Scarab Gun

The Scarab Gun, floating above a traffic cone atop a bridge.

"Think, MASSIVE FIREPOWER! For one level only."

— Frank O'Connor

The Scarab Gun is a hidden Plasma Rifle with the firepower of a Scarab's focus cannon. It is hidden in the Halo 2 level Metropolis. Like the Da Vinci Code Objects, the Scarab Gun is simply a placeholder object that generates the Scarab's firing effect.

Overview

The Scarab Gun has similar appearance as a normal Plasma Rifle. It has unlimited ammo, continuous rapid fire, and never overheats. Due to its tremendous firepower and immense splash-damage, firing the weapon at close range will normally kill the player.

Walkthrough

It is recommended if the player attempts to obtain the Scarab Gun on Easy difficulty.

1. Proceed normally as you would till the end of the bridge. Once at the end, kill all of your allies.
2. Commandeer a Ghost and eliminate all enemy ground vehicles.
3. To lure a Banshee into the tunnel, simply drive in reverse and fire around at a Banshee. Try to avoid firing directly at the Banshee.
4. Some allies will spawn in a Warthog. Eliminate them to avoid them from damaging/destroying the Banshee you lured. Feel free to also kill all enemy infantries to avoid interruptions. At the same time, repeat step #3 to keep luring the Banshee into the tunnel.
5. Once you reach the closed section of the roadway and have to detour off into the pipes, you should dismount your Ghost if you have not done so. Lure the Banshee into this detour as you would with a Ghost by firing around it.
6. In the detour hallway, lure the Banshee to the left path that leads to the next section of the campaign level. Try to melee it slowly into tunnel.
7. It will get stuck due to the narrowness of the tunnel. At this point, you should fire off the Banshee's wings.
8. As the Banshee attempts to move further into the tunnel, be prepared to board it. When the "Loading ..." message appears, board the Banshee. The Banshee will disappear if you do not board the Banshee when "Loading...done".
9. Proceed out of the tunnel and fly off to the suspension bridges. You will see the Scarab Gun will be hovering on a cone.

Note: the Sputnik skull and Black Eye skull recommended for this, but not necessarily required. Sputnik skull essentially makes objects lighter while the Black Eye skull allows players to boost the energy shield by meleeing.

Note: if the Banshee is stuck between scenery objects in the tunnel, simply walk behind it and move backwards slowly to get it unstuck.

Note: Having another player will ease the process.

Other Scarab Guns

There are actually four Scarab Guns in Halo 2 -- two on Outskirts and two on Metropolis.

Outskirts Scarab Gun (1)

1. On Outskirts with the Black eye and Sputnik skulls on, get a Rocket Launcher and grenades.
2. Get in a Ghost and go to the highway tunnel. (Fun fact: if you go against the wall and out toward the water you can slip outside the map.)
3. Go to the edge of the building and turn left. Now go boost forward until you get a checkpoint.
4. When the checkpoint is activated, get out and aim at the ground. Throw a grenade, shoot the ground with a rocket, and, at the same time, jump.
5. With an Overshield, you should fly up in the air.
6. Hold X and you should (if in the right place) pick it up and land on the wall.

Outskirts Scarab Gun (2)

The second Scarab Gun does not actually exist. This 'second' Scarab Gun is a common misconception. The Scarab gun is obtained by 'tricking' the game into loading the Highway tunnel and then returning to the water, jumping up, then landing on the wall. The Warthog flies past, like it would if you were in the tunnel. After obtaining the gun, you can go through the tunnel and the Warthog and Scarab won't load, because the level has already loaded, and the scripted Warthog has already been activated.

Metropolis Scarab Gun (Alternate)

1. On Co-op, at Metropolis, fight until you clear the city center and talk to Corporal Perez.
2. Have one player stand where the Scarab arrives. Have the other go into the building and load the Scarab.
3. When it loads, have the first player perform an Overshield-, Rocket-, Grenade-, or Sputnik-jump (or really any "boosted" jump) into the scarab's laser—or into the blue cloud, if there is one—and hold X, and they will pick up yet another Scarab Gun.

Trivia

• The Scarab Gun has a slightly different appearance than a normal Plasma Rifle. On co-op, when you get the gun, have your partner look at you while you are dual-wielding it with a Plasma Rifle. There is a glow at the tip of the Plasma Rifle, that is not present on the Scarab Gun (although you can do it on single player).
• Unlike the Plasma Rifle which fires blue bolts, the Scarab Gun fires the same green beam a Scarab does. However, it fires with reduced accuracy and as 'rounds' (even though the ammo is unlimited), rather than a continuous beam, like the Sentinel Beam.
• An achievement in Halo 2 Vista called King of the Scarab is unlocked by obtaining this weapon.
• Interestingly, the safety cone underneath the gun has multiple "Danger" signs on it, showing that the gun might have been put there intentionally to keep it away from others. Also, this is supported by the fact that Bungie put in an actual model (the plasma rifle's model) for the weapon, unlike other vehicles' .weapon tag (weapons are not specified in the vehicle tag).
• If the player gets into the side seat of a Warthog and fires the Scarab gun, the screen (except for the HUD) will go completely white until the player stops firing. That is because, in third person, the weapon's gleam is as large as the Scarab's main gun.
• If you give a marine this Easter egg, he will hold it as if it were a normal plasma rifle, but he will never fire it. Bungie might have expected this and took steps to prevent this in order to balance the game AIs.
• The Scarab Gun was originally used by Joseph Staten to generate the cinematic effect of the Scarab beam firing. According to him, it ended up in the game because he forgot to take it out. However, designer Tyson Green has confirmed that the Scarab Gun was intentionally left in the game as an Easter egg.
• A Crouch, and Grenade Jump with Sputnik activated is another simpler way to reach it, though you may need some cars and crates.
• If you grab the gun and make it to the part when the Scarab shoots the Scorpion tank, destroy the Scorpion and the Scarab will refrain from firing.

Gallery

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  A single shot from the Scarab Gun

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  The result of firing the Scarab Gun when in the passenger seat of the Warthog.