Seven

"Some of you may be wondering - "What's up with this unhealthy obsession with the number 7?" This page offers some insights."

- Luke Smith, linking to this very page

"Cause that's the best number. It's like rock. Nothing beats rock or 7"

- Michael Wu

Bungie Studios has long enjoyed using the number Seven (7) in its games in many ways. Ensemble Studios and authors also have many seven references in their works about Halo. Therefore, in many of their games, this eccentric idea has caused a wild hunt for as many references to the number as possible. While almost anything can be made into a reference to something with effort or construed accidentally through pareidolia, the following attempts to list the intentional references Bungie placed into Halo for the fans to find.

Halo: Combat Evolved (and Halo: The Flood)

 * There are 7 pine trees in the area surrounding the Control Room.
 * There are 7 blast doors leading to the Index in the Library.

Halo 3: ODST
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 * In the trailer, there are seven Brutes in the Covenant patrol.
 * In the trailer, the ODST's last fatality estimate displayed was 0.52%. 5+2=7
 * In the trailer, the song that plays is 77 seconds long or 1:17 minutes long, a seven/SPARTAN-117 reference.
 * At approximately 10 seconds into the ODST trailer there are 7 HEVs burning in the atmosphere.
 * At approximately 15 seconds into the ODST trailer there are 28 levels of blue glass on the left tower. 28/4=7
 * The Superintendant will change his face 7 times during the trailer (including its beginning emotion).
 * The Captain featured in Halo 3: ODST commands a special force squad, comprised of 14 men. 14/2 = 7
 * The day the game was renamed Halo 3: ODST was 25th November 2008. 2+5=7
 * In the Halo 3: ODST "Please Remain Calm" background the number seven is rather abundant. 17 counted.
 * The Rookie's enlistment date is 07/07/2547. (07/07)
 * On Buck's ODST armor it can be see MK 17
 * In Firefight, you have 7 lives.
 * Orbital Drop Shock Trooper has 7 syllables

Misc.
{{Scroll box "Arm in arm, SEVEN days They traced the desert ways.
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 * Most family names of Sangheili have 7 letters, including the 'ee' suffix for military service (e.g., Vadumee, Zamamee, Vadamee).
 * It takes 7 needles to generate a explosion.
 * Coincidentally, the Halo Mountain Dew Game Fuel had 77 grams of sugar in the bottle.
 * There are a total of seven variants of the Warthog: The Rocket Hog in Halo: CE, the normal variant, the Gauss Hog, the Troop transport hog, the Flatbed Warthog, the Warthog APC, and the Civilian Hog, as seen on Headlong.
 * Seventh Column is the name given to Bungie's official fan club.
 * The Master Chief stands 7' tall.
 * There are seven remaining Spartan-IIs still able to fight: John, Fred, Kelly, Linda, and Gray Team, the three missing at the start of the mission to capture a Prophet.
 * The Ascii Master Chief in a Bungie Weekly Update was made with 7s.
 * There are 7 different Covenant races seen in game.
 * In the Halo 2: Original Soundtrack Vol. 1, there are 21 songs. 21=7 &times; 3.
 * There are 14 UNSC weapons in the Halo games and Books. 7 &times; 2 = 14.
 * The Master Chief's number is 117. 1 x 1 x 7 = 7.
 * Smart AIs (such as Cortana) go rampant after seven years of activation.
 * The Tiara has 7 orbital elevators.
 * There are 7 Halo rings.
 * In the credits for Halo 2 and Halo 3 instead of simply using the word "thank" they replace the first letter with a 7, making it "7hank".
 * In all 3 Halo games, their are a total of 35 levels. 7 times 5= 35
 * In the Halo: Combat Evolved Soundtrack, the total running time is 1:05:08. 1+5+8=14, 14/2=7.
 * Considering its 10,000 km diameter, Halo would need to rotate at 7 km/s in order to produce artificial Earth-like "gravity" (from centripetal force).
 * In the Cortana Letters "... In my palace deep, Lyca lies asleep ..." is mentioned on the 7th letter and is believed to be from the poem "The Little Girl Found-By William Blake". One section says:

SEVEN nights they sleep Among shadows deep, And dream they see their child Starved in desert wild."
 * In the preview of Halo 3 featured at the Seattle IMAX theatre, Bungie gave away a prize to the person sitting in seat G7. (Note that G is the seventh letter of the alphabet, so it is essentially 77.)
 * The legendary map pack banner on the official bungie.net. There is a sentence saying: Tru7h. Carnage. Bungie. (Note that the T in truth is represented by a 7).
 * The Bungie Creed (which you see on their site when looking at job options) include seven things 'to do,' including one to make a giant slingshot and shoot enemies into the sun (this one is the seventh).
 * Technically, all of the "Monitor" Forerunner A.I.'s have I.d. numbers that are powers of seven.
 * The Forerunner Dreadnought has 14 x 14 x 14 dimensions. 14 = 7+7.
 * Coincidentally, Halo 3 was nominated for 7 awards on the Spike TV awards.
 * In the background of the Limited Edition of Halo 3, the door behind the Chief has a 7 written on it.
 * In an ad for the Halo 3 guide that occasionally shows up on Bungie.net, "07" is stenciled in white on the Pelican behind the Master Chief.
 * Bungie has Seven Steps to World Domination.
 * In the Bungie weekly update, 6/27/08, this message is posted:

/PACKET INTERRUPTION – ERROR CODE 5929 */ …Attempting Recovery… …Attempting Recovery… / 93% PACKET CORRUPTION – RECOVERY UNSUCCESSFUL - DISPLAYING Head2@!#SWa#++-DL*SLAj3r 48hr0x0ABFFFFF [ERR 5929] / END DISPLAY */
 * /C!#4x---^&-$x%^^p3@

Out of 5929, 5+9+2+9=25 2+5=7

Also, with "93% packet corruption", 7% was left uncorrupted.

(edited) If you use each symbol and letter with it's corresponding number(1! 2@ 1a 2b etc),little imagination, and math and you have 8+1+3+1+3+4+24-6+7-4+24+5+6+6+16+3+2= 103_______ the minuses are dashes in the code. 103/7 on a 12 digit calculator=14.7142857142 look closer (14).(7)(14)(28)5(7)(14)2 the only non multiples of 7 are 5 and 2, 5+2=7 that's 7 variations of 7 in that code.


 * Also, in that same update, in the Double EXP playlist's list there's a line that reads "[SPURIOUS INTERRUPT: PACKET LOST - ERROR CODE 5929]" same, 5929 is 5+9+2+9=25 2+5= 7, maybe a special reference to a special playlist on July 7th.
 * While looking at the placement of the shield bar from H1 to H3, a vague 7 appears.
 * There is 7 levels in the Halo games that the Arbiter is featured in that you encounter Flood. Oracle, Sacred Icon, Quarantine Zone, Floodgate, The Covenant, Cortana, and Halo.
 * In the web series Red vs. Blue, there are 7 total main characters (this includes only the Spartans, not other non-Human characters). These characters include: (Red Team) Sarge; Simmons; Donut; and Grif, and (Blue Team) Church, Caboose, and Tucker. Tex is excluded from this group because she is a Freelancer, this excludes Doc because he belongs to both teams, it excludes Sister because she isn't an enlisted soldier, and excludes Vic because he is a part of Command.
 * In the Halo series there are 7 levels named after a Halo character: 343 Guilty Spark, Keyes, The Arbiter, Regret, Gravemind, Sierra 117 and Cortana.
 * Bungie broke off from Microsoft July 7, 2007 7/7/07
 * The M6B Handgun is a 21 reference. M=13, B=2 (13+6+2=21)
 * There are a total of 7 Halo games for XBOX 360: Halo CE, Halo 2, Multiplayer Map Pack, Halo 3, Halo Wars, ODST and Halo Chronicles.
 * There are seven syllables in Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.
 * There are 14 total Covenant weapons. (only guns)
 * Bungie's The Art of Halo 3 was released on November 25th, 2008 (2+5= 7).
 * There are 7 vidmaster achievements.
 * In Dead or Alive 4, Spartan-458 has 7 different costumes in total.
 * UNSC can be translated to 22*14*19*3=18480 18480/2640=7
 * There are even more seven references that could not practicly be listed here to find them click "what links here"
 * There are seven Halo games so far: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Chronicles, Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach.

