HALO 2
Mythic Skull Boss FAQ.
Version 1.06

Guide to defeating the bosses of Halo 2 on the Mythic Skull 
difficulty. With a skirmish aboard the Scarab cleared and the 
Heretic Leader pinned. The Prophet of Regret defeated using the 
‘Grenade Boarding Throw Technique’ Scheme. Furthermore, 
Tartarus crushed with naught but a tried and true tactical means.

NOTICE: This may not be reproduced under any circumstances 
except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web 
site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written 
permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of 
any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of 
copyright.

Copyright 2005, Robert D. Prez

*****************************************************
VERSION HISTORY

Version 1.06 changes:

Corrected some minor typos.

Version 1.05 changes:

Updated with a more thorough explanation on areas that needed 
seeing to.

Version 1.04 changes:

Added an extra tips section for the Cairo Station on the Mythic 
Skull difficulty. As well as that, corrected some minor punctuation 
errors and sentencing as a result of Microsoft Words auto 
correction function that meddled up some words.

Version 1.03 changes:

Added two more boss fight guides, both the Scarab skirmish and 
the Heretic Leader battle. Also of addition were the weapons of 
choice for both boss battles. Changed a bit more of the layout and 
added more explanations for most of the contents.

Version 1.02 changes:

Few of the main layout changes were made, added more notes to 
the Introduction, added notes on setting the Mythic Skull difficulty, 
and better defined the explanations and corrected punctuation.

Version 1.01 changes:

Changed and added a more detailed explanation; a few minor 
punctuation changes were also made.


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CONTENTS:

I.  Introduction

II.  Weapons combination of Choice against:   
   		
	1. The Cairo Station horde
	2. The Scarab crew
	3. The Heretic Leader and his duplicates
   	4. The Prophet of Regret’s hordes
	5. Tartarus and his group

III.  Note on setting the Mythic Skull Difficulty

IV.  Acquiring the Mythic Skull

V.  Aboard the Scarab – Dual Wielding the Plasma Pistols

VI.  Overthrowing the Heretic Leadership

VII.  Performing the ‘GBT’ Technique on the Prophet of Regret

VIII.  Video Link of the Grenade Boarding Throw Technique

IX.  Defeating Tartarus on the Mythic Skull difficulty 


*****************************************************
I.  INTRODUCTION

Greetings!

This FAQ guide was created out of necessity, simply because there 
isn’t one like it, especially when it comes to defeating the Prophet 
of Regret on the Mythic Skull difficulty. The idea and method of 
dealing with the Prophet of Regret on the Mythic Skull difficulty is 
very much non existent, at present. Hence this is why I was 
compelled to write one up after discovering the Grenade Boarding 
Throw Technique. 

As an after thought of one sort, I’ve also included tips of trade on 
which to defeat the other bosses of this remarkable game as well. 
Not to mention useful tips on conquering some of the toughest 
Covenant hordes on this difficulty yet. So, I hope you’ll find them 
to be of use. But for now, I’ll point you to the Grenade Boarding 
Throw Technique which I’ll brief you on.

The Grenade Boarding Throw is a secret technique for those 
brazen enough to have challenged the Prophet of Regret on the 
Mythic Skull difficulty, but faced more than their share of defeat 
and humiliation in the eyes of the Covenant leader. Up until now 
there has not been an effective way of defeating this – what I assert 
to identify, as the toughest game boss character ever devised or 
conceived. 

Those that claim the Prophet of Regret is easily defeated on the 
Mythic Skull difficulty setting are outright boasting. Or, to put it 
bluntly, foolish enough to assume he’s a piece of cake to finish off 
in the Mythic Skull difficulty. Simply because Regret wasn’t at all 
that hard for them to finish off on the Legendary difficulty. The 
latter statement is perhaps the more common assumption that some 
folks are drawing their conjecture from. Due to the fact that they 
fail to understand just how big a gap there is between the 
Legendary Prophet of Regret and the Mythic Skull Prophet of 
Regret. I’ll tell you, it is immensely BIG, this difficulty gap!

He is unbelievably difficult and frustratingly hard to defeat, and no 
amount of highly explosive projectile weaponry is capable of 
finishing him off. Nothing will work; the only exception is by 
boarding him and melee attacking him until he yields to defeat. 
Now that, will take a great deal of time and luck, not to mention 
skills. But eventually one’s luck will run out and defeat is only 
inevitable. That is, of course, before I discovered the Grenade 
Boarding Throw Technique which is similar in some ways to the 
normal hijacking/boarding method – peruse on and you shall find 
out how I discovered it, and put it to great use!

Tartarus on the other hand is another story altogether in this 
Mythic Skull difficulty. A dismal one really, challenge wise. The 
other bosses too aren’t that much of a challenge. You’d be taken 
by surprise… or, then again maybe not.

So it is somewhat puzzling to me then, that the Prophet of Regret is 
so darn difficult to defeat on the Mythic Skull difficulty. Where as 
beating all the other bosses on the same difficulty was easy by 
comparison. I can’t seem to figure out if indeed there is a glitch in 
the program, which caused this huge difficulty gap, or that this 
whole difficulty thing was intentionally programmed just for 
Regret. He is truly the hardest boss I’ve ever come across in any 
game to date! As no doubt you’ll agree, otherwise you’d not be 
reading this FAQ. 

However, to those playing him for the first few times, try going 
against him without resulting to the Grenade Boarding Throw 
Technique first; otherwise you may fail to see how tough he truly 
is on this Mythic Skull difficulty.

To cut to the chase and see how the Grenade Boarding Throw 
Technique is performed, refer to sections ‘VII. Performing the 
‘GBT’ Technique on the Prophet of Regret’ or the video link on 
section VIII.

Anyways, I should hope you have fun. And good luck!


