Vidmaster Challenge: Endure

Vidmaster Challenge: Endure

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Halo 3: ODST

Vidmaster Achievement: Endure is an achievement in Halo 3: ODST. It is part of the Vidmaster Challenges. It is unlocked when you play on Firefight, on any map, and pass the 4th set (the 12th round and 60th wave) on 4 player Heroic co-op Live. It is worth 25 Gamerscore. In Series 3 of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Endure returned as a Seasonal Challenge with the same requirements, unlocking the helmetless bug-splattered Buck and injured Romeo Firefight characters. Following the release Floodfight in MCC Halo 3: ODST Firefight a similar Challenge, known as Gravetender, was added for accomplishing the same feat in Floodfight.

It is represented by a green Marathon symbol, with the number 4 in front of it.

Strategies and Tips

General Tips and Strategies

• On the bonus round, let every person aim at one of the shafts the Grunts come out of and keep moving whilst shooting. This will earn you a lot of headshots.
  • You could also try stealing a War Chieftain's Fuel Rod Gun, if a Chieftain that had one was present, and shooting into the Grunts' shafts, as this will heavily benefit towards getting more lives and killing the Grunts very quickly. Also, if possible, use a Rocket Launcher. This will give even more kills and points, as it is much deadlier than a Fuel Rod Gun.
• A good weapon to have would be the Automag, as it is great for headshots against Grunts, Jackals and Brutes, if their Power Armor is disabled.
• Try using the Silenced SMG against Drones, not the Automag, as the Automag is too hard to aim at Drones. Whereas the Suppressed SMG has auto-fire and its bullets spray outwards, making it easier to hit them. Added to the fact that Drones will usually die after 2-3 shots from an SMG, you could probably take out an entire swarm with around a single magazine.
  • Alternatively, you could wait for Drones to get close and melee them. This will benefit towards getting more lives, getting more points and recharging your Stamina when the Black Eye Skull is enabled.
• Almost every round works the same; the first wave will be Grunts and Jackals, the second one will also be Grunts and Jackals and some Brutes, the third wave will either be Drones or Hunters plus some Brutes. The fourth wave will consist of lots of Brutes and some Grunts, and the last wave will consist out of 2 or 3 War Chieftains with Fuel Rods and/or 2 or 3 Chieftains with gravity hammers and lots of Brutes, all with jump packs and Flares.
• When the Chieftains begin to arrive, attack them with charged Plasma Pistol shots, as this will disable their Power Armor. Then all it will take is a few Pistol shots to their heads, and they're down. You could also try to assassinate them too, as this will allow to you to hold on to your ammunition, and take them down easier. If it is a War Chieftain, run to it, try to avoid its shots, and simply get behind it and assassinate it. If it is a Hammer wielding Chieftain, let it charge at you, then strafe around it when it goes to slam the Gravity Hammer into the ground, and take it out. This will benefit towards obtaining more lives and more points. Note that, when it's hit several times, it will activate Invincibility, though it can still be assassinated even if it's Invincibility is activated.
• It is HIGHLY recommended that you pair up. This way you can cover each other's backs and double the firepower.
• You can also pick up any firebomb grenades from Brute Stalkers and use them to quickly dispatch chieftains.

Map Specific Tips and Strategies

Alpha Site

• Extra Ammo - There are two cases of bonus ammunition, one for the sniper rifle (a hard to see mag holding 16 rounds) and one for the rocket launcher (a SPNKr case with two extra rockets) located in the center of the landing pads were phantoms drop off troops, rocket ammo on the dark pad and sniper ammo on the light. To pick up the extra ammo you must be carrying the respective weapon.

• Weapons Cache - The elevator across from were you spawn, the same one you use in campaign, can act as a weapons cache. All of the items placed inside it (i.e. weapons, grenades, bodies, objects, etc.) will never disappear making it a great place to store rockets, fuel rods, and grav hammers for later use.
  • A great tactic to implement with this is to have one person grab the rocket and extra rocket case at the beginning of each round, and deposit it into the elevator by walking it in (exchanging it with another weapon causing it to fall in front of you and repeating until it is inside). Since the chieftains on the first few sets, even set 4, can be taken out with a pp auto mag combination or the use of a carbine you only really need the rockets for the hunters. If you make sure to store the rockets (and fuel rods) every round, you will soon have a massive stash of heavy weapons. This can be invaluable on the bonus rounds seeing as the rockets are usually wasted on the chieftains before the set ends and grunts show up. Using this tactic you can expect to have about eight full rocket launchers and around 30+ lives by the fourth set making those infuriating last few rounds a walk in the park.
• Have two people defend one of the two set of stairs. The long view range from either stair (far enough to see the landing parties actually drop) makes sniping Grunts and Jackals from the other side of the map with the Automag entirely possible - the view will also give you time to prepare if you sight a Hunter or swarm of Drones.
• Have two people hide in the elevator with the remainder on the stairs. The enemies will attempt to attack the pair in the elevator, but will not be smart enough to go through the door, and will try to shoot or melee through the wall. As long as the players on the stairs don't move into the middle, they can kill the enemies with virtually no interference. When the Chieftains attack, the people in the elevator can simply bail out and help the shooters kill them.
  • The people in the elevator will have to keep an eye out for Drones, which can be nuisances when buffed by skulls. Fortunately, the elevator allows for easy melee kills.
  • The players in the elevator should also remember to help the shooters whenever possible, ideally with well-placed grenades or jump-shots over the wall with overcharged Plasma Pistols.
  • Having 1 player get the Chieftains attention on the stairs, then having them run backwards so another player can assassinate the Chieftain can be an effective way to dispatch them quickly.
  • Standing in the elevator with the catch skull turned on can be particularly dangerous. During these round retreat back to the safety of the stairs to pick off the enemies before the get within grenade throwing range.
• Before the bonus round get the rocket launcher. As the announcer says "Good Luck" aim up to the shafts the Grunts come out and shoot in as soon as the Bonus round starts, then about one second later shoot agian. Plasma grenades may start a chain reaction that can get you around 20 lives.
• Skulls - Pay attention to the skulls implemented on each set as it will be crucial for you to pass through each round and wave either faster or slower. Each skull implemented requires the players to redevise and adjust the strategy immediately.
  • Mythic + Famine Skull: Always have automag ready and one of your plasma weapon ready either Plasma Rifle or Plasma Pistol to shave off Brute's armor since the Brutes often goes berserk even with the armor still on. Alternatively, use Carbine to force shielded Jackal to expose itself if you give your automag to your teammate. Save the Explosives weapon only for dealing with Hunters since you can only replenish rockets every round and loot the Fuel Rod Gun weapon as quickly as you can and use it on a last-ditch attempt for defenses. One of your teammates must use a silenced SMG to suppress incoming drones as quickly as possible.
  • Tilt + Mythic + Famine Skull: Never use any of projectile weapon except automag for shaving off enemy's armor with the only exception of dealing with drones. Shielded drones, however, requires the player to shave it off with Plasma Rifle before it can be finished with SMG or any other ordnance that can score a headshot. Do not use any explosives ordnance as dealing with Hunters regardless it was Bonus Round or not since players will have difficulties on fighting the Hunters without explosives ordnance.

