I know there are rumors and even theories that point to evidence of the Flood returning, but until I see gameplay or screenshots, I will remain skeptical. With that said however I feel I need to urge 343 to bring them back and give them a proper conclusion. I may get flack for this but with Halo 4 and 5 continuing the fight and Master Chiefs story, I feel they inadvertently ruined Halo 3’s ending, by continuing the story. Halo 3’s ending has always had problems with me even before Halo 4 and 5 but I was able to overlook some of those issues and could understand why Bungie went with the ending they did, they wanted Halo 3 to have a storybook ending, for it to end where it began and if you go by the belief that Halo 3 was the ending of Halo’s story, then Halo 3’s ending fits it perfectly and the issues can be forgiven, but with Halo’s story continued, those issues now show their ugly head and creates issues with the lore itself. The very issue I am talking about is the Flood, in the original games, they were described as the ultimate enemy, a threat to all life in the galaxy, the only enemy the Covenant feared, and a enemy that caused a race far more advanced than both humanity and the covenant combined to kill themselves to stop it, and even then they did not stop it fully give how it was able to return.
The fact that Master Chief a lone human was able to defeat and kill swarms of the Flood and even supposedly destroyed it, 3 separate times have always bugged me, you are telling me that the Forerunners, this advanced alien race, that has supposedly tried thousands of alternative plans before resorting to using the Halo’s could not stop the Flood but a Spartan, blowing up a Halo ring twice and the Covenants home capital did the trick, that was the secret alternative plan the Forerunners overlooked before attempting the Halo’s. This creates a huge issue in lore as it makes the Flood out to not be as intimidating as it is suppose to be, if all you have to do is nuke areas that has the largest concentrations of Flood and then kill off the stragglers, then what makes them a universal threat?
343 even if they wind up not being in Halo Infinite, you can not ignore them forever, and no continuing to put them in a side halo wont cut it, they need to return to the main story and be given a proper conclusion, something that actually feels definitive,a way we can feel with 100 % certainty that the Flood is defeated and gone.
I agree the flood should return, but not for the reasons you describe. The legendary ending of Halo 3 showed the Dawn floating towards Requiem, so Bungie technically didn’t mean for Chief’s story to end with 3. Also, there are many different factors that make the flood more controllable in the games. For one, by the time the Forerunners were in war with the flood, the flood had already infected tons of people, ships, etc. The stage we see them in the original trilogy is nowhere near as powerful as when the Forerunners faced them. The flood were released in concentrated areas, rather than just being everywhere.
Halo: CE, they were only on the ring. In Halo 2, they were on the ring and in High Charity. Halo 3 is the only game where it is possible for flood to go elsewhere, but that is highly unlikely, seeing as how the Gravemind would most likely concentrate all of his flood to stop Master Chief on the Ark at the end of 3. Plus, the flood can’t really be truly defeated, they can only be contained. Master Chief was able to contain them because the flood’s active numbers didn’t span solar systems. The flood had a number of advantages against the Forerunners (a head start, star roads, the Forerunner-Human war prior, etc). The Forerunners containment of the flood by Halo was necessary due to how much they had spread across the galaxy. I would like to see the flood get to that trans-galactic stage in Infinite, it would be really cool to see keyminds in a game.
> 2535436352478403;1:
> I know there are rumors and even theories that point to evidence of the Flood returning, but until I see gameplay or screenshots, I will remain skeptical. With that said however I feel I need to urge 343 to bring them back and give them a proper conclusion. I may get flack for this but with Halo 4 and 5 continuing the fight and Master Chiefs story, I feel they inadvertently ruined Halo 3’s ending, by continuing the story. Halo 3’s ending has always had problems with me even before Halo 4 and 5 but I was able to overlook some of those issues and could understand why Bungie went with the ending they did, they wanted Halo 3 to have a storybook ending, for it to end where it began and if you go by the belief that Halo 3 was the ending of Halo’s story, then Halo 3’s ending fits it perfectly and the issues can be forgiven, but with Halo’s story continued, those issues now show their ugly head and creates issues with the lore itself. The very issue I am talking about is the Flood, in the original games, they were described as the ultimate enemy, a threat to all life in the galaxy, the only enemy the Covenant feared, and a enemy that caused a race far more advanced than both humanity and the covenant combined to kill themselves to stop it, and even then they did not stop it fully give how it was able to return.
