BOB Findings

[Scatcycle]

Did some bob research. The BOB on Nightfall MAY start over by the broken bridge. You can get here  by turning left when you should be going right to continue on with the mission, at the start.

Since there are (insurrectionists?) dead on the broken bridge, and the BOB spawns nearly on top of them, I assume it's meant to show that the BOB killed them.

BOBs Despawn. They do  not shrink.



This is what the BOB looked like right before he disappeared.

[Phantasm 08]

I got a better video than Scat's of the BOB on the hillside at the very beginning of Tip of the Spear.  It follows the rockethog from the point where it's dropped off by the Pelican, up the ramp and into the BOB.  It also shows me making an epic jump out of the driver's seat and back onto the cliff as the hog falls, then scoring a beatdown.  And I got the challenge for today as well.  Bonus!

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=16661119&player=Phantasm2008

[Scatcycle]

BOB Spawn on Nightfall. One spawn, that is.

[Imppa]

Some ideas from Bnet:

Posted by: Olympicwolf

Posted by: L0RD STARSCREAM
Not sure if this has been posted, way to many pages to read through, but if the silver bobs act as silver skulls and the gold bobs act as the gold skulls could the bobshees be silver skull based like the white bobs on sword base, thats if the other silver bobs dont award u the metal of course, im not sure if they do or not but im sure someone will fill me in on that, also is there any other white bobs on any other levels? 

I was thinking something along these lines last night.

I was playing Exodus last night and killed my first Banshee BoB and noticed the game paused for a second before giving me my score after the banshee exploded, as if something had unlocked, so I definitely think there's something to the BoB's.

Anyways, my thought on the BoB's is there were 8 gold skulls on Halo 3 that gave you an achievement when you found them and 4 silver skulls that gave you nothing but a skull unlock. So far, in Reach there are 8 walking golden BoB's that give you a medal when they're killed and 2 flying Banshee BoB's that give you nothing but a BoB unlock. Maybe there's 2 more Banshee Bob's hidden in the campaign. Worth looking into anyways.

In halo 3, there were actually 9 skulls, as there are in Halo: Reach.
Also, there are actually only 7 golden BOBs in the game, since out of the 10 playable levels, 2 are Boosting Banshees (Exodus and NA), and one is the wannabe-BOB on Sword base.
While the theory of a link between golden and silver BOBs and Skulls is quite interesting, the numbers don't match up: if there were to be the same amount of BOBs and skulls, then we are still missing 2 Golden BOBs and a "Silver" BOB. Could it be possible that there are 2 BOBs in some levels? Or is it just that Bungie sacrificed part of the connection to once again give glory to the n. 7?

[Scatcycle]

A BOB on LNoS. A cool one, if I might add.

Fixed! Sorry, I was almost certain that I had it copied.

2011.05.11> Now THAT is a cool video!!!  Nice work, Scatters! -CG

[ColdGlider]

Thanks for the Nightfall video, Scat.  Please check your last link re: LNoS BOB.

I had some offline time last week with Reach.  During that time I nailed down the ONI: Sword Base BOB spawning behavior and cataloged images of every version of the so-called "Wannabe BOB" at both spawn points.  I have a cool in-game vid which shows the inside spawn happening repeatedly with random armor each time.  I'll get these up soon.

I also began the detailed "lab jacket" search on Nightfall.  So far, my finds on both ONI and Nightfall corroborate the spawn locations cataloged in the BNET Halo Reach Secrets Group.

So far, my research has supported the following hypothesis:  a BOB spawns in every mission.  Sounds obvious, but many people report that BOBs sometimes don't spawn.  They do: they can just spawn at different places in completely different loading zones.  The simplest example so far is ONI.  There are two spawning points.  If you don't find BOB outside in the courtyard, it's because he's going to spawn inside (around the corner from the non-legendary data pad spawn.)  This is a really easy level to test this on, because the ONI BOBs do not disappear after you trigger them.  They'll hang out all day if you want them to, provided you don't unload their area or kill them.  The only confusing issue is that the ONI BOB can appear in eight different suits of armor and is always white, not gold.  

Nightfall is where things begin to get tricky.  The BOB has at least three different spawn locations, ranging from the first major settlement shortly after Mission Start to the penultimate area of Rally Point B (the Powerhouse area).  In all three spawn points, the BOB is on his usual 37-second timer (from the time he draws his weapon).  This means that if you're trying to do the "Reach Vidmaster" by killing the BOB in each mission, you will have to really keep your eyes open.

It's very important for us to check that BOB spawn points are mutually exclusive; that is, if a BOB spawns at point A then he should not be able to spawn at point B, C, etc unless you "go back in time" by reverting to a checkpoint.  If you DO manage to kill two BOBs in a single level without dying in between those kills, you NEED TO REPORT THIS!!!  This would indicate two unique BOBs in a single level, and we'd have to map the sets of spawning locations for both.

