*Updated* Golden Tree City – 19th January Challenge
19/01/2011 123 Comments
Golden Tree City – Find and kill the Gold Ranger-class Elite in a Banshee, fast and low, while on New Alexandria, on Legendary – 3500 cR
Properly Final Update – I finally settled down to do the challenge. Jumped in my Falcon and zoomed to the hospital/club area. I spent a few minutes searching, taking out Banshees, and nothing. So I thought I’d head to my objective and see what happens. At the objective I took out some more Banshees and just as I move in I see a streak in the far distance. I scrambled and fired like crazy but he went outside the level border. So a quick pause and revert to save, I’m about 30 seconds earlier than when I spotted him so I fly straight over, use a building to shield me from the Banshees that delayed me earlier and boom, Headshot (not really, I just shout that at epic moments in gaming, ever since my super-awesome Gears of War final boss co-op win, but that’s another story). 3500 cR, I’d like to thank the academy, and we’re done.
So I watched the video of the mission and worked back to see when the Ranger turns up, and he just appears on the edge of the map at 6:50 (my game time) and flies across it, exiting about 30 seconds later. This ties in to when I first got near the objective, so I do wonder if that’s the trigger, but a lot of people say it’s 6 mins that’s the trigger, so that’s very likely. It was near the club/hospital that he turns up I think. I’ve put a video on Bungie.net of him appearing (sorry it needs rendering) of him appearing. But if you miss him reload your checkpoint and get the SOB. If you can’t, restart, and try getting to an objective then watching for him.
Final Update – A lot has been written about this in all the comments below, thanks so much for everyone who added something. It seems the Banshee is always around, so start searching. The Club/Hospital seem pretty definite areas to find him. He’s boosting all the way, and won’t fire on you. The unanimous elevation is 175, so drop down and scoot around to find that dude then take him out.
Update 3 – Video posted and rendered, check out the last minute of this, it’s looking good. As everyone says, it’s a very low Banshee, who only boosts, no guns, no deviations in flight path. That’s what you’re looking for. I don’t think they show up at any particular time either, as some report it taking a minute, some report it taking 15.
Update 2 – If you’re posting about this, can you link to the Game History on Bungie.net for the game you got the kill in? It’s possible this isn’t a BOB, but it’s good to get some proof. Even just throw your Gamertag in and I’ll look it up.
Update 1 – Jonathan posted below this information, which seems to be right:
Right after the building with the 4 hunters, you get back in the Falcon. Kill all the banshees coming around you and in that mix there will be a banshee flying fast and low and thats the one you have to go for. If you are coming out of the building, the banshee will be flying to your right. If you are facing the Hunter building, the banshee will be low to your left. It does go fast so keep a look out on your radar and attack as soon as you see the banshee below.
There are a few people reporting it done on the Halo forums, and I think in the next hour or so we’ll see a video of it too. I’ll link as soon as I get one.
——————————————————————
Yes, I know. It’s a completely new challenge. And Bungie are goading everyone here. All the discussion and investigation so far has said that there is no Gold Ranger Elite in New Alexandria.
Which implies that they have data that he’s hardly ever been killed, so they’re making the challenge to get this information out to everyone. I wonder if the name has some implication about where to find him. The ‘fast and low’ probably implies that they’re towards the beginning fairly low in the skies.
At the moment I can’t test this, so I’ll be keeping an eye on forums and the like during the day, and try it myself later on.
For now, use this post to discuss your attempts, point out Banshees that don’t hold the Ranger and say things you’re trying that someone else might be able to try. And of course if you find the Gold Elite, shout it from the rooftops!
Halo Reach Daily Challenges 
this might help
http://forums.gametrailers.com/thread/halo–reach-easter-eggs-and-hi/1124549
They’re called “Bob” :]
could it be possible that you need to jack the BOB out of the banshee to get the credits? i’m sure it’s more than possible for 3500, “fast and low” requires a daunting task.
No, if you read all the other information below, or watch all the videos, you just need to take out the Banshee, which kills the pilot.
