Halo 3 Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Idea of how the Flood can be stopped without activating the Halo's
  • Subject: Idea of how the Flood can be stopped without activating the Halo's
Subject: Idea of how the Flood can be stopped without activating the Halo's
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Alright, now I don't know if this has been brought up yet, but I will post my idea anyway because I am not going to search through everything.

We all know that gravemind is the thinking body behind the Flood and that it has lived for thousands of years, possibly even since around the time of the Forerunners. We also know that he is with Cortana who is ready to detonate In Amber Clad should she need to destroy Delta Halo. But think with me for a minute. Since Gravemind seems to be the thinking force that brings the flood together wouldn't it make sense that if he is destroyed, then the flood would cease to think, and thus die off? I mean the flood are extremely powerful, but even the most powerful forces have to have some sort of weakness. It would make perfect sense that the Master Chief could go to High Charity, get Cortana (or she could go insane), set the Amber Clad's reactors to critical and bust off of High Charity before it blows. Now, I haven't really thought about how this fits in with the rest of the story, but it seems to me that if there were a way to stop the Flood without activating the Halo's this would be the most simple. The focus could then be set to fighting the Covenant and possibly the alliance with the Elites and Grunts to give the MC a fighting chance to save whats left of humanity.

But, just a quick thought.

  • 06.09.2006 1:39 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Have MC and the Orkin man fight their way to the heart of the flood, then let the orkin man get to work.

  • 06.09.2006 1:45 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

A good suggestion topic creator has. But if a galactic sized blast can't kill the Gravemind, then what can? Perhaps the destruction of High Charity, a tactical nuke dropped on him, or a similar explosion would do the trick hopefully? Yet on the other hand, the Flood's biological prowess is not to be underestimated. After all, what is Gravemind's origins?

The emergence of the Flood hive-mind shows that the Flood are capable of thought and speech. If the Gravemind was on our side, then the Covenant will surely fall.

Immunities to the Flood is also a very valid possibility, Boren's Syndrome being one of them.

  • 06.09.2006 2:18 PM PDT

Doc: "i'm a pacifist"
Caboose: "your a thing that babies suck on?"
Tucker: "no dude, that's a pedephile"
Church: "tucker, i think he means a pacifier"

you could set off halo 100 times and it wouldn't do anything to the flood. it doesn't effect flood, it kills any being with sufficient biomass to support the flood infection forms. the only way the the forerunners could come up with to stop the flood is to starve them to death. who knows how old the gravemind is? for al we know he could be newly spawned or he could have been around for aeons. i wonder if killing him would halt the flood though. hmmmm.

  • 06.09.2006 2:25 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Well from Graveminds conversations we get that he has at least been alive since the beginning of the current human's history, so I would assume that he was around during the time of the forerunners. I don't think that the flood survive the Halo detonation it's just that there is some protection from it in parts of Halo, but then again maybe they do, although sense 343 Guilty Spark says that the Halo's kill all sentient life, and because the flood are aware of themselves that would make them sentient. Also if bullets kill the flood, than I am sure Super Weapons do as well. The Forerunners obviously had an interest in studying the Flood (and for this idea I am going along with the Forerunner's being an ancient race of Humans) so it wouldn't strike me as suprising that they leave a little of the most dangerous parasite in the galaxy around (in a safe place inside each Halo, from which they are unharmed by the Halo's and cannot escape... the Library) in hopes that when the current race of humans gets the technology they will possibly want to study the Flood themselves. Just look at real human history, we eliminated the disease of small pox in the world, but left a few small viles of it in the top Biological Research companies of the world. The Forerunners created the Halo's to stop the Flood from taking over the galaxy, and I believe the Ark was used as a safe haven from the Halo's so that the Forerunner race (humans) wouldn't die off completely. Now, I believe that Gravemind realized the danger that the Halo's posed and got onto one himself, (Delta Halo) and positioned himself so deep within it that that he would be able to survive if it were activated. I believe that Gravemind survived the first activation because of this and that now he may be able to be defeated, which might defeat the Flood as a whole. Every powerful race or being has to have some sort of weakness, I just think that Gravemind is the weakness of the Flood.

  • 06.09.2006 6:12 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

dude, u r so wrong. READ THE **** BOOKS ITS ALL THERE! it explains exactly how the flood operate

  • 06.09.2006 6:17 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Now I read the books too, and I mean this has to be one of the best debates there is too talk about in Halo. I don't think killin gravemind would be the key however, because yes every race has a weakness, but the covenant nor us the humans have a specific being that when killed all of our race just vanishes. Especially because the floods numbers are too great after they take someone over they puss up and then get fat (lol i like that part) and when they blow up like 5 new flood babies come out redoing the process. Now the thing that i still want to understand is if you read the books, the most recent one, where sgt. Johnson gets turned down from the flood! Due to some plasma scoring or something in his blood, but they didn't want him, and they let him live. There has to be a huge clue there in that.

And another thing about the Forerunners. If they discovered the flood, however they started, like if it was a disease or whatever. The forerunners had to have enough time to realize the only way to defeat the flood, and then build allllll of these Halos, and then soon launching them. So the flood would starve. So i don't think that the forerunners Ever used the Halos before, because how would the flood come back if they were originally starved and extinct?

