Kept ya waiting huh?

The ESRB allows DLCs to be rated separately from the base game, so we could feasibly have an M rated flood DLC down the line and halo infinite could keep it's lucrative T rating for the base game.

The biggest hint to the flood being on the ring, personally, is when Despondent Pyre literally states to Cortana that the containment facility is protected, then Cortana goes on to state that the flood is not what she is after and that there are worse things than the flood that she is after.

No, I don’t believe the Endless are “immune” to the effects of the ring in the way most people think. At the end of Halo infinite, Chief and the Weapon are thrown 3 days into the future by a gate they don’t understand. I believe the Endless use time jumping as a way to circumvent the Halo blast radius. Essentially they hop forward in time to avoid a halo that has fired - totally avoiding its effects all together. The ring can’t kill you if you no longer exist at the time it fired.

the endless could just fire the halos without releasing the flood and it would be the exact same result with way less risk

The infection form in the Cylix is also labelled as "Flood" in the game files.

They'll be DLC for sure. 343 and Microsoft both know how hyped people will be when it's announced. As far as the M Rating stuff goes, we saw 1 room full of blood during the campaign. I call it the "Blood Room". I believe it was in the second level. If they did it in Halo Wars 2, they'll do it for Infinite.

I totally agree that the Endless will probably use the Flood. Though I imagine it will go wrong with the endless having underestimated the intelligence of a gravemind in their hubris. I also imagine that the UNSC and The Banished will form an uneasy temporary alliance to stop both of them. And afterwards at the end of this story line it will be Atriox vs MC rematch. Where they both challenge each others goals and motivations. Making it more ambiguous than good vs evil. Speculation is always fun.

In my eyes, Infinite basically opened up a myriad of amazing possibilities for the future of the storyline. Halo's future is looking quite bright.

Here's my two cents. The endless themselves were never a threat itself. The forerunners locked them away because if the flood ever got their hands on that species, they could survive the firing of the Halo arrays by breeding them

Until we know more, I'm not convinced we can confidently say that the Endless are immune to the flood Praying for a flood DLC one day down the line though

Completely unrelated to the flood, but seeing how happy and cheerful and clean cut you are these days compared to even just a couple years back is insane and makes me incredibly proud of you. Keep up the good work Luc.

My theory: the Endless aren't "more dangerous than the flood" in the sense that they're bloodthirsty killers, they're dangerous because of their time manipulation. More specifically, because of what they _know_ thanks to that. In the legendary ending cutscene, the Grand Edict says _"Today we do what it takes to maintain order. To preserve our truth."_ What is their order and truth? The mantle. They wiped out most of the Precursors so they could hold onto the mantle and impose their version of order on the galaxy. But if the Endless know the truth and if they're immune to the rings, it means when sentient life eventually arises again, the Endless can teach them the truth and the Prometheans won't have a bunch of blind followers. They might even be involved with the Precursors in some way, perhaps an extra-galactic species that came over with them. We know a few Precursors survived, and they had differing opinions about things (the Primordial being a sadist, for example). What if there was a Precursor who decided against humanity having the mantle, and wanted to give it to the Endless instead? That could be why they have the ability to manipulate time.

I’d assume that when Despondent Pyr referred to the Xalanyn as “dangerous,” perhaps it was in a more political sense. Since they survived Halo, and most likely questioned the Forerunners claim to the Mantle.

Miss the flood the feeling of being overrun constantly was fun

I think it's pretty obvious there was some sort of interaction with the Xalanyn and the Gravemind on Delta halo, especially considering the outbreak on delta halo occurred just a little over 100 years after the legendary ending of halo infinite. I think they were the Meddlers that sabotaged Penitent Tangent and hacked the teleporters on cold storage.

I've been struggling to justify the Endless being "worse than the Flood" since hearing that line, but now I can buy it. If they are truly immune to the Flood, then I could see them being nightmarish.

