Cracking The Egg-The Mystery Skull

I would like to start out saying that I've already finished Halo1 and 2 in single player legendary and I've already found the skull seven times, defeating the waves of elites twice, so I probably know what I'm talking about. You should read the entire thing before you actually start, if you're the kinda guy who doesn't like to read, then too bad, try it on your own or you could always watch the vid I made.

Basic Information

Most skulls only need to be found, this one however is not that simple. A series of well placed triggers seems to make it appear, up until now, I think no one actually knows what these triggers are and simply repeat what others have done in an attempt to find the skull. This is what I know:

Finding It

Start out the level "Outskirts" as if you wanted to get the "Blind" skull, get Johnson's sniper if you want to, there's no difference if you chose to get it or not, though it will help. Simply go straight ahead, ignore the grunt (I've always let him live, I'm not sure if you have to), jump on the small ledge and then on the roof top. Grenade jump to the higher level, use the highest ledge to get there or the grenade jump won't be enough. Proceed until the Hotel Zanzibar; kill all the covenant pining down the marines (that's where Johnson's sniper comes in), falling down or staying on the roof doesn't seem to make a difference. Then run back to the broken bridge (where the pelican comes to pick up Johnson). There are two alleys that link up there: one leads to Sniper Alley, the other heads back to the start of the level. Take the one the takes you back. You should see two cubed, brown crates on top of each other with a canister on top, jump on top of the crates, and then onto the ledge above. Ignore the small alley filled with bodies, weapons and ammo (every time I found the skull I did so). Then, jump on to the two blue boxes side-by-side and grenade jump to the landing above. From there, spin round and jump on the brown window shutter and then onto the building. From up there you should see one of those four legged, rectangular, grey structures with a hole in the middle. Climb on top of it and run around the hole in the middle (be careful no to fall!). The game should lag and might show the "Loading Done" message, the message isn't necessary, you might find the skull with or without it. Fall down from there (thru the hole in the middle, preferably) and proceed to Sniper's Alley. Before you continue, arm yourself well. Duel-wield the pistol near the trashcan beside the broken bridge with your SMG or get the Beam Rifle underneath the small landing. When entering the Sniper's Alley, there might or might not be a Jackal sniper in the middle, anyway, kill it quick if it's there. There should be three or two invisible elites, either with plasma swords or duel wielding plasma rifles, their position is random and varies from at least 5 different spots, you'll have to walk around a bit before the attack you (which means the wont just be there waiting for you to snipe them). If you don't manage to kill them, then you're an unskillful moron and should give up now. If you do manage then make a left and enter the next alley. Be careful, don't go too deep down the alley (if you see a grunt or elite, your to far down), just go in enough so that you see a Jackal sniper appear at the far end. Kill it. Then, either two more snipers appear or they don't. If they do, you better hope you're quick with the trigger, if they don't... That just means you're lucky. To you right you should see two of those brown window shutters, one is slightly fallen, yet the other one is up straight, jump on that one. Jump on to the rectangular pipe and then onto the roof top, turn to your right (facing the tower). Here comes a tricky part: there's a well hidden sniper to your bottom left and I never kill it when I find the skull. So just run like hell, jump like a bat on fire and land on the roof top in front of you and then onto the one after it. To your left should be two verandas with a clothe line and one of those rectangular pipes connecting them. The one closest to you has a big green box and should be avoided. The other one has a few sniper rifle ammo outside (on the veranda) and inside together with a sniper rifle. Don't just charge inside, take it easy. It should lag slightly and show the message "Loading Done" or "Checkpoint Done". Look inside (slowly) and, if your lucky, AH! There's the skull!!!

Conditions

1. You CAN die and "Revert to Last Check Point" if you want to and still find the skull. At first I thought you couldn't but when I found the skull for the fourth time my theory was proved wrong (this really helps when you're up against the snipers).
2. If you've already found it, to find it again you'll need to turn your X-box off and on again.
3. (T)There are two numbers over the skull and I think I found out what it means. I'm not sure if all of the times I found the skull I did so but here it goes. I'm pretty sure I've always found it while I had a beam rifle in one hand and a human sniper rifle in the other and, if I'm not mistaken, the ammo those weapons had where always the same for each time I found the skull... Can you guess it? When I landed on the skull's veranda, my beam rifle had 77 ammo while the sniper only had a total 1 (which means that if I shot once, I wouldn't have any ammo left) Seven and one... Get it? Those are the numbers on top of the skull. However, if your ammo is far from that number and you start burning it, missing shots, the skull does not seem to appear (maybe you can't miss to much).
4. (T)This is another possible explanation for the numbers, though less likely (maybe both are right). Beside the numbers is a poster, a poster that can only be found on that level and can be found quite easily. Perhaps, the only trigger is finding these posters, which means that when you follow the entire sequence, you'll end up finding the right number of posters, even if you don't notice it.
5. It can only be found on single player legendary.
6. You can find the "I Would Have Been Your Daddy" skull even if you have other skulls active. The "Envy" skull is particularly useful.

