Ivory Tower

“

Once home to the famous socialite Lance O'Donnell, the top floor of this building is now a public park.

”

Ivory Tower, is a Halo 2 multiplayer map located in a somewhat tropical indoor park in New Mombasa. The map was remade as Reflection in Halo: Reach.

Overview

Once home of a wealthy socialite, Ivory Tower was later converted into a “public” park visited only by the upper echelon of New Mombasa society. Intended to be conducive to solitary contemplation and repose, the architecture for this site was fancied by War Games analysts for its unique verticality and vague symmetry, making it a compelling scenario for close-quarters combat simulations.^[1]

Layout

In the middle of Ivory Tower there is an alley that leads to a drainage grate where you will find the rocket launcher in most game types. This alley leads to a circular area with a palm tree sitting at the base of a set of giant stone steps inlaid with grass. These steps lead up to an elevator and two hallways. One hallway leads to a dark room and the other leads to a lighter room that bears the overshield. The elevator can either take you to the upper part of the map that has the sniper rifle or the lower part of the map where you can acquire the energy sword.

To take the elevator up would place one in the middle of a long hallway. One direction leads to a dark room with air vent lifters and a shotgun, and the other direction leads to a ramp that contains an overshield. To take the elevator down from the main circular room brings you to the middle of another long hallway. Left and right directions have a small room housing an M6C magnum before the hallways turn back towards the center of the map. One direction leads you to the lower portion of the dark room, while the other direction will bring you out at the room that houses the ramp that holds the overshield.

To get off the elevator and turn around would lead you past a flag spawn point and then to a T-junction with the energy sword right in front of you. This weapon is under the drainage grate mentioned earlier. To turn one direction at the energy sword leads you to the dark room, while turning the other direction leads you to the small room containing the ramp and overshield.

The dark room has a door on the side opposite the hallway with the magnums; it leads to the main circular room and also to a small section behind it where the flag spawn point is. This back section has staircases on either end that lead to a catwalk section that can be used to view the center, overshield, and dark rooms. This catwalk winds around above the perimeter of the center room and ends up back at the elevator at the top of the stone steps (a favorite for the custom Juggernaut game type "Hide and Go Seek").

Territories

Walkway
Elevators
Tunnel
Crossroads
Air Lifts

Strategies

Slayer

The sniper rifle spawn on the third floor near the elevator is generally hot and players in or near it should defend the area against attacks from all sides, including below.
- Retrieving the energy sword before attempting to occupy the area normally makes an occupation successful; the sniper rifle is effective for sniping players in the main room and coming through the side corridors, while the energy sword will work well for killing anyone coming up the elevator.
  - To counter the strategy above, two players armed with battle rifles can simultaneously attack from the side corridors or one player can take the shotgun on the second floor elevator room and ride up to the third floor.
The area surrounding the rocket launcher is very exposed and attempts to retrieve it normally fail.
The best hiding places are often the cul-de-sac rooms off of the lower corridors (the magnum spawns).

Capture the Flag
On Ivory Tower, the only type of Capture the Flag game suitable is One Flag CTF Fast. In this game the team on defense defends the flag that is found in the small section behind the center room. The team on offense starts at the bottom of the elevator near the energy sword. There is often a race between the player on offense to grab the Sniper Rifle at the top of the elevator and the player on defense to grab the rocket launcher in the alley off of the main room. Both of these weapons are critical to being successful on both offense and defense. Offensive strategies involve either taking the flag up the middle through the main room and moving little by little with each life or making a dash for the lower portion of the map by way of the energy sword hallway. Both are equally successful.

Promotional image for Halo 2 Beta featuring first-person view of a Spartan firing a Sulok-pattern beam rifle on Ivory Tower. Screenshot from the Halo 2 Beta press kit.

Assault
On Ivory Tower, the only type of Assault game suitable is Rapid Assault. In this game type offense and defense spawn in the same locations as the Capture the Flag game type. For offense it works best if the bomb carrier grabs the overshield. This will ensure that he is able to make it to one of the bomb-arming points (each is at the base of the staircases in the back section behind the main room). Even if the bomb carrier dies, as long as the bomb is dropped in the arming circle the team has a good chance of winning. Because Sticky Arming is enabled in Rapid Assault a team can continue to drop off the catwalk and pick up the bomb and arm it little by little until it is completely armed. To thwart this strategy, the defense team must attempt to kill the offensive player before they are able to pick the bomb up or they must use a Rocket Launcher and grenades to cause the bomb to fly out of the arming circle.

Music

Hard to hear, but if you go by the steel door behind the elevators and turn your sound up pretty loud, you should hear the Siege of Madrigal from Bungie's older series Myth. Hitting the gate has no major effects, and this may take a good amount of time. You can also hear banging (Which is due to the forked lifts), rattling, and shaking sounds. Since the music also plays, its suspected it is the ghost of the former owner, Lance O'Donnell. The owner's name is deliberate reference to the composer for the Halo series, Martin O'Donnell. A sound or song is heard about every ten minutes.

Glitches

There is a glitch that allows you to get out of the Ivory Tower. In order to do this, you need two people. Position one person on the overshield ramp in the garden box on the right side. Walk into the corner. The second person needs to line up with the two bold dots on the floor right in front of the first person. The second person needs to crouch. melee the first player, and walk right. This will break the barrier and send you down below the level.

This can be done on any ramp with a nearby ledge on any map; the ramp must be thin though. Also if you have at least three people and get two people outside the map you can Butterfly/Sword Climb on top of the map. There is more to do and see on top of the map than in the place you first get out. On occasion, you fall through the white rapids when killed, breaking the barrier.

Trivia

Ivory Tower was the name of Martin O'Donnell's sound studio at Bungie.
Ivory Tower's working title was "Cyclotron". The name was changed after the map received its final visual design, as the luxurious penthouse environment "looked nothing like a cyclotron".^[2] The map is still called cyclotron.map in the game files, and on Bungie.net the images for Ivory Tower are in the /cyclotron/ directory.
In the upper level of the map, there are planter boxes that can be used as efficient sniper posts, but the boxes can be shot down easily.
The coconuts in the trees can be shot down.
The Siege of Madrigal easter egg shown here is also in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 3, and Halo Reach.
If you get outside of the map, and look down when you are over the main room with Rocket spawn behind you, and the stairs to the upper catwalk in front of you, you can see the room appears to be shaped like the Marathon symbol.
Ivory Tower's level design is used in its Halo: Reach remake, Reflection which also appears in the campaign level New Alexandria as the top floor of the Sinoviet Center, one of the three landing points during the mission. Also, the description of Reflection clearly makes reference to Ivory Tower.
In literature, an Ivory Tower is a place where people reside when they are out of touch with reality. The map may be a reference to this, as the level takes place on one of the floors of one of the tallest skyscrapers in New Mombasa (and, to a lesser extend, New Alexandria), and Lance O'Donnell was a very prominent character in the city's society.