Walkthrough

For the record, this walkthrough was written focusing on solo play on the Heroic difficulty. If you're playing on Legendary, you'll have a much tougher time; on Normal or Easy, you'll likely encounter fewer enemies than we describe here.

Sierra 117

Walk It Off

Get To The River for Evac

After your crash landing, meet up with Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter, then start heading through the forest. Before long, you'll be told to split up. If you keep the Arbiter's arrow in front of you, you should come across your first prey: a Brute and a squad of Grunts. The Grunts are no match for you, so take them out with your assault rifle, then focus your fire on the Brute to collapse its shielding and armor before finishing it off. Your teammates will do most of the work here, if you let them, allowing you to trade in your pistol for a plasma pistol, or dual-wield for a bit.

When you're clear, wait for the enemy Phantoms to arrive, drop off their loads, and take off, then start heading down the river with your crew. More of the Brute/Grunt combos will be in your way. Keep in mind that taking down the Brutes will cause all nearby Grunts to enter panic mode, so it may be worth your while to focus on the Brutes first. If you can find a Brute shot weapon, using its grenades on the Brutes can knock their armor off in a few blows, causing them to enrage and charge you, which will let your squadmates more easily finish them off.

Blind Skull

The Blind skull can be found on a rock above the river here.

The first skull of the game is located here, in this area, near where the first dropship comes to drop off its load. To find it, head to the small bunker buildings along the cliff's edge and start walking towards the water, hugging the cliff. There should be a large rock jutting out over the water; the Blind skull will be on it. Pick it up with the R2 button to unlock it.

After passing through the caves, you'll come out to a large open area, where one of your troopers will call out sleeping enemies. After killing them, escort the Arbiter up to his sniping ridge, where he'll start firing on the enemies below. You can help him, if you wish, but if you're just looking to survive, let him fire away while you jump across the chasm to find a carbine of your very own. Use it to snipe out any remaining enemies (click the right analog stick to zoom and fire), then proceed across the riverbed and up into the hills beyond.

The carbine is fairly accurate at long range, even if it isn't super powerful.

Beyond this section, you'll spot a ferocious Brute interrogating a soldier. Hit the Brute with all the ammo that you can before he kills the marine; you don't seem to be able to hurt him while he's holding the soldier, but if you deal enough damage, he'll instantly die after completing the scene, letting you finish off his compatriots and move on.

Charlie Foxtrot

You can find your first battle rifle to the left of the exit from the cave just after starting this subsection of the level. Nab it to replace your carbine, if needed, then move down to the riverbed. Wait for the Phantom to appear and fly away, then drop down to the river, using your battle rifle to take out the jackal snipers on the far side of the river, in the trees.

Find Johnson's Crashed Pelican

Assaulting the dam here can be tough, due to the large number of Brutes and jackals that appear. One of the soldiers that was killed by the Phantom was manning a machinegun turret, which you can rip from its moorings and carry around for a free 200-round magazine. It, like the plasma turrets, slows you down and suffers from a lot of recoil, but you'll still be able to chew through your foes without too much of a problem. Nab the turret and hug the left side of the cliff wall to find a path leading up which will allow you to flank the Grunts and Brutes as the Arbiter takes a more direct approach. If you can find one, a needler also works quite well on the Brutes here.

Machineguns make quick work of anything unlucky enough to get in your way.

Clear the area out and move beyond the dam to reach a sniper's canyon. Numerous jackals will appear on the cliffs wielding beam rifles and carbines. It'll be difficult to proceed through here unless you have a long-distance weapon like a carbine or a battle rifle, so backtrack if you need to and find one. When you're properly armed, proceed slowly through the canyon, marking positions of your foes and attempting to snipe them before they spot you after moving behind cover. On Heroic difficulty, you can be killed almost instantly by a jackal with a beam rifle - it only takes two shots - so be on your guard.

If you can find a beam rifle here, feel free to pick it up and use it in the next section of the jungle.