Chasing Ghosts

Before I divulge the details of my findings, I must present a few words of caution. I have played many, many games in my lifetime and on more than one occasion I’ve spent considerable time looking for hidden secrets that just weren’t there (or were nearly impossible to figure out on one’s own.) Despite the exciting things I have uncovered, they may not add up to anything significant. I could be chasing ghosts. I am not a Bungie employee nor am I a Bungie affiliate. I can make no promises. This is pure speculation based on some hidden codes and symbols I have uncovered in the game. If you choose to follow any of my leads in the hopes that you’ll be wearing a Hayabusa Helmet or Spartan Mjolnir Armor in Firefight, you need to accept the reality that there may not be a pot of gold and the rainbow might be an illusion. Read on, and see for yourself what you make of my discoveries.

Update 2009.10.03 : Since this article was originally written, the Secret Glyph Project (SGP) was established. You can access the SGP’s updates (and register to participate) in their forum at http://sgp.subculturelifestyle.com/. You can also view their Image Gallery at http://sgpgallery.subculturelifestyle.com/

Terminology

First of all, we need to get some terms out of the way:

Banner: A vertical block of art adorning various walls of the city which indicates the District Number that the player is currently in (see District below.) Banners are always one color and have additional symbol “cut outs” in their design.

Barrier: When I refer to “barrier” I’m talking about the tall gray UNSC slabs with control panels scattered across District 4. Please don’t confuse this term with the glowing blue energy barriers that conspicuously block your exploration throughout the city. In the photo below there is one to the right of my targeting reticle. Barriers read “UNSC” on their backs and have a control panel on the front. Also on the front in the upper left-hand corner is a two-character alphanumeric code, which I refer to as a Barrier Code. The barrier below happens to be coded “2B”.

District: A numbered section of the city. When you walk through a set of those huge sliding double doors, you’re almost always walking into a different district. The district number is prominently displayed on buildings throughout a given district. See that huge numeral four on the wall in the above image? That means you’re walking around in District 4.

Glyph: Short for “Covenant Hieroglyph”. These are symbols that appear on walls and floors across the entire city. I’ll be discussing these at length. The majority of glyphs are comprised of a central “Y” design with 0-3 symbols appearing in the three spaces delineated by the “Y”. The Halo 3 ODST Prima Official Game Guide obliquely refers to these on pg 33 as “interesting Covenant hieroglyphs.”

POGG: Acronym for “Prima Official Game Guide”, in this case the one for Halo 3 ODST written by David S.J. Hodgson. I may occasionally refer to this guide for cross-reference. If you have not already purchased it, you should be aware that there is no explanation given for the presence of hieroglyphs nor is there any manner of catalog of the different types you will encounter in the game, let alone why. This is our job to suss out as fans of the series!

Your First Glyphs

Your first opportunity to spot glyphs is just before you enter the building containing the first campaign clue (Dare’s helmet.) This building is located near the starting area in District 05. On the outside of the entrance you will find examples of the two most prominent glyphs in the game: Glyph A and Glyph B.

Glyph A

Glyph B

These two glyphs are most commonly found near the locations of clue item (items which begin a campaign mission.) In addition to seeing these near the glowing yellow item, you’ll typically hear a somewhat creepy music track with a “chattering” synth lead. Don’t be confused by the fact that these two glyphs are often found rotated 90 or even 180 degrees.

Comparing the two, we find that each of the three symbols in a given position of the “Y” bear similarity not only to one another but more specifically to the symbol in the same position of the other glyph. All of the six symbols contained within these two glyphs contain three “fins”, one of which points either up or down. The circle around each symbol is broken in the direction of one of the fins. It appears that these glyphs indicate different “states” of the same set of symbols, with the “dots” in Glyph A coalescing into the larger squares we can observe in Glyph B.

