Halo CE (Mission 1) The Pillar of Autumn Walkthrough
Video Walkthrough: Halo CE Mission 1 Walkthrough
Skull Location: Iron Skull Location
Terminal Location: Pillar of Autumn Terminal Location
The Pillar of Autumn is the first mission in Halo and it begins with a brief tutorial (if you're playing single player). Immediately after the tutorial before leaving the first room you can grab the Iron Skull if you're interested in collecting that achievement.
After you finish the introduction tutorial the Pillar of Autumn will get attacked by some Covenant and you'll be tasked with making your way to the bridge. The path to the bridge is very linear, when you exit the room you start in you'll have to jump over some pipes and go down the next hallway.
Follow the obvious route through the ship and listen to the tutorial advice as you go. My only advice for this part of the level is to pay attention to the doors that are green - those are the ones that are open. If the little computer panel is red that means it's locked. You'll eventually come to a marine blocking a door that will ask you to follow him to the bridge.
A picture of the bridge with Captain Keyes is below so that you know what you're looking for. You'll find Terminal #1 on the bridge too if you are playing the Master Chief Collection version of this game, if you're interested in that Achievement or cutscene. To proceed approach Captain Keyes for a cutscene.
When the cutscene is over you'll want to leave the bridge and follow the linear path. There will be some enemies for you to kill along this route and you'll be introduced to the main enemies and weapons that you will be using throughout the game. Like I mentioned before, pay attention to the doors that have green computer panels and those with red ones. That will tell you which ones are unlocked and which are locked.
You will pass some Covenant drop ships while exploring the Pillar of Autumn too. The game makes a big showing out of these - after you defeat all of the Covenant board one of these drop ships and grab an Overshield from inside. Overshields are a power up in Halo that gives you a shield over top of your normal shield hence the name Overshield.
This is what an Overshield looks like
Eventually while following the path through the Pillar of Autumn you'll get an update for Cortana asking you to follow a nav point to Maintenance. This is a tight hallway that is very memorable and will serve as a marker for you on this mission. Cortana will activate your motion tracker inside of this hallway and she'll lead you to a room with a half-broken door.
Press the melee attack button while standing in front of the door to bash it open and proceed. There will be a few more hallways before you find yourself in a room that's scorched black from the explosions and fire (pictured below). In this area the path forward is going to be a small maintenance door nearby the fire - it's the same door that's pictured below.
Unlike the previous maintenance shaft this one will have two Grunts inside of it and it'll dump you out in a hallway with a bunch of enemies. Follow the linear path and you'll be lead to a shelf with a load of grenades on it and you'll get a quick tutorial about how grenades work. Explore this area and defeat the enemies and eventually you'll get a notice from Cortana about the last life boat waiting to leave.
There are a few areas where you can trigger the cutscene for this life boat - if you just stand still for a minute it'll trigger automatically too... So there isn't much you can do, you've beaten the level!