Halo 3 - The Truth About The Secret Skull On Cortana Revealed

[@GrandpaBaner]

An important thing to note. If you finish Cortana with a plasma pistol (which can be found in the last room) you'll also spawn with a Spartan laser for this same reason. There is no Plasma Pistol in the last level.

[@UncleBaner]

Big true

[@MishraArtificer]

BUT! ...what if you finish Cortana with a Plasma Pistol AND the Skull? Does it give you one SPARTAN Laser or two?

[@tweaks8541]

@@MishraArtificer hmmm I’m gonna try that

[@noobslayerxxx]

@@MishraArtificer Top ten questions scientists couldn’t answer

[@Nemesis7475]

Possibly it can’t pass the tests mentioned. Maybe it’ll just give you default weapons as a result?

[@tomahawkm4687]

Generalkidd should have a degree in archaeogaming. It's archeology, but for games. Keep adding to your library, professor

[@Finger112]

Can I sign up for his class?

[@tomahawkm4687]

@@Finger112 probably, but since it's February, you're gonna be on the waitlist

[@justindaniels5923]

He could certainly be a consultant on a game in development :) Seems like he has a huge amount of knowledge

[@sivrahc]

That’s how I looked at him that’s why I love him 😂

[@RoachCatJr]

he should learn to write scripts instead of awkwardly stumbling over every other sentence & making every video longer than it needs to be. this video was so refreshing tho, he spoke eloquently

[@TheMAZZTer]

I suspect the second skull was intended to be just decoration alongside the bones and it was never intended to be picked up by the player. The map designer may have just copied the blind skull in since it was already set up with the right model and physics (or however that works, I don't make Halo maps). The lack of scripts making it do anything would have been intentional.

[@natayaway]

i think you're pretty close... it must have been that there were temporary prefabs placed around the level editor that a level designer used as placeholders. and then later, when the artist replaced the placeholders with the final assets it just so happened that the new prefab included a skull as a mesh. and then a miscommunication occurred where a separate polish artist who was optimizing the game saw the skull and instead of it taking up another object in the list of map objects, decided to just convert it to a silver skull without an achievement flag.

[@natayaway]

​@@Nighterlev the blind skull in h3 (not mcc) isn't a gold skull and also the blind skull with the achievement flag was never meant to be on this map. the conversion to being a gold skull in mcc didn't do anything to the original game files.

[@natayaway]

​@@Nighterlev code wasn't stripped out, it was never in there to begin with. halo 3 skulls do not apply skull effects on pickup, they have to be activated from the menus in the pre-game lobby. other than being a pickup weapon with no ammo and having a specific skull mesh, it's completely empty and the code that "makes it work" isn't even attached to the skull, it's in the level script that monitors for a skull pickup event, which triggers the menu unlock and achievement flags, which you can then activate the skull in the menu to remove the hud. they did NOT copypaste the skull from the earlier mission and then remove the level scripts, it was intentionally positioned there by a map designer and a programmer would enter the proper achievement and menu unlock flags afterwards. both blind, and the cortana-duplicate also didn't start originally as gold skulls. they're both silver skulls. the video explains that the skull has the "secondary" silver skull in the game files which means it specifically came from the parent type of "secondary_skull". going off of the asset names in the video, it's inheritance-based which means when authoring game objects, it was created either a child of the "primary_skull" or "secondary_skull" parent classes (and in this case, it'd be the secondary parent). you don't assign a tag afterwards to make it gold or silver. if you're saying a map designer originally placed a gold skull there, and then later changed it to a silver skull programmatically because it wasn't supposed to be a gold skull, that doesn't make any sense. they would have had to placed a primary_skull object, realize that it wasn't supposed to be there, checked which skulls were planned to be there, and then swap it out for a secondary_skull object? no, in that situation, they would have deleted it instead of swapping out the object. the prefab makes way more sense. map artist created a bunch of prefabs, one of them happens to use the blind skull mesh, and art objects typically stay there throughout development. and later, when the game is crushing bugs and optimizing last minute a polish artist notices in the list of game objects that it uses the blind skull mesh, and instead of having a separate duplicate object in the game's asset list where one is a decorative prop and the other is an actual pickup item, saves a few bits of memory by swapping it out for a silver skull either not knowing it wasn't supposed to be the blind skull, or inversely knowing exactly that the level script isn't monitoring for it and doesn't have anything attached to it so it wouldn't matter if it were a blind skull.