But what do these represent? That’s a tough call. In the 2006 Halo Graphic Novel, we saw three different, but somewhat similar symbols:

In each set (the comic symbols and the ODST symbols) there are two which seem very similar and one which is oddly different. For example, in Glyphs A and B the top right symbol uses a horizontal fin instead of a vertical fin to “point” toward the break in the circle. Are the ODST symbols simplifications of the ones in the comic? Does it all tie in with the original Adjutant Reflex imagery used during the Iris campaign? What lends more credence to these symbol sets being related is the context of both appearances: the invasion of New Mombasa by the Covenant and their search for the Ark.

Of prime importance here is the number three. I’ll delve more into this later, but suffice it to say that the number three seems to be a crucial concept of ODST. Three symbols in three spaces. Three lines forming a “Y”.

One final note about these glyphs: the orientation. How do we know which side is top and which is bottom? We don’t! I am divided on this issue and cannot currently point to any concrete evidence of which way these glyphs should be “properly” displayed; however, my choice to show them as they are here was not arbitrary. The icon for the “Occupied City Center” which can be seen in your in-game HUD menu while walking the Mombasa City Streets is actually based on an inverted “Y”; hence, my presentation of these glyphs in that same orientation.

Additionally, if you earn the Super Sleuth achievement by finding all of the clue items (marked by Glyphs A and B) then you may notice that the achievement icon uses the Occupied City Center image in its design:

How many chevrons come together to form that symbol? Three, of course! And is one colored differently than the other two? Natch!

A Visit to Squidhenge

As you progress southward from District 05 into Districts 08 and 09 to complete the second mission, you’ll finally unlock the greater part of the city and be able to make your way east of District 08 into District 06. This district introduces two new glyphs. While passing though, eagle-eyed players (and/or those consulting their VISR map) may have noticed a dark gray security door leading into a room described in the POGG as the “Engineers’ Courtyard” (Landmark 6.01 on pg 129.)

This little structure I like to call “Squidhenge” is chock full of Glyphs, including two we have not yet seen:

I call these “Simple Glyphs”- reductions of Glyphs A and B to their core “Y” device. These are glyphs without “symbols” as I’ve been calling them. They are most commonly found near hidden weapons, typically in the dark side alleys adjacent to the large District Double Doors. There is indeed a Covenant Carbine and a couple of Plasma Grenades here.

The more interesting glyph is this one:

It’s the symbol for the Superintendent! At least six different versions of his symbol exist with different eyes, indicating mood. Here we have a sad version. Are there more? What does this indicate? Why are there two engineers just hanging out here?

As you continue to explore New Mombasa, more of these sequestered squidhenges can be found, but I’ve yet to encounter one with this form of Superintendent glyph. I call this variant of Y-Glyph the “Superintendent Mono Glyph, Sad Version” where “mono” indicates that the three glyph spaces are occupied by only one symbol. “SuperMonoGlyph, Sad” for short(er). Err, right?

For now, let’s continue to the treasure trove of ODST peculiarity: District 04.

Magic Walls and The Mysterious District 04

Nested into the northwest corner of District 04 is a plaza referred to in the POGG as the “Sunken Plaza”. It is mirror image of Tayari Plaza from District 05 and it may be worth noting that, geographically, these two plazas are virtually adjacent even though you must travel through Districts 06 and 08 to move between them.

If you descend either of the staircases down into the plaza, you can find four interesting glyphs of a type rarely seen in the city:

It’s our friend, the Superintendent! In each case, his “normal” face has replaced the symbol in the bottom space of Glyph B. Most interestingly, in the fourth instance (rotated 90 degrees) the symbol for the Super did not rotate! Perhaps this is some indication that the “Y” revolves around the Super, as opposed to the super rotating along with it. Seen this way, the “Y” implies a direction away from the Superintendent.

I have only found this version of Glyph B, the “Super Glyph B”, in one other District (03) where it resides on the wall of an area shared by two engineers.

There are three unique orientations among these four glyphs. (There’s that number three again.) Why are these here?

Perhaps to indicate the location of the “Magic Wall”.

“The what!?” you may ask. Well what else would you call a wall whose markings mysteriously change to reveal hidden glyphs? That’s precisely what can be found here in the “Sunken Plaza” if you proceed under the stairs.