*****************************************************
II.  WEAPONS COMBINATION OF CHOICE AGAINST: 

1. The Cairo Station horde:

This isn’t a boss fight but I thought I’d include it in my guide for 
good time’s sake. Especially of note are the Ultra Elites, who are 
now tougher than before on the Mythic Skull difficulty. Requiring 
two overcharge shots from the Plasma Pistols to completely drain 
their shields. 

So if you face these Ultra Elites (greyish, white Elites), be sure to 
adopt the dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle or Energy Sword 
combination to deal with them. See below for the preferred 
combination:

	*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle
	*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Energy Sword

With the dual wielded Plasma Pistols overcharged, unleash the 
plasma shots on these High Ranking Elite Commanders. Then 
quickly tap the ‘Y’ button twice to change to your secondary 
weapon, either the Battle Rifle or the Energy Sword, depending on 
your combination. And prepare to take them out with a headshot or 
the sword lunge. A normal sword swipe will not yield a successful 
kill. So it MUST be a sword lunge.

Dual wielding the Plasma Pistols is both the faster and the more 
efficient way of finishing off these Ultra Elites. Take the case with 
the Ultra Elites boarding Cairo Station for instance, where at times, 
if you’re unlucky there maybe two or more Ultra Elites bent on 
destroying you. They spawn from beyond the doors to the hangar 
bays, from which these alien vessels are intertwined and married as 
the gateways of hell; through this means they’ll board the station 
with the sole intent on annihilating humankind. So bearing those 
perils in mind, and prior to nearing those doors, pick up two 
Plasma Pistols and dual wield them to unleash the two overcharged 
shots on one of the Ultra Elites first. Then tap the ‘Y’ button twice 
to drop the left Plasma Pistol and to change to your secondary 
weapon to take out the first one with a headshot. Now, take cover 
by proceeding to another hiding spot whilst picking up your 
dropped Plasma Pistol. Dual wield them again and take out the 
second one in very much the same manner. Very fast, very 
efficient.

No need for firing one overcharged shot, then waiting for it to cool 
down while taking cover and finally firing the second overcharged 
shot.

Anyways, that’s the basis of dual wielding the Plasma Pistols, but 
for more information on dual wielding these pistols, and their 
advantages or disadvantages, please refer to section “V. Aboard 
the Scarab – Dual Wielding the Plasma Pistols” for a more 
thorough explanation.


===============================================

2. The Scarab Crew:


There will be little exchanges in weapons selection on this battle. 
But generally start off with the Rocket Launcher/ Battle Rifle or 
Energy Sword combination first. Then work your way to the 
Plasma Pistol/Energy Sword combination, once you board the 
Scarab and procure an Energy Sword, if not already obtain from 
previous battles.

The combinations are as follows:

	*Rocket Launcher/ Battle Rifle
	*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Energy Sword
	*Dual wielded Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle

Pick up as many grenades as you can, they’ll come in handy for the 
Scarab battle.


===============================================

3. The Heretic Leader and his duplicates:

The most useful weapon against the Heretic Leader is the Fuel Rod 
Cannon. But hauling such a cumbersome weapon around for 
almost the entire level of ‘Arbiter’ is taxing.  There isn’t much of a 
grouping of weapons to rely on for this ‘Arbiter’ level. As pretty 
much anything you can grab works against the Heretic Elite and 
Grunts. It’s a different story for the boss though.

Perhaps the best weapon against the Heretic Leader, after all, 
would be the dual wielded Needlers. Your Plasma Grenades on the 
other hand come in handy against his holographic counterparts. Or 
even the Heretic Leader himself.  The Energy Sword does not have 
much of a use on this Mythic Skull difficulty though. So you can 
pretty much scrap that out of your weapons inventory list.


===============================================

4. The Prophet of Regret’s hordes:

The preferred weapons of choice in this Mythic Skull difficulty 
against the Prophet of Regret’s hordes are almost the same as one 
would use for the Legendary difficulty, except for a few changes. 

The combinations are as follows:

	*Plasma Pistol/ Battle Rifle
	*Plasma Pistol, Magnum/Battle Rifle
	*Plasma Pistol/ Energy Sword #

Well, pretty much what ever weapons combination takes your 
fancy is best, but the above is recommended. The combinations 
above will make light work of this heavy challenge on the Mythic 
Skull difficulty.

The Plasma Pistol/Energy Sword combination should be 
implemented in the same way and manner as the tried and true 
formula of using the Plasma Pistol/Battle Rifle combination. 
Overcharge, then headshot, but instead of a headshot you perform 
a sword lunge at the enemies. A normal sword swipe at the Honour 
Guards will not suffice, even if their shields are down, so beware. 
That goes for the Silver Spec Ops Grunts as well, unless swiped 
from behind, they are best disposed with a sword lunge. Take note 
of the fact that this is now a close range weapons combination.

So, to dispose the Honour Guards at a safe distance with the 
Plasma Pistol/Energy Sword combination; what you can do is 
overcharge at them with the Plasma Pistol. And once when they 
are stunned for a split second, you quickly stick a Plasma Grenade 
on them for a satisfying kill. It may take a lot of practice but 
definitely worth it for the thrill. Their shields have to be low for the 
stuck Plasma Grenade to finish them off, hence the overcharge 
shot first.

# Please note that the Energy Sword is pretty much useless without 
the Plasma Pistol combination on this difficulty. Although it makes 
up for a deep challenge, it is not recommended to use the Energy 
Sword without the Plasma Pistol. So Energy Sword/Battle Rifle 
players are once again forced to change their tactics. Also of note 
is that the plasma grenades are now useless on their own in this 
difficulty against the Honour Guards. But on the retrospect they 
are very handy against the boss, the Prophet of Regret, as you’ll 
soon find out. 

One last piece of advice: keep plenty of Plasma Grenades and 
Fragmentation Grenades in stock, you’ll need them absolutely. 
Regret doesn’t know what’s coming or this guide as yet!

