Halo: Campaign Evolved Walkthrough: 13-Mission Route and Collectibles

Halo: Campaign Evolved is not a ten-level nostalgia run with three extras bolted onto the menu. A clean first campaign is a 13-mission sweep: finish Operation: METEORITE before the rebuilt Combat Evolved story, take the four collectibles in each mission before its exit closes, and protect the vehicle or power weapon that the next hard checkpoint actually needs.

This route was checked on July 26, 2026, during Premium and Collector’s Edition Advance Access. The global Standard Edition launch is July 28. It covers the current remake, not Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary or The Master Chief Collection. Old geography can still help, but Campaign Evolved relocates every Skull, adds three prequel missions, expands the weapon and vehicle sandbox, changes encounters, and introduces launch-specific progression hazards.

The campaign is a 3 + 10 route#

Operation: METEORITE happens before the original story. The three missions are Boarding Action, The Most Dangerous Game, and Heavy Burden. They teach Campaign Evolved’s new Brutes, Needle Rifle, equipment handling, hijacking, and Seraph combat before The Pillar of Autumn resets the story to the familiar ring.

Every mission contains exactly three hidden Skulls and one UNSC Terminal. That makes 39 discoverable Skulls and 13 Terminals. The first three collected Skulls unlock Campaign Remix plus Adaptation, Armistice, and Reload. Finding every collectible also closes the per-mission collectible achievements instead of forcing a second search through a level whose exit has already fired.

Order	Mission	Terminal	Three hidden Skulls
1	Boarding Action	The Path	Malfunction, Johnny Ammo Seed, Leadhead
2	The Most Dangerous Game	Penitent Report	Temperamental, Recession, Ghost
3	Heavy Burden	Harmonious Clarity	Eye Patch, Grunt Birthday Party, Efficient
4	The Pillar of Autumn	Approach	Speed Limit, Magnified, Perspective
5	Halo	Forgotten	Grunt Funeral, Give & Take, Floor is Lava
6	The Truth and Reconciliation	Inquisitor	Iron, Endurance Spec, Foreign
7	The Silent Cartographer	Status Update	Bandana, Acrophobia, Hip Fire
8	Assault on the Control Room	Tangent I	IWHBYD, Angry, Cowbell
9	343 Guilty Spark	Tangent II	Fog, That’s Just… Wrong, They Come Back
10	The Library	Tangent III	Tilt, Pop, Famine
11	Two Betrayals	Alone	Tough Luck, Black Eye, Mythic
12	Keyes	Consumed	Catch, Blind, Pinata
13	The Maw	Arrival	Stowed Reload, Boom, Thunderstorm

Set the run up so a collectible mistake costs minutes, not a campaign#

Choose the difficulty for the achievement you actually want. Legendary strategies below also work on lower settings, but difficulty modifiers can disable difficulty-specific rewards. LASO is a later project: it does not unlock until 17 named Skulls have been found, and its Iron, Black Eye, Famine, Mythic, and other active rules change the safe answer to nearly every room.

Use four habits throughout the first sweep:

1. Listen before leaving an objective room. A hidden collectible emits an ambient cue that grows louder nearby. If the sound is present, stop following the waypoint and search the side path, upper ledge, dead-end door, or space behind the objective.
2. Check the Collectibles menu after every pickup. The animation is not the proof; the registered mission slot is. If the slot remains empty, interact again before crossing the next load or cutscene boundary.
3. Keep precision and shield removal in different hands. A Magnum, Battle Rifle, Needle Rifle, Sniper Rifle, or Beam Rifle closes exposed targets. A charged Plasma Pistol shot removes shields and stalls vehicles. Carrying two weapons that solve the same target leaves no answer for the next Elite, turret, or Wraith.
4. Do not spend a power item because the room is loud. Overshield and Active Camo are carried equipment in this remake. Reserve them for an exit, a timed door, a Skull jump, or the wave that removes your safe firing lane.

Co-op adds another state to verify. The launch build does not advance some navigation markers until every Fireteam member has passed them. If a waypoint appears frozen, regroup at the last transition before assuming the level is broken.

