Armouring Hall Training Hypnomat Trials A Rank Guide (WIP, 75% complete)

This is a guide for those who wish to complete the "Training" Trials in the Armouring Hall and reap the rewards, despite the jank.
Includes written strat descriptions and videos.
Completing all Challenges with rank A will net you 450 Requisition and 18 Master Crafted Armoury Data.
I've seen many people ignore this part of the game (possibly due to lack of rewards or achievements and the difficulty) while some others asking for advice - if you're one of the latter, hopefully you will find this helpful. For some of these a video is a bit of an overkill, while for others it's quite the opposite, but I recorded them all for the sake of consistency.

General Advice

Knowing is half the battle - for some of these challenges, making certain things in particular order makes them much easier and will save you frustration.

All the challenges use predefined equipment loadouts and there's nothing you can change about them. They are always set up the exact same way.

That being said, there is a lot of RNG involved in the enemy spawn mechanic - for example Minoris enemies might spawn in a close cluster or even a row lined up perfectly to be killed with a single shot. Conversely, you might get unfavorable spreads on your attempts, making them harder, sometimes unreasonably. The RNG also involves your weapon spread - sometimes you will simply miss with some weapons and that's that. Don't get discouraged if you fail an attempt by just a couple of seconds - this is more of an indication that you are doing things correctly and just need that tiny bit of luck to finally be on your side.

You also need to be aware that the Trials are absolute jank.
These arenas seem to be within the same map file as the Battle Barge - whenever a trial starts or stops, the game simply teleports you and begins spawning crap in sequence.

In their great wisdom, the developers didn't put any "restart" functionality, so if you want to restart, you need to end trial, enter the Armouring Hall menu again, and start it again.

This provides a couple of challenges of its own - quickly restarting will often result in glitches. Maybe your next attempt will start suddenly with no fade from black, maybe the game will fail to clear environmental hazards and AOE damage, maybe a Lictor will spawn immediately after starting. It is also possible to exploit this to spawn Tyranids within the Battle Barge and completely mess up the game. Enemies can randomly die too.

Let's use this jank to our advantage - be aware that you can start sprinting forwards as soon as you click the challenge to begin and get a head start even before any tool tip appears. This will be useful in many cases, so if any tactic described below begins with "Run forward", try to do that as early as possible, earlier than the game expects you to.

Speaking of shaving time off - usually performing an execution on a Tyranid Warrior is a waste of time. Note that when it's flashing red you can damage it further and the opportunity headshot indicator will appear, using this is probably the fastest way to finish them off in most circumstances.

Tactical

Challenges for this class are pretty straightforward - you know what to do and how to do it. The difficulty lies in avoiding mistakes and knowing in what order to do things to be efficient.

Auspex Scan

Use an Auspex to mark your enemies and make your attacks deadlier than ever

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Complete in: 40 seconds

1. Start running forwards.
   
2. Destroy the first Tyranid Warrior with melee.
   
3. Scan the Tyranid Warrior on the left platform as soon as it appears, single-fire headshots might be needed to get it quickly.
   
4. Blast the Termagants to the right.
   
5. Scan the Tyranid Warrior on the far away platform as soon as it appears, keep placing quick single-fire rounds on its head. When he fires, dodge at the last half-second of its firing indicator and then immediately aim again and repeat until it's dead.

Battlefield Awareness

An Auspex scan can reveal the location of any threat. Use it wisely to avoid attack from behind.

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Complete in: 40 seconds

1. Start running forwards.
   
2. Destroy the first batch of enemies right as they appear.
   
3. Switch to your sidearm and shoot the red barrels standing on the higher up platforms.
   
4. Switch back to Melta and turn right - a Tyranid Warrior will appear in the corridor. Auspex Scan it when he appears and blast it.
   
5. Switch back top your sidearm and turn back down the corridor, the next Tyranid Warrior and itsbuddies will appear. Fire upon the Minoris Tyranids and blow up the red barrels next to them when the Warrior gets in their range.
   
6. Switch back to melta and move forwards more or less to where the last spawn appeared.
   
7. Two groups of enemies will appear - first from the corridor on the right (judging from your initial position in the challenge), then from the other one. Do not stand between these corridors, so you don't get attacked from behind.
   
8. When enemies close in on you, it's time for the final bout - Auspex Scan the area and comfortably destroy everything with the Melta.