Also, make sure to arm your marines with the Sniper Rifles or the 
Beam Sniper Rifles, as they can prove to be helpful to your cause.


===============================================

5. Tartarus and his group:

Well the weapons of choice this time around are a range of 
weapons at your disposal. Anything you can get your alien claws 
on. 

The dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles are best suited to taking 
Tartarus out as well as the Covenant Carbine at a long or short 
range. Carbine shots to the heads are also effective against the 
Brutes at a distance. The Shotgun is very effective at close range 
battles as are the Plasma Grenades against Tartarus and his hordes. 
So distinguish your choice of battle tactics and go for your 
weapons of choice that correlates to your strategy.


*****************************************************
III. NOTE ON SETTING THE MYTHIC SKULL DIFFICULTY

#The Mythic Skull will only appear on the Legendary difficulty, so 
you MUST play through the Sacred Icon level on that difficulty 
setting to acquire it! 

#The Mythic Skull will not take on its full effect unless the 
game/checkpoints are/were played on the Legendary difficulty. For 
instance, if you’ve played a game up to the boss Regret on the 
Easy setting, the game difficulty will not be that of the Mythic 
Skull difficulty. So, you MUST play the game on the Legendary 
difficulty for the Mythic Skull to take its full effect of increasing 
the difficulty factor beyond Legendary. Remember that!

#The effects and values which the Mythic Skull adds to the game 
do not in any way stay in your Xbox. All effects will be wiped 
clean when the console is turned off, even if you save and quit 
after acquiring the skull/s.


*****************************************************
IV.  ACQUIRING THE MYTHIC SKULL

What the Mythic Skull does is it not only increases the difficulty 
level beyond the legendary difficulty. It also increases the enemy’s 
defence and offensive attributes as well. Making the game much 
harder and challenging to beat. But the boss, the Prophet of Regret, 
will become the TOUGHEST of ALL, and he’s all that much 
harder to deal with on this new difficulty than before.

The Mythic Skull is found on the Sacred Icon level, so cloak and 
run through the entire level until you come across the sub mission 
named "Buyer's Remorse". This sub mission name will appear 
once you’ve destroyed the Enforcer (that big double shielded 
robotic levitating sentry… thingie).  
 
The huge containment gates will then open once you’ve activated 
the switch on the panels, revealing yet another Enforcer added to 
your-to-do list. Take the enforcer out, and enter through a small 
gate that opens up on the wall of that section, where four gold 
Sentinels come out from.  
 
Head on through here, running past all the omnipresent Floods 
using your Optic Camouflage to cloak yourself. Activate all those 
energy shafts and keep on making your way through the horde of 
enemies, which include the Sentinels both gold and normal, 
Enforcers and of course the Floods.  
 
Eventually you’ll come to a dark, dank and murky area… this is 
where the Mythic Skull lies hidden. Look for a mass of 5 clustered 
boxes stacked together. Two boxes next to each other and another 
two stacked on top of the first two, with a fifth box sitting atop it 
all in the middle, kinda like a pyramid.  
 
Cloak yourself a moment before passing one of the human Flood 
forms and jump atop these boxes to remain unseen. Then jump to 
the platform above where you’ll notice three alcoves or hollow 
compartments housed into the walls. Proceed to the very last one, 
and there’s the Mythic Skull floating above the dead human Flood 
form. Pick up the skull and the screen should flash white with the 
words “Mythic” stamped on the upper left side of the screen. Once 
you’ve picked it up, drop it, then save and quit. And you’re set. 

Do not head to another checkpoint once you’ve picked up the 
Mythic Skull. If you do, don’t save and quit, otherwise the Mythic 
Skull will not take effect the next time you start the game again 
from that checkpoint. The skull will only take effect when picked 
up from its original location. So starting a game from any 
checkpoint before picking up the skull is all good.


*****************************************************
V. ABOARD THE SCARAB – DUAL WIELDING PLASMA 
PISTOLS

If you made it past the notorious Cairo Station level with either the 
Legendary or Mythic Skull difficulty selected. Then you shouldn’t 
have too much trouble on this section at all. It isn’t that much 
harder than the Cairo Station, in fact it’s painless in comparison. 
Due to the choices you have on an arsenal of fire power to choose 
from and to side with.

Arm yourself with the Rocket Launcher, and pick up all the 
ammunition for it. These are all littered along the plank walkways, 
but keep your Battle Rifle or your Energy Sword as your 
secondary weapon. If you don’t have an Energy Sword from 
earlier battles, you can acquire one from the Ultra Elites (the 
greyish white Elites). Approach close enough to an Ultra Elite and 
he’ll be sure to show you his priced possession. If you’re not 
comfortable with the idea of approaching one in that fashion, then 
fire an overcharged shot or stick a Plasma Grenade on one first 
before approaching any closer. You’ll see him wail in a fume of 
rage, and hungry for human blood he’ll come after you brandishing 
an Energy Sword. Kill him and the sword is yours. Alternatively 
you can procure one from an Ultra Elite aboard the Scarab as well, 
in very much the same manner.

Pick up the grenades on the first bridge section near the supply 
boxes and proceed to jump aboard the Scarab. Try landing on the 
top part of the Scarab to remain hidden. Then make your way 
down to the rear section of the walking destroyer and advance to 
fire away with the Rocket Launcher. Throw your fragmentation 
Grenades into the mix as well for some added destructive fire 
power. If you’re lucky you should be able to procure one of those 
Plasma Pistols which hopefully enough has landed relatively close 
to you. Pick one up and it will make this whole ordeal easier. If 
you don’t have a Plasma Pistol close to you, but spot one near the 
Elites. Then simply fire off one of the rocket missiles and toss a 
grenade their way and make a quick dash for the Plasma Pistol. 
Take cover by running back to the same spot again, at the rear.

Pay particular attention to the dual wielding Plasma Rifle Elites or 
Ultra Elites. They are deadly! You’ll be finished off in a matter of 
seconds if you’re not careful. So, try to deal them out first, and be 
quick about it, won’t you? 