Operation: METEORITE is the systems tutorial the main story does not repeat#

Boarding Action: rotate around the arena, not through it

The first bonus mission teaches the correct Legendary rhythm. Disable a Shade or other occupied turret with an overcharged Plasma Pistol, remove its gunner with precision fire, and fight from the door until the room stops producing angles. In the Elite training arena, deny the Ghost before camouflaged Elites arrive. If you secure it, use its mobility from the edge; if an Elite reaches it first, destroy or disable it rather than chasing the pilot across open sand.

Do not carry every rocket into the first dramatic wave. Boarding Action escalates into circular rooms with Brutes, Hunters, and camouflaged Elites. Keep one explosive answer for the Hunter wave and rotate between ramp recesses so a sword Elite cannot trap you under the balcony. An Active Camo is most valuable when it buys a reposition after the Hunters arrive, not when the early Grunts are still manageable from a door.

Malfunction

After the first Hunter pair, do not follow Johnson up the progression slope. Take the descending route across the bay, loop through the open doors, and check the right-hand walkway overlooking the mission’s opening space.

Johnny Ammo Seed

When the sandy Elite training room is clear, ignore Johnson’s upward route. Use either upper door above the entrance, clear the newly opened platform, and inspect the curved walkway projecting toward the room’s center.

Leadhead

Near the upper-deck tractor beam, clear every wave but do not enter the beam. Search the rear-left passage beside the platform and climb the short incline to its dead end.

The Path Terminal

Ride that same tractor beam only after Leadhead is secured. At the top, turn around, enter the newly available blue doors behind and right of the beam, and check the wall immediately inside.

The Most Dangerous Game: treat Temperamental as a mission-long condition

Temperamental is not waiting on a shelf. A distinctive gold Elite with purple trim and an Energy Sword appears three times during the mission. Land a shot on that target at each appearance. After the third tag and the final outdoor clear, the Skull appears in the raised Covenant pylon. Missing an appearance turns this into a replay, so treat every sighting as an objective before cleaning up the surrounding squad.

The final HVT chamber is built to collapse a player who walks into its center. Five doors feed successive groups into a small room. Begin from the entry doorway, grenade the first lower-door spawn, then turn deliberately to the opposite side for the next Brutes. Preserve the boxes as cover. When the four-Brute wave arrives, an Overshield and a captured Energy Sword can create space, but the purpose is to reach a side spawn room and let its door become a temporary shelter. Never allow that door to close behind you while the HVT and remaining Elites are still active.

Recession

At the prison entrance bridge, destroy the explosive canister sitting in each of the two braziers beside the large locked door. The door opens to expose the Skull.

Penitent Report Terminal

While freeing prisoners, reach the overlook above the holding pods. Use the door on the right into the small storage space; the raised center section holds the Terminal.

Ghost

After activating the two bridges and meeting the first Banshees, clear the arena beyond the short cave but do not leave it. The Skull sits in the brazier on the back of the entry gate. Reach the ledge with a co-op boost or a controlled frag-grenade jump; a Plasma Grenade is the wrong tool for this jump.

Heavy Burden: close the bridge sweep before the gondola moves

Heavy Burden repeatedly gives you a safe upper level and then tempts you onto the floor. Use the hallway to isolate the first gilded Hunters, and use the upper ring in the major bridge fight until a Fuel Rod becomes available below. Drop for it only when the surrounding fire is controlled, then return upstairs and remove one Hunter. The second becomes a positioning problem instead of crossfire.

The late gondola is a moving point of no return. Clear the flanking platforms before interacting with the next control, identify the left platform that contains Efficient, and decide who will jump. The pickup sits far enough from the transport to trigger an out-of-bounds countdown. Sprint to the rear-right corner, register the Skull, and return immediately.

Eye Patch

Just before crossing the suspended route toward the bridge, enter the unlocked door ahead. Follow the slightly higher walkway to the locked door at its far end and inspect the narrow ledge on the right.