Look for my posts – I think I have the answer lower down. The name’s Etienne.
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it doesnt say anything about it being in new alexandria in the challenge…
Selecting the challenge forces you to New Alexandria.
scratch that my bad yes it does.ny apologies
Well done for doing that here – you’ll get trolled to high Hell if you say stuff like that on Bungie forums!! 😀
Right after the building with the 4 hunters, you get back in the Falcon. Kill all the banshees coming around you and in that mix there will be a banshee flying fast and low and thats the one you have to go for. If you are coming out of the building, the banshee will be flying to your right. If you are facing the Hunter building, the banshee will be low to your left. It does go fast so keep a look out on your radar and attack as soon as you see the banshee below.
Can I get confirmation of that please Jonathan? Is there a game history you can link to showing the BOB kill on New Alexandria? Cheers
I tried that and it didnt work….
Yeah thanks that made him really easy to find. he tries to fly to the border of the map he will also be boosting
aaah, it reads as if you have to kill the elite while you’re in a banshee, when actually it means the elite is in a banshee.
makes more sense now !
Yeah, I think the fast and low reference is more to do with location than splattering, which is what that usually means. It’s going to be an Elite who avoids conflict I think. Jonathan’s response above is sounding likely, someone on a forum seems to have verified.
Lock your altitude around 175 and the one you have to kill is the one that runs away from you when you shoot.. Did it in less than a minute.. Hope I helped !
Also to clarify more.. What I did was go to the first location Kat tells me to go to then I fly directly forward off that building an drop to 175 altitude.. Then I flew around for a bit and found him very easily and was easy to kill also
Was that first location the club with the Hunters in it?
No the first location is with I forgot what they were called the ones with the battle hammer.. He was to the right of building when you’re looking out to the city at around 175 feet
Thank you!
Took 5~ minutes :] The bastard took off pretty quick, but I got him ^^.
If the Banshee does move incredibly fast and proves to be hard to kill (it is in Legendary after all). A potentially good idea would be to do it in co-op campaign and have the person aiming for the challenge use the falcon with grenade launchers
He actually does not move fast at all (at least for me he didn’t) and was also easy to kill.
It sounds like although he’s quick he’s a non firing type BOB, so you can just hammer him with everything.
I though the “Fast and Low” had something to do with the Achievement “Banshees, fast and low” So you’d have to Hijack it.
No, in this it’s location, so you take them out whilst in the falcon.
Just following Jonathons advice and I think ive found the golden elite, but you’ve gotta be quick he makes a dash out of the map! Going to try and kill him and see if the challenge gets confirmed.
Nice one – when you do it can you get a screenshot, video etc so we can share with everyone please? A lot of people are trying to find this.
Is it wrong to be so excited by this challenge? I’m at work so I can’t even get on many forums to read up on this… thanks again Matthew, this site saves my sanity nearly every day!
yea just got it too, just do an objective then get back in your falcon and looks for a low flying banshee..
Was it Club Errera again, where the Hunters are? All I’m looking for now is a video with the Banshee BOB taken out and the challenge confirmation popping up.
Gamertag saidahk !
Thanks a lot Ahmed. I’m not sure these are BOBs, as there’s no Elite Ranger listed in your enemies for that game. Even more intriguing…
Youre welcome. And Ha. That is weird
Yeah ! Now post a video of this for our eyes pleasure 😀
Hi all, I’m gettin frustrated with this!! Ther isn’t any banshee flyin low, i drop down low but nothin I’ve tried it like 10 times! Do u have 2 kill all 4 hunters? Cheers
I don’t believe you have to kill anything.. I only killed one grunt and a few other banshees and I don’t think that mattered
For those of u who need additional aid I’ve made a clip of me getting the ‘GOLDEN TREE CITY’ challenge: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=12819349&player=coreymawf
Hope this helps
Happy Gaming
coreymawf
Nice one Corey – any chance of getting it rendered for the non Bungie Pro folks? I’ve just been sent another one that I’ll link for now.