117
117 is Master Chief's SPARTAN tag number, but there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this number, including many religious and historical references.
 * The numbers and letters in John-117, excluding the -, adds up to be 7.

Biblical Reference

 * John-117 is believed by many fans to be a reference to New Testament of the Christian Bible.


 * In the year 117, the 7th Pope of the Catholic Church was named, Sixtus I,as well as John 1 becoming 7th bishop of Jerusalem.


 * The Gospel of John speaks of the 7 miracles of Jesus, the last one, John claims, culminating in his death.


 * Bungie Studios is known to have placed many biblical references in their earlier Marathon video game series, and many other such references have been found in the Halo series.


 * Here are passages from the Book of Revelation (more formally known as The Revelation of St. John the Divine). Revelation in Greek is called "The Apocalypse", a title possibly shortened from "The Apocalypse of John."


 * "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
 * Book of Revelation, KJV. Chapter 1 - verses 17 and 18.


 * "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended out of the pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them."
 * Revelation. 11:7


 * There are also references in one other book of the Bible. 1 John houses these:


 * "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin."
 * 1 John 1:7 (1 John 1: 7)
 * "And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
 * - 1 John 2: 1 7


 * And here are passages from the Gospel of John. These are thought less likely to be references:


 * "Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again."
 * Gospel of John, 11:7


 * "For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
 * Gospel of John, 1:17


 * Halo 3's plot also resembles the story of Noah's Ark. Because the Forerunners kept a few of every sentient species in the galaxy in the Ark because the parasitic life-forms known as the Flood were coming, much like in the bible story of Noah's Ark. The flood was coming and Noah put two of every animal in the Ark to save them from the water flood, much like the Forerunners did before they activated the Halos to keep the other lesser sentient species from extinction.

Site 117
Alternatively, others believe the number to be a reference to "Site 117", an archaeological site containing the first evidence of a human battle. The site is near Jebel Sahaba, Nubia and dates from between 12,000-10,000 BC. The site contains 59 human remains of men, women and children who were clearly killed with primitive hunting implements.

117 and 7
Seven has long been a number associated with Bungie. The first three numbers of 76 are 117, the full number being 117649. Also 1*1*7 = 7 and 1+1+7+6+4+9=28 28/4=7 and 7+1-1=7.

The 7th Halo' Monitor code is 117649. Maybe the 117 is significant because it's the 7th Halo, however the 649 could be significant as well. 9+4-6=7. Also, 117649 = 76

The number 819 appears numerous times in the Marathon series. 819/7=117.

Marathon

 * In Marathon Infinity there was a hidden multiplayer map called Hats Off to 819 (named after fan Hamish Sinclair, H=8, S=19) 819 divided by 7 is 117. (Marathon 2: Durandal has an achievement by the same name.)
 * The music for Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity was composed and produced by an external music group called 'Power of Seven'. (Similarly, Marathon 2: Durandal also has an achievement with the same name.)
 * Two weapons in Marathon carry the 7 enigma: the MA-75B rifle, and the TOZT-7.
 * In the original Marathon, the barrels all have a backwards 7 in the serial number.

117 Trivia

 * In Halo 3, the game won't let you input the I.D. tag "I-17", "l (lower-case L)-17", or "T-17" saying that these numbers are already reserved by the UNSC. Additionally, "E-43" a variation of 343 will have the same result, so will O00 (Letter "O" and number "0" twice), and so will A55, and P00 and P33, and N64.


 * Also, Bungie's fan club nickname is "7th Column".


 * In Halo: The Flood, Yayap tells 'Zamamee that Master Chief must go through corridor E-117.

Internal Links

 * List of Biblical References in Halo
 * List of Marathon References in Halo