Pictured above is the view of the far wall located underneath the stairs of the Sunken Plaza. Notice the upright trash can to the right and the fact that the wall is totally bare.

Standing here, you will appear at the following waypoint location on your VISR map:

It may not look like much now, but this “Magic Wall” will surprise you under certain circumstances with this change in appearance:

Behold! The Super TriGlyph!

When I happened across this on the night of the 24th I got butterflies in my stomach- this isn’t supposed to happen! I was bristling with nervous excitement. When it creepily disappeared a half hour later that as I tried to show it off to my wife, we both figured I had been playing way too much ODST. The nervous excitement turned to nervous fear that I had been hallucinating from ODST-induced sleep deprivation. Thankfully, during a co-op campaign mission with two friends it suddenly reappeared after not being there mere minutes before. This thing was real. Naturally, I set about trying to discover what triggered its appearance.

I sent word to Ascendant Justice the next day, hoping to break the news on their site. Alas, the site is currently speeding headlong into uncertainly as the content providers have taken positions on the Halo team (congrats, guys!) Four days and countless DVD recording sessions later, I have proof and slightly more of a clue what may cause this to appear.

After much travel-a-district-away-to-trigger-a-district04-reload nonsense, I finally nailed down that you do not have to leave District 04 to make the Super TriGlyph appear. Playing on Easy difficulty (to minimize bother while exploring) it appeared after much wandering around the District looking at other symbols and the five barriers. Is all of this necessary? I don’t know. Will it work every time? Probably not, because I still don’t know what I’m doing here. What’s the point?

The point is that I haven’t found the Super TriGlyph anywhere else in the game and I suspect it is the first step in unlocking a new Easter Egg in ODST. On the other hand, I like to play devil’s advocate. Was this really something a video gamer should get that excited about?

As I was researching this, nagging at the back of my mind was the notion that this could simply be an unintentional bitmap glitch. Since District 05 is a mirror image of District 04 it also contains a corresponding Magic Wall. District 05’s Magic Wall behaves erratically as well, changing from a wall with a District 05 banner to a blank wall like we started with in District 04. A similar change, but in reverse!

With two magic walls, you might think there’s more evidence of an Easter Egg. I thought the contrary- this could still be a glitch since those two rooms were likely copy/pasted in the level editor during their creation. It’s also pretty strange conceptually… why do the banners appear and disappear? Why no Super Glyph on the District 05 wall? I didn’t want to believe this was all due to a glitch, but the scientist in me had to allow it. It wasn’t until last night (the 28th) that the District 04 Magic Wall did something new and I could truly get excited:

From Super TriGlyph to Super DiGlyph. Again, butterflies in the stomach. Am I really seeing this!? The chances of a random glitch altering the Super TriGlyph bitmap in such a way as to cleanly remove just one of the Superintendent symbols seems entirely improbable to me. The DiGlyph appeared immediately after I spent much time traversing District 04 to make my vidcaps for this article. During that time I had zoomed in on every different glyph in the District. I had visited five different active barriers and zoomed in on their codes. I went to the Superintendent Weapon Cache and zoomed in on those glyphs and symbols as well. It was a feverish festival of glyph-watching rewarded by a new one when I returned to the Magic Wall. Apparently, I stepped on something.

Barrier Mischief

In addition to the Magic Wall’s antics, those seemingly innocent UNSC Barriers play their own game of mischief. If you note the Barrier Code on one, chances are it’ll be a different one when you return (especially if you forced District 04 to reload in the interim.)

At least one of the Barriers in District 04 (the one I number as Barrier 02) will practically change its code while your back is turned without you needing to walk through any double doors. Barrier 03 will actually completely disappear!!!

Below are photos of the five active barriers I have found in District 04 along with corresponding VISR maps showing their locations. By “active” I mean that the barrier’s control panel is lit and a barrier code is displayed on the front of it. There are some inactive barriers in the District as well. These seem to be without power and without codes.

