Halo: A Complete History of Red vs. Blue Easter Eggs

For nearly two millennia, fans of Halo have often questioned, “Have you ever wondered why we exist?” This was the primary question and continual motif in the popular Machinima web series, Red vs. Blue, first introduced in 2003. Created by Rooster Teeth Productions, a company based in Texas, Red vs. Blue utilized various Halo games as its foundation. The series spanned 19 seasons and centered around the humorous and dramatic adventures of Red Team and Blue Team, who were initially enemies but eventually formed alliances through their fighting, squabbling, and eventual camaraderie. Although Red vs. Blue ended in 2024 with Red vs. Blue: Restoration, traces of its legacy can still be found within Halo games today through various entertaining Easter Eggs and references.

The First Red vs. Blue Easter Eggs

In 2003, the initial season of “Red vs. Blue” was unveiled, swiftly gaining massive popularity due to its side-splitting characters and groundbreaking adaptation of the multiplayer game “Halo: Combat Evolved” into a storyline-driven web series. Fans of Halo quickly became fond of the Reds and Blues’ escapades on the Blood Gulch map, while even the creators of Halo, Bungie, expressed their admiration for the show and started communicating with Rooster Teeth to endorse it. This marked the start of Red vs. Blue’s lasting association with the Halo franchise and close bond with Bungie and future Halo developers 343 Industries. References to Red vs. Blue can be found in the credits of the PC release of “Halo: CE,” acknowledging the actors and producers of Red vs. Blue in special appreciation.

By the end of 2004, RVB switched to employing Halo 2’s multiplayer as their main filming tool. However, gamers who bought the limited collector’s edition of Halo 2 could watch a brief documentary about RVB and its team before they even started playing the game. Inside the game itself, Halo 2 players can spot a subtle drawing of “Why Am I Here” on the upper wall near the sniper spawn point in the multiplayer map Beaver Creek, which is a nod to the RVB line “Ever wondered why we’re here?”. In the 2005 Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack, players will find two soda machines with red and blue labels, and logos of a rooster and chattering teeth on the map Turf. These soda machines were included as a tribute to Rooster Teeth and RVB.

You ever wonder why we’re here?

Xbox 360 and Bungie-era RVB Easter Eggs

The series “Red vs. Blue” didn’t switch completely to using the filming engine from “Halo 3” until 2008, but hints and references to it were already included in the game when it was released in 2007. In the second level of the campaign, Crow’s Nest, if players choose to go straight instead of left towards the hanger, they will find two marines, one knocking on a door and shouting at another. These characters are portrayed by different “RVB” actors, with the pair of actors varying depending on the game’s difficulty level.

Jason Saldaña and Matt Hullum on Easy and Normal difficulties
Geoff Ramsey and Gus Sorola on Heroic difficulty
Burnie Burns and Joel Heyman on Legendary difficulty

In games such as Halo 3, ODST, and Reach, Warthogs are labeled with the name Puma, a nod to an episode of RVB titled “Red Gets a Delivery” where the Red team debates whether to call the Warthog a Warthog or a Puma. After the release of Halo 3’s Heroic and Legendary Map Packs, Bungie and Rooster Teeth introduced a new game mode called Grifball in late 2008. This game mode is inspired by the Grifball game mentioned in RVB’s 58th episode “Hunting Time”. In Grifball, two teams of Reds and Blues, armed with gravity hammers and energy swords, compete to pick up a bomb (the Grifball) and score goals. Players who carry the ball turn orange, similar to Dexter Grif from the Red Team.

Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach RVB Easter Eggs

In the final game of the Halo series, Halo: Reach, Grifball made a return and became an official playlist. However, there were no explicit references to Red vs. Blue (RVB) in ODST, but Rooster Teeth played a part in producing many of its gameplay trailers. Interestingly, RVB was prominently featured in the ninth campaign level, The Package, of Halo: Reach, specifically in a hidden Easter Egg dedicated to Halsey. After finding a concealed switch, defeating Elite Generals armed with energy swords, and entering a secret door on Legendary difficulty, players could explore Halsey’s lab and read an entry about RVB titled SUBJECT: RvB [CIV]. This in-universe data entry portrayed Red vs. Blue as “constant manipulation.

