Valhalla

Valhalla is a multiplayer map in Halo 3. A from-the-ground-up level, it is said to be "The new Blood Gulch". The map is a sparsely forested valley with mountains in the distance, featuring a river, rocky outcroppings, a large reduction in size, and hills. Bungie added these new land features to help balance the action between snipers and on-foot travellers, whereas in Blood Gulch and Coagulation, those players were easy prey. These minor alterations cause drastic changes in gameplay. Some have said this was somewhat of a replacement for Blood Gulch and Coagulation.

In a recent FAQ of Halo 3 Beta, Bungie has replied to the question "Why is there no Halo in the sky above Valhalla and Snowbound?", by saying "Who said Valhalla is anywhere near a Halo? The Galaxy is a big place, and there are only six Halos left." The FAQ can be seen here. In the final version of the game, if you go out into the water as far as possible and look to the horizon, you can see one "spoke" of the Ark. You can't see more than one because of mountains and clouds, but Valhalla is located on the Ark. The map is very large. It has a canyon with hills, lots of trees, cliffs, a very large Forerunner wall on one side, and a river running through.

Overview
The map is similar in shape to Blood Gulch but has unique elements of its own. Valhalla is not a remake of Coagulation, nor is the downloadable Standoff either. Valhalla also has features from the Halo: Combat Evolved level; Halo. The most obvious feature is both the river and the bases themselves. The river starts in the mountains behind blue base, and comes out at a waterfall. The river then flows in front of the base, under an outcropping, then down between the two prominent hills on which players find the Spartan Laser, and the AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun. Finally it bends around the base, and empties into a large lake. There is also another two caves in the map, one which goes through the hill between the crashed pelican and blue base and the other which goes through the hill between the pelican and red base. The distinguished beam emitter bases are Forerunner technology. They are similar to the structures seen in the Halo PC multiplayer map Infinity and Halo, while the lower portion is reminiscent of the bases in Blood Gulch. There are three entrances to the inside of the base; two on the sides as seen in many screenshots, and another located behind that dips down into the base. Replacing the teleporters are the Man Cannons. The largest one, on the front of the base, will send you out a third of the way out into the main battle area, while the smaller ones on the side of each base send you a short distance to the nearby cliff for a quick getaway. The bases feature a shiny glass floor on the interior, allowing players to see who is above them and vice versa. As previously stated, there are two similar hills on either side of the river. On one, the highest, spawns the Spartan Laser, while the lower hill holds an AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun. Each base holds a Sniper Rifle inside the rear entrance, a pair of Fragmentation Grenades and Plasma Grenades. Numerous Battle Rifles spawn around the map: two on top of the base next to the smaller Man Cannons, two underneath the base alongside each entrance along with two Plasma Pistols, two on the terrain where you land after taking off from the Man Cannons, and two that spawn in each cave. A Shotgun spawns inside each of the caves as well, and Spikers spawn on the top of both bases near the Missile Pod. A pair SMGs also spawn on each base and are located next to the Plasma Grenades.

The Missile Pod spawns inside each base in the Halo 3 Beta but were moved to the top in the full game. The current vehicle set per base is a Banshee, Warthog, Wraith, and two Mongooses. However, in the Matchmaking playlists the vehicles are limited to a Warthog, a pair of Mongooses, and a Banshee per base. The Power Drain spawns on top of each base next to the Missile Pod, while the Bubble Shield spawns at the neutral Mongoose near the Forerunner wall.

Like the Halo Installations, the Ark is populated by a mixture of flora and fauna, some unique and others peculiarly similar to Earth classes, and as mentioned before the bases are Forerunner energy stations.

Areas
There are also points on the top of the spires that can be reached by Banshee, Hornet, or in Forge, but these areas will not be listed.
 * Lake Base
 * Waterfall Base
 * Waterfall
 * Canyon Bend
 * Ravine
 * Turret
 * Turret Side
 * Pelican
 * Pelican Rear Cave
 * Pelican Nose Cave
 * Centre Ridge
 * River