I would absolutely LOVE if they did a Halo 2 type DLC where we get both The Banished and the UNSC’s perspective in a DLC and seeing how both sides would be affected physically and emotionally by a Flood outbreak, if it is a campaign DLC where we get multiple missions. Also I just want another reason to play as a Brute/Elite. If they did this I would freak out. Some people may hate split conflict but I just want to play as something other than a human. Be it a Brute Chieftain, an Elite General/Zealot (Can’t tell), or a damn grunt

I would love a realistic horror DLC where a marine who happens to be a reclaimer accidentally frees the flood and you see how truly horrifying it is when you’re not a spartan

Ok, wild thought coming in. What if later on in infinite's story when the endless are introduced and they pose a galactic threat, the only way the endless could be defeated would be to put one galactic threat(the endless)against another(the flood). The forerunners would know this and thats why they put the flood in a cylix so that any future species would be able to counter the endless. Keep in mind this would be a last resort option. Wild thought ends here.

The moment I heard that they were making halo infinite a platform game to build off of, I knew we ain't getting flood right off the bat. They for sure are coming in a dlc and I cant wait

So one thing that stood out to me was the end cutscene showing the "Endless" cylixes and how it has this yellow haze surrounding the room and little floaty specks or spore clouds? This seems to be indicative of Flood presence. Remember the end of Halo 2 we see similar glimpses of dust just before we get a shot of the graveminds appendages. The cutscene even tracked one for a bit. I think the cylixes are containing the Flood dust of either (un)corrupted Precursor/Endless dust. Hard to say what it is but the atmosphere feels similar. Maybe the gravemind is trying to release itself on the ring from imprisonment, using a catelogued species as a proxy/puppet to set things forward. Hence the parallel of the gravemind and harbingers dialogue.

diggin the camera action, keep up these juicy lore videos handesome

Not been destroyed by the pulse doesn't mean they lack a nervous system Xperia, bear in mind that the Forerunners where afraid of them because of their control over the construct of time in some unknown way. Just wanted to point that out :).

Only thing that confuses me is when Chief first meets the Harbinger, she goes "We are not enemies"....then proceeds to launch Chief through a tree.

Honestly I really hope if the flood do make a return they'll make a firefight against ai banished or flood maybe even the flood juggernaut as a wave 20 boss

I missed these videos and i hope you continue doing some more lore videos going back to your roots is a nice change

Damn bro, you're Silent Shadow intro is just godly amazing.

The scariest and most fascinating species of all of halo. Can’t wait for their return.

A reminder we still don't know what species "accidentally" freed the Flood on Delta Halo, apparently just a few centuries after the Array fired.

Just wanted to say that the way you cheerfully talk about everything halo related is what keeps me engaged in this channel. Rarely I see someone that can transmit such positive energy while talking about a mind eating, flesh consuming, biomass arranging parasite

I really hope we'll get Flood DLC.... imagine walking around a flood ridden open world where Flood can linger anywhere

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the “there’s more dangerous thing in this ring than the flood” cause I don’t think there should be anything worse and it also makes me think that they’re downplaying the flood cause they won’t be in any dlc (anytime soon at least)

I really hope if and when they do bring the flood back it will be just like how Bungie did them, and not dumbed down because of the teen rating. Seeing all their disgusting features is one of the things that makes them so terrifying.

You’re a legend man keep it coming!

Love your vids, you help me understand the Halo universe much better, thanks!

I thought that the "3 days" time travel into the future at the end of the game hinted that the endless could survive the halo firings not innately, but by jumping forward in time to avoid the blast. Then they totally could be infected by the flood, which would make the forerunner's halos useless, and so the forerunners tricked the endless and locked them away instead. Under this interpretation "we will learn their secrets" referred to in the legendary ending are how they can jump forward in time.

No flood in halo infinite or even for the future is a huge wasted opportunity

Long time follower and even long time Halo player, gotta hand it to you about your theories. After careful consideration of what you proposed, it definitely makes sense even if I wished there wasn't anything more worse than the Flood. Thanks for making the videos.

Nothing goes together better than Hidden Xperia and flood lore.

