Skull/Halo 2

Skulls in Halo 2 are Easter Eggs that make the game more challenging/interesting. They do nothing outside of the Campaign and their effects last until Halo 2 is exited.
==Campaign Order==
#The Heretic: N/A
#The Armory: Whuppopotamus
#Cairo Station: Thunderstorm
#Outskirts: Blind & I Would Have Been Your Daddy
#Metropolis: Catch
#The Arbiter: Grunt Birthday Party
#The Oracle: Famine
#Delta Halo: Envy
#Regret: Assassins & Halo 2 Vista Exclusive
#Sacred Icon: Mythic
#Quarantine Zone: Sputnik
#Gravemind: Angry
#Uprising: Ghost
#High Charity: Iron
#The Great Journey: Black Eye
==List of Skulls==
=== Whuppopotamus ===
Level: The Armory
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: At the beginning of the level, after you power your shields for the first time, Sergeant Johnson shows up on an elevator. Wait in the room until Johnson starts berating you, telling you to get into the elevator. You MUST wait for him to say "Would it help if I said please?" This takes approximately four minutes and forty seconds. Once he says this, get in the elevator, and go up to the tram. Get on the tram, and face towards the INSIDE of the building. Press up against the glass doors towards the inside of the building. You should hold X down, and you should pick up the Skull. It's on a stack of crates, near the end of the tram ride.
Effect: AI become more observant, noticing even active camouflage, shadows, the sound of reloading or drawing a weapon, footsteps, etc. They also have better accuracy and are much less likely to kill themselves or their teammates with explosive weapons.
=== Thunderstorm ===
Level: Cairo Station
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: In the large room after the armory, you need to use a Crouch Jump to get onto a light fixture on the right wall (right of the room when you enter) and then jump from there onto the higher area. There is a series of diagonal beams. Walk up one near to the end of it and use it to Crouch Jump onto one of the rails. You can fall between the rails, so be careful. Once on the rail, walk down it until you can jump onto the highest platform. Then melee the trashcan away from the wall a few times, the Skull is right behind it.
It is also possible to Grenade Jump up to the platform if you can't stay on the rails. The Sputnik Skull helps a lot here, but it's possible without it. Just get on the ground near the platform the Skull is on and Grenade Jump. You also don't need to melee the trashcan out of the way, but it will reveal an interesting hidden object. Near the Skull is a burning cigar that looks like a Sweet William Cigar, the type that Sergeant Johnson is seen using.
Effect: Most enemy units become their highest rank. Spec Ops, Zealot, and Honor Guard Elites, Drones, Hunters, Jackal snipers, Flood humans, Marines, Sentinel Majors, Enforcers, Constructors, and any enemy units that spawned prior to acquiring the skull are unaffected.
=== Blind ===
Level: Outskirts
Difficulty: Any
Directions: When you start the level, go through the door and kill the Grunt there. Backtrack and right above the first door you came through there is a light. Crouch Jump onto that and either Crouch Jump or Grenade Jump again (Crouch jumping is easier), and you should be on the roof (or you can get the Sputnik Skull and only use one grenade). Look for a space between the two buildings, and go into it, at the end there should be four Fragmentation Grenades, a spotting scope, and the Skull in front of them.
Effect: Your HUD becomes invisible; you cannot see your weapon (unless it's the Energy Sword, which has a glitched appearance with this Skull), body, shields, ammunition, motion tracker, or use your flashlight.
=== I Would Have Been Your Daddy (IWHBYD) ===
Level: Outskirts
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: This skull has a random chance of spawning (possibly a one in seven chance, referenced by the "1" and "7" posters in the room containing the skull) when the game loads the Jackal snipers in the alley after the clearing where Johnson is picked up in the pelican. You may skip the beginning part of the level by using the rooftops, but if the Jackal snipers in the alley are loaded while you are on the rooftops, the skull may not ever load, so it is recommended that you enter the alley on foot. The following guide is the fastest and easiest route to the skull. It is strongly advised that you activate the permanent invisibility glitch for this.
From the beginning of Outskirts, run into the first hallway and then look overhead. You will see two lights on either side of the hallway. Jump on to one of them, and then crouch jump up to the higher platform. From there turn around and run along the ledge to the right of the alleyway below.
Across from it, you will see another platform. Jump to it, then Grenade Jump or double jump onto yet another higher level. From there, look left and you will see a nearby rooftop, jump to it; go to the right and head down that alley, where you'll be able to jump onto the higher rooftop. Continue to the other side of the rooftop and drop down to the street. Turn right and head toward the open area, where you can hide from the Jackals' fire behind the large truck. Once you hear that the Jackals have been killed by your allies, you can head towards the ramp ahead, but DO NOT go past the top of the ramp. Wait for the checkpoint if it hasn't happened already, then save and quit the game. This checkpoint is before the Jackal snipers in the alley are spawned, which is when the game calculates the random chance of whether the skull spawns or not. This is the checkpoint you will reload if the skull does not spawn.