Harmonious Clarity Terminal

After the bridge battle with Covenant and two Hunters, do not follow Johnson through the upper exit. Take either ground-floor door into the armory chain and search behind the weapon pods in the final room.

Grunt Birthday Party

In the enormous white-and-gold multi-level chamber, climb the nearby round platform and jump to the top of the yellow-foliage stone spire. The purple fire pit can help establish the correct launch point.

Efficient

After restoring power to the gondola, jump to the left platform when enemies occupy both sides. The Skull is at that platform’s back-right corner; collect it and beat the out-of-bounds timer back.

During the Seraph section, use plasma beams against moving targets and aim at the lead indicator rather than the ship itself. Hold the reticle on a target to earn a Fuel Rod lock. Destroy the marked turret groups and generators, then make the evacuation dropship’s attackers the only priority once the protection phase begins.

The rebuilt Combat Evolved campaign: collect before the objective closes#

The Pillar of Autumn: take all three Skulls before the real fight begins

Speed Limit is behind the starting position, Magnified is on the first locker route, and Perspective requires a brief return into the bridge after Keyes hands over Cortana. This is the cheapest four-collectible mission in the campaign. Do not let forward-pointing floor lines talk you out of the two early turnarounds.

Speed Limit

As soon as control begins in the cryo room, turn around, climb the pair of cylindrical tanks, jump to the walkway, and follow it toward the viewing window.

Magnified

After the Covenant attack begins, enter the broad locker room on the way to the bridge. Check the top of the nearest bank of lockers.

Perspective

After receiving Cortana, walk back into the bridge, drop beneath the two pilot stations, and inspect the small recess left of the ladder.

Approach Terminal

Later, when Cortana comments on the room overlooking the cryo bay, leave through the next door, turn left at once, and loop into the corner room. The Terminal is against its back-right wall.

For the combat route, keep the Magnum and add a Plasma Pistol from the mess hall. Remove an Elite’s shield, finish the headshot, then return to the doorway before the attack pod’s next group establishes crossfire. The two Overshields in the pod are carried items; using one and taking the second is safer than leaving both untouched for an imagined later emergency.

Halo: choose the rescue order around the last missable, not driving distance

Forgotten is inside the tunnel network before the three crash-site rescues. Activate it before driving back into the open valley. Once the Warthog arrives, keep a Marine on its gun and use it as a stationary firing platform at each rescue rather than circling through infantry. Preserve long-range ammo from The Rocks for exposed Elites and Jackal snipers at the later sites.

The important route rule is that the final rescue can trigger the departure. Take Grunt Funeral before clearing the last associated site. If the three sites are being visited in a different order, move the collectible sweep with the site instead of copying a fixed left-center-right sequence.

Forgotten Terminal

In the Warthog tunnel, reach the drop onto the sloped section. Follow the route that curls behind the slope, then check the small left recess before driving up the far side.

Give & Take

In the central rescue region, follow the river upstream beneath the rock overhang. The Skull is behind the large rock touching the left bank.

Floor is Lava

At the rescue among tall rock formations, climb the sloped hill, jump to the grassy shelf on the right while facing downhill, and descend to the separate rock below.

Grunt Funeral

At the rescue dominated by the large metal spire, climb its lower slope. Use a frag-grenade jump to clear the gap to the higher face, then continue to the top before completing the last rescue.

The Truth and Reconciliation: budget precision ammo for the grav-lift siege

Use the opening Sniper Rifle on Elites and exposed turret operators, not every Grunt. Replace some of its work with the Beam Rifle before the grav lift. The long exterior siege keeps adding dropship and lift waves until the Hunter pair arrives, so the tunnel behind you is the reset lane. A turret looks attractive, but on Legendary it fixes you in place while new enemies enter from two directions.

Once aboard, avoid using a damaged Wraith as permanent cover or a firing position; it can turn the entire checkpoint into one explosion. In the hangars, fight across the room from Johnson so the Hunters choose one target and expose their backs to the other.