Hidden Hunter

The Tyranid bioform known as a Lictor is invisible to the naked eye — but not to an Auspex

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Kill 5 enemies with Headshots
  
• Scan a Lictor with the Auspex

1. Right at the beginning, begin aiming towards the higher ground on your right.
   
2. A bunch of Termagants will appear - as soon as you see the spawn flash, start placing single shots at the height where their heads would be. Continue doing this until all are dead. Hopefully this will give you at least 3 headshot kills. If you have less than 2, it might be better to restart, but that's up to you.
   
3. Stop aiming as soon as they are dead, as now a group of Hormagaunts should be encircling you. If you have any headshots left to do, you can comfortably get a couple by firing on their heads from up close.
   
4. Listen for the Lictor signalling its attack - he should be jumping on you at any moment. Dodge its attack.
   
5. At this point, if there are any Hormagaunts left, sweep them up with the Chain Sword when the Lictor is not attacking. But be aware that if you have less than 4 headshots counted, you have to restart. If you only miss one, you can still do it - the final headshot will be the Lictor.
   
6. Dodge Lictor's attacks, parrying might be too risky. Hitting the ground from damage is the most time-consuming obstacle in this challenge. Right after a successful dodge is the best place to try and Auspex Scan the Lictor. You only have one shot at this - if he runs away from the Auspex, you will have to restart.
   
7. If you Scanned the Lictor successfully, fire on the Lictor whenever he's visible and not attacking you to provoke it. After a couple of well dodged attacks you should be able to quickly headshot it with your firearm, dealing extra damage thanks to the Scan. Don't try to crit it while it's attacking - you'll regret it as I did, as you can see in the video.

Assault

These three challenges are one of the most irritating. Not because of their difficulty, but because they are currently broken. There are some things that will prevent you from performing the most critical action for these three - engaging your jump pack. I don't know what it is, but it seems to be whenever a Tyranid Warrior aims at you with a Devourer weapon, or maybe any ranged weapon in general. You may find yourself mashing the button with no effect. This may cause you to run off a ledge - be careful. I don't have a surefire way to avoid this, but dodging and trying to jump right between the offending Tyranid's shooting actions might do the trick. Remember that you can fire your sidearm while trying to force a jump and to press the button for a long time - just tapping it will cause you to dash and waste the ability charge, often resulting in failing to A rank the challenge.

If you only played the original Space Marine and/or Space Marine II's story campaign, you might be in for a shock - the jump pack's maximum jump height is just a fraction of what was previously available, making it a lot less useful, but Ground Pound attacks are still devastating.

Remember that you don't need to hold the melee attack button in the air for a long time to perform Ground Pound - little more than a click should suffice, so let go as soon as you're comfortable with the targeting. The game will sometimes correct your landing space to be closer to an enemy, though it works erratically and I don't know if it's dependent on auto-aim settings.

Jump Pack

Manoeuvre across the battlefield quickly and unexpectedly by performing powered jumps with a Jump Pack

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Complete in: 40 seconds

1. Run forward and a little to the left, a Tyranid Warrior will appear on the left platform. Use the jump pack before he starts shooting and Ground Pound it, then finish it off.
   
2. A Tyranid Warrior with a couple of buddies will appear on the other platform. This is the most unnerving part, as the jump pack glitch is most severe. Do not move towards the enemies or backwards, as this increases the risk of falling into the chasm.
   
3. Another group of enemies spawn on the previous platform - repeat the above one more time.

Cover Ground

A xenos sniper may think it has an advantage by keeping its distance. Engage with a Jump Pack to prove it wrong.

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Complete in: 40 seconds

This challenge is quite irritating because of the erratic behavior of your targets - there's no telling if they'll keep moving closer to you or away from you, if they'll dodge or attack, etc., and in this case this compounds with traversal issues and can make a huge difference.

This is not indicated anywhere, but the Termagants don't have to be killed for the challenge to be completed.

The general idea is that you need to get a feel of your targets' range to know when to jump. If you jump too early, you won't be able to reach them with Ground Pound. If you do it too late, the jump won't work, as they'll start shooting at you. In the latter case you will have to resort to the dash. The dash counts as a dodge, so you can jump through their attacks, but it covers a shorter distance and you won't get the quick Ground Pound damage into them - the dash is less optimal even though the challenge is supposed to be centered around it, but you can still get an A while using it.

1. Keep running forward and and Ignore the Termagants above.
   
2. Take note of the Tyranid Warrior spawning on the other side of the hall.
   
3. Jump or dash towards the Warrior and kill it, then immediately turn back and start running again. Another Tyranid will spawn on the opposite side of the corridor, closer to where you started.
   
