escape path on one attempt. On the next, add Ram attacks where you already know there is room to perform them. A badly angled attack that takes you away from the road can cost more health than the bonus is worth on that run. Higher difficulty leaves less room for those mistakes. The route is still the route; staying behind to prove that Red Team can kill another group is not the objective. Use your mission panel for the time target. This route prioritizes collectibles and completion.