Iron

At the exterior gravity lift, walk past its center toward the cliff. Find the horizontal white floor light and look over the edge beyond it for the lower ledge.

Endurance Spec

In the early shipboard room with two wrecked Wraiths below, stay on the upper perimeter. At the far curve, climb the purple container and jump across the three curved supports.

Foreign

On entering the large hangar, reach the back-right side and wait for reinforcements to open the locked door. Cross the threshold before it shuts and check the left alcove.

Inquisitor Terminal

In the holding-cell hub, enter the doors immediately right of the arrival point, lower the cell shields, and inspect the far-wall cell containing a body and ammunition.

The Silent Cartographer: finish the outside sweep before going underground for good

Use the Warthog turret from the lip of a fight instead of parking it in the middle. The first Hunter arena is a rotation test: keep the central arch between you and the pair until one shows its back. The security-station Hunters do not have to be killed on the first pass; an Overshield can carry you to the control and create a cleaner reverse angle.

Bandana and Acrophobia are both on the security-override branch. Status Update is behind the control area. Collect all three before driving back to the original locked facility. Hip Fire is then inside the descent, and its small ledge becomes easy to pass if the two Hunters below are still dictating your movement.

Bandana

Outside the initially locked beach facility, take the cave rising on the left as you come back out. The Skull lies in the cave’s open central patch.

Acrophobia

At the circular Hunter arena on the way to the override, walk up the slanted side of the central metal structure, turn, and jump onto its center beam. Follow the beam toward the rock wall.

Status Update Terminal

At the security substation, continue around the back of the objective assembly and search behind the forked metal slab before leaving.

Hip Fire

After returning to the first underground complex and defeating the two Hunters, stop at the broad illuminated descent. Look far below for a narrow shelf and step off from the lower portion of the slope to control the landing.

Assault on the Control Room: the Scorpion is a long-range tool, not armor permission

Clear the first snowfield from the entrance: take the Rocket Launcher near the overturned Warthog, remove the Ghost and turret, then lock the Wraith while strafing its mortar arc. The Scorpion that follows can destroy most threats in one hit, but it should fire from the back of each arena. Snipe the elevated Wraiths, Banshees, Hunters, and bridge turrets before moving the tank across the exposed route.

Leave the Scorpion only when the tunnel physically requires it. Back it away from the entrance so Marines can follow. Later, at the Banshee bridge, Cowbell requires a deliberate drop under the structure, and commandeering the Banshee before the Elite also satisfies the mission’s vehicle challenge. Secure the collectible before turning the vehicle grab into a race.

IWHBYD

In the Scorpion section, cross the narrow bridge over the chasm and turn toward the snowbank on the left. Use the tank roof as the launch point for the small ice recess.

Tangent I Terminal

In the broad icy fork, enter the monolithic structure that has a door on each side. Climb the interior incline and turn right.

Angry

After leaving the tank, find the valley with three metal arches beside the progression doors. Reach the top of the furthest arch.

Cowbell

At the bridge where Cortana calls out the Banshees, look over the right edge and drop to the slanted support below. Follow the narrow space under the bridge.

343 Guilty Spark: after the reveal, route toward exits rather than kills

The first half is a Covenant descent. The second half changes the purpose of every room. After the Flood breach, an automatic weapon controls Infection Forms while the Shotgun removes Combat Forms that block the exit. Do not stand in a room trying to make it empty if the objective door has opened; several sections are designed to keep pressure on the escape.

Tangent II is specifically a backtrack. Call the elevator, watch it crash past, then return through the prior room and use the opposite door. That makes the Terminal easy to lose if the failed elevator is treated as a signal to sprint forward.

Fog

Near the wrecked dropship hanging in the jungle, climb the left slope, pass the large tree, and step onto the rocks on the right.

That’s Just… Wrong

Inside the blood-covered complex, the terrified surviving Marine drops the Skull only if killed. This is an intentional action, not an environmental pickup.

Tangent II Terminal

After summoning the elevator that falls past the platform, return to the previous room, take its far door, and circle behind the long narrow wall.