For the record this was after destroying one jammer (the one @ the club with the hunters) and doing one falcon defence. I found him near the building shaped like a massive bottle opener.
How does one render bungie clips exactly?
UPDATE: someone rendered the clip for me? how did this happen? 😀
I just spotted him, but couldn’t kill him! He appeared for me at about the 19 minute mark and he was far in the distance. I started chasing him and he boosted until he was out of the map — I ran into the invisible barrier and he escaped! I’m sure it was him because I was firing at him and he just boosted away very strangely.
I was beginning to doubt this whole thing, but people are definitely telling the truth. I spotted him near the building where you start, not near the club.
Good luck, guys.
has anyone got a video of them killing the golden elite in a bashee?????
This guy got it… but how?
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/Challenges.aspx?player=The%20Sixth%20Sedge
It’s quite easy to pass this challenge :
The gold Elite in in a banshee.
To find him, just play the New Alexandria in legendary mode.
After compteting one or two abjectives, just fly around and observe the Banshees : You must notice one that doesn’t pursue or attack you.
If you after him and notice that it’s boosting to stay away from you, this Banshee in the gold Elite’s one !
Just go after it and destroy it : You’ll get the Golden Tree City Challenge done 😉
Bye and good luck
You do not have to complete any challenges.. As I didn’t. Maybe you have to fight a few banshees so the rest can come towards you
Exactly – did an objective. Died multiple times, haha, but finally caught a banshee boosting by himself and took it out. Boom
I just finished the challenge. I killed the banshee just before going in for the 3rd Jammer (Which was the hospital this run through). It was right around 175 feet to the right of the building like Ahmed said, and was fairly easy to kill. It did however have a permanent speed boost affect. So it took me a second to catch up to it.
fff spotted it in the distance, boosted out of the map.
I have spent the better part of 2 hours looking for this dude and I only found him once, as he boosted out of the map and I hit the invisible wall. Other than that I complete one objective than fly around at ~175 feet and fly around constantly and I never can find him just all the other banshees trying to shoot me down. Sigh.
He might be one of the other banshees shoot and kill all of them and he might flee
What Ahmed said is correct. I found it at about 170 feet altitude. Just look for a banshee with a permanent speed boost, as far as I could tell it was the only banshee that was constantly boosting and not shooting. Nothing else about it seemed different though…and you cant see Bob falling out wither…..
I found it while randomly flying low, around aobut the hospital
Fairly sure its location is random, in a banshee somewhere. Took me a couple hours to find!
Found him!!! When your flying to the hospital (3rd Jammer) Look to the bottom right. You’ll see a glowing banshee boosting. That’s him. I’ll post a video to YouTube and link it once I fast forward through this very long video clip of my campaign.
Well, I wasn’t the first to upload a video but I did anyway. The other one is of better quality but… here ya go anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cfq3qx9kPE
Okay… link didn’t work…hmmmmmm.
Maybe this will.
i found him, totally random as said before. He does fly low and boosting and was heading south on mine 😉
It must be true because if you go to the medals tag on your bungie.net halo reach stats, there is a metal under campaign called “Seek and Destroy.” It is a medal for killing the Elite Ranger Class. I’ve done it twice (without knowing it’s significance)… Check my profile and u can see the medal.
Ha you’re right I got 3 medals I don’t remember killing any except for today lol
Here is an excellent vid just posted on Y-tube.
2.5 hours and 489 banshee kills later and I still can’t find this prick. This is getting unbelievably frustrating, I hate to give up but holy hell this is retarded. I’ve done what has been suggested to do, complete one objective, get in the falcon – lock altitude around 175 feet and I have scoured the city backwards and forwards and I never have seen him.
Does it matter when you go look for him? Does how many jammers you destroy affect where he can be found or where he spawns? This has got to be easier than what I’ve gone through so far, I could probably have earned 10x the amount of CR in matchmaking instead of trying to do this challenge, I just hate not being able to find this damn elite.
