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LASO Master achievement in Halo MCC

LASO Master

Complete each individual game-specific LASO playlist for every Halo game.

LASO Master0

How to unlock the LASO Master achievement

  • DanifittiDanifitti
    05 Jul 2019 02 Aug 2019 02 Feb 2020
    123 7 39
    For this solution, you have to finish all four LASO lists from the four main games: HALO 1, HALO 2, HALO 3 and HALO 4. You must finish the list available in the game's lists for all of them: setting up a game with the skulls won't count!
    Note: after the inclusion of HALO ODST and HALO REACH, both with LASO, this achievement description can be misleading. You don't need the LASO from these games to get the achievement. Thanks bLaKgRaVy for pointing out the necessity of clarifying this.

    LASO is by far the hardest mode in the game. It is in legendary difficulty, plus all skulls on. Each skull adds a modifier that makes the game more difficult, such as less ammo in weapons, enemies with more health and so on. Each game has its on set of skulls, even though some of them appear in more than one.

    There are good guides for each of the LASOS in their respective achievements, and it would be too extensive and repetitive to write them all here again. These are the LASO specific achievements for each game. Getting this achivement is, in fact, getting this four achievements:

    Halo: The Master Chief CollectionLike a Fine WineThe Like a Fine Wine achievement in Halo: The Master Chief Collection worth 266 pointsHalo CE: Complete the Halo: CE LASO Campaign playlist.


    Halo: The Master Chief CollectionBack for MoreThe Back for More achievement in Halo: The Master Chief Collection worth 296 pointsHalo 2: Complete the LASO campaign playlist.


    Halo: The Master Chief CollectionA Preference for PainThe A Preference for Pain achievement in Halo: The Master Chief Collection worth 258 pointsHalo 3: Complete the Halo 3 LASO Campaign playlist.


    Halo: The Master Chief CollectionNaked TyrantThe Naked Tyrant achievement in Halo: The Master Chief Collection worth 268 pointsHalo 4: Complete the Halo 4 LASO Campaign playlist.


    Here are some general tips:
    - If you are playing solo, you can use save and quit to go around the iron skull in all games. When you die, just save and quit before the game restarts, and when you resume, you will be in your last checkpoint.
    - Playing with someone can make it a lot easier, as long as both know what they are doing. Remember, if your partner dies, you both go back to the last checkpoint.
    - Use some kind of tape or post-it to mark the aim in the games that have a blind skull. Just load a normal game first, mark the aim with a piece of tape or post-it, and then play the LASO.
    - Use the skips and despawns shown in videos. They are what makes some of the levels possible and much easier.

    Halo 2 is considered the hardest of all, and Halo 4 the easiest. Halo 3 and Halo 1 are close in terms of difficulty and each player has its own opinion about which is harder. But don’t get the wrong idea: all of the LASO are really difficult, time-consuming and they will be quite a challenge. Good luck and don’t give up if you are going for this.

    Guide not helping? View 1 more guide for this achievement.

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    LeyepersonalHaving completed all the SLASOs, my personal list from hardest to easiest would look like this (but honestly might as well be H2 and not H2):

    - Halo 2.
    - Halo CE.
    - Halo Reach.
    - Halo 3.
    - Halo 5.
    - Halo 4.
    - Halo ODST.
    - Halo Infinite.

    * Highly recommend going from easiest to hardest since that form of logical progression will reflect on your skills and dexterity as you play through them. Meaning the experience gained from the previous one will give you an edge for the next one negating the disparity in difficulty, effectively making them all feel pretty much about the same (again H2 being the slight exception).

    * Naturally Save & Quit will be your biggest tool for this, throughout all 6 games it never failed me once (never lost any progress on any of them). That being said the H2 LASO playlist would consistently crash after 5 s&q on average for me during the loading screen whenever i tried to RESUME it from the menu for some reason (NEVER MID-PLAY), it was the only Halo to do this for me so i have no clue what caused it, NEVER lost any progress tho but still annoying since it added more dead time to that specific run overall.

    * Like someone else commented, don't treat it like a job to prevent burnout and think about checkpoints rather than full completion for some of the levels.

    * For time reference, getting all the LASO and Speedrun achievements for all 6 titles (the few last that i was missing) took me 4 and 1/2 months of daily playing sessions (aprox. 2 hours on weekdays and 4 during weekends).

    All really fun and unique to deal with and each having challenging sections/checkpoints/areas that hit above their weight class at times regardless of classification. At the end of the day it comes down to which campaign you have more experience with/have played the most.

    Good luck.
    Posted by Leyepersonal on 14 Aug 24 at 22:43
    EldinJayHere is my personal list of the most difficult LASO campaigns, with the top being the hardest one.

    - Halo 2.
    - Halo CE.
    - Halo Reach.
    - Halo 3.
    - Halo ODST.
    - Halo 4.
    - Halo Infinite.

    I have not done Halo 5 yet, and honestly not to keen on returning to that game.
    Halo 2 is brutal, without watching guides on youtube, it would have been impossible for me, I messed up a few skips and got punished for it, spending about 2 hours in the prison room in gravemind, doing it legit, eventually I managed to get out without restarting the level.

    Combat Evolved is a mixed bag in LASO. Some levels are quite easy, then get brutal such as Truth and Reconciliation.

    Reach is also a mixed bag for me, I really struggled on the last level.

    Halo 3 is when it starts to get a bit easier, granted none of the campaigns are easy on LASO, but 3 was a bit more forgiving.

