The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why did the Forerunners research the flood on the Halo Rings? Ask Question. Asked 5 years, 1 month ago. Active 5 years, 1 month ago. Viewed times. Side Note: I moved this question from Arqade. Improve this question. I'd be interested to know how far a single Hive entity could get from its hive before it's no longer operating properly.
Maybe that's why the installations are near the Hive on the rings: access to study it in its hive. Hive, because I haven't said "hive" enough times.
Though thriving for millions of years and achieving extraordinary technological feats, the Forerunners eventually fell prey to the horrific parasite known as the Flood. Their efforts to contain the parasite culminated with the activation of the Halo Array, eliminating all sentient species in the galaxy.
McLees also did all the early concept art for the Flood. The Flood learned of the abundance of water on Earth through the infected Margaret Cain and expressed a desire to reach Earth in order to spread.
As the situation worsened, the Flood-infected Margaret, Andy, Steffi Ehrlich, Roman Groom and Tarak Ital started shattering the ice holding the rest of the Flood in order to release it. The logic plague is the Forerunner term for the techniques used by the Flood to attack and subvert intelligences through non-biological means. This growth—achieved in part through the planet-encompassing Key Minds—eventually enabled the parasite to match any Forerunner AI near the end of the Forerunner-Flood war.
His physical body died but his conscious is still alive. The Flood fear the activation of the Halo array. In CE, Cortana said it kills their food, which is all life.
But in Halo 3, the Flood leave for the Ark as to avoid the activation of the Halo array. This makes it look like the Flood will die in the activation. Yes, they are human afterall, and the Flood can easily break through a Spartans Visor or Armour and infect them.
Allthough in irony, Johnson, which has no armour, is inmune to the Flood infection. At least the Flood located locally that had followed everyone through the Portal to the Ark. But the Halo only kills sentient life or Flood food if you will in order to stave the Flood to death.
Resulting in a massive explosion destroying both Installation 04B and The Ark. The Flood as we know it, the High Charity strain, is not destroyed.
The Gravemind might be, but they are not dead. Technically Flood is not alive. Some Precursors hid in stasis while others changed into the dust found by the ancient humans the latter created the Flood.
Helpful tips. What killed the forerunners? Are the precursors evil? Is the flood evil Halo? Did the precursors create humans? Why did the forerunners kill the precursors? Why did gravemind help Master Chief? Who killed the precursors? Why did the forerunners devolve humans? The Chief and the Arbiter escaped, however, with some assistance from the Sentinels, who were able to help subdue the Flood with ease. As they escaped the Flood, the Chief and the Arbiter discovered a replacement Halo ring rising from the Foundry and realized that Cortana's plan to stop the Flood was to fire the new installation at the Ark, an act that would sterilize the local infestation while leaving the Milky Way galaxy unharmed.
In order to fire the new Halo, the Master Chief ventured into the derelict and wrecked High Charity , now a massive Flood hive, where the AI was still held prisoner by the Gravemind. Facing increasing Flood forces and telepathic demands from the Gravemind, the Master Chief was able to rescue Cortana who still possessed the Index from Installation In order to buy time to escape and to delay the Flood, the Master Chief detonated High Charity's reactors, destroying the hive and severely injuring the Gravemind while the Chief, Cortana and the Arbiter escaped on a Pelican.
However, the Gravemind survived High Charity's destruction and began to rebuild itself on the ring while the Flood invaded , attempting to stop the new ring from being fired. However, as firing the ring prematurely would destroy it and severely damage the Ark, Spark turned on the three, mortally wounding Johnson before the Chief apparently managed to destroy him.
Cortana was able to use the Index from Installation 04 to fire Installation 08 which killed most of the Flood forms on the Ark along with the Gravemind.