Crater

• Have two people facing each staircase. They should easily be able to handle anything which comes up. Look out for the Jackal snipers on the other side.
• Another good tactic is to use the turret by the load-out/spawn building. Wait until the initial Phantom drop, then get one person on turret and have the other three cover him.

Lost Platoon

• A good tactic is to have two people in the base; one with the Spartan Laser to deal with the Wraiths and two people in the Warthog. Try to jack and/or kill the drivers of two Choppers and get into them, because once the second set rolls around and Tilt is activated, the Warthog turret becomes harder to use, and having two people in Choppers helps to splatter Hunters and Chieftains, but be wary of the rocks and obstacles that dot the terrain.
• Another good tactic is at the second or third round pile a lot of Barukaza Workshop Choppers at the wall in front of the building and keep getting spares so that if one gets destroyed then you can get another. As the Phantoms drop in troops all of you shoot at the troops until there's nothing left.

Windward

• Simply camp inside the central building with each player watching a single entry. The fourth should act as reinforcement to whoever is handling the most combat. Note, however, that enemies will trickle in slowly and every wave will be 2 to 3 times slower than normal play. It is safe, but don't attempt it if anyone is likely to quit. At the last wave of any round when enemies have thinned be sure to grab the missile pods for extra fire power. They are located on the far left and far right of the map. A con to camping in the central building is that the Brute Chieftains are very deadly because the Gravity Hammer causes severe damage due to the close proximity to other teammates.

Last Exit

• Have one person sniping, one hijacking Karo'etba-pattern Ghosts and taking them to the top level (with sniper covering them), and two in the upper level of the spawning room, camping.

Warnings

• Make sure you have plenty of time to work on this achievement as it can take up to two and a half hours to complete all 60 waves.
• Brute Stalkers are very dangerous if the Catch skull has been activated. They will throw a plenitude of Orgudam Workshop firebombs, and players who don't keep moving will quickly find themselves incinerated. If you do choose to go out on your own, be sure to keep your VISR mode on. This will allow you to see the Stalkers much easier with an outline of their form. Bear in mind that Stalkers also carry Flares, however, which can make it much more difficult to see them. Should you catch sight of a cloaked Stalker, open fire immediately to disrupt their cloaking and give away their position to other players, as well as warning everybody that there are Stalkers.
• At the last wave, be careful when facing the Brute Chieftains. The Fuel Rod Gun is especially lethal, and the Gravity Hammer can cause damage through walls and other obstacles. Players should try to focus on one Chieftain to start, take his weapon, and use it to kill the remaining brutes.
• Do not quit the game after you passed the 4th set, as it will cause no achievement and much time wasted. The achievement comes when you start the 5th set.
• War Chieftains often, like most other Covenant, shoot their Fuel Rod Guns when they die. Be cautious of this as it can often result in death on Heroic.
• The Bonus Round must also be completed for the achievement to unlock.

Trivia

• This achievement automatically unlocks the 200,000 points achievement for the map you're playing on, because you'll have easily over 560,000-600,000 points at the end of the 4th set.
• On a Bungie.net poll, this achievement was voted the hardest to achieve, with Deja Vu and Annual tied for second.
• This achievement will also give players Dare's blue Recon helmet for females, and a red Recon helmet for males for their Xbox Avatar when they have downloaded Halo Waypoint
• In the Halo 3: ODST ViDoc: Road to Recon, it was revealed that the achievement was originally intended to unlock after passing the 7th set on Legendary. According to Lars Bakken, "We quickly realized that we had to bring it down a little bit, otherwise no one would ever be able to get Recon."
• One of Halo: Reach weekly challenges is "Endure: the Return", which likewise requires the players to complete 4 sets in co-op Firefight on Heroic or harder. However, unlike the Vidmaster Challenge it is considerably easier to complete, due to Halo: Reach's more flexible Firefight options (such as infinite ammo and lives).

External links

• Youtube: Vidmaster: Endure
• Bungie.net Strategy Guide
• Youtube: Halo 3: ODST ViDoc: Road To Recon