Elephant flipping

A player flips the Elephant, initiating the Easter Egg.

Although the Elephant is the only indestructible human land vehicle in Halo 3, it is possible to flip an Elephant over, unlocking an interesting and somewhat funny Easter egg. The Easter egg will say, "Hold <action button> to flip... wait, what? How did you do that?", as the Elephant weighs much more than a Spartan or Elite can flip, and that the vehicle isn't intended to achieve the speed or maneuverability necessary to flip it over in the first place.

Fair warning to onlookers: The Elephant is roughly twice the size of its namesake, so anyone who fails to give it a wide berth while it's still in motion could wind up on the wrong end of a Splatter (if manned by an enemy), Betrayal (if manned by an ally), or Suicide (if unmanned) should they wind up in its path.

Methods of Elephant Flipping

Gravity Lift Method

The easiest way to flip an Elephant is to spawn a closed Drop Pod in the cockpit and throw down a Gravity Lift right near it.

Fusion Coil Method

Go into Forge mode and do one of the following:

• Put all the Fusion Coils and Plasma Batteries you can spawn on and/or around the back of the Elephant, then stand back and shoot one of them.
• Move the Elephant to where there is a lot of room to one side, place about ten Fusion Coils or Plasma Batteries on the opposite side in the gap between the treads, then shoot the explosives.
• Make a large pile of Fusion Coils and Plasma Batteries on the ground in front of the Elephant, then drive it over the whole thing. If the pile doesn't go off from simply running it over, you can either use a Trip Mine as a detonator, sit on top of the pile and wait for said mine to self-destruct, or forget the mine and just have someone shoot the pile from a safe distance.

Run Over Method

Another way of flipping an Elephant is to drive one towards and partially over the other, then get out and drive the other one forward until it flips the first one over. If you have a partner to help you, having the two Elephants drive into each other simultaneously will also work, though you may not flip both of them at once.

Wall Method

Take an Elephant up to the opposite side of the "alley" from the wrecked phantom, turn to face it, and drive up the right-hand structure, making sure the left-side tracks are on the ground, and the right-side tracks are on top of the aforementioned structure. Then, simply drive forward, making sure not to slip off the structure, until the Elephant overbalances and tips over.

Drop Pod Method

Go into Forge and place a drop pod. Take the drop pod and put it inside the cockpit, then fly up. The Elephant will either be dragged into the air by the pod, or the pod will slip out, and you will have to do this again. You can help reduce the risk of the latter by driving the Elephant up a hill.

Scorpion Key Method

Spawn a Scorpion and, like a key, slide it in the cargo hold of the elephant. Now turn your giant makeshift tank-shaped key upside down, and the Elephant will follow.

Thorage Method

Start a forge session on either Sandbox or Avalanche, then spawn, flip, and drop the Elephant like you would any other vehicle.

Elephant Glitching in Matchmaking [No Forge/Modification]

Sometimes, in matchmaking or large custom games, the Elephant will begin to sink into the ground because of the bump, a glitch in the Halo 3 graphics engine. When objects begin to sink in the ground, they will be forced back out. The reason why they sink is most likely caused by lag.

In the case of the Elephant, when it sinks too much, it will be shot out of the ground and the Elephant will be sent flying. Usually, it will not be sent too high, but in cases of extreme lag, it can be shot all the way across the map. At times this can cause absolute havoc, causing the Elephant to crush players and vehicles, or send them flying.

The Scorpion could also spawn interlocked with the Elephant, and the overlapping hitboxes, coupled with not enough room in the cargo hold for the tank, will cause a feedback loop. The two vehicles will eventually pop free in violent fashion, potentially sending them flying. The Scorpion might actually get caught in the cargo hold and make the Elephant propel forward.

Trivia

If the Elephant is flipped, then made a static object by using teleporters, vehicles such as warthogs can be put underneath, then have the elephant flipped by using RB, the vehicle will be launched out of the bottom at high speed. This is known as the "Elephant Cannon".

Gallery

• 

  The first variant of the Fusion Coil Method set up.

• 

  Detonation.

• 

  The Elephant being bombarded by instantly respawning explosives, making it fly. Note the mongoose flying out of it on the left.

See also

• Flying Elephant