However, in its final moments, the Gravemind addressed the Master Chief and the Arbiter telepathically, warning them that their victory would only slow—not stop—the Flood. As predicted by Spark, the installation was destroyed by the firing and the Ark suffered heavy damage. Even though the Gravemind was destroyed, and all Flood on the Ark apparently eradicated, the Flood still exists on the other Halo rings excluding Installation 05 which was sterilized by Sangheili forces and other remaining Forerunner installations.
Even though Path Kethona was sterilized by Omega Halo near the end of the Flood war, given the Flood's extragalactic origin, it is possible that more pockets of Flood exist outside the galaxy - or more disturbingly, that other, more distant galaxies may have fallen to the Flood. Though the UNSC kept the Flood's existence concealed from the general population, it did make preparations for the possibility of the Flood's return.
Three days after the Battle of Installation 00 , with some Flood spores having survived the firing of Installation 08 and the destruction of High Charity's reactor, the Ark's monitor Tragic Solitude had the ruined Covenant capital city of High Charity sealed off with a containment shield and the Ark's Sentinels raze the perimeter and modify the refugia nearby so that no sentient life would survive in the vicinity, thus depriving the Flood of new host bodies were they ever to escape.
Tragic Solitude also set a battalion of Sentinels on patrol around the perimeter, not only to keep the Flood contained, but to defend against any future outsiders who might try to enter the wreckage and thus unleash the Flood. The Banished leader Atriox, aware of the potential danger of the Flood having survived in the city, gave specific orders to only scout the shell and not to go inside lest surviving Flood be disturbed.
However, Voridus , like many of the Banished, did not take the threat of the Flood seriously, believing it simply be another lie of the Prophets. Ignoring the warnings of both Atriox and his own brother Pavium, Voridus deactivated the Ark's Sentinel defense network and used a Banished Scarab to burn a hole in the containment shield around the former Covenant holy city. When Voridus' troops entered the wreckage to salvage it, they were ambushed by thousands of Flood infection forms lurking within High Charity which were then set loose upon the Ark.
With the Sentinel defense network down, the Flood were left unhindered by the Ark's defense systems. Pavium quickly assembled a force to rescue his brother, defending against overwhelming Flood forces before finally retreating to meet up with Voridus at a Banished drill site near a Forerunner archive that contained a control terminal for the Sentinel defense network.
With the Proto-Gravemind dead, the Flood threat was greatly diminished. Atriox ordered Pavium and Voridus to clean up their mess and the Banished joined a force of thousands of the Ark's Sentinels in containing the Flood outbreak and sealing off High Charity once more. The Flood is composed of a variety of specialized forms, each filling a different role in combat.
The most basic Flood forms are the infection forms, which come in various types and infect hosts by hijacking their bodies and nervous systems. Combat forms are used to subdue and secure additional hosts for infection, and once they have outlived their usefulness as warriors, they transform into carrier forms, spreading the Flood by spreading more infection forms.
Once the Flood has amassed enough bodies to create a Gravemind, it is capable of generating "pure" forms , which are created solely from assimilated nutrients and biomass. The pure forms observed during the outbreak in late were able to spontaneously mutate between three configurations: Stalker, Tank and Ranged forms, although in practice the true extent of their mutability is impossible to effectively catalog.
The Flood at this point relegate the combat forms to defensive purposes or as additions to the biomass, calcium, and nervous system reserves of the Flood hive, and rely increasingly on the pure forms as their primary instrument of infantry force. However, in order for the pure forms to fully replace the combat forms, the pure Flood population must be large enough and in a state of equilibrium, which is in a constant state of flux depending on Flood gains and losses.
Because of this, it is common for the combat forms to serve alongside the pure forms, in addition to the infection and carrier forms, as the acquisition of hosts and technology would likely outstrip the speed in which the Flood can generate pure forms.
Spores are minuscule airborne Flood forms that serve to spread infection and suffocate potential hosts who inhale them. Infection forms are the most basic category of the Flood parasite, consisting of several varieties of both ground- and airborne Flood forms. Pod infectors undergo a tadpole phase of development before growing into full physical maturity.