Try floating to 175 at the start of the mission after flying to your first building to with the jammer all I did was go in the door and back out but I doubt that matters hope this helps
so you’re saying you didn’t actually complete any objectives? you just went there backed out, got back in the falcon and then went and found him?
Exactly. took me less than 2 minutes
All u have to do is fly around the map when the mission is defend pelican an ull see him flying away from ya..It ain’t hard really
i found him you have to hang around in the far left corner of the map. approx 5.50mins game time he appears fast and low. had to free fall to catch him, also the gold elite near the spire. the moment you get the jet pack ignore all others and just run to the left hand side of the map and he;s hiding under the massive rock you use to easily capture a banshee he’ll run and eventually cloak and dissappear
I did it…basically do the missions up to defending pelican,then just fly around the edge of the map an shoot at all banshees or just look for the one flying away an not shooting x
Just completed it myself. Went to the area seen in the last minute of the first video, then hung around. The banshee was flying v. low (down and to my left, as looked in the same direction as seen in the vid.) Took a couple of attempts, but the area is definately right.
If he gets away from you just go back to your last checkpoint if it didn’t overwrite by then.
Congrats on 100K hits Matt, I scrolled down the page and saw “62 comments” and was like WHAT? Must have had a lot of new traffic this morning because of the challenge.
In the 5 hours since the challenge came out I’ve had 8,426 hits. More than I’ve had in some weeks in total, and still 19 hours to go (it always picks up/get busy from now until about 8 as America wakes up and logs on). Good news, I wish I’d written better posts!! 😀
You’re posts are great don’t worry about it
Took little more than 3 minutes, got the first objective flew straight to the club and he flew towards it from the left.
This is probably my least favorite level but after playing Long Night of Solace so much me and a buddy decided to start doing this one for the last two campaign score challenges. Looks like were going back again today. I probably had only played this level twice (heroic/legendary) since the game came out up until last week.
So Im not sure if this is gonna help at all but I just got done with the “Golden Tree City” callange and it took me almost 98 min to finally find the elite. anyway, im pretty sure i heard drums being played right before he spawned. I was about 1600m away from the very first objective in the mission about where Matt vose said but more to the east. the drums sounded like three very low toms played in a row. hope it helps
dude!…thank you so much! i had been working on this challenge for about 3 hours straight til i read your post. i went 1600m away from the first objective and to the east. as soon as i got there their was a banshee flying right by me boosting like crazy. killed it and the challenge popped! if it werent for you i would have probally just quit messing with it. thanks again!
Stay at altitude 175. There is no specific location, you can start searching for him from the very beginning of the mission. If you don’t find him after about 7 minutes restart the mission.
does anyone know if the banshee with the golden elite actually shows up on the radar? ive been trying this challenge for 2 hours now and cant seem to find him!
It should, although it’s much easier just looking for a Banshee that appears to have unlimited boost and is either charging at you (take care to stay out of the way) or bolting it.
Finally found it, and it was sweet. When to the first objective, dropped to 175 (thanks), when one way (don’t know which, but it was short) to the invisible wall, turned around, and saw it. barely caught up to it while keeping my health.
oh and can you start looking for him at the beginning of the mission, or do you have to complete an objective for him to show up? i did the first objective and am looking for him now and still nothing…very, very frustrating!…lol!
You do not have to complete or begin any objectives. Take your Falcon and commence searching. Banshee should appear up on the radar, but you can also identify it in the far distance by looking for a thin trail of blue light that seems to go on for quite a while: this Banshee never stops boosting.
Found him. It only took me 5 minutes. I did not do any of the missions. i just locked in at the 170 altitude and flew towards the first mission. Killed around 4 banshees that shoot at me. Stayed down there looking around were the 1st mission is and just saw him boosting away.
Not sure if this has been said, but I noticed some irregularities that were pointed out that I think I can explain.