    ODST is the shortest campaign out of all of them, and due to the nature of the games levels, it can be easy at times, still get ready for some difficult scenarios.

    Halo 4 is the easiest one in the MCC for me. I did not struggle that much and I did it relativately quicker than the other LASO campaigns.

    Halo Infinite's LASO is much easier compared to these, especially with some of the skulls being a benefit within the LASO category in this game.
    Posted by EldinJay on 26 Dec 24 at 11:03
    SpankyJust finished Halo 4 LASO, Id say its harder than 3. These are the current LASO's I've done ranked hardest first

    Halo 2
    Halo CE
    Halo 4
    Halo 3
    Halo Infinite

    Halo 3 was just annoying for me as I had to restart Tsavo Highway 5 times due to my own fault and the save and quit not working.
    Posted by Spanky#1518 on 29 Dec 24 at 23:21
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  • LoftyMagicLoftyMagic
    31 Dec 2021 31 Dec 2021 31 Dec 2021
    34 0 0
    Hi guys,

    I've just finished this after doing H3, H4, and Reach 2 years ago, and completing H1, H2, & Infinite this Christmas - I wanted to share some tips which may make it easier. I've done all of these SLASO, but the below should apply for Co-op as well. Let's get into it:

    1) Use Halo Completionist's (AKA Silver's) guides on YouTube. He has a playlist set up for each of the games (including Reach and ODST). I couldn't have done this without those guides. They are packed full of strategies for every area of every game - including lots of ways to skip fights. I recommend watching 5 mins or so ahead of where you currently are in the level before proceeding so you know what's coming. This will also let you know if you need to set anything up in advance.

    2) For H2, H3, H3:ODST, H4, and Reach, you will not be able to see your targeting reticle. For Halo:CE you will randomly lose 1 of the 5 parts to your HUD. If it happens to be the reticle, then just Save & Quit and reload until you have the reticle there.

    To negate this effect for the other games, some people put a piece of scotch tape on their screen, go into a custom game with a sniper rifle, and trace the circle onto the tape. I was worried about that affecting my TV somehow, so instead I got a piece of string, tied a big knot in the end of it, and hung it down from the top of my display with a piece of tape on the top of the TV. This takes a while to get it lined up correctly, but once you have it, you're good. The targeting reticle is in a slightly different place for each Halo game, so you'll need to reset it when you start a new one.

    3) If you have an elite controller, use it. Map at least 2 of the face buttons (that you use most frequently) to the paddles - I used just 2 and put Y on the upper right and kept cycling out the upper left paddle for whatever was required (for instance, mapping it to active camo when playing as the Arbiter in H2). If you have an elite series 2 - even better. Turn the thumbstick tension all the way up, it will help with aiming. This is especially useful for Halo: CE as aim assist is disabled for LASO, I found the increased tension in the stick pretty much negated that modifier for me. NB: For the prison skip in Gravemind (H2) - if you're finding it tricky with the elite controller, I switched back to the standard controller and did it first try. Whether this was by luck I don't know, but it's worth bearing in mind for when you get there.

    4) Switch your control scheme to Universal Bump & Jump. You'll need to change it manually for each game. This will do 2 things: A) make the control scheme consistent across each Halo game, and B) allow you to jump and aim without taking your thumb off the right stick. NB: For some skips and glitches you'll need to change the scheme back to default, but these are fairly obvious in Halo Completionist's guides (i.e. the start of "Keyes" in Halo: CE).

    5) Iron Skull Workaround: If you die (and you will, a lot), hit start, save & quit to take you back to the main menu before you are reset back to the start of the level. This used to be pretty painful, but since Xbox Series X/S launched with the SSD, the load time to get back in is pretty short now if you're on those consoles. If you don't manage it in time, then go to the dashboard, hit the start button on the MCC icon, "Manage game and add-ons", "Saved Data" click on your gamertag and "Delete from console". This will remove your local save and force a cloud save download when you start the game back up. There's a good chance you'll be back at one of your last 2 checkpoints. Do NOT press "Delete Everywhere". I haven't seen this trick mentioned anywhere else for LASO guides, but it saved my run in Gravemind on Halo 2 after I didn't Save & Quit in time.

    6) For Halo: CE and Halo 2, play in classic graphics. The geometry in the levels is not the same as what is shown in the remastered graphics. Also, you can more easily tell when you have damaged an elite's shield in classic graphics. For Halo 2, it's much easier to see the enemies in classic graphics as every enemy has active camo for the entire game.

    7) FOV (Field of View) Settings: Change this up to 100 for each game. It's on 78 or so by default, but increasing this will allow you to see more of what's going on around you, and make dancing around enemies while meleeing to get your shield back much easier.

    8) This is LASO, so some improvisation is necessary to complete it. Your run will not be 100% the same as in Halo Completionist's guides on YouTube. The guides should cover 95% of all your problems, but you'll need to get creative in some scenario's to make it through.

    9) If you're struggling with a particular section, look around for other guides on how to complete that part. For instance, I was struggling with the Banshee grab on Assault on the Control room on Halo: CE, so found a guide for the bridge drop on YouTube instead and had much more luck. Don't be afraid to look around for more help if needed.

    I've still got ODST to do, but hopefully the above will help some of you out. Just don't give up, and remember - with the Iron skull workaround, you only have to do each section once before you're done with it forever. That thought kept me going through the tougher sections.

    Let me know if you have any other tips so I can add them to this list, but this is all I can think of for now.

    Good Luck!
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