Fight your way through an ancient security facility in search of the Index.
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The Library is the seventh campaign level of Halo: Combat Evolved. It begins after 343 Guilty Spark teleports John-117 from the swamp he was in (part of the previous level) into the Library of Installation 04. John-117 must battle through four Flood-filled storeys to reach the Index chamber.
Transcript[]
The Library[]
{Original Cutscene} {Anniversary Cutscene}
The view fly through of the main central chamber of the Installation, through a bizarre rotating doorway, to find 343 Guilty Spark and John-117 teleporting in.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "We must collect the Index before we can activate the installation."
{Gameplay}
Over the course of the level, 343 Guilty Spark mutters all sorts of random phrases. Here are most, if not all of them:
- "Doodeedooodooo..."
- "Teeheeeheeeheeehee!"
- "Huaaaaa, huaaaauuuuhummmmm."
- "Ahhhh...I, am a genius. Heeheeheehee!"
- "Hum hum huuuuum, hum hum hum."
- "Ah."
- "Oh. Hello."
- "Hahahahaha!"
- "Oh, that's a good idea!" (When you reach one of the rotating doors)
- "Reclaimer, we must keep moving. ...Reclaimer?" (If you die)
- "Oh, how unfortunate." (If you die)
- "Ah, a pity." (If you die)
- "I told you to upgrade to at least a class 12 Combat Skin!" (If you die)
- "Please stop being Human." (If you shoot him or the Sentinels)
- "That is completely unnecessary." (If you shoot him)
- "We have much more important business here." (If you shoot him)
- "Please, control your temper." (If you shoot him)
- "Are you finished yet?" (If you shoot him)
- "Please conserve your ammo." (If you shoot him)
- "Please stop firing your weapon." (if you shoot him)
- 343 Guilty Spark: "We are near the Index chamber. Follow me."
When John emerges into the large central chamber.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The energy field above us contains the Index. We must get up there."
When John comes to a huge door, which is locked.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The security doors have sealed automatically. I will go access the override to open them."
When Spark returns.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Please, follow closely. This portal is the first of ten."
If John heads to the wrong way.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "That is not the correct direction, Reclaimer. If you do not follow me, you may become lost."
As John and Spark move into the next hallway:
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Puzzling. You brought such ineffective weapons to combat the Flood, despite the containment protocols."
Upon moving down another hallway.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The Flood must not escape the installation. They consume all."
Upon entering into another hallway.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "You can see how the body has been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent."
As John goes down yet another hallway.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "We must continue. This way please."
Further down another hallway.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "This installation's research facilities are most impressive! Perhaps we'll have time to see them later."
As the Monitor Spark sends a squad of Sentinels to assist John.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "These Sentinels will supplement your combat system. But I suggest you upgrade to at least a Class Twelve combat skin. Your current model only scans as a Class Two, which is ill suited for this kind of work."
As John nears the first platform lift:.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Pardon me. A plasma conduit breach in Section 5-5-2-4 has disrupted power flow to a gravity maintenance assembly. Repairs require my attention. I will return soon."
As John rides the first lift to upstairs.
Wait, It Gets Worse![]
Towards a little down the first hall of the second floor.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Flood activity has caused a failure in a drone control subsystem. I must reset the backup unit. Please, continue on. I will rejoin you when I have completed my task."
The Monitor leaves temporarily, and soon returns to John with the door open.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The Sentinels can use their weapons to manage the Flood only for a short time. Speed is of the essence."
Once John encounters another large door.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Please wait here."
As Chief approaches another hallway on the second floor.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Your environment suit should serve you well when the Flood begins to alter the atmosphere. You are a good planner."
Into once again another hallway.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The installation was well conceived. It is surely the only way to end the Flood threat."
John finds and rides the second platform lift.
But I Don't Want to Ride the Elevator![]
John goes into the first hallway of the third floor.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "I would conjecture that the other species currently on the installation is responsible for releasing the Flood. They seem most persistent in their attempts to access restricted areas."
John comes into another hallway, but this time it's large, open, cavernous.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Why naturally the Flood is simply too dangerous to release, and mass sterilization protocols may again need to be enacted. Of course, samples were kept here after the last catastrophic outbreak... for study. It seems... that decision may have been an error."
John encounters another hallway.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood. Their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce. "
John reaches the third floor's locked door.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "I will deactivate the security lock. Wait here."
Spark once again leaves and returns to John-117.
John encounters yet another hallway, but this time with slightly more Flood forms.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Please stay close. Time is short."
John rides on the platform lift to the fourth floor.
Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys To Super Weapons[]
John enters the first hallway of the fourth floor.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The Flood are already hard at work repairing your vessel. Its parasitic nature belies the Flood's intelligence."
John clears the route to the Index platform, fending off several remaining Flood forms.
{Original Cutscene} {Anniversary Cutscene}
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The energy barrier surrounding the Index will deactivate when we reach the ground floor."
When the platform comes to a stop.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "You may now retrieve the Index."