See below for a means to defeating the Ultra Elites in this Mythic 
Skull difficulty.

Once you’ve taken care of the Elites on the Scarab deck, proceed 
to go below decks.

Now, be very careful, as you’ll be meeting with an Ultra Elite 
below the decks of the Scarab. In this case you’ll need more than a 
Plasma Pistol to dispose of him. With the Mythic Skull difficulty 
activated these Ultra Elites are now tougher to kill than before. The 
one overcharge shot from the Plasma Pistol no longer works, as it 
now requires two overcharge shots to completely exhaust their 
shields. So if you are willing, I would recommend picking up 
another Plasma Pistol for your own benefit. 

With two Plasma Pistols dual wielded you can take out the Ultra 
Elites on the Mythic Skull difficulty with very little effort. Charge 
up both Plasma Pistols and release both triggers together. Or one 
overcharged shot after another, very quickly. For instance, release 
the left trigger followed by the right trigger, almost right away. 
You may need to unleash the overcharge shots in this manner 
because at times the combined overcharge shots, when released 
together, do not completely remove their shields. 

Once you’ve released the two overcharged shots. Watch the hot 
plasma make its way toward the Ultra Elite. As its about to make 
contact with the enemy, you’ll need to press the ‘Y’ button TWICE 
very quickly to change your weapon to either the Energy Sword or 
the Battle Rifle. Then take him out with a sword lunge or a 
headshot respectively. Since this is a close quarter’s combat zone, I 
recommend using the Energy Sword aboard the Scarab. Prepare an 
overcharged shot, fire, and then simply sword lunge at the low or 
unshielded Elites or Ultra Elites. However, if you’re not too 
familiar with the Energy Sword then by all means stick to the 
Battle Rifle; it too will serve you well, if not better in the noted 
circumstance.

Now of course, you could use just the one Plasma Pistol to drain an 
Ultra Elite’s energy shield. First by firing one overcharged shot, 
then waiting for the Plasma Pistol to cool and finally firing the 
second shot. But that process would take too long to deal out the 
enemies. Since the first overcharged shot that’s fired, and made 
contact, will give the Ultra Elite a chance to dart for cover and to 
recharge his energy shield. All the while during this time your 
second overcharge shot is ready to be fired. But it’s all too late, 
there’s nothing to fire at, the target is in hiding. And you now have 
all the other Elites to worry about as well. Not to mention the fact 
that you’ll have to take cover after firing the first shot, or face an 
onslaught of searing hot plasma slugs. Again, with the dual 
wielding of the two Plasma Pistols one can quickly take care of 
these Ultra Elites in no more than two seconds. Unleash the two 
overcharged shots, tap the ‘Y’ button twice and go for a headshot 
or if you’re daring, the sword lunge.

The other negative aspect of not dual wielding the Plasma Pistols 
is that once you’ve fired the first overcharged shot at an Ultra Elite. 
A second Ultra Elite could very well come into your line of fire 
when your second overcharged shot was intended for the first Ultra 
Elite, with his shield already half downed. That is why it’s at times 
better to be dual wielding the Plasma Pistols for a multiple 
overcharged shots on the Ultra Elites in this difficulty. It’ll make 
your efforts short and sweet. 

The only disadvantage is that you cannot throw your grenades 
without first dropping one of the pistols. And if you venture away 
from your dropped weapon you’ll have to go back to pick it up, 
and dual wield again. One method of countering this is to drop it 
on your hiding spot. That way you can pop out to throw your 
grenades, then quickly pop back to take cover and to dual wield 
again. Thus proceeding to the next accessible cover if available, 
and unleashing the dual overcharged shots from the two Plasma 
Pistols.

If you’re unlucky, you may encounter a few extra Ultra Elites on 
the Scarab deck. So just adopt the dual Plasma Pistol method to 
deal out these Ultra Elites. In this situation they come in real handy, 
the dual wielded Plasma Pistols.

Well, there you have it then that pretty much sums up the defeat of 
the Scarab crew.

# Just a note: The dual wielded Plasma Pistols are very, very 
effective not only with the Mythic Skull difficulty activated, but 
also with the Thunderstorm Skull activated as well. What the 
Thunderstorm Skull does is it turns every Elite into an Ultra Elite, 
and every Grunt into silver Spec Ops Grunt. So every Elite that 
you encounter would be an Ultra Elite. This dual wielding Plasma 
Pistol technique will come in very, very handy indeed with the 
above purposes taken into consideration.

*Here’s a challenge: So, if you’re up for a deep challenge. Use the 
dual wielded Plasma Pistols/ Battle Rifle or Energy Sword 
combination on Cairo Station. With the Mythic, Cowbell and 
Thunderstorm Skulls activated.  These three skulls will turn Halo 2 
into one of the best games there is, period! Awesome fun!


*****************************************************
VI.  OVERTHROWING THE HERETIC LEADERSHIP

The Mythic Skull Heretic leader is pretty much the same Heretic 
Leader as the one on the Legendary difficulty. However, the 
weapons to use against him will have to be looked at again. The 
Energy Sword no longer comes into use, as it requires far too many 
hits to deal him a decent amount of damage. The Covenant 
Carbines really aren’t that useful; nor are the dual wielded Plasma 
Rifles. 

Perhaps the most powerful weapon against him would be the Fuel 
Rod Cannon. This weapon works mighty fine, but getting it all the 
way to the Heretic Leader can be taxing. If you wish to use it, then 
by all means do so, just be prepared to lug it around without 
shooting too many things with it. You can procure this weapon 
from the dead Grunts that haul it around atop the structures on the 
station facility. Simply land your Banshee and resort to picking it 
up and scavenging for the ammos. You’ll need to save up a few 
shots for the Heretic Leader himself. So don’t get trigger happy 
with it. Since you have to save up the ammos, you’ll be dropping 
and swapping it for other weapons more appropriate to your 
mission, and then picking it up again. As not to leave it behind 
since you won’t find the weapon anywhere else in the game again. 
Because of that, it then falls short of being the weapon of choice 
against the Heretic Leader. 