There will be no elite kill for destroying the banshee and in fact that will be true for every other banshee in New Alexandria. There are no elite character models actually piloting the banshees, so when you kill them, they simply explode. I figured this out when flying around in the theater mode and examining the explosion and not finding a Gold Elite body tumbling out of the wreckage, and inspected other explosions and had the same result. This explains why you can’t hijack banshees on this level (for the most part) I believe that they took the models out of the banshees to save precious RAM space, and this applies to the space battles as well. I already knew about the space battles as I tried to complete a daily challenge that required that you kill “X” amount of elites and I thought that elites would be piloting the space craft but got no credit for the kills towards the challenge.
Therefore, even though they explicitly talk about a Gold Ranger elite piloting the banshee, there is no character at all and in fact is only a flagging reference to the BOB phenomenon so dedicated members of the community would instantly know what this challenge meant in the grand scheme of things. It’s been just over 4 months since the games release and it is largely believed that there was no BOB on New Alexandria, and I think that Bungie was giving dedicated players the helping hand they needed to think outside the box of what could constitute as a BOB.
Here’s the pic of me shooting down the Banshee. No body.
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/Screenshot.ashx?fid=12824109&size=medium
Cool site by the way 🙂
Good thinking dude, I never thought of it that way. But I believe you are wrong about not being able to hijack a banshee, I have done it before when I later turned that banshee into a phantom dropship with a different glitch in the same level
Thanks for the help on this one. Definitely hangs around the 175 elevation. And then just keep eyes peeled for a slight blue streak anywhere and follow it. Took me about 6 minutes of flying around to find him. Found him Not far from hunters
I completed this Earlier this Morning, Check it Out!!!
I just got it after getting rid of one jammer and killing the two anti-air turrets at Club Errera and then he appeared on the lower left of the club. My friend just went to the club before anything else and killed the turrets and then it appeared in the same spot for him. I have a video of it on my file share. My Gamertag is JOHNANTAYWILLOW and sorry but I can’t render it or anything.
I got him
It took a while looking around, but he’s only boosting if you’re behind him. I got infront of him and took the poor guy out. Challenge completed ^_^
Dark Spartan239! my vid is strange at the end though. but i hope you all find him!
ok so i just got it. i didnt get any jammers or anything. what i did was at club errera i went to about 300-400 elevation and kept flying around it. within about a minute or so i saw a banshee flying full speed away from me. its really fast and hard to shoot but if you are persistent you can get it. if you are looking at the club it was to the right flying behind it. hopefully this will help anybody who needs this challenge
oh and i went there at the beginning of the level. i left that part out
I did not go to the club or the hospital. I did not mess with any jammers. I killed the banshee less than 10 minutes in. When I started off the mission, I went straight and to the right about 45 degrees. Theres a long rail looking system that looks like a winding snake going from building to building. Stay underneath that and just weave through the buildings, making sure to stay underneath or close to the rail. I hovered at -46 and found him skimming on by. It seems as if he stays close to the “rail” I described.
easiest way to findd him in my opinion was just fly to about 600 ft…then just fly around and look down…once i did this took me like 5 minutes.
what if they want you to skyjack a banshee,and find the gold ranger class elite?I just did the skyjack,and came online to see if I could find where he was,because the name of the achievment where you first skyjack a banshee,is “Banshees,fast and low”
No, they don’t. Look at the videos here and it’s all about killing the boosting Banshee. Fast and Low is Bungie using their own terminology to make you look for him in a certain way, because until today no one had ever publicly found this guy.
i left the falcon on the front deck of the hospital facing out away from it with the pilots still in it…and while i was inside i all of a sudden got the challenge
Every time I find this guy, he bolts straight for the edge of the map, and I can’t catch up to him. Missed several opportunities so far.