The Hard Part

If this is your first time at finding the skull, I bet your thinking "Hard Part?! If this is the hard part then what's all that I just did?" Well get ready. I highly advise that people without previous experience do not try this part (by "previous experience" I mean you have to be able to kill spec-ops elites in less then 0.5 seconds and be ready to kill another one right after it) See, with all the other skulls, when you get it, BAM, its activated... But with this one, again, it isn't that simple. As soon as you get the skull you'll be teleported to a part of the level with nothing but a plasma pistol and will be immediately engaged by a spec-ops elite using one of the following weapons: Beam-Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Needler, duel wielding Plasma Rifle-SMG, Needler-Plasma rifle, Plasma Rifle x2 and Needler x2. When you manage to kill it, guess what? Two more come at you! There will be a total of 7 waves. The first one has one, the second has two, the third has three, etc... I bet you thinking: "Why on Earth 7?" well, I think it's cause it's Bungies's favorite number, now you're probably thinking: "Why couldn't they like the number two or one?" well, you should ask them. Anyway, when... IF you manage to kill all the elites the message "I Would Have Been Your Daddy" will appear. Ring a bell? Yep, it's the name of the chapter at the beginning of "Assault on the Control Room", from Halo1, weird huh? I never really understood that name...

Tips

Obviously, having to defeat um... Let's see... 28 Elites isn't easy, so I thought I'd give you some tips.

1. When you die during the battle; you re-spawn at your last check-point which should be right in front of the skull. When you do... "Oh @#*%$!!!" The skull is gone! There is however a way to avoid this, a bug if you will. If, after finding the skull, you get a second check-point, the skull will still be there after you die! Cool, right? While we're at it, let me tell you about something very... weird that happened to me. The first time a beat the Elites, right after a defeated the third wave, something miraculous happened: I got a checkpoint! I don't know how or why, all I know is that, instead of starting all over again, every time I died, I started out from the fourth wave and the skull was activated anyway. I never managed to do that again, however, it's good to know it's possible...
2. When you begin the "test", their will be a pistol to your top right and a battle rifle to your left. Remember that you only have one weapon so if you go over the pistol, instead of duel-wielding, you will automatically get it as a secondary weapon. If you charge up the pistol, when you go over the human pistol you will be given the duel-wield option instead of picking it up and wasting a hell lot of time.
3. I once heard of a guy who beat the Elites with a sword. In my opinion, that's kinda hard, suicidal actually. It's much easier to duel wield the two different pistols (plasma pistol and magnum)... If you have a good aim, that is.
4. If you try and leave the area you will re-spawn in the usual place, the only thing that changes is your position and your weapon, you appear with nothing but a pistol again. This can be worked at your advantage, supplying you with infinite pistol ammo.
5. Running around the area is just plain stupid. When you start, if look left and head straight you'll find an alleyway, it's much easier to fend of the attack from there.
6. There are two entrances to the alley: one is straight and the other one is a sort of small entrance room with two windows. Leave the straight one unblocked. The other one however should be barricaded with boxes: One in the front entrance, the biggest one in the middle and the other one in the entrance that leads to the alleyway itself. With the boxes in place, it will take a long time for the elites to pass thru which means you can fight off one Elite at a time. Now that's a neat trick.
7. Placing crates, stocking up on ammo and getting weapons takes time, a luxury you can't afford. If only you could leave everything already ready... Guess what? You can! Before getting the skull, head to the combat area and do your preparations (build the barricade, leave some weapons there, etc...), then, get another checkpoint and get the skull! When you spawn in the battle area, every thing you moved will be left moved, anything you placed will still be there.
8. Before actually seeing the skull for the first time be prepared. When me and my friend found it the last thing we expected was for it to be there so we kinda freaked out and shouted (in a manly way) and got traumatized (I know this isn't actually a tip, I just didn't want the number of tips to be 7, which would be freaky)

Its Effect

If you thought the triggers for finding the skull where vague, be prepared. I think this is the only skull no one can actually explain. I doubt it's just there so it can be one of the 15 skulls, if this where so, it would be the last one. The numbers on top of it might have a meaning unrelated to how to find it and might have something to do with the effect... or both. If you think about it, the numbers 1 and 7 can be related to the first and seventh level (if you think in the co-op way, it would be "Cairo Station" and "Regret") which contain the Thunderstorm skull and Assassin skull, the hardest one's to cope with (even considering the Mythic skull) and the ones which have the most in common: every time I think about invisible covenant, the image of a spec-ops Elite jumps into my mind.

All this I just said are theories, what I am about to say is not. I played a long time with the "I Would Have Been Your Daddy" skull activated and only found this measly, probably meaningless difference: in the cut-scene in the beginning of Outskirts a small reckon group contacts the MC's pelican and says something like "grid kilo-two-three is hot, recommend mission abort". Both are laying down, one is looking thru a small scope and the other one is a sniper, the one that talks is the weaponless one, both have helmets. "Both have helmets? What's that suppose to mean?" Well, basically, I'm not sure if it's because of different difficulties or if it's a random thing, all I know is that the sniper DIDN'T have a helmet when the skull was active and that's just weird.

Aftermath

By sending this out, hopefully someone will discover the skull's effect soon or might define the triggers in a more specific way. If you do find something, please contact me thru my e-mail: coldnuke@uol.com.br. All I know is that it's the toughest skull and there should be a reason for that.

Credits

Written by Lt. Tuma (real name Raphael)
Skull Testing by Lt. Tuma and Elvislikesale
Special Thanks to
Bungie
the guy who had the cool idea of putting skulls in the game
The all new clan: "Cuthroats" (now that's a clan with style)