Messages on bomb

When you drop the assault bomb on any assault game of Halo 2 Multiplayer, there is a hidden message that you can see as it falls. These are visible in The Art of Halo.

The best way to see it is to perform the No weapon glitch and pick up the bomb, walk to a wall and hold R so the bomb is quickly bouncing between you and the wall. If this does not work because the wall is too light/the bomb is too much to one side of the screen then look directly up and hold R and you can see it as its thrown into the air. Also, it helps to use a Spartan player, as opposed to an Elite, because the dropping animation is different. This difference means that the bomb drops directly down, not forward first.

An alternative method is to simply grab the bomb and to drop it into a shiny area of the map, and then zoom to focus at the bottom of the bomb with a Sniper Rifle/Beam Rifle. The messages are much more visible in these conditions. Certain matchmaking modes based on community maps in Halo: Reach (particularly in Grifball) also show a close-up of the bomb during Loadout screens.

This Easter egg also appears in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach. In Halo 3, there are only two messages, while in Halo: Reach there are three.

Halo 2 Messages
The messages seem to correspond to what map is used:

'Thus I Refute Thee':
 * Ivory Tower
 * Waterworks
 * Turf
 * Backwash
 * Elongation
 * Relic
 * On Bungie.net's matchmaking stats section of the service record, the description of the bomb is "Thus I refute thee."

'Hold Onto Yer Butt':
 * Ascension
 * Burial Mounds
 * Warlock
 * Gemini

'Kiss It Goodbye':
 * Coagulation
 * Headlong
 * Sanctuary
 * Terminal
 * Tombstone

A hieroglyph of a Spartan helmet, next to the two fingered peace symbol followed by "xoxo &hearts;":
 * Lockout
 * Midship
 * Beaver Creek
 * HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark II (J) Colossus
 * Zanzibar
 * Foundation
 * Containment
 * Desolation

Halo 3 Messages
In Halo 3, this easter egg is easier to see in Forge, but can be done in Custom Games, Matchmaking, or Theater.

You will see a different message, whether or not you are the Connection Host. If you are the connection host, the message seen is "Hold Onto Yer Butt." If you are not the connection host, the message seen will be "Thus I Refute Thee."

Halo: Reach Messages
In Halo: Reach, the messages return unchanged.
 * 'Hold Onto Yer Butt'
 * 'Thus I Refute Thee'
 * A hieroglyph of a Spartan helmet, next to the two fingered peace symbol followed by "xoxo &hearts;"

Trivia

 * 'Hold Onto Yer Butt' is a reference to Jurassic Park, where Samuel L. Jackson says the quote before switching out the power.


 * 'Thus I Refute Thee' is a twist on a philosophical reference; it was included by Robt and Lorraine McLees as part of an inside joke between members of the group 7hr33.