Halo Campaign Evolved Keyes Walkthrough

This is a Legendary co-op walkthrough of Halo Campaign Evolved Mission 12 — Keyes, the shuttle bay run that follows Two Betrayals. Below: why the Flood hit so hard in this one, a long detour through Halo Studios' layoffs, the Xbox console problem and what Activision should do with the franchise, and where to find this mission's 3 skulls + 1 terminal, with the full video embedded above.

Halo Campaign Evolved Mission 12 setup

• Ninth mission of the remade Halo: Combat Evolved campaign (Mission 12 in full Campaign Evolved release order after the three prequels, The Pillar of Autumn, Halo, Truth and Reconciliation, The Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room, 343 Guilty Spark, The Library, and Two Betrayals).
• Legendary co-op throughout; the video is also in the Videos database.
• Mission shape: fight through the Covenant and Flood toward the shuttle bay, find a ride up to the upper deck, and reach Captain Keyes. The objective text in-game says to go back to the shuttle bay and find a ride.
• The skull and terminal section below fills in Catch, Blind, Pinata and the Consumed terminal, since Andy and Gus spend more of this video talking than hunting collectibles.

Keyes skulls and terminal

This mission packs 3 skulls and 1 terminal. Locations here are from the Push Square skulls & terminals guide.

• Skull — Catch (Under New Management / Rally Point Alpha): This one is a speedrun to the top of the grav lift, so Push Square recommends skipping it until you've played the mission through. It only unlocks on Heroic or Legendary. Sprint as fast as you can to the grav lift area without bothering to kill anything, then kill the marked enemies so the lift activates. Stand in the middle of the lift and hold the Square button (the guide's PlayStation prompt) as it carries you up into the ship. The skull hangs in midair inside the lift and you catch it on the way up.
• Skull — Blind (Rally Point Bravo): On the way to the shuttle bay you'll reach a room full of Flood with a Ghost and a Wraith in it. Take the corridor behind the Wraith and crouch under a second Wraith to get to the other side. The skull sits next to the locked door.
• Terminal — Consumed (Rally Point Bravo): Once you reach the shuttle bay, the objective changes to reaching the upper deck. From the entrance you came in through, take the first door you see (enemies come out of it, which helps you spot it). Follow the corridor to a group of enemies that includes two Hunters. Kill them all, then from where they stood take the right turn in the hallway and another left to find the terminal.
• Skull — Pinata (Rally Point Charlie): After the cutscene where you find Captain Keyes and regain control, turn around and melee the Flood growth where he was. After roughly three to four melee hits, the skull appears.

"The game that killed 343": Halo Studios, legacy and the Activision question

The video opens with Andy and Gus joking that they're playing the game that killed 343 Industries (and then Halo Studios). Between the two missions, Halo Studios was folded into Activision and, as they put it, effectively everyone was let go. They say up front that neither is a proponent of people losing their livelihoods, and hope the people affected land on their feet, but one of them is blunt that years of failing at something gets people fired.

• The legacy question: "they made a trilogy of starting trilogies." Halo 4 gets real credit (a favorite campaign and a fond memory from when it came out), Halo 5 is remembered for its multiplayer impact, and Infinite was "far from terrible" but nothing was particularly inspiring.
• Their pick for the best thing the studio did is the Master Chief Collection, though they debate whether it counts, since it's largely a remake of games 343 didn't make. Halo 2 Anniversary gets singled out as really well made.
• They give the studio credit for the books and the lore stewardship, then wonder why that didn't translate into a clear direction for the mainline games.
• Halo 5 is the sore spot: the reveal with the Chief in the desert holding the dead Cortana chip, then "nothing about that," and too much plot resolved off screen.
• Their advice to Activision is "have a plan": map out a three-game span and finish it. They're fine with waiting years for the next game, and one of them would love to see different genres tried.
• They think a reboot isn't the franchise-ender some fans fear, arguing 343 effectively pivoted the direction three times already. They also touch on the Forerunners-aren't-human controversy and admit they're not sure what the Prometheans were in that debate.
• They guess the studio planned a remake trilogy (a Halo 2 and Halo 3 remake after this one), and mention a rumored greenfield pitch that may have only happened because the studio was on the ropes.
• Gus's view is that the Halo fans knew died ten years ago and the fan base should give a new owner freedom to innovate. The other pushes back on sprint, and Gus replies that a game mode that humors that side is likely. They note the latest Modern Warfare was the best-received Call of Duty in over a decade.
• Fan-service ideas get thrown around, including a ship-mechanic life sim and an FTL-style game about managing ships, "fallout shelter but with Halo."
• On new players: they point to the Master Chief Collection as how newcomers should start, and say several friends' first Halo was MCC and they loved it.

