Cortana

Rampant

Find Cortana

The ship that Cortana is trapped in is overrun by Flood, including the small spores that act as infestors of dead bodies. Given nothing better to do, these little guys will attempt to rush you and impact on your shields, making them a constant drain on your health. It's easy enough to dodge the effects by moving around, but when you also consider the near-constant presence of tougher Flood enemies, you can see how moving around here without dying will be difficult. The ship is also something of a maze, so finding your way through the level, even disregarding the enemies, can be annoying.

It's important to note that you want to take it slow here. While it is possible to rush forward from one door to the next, doing so will cause you to trigger numerous spawns, and it'll be difficult for you to recharge your shields because of the presence of the parasites and the fire that'll be coming your way from the enemies. A basic goal of yours should be to head forward slowly, get the attention of enemies with gunfire, then drop back around a corner and wait for them to come to you so that you can use your weapons on them. You'll find energy swords that work well here; shotguns and dual plasma rifles are also great for taking down the Flood zombies.

Try to keep an energy sword handy here; it's a great way to instantly kill a lot of the tougher enemies while destroying the zombie bodies.

But most importantly, destroy the bodies! Flood zombies will drop to the ground when killed, but can be reanimated by any parasite that finds them and returned to full health. If something drops, keep shooting their body until it disintegrates; you can do this with melee attacks if you want to save ammo. The purebred Flood creatures (which change shape) can't be reanimated, and their bodies can't be destroyed, so don't bother trying this on them. But if you see any bodies of Elites, Brutes, or human soldiers running around, shoot them and don't stop shooting until they pop.

Note also that these first few sections have plenty of Flood pods on the walls. Shooting them will release numerous Flood parasites, so avoid using your weapons here if possible. Later on in the mission it can be difficult to avoid accidentally shooting these pods, but you'll just have to deal with it.

Into The Ship

Begin by heading down the path nearby. You'll eventually be able to head right into a darkened corridor that will lead up to some dead bodies. Some new weapons are here, including an energy sword and a plasma rifle. We found the energy sword to be consistently useful in quickly taking down the tougher Flood members, especially the mock Hunters, so we recommend that you nab it. With it in hand, head through the first door nearby, then drop down into the hole to begin the fun.

First Chamber

Your general goals here are to survive and to head upwards whenever possible. Without any clear kind of direction, it's pretty easy to get lost if you're prone to that kind of thing, and HUD directions can be hard to come by.

After dropping down, you can find a bubble shield near where you land; that'll be useful for when you're attempting to fight melee and ranged Flood at the same time. A group of zombies will attack you just after you drop, too, so be ready for them and stay behind cover, letting them come to you so that you can attack them at close range. Destroy them with the energy sword and destroy their bodies when they die.

Watch out for these changelings in Hunter form; they're quite tough to take down with anything but an energy sword.

When you're ready to hop up or walk up the ramp here, do so, but be ready for another heavy group of enemies; feel free to backtrack to cover and see who follows you. If possible, hug the left wall and find the small passage that leads to a balcony overlooking the outside area; there's a Pelican here that'll have some equipment scattered around it, including your first Flamethrower. The Flamethrower is a heavy weapon, so it'll slow you down while you use it, but it's a quick kill for most Flood units.

There's another large collection of stalker units before the next door. If you can nab the flamethrower, it'll make quick work of them as they approach you. Some of these guys will shift into ranged form, though, so you'll need to use a ranged weapon to take them out.

Second Chamber

After the next door, you'll have a bit of walking to do. There aren't any enemies here, but Gravemind and Cortana will talk to you again.