[@elongatedalbatross9318]

That makes no sense

[@hudsonk1racer]

Didn't Bungie themselves admit it was an accident? I remember hearing the original blind skull was on Cortana, while the one in the final release version was intended to be the assassin skull. Supposedly they swapped the two skull locations, but cut assassin due to time constraints leaving duplicate blind skulls. (Irony being 343 was potentially considering adding the assassin skull back in the settings for MCC)

[@TMek42]

The true Blind skull is the one in Cortana, hinted at by the game's code. The hint for the Assassin's skull is more appropriate for the one on Sierra 117

[@PosthumanHeresy]

Halo 3's hex code has hints for each skull attached. The Blind Skull's hint says "interred deep inside her tomb." Assassins is in there and says "Where Heroes Fall."

[@operator1338]

When I used assembly to make my AR fire fuel rod projectiles, I finished the mission and the next one started me off with a regular fuel rod gun with the same couple hundred rounds I had in my AR. This finally explained why that happened.

[@RamenCH]

I haven't watched the video yet, but I remember being baited as a kid that this skull would give you Recon armor. So I kept trying and trying like an idiot.

[@PinkSpaceDinosaur]

lol and now it’s free for all players

[@Spartan375X]

Bungie: Yeeeah, it's a feature, totally not a bug. 343 right away: Yeeeah, that tank gun is a bug. I am now questioning other strong beliefs I have in these games.

[@katzlover321]

Tank gun?

[@Spartan375X]

@@katzlover321 Tank gun is on the tip of the cannons of the Infinity next to Outpost Tremoniuos. 343 says that was not supposed to be in the campaign once it came out and players were finding it.

[@daedalus6433]

@@Spartan375X I hope they don’t patch it out. Been too long since we had a Scarab Gun.

[@infinitespace2520]

@@daedalus6433 I've lost my faith on 343 to do something creative, they're probably gonna patch it

[@marcusd745]

Today I learned that Halo 3 has the most asinine system possible for carrying weapons between levels. This is also a fantastic explanation of this skull, good job man

[@orangeporridge1553]

As for why it's there, I'd guess they planned on hiding it up there but later changed it's location and forgot to delete this one

[@TMek42]

Its meant to be the true Blind skull, the Blind skull on Sierra 117 is technically the false one - the cut Assassin skull

[@seal_shepherd8148]

*its

[@orangeporridge1553]

@@seal_shepherd8148 autocorrect. Get a life

[@seal_shepherd8148]

@@orangeporridge1553 lmao

[@J_claud]

I thought it just gave you a Spartan laser and a fuel rod if you play as arby if I’m remembering correctly

[@Firefrab]

You normally get a fuel rod as arby???

[@DotDotEight]

@@Firefrab yes

[@_The_Seeker_]

My coworker exploded into reality via the void after missing for 17 years.

[@patrlim]

What?

[@igee1605]

?

[@SectorFoxx]

What

[@IcyPitz]

Yeah...what?

[@zashbot]

so true

[@gansotonto]

What a convoluted way of doing the weapon transfer… I’m sure there’s a reason but why not just check to see if the carried weapon is in the following palette (by name, not index) and if it isn’t, do the default?

[@bable6314]

Because, contrary to popular belief, Bungie was a group of really shitty developers. They just had a good story writer and good level designers.

[@crashbash8549]

@@bable6314 Nah

[@gavinrolls1054]

@@bable6314 Bungie tried very hard not to reference tag names nor weapon pallette indexes directly cause it'd a) suck for level and tag designers b) created wasted memory space for unused weapon blocks. Do some research into their reasoning before making a bold claim.

[@JamesAChambers]

Game archaeology is a tricky thing. This guy completely explained it. He looked at the code even. It's a damn fine impressive piece of work. And I kind of wish I didn't know, or that the answer was different. That has to be the feeling for these guys almost every time. That being said, I do like when mysteries are solved eventually. Thanks for solving this mystery, I was very curious what it would end up being!

[@benmontey3438]

Heed: The skull doesn't do anything Me: But the spartan laser Heed: It's a fluke, it's a glitch Me: But that glitch still causes the laser to spawn. So, the skull indirectly makes the laser spawn, which means it technically can't spawn unless you have the skull. That said, does that technically mean that the skull does indeed spawn the laser? Even though it technically isn't intended to do so? If you were trying to bake a cake, and it comes out as a big brownie, is it a failed cake, or is it a brownie???

[@marranin007]

It is a failed cake, but brownies are pretty cool so it would be a brownie. The splaser is a bug but it's also pretty cool so it can be considered an easter egg.

