The Casual Guide to Getting Par Time

A light hearted guide for players who want to try their hand at getting par time for levels in Halo MCC.

HALO: CE

The General Concept

The par time achievements for all halo games can be achieved on any difficulty, and it is recommended that you play on lower difficulties like Normal in order to get par time. The reason? Heroic doesn't have its own set of par time achievements and Legendary takes serious dedication to get the "complete the game on legendary under three hours".

In Halo: CE, you can run through all the levels, no matter what. Only on the second level, Halo, is it required for you to harm allies in order to speed up the timer, however with skill and persistence you can still achieve the par time. The levels in Halo:CE are huge, especially the middle section of the game that has you run through the massive expanses of the ring. Knowing vehicle placement, enemy placement, and ensuring you are properly equipped for each new section will allow you to quickly run/drive past enemies and enter the next section of the map.

You should keep a plasma pistol and magnum on you at all times, as the plasma pistol can be spam fired to easily mow down grunts and quickly take out an Elite's shield before you tap him in the head with the magnum.

And remember, get creative and the golden rule is "run from point A to point B".

Preferred weapons/vehicles

Since you are focusing on blasting through these levels, use plasma pistol/magnum for Covenant and Shotgun/plasma pistol for flood. These two will allow you give you enough punch to take down anything in the game(as hunters on normal go down with a single magnum shot to the exposed zones), and flood are eviscerated by the shotgun. The second half of this operation is memory of enemies and playing it smart. Levels like the Library require you to defend yourself, so have smart positioning and rack up kill combos with nades and the shotgun.

When offered a Scorpion, do not take it, always prefer the ghost and warthog to quickly get to the next transition. On easy/normal your vehicle barely takes damage unless ganged up on, but you should be avoiding large groups anyways

HALO 2A

The General Concept

Halo 2 is far more straight forward and perhaps even more well known for its incredible map traversals as seen on youtube. You are welcome to try those, however the rule from Halo CE remains the same. KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Especially in Halo 2, the levels do no require you to clear enemy encounters to continue. Many of these levels can be easily traversed with proper knowledge of the map layout and it is extremely easy to get par time.

Preferred Weapons/Vehicles

Utilize the plasma pistol,battle rifle, carbine, and beam rifle at all times, which is 100% of the game. Beam rifle and sniper one shot hunters and elites go down easy. For vehicle levels like the bridge or arbys ghost run, use warthogs/ghosts instead of scorpions. Same idea carries over from CE but is much simpler.

HALO 3

The General Concept

Unlike Halo CE and 2, 3 requires an understanding of the combat system and has far more expansive levels in its latter half. Even on normal there are sections on the Ark that can really bust your balls. So the main point for Halo 3 is to be creative, sort of how bungie intended with the sandbox. There is far more room to operate here and get clean kills and combos on enemies.

The first half of the game up until the Ark is straightforward combat, clearing enemies and moving forward as fast as possible. The second half will require you to focus on the large arenas and managing that RNG factor. Kill fast and move fast.

Preferred weapons

Plasma pistol+any precision weapons will be effective against your Brute enemies. Use power drains when possible to clear groups of enemy shields. Levels like Crows Nest and the first level will allow you to walk past enemies/complete objectives. Power weapons like the rocket launcher will help clear enemies and enemy vehicles.

[ethan_the_mollusk_lord]

Thanks! This was a great guide. What about Halo 4, though?