Unfortunately, the game automatically checkpoints a little bit after you enter the alley as well, locking in the "dice roll" of the skull spawn. It is important that this checkpoint is skipped, which you can do by constantly meleeing as you run through this next part. As long as you are meleeing, the game will not save a checkpoint. If it does checkpoint, you can exit the game entirely without saving (turning off the console) and reload your saved checkpoint, or kill yourself five times quickly to revert to the pre-alley checkpoint.
Head through the alley, and you should see a dumpster to your right. Jump onto the dumpster and onto the nearby roof. Jump onto the pipes attactched to the wall, onto the platform, and then leap to the roof across the alley. Head diagonally forward and right onto the roof just past bridge-like structure and turn left. You should see a balcony across the alley with a doorway. Stop meleeing now. Enter this doorway and look at the ground to the right. Wait about ten seconds. A checkpoint will occur, and the skull may or not appear at the same time as the checkpoint. If there is no skull, reload the pre-alley checkpoint, either by killing yourself five times or by quitting the game without saving, and try again.
If you want to save the Skull, (in case you fail in the fight with the Elites) you should exit the room and proceed to get another checkpoint. Save and quit. Restart and go back to room with the Skull. It will always be there. When you grab the Skull, you'll be transported into the alley. You will have only a Plasma Pistol, and must fight off seven waves of Ultra Elites (wave one starting with one Elite, wave two with two Elites, and so on).
==== Tips and Tricks ====
This is much easier with the permanent invisibility glitch.
If you die in the alley with no checkpoint after the checkpoint in the Skull room, there will be several white flashes, you will be reverted to the checkpoint in the Skull room, the Skull will disappear sometimes and will not take effect. Also, if you attempt to escape the alley, you will get teleported to the Elites' position and lose all your collected weapons. Once you kill all seven waves, the Skull will become active.
If you get a checkpoint while fighting the Elites, save and quit. You will restart where you saved and then you can continue killing them. Saving here will enable you to load the IWHBYD effect (by killing the remainder of the Elites) after the Xbox is turned off, although the actual Skull will not be reloaded.
If you manage to get the skull to spawn (appear) then do not grab it straight away; walk around for a while until you get an another checkpoint then get the skull, That way if you die while battling the 7 waves of elites, you can just try again instead of having to restart the level.
You can battle the Elites with the skull if you so desire. To do this, the second you grab the skull, leave the room and drop it over the balcony. It will fall into the alley you fight the Elites in and sometimes will go straight into your hands.
It was previously believed this skull was spawned after the activation of seven checkpoints in the level, but this is not true.
Effect: Rare combat dialog lines become more common.Bungie podcast Episode 1
=== Catch ===
Level: Metropolis
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: Right after you exit from the underground highway, you'll come to a large open-air circular area with a handful of Jackal Snipers and some Elites. The quickest way to get safely to the Skull is to get the next checkpoint by jumping into the Warthog and letting the Marine drive you to the next area. Jump out of the Warthog and backtrack to the large room, and clear the area. Or you can get your Warthog from the bridge and just run right through the platforms and the other part until you reach the place where you find the Wraiths attacking the building where the Marines are (but you don't have to fight them) and then go back and the enemies will be gone when you go back. You will see a large semi-circular beam going from one of the main platforms that goes from the ground up to the top of the two towers. Do a Grenade Jump at the bottom of this beam or drive a warthog backwards partially up the beam and use it as a ledge to get up and walk all the way to the top. Jump over to the ledge of the left tower. Walk to the end of the ledge and you will find the Catch Skull. The Sputnik Skull may be helpful if you have trouble Grenade Jumping.
Effect: AI will throw more grenades and drop two grenades when killed.
=== Grunt Birthday Party ===
Level: The Arbiter
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: The very first time you get a Banshee, fly down. Below you is a large beam-like structure (not to be confused with the one directly below you that turns and goes vertical) running from the arm of the station you just came out of to one exactly like it on the side opposite. Below this structure are three cylinders hanging down, with cylinders of light shooting out of the bottom (and the sides). They look like they are what keep the station afloat. If this explanation is too vague, they are the absolute lowest parts of the station. Now go to the middle engine and land on the top part of it. This and the other engines connect to the large structure mentioned earlier. The tops of the engines come up to meet the structure at an angle, where this angle is under the connecting structure and coming up to meet it, there is a place to walk (like being under a bridge). Under one side you will see the six Heretic Grunts dancing in a circle around the Skull.