Ok I’ve done everything recomended, and I havnt seen this guy for 3 hours. Either this game hates me, or this elite is a serious NINJA! :p
here’s what i did…it took me somewhere between 5-10 minutes…and this is not a joke…after the mission starts what i did was head towards the hospital and destroyed as many banshee’s at around the 175 mark for elevation that i saw…didnt see him so i flew around the hospital and looked around i eventually stopped and went to the hospital and landed the falcon on the platform facing away from the hospital…with the nose right at the steps…and this is at 738 altitude…i still had both of the marines in the gunner’s seats also…and i dont know if the extra flying around i did before landing will have any effect on it…anyways i went inside and started clearing out enemies…and all of a sudden i got the notification for the challenge being completed…so i dont even know where exactly the ranger elite came from since i wasnt outside
There’s definitely a Gold Ranger Elite. You can find one outside on the bridge in the first level when you are riding around with Jorge and the team leader. The Elite is pretty cool looking.
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Just killed him… Didn’t get the achievement. I hit an invisible wall right as he blew up in the distance. Does that affect it?
Here is a video of this spawn location and where he flies. For me he spawned at exactly 6:00 behind the Club and flew directly toward the Portal building at about 100 altitude.
http://www.bungie.net/Silverlight/bungiemediaplayer/embed.aspx?fid=12835911
After following the suggestion here, I dropped down and began my hunt. Did not take long, under 6 minutes.
I posted 3 File Shares:
Golden Tree City: the Hunt
Golden Tree City2: His point of View
Final Seconds: a little Closer from behind him as he DIES!!!
When I did this challenge I found him directly from the hospital entrance at about 170 by the bridge at 6:17 without doing any objectives, also thought I’d backtrack and see where it spawned, it appears it spawned at 6:03 out of the barrier, to the left of the hospital facing toward the barrier, hopefully this helps anyone 🙂
Okay, finally got it. From the very beginning of the mission, fly straight towards the railway system and the building that looks like a bottle opener. Just fly around there at altitude 170 and start shooting down banshees. He appeared for me at about 3 minutes and he flew right in front of me — I saw him 4 times previously in the same area so he definitely flies through there.
His flight path starts from the direction of the club and towards the bottle opener building, so you can’t miss him.
Happy hunting!
For me, this was the easiest way to approach this given the information on this website, and it was the way that worked for me. First off, 100-175 is the target altitude range of course, but the important thing is that it is irrelevant which objective you get first. NO COMPLETED OBJECTIVE IS REQUIRED TO DO THIS. Secondly, it also doesn’t require you to kill any banshees shooting at you. You can kill them if you want, but the whole point is to kill the banshee not shooting at you, so its much easier to just ignore the ones trying to kill you. I flew around for about 6 minutes or so before I saw him and killed him.
If you want to see my video of me killing him and attaining the Golden Tree City Objective Completed, you can go to my file share on Halo:Reach. My gamertag is kthxdie89 and the title of the clip will be Golden Elite Challenge.
I hope this helps and good luck!
You are exactly right!!! Took me only 7 minutes to find it. Although, I tried earlier today and I spent 90 minutes looking.
THIS WORKS FOR CO-OP! If one person downs the banshee the other gets the achievement too!
video of it:
Hope this helps
Happy Gaming
coreymawf
fuck this can’t find him
Just wanted to confirm that he does pop up around the 6:00 mark. After spending about 2 hours not finding him at all, I decided to start one more time and try some of the suggestions. Sure enough, I happened to be hovering in front of Club Errera and see a banshee flying across my view. I light ‘m up and BOOM, challenge complete. Thanks for all the tips! 🙂
I played for 40 minutes or so and must have missed him. Reloaded to start and went right down to -36 and killed maybe 8 normal banshees or so before I saw him flying by. Got it at around the 6:30 mark into the level. Thanks for the help!
It seem to go by the bottle opener shaped building every 6 minutes. Keep watching the building and it should fly by.
Thanks for the info, got it first try
got mine right at the 6:30 mark last night. thank you for all the helpful posts
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Fast and low hints in the name, its a banshee flying fast and low look for that to earn the credits
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HAMMIEPOO is the gt if you wanna look it up if its a BOB. Completed it with 5 mins and 36 secs