They Come Back

During the surface evacuation, pass to the right of the large metal structure and enter the dark forest. Climb the rock at the base of the fallen tree, walk along the trunk, and reach the upper ledge.

The Library: prevent resurrection before chasing the next door

Follow floor arrows when Guilty Spark disappears ahead, but do not outrun the Flood so far that a door-hack hold becomes a fight on two fronts. Kill Infection Forms before they reclaim bodies. Stay away from Carrier Forms when they burst. A dropped Sentinel Beam is excellent against Flood, but its burn effect does not guarantee a body cannot be reanimated.

Take a Shotgun from the first elevator attackers and keep it. New Tank Forms are fast, lethal at melee range, and able to produce Infection Forms; use a Rocket Launcher or sustained beam when available, otherwise maintain enough distance for repeated Shotgun hits. At the elevator Rocket carrier, break line of sight with the ramp first and kill the ordinary chasers before contesting the launcher.

Tilt

After climbing from an early infected trench into the Sentinel room, turn right immediately and climb the metal slope above the steps.

Pop

After the first elevator, either side route reconnects at the far end. Climb the sloped metal, jump across the pronged structures, and land on the narrow inner-wall shelf.

Tangent III Terminal

At the paired control panels after the first lift, activate the left control instead of the right objective control. Enter its door, crouch through the Flood growth, and turn the corner.

Famine

After the final elevator reaches the last chamber, go down the forward ramp and turn left immediately into the small recess.

Two Betrayals: preserve the Banshee beyond generator one

This mission reverses large parts of Assault on the Control Room while the Covenant and Flood fight each other. Let those factions reduce one another, then remove the target that can follow you: sword Elites, Rocket or Fuel Rod carriers, Tank Forms, and vehicles. The Banshee is the spine of the three-generator route, not disposable transport.

Alone Terminal

At mission start, destroy the four Sentinels, turn completely around, and follow the circular walkway to its far side before leaving the control room.

Tough Luck

After taking the first Banshee from the snowy ground, fly above the normal route to the spire in front of the blue beam. Exit carefully onto its top.

Black Eye

After the elevator down from the twin bridges, cross the nearest of the three metal arches. The Skull is in the dead end between Flood growths.

Mythic

At the second-generator platform, use the central panel, then fly to the newly opened door opposite the waypoint. Clear the three infected rooms; the final room produces the Skull after its enemies are gone.

Keyes: Catch changes the opening into a separate run

Catch is the one collectible that should control the difficulty and opening pace. It is only available on Heroic or Legendary and appears during the first gravity-lift ascent. Current walkthrough evidence consistently treats it as a speed condition, but the exact cutoff is not shown by the game. Reach the lift as fast as practical, save the opening Active Camo for the route, take the nearby Overshield, and hold the interact input while rising. If the pickup does not register and a new checkpoint saves above the lift, restart the mission rather than pretending a later cleanup will reach it.

After that sprint, let the Flood and Covenant attack one another. Use Active Camo to cross the hangar edge, reserve heavy ammunition for Hunters and dense Elite doors, and keep the Shotgun for Combat Forms that actually enter your lane. Pinata requires returning to Keyes after the story interaction, so do not immediately follow the escape marker.

Catch

Heroic or Legendary only. Rush the first exterior route, enter the gravity lift, and hold Interact during the ascent to catch the Skull near the top.

Blind

After boarding by gravity lift, descend into the first large room with the ruined Wraith. Use the side arch, pass the wrecked vehicle, and climb the slope toward the locked doors.

Consumed Terminal

At the ship’s shuttle bay, turn left through the doors, follow the descending corridor, take the right branch at the first split, and inspect the left recess by the locked door.

Pinata

After the Keyes cutscene, turn back and repeatedly melee the body until the interaction prompt or dropped Skull appears.

