Grunt Mech - Lets talk Strats

Hey everyone!

My goal of this post isn't to say "OMG TEH GRUNT IS OP - NERF NAO" - This is a tough boss worth of 100 VP in Warzone and Rounds in Firefight.

What I would like to do is have a searchable post dedicated to this one boss that has different people's strategies for defeating this annoying little guy. (That's right, I called him little - it's empowering!).

From my experiences in firefight, I've never been able to beat the last round on Apex 7. Usually if my team is able to even kill the mythic boss, There is about 30 seconds left to kill the hunters.
From my experiences in Warzone, If a grunt mech spawns, it's usually ignored...which leads to longer matches.

Weak spots:
The Front head area (In front of blast shield) will explode after several clips
The Rear upper portion (Where his Red needles launch from) This can be destroyed, but I've never personally seen this happen
The blast shield can be destroyed for a time as well. I've done this once with a Wasp on Apex 7 (I kept ducking behind tall rock fixtures during the Needle Rain of hell), but I've never been up close to see it actually capitalize on this

Effective Weapons:
Standard Loadout - BR/DMR with Kinetic bolt mod if possible
Reqs (These are items I've tried out). All versions of the plasma caster and Spartan laser. Arclight (Rare rail gun) was ok, but the lack of ammo is noticeable. The Answer (Rare SAW)

Reqs I've tried that didn't seem worth it - Snipers in general (I've seen the video where someone snipes the driver once the front is blown off, but I haven't been able to reproduce this), Turrets (Jorge's chaingun might work with a couple speed boosts, but I couldn't get into cover quick enough), Short Range stuff (Shotguns, Swords, Etc)

The main strat that I have had success with is where I use the Plasma caster and stick the mech on the weapon launcher on it's back. This won't melt the beast, but it does do significant damage. Other times that have worked semi effectively is where a Vehicle user snipes from long range while the rest of the team distracts. This really only works if the Mech ignores the Vehicles because unless you get into cover, the red needles from hell just make for a bad time.\

All other bosses in warzone have that similar Tank & Spank feel (Or Spank with tank in halo's case). The huge HP pool of the Mech makes it an ideal target for Vehicles, but It's anti Vehicle abilities makes only using that strat a one way ticket to frown town.

So with all the information above - I turn to the community. What tactics have you used? What weapons do you find to be effective. Are any of the weapons I listed as "Not useable" actually good? Do you have that super secret vehicle spot that you can share with us?(don't worry, we won't tell the devs to have them patch it). Anyone know how many bullets it takes to break his shield? How about what colors does the shield change to as it's getting close to breaking? (I think its' yellow to orange to red to purple-ish, but I haven't been close enough to see it get much beyond an orange-ish red)

*EDIT* - Posters Suggestions
Th3M01dyCh3353 Posted about using a binary rifle on the front of the Mech after his front has been destroyed (About Half life). trxvsn Posted a video of this strat (Lazy Link spot once I can post links..) See his post for a link to a video.
***This has been patched and doesn't work anymore...Sad day***

Updates 8/15/16 - Added more suggestions and changed formatting of OP to make it easier to read updates quicker

EMPEROR NOVA01 wrote:

My recommendation is that if you have the ability to get a Spartan Laser (only tried it with standard), call one in, and aim for the shield covering the Grunt. I think about two direct hits onto the shield from a laser should bring it down. After that, use a precision weapon to kill the Grunt inside.
Clip. Prior to starting the clip recording, I had already hit the shield at least once, which is why it only took one laser to take it out.
***OP Note - See Emperor Nova01's post on page 3 (first post) for clip link - I can't post URLs yet****

Mark36111 Posted a Video for proper tank placement on Apex 7 - http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/Mark36111/video/20504138

*Update 9/13/16* - Bug fixes/nerfsIt looks like the snipping below the visor with the front damaged was a bug...Which is sad.

On the upside of things, EmperorNova01's strat works a lot better. I actually solo'd a grunt mech with a Req Level 6 Spartan Laser. I'm working on getting the clip edited and I will post the link. I was able to Spartan laser his visor down with it's reduced health and then headshot it with a DMR for a quick kill.