4. Same tactic applies - you need to get a feel of the Warrior's range and try to reach it with Jump/Dash as soon as possible and kill it. It's highly likely he will act differently than the first one. The challenge ends when it's dead.

Death From Above

An angel of the Emperor, equipped with wings of flame, shows no mercy. Rain terror down upon your enemies.

• Complete in: 80 seconds
  
• Hit 5 enemies with Ground Pound
  
• Kill 5 enemies with Melee Attacks

1. Jump almost as soon as the challenge begins, then immediately engage Ground Pound targeting. Two groups of 5 Hormagaunts will spawn before you - slam into the ground right in the center of one of them. This should kill all 5 and already score one of the objectives.
   
2. Turn towards the other Hormagaunts and assault them with the Thunder Hammer - with some luck you can even delete all 5 with a single swing, scoring you another objective.
   
3. Your next task is killing the Tyranid Warrior nearby.
   
4. When the Warrior is dead, start killing the Termagants (there are two on each side of the arena, starting on the higher ground), which should go into synaptic shock. The ones on your side can be deleted with melee quickly and the two on the other side can be ended with a couple of well placed sidearm shots.
   
5. After you kill the Termagants, another group of enemies immediately appear on the ledge on the other side of the chasm that you faced when the challenge began.
   
6. You are faced with a choice of approach - since you probably already have two objectives in check, you might as well kill the remaining enemies with ranged attacks, especially if you didn't use much Bolt Pistol ammo and you have some time to spare. It might be difficult (if not impossible) to engage the jump pack here due to the glitch, and easy to fall into the abyss too. If you do manage to jump, use Ground Pound and try to capture as many Tyranids in its range as possible, as Minoris within it will die immediately and the Tyranid Warrior will lose a huge chunk of its health.

Vanguard

Vanguard's Challenges need a guide the least, they are by far the easiest. You just gotta go fast. I find attacking Tyranid Warriors with the Combat Knife's heavy attack makes them much more likely to dodge away within the ever so slightly wider window of opportunity it gives them.

Cut The Synapse

Tyranid Warriors are the synaptic conduits through which the Hive Mind directs lesser Tyranid bioforms. Cut one down and the entire swarm will fall into disarray.

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Complete in: 40 seconds

1. Run forwards. You need to kill all enemies, but you have to focus first on the two Tyranid Warriors - one spawns immediately on the far side of the corridor, the other will spawn where you started.
   
2. Two groups of Hormagaunts will appear mid way and obscure your target - as soon as they do, grapple to the one that is closest to the center of the corridor and then dodge forwards and run as you leave them behind.
   
3. Kill the first Tyranid Warrior, grappling to it as soon as the indicator appears.
   
4. The surviving Hormagaunts should die from synaptic shock - immediately turn around 180 and run to the other end of the corridor.
   
5. The other Warrior spawns with a Devourer - dodge forwards when he finishes his shot and continue towards it. Killing the first target restores your Grapnel Launcher charges, so you can use two of them for the return trip.
   
6. Grapple to the Warrior as soon as the indicator appears.
   
7. This time not every Minoris enemy will die automatically when you kill the Warrior - Immediately look around and shoot the survivors.

Grapnel Launcher

A Grapnel Launcher can propel you to your target in the blink of an eye. Bring the fight to the enemy, no matter where they are on the battlefield.

• Complete in: 60 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Complete in: 40 seconds

You simply need to kill three small enemy spawns in quick succession. This one requires no explanation, really. Your Grapple Launcher charges are restored between spawns, so you won't run out. If you're quick on your feet enough and get a bit lucky you won't even have to worry about the Minoris enemies, as they will get blasted to oblivion with your mighty grapple kick's AoE damage.

1. First, a Tyranid Warrior appears on the left platform. Grapple, kill, turn right.
   
2. The second Tyranid Warrior with a couple of Hormagaunts appears on the other platform. Grapple, kill, turn right.
   
3. The final enemy spawn is a Tyranid Warrior with a couple of Minoris foes. Again - grapple, kill.

Perfectly Timed

Be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Propel yourself to attack xenos when they least expect it.

• Complete in: 80 seconds
  
• Hit 5 enemies with a Grapnel Launcher
  
• Kill 5 enemies with Melee Attacks

Ironically, not much has to be perfectly timed in this challenge. It gives you a lot of time and freedom to simply dispatch all the enemies.

1. You will be faced with quite a lot of enemies spread over a large area - two groups of Hormagaunts spawn right before you, there are Termagants on the raised area to the sides and a Tyranid Warrior presides over this bunch.
   