Xbox, consoles and a $500 million Gears

The longest tangent is about whether Xbox can win. The trigger is Gears of War: E-Day, which they say reportedly cost around $500 million and isn't selling well on Steam or Xbox. They credit the new Xbox CEO's moves so far, including pulling the PlayStation exclusivity, but note it leaves Xbox in a bind when PlayStation is outselling it by something like four to one.

• Their worry is a catch-22: Xbox makes its money on console sales, nobody can afford a console, and without console owners there's nobody to sell the big games to.
• They doubt consoles survive another ten years, note the next Xbox ("Helix") is basically a PC, and wonder whether a walled garden would still count as a console.
• Prices are a recurring theme: one of them sold a PS5 Pro they bought for $750 for about $1,200, and they mention rumored price hikes that would push consoles past $1,500.
• They compare console owners to Corvette owners: the median age rises about a year every year because younger people can't afford to get in. PlayStation skews oldest and Nintendo youngest, and in their own friend groups almost everyone has flipped to PC.
• Steam gets the praise ("they do nothing and they win every time"), GOG is a favorite, and the Epic Games Store is for free games only.
• Both say they're always rooting for Xbox from their childhood, even if they don't much care whether it does well, and one realizes he mostly plays Microsoft franchises: Halo, Gears, Fable, Forza, Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

Why the Flood hit so hard on Keyes

Behind the talk, the combat is brutal, which is the video's title question. The opening fight has Andy burning through magazines on a Flood form that keeps standing ("five magazines in... six magazines in, oh he's still alive") and he says he's "actually mad that we're playing this." Deaths stack up across the run.

• The Flood pour in early ("holy popcorn batman") and the pair keep dying while the debate continues.
• The shuttle bay area is crowded: Elites hiding in corners, fuel rod guns, Hunters ("the whole damn crew's down here") and Flood all at once. Crouching under the Wraith, as in the Blind skull route above, becomes a running reminder ("crouch my boy").
• A shotgun is the answer in the tight spots — "that's all you need, brother."
• Both of them get stuck at the start of a later fight, and later in the run a Hunter or two make it worse. A sword on the left helps when it counts.
• Finish: one of them asks "if we just jump in the Banshee, is it over?" The answer is yes, and that's the end of the mission.

Minecraft side quest

Midway through a fight, the talk drifts to Minecraft on Switch, where the latest update got mixed reception. There's apparently a hard limit of about two gigabytes on world size or the world refuses to load. One of them runs a seven-year world with thirty-something people on it that is around five gigs, and explains the trick for keeping it small: teleport to new seeds and use the Nether to reach new biomes so the Overworld chunks in between never load.

Keyes walkthrough takeaways

Keyes is a combat-heavy mission, and the video mostly uses it as a backdrop. The Flood soak up ammo, the shuttle bay mixes Elites, Hunters and Flood, and the best advice is to crouch, grab a shotgun and keep moving. The collectible route is Blind next to the locked door past the second Wraith, then the Consumed terminal off the shuttle bay's first door at Rally Point Bravo, Pinata by meleeing the growth where Keyes was at Rally Point Charlie, and Catch as a sprint-to-the-grav-lift run you save for after the mission. Their verdict on the bigger picture: Halo needs a plan, Xbox has a console problem, and they're open to Activision trying something new.

FAQ: Halo Campaign Evolved Keyes

Which mission is Keyes in Campaign Evolved?

Keyes is Mission 12 in the full Halo Campaign Evolved release order, after Two Betrayals, and the ninth mission of the remade Halo: Combat Evolved campaign.

How many skulls and terminals are in Keyes?

Three skulls (Catch, Blind, Pinata) and one terminal (Consumed). Catch is at Under New Management / Rally Point Alpha, Blind and Consumed are at Rally Point Bravo, and Pinata is at Rally Point Charlie.

How do you get the Catch skull?

Play Heroic or Legendary, sprint to the grav lift without fighting, kill the marked enemies to activate it, then stand in the middle and hold the button as it lifts you. The skull hangs in midair inside the lift. Push Square suggests doing it after you've finished the mission.

Where is the Blind skull?

In the room full of Flood with a Ghost and a Wraith on the way to the shuttle bay. Go down the corridor behind the Wraith, crouch under a second Wraith, and the skull is next to the locked door.

Where is the Consumed terminal?

In the shuttle bay, take the first door from the entrance you used, follow the corridor to the group with two Hunters, kill them, then turn right and left from their position to find it.

How do you get the Pinata skull?

After the cutscene where you find Captain Keyes, turn around and melee the Flood growth where he was. Three to four hits makes the skull appear.