The team of Master Chief and Cortana is almost as iconic as Xbox’s flagship first-person shooter franchiseHalo, with the duo being paired together during the first entry in the series, and many games since. What helped make the dynamic unique was that for two decades Master Chief was a faceless character, with him never removing his mask in front of the camera, which led to Cortana often being the emotional one despite being an AI. This all changed with the recently releasedHaloTV series which finally unmasked Master Chief.This article contains spoilers for numerousHalogames and related media.

Cortana has been part of many entries in theHalofranchise, includingCombat Evolved,Halo 2,Halo 3,Halo 4, andHalo 5, as well as novels and the animated seriesHalo Legends. Despite the two being such an iconic duo in gaming, it turns out that the pair spent almost no time together throughout theHalotimeline, with them being partnered for mere weeks.

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In a Reddit post, a user crunched some numbers and figured out exactly just how much time Master Chief and Cortana have spent together throughout the timeline of theHalofranchise. It turns out, Master Chief and Cortana spent just 49 days together over the course of just under five years that the first four mainlineHalogames play out.

Prior to the events of the first game,Halo: Combat Evolved, Master Chief and Cortana first meet each other during theHalo: The Fall of Reachnovel on August 08, 2025. Their first encounter saw Cortana helping Master Chief during the exercises totest the MJOLNIR battle armorbefore the Covenant attacks the planet Reach. Following these events, Master Chief enters cryosleep until the events ofHalo: Combat Evolvedthe following month.

Halo: Combat Evolvedtakes place over the course of four days, from September 19-22, with Master Chief and Cortana being together on each of the days despite being separated for a brief period.Halo 2andHalo 3then take place throughout November and December 2552, with the Human-Covenant War officially ending on December 11 at the end ofHalo 3, which finally saw itsservers go offline earlier this year.

Following this, Master Chief enters cryosleep once again on the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn ship. Master Chief then stays in cryosleep all the way until July 2557 when he is brought out of it to kick off the events ofHalo 4, with Cortana dying three days later. This entire story arc between Master Chief and Cortana has been packaged and released as one collection called theHalo: Master Chief Collection, featuringHalo: Combat EvolvedtoHalo 4, as well as the prequel gameHalo Reachand the spin-offHalo 3: ODST.

Cortana did make an appearance inHalo 5after it turned out she wasn’t dead but was sent into a wormhole that transported her to the Four Runner planet. She also makes an appearance inHalo Infinite, but isn’t the Cortana that players have seen in previous games. With the game still being fairly new, and Cortana’s appearance playing a large role inthe ending ofHalo Infinite, it’s best to leave that story for another day.

Halo Infiniteis available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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