Halo Infinite Ending Explained: Post-Credits Scene Revealed

The Halo Infinite ending for the first-ever semi-open world campaign is here at last, and we've got the lowdown on what it all means. Whether you've finished Halo Infinite yourself and you're wondering what on earth happened, or you want to skip right to the end of the story to catch up on the Halo lore without playing the game yourself, we're here to help. Here's everything you need to know about the Halo Infinite ending and post-credits scene.

• Playing on controller? Here's our guide for the best Halo Infinite controller settings for Xbox and PC.

Halo Infinite Ending: The Story So Far

Halo Infinite is the third entry in the Reclaimer Saga, which began with Halo 4. So far, much of the storyline has concerned the corruption, death and subsequent reawakening of Master Chief's long-time AI companion, Cortana. 

Halo 5: Guardians ended with Master Chief and his fellow Spartans halting Cortana's plan to enforce galactic peace through forcibly disarming every sentient civilisation. Although Cortana had managed to recruit much of the galaxies AI to her side, the Spartans had escaped on the UNSC ship Infinity before she could disable it. If you completed the previous game on Legendary difficulty, there was also a secret ending which foreshadowed Halo Infinite, in which an unknown Halo array powers up as Cortana hums in the background. 

This leads us to the events of Halo Infinite. So far in the trailers, we have seen Master Chief awakening on a ship with a UNSC soldier and discovering Zeta Halo, which was a previously unknown Halo array. One of the trailers states the year, which is 2560, two years after the events of Halo 5: Guardians. That same trailer also has writing which states, "167 days after we lost."

This seems to indicate that the Spartans, and whatever forces were left, failed to halt Cortana's plan and that Halo Infinite will follow how Master Chief deals with the consequences as he explores Zeta Halo. We also know that the main thrust of the game will be Master Chief's quest to find an AI codenamed 'The Weapon' which he will employ to help find Cortana, and end the threat of the AIs.

It's also worth noting that Halo Infinite actually involves one character from the Halo Wars spin-off too, Atriox. He's the leader of the Banished, the main enemies in Halo Infinite and although he's believed to be dead in this game, he still plays a big role.

• Running into stuttering and FPS drops? Here are the best Halo Infinite PC settings to fix those issues. 

Halo Infinite Ending Explained

To quickly summarise the Halo Infinite story, Master Chief is rescued in space by a stranded Marine, Echo-216. Together, the pair start to eliminate the Banished from Zeta Halo and hunt for Cortana, acquiring The Weapon along the way, who turns out to be a carbon copy of Cortana before she went rogue. Escharum is the current leader of the Banished, implementing Atriox's vision in partnership with Harbinger, who is from the brand new Endless species and proves to be quite difficult for Master Chief to deal with.

After killing Escharum and Harbinger, Cortana appears before Master Chief and The Weapon as a previously recorded hologram. She apologises for her actions - too little too late though, let's be honest - and tells Chief to befriend The Weapon like he did before with her.

After escaping the crumbling Silent Auditorium, a portal appears in front of Chief and The Weapon, with an unknown source. The pair jump through and are transported forward in time by around three days, and teleported to the surface of Zeta Halo. Echo-216 shows up in a Pelican and picks the pair up, at which point he reveals his name to be Fernando Esparza. The Weapon says she thinks she knows the "perfect name" for herself, and although it isn't said out loud, it's assumed to be Cortana.

• Wondering whether the single player is worth experiencing yourself? Check out our Halo Infinite campaign review

Halo Infinite Ending: Post-Credits Scene Explained

The legendary difficulty post-credits scene offers more insight than the post-credits on any other difficulty, so that's the one we'll be analysing. This cutscene begins with a conversation between Zeta Halo's Monitor, Despondent Pyre, and the Grand Edict, someone we haven't come across before. This is a very old scene, as the conversation happened in 97,368 BCE, 100,000 years before the Halo series we know and love.

We see a Brute hand open a chamber full of Forerunner Cylixes - the same species storage devices seen earlier in the campaign. Despondent Pyre announces that the Cylixes and Auditorium are prepared, before the Grand Edict says "the Endless must be contained". He says he'll inform the Criterion to proceed.

The Grand Edict goes on to say that "today we do what it takes to maintain order, to preserve our truth. Time will forget they ever existed." The pair of them reveal they're preventing the Endless from figuring out how to control the construct of time. "If Halo cannot end them, it must imprison them. When it is done, the engineers must be busy," finishes the Grand Edict.

The camera then pans back to the Brute that opened the chamber, revealing it to be Atriox. The post-credits scene finishes with the revelation that Offensive Bias has been deployed by the Criterion. What this means for the future of Halo Infinite and the franchise as a whole is uncertain, but since the Offensive Bias has set out to stop Atriox and the Endless, we could see ourselves fighting alongside it very soon.

Check out our Halo Infinite multiplayer tips if you're jumping into the online portion. We also have a rundown of the Halo Infinite maps list.