The Halo universe extends further than the fantastic video games under its name. Master Chief's story is expanded upon thanks to the vast amount of books written by skilled authors. These books delve deeply into the narrative of the games. Some give readers information on the Forerunners, others tell stories from the perspective of the Covenant, and yet others dive into the background of beloved side characters.
Seriously, if you're a Halo fan, you are missing out if you haven't picked up any of the books. But on the bright side, you have a great time reading ahead of you. Read on if you want to know juicy lore details from the Halo franchise that can only be found in the books.
Updated August 6th, 2020 by Amanda Hurych: More and more often as the years progress, the Halo games take advantage of the lore its expanded universe can provide. Things only mentioned in the books are being referenced in core game titles. As such, it makes total sense to revisit the Halo books to see if gamers can identify any details that might be included in the upcoming Halo Infinite. For all fans know, the last Halo book they read could hold important information regarding the new plot.
15 Halo 3: ODST's Rookie Died In A Hostage Situation
In case you were ever wondering what happened to the Rookie from Halo 3: ODST, you should prepare yourself for tragic news. While on a mission with his fellow ODSTs (Buck, Mickey, and Dutch), the Rookie got pulled into a hostage situation. And after a tense stand-off, the Rookie got shot in the head. It devastated his team. If you want to read the entire sad story, be sure to check it out in Halo: New Blood. At least the rest of the book deals with the awesome circumstances of Buck's transformation into a Spartan.
14 Sergeant Johnson Was On Harvest When The Covenant Attacked
The average Halo player may not be aware that the first human planet the Covenant attacked was the world of Harvest. Quite removed from UNSC-governed space, Harvest was vulnerable. Fortunately for Harvest's inhabitants, they had Sergeant Avery Johnson planet-side to help them during the aliens' invasion. Sadly, all efforts to save the colony were in vain, and the entire planet was glassed.
13 Jun Recruited Sarah Palmer Into The SPARTAN IV Program
Jun actually did survive the events of Halo: Reach, and he is actually one of the people responsible for the new Spartan IV program. As a matter of fact, he's the one who recruited Sarah Palmer into the program. Before joining, Palmer was an ODST. Jun approached her and she became one of the first recruits. Later, players of Halo 4 know, she went up the ranks to become a Commander. You can read about her initial meet-up with Jun in the comic book series Halo: Initiation.
12 The Prophets Have A Roll Of Celibates
Not much is known about the Prophets' personal lives, but given how creepy and conniving they are, it's understandable that you might not want to know. For the more curious of Halo players, the book Halo: Broken Circle is a must. It gives an in-depth look at the formation of the Covenant, extending all the way back to when the Prophets met the Elites. One strange tidbit of information from the novel is that in order to properly regulate genes inherited by future generations, the Prophets have a list of names they include on a Roll of Celibates. These members of the Prophets' species are forced to never procreate.
11 The Covenant Had A Secret Weapon The Prophets Feared To Use
The Sharquoi were originally created for Halo 2. A new enemy type called Drinol was imagined, and actual in-game forms were made. However, the idea was scrapped, only to be picked up again in the book Halo: Envoy. In this novel, it is revealed that the renamed Sharquoi were an ancient Forerunner army of behemoths the Prophets kept in a back pocket. However, the fear of the Sharquoi getting out of control stopped the Prophets from ever using them.
10 Cortana Blackmailed A Colonel Who Was Unfair To The Master Chief
If you mess with the Master Chief, then you can bet that Cortana is going to enact some payback. And that's exactly what she does in the classic novel Halo: The Fall of Reach. Eric Nylund's book was one of the first to grace the now hefty Halo library. In it, he details the story of how Chief and Cortana's operation together was tested unfairly.
This colonel who really wanted the SPARTAN II program to fail fired missiles at them during an obstacle-course-type test. Thanks to their luck and skill, the two survived, but Cortana later hacked the colonel's private files and essentially blackmailed him.
9 Spartan IIIs Were Trained By A Former Member Of Blue Team
Spartan IIIs are the Spartan types players were introduced to in Halo: Reach. The next evolution of Spartans after Master Chief's program, the Spartan IIIs did not go through as rigorous a selection process as the Spartan IIs. However, they were excellently trained. Kurt-051, a former member of the Chief's Blue Team was whisked away to the planet Onyx to train these new recruits.