Strategies

 * For a Team Slayer game, it is imperative to control the middle ground (where the Spartan Laser spawns) with Battle Rifles, Sniper Rifles, and the Spartan Laser, this allows your team to fire on the enemy base from a distance, or kill them coming down from the Man Cannon stopping them from being able to fight with ample room to breathe, but be careful as a way of countering this is to simply go to the turret and flank the enemy team, allowing the others to take the middle ground.
 * There is an easy way to deal with the turret, however, if the Sniper is in the base, he does have a view on the mounted turret, if the turret user is foolish enough to keep it on its stand.
 * When at the Blue Teams Base (the one with the water nearest it) grab the Sniper Rifle and go to the rock to the left of the base with a giant space between the rock and the cliff. This provides great coverage and gives you a great view of the Blue's battle side which is great for CTF game modes
 * For a CTF or Assault game type, whether it is Multi or Single, organization and teamwork is the key to victory.
 * Try not to use the Spartan Laser on lone targets such as one person charging the hill with no back up.
 * Try to secure the Spartan Laser first and foremost to allow you to take out infantry and vehicles with ease, if you're on defence fall back to the base and use it on assaulting vehicles, using a Battle Rifle or similar to take out distant-enemies before they reach the base. If on you're on offence, use the Spartan Laser to cover the rest of your team, then you should to help retrieve the flag or protect the bomb from being disarmed.
 * If you have the Sniper go hide near the machine gun turret. From there you can see the Pelican, the place where the other team lands if they go into the man cannon and you can see the Laser spawn place.
 * The initial rush straight for the Laser once the game starts can be swung your way by throwing grenades to land just beyond the lasers spawn point knocking down shields or even killing members of the other team with the same objective in mind.
 * If you're confident, you can camp the laser for the first minute of the game, use it as bait; the weapon switches when people pick it up and the temptation to use it makes those of lesser experience easy prey. But as with all camping after a couple of kills grab the laser and move on.
 * For territories sticking together is the best way to win, usually, an offensive team will stay in one large group moving from territory to territory, making it hard for a team to defend all of the territory's at once, so for defence, move up to the bases that will be easiest for the attackers to capture (The crashed pelican, the shotgun spawning points) and try to protect those with a larger group, and keep a few of the back ready to move to another territory while the rest deal with other attackers. For offence, move as one group, have Battle rifles and/or Snipers cover the Assault rifles as they rush the territory to capture it. If you must, leave on person to capture a territory further back as the rest rush the ones closer to the enemy base, then have him/her move with any players that had to respawn after they died.
 * As a note, Territory 4 is a very dangerous Territory due to the fact it is in a cave, and multiple grenades can be thrown in to kill the attacking force. Try to always bring a Bubble Shield and/or Regenerator.
 * As in any Team Slayer game, move as a pack, and do not get separated. Controlling the Spartan Laser and the Missile Pods are the key to this level because vehicles will not have to worry about getting destroyed so easily.
 * If you are in the Coastal Base and you use the Man Cannon, you can actually jump across the river from where you land, with at least some momentum left from your launch. You must land pretty much on the edge of the land before you would fall into the river, if this can be done right, it may be helpful to get closer to the Spartan Laser on the hill.
 * Try to use the Warthog when taking out enemies on the hill, especially if they have a Spartan Laser and are trying to kill a team-mate in a Banshee as they won't focus on you has much.
 * In Capture The Flag, if the flag carrier has no one to carry him home from within the enemies’ base, it is a wise tactic to take the Mongoose from the far right and drive where they will land on the Man Cannon, this can be used for a clean getaway.
 * At the start of the game, if you are going for the Spartan Laser, pick up the Power Drain and throw it as you man cannon towards the hill, this should deter, weaken, or at least hold back the enemies while you pick up the Laser, and also have a Sniper in the base and/or other players to protect as you get to a safe distance with the Spartan Laser.
 * A great sniping tactic can be used in which you can see almost the whole map. At the start of the game, grab the Sniper Rifle and head for the Banshee.  If you can get both, fly straight up and you should see a ledge where you can hop out from the Banshee and stand on a tiny platform at the top of either base.  From here, you can see over the Spartan Laser hill and all the way to the other teams Man Cannon and the place it will drop them, which can give you a few quick kills before you are noticed.  If enemies get close, you can switch to a Battle Rifle and finish them off.  However, the pulse laser that shoots out of the top of the bases can kill you and destroy the Banshee, giving the other team a serious advantage.  Time your attempt to get up there without wasting your life, the sniper rifle, and the Banshee.
 * On the base near the large body of water, you can grenade jump on the right part to get to the mid part of the base. Great place to snipe or to finish off enemies with a battle rifle.
 * The Pelican crash site is a good place to spring an ambush; it is dark so active camo works well here, it is not easy to snipe somebody from there, and with Shotgun, swords, Gravity Hammer and any close range weapons you can dominate.
 * A good place to snipe is to wait for people going into battle and shoot them in the air. Later they will come over the hill and then you can get a head shot.
 * A good sniper place is to get the sniper rifle and banshee and ride up to the top of the base. If you do it correctly you will be able to snipe people with in the whole map. But remember to look out for the mortar that the bases fire.