These are among the most basic of Flood forms. They are tasked with seeking hosts, then infect them that mainly on the ground. These forms are the natural flood form and are produced depending on need and amount of biomass available. These large tanking forms can only be produced when a Flood outbreak has amassed considerable amounts of biomass and formed a Gravemind.
These flood forms can only be produced once a Flood outbreak has obtained enough biomass to form a gravemind. These forms attack via bony spikes shot from it's back area, however is immobile. These forms can produce a variety of Flood forms and release them once its internal pressure has reached a certain point.
Key minds are nodes for the Flood's collective consciousness, ranging from mobile coordinating forms to compound minds spanning entire planets. The Flood Juggernaut is a large Flood command form directed by a seething mass of infection forms linked to multiple hosts. The Abomination is a mobile, low-level key mind form capable of combat that coordinates the Flood on a local scale. A biomass of hosts, for the purpose of utilizing their minds to form a collective intelligence.
A Proto-Gravemind can grow into a Gravemind given enough time and host bodies. This ultimate Flood form serves as the coordinating hive mind of the Flood.
While they vary in size and complexity, at their height Graveminds can engulf entire worlds. The Flood is an anomaly in all known biology; their mode of growth and reproduction would make them incompatible with any natural ecosystem. However, the Flood seem to thrive the most in moist and humid areas; it is thought that the extremely cold artificial weather patterns near certain important areas of the Halo rings are intended to hinder the Flood.
All Flood biomatter is made of a unique, undifferentiated "Super Cell" , which relays information and coordinates the cellular assembly like conventional neural cells. It is also capable of flexing and moving in coordination with other cells, and can be arranged to mimic any bodily organ that is required for the Flood's use.
This combination of traits has caused some to refer to it as "thinking muscle. The Flood Super Cell physically resembles both neuron and glial cells in structure, with a central cell body and many tendril-like, branching structures. In order to reproduce and grow in biomass, the Flood needs to infect and assimilate other life-forms.
While capable of infecting nearly any organism, the Flood shows a strong preference for sentient life-forms, as assimilating their cerebral tissue allows the Flood to increase its overall intelligence.
The first stage of a Flood outbreak is typically initiated by contact with Flood spores or even more reduced forms of Flood biomatter, should no extant Flood forms be present. Upon sighting a host, a Pod infector will leap for the most accessible area of the victim's torso; if the target is an armed human or other bipedal species, this is typically the left side of the chest below the neck, as most combatants will expose this area while shouldering their weapon.
As the host dies, the Pod infector extends tentacles that tap into the victim's spinal cord or other nerve center, forcing a "match" with the nerve signals previously produced by the host's living brain. To begin the physiological conversion of a host, the Pod infector injects encapsulated Flood Super Cells into the body. As it does so, the form analyzes the entire genetic code of its host, allowing the Flood to determine the most effective use of the victim. Simultaneously, the inserted Flood cells capture and break down the host body's cells into organic raw material, which is then absorbed and assimilated into the attacking Flood cells.
The Flood infection then uses the absorbed biomass to create new masses of Flood Super Cells. As the Flood continues to use the resources of the host body, particularly its calcium reserves, the parasite's own cells build upon and augment the framework of the host to produce one of a variety of Feral-Stage Flood forms.
This entire process, from the initial kill to total control over a fully mutated host body, takes only a matter of seconds. The infection process is not limited to living hosts; organisms that are already deceased are also susceptible to infection.
As long as the host has not decomposed to the point where the body and nervous system have completely deteriorated, the Pod infector can infect and convert the host. The Flood infection utilizes the host's biological content as the fuel for its work, which is consumed and employed at prodigious speeds. From the beginning until the end of this complex, multi-step process, the Pod infector keeps the body "alive" by chemically isolating the host's dying brain, preventing the signals of brain death from reaching the rest of the body and causing it to shut down, which is an essential part of the parasite's mission of consuming and converting the host organism.
