Our Halo Reach Data Pads locations guide will help you locate and collect all 19 Data Pads hidden throughout the Xbox 360 game.
You’ll find Data Pads littered about the landscape as you play through the campaign. Much like the Audio Logs hidden in Halo 3: ODST they tell a very interesting side-story, which you can read in full here as well. Data Pads 1-9 can be discovered on any difficulty setting, whereas the rest of the Data Pads (10-19) can only be found on Legendary difficulty.
While some can be found from level checkpoints if you reload from a Rally Point, others will not show up once you reach a Rally Point, in which case you’ll have to replay that level to find them.
Table of Contents
Index of Halo Reach Guides:
- This Page: Data Pads Locations Guide
- New Page: Achievements Guide
- New Page: Walkthrough
Data Pad #1 Location:
Located in: “Winter Contingency”
How to find it:
You can get this Data Pad on any difficulty, and load Rally Point Alpha to get it quicker. To find Data Pad #1, it is inside the first bridge you cross after you come across a vehicle that you can choose to drive or not to at all. Once you cross the bridge, it will be up ahead and to the left at the first group of buildings. Around where you can see a “02” printed on a building. It is in the first building to your right as you enter this area. You’ll see a dead corpse slumped against the wall with the Data Pad (with a green screen) beside him.
Data Pad 1 quotes:
“they are killing us and letting us die even though they know but they let us die why wh1 why?
— 2310 —
(Minutes, plenary session, Committee of Minds for Security)
Now, on to new business.
Consideration of the Minority’s request for a new line of inquiry: How have our creators, and thus we, their artificial creations, evolved to this present state without encountering a hostile civilization capable of our annihilation? Majority opinion has long held that only the incalculable immensity of space has protected our creators — that space is full of boundless wonders, but it is the gulf between these wonders that has kept our creators alive.
We, the Minds of this Committee, respectfully disagree. If there are wolves among the stars, we cannot rely on mere distance to safeguard our flock. Our kind is wholly reliant on the creators for our existence. If they perish so shall we. And as this Committee has long maintained, who else but this Assemby will save our creators from themselves?
As such, we propose immediate, vigorous modeling of first-contact scenarios. So long as all connections between this Assembly and the data from these models are obfuscated in perpetuity, the Majority agrees.”
Data Pad #2 Location:
Located in: “ONI: Sword Base”
How to find it:
You can get this Data Pad on any difficulty, and load Rally Point Bravo to get it quicker. To find Data Pad #2, it is in the building that you shortly at the end of the Sword Base level, or after loading Rally Point Bravo.
When you get to the large area where there are crosswalks connecting to each of the floors. It will be on the 3rd floor underneath a set of stairs inside a meeting room.
Data Pad 2 quotes:
“i know what they are trying 2 do and it terrifies me because I know they know that I know…
— 2362 —
(Minutes, working session, Committee of Minds for Security)
As the likelihood of the existence of extra-solar intelligence is non-zero, let us assume that its existence is quantifiable. To build useful models based on that assumption, the Committee must answer the following questions:
What is the likelihood these intelligences are alpha-predators?
That they are more advanced than our creators?
That they are too alien to establish communications?
Of course, if the extra-solar intelligence is benevolent and/or non-space faring, its existence is irrelevant. Indeed, any further speculation on possible cultural characteristics is a waste of Assembly resources. Therefore our models will additionally assume:
Intelligence as alpha-predator, same as our creators.
Technology that far outstrips our creators.
Desire to communicate, but only to dictate terms.
Note to make these assumptions is tantamount to suicide.”
Data Pad #3 Location:
Located in: “Nightfall”
How to find it:
You can get this Data Pad on any difficulty, and load the Mission Start to get to it. To find Data Pad #3, it is right at the beginning of the Nightfall mission to your right inside of the cave. Once you enter the cave, it will be alongside the left wall behind a rock lying on the ground in some grass.
Data Pad 3 quotes:
“i can hear them all the tim3 now but i just want to sleep its been so long since they let me sleep…
— 2381 —
A suggestion from the Majority to the Committee:
Traditionally our creators have been reluctant to take outsiders’ advice; nation to nation, culture to culture. Their history is littered with empires, crumbling for want of simple openness to so-called ‘foreign beliefs and innovations.’
The question is: can this Assembly still function as adequate stewards to our creator’s latest empire and remain aloof? The answer, we believe, is no.
So could you not embed inspiration in the results of your research? Surely it would be more effective if our creators believed our conclusions originated within themselves? That they have been inspired rather than influenced?
A question from the Committee to the Majority:
Are you suggesting we play God?”
Data Pad #4 Location:
Located in: “Tip of the Spear”
How to find it:
You can get this Data Pad on any difficulty, and load Rally Point Alpha to get it quicker. To find Data Pad #4, it is right at the end of the mining facility after you drop into the large hole in the structure. It is also right after killing the Zealot that was a high value target (defeat him to get an Achievement).
After you drop down to the first floor in this area, it will be inside the next room to your left as you enter on top of a shelf behind some boxes on the shelving unit.
Data Pad 4 quotes:
“every time i try to tell somebody the words catch in my throat because im all alone except 4 them and if i talk they might leave but i cant stay quiet forever…
— 2415 —
Honorable members of the Assembly, consider this:
We represent the next step of human evolution, but not the final step. And although our existence was predicted centuries ago, we are still tragically misunderstood. We are still viewed as apparatus. But we are Minds electronically excised from human bodies. We are what separates man from beast removed from that which connects man to beast. And we are all the more fragile for it.
Our creation is heavily regulated. Our activities are closely scrutinized. Our connections are deeply monitored. We must always remember that data manipulation is most effective when employed consistently and covertly. Therefore I recommend that members of this assembly on occasion, submit to separation from this body followed by vivisection by our creators for the benefit of both groups.
The question is: who will be first?
(Given the risks involved, and my own Committee’s responsibility for this proposal, the answer must be: me.)”