8 Guilty Spark Used To Be A Human Named Chakas
It's hard to believe that the annoying monitor of Installation 04 was once human, but The Forerunner Saga tells us the story of how it all happened. 343 Guilty Spark was once an ancient human called Chakas, and after he was wounded severely, his consciousness was imprinted into a monitor so that he could live on in some manner. Unfortunately, it looks like all traces of who Chakas was disappeared, but that doesn't stop the book from being incredibly interesting.
7 Master Chief Was Covered In Freezer Burns During CE
Both the books and the short series Halo: Forward Unto Dawn showcased the negative effects of cryo-sleep during faster-than-light travel. One thing that can aggravate the notorious freezer burn associated with cryo-sleep is going in a cryo-chamber with armor on. And, as any player of Combat Evolved can recall, Master Chief woke from cryo-sleep with his MJOLNIR armor already on him. Halo: The Flood details the excruciating discomfort the burns caused the Chief during the events of the first game.
6 How Sergeant Johnson Survived The Destruction Of Halo
If you've only ever played the games, one of the eternal mysteries that must have plagued your mind is how Sergeant Avery Johnson survived the destruction of the Halo ring in the first game. It would have boggled our mind too if we hadn't read Halo: First Strike. Johnson managed to get aboard a Pelican and escape the debris of the ring after the Pillar of Autumn blew (and that hilarious Legendary ending for Combat Evolved is not canon). Plus, this book also describes how a "medical" condition Johnson has, called Boren's Syndrome, allowed him to resist the Flood parasite.
5 There Were Two Didacts
A lot of stuff about the Forerunners is just plain complicated. Their advanced society and strange culture make for complex issues when writing a story about them. Greg Bear does the Forerunners justice in his Forerunner Saga series.
He manages to tell a gripping story about the fall of the Forerunners, all while introducing us to the notion that there were once two Didacts. One was the original, called the Ur-Didact, and the other was a copy, called the IsoDidact, that was created to follow in his predecessor's footsteps.
4 The Commander Of ONI Is A Failed Spartan
The current head of ONI is a woman called Serin Osman. Most of what we know about ONI from the Halo games is that they're a secret government agency that works clandestinely to make sure humanity has an upper hand. The head of ONI used to be Admiral Parangosky, but she chose Osman as her successor. Osman was once a part of the SPARTAN II program, but she failed out of the group when her body couldn't handle the augmentations. This experience jaded her, but it also prepared her for the difficulties of being head of ONI. She was first introduced in Halo: Glasslands.
3 An AI Betrayed The Forerunners
The Flood's victory over the Forerunners might have been more deeply contested if a Forerunner AI had not allied itself with the Primordial, a being that largely controlled the Flood. This AI, known as Mendicant Bias, was able to work past Forerunner defenses with ease. Later, Mendicant Bias repented of its actions and spoke of its regret. Its downfall is told in The Forerunner Saga series. Its redemption can be seen in the terminals players find in Halo 3.
2 The Halo Array Was Reactivated After Halo 3
Even though we all thought Master Chief took care of the Halo Array for good when he destroyed the Ark in Halo 3, the universe wasn't so lucky. In Halo: Hunters in the Dark, scientists discover one day that the Array has been activated once more. As it turns out, the monitor on the Ark, Tragic Solitude, was not happy that his installation was ruined. He turned on the Array in a massive form of revenge that took the combined forces of humanity and the Sangheili to counter. In this novel, we're also introduced to Olympia Vale, who becomes a playable Spartan in Halo 5: Guardians.
1 The Flood Comes From The Dust Of The Precursors
Much as the Forerunners preceded humans, the Precursors preceded the Forerunners. However, the Forerunners ended up turning on their creators, winning a massive war that nearly wiped out all the Precursors. What few remained turned into a deadly dust, becoming the first true Flood spores. Even though the Forerunners annihilated them, the Precursors ensured the eventual destruction of their progeny by becoming the parasitic Flood. (The Forerunner Saga is an engrossing read, in case you haven't sussed that out already.)