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Skulltaker Halo 2: IWHBYD achievement in Halo MCC

Skulltaker Halo 2: IWHBYD

Halo 2: Find and claim the IWHBYD Skull on Legendary.

Skulltaker Halo 2: IWHBYD0
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How to unlock the Skulltaker Halo 2: IWHBYD achievement

  • XyjarXyjar
    29 Aug 2015 30 Aug 2015
    I would just like to add to the previous guides, because you can save A LOT of time by cutting out all the unnecessary fluff. I just personally confirmed all of the below in my successful run for the skull.

    1. You don't need ANY of the checkpoints, not even the "dead marine" checkpoint, and not a checkpoint anywhere near the skull room, checkpoints are in NO WAY related to the skull.
    2. You only need one thing, for the jackal snipers to spawn in "sniper alley".
    3. These spawns are what determines if the skull spawns (1 in 7 chance)
    4. These spawns happen near to, but are still separate from the "dead marine" checkpoint.
    5. I don't know why people suggest crouching on the building before the pelican, completely pointless and unnecessary
    6. Picking up the skull is all you need, you do not need to kill any elites after, or even survive
    7. No, none of the recent patches have changed this skull (Maka suggested they changed it to a 100% spawn rate, which is false. It is still 1 in 7).

    So given the above, you can save A LOT of time by stopping your full-mission restart attempts and following all the silly checkpoints. Instead, although it has nothing to do with the skull, for time's sake I would follow standard procedure until you get a checkpoint after the pelican takes off. This is where you will be restarting from with each attempt, instead of from the beginning of the level. If possible, have this checkpoint happen on the other side of the bridge to save you time making that annoying bridge-to-roof jump with each attempt (checkpoint is finicky though after you leave the other building).

    Then, go towards the dead marine checkpoint, but don't look down at it or try to actually get the checkpoint. You want to stand farther to the right, near the edge of the roof, so you can view the jackal spawning behind the large crate on the ground. This is how you know all the jackals spawned (and where your 1 out of 7 chance for the skull happens). As soon as you see that jackal spawn, you are all clear to go as fast as you want toward the skull to check if it spawned. I just go the most direct path I can and go invisible for part of the way to avoid enemies (though you can kill enemies on the way if you want). If it's not there, reload from the pelican take-off checkpoint and try again.

    The key is to NOT get any checkpoint between the jackal spawn and the skull. Because the 1 in 7 roll is at the jackal spawn. If you get a checkpoint after that, the 1 in 7 roll is permanent and you will need to restart the mission. Now, how do you avoid getting another checkpoint? Checkpoints do not happen during melee attacks, so melee all the way from the jackal spawn to the skull. If it's not there, reload pelican checkpoint. This will bring your attempts down to more like 30 seconds per run, rather than 5 minutes per run doing the whole mission and following pointless checkpoint routes. So even if it takes you 20 attempts if you get bad RNGs, it will still only take a few minutes, rather than hours doing it using the traditional methods.

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    InterracialThanks +1
    Posted by Interracial on 11 Feb at 06:59
    YAY ITS BOSSConfirmed working with Acrophobia + Scarab in March 2024.
    Flew straight to roof and waited for jackals to spawn. Right after spawn I flew right to the skull and it spawned after about 5 seconds. Took 4 tries
    Posted by YAY ITS BOSS on 03 Mar at 23:26
    Matter92I tried this about at least 50 times until I did what YAY ITS BOSS said - I turned on only Acrophobia, flew straight to the roof above the jackals, they spawned, then I flew to the skull and it was FINALLY there. I did not wait for checkpoints. I did not wait for the pelican. I did no kill anything.
    Posted by Matter92 on 07 Mar at 02:24
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  • NE0182NE0182
    11 Nov 2014 12 Nov 2014 27 Jan 2015
    - Mission: Outskirts
    - Difficulty: Legendary
    - Only checkpoint 4 is needed
    - Scarab skull can be used

    UPDATE:
    Thanks to Cam Thiessens and Halo2Trigate this skull seems to be debunked now. Checkpoint 4 (1:51) is the trigger for the skull. Once you get this checkpoint, the skull has a 1/7 chance of spawning.

    Main Plan:
    - Follow the guide to the skull room and make sure you hit checkpoint 4 every time. If it doesn't show up you will have to restart the mission.

    Plan B:
    - If you get to the room and the skull is not there you can also try to roam around the area a bit and return to the room. This worked for some as well.
    -------------------------------------
    After you picked up the skull, you will be teleported down into the streets where you have to fight 7 waves of elite. The achievement should pop before that section.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    KELLSO92This guide worked for me. However, THIS SKULL WILL NOT SPAWN IN COOP. Tried probably 50 times or more in coop. No skull. Tried solo, skull spawned on the 5th or 6th try.
    Posted by KELLSO92 on 25 Nov 22 at 02:54
    KungFuMonk3yOk if you turn on the scarab skull and the acrophobia skull all of these become mind numbingly simple to get. You can fly past most mobs to get to where you need to go and then fly up to where it is. In a few cases you have to get check points or kill enemies and that is where the scarab gun makes this all the more easier.
    Posted by KungFuMonk3y on 29 Mar 23 at 20:34
    WinkyDaWinkyIf it didnt work i just exited the game completely and reloaded doing this method, on the 4th try the skull loaded in a little after i entered the room.
    Posted by WinkyDaWinky on 04 May 23 at 18:39
  • Rich V90Rich V90
    01 Dec 2014 01 Dec 2014 03 Dec 2014
    Before beginning you should be prepared for the worst. This could take you 5 minutes or it could take you 5 hours (the latter for me).

    Some things to note:
    The skull is found on the mission Outskirts
    Difficulty must be on legendary.
    Dying does not matter.
    Checkpoints do not matter.
    You can use the scarab and envy skulls.
    The skull has a random chance to appear.

    The quickest way to get to the skull location is to jump out of the map at the beginning of the level and make your way across the rooftops. As soon as you get to the first roof above sniper alley then you will need to move towards the edge to spawn the jackals (it does not matter if it checkpoints here or not).

    I believe the spawning of the jackals to be an important indicator that the area is ready to go and this may be when the dice gets rolled for the skull spawn.

    As you can see from the video, I embarrassingly die by a drone on my way to the skull but that goes to show that dying does not affect the skull spawning or not ;)

    If you get there and the skull hasn't spawned then you will have to restart the level and try again.

    Good luck.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    RubensXThnks mate, this worked for me :)
    Posted by RubensX on 31 May 20 at 19:39
    Raildo2011Cara realmente esse guia funcionou, para o pessoal que ñ conseguiu, após a musica tocar e a mulher falar, vá para o local onde a caveira esta localizada, caso ñ esteja la repita de novo, consegui obté-la na 2 tentativa !!!!!
    Posted by Raildo2011 on 13 Jun 20 at 01:34
    SinistrEdgeThis worked on my second try. Thanks!
    Posted by SinistrEdge on 12 Feb 21 at 01:05
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