Note that you can rack up an infinite number of BOB kills in a single level by reverting to a previous checkpoint and killing the BOB again, repeating ad nauseum.  Again: ONI (inside spawn) is great for this.  I nabbed 14 "elite light vehicles" in a single game on ONI just to prove this theory.

Much more on this later.

[Scatcycle]

Back in time BOB killing needs to be tested. Two ways: He's not there, keep moving and kill 3rd spawn. Go back and see if 1rst spawn is there.
And, 1rst Spawn, kill him. Progress through level, go backwards. See if he spawns again.

Here's a rendered video of one of the Oni Bob Spawns.

[ColdGlider]

Back in time BOB killing needs to be tested. Two ways: He's not there, keep moving and kill 3rd spawn. Go back and see if 1rst spawn is there.
And, 1rst Spawn, kill him. Progress through level, go backwards. See if he spawns again.

Here's a rendered video of one of the Oni Bob Spawns.

To test your back-in-time scenarios, we need to pin down a level where it is even possible to "backtrack" far enough to load an area where BOB previously spawned.   Winter Contingency is probably the easiest, but I have to double-check.  ONI won't work because you have to go up the elevator to unload the courtyard area where the first BOB spawn point is- and once you go up that elevator, you're not going back (unless you restart the mission... and then all bets are off.)

What CAN be done on ONI is to open the doors to the base (which loads the BOB area) and then dart back out of the doors, hop in the Warthog, and unload the area.  I did this many times (and IIRC when the BOB spawned there, he was the same every time the area reloaded... but need to reconfirm).  The trick is knowing whether or not the first spawn point is being used.  I believe that once you proceed far enough to be able to kill the BOB, the doors close behind you and cannot be reopened.  So it's probably impossible to kill the ONI BOBS multiple times without restarting from a previous checkpoint.

Here's the testing plan for getting the courtyard BOB to respawn:

1) Start Rally Point Bravo on ONI: Sword Base from the campaign menu
2) Proceed to the courtyard and confirm that BOB spawn point 1 is being used (i.e. the BOB appears)
3) If BOB does not spawn in the courtyard, repeat steps 1 and 2 until he does.
4) Once BOB is chosen to spawn in the courtyard, he will ALWAYS spawn in the courtyard until you go back to the main menu and restart the mission.  Choosing "Restart Mission" from the pause menu does not seem to initialize the logic to select the BOB spawning location.  Therefore, select "Restart Mission" to begin again from the Rally Point Bravo checkpoint, knowing that BOB will be spawning in the courtyard.
5) Activate the switch to open the doors to the courtyard and walk in.
6) Wait to see enemies appear (when the elites and grunts spawn, so does the BOB)
7) Quickly run back through the doors, hop back in the Warthog, and drive back towards the starting area.  This will unload the courtyard.  
8) Return to the switch to open the doors and activate it.  The courtyard area will reload.
9) Repeat steps 4-8 multiple times to ensure that you get a decent sample size of BOB respawns (2 is not enough!)
10) Exit back to the main menu, save the film, view in Theater to see the results.  Did the BOB respawn in the same armor every time?

I didn't try backtracking in Nightfall.  Should be possible based on the layout, but I haven't tried.  

Plenty of SGP homework here!

[Nader]

 I felt I should bring something up with the winter contingecy BoB. Every single time I played the level it was always in the same spot. When the challenge for killing one came up it was not there. Is there something to this?

[Pulse Cloud]

Damn, we definitely need a guide on BOB Spawns - I have no idea where they spawn and where is the "Courtyard"!

[Imppa]

Damn, we definitely need a guide on BOB Spawns - I have no idea where they spawn and where is the "Courtyard"!

The "Courtyard" is the area where the Firefight map "Courtyard" (duh) is located. The BOB spawn is right behind the blasy shields/walls when you re-enter the courtyard after activating the COM array and the turret (Scat's video show is pretty well, I think?). The other one is inside the Base, on the area where the MP map "Sword Base" is, near to the data pad/shotgun on the MP map/here, on the left.

[nightcrafter27]

I can try to get some of the maps from the Halo: Reach POGG (haven't hear that one in a while), possible to be MS paint'd for our own use.

[ColdGlider]

I can try to get some of the maps from the Halo: Reach POGG (haven't hear that one in a while), possible to be MS paint'd for our own use.

I made a small post in response to this here.  POGG is an ODST term, so we'll have to use "OSG" and "LEG" in the context of Reach, I'm afraid. 

[Scatcycle]

I don't think Nightfall will work. It may be located somewhere else, but right before you hook up with the civilians/insurrectionists, you must jump down to a lower level. It may be possible to jump back up though, needs testing.

Sadly, I'm on vacation this weekend.

[nightcrafter27]

I can try to get some of the maps from the Halo: Reach POGG (haven't hear that one in a while), possible to be MS paint'd for our own use.

I made a small post in response to this here.  POGG is an ODST term, so we'll have to use "OSG" and "LEG" in the context of Reach, I'm afraid. 

Ah. The LEG, then.