The Needlers, dual wielded are the weapons of choice here. Light 
to carry around, conveniently littered next to the dead Heretic 
Grunts. It doesn’t get any better than this. So let’s press on.

Alright, now, when you face the Heretic Leader, he’ll deploy two 
holographic duplicates of himself. At this stage you can either 
engage them or ignore them. If you decide to engage them, a 
tagged Plasma Grenade ought to do the trick. But This of course 
will alert the Heretic Leader and the other duplicate to take you on. 
The chances of survival are minimal here. 

So what I’d suggest you do is to cloak and make your way 
underneath the dais. If you haven’t yet procured the dual Needlers 
prior to entering the boss fight, do so now. They are located 
underneath the middle and the far end of the Seraph Fighter, more 
toward the hangar doors. You may need to hide in the hollow 
tunnels of the walls for your camouflage to energize before 
proceeding. Hollows such as these are present through out the 
stage; so hide in them to replenish the active camouflage should 
you find the need to do so. Extra ammunition for the Needlers is 
located to the left of the hangar doors, near the closed doors up 
from the slope. Pick that up and you have enough ammunition to 
take the Heretic Leader out.

Now while you’re up the slope, proceed to move forward until you 
reach a tunnel cavity in the walls, on your right. This will serve as 
your hiding spot. Under a watchful eye, and using your radar as 
guidance, engage the enemies the moment you see them. Duck left 
and right or jump up near the end of that hollow tunnel to avoid 
their fire. There is a huge hunk of a pillar wall blocking their line 
of fire that will serve you well. This slab wall will also obscure 
their line of sight as well, so use it to your advantage. And from 
here try and stick the Heretic duplicates or the Heretic Leader with 
your Plasma Grenades if you can. Drop one of the Needlers about 
halfway on the hollow tunnel and align the reticle directly above 
the Heretic Leader or his duplicates to about the height of them, 
then toss the Plasma Grenades. It should stick to them. With 
alignment and distance taken into account; you should be able to 
work out how much to arch up or to adjust for tagging your 
enemies with the Plasma Grenades. Use this method as a guide to 
better tagging the enemy with the Plasma Grenades for future use. 

The thing to do here is to isolate the Heretic Leader from his 
duplicates, and to engage him with the twin Needlers. Use your 
cloak to your advantage as well. As sometimes they’ll remain still 
after a while, especially the Heretic Leader. Your radar won’t pick 
them up if they remain motionless. The Heretic Leader is also the 
one who usually remains stationary when you’re cloaked. So 
surprise him when you’re cloaked, with your twin Needlers. You 
may have gotten the best of him, but still, you ought to watch out 
for this dual wielded Plasma Rifles, they are deadly. You have less 
than a second to hide from the plasma fire. So take note on where 
to strafe or fall back to.

If you’re unlucky, the enemies, including the Heretic Leader may 
come in to the hollow alcove. In which case you’re as good as dead, 
but that doesn’t happen often. On the other hand, if you’re lucky 
you might just hit the Heretic Leader on your first go. If the 
Heretic Leader is hit in any way, he’ll let out a loud cry when 
enough hits are sustained on him. He’ll then fly off into one of 
those big alcoves in the walls of this chamber hall. The 
holographic duplicates will vanish once the Heretic Leader is hit. 
So that takes care of them.

The moment you see him fly off, run toward the Seraph Fighter 
and jump on top of it. Look out for him in the huge alcoves on the 
walls. There are only four alcove posts to look out for. Spot the 
one where you’ll only just see two dimly lit lights of his dual 
wielded Plasma Rifles. That’s where he is, so wait until he’s 
finished uttering his cause and scorn for the Prophets values before 
engaging him.

Here’s the trick, take note of the huge pillar like flat post in 
between the two alcoves of the walls on one side, and on the 
opposing walls. Now, as he is about to finish his speech, move a 
little to the side of this flat post whilst still staying on the Seraph 
Fighter. Move just enough for you not to see him in the alcove. 
Since you can’t see him, he won’t be able to spot you and start 
firing before leaving the alcove. Doing it this way beats him to the 
punch. You can also cloak yourself if you choose not to move to 
the side a little to obscure his view. 

Now then, as soon as he finishes his speech, and your reticle 
aligned on him pull both triggers on the dual wielded Needlers for 
a few seconds whilst running toward the underside of the dais and 
behind this flat pillar post for cover. If done correctly you should 
have avoided majority of the fire from his duplicates and sustained 
enough shots on him for him to let out a cry. After which his 
duplicates will disappear, once more, and every time you deal 
damage to him. So you don’t have to worry about his duplicates at 
all during this battle procedure. Keep in mind that you can fire 
your twin Needlers even if the reticle hasn’t turned red, meaning 
that as long as it’s aimed and fired toward him, they’ll home in on 
him.

You should trigger a checkpoint by this time if not earlier. So be 
bold and take risks. Jump onto those raised stumps on the bottom 
of the pillars holding the dais up, to get atop the Seraph Fighter 
again. Keep repeating this method until he is dead. And you should 
have no problems defeating him in this fashion. 

If you’ve made the effort of hauling the Fuel Rod Cannon around 
with you all the way to this boss fight. Then you should definitely 
use it in the same manner and method as you would use the dual 
wielded Needlers above.

So there you have it, another boss down, and two more to go! 

*A note: Mike Miller is the author who wrote an excellent 
Legendary walkthrough on the method to taking out the Heretic 
Leader with the Fuel Rod Cannon. So, full credits go to him on 
that front.