[@benmontey3438]

@@marranin007 Precisely.

[@TMek42]

the spartan laser spawn glitch isn't exclusive to the second Blind skull, the Tilt skull will do the same thing

[@NeoDaxtoChief17]

@@marranin007 Easter eggs are deliberately placed by developers. This bug is not an easter egg just because it's "cool". It's simply a happy coincidence that the game thinks the spartan laser is the closest weapon to a skull. If this bug only happened on Tsavo Highway, where it instead gives you a plasma pistol in The Storm, no one would ever bat an eye or think this is some awesome hidden feature.

[@benmontey3438]

@@NeoDaxtoChief17 So in other words, this is an unintentional easter egg. A happy accident.

[@holymegametal]

Turning a easter egg into a spaghetti code glitch in one easy video

[@discothedisco]

I remember immediately after my first playthrough of Halo 3 originally, I went back in to get all the skulls. It took me forever because, since it was 2008 I couldn't easily look up a guide on my phone. I printed out a guide of skull locations, but it wasn't very good, so I never found the original Tilt skull, I somehow did the excessive amount of work to get this one (it seemed difficult when I was a kid, it probably isn't actually difficult). I was really disappointed when I didn't unlock the skull. I even tried it on legendary, when you're 12 this level SUCKS on legendary lol. I eventually gave up, thinking I had a broken copy of the game. It wasn't until years later playing MCC that I found out the actual location of the Tilt skull and went back to complete the achievement. This skull is my nemesis.

[@sweb6173]

wow, very interesting. i wish there was more secret skulls that simply affected little stuff in the game. be cool if every mission had a skull that made the next mission different

[@bannedbycommieyoutube5time920]

Agreed, there are so many good places to hide skulls, particularly in open world infinite. They could have had an internal contest on who could come up with the best places to put skulls. The best ones could be used for the traditional skulls, and the next group could be used for another collectible (different type of skull, maybe Spartan helmets instead) that provided little changes.

[@noyes.]

How would that be cool

[@Gizmo_-]

@@noyes. are you cool?

[@noyes.]

@@Gizmo_- Way cooler than a forced unnecessary autistic fantasy

[@jamesbhollingsworth5452]

@@noyes. While this is true, I wouldn’t be so mean about it,

[@PBart7]

The Spartan Laser is a *glitch?* What the *fuck*

[@Finger112]

A Glitch in the Matrix.

[@shiveshsingh3169]

I _kidd_ (hehe) you not, I searched for the location of the skull on Cortana today (I don't like Cortana too much, and was actually trying to get all related achievements for the level), and your video was what popped up in my search (the old mystery version). It confused me a lot since I was looking for the tilt skull. Amd here I am, in an apparent sense of Deja vu all over again. I found out about the existence of the second skull just today, and lo and behold, turns out it was a 'mystery' spanning 15 years, and you 'solved' it today too! Crazy coincidences.

[@tpbablues4886]

It’s funny how the mission it’s called “full circle” after the diagram explanation 😂

[@thedrbat9572]

Im just leaving my mark on a part of history, see yall in the future

[@meman176]

Really surprising that no one ever tried to bring the tilt skull to the end lol and the savo highway one too. Like you would think with the tilt skull especially people would have already figured this one out based alone on the fact that you also get a spartan laser. But i guess not!

[@ShadowDragon-cw7wb]

In short: Game:"What is this, can I transfer it to next level?" *Fails to find anything * Game:"Fuck it, giving you the "0" aka spartan laser"

[@gavinrolls1054]

Not what's happening but ight

[@BulletProofBacon]

This video is like crushing a child’s dreams and telling them Santa isn’t real even tho the presents still show up

[@SUPERFunStick]

I've been subbed and watching your videos since like 2015 when you first started. I don't remember the exact year. But I don't think I've ever commented on a single videos despite watching every single upload I see. I just want to say thank you for being one of the most unique, fascinating Halo KZbinrs out there. Halo is one of my favorite series of all time and it's just lovely to see you explore every minute detail in the Halo universe. You're one of the best in the world and please don't stop.

[@Apophis392]

Great video. I had to re-sub to you because of all the non-Infinite vids you’ve been putting out. Keep up the amazing work!

[@b.n.v.brandnewvideos8543]

I used to think that it was foreshadowing sergeant Johnson’s death because after he dies he gives you a Spartan laser

[@SamVillano]

I’m doing great today, Generalheed. How are you today?