Barrier 01
This barrier is right in front of the door to District 6.

Barrier 02
This barrier is cloaked in darkness along the east-west path which lies just southeast of Barrier 01. It will change codes on you in the blink of an eye!

Barrier 03
This barrier will completely disappear and reappear! I’ve yet to isolate the cause.

Barrier 04
In the center of the plaza which is referred to as the “Kizingo Boulevard Lower Roundabout” in the POGG (Landmark 4.04 pg 128) lies this barrier, which I think I have also caught disappearing from time to time.

Barrier 05
Face north from Barrier 04 and you’ll spot this one.

There may be more barriers that I’ve missed in District 04, so please speak up if you find one. I don’t believe there are any codes that are exclusive to any given barrier. Again, I may be mistaken. The nine codes I have encountered are:

• 1A
• 2B
• 3C
• 4D
• 5E
• 6F
• 7H
• 8J
• 9A

The first six codes appear to be a simple pattern of a digit and the alphabetic character whose ordinal number in the alphabet is that digit (i.e. the sixth character of the alphabet is “F”, hence 6F) This all changes with the seventh. Bungie fans will hardly be surprised, as seven is Bungie’s holy number and heavily present in the Halo series. So our seventh code breaks the pattern and skips over the letter G to H. H for “Halo”? The eighth code likewise skips a letter to make 8J. The skipped letters are G and I. GI as in soldier? Finally, the alphabet rolls back to the letter A with code nine. Thus, only two codes share the same letter. The significance is still a mystery, but perhaps their purpose will become evident as other clues are found. I spent days in District 04 never setting eyes on the Super DiGlyph until I began racing around to visit the barriers in succession. Coincidence? Perhaps… but the best lead I currently have.

The Districts Beyond

So far, I have detailed only Y-Glyphs. TriGlyphs, DiGlyphs, MonoGlyphs, and Simple Glyphs of any variety are all composed from a central “Y” form. There are a couple of others.

Standing large in the center of the back wall of the District 04 Superintendent Weapon Cache is a large Superintendent Symbol. Although the terms “symbol” and “glyph” may be synonymous, I have reserved the term “symbol” to refer to the smaller components of the Y-Glyphs. I consider the oversized cache version of the Super’s symbol to be a Glyph in a separate category: circular glyphs. (And I wouldn’t bother if there weren’t more!) These exist outside of District 04, although not in all of the caches… at least not all of the time!

District 03 and District 08 both contain a room reminiscent of the District 06 “Engineers’ Courtyard” area. In these rooms, there are large circular glyphs on the wall. They are, in fact, just big circles! It appears they might become identical to the Super Circles in the weapon caches, but I have yet to see one “fill in” with any other shapes. Pictured below is the District 08 room:

For now, we have two different circular glyphs: the Super Circle and the Plain Circle… and two more pieces for the puzzle!

Primes, Circles, and Rainbows

Once again, I am facing insects under stones. Here is something beneath the surface of Halo 3: ODST that is daunting and a wee bit creepy. My virtual game world is shifting under the darkness even as I explore it, but it seems to have a purpose. The hidden glyphs bearing the symbol of the Superintendent appear to have a meaning that has yet to be discovered. How do we, the fervent Halo players, progress from here?

Numbers
If I have any lead that I believe is worth following, it’s that the answer is in the numbers 3, 4, and 7. This is nothing new for Halo fans used to the significance of the number seven and the fact that seven cubed equals 343. I feel silly pointing out that 3 + 4 = 7, but there you have it. The number three appears to be particularly important this time through Bungieville. Here are some notable numerical occurrences:

The Musical Theme
When you first start ODST and the music begins, a theme of three notes is played. Anyone who actually looked into why you had to literally jump through hoops to uncover the IWHBYD skull in Halo 3 discovered that the answer was musical. Each ring you hopped through was chanting a different note (need I remind non-music nerds that there are seven tones in all of our popular western scales?) As you made your seven jumps, you played the fourth passage of the Halo theme, which is comprised of seven notes. When you completed the maneuver, the theme played and your Easter Egg was unlocked. If a similar maneuver is required in ODST, perhaps it will require three main components.

