If the Flood came to Earth what would they have a hard time infecting? I’d love to see what the Flood would do if they ever met a jellyfish.
I feel like they’d have a hard time with sea urchins lol.
I can’t remember if an animal needs a CNS or not to be infected, but anything significantly smaller than an infection form will probably only be vulnerable to spores, which don’t seem to infect as easily.
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> I feel like they’d have a hard time with sea urchins lol.
>
> I can’t remember if an animal needs a CNS or not to be infected, but anything significantly smaller than an infection form will probably only be vulnerable to spores, which don’t seem to infect as easily.
I know that the Flood can infect pretty much anything including plants etc. They can terraform places into blight-lands. I’d just love to see the flood come across some of the more obscure animals on Earth and just have to take a minute about how they’d go about infecting it. I mean killing a jellyfish for biomass really does seem like a waste of time too lol.
Sea urchin would be hilarious to watch as well, what is the Flood going to do to one of those haha. I’m enjoying this topic too much.
I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
Just my assumption.
There is a for sure answer in the Original Xbox Halo 2 manual:
“343 Guilty Spark convinced Spartan-117 to activate Halo’s primary weapon system and eliminate the Flood. The AI neglected to tell him however, that because the Flood consumes any suitable sentient host, Halo would make no distinction between the Flood and other life forms.”
-Halo 2 Manual, Page 2, Paragraph 7
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> There is a for sure answer in the Original Xbox Halo 2 manual:
>
> “343 Guilty Spark convinced Spartan-117 to activate Halo’s primary weapon system and eliminate the Flood. The AI neglected to tell him however, that because the Flood consumes any suitable sentient host, Halo would make no distinction between the Flood and other life forms.”
> -Halo 2 Manual, Page 2, Paragraph 7
While you are correct, that’s more of an answer to ‘what can the Halo destroy’, instead of ‘what the Flood consider food’.
While all sentient life forms a viable food source, not all potential food sources are sentient. The Flood prioritise sentient life, as the assimilation of intelligent minds is how they grow in intelligence. Anything without sentience would likely be converted into biomass by the Flood Super Cell once infected.
In theory, a Flood spore could engulf an entire planet without advancing to a Gravemind stage, if the planet only hosted simple non-sentient life.
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> I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
> So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
> If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
> Just my assumption.
I agree with everything you’ve said, and I appreciate the time you took to write it but I’m more so going down the path of humorous encounters the Flood may experience during their galactic conquest of all living things. Very well put though. Grunts and Jackals are simply too weak to be anything but biomass for the Gravemind. Especially since they’re already quite small in size and given that infection progress rots the flesh of the host making them much weaker and vulnerable. The Flood’s logical choice would be to go after beings of a stronger physique. Not doing that would 100% be detrimental to the grand goal of galactic domination over all life. You wouldn’t choose a kitty over a lion!
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> > 2533274810945725;4:
> > I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
> > So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
> > If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
> > Just my assumption.
>
> I agree with everything you’ve said, and I appreciate the time you took to write it but I’m more so going down the path of humorous encounters the Flood may experience during their galactic conquest of all living things. Very well put though. Grunts and Jackals are simply too weak to be anything but biomass for the Gravemind. Especially since they’re already quite small in size and given that infection progress rots the flesh of the host making them much weaker and vulnerable. The Flood’s logical choice would be to go after beings of a stronger physique. Not doing that would 100% be detrimental to the grand goal of galactic domination over all life. You wouldn’t choose a kitty over a lion!
But where do the carrier forms come from? They could be grunts and jackals(at least, that’s what I thought when I first encountered them in the Library)
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> > 2535445608274502;7:
> > > 2533274810945725;4:
> > > I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
> > > So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
> > > If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
> > > Just my assumption.
> >
> > I agree with everything you’ve said, and I appreciate the time you took to write it but I’m more so going down the path of humorous encounters the Flood may experience during their galactic conquest of all living things. Very well put though. Grunts and Jackals are simply too weak to be anything but biomass for the Gravemind. Especially since they’re already quite small in size and given that infection progress rots the flesh of the host making them much weaker and vulnerable. The Flood’s logical choice would be to go after beings of a stronger physique. Not doing that would 100% be detrimental to the grand goal of galactic domination over all life. You wouldn’t choose a kitty over a lion!
>
> But where do the carrier forms come from? They could be grunts and jackals(at least, that’s what I thought when I first encountered them in the Library)
I think the carriers are a weaker variant of strong species. A carrier could be perhaps an elderly person etc whose body simply can’t be used for anything besides being a walking Flood transmission.
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> > 2535470701348517;8:
> > > 2535445608274502;7:
> > > > 2533274810945725;4:
> > > > I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
> > > > So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
> > > > If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
> > > > Just my assumption.