[@Keykar]

If it's possible, what happens if you take both the tilt skull and blind skull to the next mission?

[@Aetheriem]

Red ring of death. NEVER ATTEMPT IT

[@trich742]

I found this skull back in the day and was confused because there was no videos or posts online about it and it made me wonder if I was one of the 1st to find

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

The bruteshot does more melee damage than your average weapon. Its almost as strong as an energy sword, being able to take out flood tanks in one hit even on higher difficulties.

[@sap_phys]

Spartan Laser skull is now bugged skull.

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

The glitch exists in odst. If you start a flashback while carrying a turret you will get the default loadout after the mission ends.

[@Ryan-xh7pe]

I wish there was a skull that gave you more Allie’s every mission

[@spastictreefrog]

(2:37)That 3 person lineup shot was awesome 👌

[@JJO117]

Any other levels that turn into other guns? As the storm going into floodgate?

[@devilrecordsreborn5311]

It’s 2022 and halo 3 still doesn’t have an infinite amo skull but has a flying skull

[@matthewkalasky2891]

5:24 "I told you not to touch it!" (Because of, well, you know.)

[@Eco-VillePatagoniaChile]

If you shoot down johnson with a headshot and grenade, his laser has infinite ammo and thus much more handy than the skull one. But General Heedigous already knew that I'm sure.

[@vesstig]

I remember people would use that skull and cut in time travel or other weird sequence breaks into the video to say it was how you got Recon armor back in the day, good times.

[@alexfrideres1198]

theres to my knowledge two more skulls hidden on cortana. i think theyre just decorative, like environmental storytelling, they have no effects and they spawn next to a pile of bones

[@AmeHart]

This is so cool to understand even this many years later ! What a happy accident.

[@gilliamm.5732]

Nice work!

[@agreedydragon]

ODST Symbols is still a mystery to me

[@darkaoshi27]

The secret skull seems to have a 90% chance of spawning in the campaign and rolling off. Yes, it still rolls off.

[@RedForeman]

I prefer the laser over skewer … but that’s just my opinion . And the sentinel beam should’ve been a guilty spark you could’ve manually operated 😂

[@Xx_Stogi_xX]

So I wasn't tripping, there was a skull on Cortana all those years ago... great job Kid

[@Equalizer74]

Now solve the Y glyphs on ODST

[@xXcashXx3]

Halo has so many mystery and hidden things that people still havnt found till this day

[@danielbedrossian5986]

I find funnier that the developers probably knew what is going yett they fixed the mistake in MCC that causes this skull fall in the abys

[@TheRealSmallville]

We knew it was nothing 15 years ago man...

[@TheChadPad]

Dude, great work guys. I know that took a lot of effort! Love this stuff. Is this something similar to why when you carry over an empty energy sword into Metropolis on Halo 2 it has infinite ammo?

[@squishymusic9723]

If you carried the spartan laser from the covenant to the end of cortana and also the skull, would you have 2 lasers in Halo?

[@evanellis7543]

I think the code would probably prevent that from happening. It would probably replace the skull with the next closest option to the Spartan laser

[@Folfah]

i remember finding this skull before there where any vids.

[@Hakohn2511]

As a gameplay programmer, I can easily say that the logic behind this is SO WEIRD. Why would they not just have a reference to / GUID of / name of that particular weapon? Seems to do so many unnecessary checks...

[@theneoreformationist]

possibly they had prototypes/variants that weren't used in the game, or are found on other levels. Also since it sounds like some levels may not have that weapon, they needed to replace with something similar. It's still weird.

[@gavinrolls1054]

Bungie tried very hard not to reference tag names nor weapon pallette indexes directly cause it'd a) suck for level and tag designers b) created wasted memory space for unused weapon blocks

[@Hakohn2511]

Thanks for letting me know. After all, this complex check is done only once at the beginning of a level, so it is worth it instead of making the others' job not difficult.

[@regularstan6212]

Halo 3 Engine is very complex

[@ATP2555ify]

Can you do the truth about the Ghost of Lockout? It'll make all those theories of it being an AI look silly.

[@BungieStudios]

11:38 👉👌𝕻𝖍𝖆𝖐𝖍𝖚𝖗 𝕬'𝖓𝖔𝖔𝖘 𝕿𝖎𝖑𝖋𝖚𝖑👍🍑

[@CobbsterSniper]

Love these halo 3 videos

[@gamercheese4203]

Interesting

[@TKdaFox1]

Me and my buddies always thought it was a second iron skull

[@sagatparkes]

When I die put my money in the grave I really got to put a couple snickers in the place

[@manicrhymes9552]

Kinda wanna know the projectile speeds of the Halo Infinite weapons. They are very clearly projectile but how fast are they moving and other properties do they have? Curious

[@frozensquash8098]

So O(n) time complexity for checking if the skull has a barrel

[@SnepBlepVR]

Your intro gives me anxiety. Thanks! You get a sub!