Glyph Construction
As we’ve seen earlier in this article, all of the Y-Glyphs (most of the glyphs in the game) are based on threes. The “Y” itself is comprised of three lines which create three spaces. There are typically three symbols populating a given Y-Glyph.

The Organization of Comm Data Entries
The first eight “circles” of Comm Data are grouped into “arcs” of three entries. I have two more entries to grab in my current save (!) but it appears that the ninth circle is the last one, which will contain six entries. 3, 6, and 9. All multiples of three. The fact that they are called “circles” is another issue completely.

Shapes
A circular concept should probably be expected in a game titled “Halo”, so it seems appropriate that the normal symbol for the Superintendent is comprised of three of them. The six symbols among Glyph A and Glyph B each have a circle around them containing one missing arc. As noted above, the Comm Data is organized into circles and arcs. Our Barrier Codes result in a circular return to the letter A (first code 1A, last code 9A.) Even the majority of the campaign levels have you returning “full circle” to the place where you began, as the final location in the level is often revealed to be the place where you found the clue.

Given that the number three seems to take center stage, triangles should naturally be prominent. Indeed, the majority of New Mombasa’s districts are large triangular shaped wedges held in place by a few squares (District 10 notwithstanding)

The district banners also contain cut-out shapes in their design. Many are circles, others rectangular. Could these possibly add up to form some of the symbols we have seen in the glyphs?

Colors
There appears to be a mapping between district and color, as denoted by the banners. District 4 and 5 are both red, for example. District 8 appears Cyan. I haven’t completed this map yet but I suspect it’ll become a helpful tool. This would simultaneously provide an index of the banner cut-out shapes.

Attention!
Perhaps the numbers, shapes, colors, and codes all come together in a familiar image we’ve seen at the local Optican station and elsewhere:

The image depicts two columns of colored rectangles. The right-hand column contains seven different colors. (7th Column, anyone?) In order from top to bottom they are: Blue, Red, Purple, Green, Cyan, Yellow, Gray. The left-hand column contains four colors separated by three instances of the color black. (Again, 4+3…) This results in two unique pairings of non-black colors between the columns: gray with blue, and cyan with purple. It also flags three colors based on the pairing with black: red, green, and yellow. Perhaps there is some logic to these pairings based upon the mapping of the colors to districts via the banners.

This certainly isn’t the first time there have been seven mapped colors in the Halo universe. The “Rainbow Theory” resulted in this Halo Color Codes article in the Halopedia. Where we have gray and cyan, that table has white and orange. Though perhaps not a perfect fit, it’s nice to know that this sort of significance has precedent.

There is also a cryptic number in the upper left-hand corner: “49.2.7″. This could be interpreted many ways. Seven to the second power is indeed forty-nine. But that tells us something we already know! District 02 and District 07 are (at least initially) non-accessible. Does deciphering this key provide a means to access them?

Finally, and perhaps most telling, is the bright arc of white along the right side of the Superintendent’s logo. It is adjoined by a highlighted question mark as if to ask “How do we find the missing arcs?” This could be a reference to the 30 hidden Comm Data entries (referred to as arcs) or perhaps something deeper. The six symbols found in Glyphs A and B were each missing one arc of the circle around them.

Of course from a fictional standpoint the Covenant is trying to do a similar thing: find a missing Ark!

Forging Ahead

We can’t expect Bungie to answer our questions. If they hid something, they wanted it to remain hidden for some time. It falls upon the gaming community to take to the virtual streets in ODST and keep a sharp eye on the lookout for further clues. As always, what was on the surface of campaign mode was just a thin layer upon a much thicker substrate. We’re going to have to get dirty and dig as a team.

I invite everyone who reads this to comment on their own findings in ODST. Please let the community know what you have found and perhaps we can play the metagame the way it was meant to be played: without modding, without hex editors… and without expectation. After all, we could be chasing ghosts…