*****************************************************
VII.  PERFORMING THE GRENADE BOARDING THROW 
TECHNIQUE ON THE PROPHET OF REGRET

The following technique is used to defeat the Prophet of Regret on 
the Mythic Skull difficulty setting. So to begin, allow me to say a 
few things worthy of note:

I’ve jumped (boarded) on the Prophet of Regret’s throne exactly 48 
times, say again 48 TIMES!! And each successive jump consists of 
five melee attacks – that’s an astounding 240 melee attacks all up 
if you do the math – alas, all to no avail. The bastard still lives! It 
was all hopelessly disappointing and painfully frustrating to go 
back to square one after ALL those efforts. Then I simply thought 
of something out of this inevitability; what would the Master Chief 
do in a circumstance such as the one I’m overwhelmed in. Surely 
there has got to be another way, instead of the 48 plus jumps and 
five melee attacks per jump. I collected my thoughts and recounted 
the options I had, had another hard look at the weapons at my 
disposal.

It then hit me! Nothing can penetrate his immensely resilient force 
field. Other than the fact that once you jump on him you have the 
advantage of striking him with your melee attacks. So what to do? 
Well, it is quite simple; you throw a Plasma Grenade or a 
Fragmentation Grenade on him a split second before you board his 
throne. Picture it like this, your throwing arm penetrating his force 
field before you throw the grenades, with this objective the 
grenades will land or stay inside his force field. Therefore it is 
important that you throw the grenades inside his force field before 
you are unable to do so when you board. 

Remember that our Master Chief cannot throw or use his weapons 
when he has actually boarded the throne. Adversely if you throw 
them too early they will not stick or stay inside the force field. Or 
as in the fragmentation grenades case they’ll simply rebound off 
his force field, thus musing the already contempt Prophet of Regret. 
At other times, if you are unlucky the plasma grenades will also 
bounce, though feebly off his force field and may end up adhering 
to you instead, a big no-no to avoid. So you MUST throw the 
grenades a split second before you latch onto his throne and not a 
moment too soon. 

If done correctly the Plasma/Fragmentation Grenades will drop 
inside his force field and not fall off. The resulting explosion will 
then knock him hard, so for added effectiveness commence 
punching him straight afterwards or before the explosion (you’ll 
only land in two or three punches, as shortly afterwards he’ll 
teleport in a fragile panic).

Don’t worry about getting killed or damaged by the plasma 
grenade since the explosion occurs inside of his force field. It will 
not harm our Master Chief. Just be sure to throw the grenade 
before you press and hold on to the ‘X’ button with which to board 
his throne. If he is at a higher elevation than you are at, then all 
you need to do is press the jump button, throw the grenade and 
then quickly board him. This is simply a brilliant tactic on 
Bungie’s forward thinking. 

You will need to perform the Grenade Boarding Throw Technique 
about five times to finish him off entirely or maybe more if your 
grenades do not fall inside his force field. Use your EARS to listen 
in and to home in on the location he’ll spawn to next. It’ll 
guarantee and reward your efforts with a far better success rate. 
Your radar is your best friend in these given circumstances, as the 
battles to follow are hectic to outwit.

You can also drop the grenades inside his force field without 
boarding his throne. Run up very close to The Prophet of Regret’s 
throne and throw your grenades at point blank. If done successfully 
the grenades will drop inside his force field. Please note that this 
method will not yield the desired effects on every attempt as it is at 
times harder to penetrate his force field and to judge how close you 
are to the Prophet of Regret without boarding him. And amidst all 
the battle commotion and pandemonium it is especially harder to 
pull off.

If at times you find that Regret is a bit too far out of reach for you 
to board, and you have the right weapon combination. What you 
can to do is you can jump toward him whilst quickly aligning your 
Energy Sword’s reticle on him so that it turns red, and thus 
performing the sword lunge. At the precise moment you strike 
Regret with the lunge – he’ll have to scream for this trick to work –
that’s when you throw the grenade and latch on immediately. Both 
the explosion and the Energy Sword will deal him some heavy 
damage. And since you’re on a roll here you might as well punch 
him for a good measure while you’re at it. 

You won’t be able to perform the Grenade Boarding Throw 
Technique on him if the sword lunge goes ill. See, if you lunge at 
his throne you’ll hear a clunk noise, and rebound backwards or 
sideways instead. That’s a sign when the trick goes astray and 
you’ll be wasting your grenades. It has to make full contact with 
Regret himself as he’ll scream to verify that your trick is in 
working order. This is when you immediately throw the grenades 
and then board his throne. So the short end of it is; you lunge and 
he screams, you then throw the grenades and board him 
immediately. It may take a few tries to get used to this fancy sword 
lunge trick, but it’s a very satisfying technique to pull off.

Don’t forget to PATIENTLY take out the re-spawning Honour 
Guards as well as the Grunts who’ll make certain of your efforts 
being anything but a smooth success. Take heed though, for the 
Honour Guards are now on par in strength with the Ultra Elites 
from the Legendary difficulty setting, on this Mythic Skull 
difficulty. So a simple stuck plasma grenade will not finish them 
off – unlike the Legendary difficulty, whereby the Honour Guards 
were easily eliminated with just a stuck plasma grenade. So do 
keep that in mind when taking them on. 

Proceed to take the enemy hordes out before engaging the Prophet 
of Regret. You’ll fare a far better chance this way. Reserve a keen 
sense of awareness and alertness for the dual wielding Plasma 
Rifle Honour Guards as they’ll finish you off in a second. The best 
way of dealing with these Honour Guards is to run back up the side 
ramps and look out for them on the top central level. Track their 
advancement from this vantage point. Use the walls and the slopes 
of the ramps as your cover. They cannot shoot you if you’re 
situated above a slope and they down below. If they get a hit in, 
just keep retrieving, or toss a grenade their way to stop their 
advancement. The Energy Sword wielding Honour Guards 
however will advance regardless. So keep all those in mind, they 
may come in handy. 