[@ericdanielski4802]

Nice video.

[@WarVeteran213]

It’s funny how this is like a glitch or Easter egg, but TBH it’s really not worth it especially when it has limited ammo so he only has 5 shots, like why bother doing this to get a spartan laser at the beginning of Halo if you could get Outabounds to Johnson and kill him for his laser, that’s infinite, you might as well start the mission halo, with an assault rifle and rocket launcher despite the weapons on the ground next to the crashed pelican or carrying weapons over from Cortana to halo, which is the only weapon I can see is worth carrying over to halo is the sword and maybe fire bomb grenades, since halo doesn’t have any fire bomb grenades laying around but it would be nice if halo had it and if you could carry up to four with each grenade too

[@florian9943]

respect dude! love your videos

[@gruntes11isttt]

I just played a few days ago and the skull still doesn't spawn in correctly

[@catninja909]

Holy shit this is such a satisfying video I have always wanted to try this out on every mission!

[@suprotikdey1910]

Blam be like: Why not. Why is a death ray not equal to a skull😂

[@italianfromhell]

I don´t see anybody mention this, but I´m pretty sure the flame trower also gives you the spartan laser

[@mybirdfeed3678]

Fun fact, if you complete Lord Hood Boy's Gold Rush mod (replaces the mission Cortana) while holding a skull, you do NOT start the last mission Halo with a spartan laser.

[@Sparstespark]

So is there a way to start the next level with a plasma rifle using this glitch??

[@ardentparagon159]

I always assumed that the skull was not meant to picked up. And the spartan laser is just a byproduct of the way halo 3 saves your weapons across missions. Glad to see I was right all these years later.

[@cytofusion6072]

The only thing I ever heard about this skull was that if you picked it up, it had a chance to corrupt and delete your campaign data. Obviously I thought this was awesome and did it, and sure enough, it erased my legendary campaign completion and had to do it all over again.

[@Faded.Visuals]

cool theory bro. but I am a believer that the skull posses magical laser like properties, thus grants the gamer a spartan laser because laser are cool especially when a bad mofo like MC is wielding it

[@Selicularr]

Not sure if your running a new rig but your footage looks much cleaner

[@x3lA]

@12:00 Nor is it a sneaky way to get Recon without Bungie

[@fortune4122]

This must be the blam spaghetti code I've heard so much about

[@stardust_2339]

It's not really that much spaghetti. It's a clever system because halo games have almost all assets stored in .map files. Many other games would just crash if there isn't a match but H3 rotates the variables around enough for it to continue working.

[@16235]

This is why I sub

[@KAIIRU.]

Is it a Spartan's skull? The bones next to it look bigger than your average human's.

[@toxenzz]

Legendary content

[@masterchief8797]

I think it was supposed to tease players about the iwhbyd skull

[@THEL05]

Still good to know

[@pillcosby546]

You never explained how to get the Sentinel Beam on Halo...

[@mocha8227]

What changes it from a spartan laser to a sentinal beam then? shouldnt it always be a laser? unless the rest of your loadout affects it too?

[@mocha8227]

@LaffeyBestShipfu hmm that could be it

[@Brain_quench]

So halo uses decision tree algorithms? Cool!

[@Vikingr19]

Imagine having skulls and bones in infinite! Oh wait T rated

[@SUPERFunStick]

343 needs to remaster H3

[@johnosterman494]

General kidd or general heed?

[@ClonedGamer001]

So basically, the game thinks the skull and the laser are close enough because you can beat someone to death with either one

[@Weltaz]

enormous !

[@brandonchris7230]

Is no one gonna talk about the green energy sword?? Am I missing something??

[@shoebillgaming2147]

If halo 3 ODST has skulls Dare's helmet wouldve been cool for one

[@ddsjgvk]

You can play as her if you beat legendary

[@flameyoshi07]

E

[@LordWay]

Halo 3 is so cool

[@theallaroundnerd9889]

Okay, but I think the real mystery is why is there an extra skull. Like, Spawning with a Spartan Laser is only half of it

[@bigriffliebe8427]

It's gives you recon armor !