All 13 Missions Walkthrough#

Based on the shipped game: this walkthrough draws on official developer materials, launch reviews from multiple outlets, and community-verified mechanics. All missions were confirmed by players with Deluxe early access.

The campaign has 13 missions; each holds 3 collectible Skulls and 1 Terminal. For your first playthrough, Heroic difficulty is the sweet spot between challenge and experience.

Remastered Missions (Missions 1-10)#

Mission 1: The Pillar of Autumn#

Objective: escape a human cruiser overrun by the Covenant.

• Wake from a cryo pod and follow Cortana through the bridge
• Fight Covenant boarders in the corridors; grab the MA5B Assault Rifle
• In the crew quarters, watch for the first hidden Skull (above the vent duct in the corner)
• Cross the engine room swarming with Grunts, clearing them from high ground
• At the escape pod bay, spot the Terminal before boarding the Warthog (console to the right of the pod entrance)
• Drive the Warthog across the fractured hangar deck and dive into the escape pod

Combat tip: starting ammo is scarce - pick up a Covenant Plasma Pistol early (its charged shot strips shields).

Legendary note: the Jackal snipers in the opening corridors are lethal. Advance cover by cover.

Mission 2: Halo#

Objective: find survivors after crash-landing on the ring’s surface.

• Follow Cortana’s markers after the pod crash
• First open valley: Grunt patrols, with Jackal snipers on the ridgeline
• Rescue your first Marines (behind cover on the map’s left side)
• After the story beat, take the Warthog across the valley
• Look for the Terminal in a hidden cave near the second rescue point
• Clear the Covenant-held outpost to trigger the cutscene
• Boss encounter: your first Hunter - attack the orange back weak point with a plasma pistol + pistol combo

Collectibles: this mission’s 3 Skulls sit in the cliff cave on the right of the first valley, on the outpost’s second floor, and behind the building at the final extraction point.

Mission 3: Truth and Reconciliation#

Objective: night-raid the Covenant cruiser and rescue Captain Keyes.

• Open in a night canyon; snipe Jackals off the watchtowers
• Reach the gravity lift and ride up into the cruiser after clearing the guards
• The ship’s corridors are tight; shielded Jackal pairs hit hard - frag grenades work well
• Watch for cloaked Elite warriors near the bridge
• The Terminal is in the research bay left of the bridge
• Find Captain Keyes in the brig to start the extraction countdown
• Fight back to the top of the ship and board the Pelican

What’s new: the UE5 remake overhauled the interior lighting and materials - wayfinding in the dim corridors is dramatically clearer.

Mission 4: The Silent Cartographer#

Objective: take the ring’s map room.

• The iconic beach landing opener; advance between rocks and dunes
• Inside the Forerunner facility the route splits:
  • Upper path: faster but heavily defended
  • Lower path: longer, allows flanking
• Reach the map room and activate the console for the ring’s map data
• Covenant reinforcements arrive on your way out - hold the map room door and funnel them down the narrow corridor
• Outside, a Ghost strafes you; counter with the rocket launcher or grenades

Collectibles: Skull 1 is in the cave on the beach’s right; Skull 2 in the lower map-room dead end; Skull 3 on the crater rim after leaving the facility.

Mission 5: Assault on the Control Room#

Objective: cross the snowy mountains and storm the Forerunner control room.

• One of the longest missions in the game - roughly 40-60 minutes on Heroic
• Opens with snow-valley combat against Covenant snipers and Ghosts
• Inside the Forerunner structure: three floors of interior fighting; elevator shafts are danger zones
• Outside, drive a Scorpion tank and level the Covenant posts along the route
• Back indoors, face Elite Honor Guard teams
• The control room fight: two waves of Elites plus Jackals - use the central pillar as cover
• Activating the console triggers the Flood warning cutscene

What’s new: the remake adds optional detours - blowing open vent ducts changes enemy patrol routes.

Mission 6: 343 Guilty Spark#

Objective: investigate the swamp and meet the Flood.

• Foggy marsh opener with brutal visibility; lean on Cortana’s nav points
• Enter the half-ruined Forerunner facility as the tone turns survival horror
• The Flood debuts: Infection Forms are blisteringly fast - keep moving and use spread weapons (the shotgun above all)
• Collect Terminals to learn the Flood’s origin
• Cross the Flood-overrun lab wing and meet 343 Guilty Spark
• Receive the Sentinel Beam, which deals bonus damage to the Flood

Combat tip: Flood melee hurts; alternate shotgun and pistol. Keep your distance from Carrier Forms - the swarm they leave behind is just as lethal.

Mission 7: The Library#

Objective: escort 343 Guilty Spark to the Index.