  • 06.09.2006 8:16 PM PDT
  •  | 
  • Exalted Legendary Member
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

This is just me, but I swear we need to drop nukes on High Charity and blow his ass to the past.

If that doesn't work.....send in the HELLJUMPERS!!!!!!!!!

  • 06.09.2006 8:20 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: Jake the Master
dude, u r so wrong. READ THE **** BOOKS ITS ALL THERE! it explains exactly how the flood operate


First off I have read the books, and while there is some valuable info in the books not all of it follows the real Halo storyline. So, no need to flame. Secondly on the comment about the weakness of the Human's and the Covenant would be the fact that they both reproduce at a much slower rate than the Flood, and go through a longer maturity process. The Flood are quick and simple, which is where Gravemind comes into play. He is ancient and very powerful so he can control all of the Flood which essentially act as his dumb zombie puppets with him being the controller or heck think of the Flood as one body and Gravemind is the nerve system. The way the Flood works is as one body with the purpose of reproduction and spreading. Humans and Covenant operate differently and that is their weakness when they fight the Flood.

[Edited on 6/9/2006]

  • 06.09.2006 11:43 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: TMan892
This is just me, but I swear we need to drop nukes on High Charity and blow his ass to the past.

If that doesn't work.....send in the HELLJUMPERS!!!!!!!!!
Amen. Either that or send in The Ultimate Squad: Chief+Arbiter and a squadron of Zealots.

[Edited on 6/9/2006]

  • 06.09.2006 11:53 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

If the Forunners were so smart why didn't they create an air born virus diesigned to kill the flood? Or just go with the idea about the nukes. Either one works just as good but the nukes are cooler.

  • 06.10.2006 12:04 AM PDT
  • gamertag: opog
  • user homepage:

I don't think that the grave mind thinks for the flood. Destroying him would not stop the flood. There were other flood forms before the gravemind was made. He is just a bunch of dead bodies and fallen combat forms. The flood can still take over even if the gravemind is destroyed.

  • 06.10.2006 12:15 AM PDT

Posted by: TMan892
This is just me, but I swear we need to drop nukes on High Charity and blow his ass to the past.

If that doesn't work.....send in the HELLJUMPERS!!!!!!!!!
Dropping nukes would work but since Earth's military is conquered and Earth, I seriously doubt they would have a ship to fly. And i also doubt that MC will kill Gravemindbe cause MC is on Earth so I think the Arbitor will cause he's already on Delta Halo.

  • 06.10.2006 12:22 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

ok killing the grave mind might stop the flood but who says that the gave mind is controlling all the flood what about some how changing the way the halos kill sentient life by reversing the effect some how (probally by hacking into the ark the dentornating the halos)and that would kill all the flood for good



[Edited on 6/10/2006]

  • 06.10.2006 1:12 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Gravemind is a collection of minds - an intelligence. A tactical leader. The flood would do as they have always done consume all sentient life. It is however Gravemind who realises such tactical advantages as securing the city of ninth reclamation, High Charity. Therefore such an intelligence as Gravemind benefits the flood. "The flood are already hard at work repairing your ship". The flood without gravemind in Halo:Combat Evolved had clear designs on escaping Halo. The flood, their history and future does not end with the death of the Gravemind by the sword of the Arbiter.

  • 06.10.2006 2:06 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

part of this was just said, but heres more:

well, im pretty sure that the Halos kill all life of sufficient biomass to sustain the flood, as cortana said, and if this was true, than gravemind could possibly either (a) not have enough biomass (which seems unlikely) or, (b) because he is part flood the Halos will not affect him. Also we have to understand how the Halos work: either there is a giant explosion or some kind of virus spreads very rapidly somehow, or something else wierd happens. well, it cannot be an explosion, because then that would leave the Halos useless and destroyed, and a virus seems unlikely to travel billions of lightyears to kill everything, so they must work some other way that we dont know about. my point is that if it does spread some kind of thing to kill all life, and if the ark has some kind of shielding, then it is quite possible that the humans could engineer more shielding around earth to protect the planet. or we could reverse-engineer the blast to kill the flood instead of things with enough biomass.

  • 06.10.2006 2:07 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I'm pretty sure for gravemind to be the sole mental body of the flood force he would require super powerful telekinetic powers that would have to never cease.
Though I agree that the flood may become more disorgansied and less well led I think gravemind is only an additional construct made by the flood to help manage things.

Given his description in the art of halo of being constructed from the rotting copses of the foes captured by the flood this would suggest that he is not the initial source or creation of the flood as he is merely constructed from copses held together by those flood spores that are seen on the walls of high charity after the flood move through out the city.

Besides that the flood seem to also have instincts to which they rely on. that goes beyond their controls.

Though I also think 343 GS would have said that they are manipulated and thus very intelligent rather than just outright admitting that the flood are a very intelligent race.

Sorry I don't think we'll make the flood go comatose by offing thier manager. Though he is clearly intelligent and somewhat important to the flood the very nature of the flood establishes it's self on not putting too much importance on physical beings and rather perpetuating the race as whole. They technically are and thus should act like viruses. Ever consuming and expanding The fact that flood have decided to store their collective attained knowledge in such a large creature I feel is only out of the obvious fact that if the flood race needs some intel on where to go or how to act they have a much more easy to protect memory source in graveming while most of their soldiers die quite easily and readily as berserkers.

  • 06.10.2006 4:55 AM PDT