Effect: Unshielded headshots turn into Plasma Grenade explosions. The Flood's "head" is actually their sensory antennae, so you need to shoot them in the chest area.
=== Famine ===
Level: The Oracle
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: After you get off of the slowly descending elevator, you will come to a hallway where you see a handful of dead bodies. Continue into the next room, and you will be on the second floor of a room that has a lot of glass windows. When you enter this room, look to the right, and find the third pane of glass. It should be to the right of a wall that has some Flood guts splattered on it. Shoot out this window, and the windows directly across the room. If you look below you, you will see a platform that has four tall posts. On the far side of the room there is a column that is right in between the two windows on the far side of the room. Turn on your Active camouflage, and jump to the center platform. Jump on either of the posts on the far side of the platform and jump to the column between the windows. Make another jump through the window you shot out, and make a left. Walk all the way to the end and you'll find four Elite Flood Combat Forms convulsing on the floor, with the Famine Skull in the middle of them. Sometimes, the Combat Form nearest to the battlefield stands up, but it does not attack.
Effect: All dropped weapons have half ammo. Weapons that spawned on the floor or that the player spawned with are unaffected.
=== Envy ===
Level: Delta Halo
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: Progress through Delta Halo until you come to an area with a large central structure that has a multitude of columns (the place with the many stationary shield generators). This is the area where Cortana tells you that they are all pouring out of the middle. When you first get into this area, you have to go left, and there is a ramp on the left that goes up and then back down. Get on this ramp and continue up the wall until you are on the landing where there will be (or used to be) some Plasma Turrets. Follow this landing all the way to its end, and you'll see a door that is blocked off by a large stone. Jump on top of the stone, and jump again to get on a thin ledge. Make sure you're up against the left wall, and Crouch Jump up to the top of the wall to your left. Once you're on this wall, you'll see that the right wall ends and there is some earth behind it. Jump onto the dirt, and follow the stone wall all the way to the top. When you're on the top of this wall, you can look down towards the center and you should see two Stealth Elites repeating their "angry stance" towards each other with the Envy skull between them. (Note: They will not attack you, even if you shoot at them. But if they are killed they will fire their weapons randomly before they hit the ground, which can hurt you). Sometimes they do not load until you jump down to where the skull is.
Another way of getting the Skull is to grenade the stone away from the door. For that, you'll need all the Fragmentation and Plasma grenades you can carry, sometimes even more (using rocket launcher and having the Sputnik skull would be helpful). Throw each of them into the corner behind the stone. Every time a grenade explodes, the stone will move a little. You'll never get it fully out of the way, but after about eight or nine grenades, there will be enough space to go through the door. Alternatively jump on the rock and throw one Plasma Grenade in the corner behind the rock. This should move it enough so that you can drop into the crack and melee the rock until the doorway is clear. If not, throw a couple more grenades. If you do not have any grenades or rocket launcher ammo, use a Scorpion or Wraith to blast the stone away. This method leads you up a ramp and into a room open to one side where you'll find two dead Grunts along with two Energy Swords (an Easter Egg which implies that these two Grunts accidentally killed themselves with the Swords). Exit the room and you'll be on a platform above the normal area. Grenade jump towards the room you just exited, and you'll be with the Stealth Elites and the Envy Skull.
Effect: John-117's flashlight becomes the Arbiter's active camouflage device, but without a visible timer.
=== Assassins ===
Level: Regret
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: Immediately after the gondola ride following the battle with the Hunters, there will be a building with two turrets on it. Enter the building and turn to your right. There will be a box, jump on it. From there jump to the adjacent light fixture, then to the ledge. The ledge leads to the area with the two turrets.
Once there, Grenade Jump to get onto the roof area. Then, using Crouch jumping and/or Grenade Jumps, follow the right side perimeter of the building. Once you have gone as far as you can go you will find a small grassy area with two Stealth Elites holding Energy Swords (one can be assassinated the other cannot) in their "angry stance" and the Assassins Skull between them.
Effect: All enemies are permanently camouflaged. Flood Infection Forms are not affected by this skull.
=== Mythic ===
Level: Sacred Icon
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: There is a semi outdoor area which has the same type of area right next to it. There is an Enforcer in front of each one. Go past this area and down the piston and you'll be in a very dark and dank Flood infested area. There's a stack of six or seven boxes as you enter the room. Use them to jump up to the landing above. There are a handful of alcoves on your right hand side. The Skull is in the third alcove, floating above a dead human Flood.
Effect: Enemies and allies have double the health and shielding they have on Legendary.