Check your radar as well if you cannot see them from this central 
elevated vantage point. The radar does not show stationary foes, 
only ones that are mobile. So be alert as sometimes they’ll stay in 
hiding and ambush you instead. Their preferred method of attack is 
to overwhelm and to surround you. So if you see two from the 
central vantage point, but only one is attacking you – then what 
that entails to is that the other has gone the other way to intercept 
you. So pay attention to the number of enemies in the vicinity. 

A good way of detecting enemy presence is to use your ears to 
listen in for the chamber doors opening and closing. That’s when 
you know the enemy has entered the chamber to seek you out. So, 
again, make your way to the central vantage point and track their 
presence. React accordingly to the indication of their presence and 
you should have no troubles dealing with them. And lastly don’t 
forget to MOVE! Otherwise the pesky but cute little grunts will 
find you an easy target for plasma grenade shelling.

Just for fun, I used the dual wielded Needers against the Prophet of 
Regret; it doesn’t do anything of course. But it is fun however 
hearing him scream in agony like a pansy once the needles explode. 
Scream after scream. It also slows down the entire progression of 
the game, and everything happens in slow motion if the triggers are 
held down. This is fun, but too bad there isn’t a whole lot of 
ammunition for it, except from the weapons rack below the lobby 
to the Prophet of Regret’s Ceremony hall. And a few scattered 
about the outside of the building and all.

So there you go that’s pretty much it, the ‘Grenade Boarding 
Throw Technique’ in a nutshell.

Anyways, hope you have fun performing this trick!


*****************************************************
VIII.  VIDEO LINK OF THE GRENADE BOARDING THROW 
TECHNIQUE

# Refer to the link below for a visual representation of how to go 
about doing this Grenade Boarding Throw Technique.

Please bear in mind that the clip is filmed with a mobile phone 
camera, so the quality is very low.

http://useruploads.mythica.org/cgi-
bin/viewfile.cgi?f=grenade_boarding_throw.wmv


*****************************************************
IX.  DEFEATING TARTARUS ON THE MYTHIC SKULL 
DIFFICULTY

Tartarus is not as difficult to defeat as one is lead to believe –
especially after the fiasco with the Prophet of Regret on the Mythic 
difficulty. One would be hard pressed not to shudder at the thought 
of dealing with Tartarus on this difficulty. He is in fact, the same 
Tartarus as the one we fought on the Legendary difficulty.

So if you’ve defeated him on the Legendary difficulty before, you 
should have no problems whatsoever defeating him again on the 
Mythic Skull difficulty. However, if you’ve had previous problems 
on defeating him, then please read on, as I’ll try and provide the 
easiest methods of dealing with him first.

The easiest way of course is the Banshee trick, but I’ll skip that 
part altogether, simply because that glitch wasn’t how Bungie 
intended for us to play and to defeat Tartarus by. So let us press on 
then…

You’ll be starting off at the checkpoint where Tartarus and his 
boys confront you with an arsenal of weapons ready to blow you to 
hell and back. You can avoid this battle altogether by immediately 
cloaking yourself as the Arbiter. Run past Tartarus and his boys 
and stand by for Sgt. Johnson to take out his shield.

Or, if you wish to collect their weapons, you may hang around 
behind them, cloaked of course. Stay here until your brethrens 
eliminate all the Brutes before jumping down to the platform 
beneath you. You should help out too though by striking the Brutes 
on the back for a quick one hit kill. This will speed up the process 
for Tartarus to haul his rather large behind to get the action going. 
Be mindful though, as it can get very hectic and confusing 
sneaking behind the enemy lines. 

Once Tartarus retrieves to the central platforms, you can cloak 
again to avoid him or just stand clear of his hammer. Anything you 
do will not work on him at all prior to Sgt. Johnson taking out his 
shield. You may feel hopeless at the sight of seeing your brethrens 
run to their deaths engaging Tartarus. That can’t be helped though, 
so save up your ammunition. Your que to engage Tartarus is when 
you hear three distinct but direct shots from the Beam Sniper Rifle 
making contact with Tartarus. At this point you can pretty much 
use any weapon at your disposal: Shotgun, Brute Plasma Rifles, 
Covenant Carbine, Brute Shots and Plasma Grenades.

The most ideal and the safest place to be is at the top level of the 
third platform. So run up to the central beaming beacon which 
ushers you up to the top level. From there fire your weapons at 
Tartarus and his hordes through that hole in the middle of the 
platform. The Brute Plasma Rifles dual wielded are particularly 
useful against Tartarus because of its firing rate. Once Tartarus’ 
shield is depleted by Sgt. Johnson’s dexterous ability, nip at both 
the left and right triggers to fire the Brute Plasma Rifles without 
overheating them. 

By nipping your fingers on the triggers in a frantic but successive 
chain, one trigger pressed after the other, you’ll avoid overheating 
them. Use the Carbine or any long range weapons to dispose of the 
other Brutes giving you hell. They can fire through that hole at you, 
so be mindful of their lethal Brute Shot Grenades which will make 
minced meat out of you in a matter of seconds

If Tartarus comes after you by entering through that levitation 
beam cavity, simply run off the top platform. Be careful not to 
back into the beam beacon if you choose not to run away from him. 
As you’ll be hoisted high into the air and thus you’ll land as a 
dormant nail for Tartarus to hammer you to death. This is why it is 
safer to just run off the top platform. Don’t worry you won’t fall to 
your doom as the top platform is smaller in circumference than the 
other two larger platforms beneath it. He’ll take chase after you. So 
simply run up to the beam to levitate the Arbiter to the third level 
again. And rinse and repeat this progression of shoot, shoot, shoot, 
take cover and run for your life until Tartarus is well taken care of. 