> > >
> > > I agree with everything you’ve said, and I appreciate the time you took to write it but I’m more so going down the path of humorous encounters the Flood may experience during their galactic conquest of all living things. Very well put though. Grunts and Jackals are simply too weak to be anything but biomass for the Gravemind. Especially since they’re already quite small in size and given that infection progress rots the flesh of the host making them much weaker and vulnerable. The Flood’s logical choice would be to go after beings of a stronger physique. Not doing that would 100% be detrimental to the grand goal of galactic domination over all life. You wouldn’t choose a kitty over a lion!
> >
> > But where do the carrier forms come from? They could be grunts and jackals(at least, that’s what I thought when I first encountered them in the Library)
>
> I think the carriers are a weaker variant of strong species. A carrier could be perhaps an elderly person etc whose body simply can’t be used for anything besides being a walking Flood transmission.
IIRC, the Carrier Forms are supposed to be a variant of the Pure Forms.
However, I do like the theory that they could be old Combat Forms.
Firstly, if the form takes too much damage overtime, and/or the ‘original converted flesh’ to ‘pure flood flesh’ ratio may become low enough that the Super Cell decides that it’s no use as a Combat Form, and triggers a state change into a Carrier Form.
Secondly, it could be more of a group consensus of nearby Flood based on its needs. If the Flood are close to controlling an area with force, they may begin to start mutating a percentage of Combat Forms into Carrier Forms, to create the Pod Infectors to infect any survivors and the recently dead.
Supporting this idea, are the Pods found on the Flood biomass in Halo 3, where shooting them releases the Pod Infectors. Perhaps the biomas pods are the base method of reproduction, and the Carrier Form is simply a reproduction pod grown inside of a Combat Form.
I think areas like this are way 343 can expand on the nature of the Flood, without actually giving us anything that ruins the mystery built up in the past.
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> > > 2535445608274502;7:
> > > > 2533274810945725;4:
> > > > I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
> > > > So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
> > > > If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
> > > > Just my assumption.
> > >
> > > I agree with everything you’ve said, and I appreciate the time you took to write it but I’m more so going down the path of humorous encounters the Flood may experience during their galactic conquest of all living things. Very well put though. Grunts and Jackals are simply too weak to be anything but biomass for the Gravemind. Especially since they’re already quite small in size and given that infection progress rots the flesh of the host making them much weaker and vulnerable. The Flood’s logical choice would be to go after beings of a stronger physique. Not doing that would 100% be detrimental to the grand goal of galactic domination over all life. You wouldn’t choose a kitty over a lion!
> >
> > But where do the carrier forms come from? They could be grunts and jackals(at least, that’s what I thought when I first encountered them in the Library)
>
> I think the carriers are a weaker variant of strong species. A carrier could be perhaps an elderly person etc whose body simply can’t be used for anything besides being a walking Flood transmission.
Carriers are weaker specimens,older Combat forms and appertently fused bodys.
Now I think Grunts may be used for carrier forms.
There are also Grunt and Jackal Combat forms,you can find them in Halo Wars,but the lore is that they are too fragil to be used as combat forms.
About your original question:Everthing that is to small wont be infected,but used as biomass.
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> > 2535470701348517;8:
> > > 2535445608274502;7:
> > > > 2533274810945725;4:
> > > > I’m not sure how detailed the infection process is during Flood growth in the lore, but I would imagine most fleshy mammals would be easy access to infect and use as a host if they have a large enough biomass. IIRC, we don’t see Grunt and Jackel Flood forms because they aren’t ‘large enough’ to infect in that way.
> > > > So I would assume smaller mammals, birds, etc, would be killed for food or maybe brought back to the proto-gravemind to be added to the biomass. Plants and trees would be essentially smothered as the biomass grows around them, and broke down and digested, maybe.
> > > > If they hadn’t already sent forms into the oceans for the fish, they would just get absorbed as the biomass spreads across the entire planet and the Gravemind becomes a Keymind.
> > > > Just my assumption.
> > >
> > > I agree with everything you’ve said, and I appreciate the time you took to write it but I’m more so going down the path of humorous encounters the Flood may experience during their galactic conquest of all living things. Very well put though. Grunts and Jackals are simply too weak to be anything but biomass for the Gravemind. Especially since they’re already quite small in size and given that infection progress rots the flesh of the host making them much weaker and vulnerable. The Flood’s logical choice would be to go after beings of a stronger physique. Not doing that would 100% be detrimental to the grand goal of galactic domination over all life. You wouldn’t choose a kitty over a lion!
> >
> > But where do the carrier forms come from? They could be grunts and jackals(at least, that’s what I thought when I first encountered them in the Library)
>
> I think the carriers are a weaker variant of strong species. A carrier could be perhaps an elderly person etc whose body simply can’t be used for anything besides being a walking Flood transmission.
yes, but on installation 04, there were carrier forms with no weak hosts to infect except grunts and jackals