Halo Timeline – Everything in Chronological Order

The chronological order of Halo isn’t easy. The Halo series includes not just games, but also dozens of books, comics, and movies that complement the story. With so many different media and intersecting story arcs, it’s hard for newcomers to determine what the chronological order of Halo is or where to start their journey. That’s why we created this Halo Timeline. Our Timeline explains the chronological order of the Halo games, books, comics, and movies.

This entry was updated in September 2021.

Now we place the games in the complete Halo Timeline, along with all the books, comics, and movies. We’ve arranged all media in the Halo universe in chronological order as far as possible. However, due to flashbacks, time jumps, or stories that take place over a longer period of time, that’s not always feasible. In that case, we use an order that is as logical as possible.

Era of the Forerunners

The Halo universe goes back to a hundred thousand years ago when the Forerunners ruled the universe and mankind was still a rather primitive race. The Forerunners have always had a central role in the games. In fact, they are the creators of the titular Halos. Yet there is no game that takes place in the time when this civilization reached its peak.

If you want to delve deeper into this period, you’ve come to the right place with the Halo books from The Forerunner Saga, a trilogy by Greg Bear, which describes the rise and inevitable downfall of this civilization and teaches us a lot about The Librarian, The Didact, The Flood and the ring worlds.

The Forerunner Saga (Chronological order)

Also in this era

Founding of the Covenant

The Covenant is the central enemy in Halo. It’s a diverse collection of different alien races that have united. The political relations within this fragile alliance have received attention since Halo 2, but the games don’t really describe how the Covenant came about. A number of other media pay more attention to this.

In this era (Chronological order)

War with Insurrectionists/First Contact Covenant

In the 26th century, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) is engaged in a difficult war with the Insurrectionists, when suddenly a much bigger threat occurs: the Covenant. The games Halo Wars and Halo Reach take place in this era, although even in those games the war has been going on for a number of years. There is hardly any attention for Insurrectionists, and also the origins of the Spartans, including Master Chief, are barely touched. Other media, such as the Halo book Contact Harvest, amply fill this gap.

In this era (Chronological order)

Master Chief’s Origin Story

The story of Master Chief’s origins takes place almost in parallel within the previous time span. Originally trained to fight the Insurrectionists, he and the other Spartans were soon deployed against the Covenant. His story of origin begins and ends with the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach, which for convenience we consider as the first book in his origin story. The other stories actually take place during the events of The Fall of Reach. The story of The Fall of Reach was later adapted into a comic and animated film.

In Master Chief’s origin story (Chronological order)

The Original Halo Trilogy

Both Halo Reach and Halo: The Fall of Reach seamlessly connect to the very first game. Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 tell how the war between humanity and the Covenant is escalating as Master Chief and Cortana discover the first Halo ringworld. The three games follow each other in quick succession, so little happens in between the games. The novel Halo: First Strike and comic Halo: Uprising fill in the gaps between the games. The important novel Halo: Ghosts of Onyx also takes place at this time, although it has no direct connection with the games.

In this era (Chronological order)

Reclaimer Saga

Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians throw the player in the middle of a universe full of new conflicts and characters. The Kilo-Five trilogy mainly describes how the tensions between the various factions have risen again between Halo 3 and Halo 4. Subsequently, almost all characters from Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians have gotten their own book, comic, or movie. For example, the movie Halo: Nightfall introduces Jameson Locke, the comic Halo: Initiation does that with Spartan Palmer, and the books: Halo: New Blood and Halo: Last Light tell more about Buck and Blue Team respectively. Some media have even been given a sequel (i.e. Halo: Bad Blood as a sequel to New Blood, and Retribution as a semi-sequel to Last Light), making it difficult to discern the individual storylines. In chronological order, as far as possible:

Kilo-Five Trilogy (Chronological Order):

Also in this era (Chronological order)

Infinite

With Halo: Infinite 343 Industries starts a new chapter. 343 Industries describes Halo: Infinite as a spiritual reboot. Thanks to a leap in time and by putting Master Chief back in full focus, Halo: Infinite should become an excellent starting point for newcomers, while all previous media still play a role. It is expected that Halo: The Television Series will hook up with Halo: Infinite.

In this era (Chronological order)

Collections of Stories

There are also a number of collections of short stories set in the Halo Universe. These stories take place in a wide variety of eras and these collections cannot be categorized as the other media. Therefore below is an overview of these collections of short stories in order of publication. Some stories from these collections have also been published separately and thus already mentioned in the Halo Timeline.

In order of issue:

Non-canon

And finally, we have a single medium that is not a canon. Nevertheless, for the sake of completeness, we would like to mention these media in the Halo Timeline.

This Halo Timeline has been composed with as much care as possible. Nevertheless, an error may have crept into our chronological order. Are you an even bigger Halo fan than we are? Please contact us and tell us what we did wrong!