Frequently asked questions about the story of Halo…
What book should I start with?
I highly recommend starting with Eric Nylund’s Halo: The Fall of Reach.
This book released several weeks prior to Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 and is foundational to establishing many of the concepts that endure in the fiction today.
The origins of the Spartan-IIs and their MJOLNIR armour, Dr. Halsey and her place in the universe, humanity’s long struggle against the Covenant, and the fall of Reach itself leading to the discovery of Halo — all these things and more make this book the perfect entry point.
What reading order do you recommend?
‘Release order’ is what I would recommend in terms of reading the books.
Through release order, you get a greater sense of how the Halo universe has evolved over the years — following the progression of its ideas in-parallel with the games.
Attempting to read in ‘timeline’ order makes for a convoluted experience, as many of the books jump around different points of the timeline.
Should I read Halo: The Flood?
Halo: The Flood by William C. Dietz is largely an adaptation and direct retelling of Halo: Combat Evolved, but with some additional characters and context on both the human and Covenant side of the conflict.
The book hasn’t been included on this site because the story of Halo: Combat Evolved is covered in both the game’s own entry page and on Halo: Fireteam Raven’s. For the sake of repetition, it was excluded here — but that doesn’t mean you have to skip it!
In terms of reading order: The Flood falls between The Fall of Reach and First Strike.
Are there any Halo books I shouldn’t read?
Read whatever interests you and make your own mind up about them.
There’s absolutely no value in telling you what to think and how to feel. What some people hate might be something you end up loving — and vice-versa.
What’s canon in the Halo universe?
In short, basically everything — unless stated otherwise.
Exceptions include the Halo: Legends short ‘Odd One Out’ (hence the title), the Halo: Online game that was exclusive to Russia, things like descriptions on toys (such as the Mega Bloks sets), and certain new armour sets known as ‘Fractures.’
Some things from non-canon sources may eventually be brought over into the official canon. For example, the ‘Anvil Initiative’ (an allied multispecies program between the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios) saw its origins in Halo: Online, and has since been made truly official in the Official Spartan Field Manual and the Season 5 update of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
The Franchise Management team at 343 Industries is committed to ensuring the continuity and consistency of the Halo universe across its vast transmedia.
Some books have multiple editions, which should I read?
Some Halo books have been rereleased with new editions over the years — these include The Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, and Evolutions.
The first three had some adjustments made in order to more closely match the evolving canon of the Halo universe. For example, the original version of The Fall of Reach was written by Nylund in about seven weeks and the universe hadn’t been formed to any great extent, which led to things like the Elites, Brutes, and Hunters supposedly not being encountered by humanity until 2552. Many of these details have since been rectified.
Additionally, the later editions of these books contain extra short stories at the end, known as ‘Adjuncts’. These add some minor peripheral narratives that make for interesting extra reading.
In the case of Halo: Evolutions, there are two extra stories — ‘Soma the Painter’ and ‘Wages of Sin’ — which do not appear in the ‘base’ edition of the book, but (for various convoluted publishing reasons) were put in separate editions titled Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Which Didact do we encounter in Halo 4?
The Ur-Didact (the original) is encountered and fought in Halo 4 — NOT the IsoDidact (Bornstellar).
Is the Master Chief a ‘reincarnation’ of the IsoDidact?
No. In Halo: Silentium, Chakas’s mind is compartmentalised when he is made the Monitor of Installation 04, a new personality — 343 Guilty Spark — is ‘layered’ over his suppressed memories because Chakas holds many intimate secrets about the Forerunners, the Flood, and the Precursors.
Over 100,000 years (explored in the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Terminals), Spark’s loneliness and madness causes some old memories to bleed through. When he meets the Master Chief in Halo: Combat Evolved, he finds himself remembering parts of who he used to be when he was in the same situation last time — stirring within his layers of memory.
Where was Blue Team during the games prior to Halo 5?
During Halo: Combat Evolved, most of the Spartan-IIs were still on Reach. Linda-058 was aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn in a cryo pod — clinically dead after sustaining severe wounds during the battle of Reach. Her pod was jettisoned when the Autumn came under attack and later recovered after the Master Chief and Cortana escaped.