To be honest, I never personally killed a mech grunt before, but I know once I was able to witness someone take it out with that sniper rifle (glitch) where they hit the grunt's head though the weakpoint.

Basically get a Tank or a Wraith Ultra, keep hitting him, and pray he doesn't decide to destroy you with his OP Needles. Even though A Grunt can quickly destroy a vehicle, it's still miles better than most REQ weapons outside of the Sniper trick. Vehicles are just inherently superior.

Since you won't always have that, basically any REQ that will capitalize on the weak points.

Ignore it. It's not worth the reqs. Use your sniper or vehicle to kill Spartans instead. It's just s boss that is there to troll us nothing more.

Thanks for the info I'll be using plasma casters since I have 50 of them.

Th3M01dyCh3353 wrote:

Use a binary. If the team focuses fire on the cockpit and its at about half health it'll one shot it because the cockpit is broken or breaking. I have done this several times.

5 posts per day FTW

I've never tried this - I'll have to give this a shot tonight

On firefight Apex 7, there's a good rock up the hill to the left of where Pipap spawns. Get a tank and face it perpendicular to him (i.e. toward the ocean) and strafe behind the rock whenever his needles fire. It will block them. Then strafe out from cover and shoot him, and keep doing so until he fires again and you have to go back behind the rock. If it's only you doing damage, you should be able to kill him with about two minutes left, which is just enough time to drive to the hunter cave and kill them, assuming you don't get smoked by the ultra banshees. Having one of the up-armored scorpion variants with wheelman is pretty much essential, since you'll need to tank a lot of damage from the ghosts and hunters at the end of the round. The biggest issue I have using this strategy is when figting Pipap, teammates will tend to come at him from the other direction and lure him away to the opposite side from where my scorpion is shooting/strafing. When this happens, I usually just sit tight where I am and wait until he kills the teammates them and comes back, because you'll just get annihilated if you try to go take on all the knights and Pipap in the open.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/games/halo-5-guardians/xbox-one/game-clips?page=1&gamertag=ClubbedScarab3#ugc_halo-5-guardians_xbox-one_gameclip_ClubbedScarab3_67964afd-bf93-46dd-bfd5-a18f8bc2a0fc

It works :D

Ruined Empire wrote:

trxvsn wrote:

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/games/halo-5-guardians/xbox-one/game-clips?page=1&gamertag=ClubbedScarab3#ugc_halo-5-guardians_xbox-one_gameclip_ClubbedScarab3_67964afd-bf93-46dd-bfd5-a18f8bc2a0fc

It works :D

Linked Hopefully this let's me do this..

*Edit* Nope - Can't do links yet..I'll update this post once I can

Alright hope this may help

Ruined Empire wrote:

Mark36111 wrote:

On firefight Apex 7, there's a good rock up the hill to the left of where Pipap spawns. Get a tank and face it perpendicular to him (i.e. toward the ocean) and strafe behind the rock whenever his needles fire. It will block them. Then strafe out from cover and shoot him, and keep doing so until he fires again and you have to go back behind the rock. If it's only you doing damage, you should be able to kill him with about two minutes left, which is just enough time to drive to the hunter cave and kill them, assuming you don't get smoked by the ultra banshees. Having one of the up-armored scorpion variants with wheelman is pretty much essential, since you'll need to tank a lot of damage from the ghosts and hunters at the end of the round. The biggest issue I have using this strategy is when figting Pipap, teammates will tend to come at him from the other direction and lure him away to the opposite side from where my scorpion is shooting/strafing. When this happens, I usually just sit tight where I am and wait until he kills the teammates them and comes back, because you'll just get annihilated if you try to go take on all the knights and Pipap in the open.

I've done this before, but never been able to kill pipap quick enough...I think your assessment of teammates pulling him toward the other side

Just to clarify - Is your spot close to the armory or on the opposite side?

I'd like to get some videos to post of successful attack attempts just to outline more map specific strats. I've never used xboxdvr but I'll play with it to see how easy these are to make

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-PShRDm5w

The hill that this guy is on, but up a bit farther up and on the left side of the road. The rock cluster I like is just high enough to shield your tank from the needles. If you have somebody in chat who can guide your shots in, spamming wraith shots over the rock also works nicely.