Sandbox Skull (achievement)

The Sandbox Skull is an Achievement worth 25 Gamerscore points gained by finding a hidden skull on the map, Sandbox. Without the correct strategy, this skull is impossible to retrieve.

Description
The skull is actually far out of the boundaries of Sandbox. One must go to Forge mode, and build tube pieces, shield doors and deploy Bubble Shields to reach out for the skull. The direction to build the "Sandbox Skull Tunnel" is between the two Guardian towers to the right of the sun, or alternatively you could get an Assault Rifle and aim it around until it points south-west (down-left, in Layman's terms). When you think you've got the area right, get a Sniper Rifle or Beam Rifle and aim to look at the skull and where it is precisely.

Tutorials
Getting to the Skull may be difficult because the watchtower will destroy the player if he or she goes outside the playing area. An easy way to get it is to set up a teleporter and fly the receiver the the right side of the tower then immediately activate a bubble shield, this will keep you alive to grab the skull, or if need be go to edit mode and get another bubble shield throw it closer to the skull and then grab it and you get the achievement.

Another way is to collect a Bubble Shield, fly to the skull in Monitor Mode, then quickly drop the Bubble Shield over the skull. It's possible to Overload the map to disable the watchtowers in order to safely get there without a hassle, though the skull may also disappear.

But of all plans, the easiest and least time consuming, is to locate the skull go into monitor mode zig-zag over to the skull...quickly... then drop a bubble shield and claim your prize.

The longest, most confusing, and most time consuming method is to combine bubble shields, walls, tunnels and teleporters.


 * 1) Make a sender node where you spawn.
 * 2) Place a tunnel piece as far away as possible towards the skull.
 * 3) Get a receiver node, and without moving, place it inside the tunnel with the same channel as the sender node.
 * 4) Place a wall as far away, to block up the entrance to the tunnel so there is one exit, facing the skull. Go out and die, then go through the teleporter.
 * 5) Go through the teleporter, repeat steps 2-4 but don't place a new receiver node, just drag the old one you made to your new position.
 * 6) Repeat step 5 until your very close to the skull, and two bubble shields could cover the gap.
 * 7) Get a Bubble Shield, and go into player mode. Pick it up. Then, throw it and just before the bubble shield appears, press Up on the D-Pad. This freezes the bubble shield, so when you go back into player mode you will finish throwing and it will appear in a fraction of a second.
 * 8) In monitor mode, go through the teleporter and immediately press up on the D-Pad to go into player mode.
 * 9) Sprint to the skull while sticking to the bubble shield(s) if you can, and immediately pick it up when you can. The guardians will probably shoot you at this point, but you should get the skull and associated achievement.

Of course, there are other ways to obtain this otherwise unobtainable skull. One way is to stay inside of a corner tube while you move toward the skull. Another method is to try and dodge the guardians by going into monitor mode and randomly moving up and down, with shield and damage settings set to invulnerable, 4X overshields, and 200% recharge rate. This will cover you until you can reach the skull, switch to player mode, and grab it.

One new take on obtaining this skull is to block the towers. Discovered by forgehub, the map called Sand-Blasted has everything set up for you, just download it here.

Trivia

 * A common misconception is that The Guardians only attack one of you at a time; if you have a teammate assisting, either two towers will attack both you and your friend, or one tower will shoot two beams either separately or simultaneously.
 * Another effective means of obtaining the skull is to have two partners hold up shield doors against the guardian lasers while you go and retrieve the skull.
 * The Sandbox skull is the only skull to appear even after a map has been overloaded.

Related Pages

 * Halo 3 Achievements
 * Mythic Map Pack