Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf is the eleventh and final campaign level of Halo: Reach. The level takes place after the credits and will be accessible to players when they finished the entire game. The setting of the level begins at 20:00 hours of August 30, 2552, near the ship-breaking yards at Aszod. SPARTAN-B312, left at the ship-breaking yards after the UNSC Pillar of Autumn’s escape, is left to simply survive as long as possible. After fighting off waves of Covenant forces, Noble Six eventually succumbs and is killed by a group of Sangheili warriors.

Transcript

{Cutscene}

Planet Reach

August 30, 2552 20:00 Hours

As two Banshees zoom past, the camera pans down to Noble Six, standing alone on a raised platform, stranded on Reach, watching Phantom dropships as they begin to mill past over the ruined landscape, slowly and surely drawing closer to him or her.

{Gameplay}

There'll be Another Time...

Waves of Covenant troops, including Elites, Grunts, and eventually Wraiths attack the lone Spartan. Aircraft from above, while initially ignoring the Spartan, also begin to fire on Six's position.

Noble Six holds out for as long as possible, but the Covenant are limitless. As more damage is taken, cracks begin to appear in the visor of his or her Mjolnir helmet. Eventually, Six takes "enough" damage and the screen fades to black.

{Cutscene}

Noble Six's POV: SPARTAN-B312 is under heavy fire and hurt. There are two cracks in Six's visor. An Assault Rifle is lying on the ground. The Spartan pulls off the damaged helmet, tosses it aside, and picks up the weapon.

Camera shifts to the discarded helmet's POV, which shows Noble Six making his or her final stand against the Covenant. At no point in this sequence is Six's head ever shown. An Ultra Elite charges at the Spartan, firing a plasma rifle. Noble Six kills him with the assault rifle. An Elite General attacks from behind with an energy sword. Noble Six knocks him to the ground and kills it with a pistol. Six is hit by a barrage of plasma fire from off-screen. The Spartan is wounded and bleeding, but manages to stay standing. Holding the Assault Rifle at the hip in the right hand and the pistol in the left, SPARTAN-B312 continues firing, killing two more Elites before another Ultra knocks Six to the ground.

An Elite Zealot appears with an Energy Sword and prepares to kill the downed Noble Six. The Spartan kicks the Ultra away and knocks the Energy Sword out of the Zealot's hand. The Ultra pounces on Noble Six again. Noble Six manages to elbow the Ultra in the jaw. The Zealot draws an energy dagger. The foot of a third Elite steps into the frame, and the tips of an Energy Sword appear.

Cut to Noble Six's shattered helmet, lying on the ground in the dust. This is the scene the game opened up to.

Fade to black.

Scene fades in to the same location. The ground is now a grassy plain and the skies are blue. The only evidence that a battle was ever fought here are some debris from a destroyed ship in the background and Noble Six's helmet, still lying where it fell.

Planet Reach

July 7, 2589

• Catherine Halsey: (voice-over) "It didn't take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren't nearly fast enough."

The camera begins slowly pulling back.

• Catherine Halsey: (voice-over) "For you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it."

The camera has now pulled back to reveal a UNSC ship in the background to the left. The ship is a new arrival and not a wreck.

• Catherine Halsey: (voice-over) "But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything, except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild."

Fade to white.

Game ends.

Trivia

Easter Egg

• A hidden Master Chief statue in this level can be found using theater mode.
• Using the glitch that takes the player out of the map, the player can also come back to where he/she starts off the mission, while looking though, they'll discover a trooper still alive, though only in the glitch.

References

• This mission has a single rally point, Rally Point Omega. In Greek, Omega (Ω - the last letter of the alphabet) means "last" or "the end." This could also be a reference to the fact that Reach is the last Halo game to be made by Bungie, or because it is "the end" of Noble Six, or simply that it is the last rally point.
• Beside one of the dead troopers, there is a Designated Marksman Rifle with seven rounds in its magazine.
• The date of the cutscene following the level is July 7, 2589. This is a reference to Bungie Day. This is also another seven reference as the year is made up of 25, 2+5=7, and 89, 8+9=17.
• Seven Sangheili warriors attack SPARTAN-B312 in the ending cutscene.

Miscellaneous

• Earlier in the development of Halo: Reach, the game was going to end in a cutscene directly after the Pillar of Autumn took off, with the camera resolving down onto Noble Six as they inserted their last magazine into their weapon and walked off into the oncoming Covenant threat that still exists on the planet. The idea of a gameplay sequence in the end came fairly late in the game's devlopment.
• Lone Wolf marks the only time a post-credits sequence has been playable in a Halo game.
• Thirteen dead SPARTANs can be found in this level. Two are inside the structure, while the rest are scattered throughout the area. Their armor permutations and color are randomly generated; their helmets have no attachments whatsoever and their combat knives are missing. By the level's end, Noble Six becomes the fourteenth dead SPARTAN here-7x2=14
• This is the only playable level in Halo: Reach that contains just one data pad, which is found when playing on the Legendary difficulty. All other playable levels have two data pads, one on Legendary, and another while playing any other difficulty.
• The name of the level is ironic, especially since Carter told Noble Six to get rid of the "lone wolf" behavior upon joining Noble Team. However, at this point, Noble Six is truly alone.
• According to the developer commentary, the Legendary ending on this level was supposed to depict an eagle landing on Noble Six's helmet, but this was cut out of the final game.
• In the cutscene where Noble Six dies and the camera is pointing to his/her helmet, the helmet doesn't show any sign of the two cracks on the visor that Six recieves before he/she takes off their helmet. Instead, it is replaced with a big hole in the middle of the visor.
• If the player survive long enough, an endless army of Elite Generals will come, armed only with concussion rifles and energy swords.
• During co-op, the Spartan-B312 depicted in the cutscene depends on which player survive the longest. Since enemies will continue spawning, players who died won't be able to respawn, and the last player who dies will appear in the cutscene.
• If you listen carefully, you can hear Covenant ships in the background glassing the area.
• It is impossible to beat this level, no matter how skilled the player is. Attempts to escape will result in death, as the map has boundaries just like any other. One cannot simply flee from enemies. It is also impossible to hijack the Wraith.
• The only way to fail this mission is to die from running out of the map's boundary; the player will see Noble Six take off his/her helmet, but will be sent back to the start of the mission.
• A slight mistake occurs involving Noble Six's helmet in the final cutscene. In both the first and last times it's seen, the helmet is tilted to the right, but when it is kicked multiple times by an Elite in the final cutscene, the helmet is tilted to the left.

Gallery

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  The hidden Master Chief statue

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  Some of the troopers who are found dead later on in the level