2. As soon as the Hormagaunts appear, Grapnel Launch into them and proceed to murder them with melee.
   
3. Now that the Hormagaunts won't distract you, dispatch the Tyranid Warrior.
   
4. Termagants should be paralyzed briefly by synaptic shock when the Warrior died - kill them off.
   
5. As soon as you finish them, your Grapnel Launcher charges will be replenished and another Tyranid Warrior with a bunch of Termagants appears on the narrow platform on the other side of the chasm.
   
6. Grapnel into the Termagants and kill all remaining enemies.

Bulwark

Keep in mind that you only get one Banner placement for each Challenge attempt - use it wisely.

Chapter Banner

This glorious banner restores Armour to you and your allies. Plant it in a strategic place to turn the tide of battle.

• Complete in: 40 seconds
  
• Complete in: 50 seconds
  
• Protect an ally from Incapacitation

1. As soon as the Challenge begins, walk a bit backward to get your battle brother in view. Meanwhile, place charged Plasma Pistol shots at the Tyranid Warrior heading your way to whittle it down.
   
2. When the swarm hits both of you, try to place the banner within your brother's range. It's tricky, because he will probably dodge away to some corner, but the banner has quite a bit of range. Even if it's not perfect, it shouldn't be much of an issue.
   
3. When the banner is placed, immediately focus on finishing off the Tyranid Warrior, because as soon as it's dead, most (if not all) of the Hormagaunts swarming you will die.
   
4. Kill any remaining Hormagaunts.
   
5. When they are dead, your brother will start firing on the four Termagants hanging out at the distant platform beyond the chasm - destroy them with your Plasma Pistol.

Make Your Stand

Become an indomitable bastion with your shield and banner, never yielding a step to Humanity's enemies

• Complete in: 150 seconds
  
• Complete in: 120 seconds
  
• Hit 10 enemies with Shield Bash

There are two areas which you'll need to protect (remain in until the progress bar fills up), and you need to kill all enemies, but you will face only Hormagaunts here.

1. Run forward. You'll see the target area in front of you - stand in the center of it.
   
2. When you get to the first area, the first enemies will just about reach you. Raise your shield and begin smacking them when opportunity rises, until you get 10 bashes in.
   
3. Do not leave the area for any reason, try not to dodge even, as it might put you out of bounds and cost you a couple of seconds.
   
4. Once you have the shield bash objective accomplish, start killing the Hormagaunts more efficiently - keep turning around and crushing them with your Power Fist. They spawn mainly in the side areas, the entrances with red lights. If you catch a breath for a second and see them incoming, put in a few opportunity shots from your Plasma Pistol before they reach you. Don't worry about damage, they shouldn't be able to take much of your health. Be aware that they always attack from both side corridors simultaneously, so be ready to turn around and start bashing.
   
5. Keep an eye on the progress bar of your current area. Once it hits 100%, immediately start running deeper into the corridor. After a second or two, another area will appear. Repeat what you did before - stand in the middle and bash and shoot around.
   
6. Remember that you have the Banner to use whenever you want here. It's best to use it in the second area when your armor is depleted, so you don't have to worry about incoming damage and focus on squishing bugs.
   
7. Remain in the area until the progress bar hits 100% and kill all remaining Hormagaunts.

Shield of the Imperium

Strike with your sword, crush with your shield, and kill xenos beneath the honoured standard of your Chapter banner

• Complete in: 120 seconds
  
• Hit 10 enemies with Shield Bash
  
• Protect an ally from Incapacitation

Very similar to the first Bulwark Challenge.

1. Start by taking a step back - a horde of Hormagaunts will charge you, with a lone Tyranid Warrior hanging out in the distance. Get in view of your battle brother while placing charged Plasma Pistol shots into the Warrior.
   
2. Once the swarm hits you, place the banner between you and your brother and start grinding the Hormagaunts first.
   
3. When the Minoris enemies are dead, finish off the Warrior before a Ravener appears.
   
4. If all went according to plan, you should now be facing a lone Ravener with plenty of time to deal with it.

Sniper (WIP)

Heavy (WIP)

Iron Halo

Ceramite Strongpoint

Covering Fire

[Yuri]

You're welcome! Gonna finish it some day, currently I'm running into some issues with it though... Glad it helped!

[MadeInGermany94]

thanks for the guide. helped really good. most finished in 1 or 2 runs. some took around 5-10 like
the stealth one that was really annoying to get in time. aim sucks too xD