This Custom Halo Map Turns The Series’ Best Level Into A Destiny-Like Strike
Last year, Halo Infinite saw the inclusion of campaign bots such as grunts, elites, brutes, and more into the game’s expansive and customizable multiplayer. Using the game’s map creator, Forge, fans have crafted a wide variety of different experiences such as original campaign ideas and recreations of old ones, like Halo CE’s “Assault on the Control Room.”
Now, one of the series’ best levels, “The Silent Cartographer,” can be downloaded and played with more players than Halo CE, even via The Master Chief Collection, allows for. Here’s how to download it and set it up.
How to find “The Silent Cartographer” map and mode
To play this fan-made remake of “The Silent Cartographer,” you’ll need both the map file and the multiplayer mode. To find these, navigate to the Community tab on the main menu of Halo Infinite and select “Browse All.”
Run a search for “the silent cartographer” in the keywords field (caps aren’t necessary, but you’ll want to double-check the spelling of “cartographer”).
A few results will pop up. You want to find the one with the thumbnail that reads as follows:
The Silent Cartographer
Campaign
1-4 Players
The full title of the map is “The Silent Cartographer Campaign.” Select this map and make sure Nikos4476 is the author. The description should say:
Play with either of the “Heroid, Legendary, Easy, or Normal - Silent Cartographer” game types. This is a 30 minute remake of the original mission from Halo CE. IF on coop, stick with other players for best experience! Recommended 1-4 players.
Check “Bookmark” on the left side of the screen to make a custom game of your own with this map.
Once you found the map, it’s time to grab the game mode that lets you play it properly. On the same map screen where you bookmarked the map, select “Owners Files.” Here you’ll want to grab as many of the difficulties for the Silent Cartographer as you desire. They each start with the difficulty name, followed by the map name. Bookmark the following modes:
Easy - Silent Cartographer
Normal - Silent Cartographer
Heroic - Silent Cartographer
Legendary - Silent Cartographer
How to set up “The Silent Cartographer” remake map for private and public play
Once you’ve bookmarked the map and the modes, navigate to the “Play” tab in Halo’s main menu and select “Custom Games > Create Match.” In the Mode Editor, choose Mode > My Bookmarks > Easy/Normal/Heroic/Legendary - Silent Cartographer.
Once you’ve selected the mode, choose the appropriate map by selecting Map > My Bookmarks > The Silent Cartographer Campaign.
If you want to open up your game to random public players, select Lobby Options and set Visibility to Public. You can set Observers on or off. But make sure you don’t set the lobby size to more than six to eight players at most so the game isn’t too chaotic.
Friendly fire is also on by default. If you want to turn it off, select Mode Editor > Health & Damage and set Friendly Fire to Off.
A quick guide to “The Silent Cartographer”
If you’re an OG Halo kid like me, then you probably know this level like the back of your hand. Unfortunately, this specific recreation of the level doesn’t really show objectives, so it’s easy to get a little lost. If you’re new to this mission, or don’t remember it too well, here’s the sequence of events.
In Nikos4476’s recreation of “The Silent Cartographer,” you’ll spawn in a dark room in front of a teleporter at the beginning of the game and after each time you die. You’ll need to step into the teleporter to return to the game. Once you do, you’ll find yourself on a beach with marines and Banished (or, Covenant, as they were known back in 2001) exchanging fire.
You’ll start the mission by fighting along the beach, pushing forward to the first Forerunner structure you’ll see jutting out of the island’s cliffside. At the end of this battle, you’ll see a Warthog spawn.
Drive the Warthog (or travel on foot), counterclockwise around the island, moving across the beach until you come to the next Forerunner building, which we’ll refer to as building A. Fight your way into the structure and travel into it as far as you can until you reach a locked door.
Leave building A and continue moving counterclockwise around the island until you get to a flipped razorback Warthog. You’ll spot some enemies in this area. Fight and follow them into the island. You’ll come across a pair of hunters near a Forerunner structure. Keep moving forward until the path wraps around into another building which we’ll refer to as building B.
- Screenshot: 343 Industries / Claire Jackson / Kotaku
Enter building B and go as far as you can until you find a terminal to activate. Travel back to building A (however you wish to) and you’ll find the previously locked door now open. Fight all the way down until you get to another terminal to activate and then fight your way back out. The mission will end once you’re outside of building A on the elevated landing that looks out on the beach.
With its excellent assortment of combat challenges in a semi-free-roaming mission structure, “The Silent Cartographer” is easily one of the all-time best Halo missions. Don’t miss this chance to experience it with up to three friends, which really changes the dynamic and makes it feel akin to a Destiny strike.
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