Why does the chief not get auto-infected by the flood?

[Bass Man]

I've been wondering how the hell the Chief, Arbiter, the countless marines, everyone who's even been in the same area as the Flood doesn't immediately get converted the second they enter the area since I first played Halo 1 all of those years ago. In the books the Flood are insanely powerful, and honestly I've never understood why the Chief and Arbiter, who have had EXTREMELY close contact with the Flood, didn't just keel over and turn into a combat form on first contact. Is this explained in the books or anything? Because I can't remember seeing any explanation for this.

[Define Brackish Water]

Shields. Also, the green beach balls have to get their tiny terrible hands into someone's spine.

[Bass Man]

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

Shields. Also, the green beach balls have to get their tiny terrible hands into someone's spine.

Really? I thought the Flood could spread through particles in the air and such.

[Define Brackish Water]

Originally posted by KurticleMass:

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

Shields. Also, the green beach balls have to get their tiny terrible hands into someone's spine.

Really? I thought the Flood could spread through particles in the air and such.

That's true, but I'm not sure for how long that has been true. I've seen someone else say the same thing but in my head it's always been about the big green bulbs. It's been some time since I read the original books and I don't know when that exact concept was introduced.

[Worm Knight]

Originally posted by KurticleMass:

I've been wondering how the hell the Chief, Arbiter, the countless marines, everyone who's even been in the same area as the Flood doesn't immediately get converted the second they enter the area since I first played Halo 1 all of those years ago. In the books the Flood are insanely powerful, and honestly I've never understood why the Chief and Arbiter, who have had EXTREMELY close contact with the Flood, didn't just keel over and turn into a combat form on first contact. Is this explained in the books or anything? Because I can't remember seeing any explanation for this.

The mechanics of flood infection only appeared during game on Halo 3. And as far as i uderstand, we never have been on a major outbreak where spores are released in enough numbers to infect people by breathing while at the same time have infectable allies around. (In wars we have, but at least not in the main games)
The only one i can think of, is the end of cortana when the arbiter appears. Why Thel is not affected by the spores is something beyond my knowledge, however i can answer why the chief is not affected.

mjolnr armor.
thats it
is a full body armor completely isolated from the outside and it has air filtration, so spores dont get to him, and since it covers his whole body an infection form would need to break it in order to infect him.

getting back to the arbiter, we could assume that he also has never been on a major outbreak for too long.
he fought the savage flood on installation 04 during halo CE but that wasnt a major outbreak (spark even mentions that the flood still havent started to change the atmosphere) and he also fought the flood on installation 05 and the treshold gas mine during halo 2, in the treshold gas mine it was a minor outbreak that had just started, and in installation 05 we never actually get to see a flood hive. Granted, the concept of a flood hive probably didnt existed yet, but the canon works in weird ways, meaning we are looking at a retcon that still hasnt been done.

so my own headcanon is that all available biomass was used to make the gravemind or the hive is far away from the locations of the missions.
in either case, the gravemind is sendind the flood there so there arent much spores in the air.

and high charity on halo 3, he only appears at the end of cortana, so we could assume he arrived not too long ago. So he hasnt breathed many spores.

[GamerXT]

They have suits is the reason, and for the marines, I guess they where never in an area where there was flood particles, although even in Halo 1, you do see green crap in the air

[bootywarrior43096]

Originally posted by KurticleMass:

I've been wondering how the hell the Chief, Arbiter, the countless marines, everyone who's even been in the same area as the Flood doesn't immediately get converted the second they enter the area since I first played Halo 1 all of those years ago. In the books the Flood are insanely powerful, and honestly I've never understood why the Chief and Arbiter, who have had EXTREMELY close contact with the Flood, didn't just keel over and turn into a combat form on first contact. Is this explained in the books or anything? Because I can't remember seeing any explanation for this.

You die anyways so they might as well have him get infected on screen, it would be cool

[Jeanmouloude]

the stronger the creature is, the harder it is to infect it
usualy the flood prefer infecting weaker creatures because its easier for them to create a new combat form, waste less energy

[LeekypooX]

Mjolnir's air filters filter out the spores, which is what 343 guilty spark mentions in the book to him about the flood reaching the stage where they start converting the air. Also the flood infection forms are not truly capable of hurting chief (the only way i recall is the nano barbs on their tentacles that can go through the black undersuit)

[Psychedelic Adventurer]

Game reason: because Halo's infection animation wasn't in place until 3.

Lore reason: Because MC never even gets touched by Flood to the point of where that was a possibly.

EXCEPT in one case where, in 'The Flood', he gets ambushed by a lone infection form which actually inserts its tendrils into his spine if i remember. Cortana saves him by vaporising the Flood form by overcharging his shields.

[Geressen]

Originally posted by KurticleMass:

Originally posted by Define Brackish Water:

Shields. Also, the green beach balls have to get their tiny terrible hands into someone's spine.

Really? I thought the Flood could spread through particles in the air and such.

that is why guilty spark says the suit will protect chief when the flood starts to alter the atmosphere.

[zacharyb]

Also the only reason Sergeant Johnson doesn't get infected is because he has Boron's Syndrome/Orion Augmentations which made his Nervous System so screwed up that the Flood couldn't get a match with his Nervous system rendering him immune to getting infected though he does have Flood DNA in him.

[DroopingPuppy]

Be aware that the infection form quickly remove his health if it contacts unshielded chief. As long as you have at least some degree of shield you are fine but if your shield is depleted you must not allow them to close to you.