While the Pod infectors are an effective and economical means of delivering infection, particularly against armored targets, the Flood can infect hosts through other means. Flood spores , if inhaled, can transform a host into a combat form.
This is the Flood's primary means of infection when an outbreak reaches a certain point: Flood spores will be deployed into a local biosphere in copious quantities, instantly overwhelming any unprotected biological targets.
Pod infectors selectively target species that possess sentient intelligence and are of sufficient biomass, and can infest intact or lightly wounded dead bodies.
As a host organism is killed by the initial attack, Pod infectors use tendrils that pierce the skin of the host and find their way to the spinal cord. They then synchronize with the host's nervous system and gain control of their body, replacing its now-absent consciousness with the ravenous and voracious psyche of the Flood.
Any useful information present within the memory centers of the host's brain, such as battle strategies and technical knowledge, is retained for use by the Flood. Despite this lingering of certain memories, no trace of the original mind remains; only a simplistic and primal urge to assimilate other species drives the organism after infection.
However, the entirety of the host's mental content is seemingly absorbed and added to the whole, as the Gravemind has shown to be able to simulate its victims' consciousnesses within itself. In isolated cases, such as when the Flood seek very specific information from an individual's mind, they utilize an alternate method of infestation that does not subdue the host's consciousness immediately despite mutating their physical form; this allows the Flood to "burrow" into the host's mind, eventually giving them access to the entire scope of the host's memories.
This has only been specifically seen when the Flood sought information from Captain Jacob Keyes , such as the location of Earth, or a starship that would free them from Installation When the Flood have amassed enough sentient hosts to form a Gravemind, then their behavior becomes far more coordinated, and the Flood collective becomes much more deadly as a result.
The Gravemind may also speak directly through combat forms and pure forms under its control. While baseline neurological assimilation is the same regardless of host species, the Flood infection process includes physiological transformations, which vary depending on the host and the Flood's present need for specialized combatants.
Upon being infected, higher-level species capable of combat are typically transformed into combat forms. The host's physiology is completely "rewritten" during the infection process: organ-based systems are corrupted, organ-specific functions are decentralized, and body cavities are decayed, making hitbox-selective incapacitation impossible and brute force incapacitation difficult.
Due to the lack of a central nervous system, decapitation will neither stop nor slow a combat form. Furthermore, munitions with high speed and penetration, such as sniper rifle rounds, are usually ineffective against combat forms. Picking off selective areas of a combat form leads to no wide-scale physiological impediments, and the projectile will punch through the decayed flesh rapidly, exiting through the other side of the combat form without dealing any major damage.
To facilitate melee combat, combat forms generate tentacles and claw-like structures, which protrude from the host's arms. Generally, a single arm develops into a clawed appendage, while the other retains the capacity to manipulate objects, such as firearms. The rapid growth of these structures tends to push aside and break apart the host's hands and forearms.
Combat forms can strike with devastating force, move with tremendous speed and agility, and jump to great heights, displaying physical abilities far beyond those of the host organism while it was alive. The price for these formidable abilities is that the required metabolism is so rapid and extreme that the host organism's corpse is rapidly broken down by the parasite. This is dramatically demonstrated by the rapid decomposition and disintegration of an infected life-form, which will eventually become a stunted, bloated, mobile generator and incubator for more Pod infectors, which is commonly known as a carrier form.
Pod infectors and pure forms sense their surroundings using specialized tentacles, which are tipped with red ganglia. Exactly how these organs work is unknown; they may provide visual or chemical information, or perhaps a combination of both.
In combat forms, these tentacles typically protrude from the chest cavity where the Pod infector is housed; in pure forms, they are located on the front of the "head" segment. The described changes occur when the Flood has still yet to overwhelm any meaningful resistance in a given locale.
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