What if The Endless aren't immune to the flood. Would that not then make them more dangerous as the flood could infect them and be potentially immune to the Halo array. I think that is an interesting idea to think about & would certainty make the Endless being an indirect threat.

it's always possible that flood where always stored in Cylix's and where just taken out and placed into tubes and terrariums like in Cold Storage specifically for experimentation, as the monitors on the Halo array were tasked with experimenting to find a cure, regardless of how likely it was. The Cylix could store the infection form samples and the just take some out for the experiments when they needed to. This would make much more sense I think because Cylix's (unlike tubes filled with fluid) can halt aging, so the flood samples would be like a control group

I can't watch this yet cuz I'm not that far into the campaign, but wow, that intro animation alone just earned you a sub.

My Theory from the campagin: The Endless are a species the forerunners came across that have some form of manipulation towards time travel, that would leave them the perfect hosts for the flood cause they would be able to survive at all points in time. The forerunners locked them away because of this very rare trait and this is why they are basically classified as unknown, I mean the forerunners always knew that the flood would return and why they couldnt risk it. Anyways thats my two cents I may have missed some stuff making this whole theory redundant, please feel free to correct me.

Cortana called Harbinger's kind worse than the Flood, but I disagree. Because imagine if the Flood incorparated a race that can survive a Ring being fired. You see, nothing can be worse than the Flood, because the Flood can always get *worse.*

I'm loving these recent drops in videos! Very exciting stuff, keep up the good work!

When I first saw this I immediately saw the infection form and got excited, the room and amount of security gave it away. Can’t wait

I noticed a pattern here: the precursors denied the forerunners. The forerunners denied the endless and the endless are probably gonna deny humanity the mantle of responsibility.

I still wish for a flood DLC atleast, like imagine grapplehooking a flood combat forms arms off and having an army of friendly flood guys like in halo CE

I literally scoffed when they said there are things worse than the flood in the ring lmao. The flood are the penultimate threat in the Halo Universe, all consuming, all knowing. And no amount of saying “yeah these things you never see in-game are like way worse for sure.” Will convince me otherwise.

I have been waiting for this

In Infinite campaign it is said the Endless are a bigger threat than the Flood. OMG mind BLOWN!! Makes perfect sense. Great video, thank you !!!

This theory sounds pretty good and makes more sense than what I've heard so far, like the flood infecting them to be immune to halo. Which just didn't make sense to me as many theories just didn't add up, others think the Harbinger is one of them, I don't think she is. She seemed weak and also looks different on the cylix's diagram (9:03) than the endless do.

now this is what i miss from the old days. Hiddenxperia making flood theory videos

It’s so refreshing to have so much new lore and information to theorize about

A video about the the flood made by you, yes please, great thing to come home from work too

We need a survival horror flood game.

What if we witness an Atriox and Master Chief team up. Feel like atriox is smart enough to realise he’s just a pawn. Would be a good way to elevate the character within the mainline games so when we do eventually have our boss battle (hopefully) it will very impactful.

I really want The Flood to return in a dlc. They are such a awesome enemy and have a horror element that cannot be found anywhere else in Halo.

That audio cue for flood was amazing

Here's something I'm wondering: If the Xalanyn turn out to be some offshoot of the Precursors, or some kind of derivative species, how would they view the Flood, which are in effect corrupted Precursors? Would they pity them? See them as a lost cause or sacrificial lamb? Or try to redeem them into actual Precursors?

I think it would be 🔥 if the flood acted and moved like a literal liquid flood of mass kind of similar to world war z or how they look in the gravemind scene when he takes over high charity. Something that just makes us literally feel suffocated and overwhelmed while we’re playing.

Its been so long since I watched these videos. I missed them

Finally I've been waiting for this

If they do go that route with weaponizing the flood as an endless tactic, I could see 343 pulling a page from bungies book and getting Lasky infected as a callback to halo CE, history repeating itself type of deal.