>
> The fact that Master Chief a lone human was able to defeat and kill swarms of the Flood and even supposedly destroyed it, 3 separate times have always bugged me, you are telling me that the Forerunners, this advanced alien race, that has supposedly tried thousands of alternative plans before resorting to using the Halo’s could not stop the Flood but a Spartan, blowing up a Halo ring twice and the Covenants home capital did the trick, that was the secret alternative plan the Forerunners overlooked before attempting the Halo’s. This creates a huge issue in lore as it makes the Flood out to not be as intimidating as it is suppose to be, if all you have to do is nuke areas that has the largest concentrations of Flood and then kill off the stragglers, then what makes them a universal threat?
>
> 343 even if they wind up not being in Halo Infinite, you can not ignore them forever, and no continuing to put them in a side halo wont cut it, they need to return to the main story and be given a proper conclusion, something that actually feels definitive,a way we can feel with 100 % certainty that the Flood is defeated and gone.
Your best enemy return…
> 2535436352478403;1:
> The fact that Master Chief a lone human was able to defeat and kill swarms of the Flood and even supposedly destroyed it, 3 separate times have always bugged me, you are telling me that the Forerunners, this advanced alien race, that has supposedly tried thousands of alternative plans before resorting to using the Halo’s could not stop the Flood but a Spartan, blowing up a Halo ring twice and the Covenants home capital did the trick, that was the secret alternative plan the Forerunners overlooked before attempting the Halo’s.
To be fair, he’s a LUCKY Spartan. 
> 2533274977253120;4:
> > 2535436352478403;1:
> > The fact that Master Chief a lone human was able to defeat and kill swarms of the Flood and even supposedly destroyed it, 3 separate times have always bugged me, you are telling me that the Forerunners, this advanced alien race, that has supposedly tried thousands of alternative plans before resorting to using the Halo’s could not stop the Flood but a Spartan, blowing up a Halo ring twice and the Covenants home capital did the trick, that was the secret alternative plan the Forerunners overlooked before attempting the Halo’s.
>
> To be fair, he’s a LUCKY Spartan.
To be even more fair, he hasn’t encountered the Flood at the height the Forerunners did.
I agree with what others have said that the Flood was nowhere near as powerful when Chief fought them than they were during the Forerunner lore. I think all the signs point to them making at least a small appearance though. Given Halo Wars 2’s ending, it seems that the Spirit of Fire crew (or at least Anders) will be involved in the story. The plot will probably dictate that Infinity needs to go to the Ark for whatever reason and there they’ll run into some Flood.
> 2535411561717249;7:
> I agree with what others have said that the Flood was nowhere near as powerful when Chief fought them than they were during the Forerunner lore. I think all the signs point to them making at least a small appearance though. Given Halo Wars 2’s ending, it seems that the Spirit of Fire crew (or at least Anders) will be involved in the story. The plot will probably dictate that Infinity needs to go to the Ark for whatever reason and there they’ll run into some Flood.
I realize this, but they were still considered a threat large enough to eradicate the galaxy, I don’t feel that they achieved that title the way they were defeated. Even if we take that the Flood presence was larger than the one we faced in the games, we still saw how easy it was for one Spartan (that would not have anywhere near the level of tech suit nor potiental training as a Forerunner) was able to decimate legions of the Flood. You are telling me that even the larger force the Forerunners were unable to stop them with brute force alone. And even if I buy that it was defeated easier due to smaller numbers, I still feel that is a misjustice to the Flood, and want to see them return on a much larger scale. It would be stupid to put one of the deadliest foes the Chief has ever faced as small cameos and outbreaks reserved for side games while the main games act as if everything is hunky dory. Again, the Flood did not grow to the size they did fighting the Forerunners by mere luck and accident, they planned everything out and only did not foresee the rings. So there is no reason to believe that containing them even in a smaller form would be this easy.
I hope flood & brutes return. Ive had enough of the prometheans. Ruined H4/5 for me.