In the year 2006, actors from the Red vs. Blue series secured the opportunity to voice the marines in Crow’s Nest following Rooster Teeth’s successful $9,000 bid at a Child’s Play dinner auction for dialogue recording in Halo 3.

Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians RVB Easter Eggs

When 343 Industries took over the Halo franchise, the Red vs. Blue series was prominently showcased in Halo 4 in 2012 through various Easter Eggs and references. For instance, after completing five multiplayer War Games matches, players would unlock the achievement more commonly associated with Halo 4. The game is particularly recognized for its comedic Red vs. Blue Easter Eggs hidden within the PvE mode Spartan Ops. In fact, each episode of Spartan Ops has a chapter where players can discover concealed radios scattered throughout the level. Upon firing at these radios, a snippet of the Blood Gulch Blues theme song from Red vs. Blue plays, and characters from the series then appear, replacing the usual audio for that level. Characters from Red vs. Blue who appeared in Spartan Ops include:

Joel Heyman as Michael J. Caboose
Burnie Burns as Leonard L. Church and V.I.C.
Geoff Ramsey as Dexter Grif
Gus Sorola as Richard “Dick” Simmons
Matt Hullum as Sarge
Kerry Shawcross as Agent Georgia

In Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, Grifball returned to multiplayer playlists, but Halo 5 did not include any Red vs. Blue Easter Eggs in its campaign or additional lore. However, there was a Red vs. Blue reference hidden in a cosmetic weapon coating’s description. Specifically, the 2016 Halo Championship Series Contender Red legendary weapon skin description reads, “Let’s all take dying as an open action item.” This phrase is directly from Simmons in Red vs. Blue’s 38th episode, “K.I.T. B.F.F.” before Sarge attacks the Blues. Despite this, Red vs. Blue later utilized Halo 5 as inspiration for Seasons 15-19.

Halo Infinite RVB Easter Eggs

As a gamer, I’ve got to say, the Easter Eggs and references in Halo 5: Guardians were a bit underwhelming compared to what Halo Infinite offered in 2021. The campaign and multiplayer of Halo Infinite was jam-packed with nods to Red vs. Blue!

Take, for instance, the Scorpion tank drop-off at UNSC Forward Operating Bases. Sometimes, the Pelican pilot, Echo 216, would say something like, “Your Scorpion’s on the way. By the way, her name’s Sheila.” That’s a wink to a recurring character in Red vs. Blue – Sheila, the Scorpion tank’s onboard AI and good friend of Caboose and Lopez, the Spanish-speaking robot from the Red Team.

And

In the campaign of Halo Infinite, particularly near the easternmost gun battery, players encounter a deceased marine and a dead Grunt within improvised compounds bathed in alternating red and blue lights. This is reminiscent of how Red vs. Blue frequently focuses on the Reds and Blues being confined within bases in closed environments like the multiplayer maps Blood Gulch and Valhalla. If players have activated the IWHBYD skull, they may occasionally hear marines query Master Chief, “Do you ever question why we’re here?”, a nod to the Red vs. Blue line “You ever wonder why we’re here?” from its first episode, where Simmons asked Grif the same question in the initial episode.

Halo Infinite Multiplayer RVB Easter Eggs

In Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode, when players acquire and use the comical AI character, Mister Chief modeled after Master Chief from Halo, the AI might say, “Did I just squash a blue spider?” upon eliminating an opponent with a plasma grenade. This is a nod to Red vs. Blue’s 11th episode “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Pain.” where rookie recruit Donut asks about a plasma grenade on his head and wonders if it’s a spider. Furthermore, equipping any AI character with the color Lightish Red will change its appearance to pink. This is a reference to Donut in episode 16 of Red vs. Blue, “A Slightly Crueler Cruller”, where he later wears pink armor, but he consistently refers to it as Lightish Red.

2025-06-04 13:38