This theory works really well. It was also my interpretation about the story that has been set up going forward. The only part that doesn't align, is Why would the endless require the flood as the middle man? If they survive a halo, they could just fire the halo and not have to use the flood as the middle man. My theory is that the endless/xalanyn are precursors or servants to the precursors, and the precursors have been Halo's space illuminati for the known history of the universe. The precursors/endless "accidentally" made dust from themselves with a plan to reconstitute themselves, and it "accidentally" gave rise to the flood. They just so happen to be able to survive a halo array firing? Seems like an all too convenient coincidence that just happens to make them one of the most powerful species in a universe with halo arrays. I bet we find out they laid the groundwork for the halo arrays design (like designing a flaw in the deathstar). They themselves can't activate the halo array, but can force the galaxy into enough desperation to fire an array, with the flood as the target of blame, they get to continue being endless, working in the shadows, surviving an eons-long plan. Who knows, maybe the covenant religion was seeded by the endless, maybe the logic plague is their other subtle strategy of having someone else do the dirty work. Cortana could have been corrupted into thinking that she needed to wipe out all that oppose her, lead her to capture a halo array where she might fire it if she ever got control of the array itself. Ultimately the plot ends up where it has, and I think we've got our first reveal of the precursor's long-standing plans to maintain control of the galaxy.

Great video! Thank you

The Endless are said to be the most dangerous thing when mixed with The Flood. I think its because they were the perfect creatures or vessels for the Flood

I have 2 massive interests in Halo, The Flood and Ancient Humanity, I've spent a lot of time around these 2 things the last couple years 1:30 that music cue legit gives me vibes as if I was playing The Maw on CE just after you get into the level. I don't really have much to add, was a good breakdown but I will speak on what I want to see in this new engine and game regarding the flood. This would be rated M for sure and I enjoy to really creepy people out, make that fear either spike quickly or slowly but not with cheap means so this idea is from my version of what I like in horror. making the player uncomfortable, getting their paranoia up etc is what the flood really should be. that pure sense of dread. I want to truly experience the horror that is the flood. I've had an idea for a random encounter for a while which would introduce the flood onto Zeta Halo. at some point in your travels or on a mission during a night cycle you can pick-up a destress beacon by a u.s.n.c squad. when you get there it's hard to see, it's dark in a cave or just out in the world. you can see a banished squad fighting a marine squad and the marines are clearly losing, in a triggered scene where John stops behind a rock, destroyed warhog or something say 30-40 feet from the fight he can see shapes moving in the dark between rocks, trees etc. you watch as the shapes move in, hearing the surprises and screams as members of both squads are quickly jumped and dragged away leaving you glimpses of what the shapes were in the dim lights of the fire fight. you are given control back but before you can get into the fight and help it's over, the bodies are gone leaving only blood, shells, spikes etc behind. you can add another thing where you can follow a blood trial or the beacon to a cave or something where your jumped by some combat forms and find the pile of bodies deeper in the area with some flood biomass around like the start of what was to be a flood hive. I just want to see exactly why people fear the flood returning, maybe in a mission where you play as a marine getting attacked by the flood before being dragged off and thrown into a proto gravemind similar to what we saw in Halo Mona Lisa.

Was I the only one that thought the eerie green/ brown mist with little particles floating around in it in the legendary ending looked a lot like flood spores? Because no one else has commented on that.

This takes listening through rock and metal and time to a new level

A video on all the Easter eggs uv found would be pretty cool

this makes me incredibly excited. I REALLY want the flood to come back.

I think that Point of Light said that one of the ring’s Flood containment areas was compromised, so maybe that infection form was put in a cylix s as a form of emergency containment before the regular plane could be repaired

Are you wearing a Final Boss T-Shirt?! That's so dope!

Man I’ve gotta say you have a killer mustache beard combo I’m jealous.

Let's not forget the Halo Infinite audio field recordings video where they had a pug making some rather flood like sounds. They've gotta be coming back in some way shape or form!

in the end cutscene the greenish looking spores give Flood vibes for some reason, maybe 343 are pulling a D2 where at the end of the game as it zooms out you see the future DLC and in this cutscene you see the Endless but also a flood like vibe to the room showing a potential DLC story of the flood, idk maybe im looking into it to much

Facts ! Love the content sir

8:14 wait, why would they use the flood before firing the halos? They could just fire the halos and that would do all the job for them, they wouldn't need flood

If the endless end up not being immune to the flood then couldn't they make the flood immune to the halo array? I think either way would be incredibly interesting. Either the endless are immune to the flood and they weaponize it as result or they're not immune to the flood but are immune to the halo array so them becoming infected effectively makes the flood immune to the halos as well.