The Maw: finish the collection before the final timer owns the route

Take Arrival in the mess hall before reaching the bridge. Save a Shotgun for Combat Forms and use Fuel Rods, Rockets, or grenades freely against the dense mixed fights; the mission supplies more heavy ammunition than earlier levels. In engineering, one player can operate the exposed-core controls while the team holds the upper ring. Press a control, take cover, then fire one explosive into the glowing core. Repeat for all four rather than fighting for a permanent empty room.

Thunderstorm is inside the timed Warthog run. The second interior shortcut contains it. Stop only if the remaining clock makes the detour safe, and keep the vehicle aligned for the exit before interacting. A perfect collectible sweep is still a failure if the timer expires in the tunnel.

Arrival Terminal

On the route to the bridge, enter the ruined mess hall and search the small recess on the right wall.

Stowed Reload

On the engineering route through the original cryo area, reach the fire-lit back-left corner and jump from the collapsed walkway to the wall beam.

Boom

In the four-core reactor room, climb to the upper back-right. At the debris route into the corridor, drop to the thin ledge on the debris’s left side and follow it into the corner.

Thunderstorm

During the final drive, ignore the first inner shortcut. Enter the second shortcut tunnel and check the right side around its midpoint.

Know what the collectible milestones actually unlock#

• Any 3 hidden Skulls: Campaign Remix opens, along with Adaptation, Armistice, and Reload. Remix randomizes enemy and placed-weapon states, so it is not a stable environment for learning the base route.
• All 13 Terminals: the Terminal collection achievement or trophy registers, and every lore entry remains readable from the Collectibles menu.
• 22 and 39 hidden Skulls: the Skull collection milestones register. The all-collectibles reward also requires every Terminal.
• The 17 defined LASO Skulls: LASO becomes selectable. This set is not simply “any 17” and it is not all 39.
• All four collectibles in one mission: that mission’s named sweep achievement registers. Check it before starting the next mission.

The 17 LASO requirements are Iron, Black Eye, Fog, Famine, Thunderstorm, Mythic, Grunt Birthday Party, IWHBYD, Boom, Eye Patch, Grunt Funeral, Malfunction, That’s Just… Wrong, Speed Limit, Pop, Temperamental, and Johnny Ammo Seed. Do not enable arbitrary assistance modifiers for a LASO reward attempt; Halo Support warns that difficulty modifiers prevent the reward from unlocking.

Use the launch notes as part of the route#

The July 23 Advance Access notes identify three campaign problems that can change the correct action:

• If co-op navigation stops advancing, regroup the Fireteam and carry every player across the marker.
• In Two Betrayals, keep the Banshee alive after completing generator one.
• On PC, launch the game through the Steam library, not the executable file in the install folder; the direct executable can lose Steam connectivity and produce severe performance or freezing problems.

There are also hardware-specific crash notes around Keyes and The Maw. NVIDIA RTX 50-series users on the listed 610.47, 610.62, or 610.74 drivers should update or use the official rollback guidance before those missions. AMD users with FSR should let The Maw introduction play rather than skipping it if they are on the affected driver path. These are launch-build boundaries, not permanent campaign mechanics; recheck the newest Halo Support release notes after any patch.

After The Maw, open the mission list and verify thirteen completions, then open Collectibles and verify 39/39 hidden Skulls and 13/13 Terminals. That menu audit is the real finish line. If one slot is empty, the mission table above identifies the smallest replay and the exact branch that must be repeated.

Sources & credits: the official Halo: Campaign Evolved Steam page verifies AppID 2806050, Halo Studios and Xbox Game Studios metadata, the July 28, 2026 release, Advance Access state, supported modes, and the four original 1920×1080 JPGs used here. The official Halo Waypoint game page establishes the 13-mission, four-player, expanded-sandbox scope. Halo Support’s collectibles guide establishes the 39-Skull and 13-Terminal totals, unlock milestones, and official collectible names; the Advance Access release notes establish the July 23 known-issue boundary. Current mission guides were used to cross-check route decisions and pickup positions. Removed or incompatible Steam guides, a blocked GameFAQs page, original-game-only material, and graphics-tweak articles did not establish current campaign rules.