If you happened to run out of ammos – the two dual wielded Brute 
Plasma Rifles are sufficient enough to finish Tartarus off. But in 
any case should you run out of ammos, there is a fresh cache of 
Brute Plasma Rifles on the top platform and on the lowest platform. 
Situated at the top platform is also a fresh pair of Covenant 
Carbines secured to a weapons cache near those towering pillars. 
Use those if you run out of Carbine ammos. You can also pick up 
the weapons dropped by the fallen Brutes and your alien brethrens.

It is said that the Covenant Carbine is much more effective against 
Tartarus from the top platform because of its large ammo capacity. 
This is true, but to a certain degree. And I seem to reflect 
differently, as my reflections are solely based on the individual’s 
skills. The combined firing rates of the dual wielded Brute Plasma 
Rifles make it much more suitable for gamers to take out Tartarus 
quickly and efficiently. Essentially it is well suited for gamers who 
aren’t proficient at headshots with the Covenant Carbine. With the 
dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles there are two lines of fire firing 
at Tartarus, at extremely high speeds, as opposed to the single line 
of fire from the Covenant Carbine. The odds of firing two Brute 
Plasma Rifles at Tartarus with no need for aimed headshots, is far 
more efficient than a single firing weapon such as the Carbine in 
unsteady hands. Sure the Carbine is much more accurate than the 
Brute Plasma Rifles. But unless you’re an expert 
marksman/woman, the dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles will serve 
you just fine. 

The alternate method of dealing with Tartarus is to go after him 
when his shield is down. This of course sounds a lot easier than it 
actually is, not to mention it’s also riskier to execute to full effect. 
In this approach, the shotgun comes in very handy and provides 
moments of fun, as does the Plasma Grenades. Stick the Plasma 
Grenades on him the moment his shield is down. You have to be 
dead accurate and very quick. Aim to throw the Plasma Grenade 
the moment Sgt. Johnson fires his second shot from his Beam 
Sniper Rifle out of three. By the time the third beam shot hits, the 
thrown Plasma Grenade should have just stuck to his body right 
then, just as his shield is depleted by the third shot. Thus giving 
your grenade enough time to explode and deal him the damage 
before his shield is back up again. Therefore do not throw the 
Plasma Grenade when Sgt. Johnson has finished firing his three 
shots. By this time it’s too late as Tartarus’ shield will be back up 
before the stuck grenade explodes. Throw it right after when Sgt. 
Johnson’s just fired the second shot. Not sooner, nor later than that! 
Accuracy counts in your throws, as sometimes it looks like the 
grenade will stick to his limbs, but instead they’ll just fall off. So 
aim for his chest or back, the largest parts of his anatomy, or is it 
his head?

Whilst doing battle against Tartarus on close combat quarters it is 
advised that you keep back pedalling or circle strafing to avoid his 
gigantic hammer. You’ll know when he is about to slam you with 
his hammer as he’ll leaps high into the air to land with an 
enormous crash. This is when you back pedal at full speeds when 
he’s in the air. Whatever you do, just keep your distance from him 
so that the gap between the two of you is effective enough for your 
shotgun to deal him damage. That’s a medium to a close range 
distance. You’ll have less to worry about if you cloak whilst your 
brethrens are engaging him. He’ll turn his anger and attention on 
them instead of you, and once his shield is down and attention 
elsewhere – thanks to your brethrens and Sgt. Johnson – engage 
him! 

If you fancy taking Tartarus out at close range, but find the 
shotgun method a bit too challenging. Then you can always fall 
back to using the dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles. They’ll give 
you a better chance of dealing with Tartarus because of the rapid 
fire power. More importantly however, they never run out of 
ammo, something that plagues all the other weapons. Having the 
dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles on your side helps you to better 
understand how Tartarus’ tactics work. As you don’t have to stay 
as close to him as you otherwise would, had you had the Shotgun. 
In this approach you can gauge how he works from a safer distance 
and thus engage appropriately.

Should you meet more Brutes in hostility, just engage those beasts 
in the same manner as you otherwise would on normal 
circumstances. Carbines are very effective against them, as are the 
dual wielded Brute Plasma Rifles. Shotguns too will fare you well 
against them, and don’t forget your plasma grenades, they help a 
great deal too. Remember to take cover, especially from the Brute 
Shots; they can be hell to avoid in crowded spaces. If you find 
yourself overwhelmed simply run back up the beam lift and 
commence firing at them from a higher and safer elevation. Take 
note of the cavities on the second platform, these are your 
emergency escape routes. So if you cannot make your direct route 
to the beam lift, drop into one of these cavities and run to the beam 
levitation beacon at the bottom platform.

The Brute Shots are also fun against Tartarus at close range 
skirmishes. The only drawback is the slow firing rate and ammo 
capacity (that plagues many of the projectile weapons, except the 
Brute Plasma Rifles, as mentioned earlier). So be mindful of what 
you’ll be getting yourself into should you choose to equip this 
cumbersome weapon. Adopt this battle method once you’ve 
become more acquainted with Tartarus’ tactics and manoeuvres, 
and feel more comfortable taking him on with other weapons. But 
instead of aiming the nozzle or reticle at Tartarus, point it slightly 
lower than you would otherwise aim at a target. The idea is to fire 
these Brute Shot Grenades so that they rebound off the floors or 
walls and explode. 

This is a great illustration on taking advantage of this powerful 
weapon – as it is the explosion that does the heavy damage to the 
enemy. Aim in a manner so that the explosion deals him the 
damage just like a Fragmentation Grenade would. Think about it, 
you don’t throw the Fragmentation Grenade on your opponent for 
it to rebound off them, you throw it close enough so that the 
explosion envelopes them, think of it in that fashion. Look to other 
surroundings as well to ricochet these Brute Shot Grenades from. 
Again, back pedal and circle strafe by keeping your distance.

Taking all the above into consideration, and with a bit of practice 
you’ll do well! 

Best of luck, and remember to have fun!

That’s that then, congratulations, you’ve beaten the game on the 
Mythic Skull difficulty. 


*****************************************************

END
Copyright 2005, Robert D. Prez