=== Sputnik ===
Level: Quarantine Zone
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: This is probably the easiest Skull to obtain next to the Blind Skull. At the start of the level, look directly behind you for an Elite. Right behind the Elite is a tunnel (hard to miss). Go through the tunnel and continue walking straight until you pass a bridge, which is to your right. Beyond the bridge there is a narrow ledge jutting out of the cliff face ahead. Jump onto this. Hug the wall (Just enough room for you to walk) until you get to the end of the cliff, and you will see the Sputnik Skull floating in the air.
Effect: The mass of certain objects is severely reduced, making them fly further when smacked with a melee hit or when they are near an explosion. Enemies also turn around when you hit them, allowing you to kill them in two hits.
===Angry===
Level: Gravemind
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: After you save both groups of Marines, continue until you reach the first outdoor area with dirt and vegetation. Take a right as you enter this room and run up to the wall past the Gravity Lift that leads up to the sniper point. Get on top of the wall by going up the dirt mound on your left. Follow the wall and an invisible Gunner Grunt will spawn wielding a Fuel Rod Cannon. Kill him and reach the floating Skull called "Angry."
Effects: Enemies fire their weapons faster and more frequently. This Skull is treated as a "third" weapon rather than a pickup weapon.
=== Ghost ===
Level: Uprising
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: Immediately after the armory room that is full of Covenant and human weapons, there is an L-shaped room. Grenade Jump, using a Ghost, up to the rafters of this room, and you will find the Skull over a doorway. Or, if you are playing co-op, get a box from the weapon room, and have one player stand on the box, then have the other player stand on the first player's head, have player two Crouch Jump on to the ledge and grab the skull.
Effect: AI characters will not flinch from attacks.
=== Iron ===
Level: High Charity
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: When you enter the second and final large Gravity Lift (do not confuse with the smaller ones throughout the level), look up. A Skull will pass through you extremely quickly so you must start holding X a bit before you actually pass it to grab hold of it.
Effect: When playing co-op, if either player dies, the game restarts both of you at your last checkpoint. The effect resembles the effect already in place on Legendary difficulty, making it a somewhat redundant Skull. Its melee attack does not have an effect on allies.
=== Black Eye ===
Level: The Great Journey
Difficulty: Legendary
Directions: Follow Sergeant Johnson's Scarab along until you see the Control Room in front of you. Directly above the door that Johnson blows open with the Scarab is an angled beam. Land your Banshee on this beam and walk to the top of the beam. Look down and to your left and you will see a circular angled wall. Jump onto this wall and walk to the top. Walk straight along the right-hand side of this area. You will have to jump over a small beam in front of you. Continue walking straight until you come to a grassy area.
Keep walking up the grassy hill and go until you come to the point where can jump onto the angled support for the tower meets the grass. Jump onto the support and walk up the support. It's a very steep climb, so jumping while you're going up the support speeds up the walk some. At the first landing you will see the Black Eye skull sitting on a glowing white panel on the floor.
Effect: Your shield does not recharge automatically. Your shield only recharges when you kill something (enemy, ally, turret or even most destructible objects) with a melee attack with anything but the Energy Sword. You can charge your shields into the Overshield range by doing this. It also activates subtitles during cut scenes and causes the falling snow in the multiplayer level Lockout to disappear.
==Trivia==
*If you want to have access to any Skull at any time, follow these steps:
#Set up a new profile with the name of the desired Skull (so you know which profile is which)
#Go to the level that has the desired Skull.
#Play through on Legendary until you get a checkpoint just before the Skull.
#Save and quit. Now when you want the Skull you can go back to that profile, pick up the Skull, and exit out. Then just go to another profile and enjoy. It is much easier done if you obtain the Envy Skull first. NOTE: If you get a checkpoint after picking up the Skull DO NOT save and quit, turn your Xbox off and try again.
*The Whuppopotamus skull is sometimes referred to as the Unnamed skull because it is the only skull not to display a name when picked up. "Whuppopotamus" is the file's name in the Halo 2 code.
*The English unicode in the Halo 2 Xbox version gives the Whuppopotamus skull a description of "That's Just... Wrong." This later renamed the skull in Halo 2: Anniversary.
*If you turn on your flashlight and look closely at the Blind Skull, you can see a Marathon symbol.
*The skulls do not have a melee animation in third-person.
*The IWHBYD skull is named after Sergeant Johnson's combat dialog line in Halo: Combat Evolved: "I would have been your daddy, but the dog beat me over the fence!" The first chapter of Assault on the Control Room is also named "I Would Have Been Your Daddy..."
*The IWHBYD skull's seven waves of Ultra Elites is a reference to Bungie's favorite number, 7.
==Sources==
Category:Halo 2 Easter Eggs