Trivia

 * Valhalla is the name of a large impact crater on Callisto, one of Jupiter's largest moons.
 * The two towers on Valhalla show a striking resemblance to the towers in the level Halo on Halo: Combat Evolved.
 * On October 31st (Halloween), a Tombstone with the letters "RIP" appeared on the Forerunner Wall near the Neutral Mongoose respawn and on a rock close to Red Base. Also, on November 11th (Armistice/Veteran's Day), a drawing of Kilroy, a popular graffiti character during the 1940s and throughout World War II, appears on the Forerunner Wall and on a rock just close to Red base. It also bears the writing, "Kilroy was here". There are different images for many different days. The image seems to be locally generated-changing your Xbox clock will show an image for any given date. On December 25th(Christmas day) a sort of shield with a big cross going through it will appear. On January 1st (New years day) the words "make love not war" appear by the rock at the red base. On April 22nd A recycle symbol with a skull on the inside with the letters SG underneath appeared on the Forerunner Wall. On May 5th (or the first Monday of May - May Day. It could even be something to do with the "Cinco De Mayo" playlist, which literally means "5th of May") the message "Toady was live!" appears. On July 4th (Independence day) the words "BBQ at bobs place" appears on the wall. On July 7th (Bungie Day) the Seventh column symbol appears.
 * Valhalla (Old Norse Valhalla, "Hall of the Slain") is Odin's hall in Nordic mythology, for those slain gloriously in battle. This map's name has nothing to do with blood, unlike its two predecessors. But it is related to MJOLNIR, as they are both of the same mythological origin.
 * The D-77 TC Pelican Drop ship Victor 398 mentioned in the map description can be seen to have crashed along the shadowed cliff between the bases. Weapons canisters from the drop ship appear to be scattered across the battlefield.
 * The map's general layout and design bears a startling resemblance to the level Halo in the first game, and may have been inspired by it, incorporating elements from Blood Gulch/Coagulation and Containment as well.
 * This map was named "Riverworld" and then "Curious Gorge" before Bungie finally settled on Valhalla.
 * This map was used as PSAs and the new season "Reconstruction" for Rooster Teeth's widely known machinima series, Red vs. Blue.
 * In the Halo 3 beta, you could fly into outer space by a glitch in a Banshee.
 * You can fly to the top of the towers using a Banshee and then wait for a few minutes before being killed by the Guardians (the laser fires up and hits you).
 * The crashed Pelican could have been shot down from the plasma mortars that each base shoots up in the air.
 * During the Halo 3 Beta, each base spawned a Trip Mine. Unfortunately, using it as an ambush for unwary enemy team members often resulted in the deaths of those friendly units still around it, and so it was removed from the final game.
 * During the concept of this map, Bungie intended to make the map more of a snowy map than a forest one. Because of Snowbound, Bungie decided to make a forest map instead. However, some snow can still be seen near the base located near the waterfall. There is also snow atop the cliffs surrounding the majority of the map.
 * The river that runs through the center of the map has a fully functional current. A light enough object, including a dead Spartan, will flow down the river from the waterfall towards the lake. If the object floats far enough in the lake, it will drop underwater when it reaches the "death border".
 * On the cliff to the left of Blue Base (opposite the cliff next to the wall) there is a picture of Kilroy on a rock.
 * Butterflies can be seen near the weapon canister opposite the Pelican.
 * Looking closely at the edge of the platform where the Banshee spawns, you can see the texture of the metal resembles the face of Ling Ling, Bungie's dog.
 * There are dim lights inside each of the bases, giving the room a red or blue ambiance. However, the default and matchmaking spawn points in team games (CTF, Assault etc) spawn red team in the Blue Base (Lake Base) and blue team in the Red Base (Waterfall Base).
 * If you look at both Blood Gulch and Coagulation from Halo:CE and Halo 2 respectively, from a birds eye view it looks as if there was a dried up river in each map that is almost the same shape as the one in Valhalla.
 * Each base seems to be a large Forerunner Beacon identified by the long stretching tower and edifice streaming wayward plasma beams firing into the sky, as seen in the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign mission, Halo.
 * The elephant fish in the small gulf can be killed with grenades and rockets, and when killed they leap out of the water but usually disappear when landing back in the water.
 * Strangely, the tower beam at the waters edge doesn't do anything unlike the tower beam at the rock wall. The rock wall tower beam kills instantly, invincible or not.
 * Valhalla and MJOLNIR are both references to Norse mythology. It is currently unknown whether or not Bungie has an obsession with Norse mythology like they do with 7 or hippos.
 * Valhalla is said to be a re-imagination of Blood Gulch and Coagulation, so the Pelican in Valhalla could possibly be a reference to the Pelican at the end of the machinima series Red VS Blue, which took place in Blood Gulch and Coagulation.
 * Valhalla shows that there may be rockslides or erosion on the cliffs due to the caves being formed by what looks like fallen boulders.
 * Bungie says this is a spiritual remake of Coagulation, but it doesn't seem to play like it at all.