Once again, after looking through the search function, I couldn’t find this valuable piece of Halo 2 history.
All credit goes to Grumpy1 of the Bungie forums.
> Posted by: Grumpy1
> For those who know about skulls and skull profiles here are two examples of the fun you can have:
>
> Get Sputnik, Grunt Birthday and Catch. Hilarious! Nades everywhere, headshot explosions and less gravity to boot. Fun stuff.
>
> Or get Sputnik, GBD and Catch again but this time get perma cammo and play Gravemind. Go to the last fight (the big one) and watch the action. If you have MC with perma cammo, you can stay inside and watch everything. Also, you might want to be on Legendary with Mythic and Angry on so the fight lasts longer and they all shoot more rapidly. Quite a show, that one.
>
> Here’s one vid that has all skull locations
>
> Skull profile instructions:
>
> OK, most people are curious about the skulls but don’t want to take the trouble of getting one of them each time. Well, you don’t have to, you can make a separate save for each one.
>
> First you need profiles for each one so name them Armory, Thunderstorm (Cairo Station), Blind (Outskirts), IWHBYD (Outskirts), Catch (Metropolis), GBD (Grunt Birthday Party - Arbiter), Famine (Oracle), Envy (Delta Halo), Assassins (Regret), Mythic (Sacred Icon) , Sputnik (Quarantine Zone), Angry (Gravemind), Ghost (Uprising), Iron (High Charity) and Black Eye (The Great Journey).
>
> Update, Sliding Ghost has three excellent vid tuts that have most of the Skulls activated;
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fxTDVV4tAM
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVWR5R6PcI4
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cFGZH_mh2E
>
> Now, to get easy new profiles you do not need to play through the game to get each one. Simply play on coop with one profile that has all the levels and join him with one of your new profiles. Go to High Charity and run through on easy (about 5 to 8 minutes) and when you finish the level and quit you will see that the new profile now has all the levels so you can go get the skull of that named profile. Example; if the profile you played with is Sputnik, after completing High Charity you can go into the Sputnik profile and save a checkpoint before you get the skull and now it’s yours anytime you want.
>
> Just remember to do coop and use a profile with all the levels as your primary player and use a new profile to play HC.
>
> Now, always remember while playing single player and you get to a skull you must quit and save on the checkpoint before you pick up the skull. If you get the skull and save on the next checkpoint it will ruin the save, the skull will not be there next time and will not be activated.
>
> To turn off any skull you must eject the disk or turn off the box.
>
> The last tip to saving a profile when playing as MC is to get Perma Cammo. It just makes it easier. Here’s how to get it.
>
> You have to be in Legendary for all skulls except Blind. For Arbiter skulls you need to just grit your way through (no perma cammo) but he does cloak so…
>
> All links are YouTube. Enjoy!
Now for Grumpy’s post on Halo 2 SLASO.
> Posted by: Grumpy1
> SLASO Subject:
>
> For new guys here, SLASO means ‘Single (player) Legendary All Skulls On’. It means you activate all the skulls in any order and once activated, start from Cairo and beat the game. I will add that all players should try SLASO at least once, just to know what it feels like to be instantly annihilated.
>
> Before anyone pops off with ‘oh yeah, I did that once, wasn’t that hard’ let me say that the guy who beat H3 Mythic (version of SLASO) could not finish H2 SLASO nor could anyone else in his community of awesome players. Nobody has ever proved (documented) beating H2 SLASO.
>
> My opinion is that nobody will ever do it, and it may be as close to impossible as it gets. The negative skulls are overwhelming, even the fun skulls are a nightmare and each of the negative skulls lend to each other and are therefore more overwhelming as a group. A negative skull is one that makes it more difficult to survive.
>
> Why it might never be done:
>
> 1. Blind; you will not have a reticule nor see how many nades you have and well, no HUD whatsoever.
> 2. Sputnik; less gravity may sound innocent but nades will come at you from all directions because of Catch and there will be no cover because all boxes are blown away. Imagine the Cairo hanger.
> 3. Black Eye; purely evil. With the Mythic skull on and in Legendary you must melee for survival because your shields will not regenerate without it.
> 4. Assassins; all enemy AI are cloaked (nuff said).
> 5. Mythic; even Grunts are tough to kill. The n00b combo is virtually useless in the Cairo hanger, not enough ammo can be hauled in and there’s less ammo available.
> 5. Armory skull; AI always look in your direction so even cloaking will not help you.
> 6. Catch; Grunts and Brutes toss nades at you like rain and never stop.
> 7. Angry; all AI shoot at a faster pace.
> 8. Famine; you have less ammo in every weapon.
> 9. Ghost; if you do manage to get up to an Elite for a melee, when you whack 'em they will not get spun around, they will keep facing you and they all have swords.
> 10. Thunderstorm; not a terrible skull because Elites cannot shoot longer range because they’re holding a sword but forget ever meleeing a Legendary, Mythic Elite who always knows where you are.
>
> No, I don’t think it will ever be done.
>
> Imagine you are in the Cairo hanger. You enter and face a constant barrage of nades (Catch) and all box covers are blown away (Sputnik), you’ve got less ammo (Famine), enemies are firing at a faster pace (Angry), they’re all perma-cloaked (Assassins), they always know where you are (Armory) and now you need to go down and melee for your health (Black Eye) and they are all beyond Legendary (Mythic).
>
> If anyone does do it and proves it, it will go in the Guinnes Book (serious), that’s how awesome it would be. One other H2 accomplishment is in there; Cody Miller beat all of H2, non-segmented, straight through, Legendary with no deaths. H2 SLASO is the only thing that could top that.
I’d like to see a resurgence of H2 SLASO. You could feel like a boss and didn’t have to use the noob combo. And let’s not forget how every Elite was a sword pulling Ultra Elite.
I almost got all of the skulls. I know I don’t have Iron and Famine because my disc won’t load, but besides that I only need the ones on Uprising and Gravemind. After that it’s pure, untethered, rage over the insane amount BS that will occur.
Looking forward to it 