• Widely called the hardest level of the original - the remake smooths the pacing but the combat density remains brutal
• Three floors of near-symmetric Forerunner architecture
• Core strategy: when each floor’s door unlocks, pick a defensive position immediately - the Flood floods in from both directions
• The Assault Rifle shines here, with generous ammo
• A hidden Skull waits between floors 2 and 3 (drop down a vent duct)
• The Index chamber fight runs three stages: each platform you activate spawns another Flood wave

Remake improvements: Halo Studios differentiated the map details heavily, fixing the original’s repetitive maze feel. New environmental storytelling - Flood corrosion, UNSC survivor logs - deepens the story.

Mission 8: Two Betrayals#

Objective: activate the ring’s pulse generators to stop the Flood.

• Backtrack through the control room area - familiar map, entirely different enemy setup

• Covenant and Flood are hostile to each other and to you; let them fight and pick off the survivors

• Three pulse generators sit in different wings:

  Generator	Location	Threat
  Alpha	West wing, lower level	Mostly Elite guards
  Beta	East wing, middle level	Dense Flood
  Delta	North wing, upper level	Mixed threats - the most dangerous

• Each generator charges for 60 seconds after activation; hold your ground

• Once all three fire, sprint to the extraction point

Collectibles: this mission’s 3 Skulls moved from the original’s mission-5 layout - they’re by the broken pipe near Alpha, downstairs in Beta, and atop Delta’s elevator shaft.

Mission 9: Keyes#

Objective: return to the Covenant cruiser and find Captain Keyes.

• Board Truth and Reconciliation again - now badly consumed by the Flood
• Organic growths can be smashed with melee or explosives
• New Flood breeding chambers have sprouted - don’t linger
• A maintenance passage below the bridge bypasses much of the fighting (a real shortcut)
• Finding Keyes triggers the story - he completed his part of the plan
• Fight your way out and board the Pelican

What’s new: the remake adds a short zero-gravity spacewalk, briefly letting you float outside the ring.

Mission 10: The Maw#

Objective: return to the Pillar of Autumn, overload the reactors, and outrun the blast.

• The finale: back inside the Autumn’s wreckage
• Push down to the engine room with tight, relentless combat
• Overloading the reactor starts a strict timer (about 6 minutes)
• Fight back to the hangar and drive the Warthog through the collapsing corridors
• The classic escape: the Warthog leap across the broken bridge - one of the original’s most iconic moments, massively amplified in UE5
• Board the escape ship and watch the ending

Achievement note: finish the mission without dying to unlock Finish the Fight.

The Prequel: Operation: METEORITE (Missions 11-13)#

Set roughly a year before the original story. Three missions form a self-contained arc following the Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson aboard a Covenant research vessel. Total length: about 3 hours.

Mission 11: Boarding Action#

Objective: breach the Covenant research ship and infiltrate.

• Approach the Covenant vessel by Pelican and breach through exterior piping
• The first stretch favors stealth - Elite patrols can be bypassed rather than fought
• Enter the ship’s training wing and meet your first Elite warriors
• In the gene-forge lab, discover the Covenant running biological experiments on Forerunner tech
• Sergeant Johnson joins; the mission flips from infiltration to sabotage
• The Terminal is on the console above the gene-forge lab

Combat tip: this mission introduces a hijackable Covenant Ghost - grab it in the later corridors and the rest of the fight simplifies enormously.

Mission 12: The Most Dangerous Game#

Objective: cross the ship’s hunting dome and rescue the Tiger squad.

• The hardest of the three - an open hunting arena plus wave-compression combat
• First area: an open domed space with Covenant forces pouring in from all four directions
• The bridge control room: activate three bridges to proceed, each with an Elite escort
• The Tiger squad is pinned behind cover at the dome’s center; clear their encirclement from the flank
• After the rescue, push into the ship’s interior for dense wave combat
• The gaps between waves are barely enough to reload - ration your ammo

New weapon: the Energy Sword spawns at fixed points on this map - making its campaign debut in this remake, and it one-shots Elites.

Mission 13: Heavy Burden#

Objective: break through to the bridge, escort the extraction, and escape to space.

• The longest and most varied of the three (about 40-50 minutes)
• First stretch: fight from your current position to the bridge against heavy defenses
• Bridge boss fight: two Elite officers plus a Jackal sniper - break line of sight with the pillars and pick them off one by one
• With the key data secured, escort Johnson and the Tiger squad back to the hangar
• Hangar defense: hold off three Covenant assault waves while the Pelican preps for landing
• Final extraction: fly a Banshee off the vessel and dogfight Covenant fighters in open space
• Return safely to the mothership - mission complete

Space combat: the Banshee chase is the game’s only pure-flight section, with handling close to Reach’s space combat.

Efficiency Routes#

Next guide: the Skulls & Terminals collectibles guide »