At the start of Halo 2, Fred, Linda, and Will were attending a debrief with ONI following the events of Halo: First Strike.
After the Master Chief pursues the Prophet of Regret through slipspace aboard the UNSC In Amber Clad, Blue Team engages in a number of skirmishes against Covenant forces on Earth before they are redeployed to Onyx where they meet up with Kelly-087, Dr. Halsey, Franklin Mendez, and the Spartan-IIIs and are eventually trapped within the Shield World for the rest of the war.
These events are covered in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx and Halo: Glasslands.
Why is it called ‘Alpha Halo’ if it’s designated Installation 04?
While the Halo rings are numbered in the order they were created, their designation actually refers to the order in which they were fired.
Though Installation 04 was the fourth Halo of the Neoteric Array to be constructed, it is designated Alpha Halo because it was the first to fire.
Is Dr. Halsey the mother of Jorge?
No.
While Halsey was seen as a mother figure to the Spartan-IIs, Jorge says “ma’am” to her in Halo: Reach, not “mum.”
Is Cortana a Forerunner AI?
No. This misconception originates from Halo: Reach where Dr. Halsey refers to Cortana as the “custodian” of the Forerunner ship they are studying.
Cortana was created in 2549 (three years before the fall of Reach) by Halsey through the illegal means of flash cloning her own brain. While it is known that the Librarian intended for humanity to develop artificial intelligences, there was no direct alien influence in Cortana’s origins. She is a human AI.
Is there a cure for the Flood?
Unknown.
The Primordial’s experiments with the Flood in Halo: Primordium lead it to the conclusion that the Flood are able to choose to infect or not to infect, which they employed as a strategy to ensure the Forerunners would preserve humanity after their war — giving them hope that the humans found a cure before revealing that there never was one, wasting their time and resources to devastate their morale.
However, there are methods that exist to prevent Flood infection. Use of the Composer to extract minds from organic bodies and place them in machine storage was one such method used by the Ur-Didact, but this came with its own drawbacks due to the Composer’s own connection to esoteric Precursor science.
Avery Johnson’s ORION augmentations (covered up by ONI as a fabricated disease known as Boren’s Syndrome) seemingly provided him with some degree of ‘resistance’ to Flood infection, preventing an Infection Form from tapping into Johnson’s nervous system.
However, there is much conjecture about the veracity of this information as no in-depth study of Johnson’s condition was ever conducted. Upon learning that ONI would kill and dissect Johnson to learn the truth, the Master Chief destroyed all data on this in Halo: First Strike.
Is Johnson a Spartan?
Yes. Avery Johnson was part of the ORION Project, colloquially referred to as the ‘Spartan-I program.’
The augmentation techniques used by ORION were limited and would see great refinement and expansion by Dr. Halsey for the Spartan-II program.
How did Johnson survive Halo: Combat Evolved?
Avery Johnson’s alleged ‘immunity’ to the Flood, coupled with his decades of combat experience and skill enabled him to survive and escape the initial wave of Flood that consumed Captain Jacob Keyes and the rest of the squad.
Johnson’s escape from the Flood containment facility is detailed in the ‘Breaking Quarantine’ story of the Halo Graphic Novel.
Linking up with Lt. Elias Haverson, PO2 Sheila Polaski, and Cpl. Locklear, Johnson managed to escape Installation 04 in a Pelican dropship as the ring was obliterated. This is detailed in Halo: First Strike.
What happened to Jun after Halo: Reach?
Jun-A266 escorted Dr. Halsey to CASTLE Base on Carter-A259’s orders. His exact escape method from Reach is unknown — it is possible that he left with the other ONI personnel when they evacuated, or through some other means.
After the Covenant war, Jun was selected by Musa-096 (a rehabilitated Spartan-II ‘washout’) to help lead the development of the Spartan-IV program, serving as its recruiter.
Where were the Brutes during Halo 4 and Halo 5?
