Gamer’s Guide To Halo Reach Alone On Legendary

This is what you get when you hunt for achievements. Masochism in its purist form. When I first got Halo Reach and saw that there was an achievement for completing Legendary difficulty alone, I just decided to go for it on my first run through. And boy did I suffer. If I had to give an accurate description of how it felt it would be this: Butt sex with a man who ate glass his entire life and now his anal passage is filled with razor sharp shards of glass. The more you push, the more your manhood gets torn to pieces. It was that bad.

When I decided that I was just going to go for it, I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was. The first time I got killed by a Grunt, I realised that I was in for a treat. The Elites in the game are crazy tough and you really need to be on your toes and have your headshot skills at their absolute peak. One strategy I had that changed the very fabric of fighting was the use of the little plasma pistol. All I needed to do was charge it up, shoot the Elite and then shoot it in the face with DMR. Boom, gone. It was still a relative challenge because you run out of ammo more frequently than you think. You need to steal ammo from everything and a few times I had to kill my team-mates to get their ammo. That’s what Legendary does. It makes you savage and near cannibalistic.

Legendary required lots of improvisation. Sometimes you have to expose a glitch or a trick around a spawnpoint just so you can get the jump on your enemies. Many a times I hid behind some stupid rock and just threw potshots at a Hunter while he was just standing there doing nothing. It’s all about finding the exploits to make your life just that tiny bit easier. You do still die a lot regardless. Sometimes you think you’re surviving, but NOPE (Chuck Testa) you just get skull-fucked by a Wraith while you turned around to scratch your ass.

After every level you somehow manage to complete, you get this sudden rewarding feeling. A level you battled with for hours is finally finished and you don’t have to do it ever again. More often than I’m proud of, I jumped up and down in glee and screamed like a little girl when I finally got a checkpoint after several arduous encounters with the enemy.

It was all worth it in the end when there was just an unending series of achievements unlocking. 300 GamerScore in total. It made it all feel so worth it. People say that GamerScore is pointless, but this felt worth it.

If I can give some tips then these would be it:

1. ALWAYS be sure your shield is fully charged before you charge into the action. It all seems pretty obvious, but don’t be a hero and rush in without a shield because you WILL get raped.
2. Use the plasma pistol. It seems puny and small (No penis jokes intended), but it packs quite a wallop. If you fully charge it and discharge it into an Elite’s face (Still, no penis jokes intended) it will totally screw their shields up and give you ample opportunity to headshot them dead. You can also disable vehicles and run up to them and hijack or destroy them. Truly the most useful weapon in the game on Legendary.
3. Use your armour power-up effectively. The hologram power-up can be invaluable sometimes. It distracts your enemies and helps you find ammo or sneak up on them. The cloak power-up can also be of some use when you need to scavenge ammo from enemies in the middle of a huge battle.
4. Don’t take any risks. If you see numerous enemies in front of you then don’t be an idiot and go all Leeeeroy Jeeenkins on their asses. Hang back and only shoot when you feel the time is right.
5. Your squad mates are practically useless, but know that the Spartans have unlimited health and you can sometimes use them as human shields. It’s a stupid strategy, but it works sometimes.
6. Make a mental note of all the ammo caches before you enter the battlefield. Always scout ahead and plan your strategy accordingly.

Reach is a pretty old game, but I know there must be some people still needing the achievement. It may seem like a mountain to climb, but the end result is worth it. If you miraculously pull it off then you can brag to your friends and websites like this one! What better thing is there than that?