- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Yes, I guess I would have to agree that the flood seems too stupid to find earth. I've often thought, while playing the game, that even the Covenant appears too stupid to find earth, let alone get as far as they have. I kind of wish they had made the Covenant appear more intelligent.
The game doesn't make it too clear; but a pivotal point in the books is that the Flood are very capable of finding Earth, by virtue of literally picking the brains of their victims. So, shortly after a human who knows where Earth is becomes a Flood victim, the Flood knows where Earth is. The design and purpose of Halo is testiment to the fact that the designers believed that the Flood was quite capable of infecting the entire galaxy. Yes, the Flood appear brain-dead when it comes to squad-level combat tactics; but remember the part in "Keyes" or "The Maw" (forget which level) where Cortana says that the Flood are stacking bodies? That takes teamwork and organization. Freaky.
Now, for the Covenant. The books make plain that they just plain suck against the Spartans in ground warfare, and their space-based tactics are not the best; but their technology was far superior to that possessed by humans, and they do have some ability to plot, as evidenced by the technique they used to find the planet Reach.