John walks slowly over to the Index, which is held in a sheath of some sort. A series of metal blocks encircling the Index move in and out for a few moments, before the Index itself pops slightly out of the top of the sheath. John removes it and holds it up to examine it for a moment, before 343 Guilty Spark zaps it from John's hands and into some sort of trans-dimensional storage chamber in the Monitor's body.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "Protocol requires that I take possession of the Index for transport. Your organic form renders you vulnerable to infection. The Index must not fall into the hands of the Flood, before we reach the Control Room and activate the installation."
Spark and John teleport away from the platform.
- 343 Guilty Spark: "The Flood is spreading! We must hurry!"
Fades to black.
Level ends.
Achievements[]
Icon | Name | Description | Value |
---|---|---|---|
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? | Activate Terminal 7 on The Library. | 5G | |
Reading Room | Beat the par score on The Library. | 10G | |
Skulltaker Halo: CE: Black Eye | Find and claim the Black Eye skull in remastered mode. | 5G | |
Skulltaker Halo: CE: Eye Patch | Find and claim the Eye Patch skull in remastered mode. | 5G | |
Speed Reader | Complete the level in 30 minutes or less. (CEA only) | 25G | |
That Just Happened | Complete The Library on Heroic or Legendary difficulty without dying. | 10G | |
The Library | Complete The Library. | 25G (CEA)
10G (MCC) | |
TLDR | Beat the par time on The Library. | 10G |
Trivia[]
- In this level, the only enemies the player encounters are the Flood.
Glitches[]
- If the player has an Overshield, it is possible to launch himself/herself onto the Activation Index. The player can fall to the bottom of the place right below this post and survive.
- On the second elevator the player rides, get it just high enough to where the player can walk under it. Once under, it will start to go back up, jump into the blue light that represents a gravity lift, the player will fall to his/her death, but at the bottom, the player will see a spinning Monitor, who will even talk. If the player has an Overshield, the player may survive and the Monitor will stare at the player. The player can also do this while 343 Guilty Spark is on another part of the level at the time.
Mistakes[]
- 343 Guilty Spark makes a mistake in a sentence he says in the beginning of the level. He says that "The energy field above [them] contains the Index," while, in fact, the Index is on the bottom floor of the energy field lift, the same place he says the line.
- In the beginning cutscene, the container holding the Activation Index unlocks, revealing it for two seconds before the animation by what is seen appears to have restarted since the Index seems to disappear as if the container was never even opened. This might have been caused by a scripting error.
References[]
- It's believed that the body of Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto from Halo: The Flood could be found lying around within the level. One of the only known ways to tell if the player has found his body is if the player manages to find a human infected Flood Combat Form that is already dead. He was said to have survived fighting his way to the Index, but once he came in range of it, he was thrashed and mangled by the Flood so badly that they could not use his body. Hunting for his body could also help make the level a bit more interesting to play. One of the bodies rumored to be his can be found down the corridor after 343 Guilty Spark opens the first blast door. The second rumored body can be found at the second blast door, right after "Wait, It Gets Worse!" by a Health kit and two fragmentation grenades. The third rumored body can be found at the 4th or 5th blast door. The fourth rumored body can be found in the trench after the 7th door. The last rumored body can be found at further down the corridor after the door to the Index that can be found with a trail of Flood and some Human blood and an Assault rifle with one round in it. This is possibly the most likely area, as Mobuto was said to have been "in range" of the Index when he was attacked.
- "Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys To Super Weapons" may be a 7 reference, as there is the number "four" mentioned and it lists "three" things about Super Weapons.
Miscellaneous[]
- In the Korean version of Halo: Combat Evolved, this level is named as "Finding the Index."
- The blueish lighted windows seen throughout the level are rumored to be used to access the data archived by the The Librarian although this has never been seen in any of the games thus far. In addition, they are described as "glowing blue monitors" in Halo: The Flood.
- Opening this file in a modding program will reveal a Flood actor variant with a flamethrower. However no such Flood spawns in the level due to the fact that in the Xbox version of the game the flamethrower was unfinished, even though the PC version of this level does contain a working flamethrower (which also doesn't have a spawn point as a random piece of weaponry lying around).
- It should also be noted that this is one of the least popular levels in the Halo series. Many players find the layout confusing and repetitive. Also, as the only adversary in this level is the Flood, some players are thrown off by the dramatic changes in challenges, rhythm, and tactics in the level. After so much negative feedback, Bungie made the Library segment much shorter in its Halo 2 counterpart, Sacred Icon. However, some players like this level due to its difficulty and see it as a challenge. It is also very similar to the Halo 3 level Cortana, in that the only enemy throughout the entire level is the Flood (though Cortana is much shorter).
- On the elevators that the player rides during the level, if one runs to the center of the elevators, they seem to have a four-leaved clover in the center. This could be an easter egg of some sort, or it could simply be a graphical error (the clover seems to be cut off down one side).
Gallery[]
Videos[]