Actually I think you may've got that completely wrong. When Fyrewulff said 'highest tier', I believe he was referring to the highest tier of his graded challenge. Not some upper area of SC's main facility, if that's what you thought. In other words it's like he was saying "At the highest tier, Fire Team Zulu's newest challenge is to complete Silent Cartographer and ONLY kill Elites."

: The only way i was able to
: make it past that room was dawning the invisibility cloak

I think you mean 'donning' there. Yeah the camo is rather useful.

: I would say employing these rules force me to count on luck quite often
: (but that's the essence of John tho right?)

Hah, I think the luck notion is for something other than routine combat. It's just a storyline thing - I forget the details. For actual combat I'd assume MC would be relying on his skills to try and keep things under control, so I wouldn't agree with you on the 'essence of John' thing. Then again, I haven't read the novels or anything, so I don't know much about how he's characterized outside the game. I just assume that he doesn't go around relying on luck - else he'll get creamed pretty quick!

: Hope to report back with my final attempt later today/tomorrow.

Meanwhile I've uploaded a video showing a run of mine if you're interested. See my other post.