**Spartan Assault: Operation F — Hydra**
Spoilers for the end of Spartan Assault.
Hydra is the part after Merg Vol. Palmer comes back to X50 because something is transmitting from inside it, and the Covenant are following that signal too. These are five additional campaign missions, not the console's Flood co-op missions.
Gold targets can differ by edition. Check the target on your own mission screen. For a first clear, leave the challenge skulls off; F-4's Vidmaster attempt is easier to organize once you know the route.
**F-1: Battle at the Arid Sea**
You need to destroy two Tyrant anti-air guns, then finish the remaining Covenant. Don't confuse those large objective guns with the smaller turrets guarding them.
Clear the landing area and approach the gun on the left. Grenades help remove its defensive turret. Once its immediate guards are down, break the door and go inside: entering the gun triggers Palmer's destruction of it. Shooting its outside indefinitely isn't the objective interaction.
Work toward the other Tyrant, watching for jumping Brutes and another defensive turret. Open that gun and enter it as well. After both are destroyed, finish the remaining enemies, including the Wraith arriving beyond the second position.
Watch the objective timer during both phases. The first phase and the cleanup are separate; destroying the second gun isn't the mission-clear screen. For a score attempt, the fighting around the guns offers useful kills, but don't trade a completed run for one more enemy when the clock is running out.
**F-2: Breach of the Bulwark**
Keep the Grizzly you start in. There are four Mega Turrets to destroy, and **Silvertip** wants all four destroyed with that tank.
The Grizzly has a cannon and a machine gun. Use the cannon to finish each Mega Turret. A machine-gun finish, an allied Marine's shot or an explosion doing the final damage can spoil the achievement even though the objective itself is complete.
Kill suicide Grunts before they reach you, and deal with nearby Ghosts and Wraiths instead of parking under their combined fire while aiming at a building. Move between cannon shots when the Mega Turret's incoming fire is about to land.
The other friendly tanks are Scorpions. They are not replacement Grizzlies for this achievement. If your starting tank is destroyed, treat Silvertip as a retry rather than finishing with a Scorpion and assuming it counts.
Save the Assault Op that specifically asks for Scorpion kills for another attempt. That is a different goal from keeping the Grizzly alive through all four objectives.
**F-3: Superstructure Assault**
Clear the opening enemies, take the eastern turret, then protect the engineer at the northern console. He activates the light bridge during the holdout. A Regeneration Field on the right helps keep him alive.
When the bridge opens, clear the remaining threats on your bank before crossing. Expect Elites, a Brute Chieftain and a Wraith along the exit approach. Do not squeeze past the tank on the narrow bridge: retreat to the near-bank turret and destroy it, then cross to the cave objective. Opening the bridge is not the finish.
For Assault Ops, the starting Needler and Plasma Repeater already suit the Jackal and Grunt challenges. The frag-grenade Elite requirement is a much longer cleanup job: you do not have enough starting frag grenades to finish it in one ordinary clear. Keep that separate from learning the defense and finishing the objective.
Don't turn a challenge run into an attempt to do everything with the turret. A turret kill won't satisfy a requirement that names a particular handheld weapon.
**F-4: Infiltration of the Cistern**
This is the **Vidmaster Challenge 2.0** mission: finish with **Blind and Thunderstorm** active. Blind removes the HUD, so learn the three-generator circuit on a normal attempt first.
The light cores are around the southwest, southeast and northeast portions of the area. Move from one to the next, destroy each, then head north through the enemies on the bridge and into the exit. The Shotgun and grenades are useful against the cores; active camouflage helps you get into position while your Spartan allies attract attention.
Expect cloaked Elites and Drones along the paths. Clearing a section once does not mean nothing can attack you there on the return trip. Reorient yourself at a destroyed generator if you lose track of which branch you have already visited.
For the separate Shade-turret Assault Op, there is a turret at the western generator. Do that cleanup with the HUD available rather than adding another requirement to the Vidmaster run.
**F-5: The Source**
Let the engineer finish crossing the opening light bridge before moving onto the far platform. Clear its Elites and collect supplies before approaching the objective; the bridge can disappear behind you.
At the objective, survive the short Drone attack, then destroy the three power cores to the west, north and east. Concentrate damage on one at a time rather than letting a partially damaged core recover while you fight elsewhere. Keep moving between attacks. Once the central platform raises Davis's remains, approach him to complete the recovery and extraction.
The Focus Rifle cache left of the central hole is useful when you need more ammunition.
The Assault Ops separate SMG Elite kills, Focus Rifle Elite kills and plasma-grenade kills on **suicide** Grunts. Ordinary Grunts are not substitutes for that last challenge. There are relatively few suicide Grunts in a run, so do not expect all three counters to finish together.
Keep room to move around incoming enemies. For a score attempt, grenade clusters of Grunts rather than spending every explosive on a single weak target. Completion of all five Hydra missions earns **Archeology**. On Steam, Hydra also has its own gold-star and Assault Op achievements, **Tour of Duty** and **A for Effort**; console achievement grouping differs.
**Spartan Assault: Operation F — Hydra**
· Games / Halo: Spartan Assault