Following the Prophet of Truth’s defeat and the San’Shyuum going into hiding, the Jiralhanae began to splinter into in-fighting while also continuing to battle the Sangheili, with whom their feud remains.
With Jul ‘Mdama’s reformed Covenant, led by Sangheili, they simply did not use the Jiralhanae.
Chieftain Lydus attended a summit with the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios in 2558 (detailed in Halo: Escalation), but the political outcome of this was inconclusive — though Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam wished to make peace.
In 2559, the Banished would emerge as a unifying force for several militarised Jiralhanae clans: the Keepers of the One Freedom, the Ravaged Tusks, and the Legion of the Corpse-Moon. This is explored in Halo: Shadows of Reach.
How does firing a Halo ring actually work?
The Halo rings fire a burst of lethal radiation across a radius of 25,000 light years. When all seven Halos are fired together, the overlapping harmonics of each ring amplifies this effect to cover the entire galaxy.
Halos are tuned to any macroscopic organism that possesses even the most rudimentary nervous system.
How old is the Master Chief?
John-117 was born March 7th, 2511 — so, as of Halo Infinite, the Master Chief has passed his 50th birthday!
But the augmentations he received as a Spartan-II, as well as time spent in cryo (which spans at least a combined total of five years), means that he is biologically much younger than his chronological age would suggest.
How did the Master Chief’s armour change between Halo 3 and Halo 4?
While in cryosleep aboard the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, Cortana occupied herself with what tasks she could — one of those tasks was using nanomachines to upgrade the Chief’s armour, creating ‘Mark VI MOD.’
Why did the Forerunners call themselves ‘Forerunners’?
The word ‘forerunner’ means ‘something that precedes the coming or development of someone or something else.’
Central to the Forerunners’ philosophy was the concept of the Mantle, which they believed had been passed down to them by the Precursors — their creators. One day, they too would pass the Mantle to another civilisation, and so the name ‘Forerunner’ was chosen to reflect their impermanence as but another stage in time.
The core irony of this lies in their corrupt leadership doing all they could to ensure that they would hold onto their power forever, reflected in the Ur-Didact’s distorted belief that the Mantle belongs to Forerunners alone.
Which Halo stories will make me cry?
This will vary for everybody, of course, but my personal recommendation list would be: Ghosts of Onyx, Contact Harvest, Silentium, Broken Circle, Shadow of Intent, and Renegades.
What’s the deal with Forerunners and humans — are they the same or not?
Yes and no.
Bungie originally intended for humans and Forerunners to be the same species, though the specifics of that varied greatly. In 2007, both the Iris ARG and Halo 3’s Terminals diverged from that path and began to position them as separate species.
In Halo 3, 343 Guilty Spark says: “You are the child of my makers, inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner.”
Spark calling Chief (and, by extension, humanity) the child of his makers, inheritor of all they left behind, likewise acknowledges a difference between them.
In 343’s fiction, there has been a gradual reconciliation of this narrative thread that saw some measure of resolution in Point of Light.
Beginning with Halo: Evolutions and Halo Legends, continuing through the Forerunner Saga, it is strongly implies that humans and Forerunners were once the same species, but their evolutionary paths diverged — seemingly, by the influence of the Precursors.
The Gravemind states: “We announced to your kind long ago that you were not the ones chosen to receive the Mantle, the blessing of rule and protection of life and change that thinks. That blessing was to be given to others. To those you now call human.”
The Forerunners adopted their name as a title, having long forgotten who they used to be. So, if the Forerunners now call us ‘human’… then what were we before?
Point of Light details the Librarian’s discovery of a defunct rate known as the Theoreticals while searching for answers about her physical and mental ‘abnormalities.’ Guided by the Domain itself, she learned that the Theoreticals concluded that humans and Forerunners share a homogenous genetic structure, both having sprung from the same source.
Does the suit jack Master Chief off?
In the fiction thus far, there has been no evidence to suggest that the Master Chief’s suit jacks him off.
However, many details and specifications about the latest GEN-3 suit remain highly classified. The possibility yet remains…