Crossing my fingers for DLC, but it will be sad being rated T flood.

8:33 but then why would the Endless need the flood when they are already immune to the Halos? Just because you can’t be infected doesn’t mean that the flood can’t hurt you - why not just fire the rings and be done with it?

Wow this is very awesome.

anyone else think if the endless weaponize the flood then the flood after making a gravemind join forces with humanity again similar to halo 3 because the endless will be considered a greater threat

I definitely see the flood coming back. Way back before the game came out when I found out it was going to be on Zeta halo I made a theory on the floods return and I had a pretty similar theory. It just makes sense

I do think the Endless are in one way or another, the Precursors. It would explain a lot of what the Harbinger says and how she explains he plans

Thanks for using a clip from my KZfaq video

The Endless weaponizing the flood makes a ton of sense. Particularly due to the overall weakened state of the species in question. During the Forerunner/Human war, both civilizations were at their zenith, with dozens or perhaps hundreds of other flourishing species. The amount of available biomass and warships to infect was... essentially infinite. Currently, however, there are only a handful of multiplanet species, with the banished on their last legs, humanity in a desperate state, ravaged by decades of war and Cortanas betrayal. If the Endless can harness even a fraction of the Forerunners Armada and Sentinel garrisons, it would take little effort to weaponize the flood, let them devastate much of their enemies strongholds, and then cleanse the infection. Humanity would be in poor shape to oppose them claiming the Mantle. Secondary theory, perhaps the Endless lack a nervous system because they have some form of hive mind/telepathy. While this renders them immune to flood infection, it also provides them with the ability to actually control the flood locally. As more of them gather, they actually function as a type of gravemind. Why would this be? Because the Endless are a subspecies of the Precursors. Millenia upon millenia ago, a faction within the Percursor race "devolved" themselves into the Endless, and when the Forerunners discovered them, and what they were capable of, passed judgement on them. Now the Endless have been freed, and seeing the devastation unleashed by their foolish children, come to weaponize their twisted cousins(the flood) to once again bring the galaxy to stability.

After realizing the flood cylex is viewed from the front, do we have some theories of the endless viewed the same way?

I feel like I found my new home of nerds 😂 love all the content keep up the good work

Listening to this I imagined a part of the ring shutting down and the flood cylix hologram turning off and slightly opening before the screen goes black and you hear that classic flood scream

The most interesting thing to me is that the Flood cylixes (if they are indeed Flood) are blue like the others, but the Harbinger's and what Atriox finds (and we assume are the Endless but who knows) are a very different color.

What I'm wondering is how everyone in the banished thought atriox was dead but he just turns up in the ending to free the endless. What was he doing? How did he survive that massive explosion?

Just like to say followed u for years and u do great job. Im a family man so only game from 8pm (uk time). Big halo gamer for decades. I make effort to watch ur KZfaq for years. I think ur views on infinite are correct totally. Please please keep the pressure on 343 through ur work and we can have a great game in the end!!! Hope we can friendly game multiplayer sometime. Offensive bios “bring it on” 🙌🏻

Was wondering what that spider was. Dope to know that it’s Flood!

I keep imaging a flood outbreak on Zeta, a Gravemind forming. And taunting us about Cortana’s death. Taunting the weapon because it...”Knows” her, “ it” broke “her” before. I was Replaying Halo 2, the Gravemind scene, When cortana asks “what is that?” To which it replies “I? I am the monument to all your sins.” Honestly....this hits so much harder now. It’s like it’s talking to her specifically. Like it already has a sense of what was to come. If you like the Logic Plague theory. 🤷‍♂️ And Speaking of cylixs, (spoiler alert for those who haven’t finished the game) who do you think Atriox used as a reclaimer to open the gate in the after credit scene?

We need the flood!!!! You can't fuckung tease us with it in infinite lmao. Also love ur videos man, best go to for halo lore

I don't know as much halo lore as id like, but idk where I would be without HiddenXperia. I've watched so many vids of his on halo which took me from avid video game player, to book reading and a halo tattoo. Thank you, for expanding my knowledge of halo!

Can't wait to finally see them.