The massive scale of Elite: Dangerous‘ galaxy continues to impress and boggle, as a player today discovered both the system and planet that the Halo universe’s beloved location Reach was based on.

A famous military base in-universe, Reach was first reference by name in Halo: Combat Evolved after the Pillar of Autumn escaped the destruction of a Covenant attack – one that ultimately landed them on the first Halo ring. It was then a key setting for Eric Nylund’s prequel novel Halo: The Fall of Reach. The first time it was visually realised, however, was in Bungie’s 2010 game Halo: Reach.

Fans have long been in love with the tragic history behind Reach’s existence, and Halo: Reach allowed them to experience the planet themselves – however, now a player in an entirely different game has found the existing planet Reach’s design was based on.

One Elite: Dangerous player saw that the Epsilon Eridani system featured prominently in the game’s lore, and – recognising that Reach was also located in that system – sought to find it, documenting their findings along the way.

Epsilon Eridani location in Halo space

The first step was identifying where the system was located. According to the Halo wiki chart above, the Epsilon Eridani system is located in the Orion Arm.

Taking these coordinates, the player cross-referenced them with the same location in Elite: Dangerous.

Epsilon Eridani location in Elite: Dangerous space

After confirming the location of the system, especially in relation to both Epsilon Indi and Groombridge 34, the player selected the system and examined the planets within, finding that the only habitable planet was New California, the second planet from the sun.

According to Halo lore, Reach is also the second planet from the sun.

Finally, the player navigated to Epsilon Eridani and checked out New California in person.

Interestingly enough, they found that the continents on the planet bore a similar pattern to those found on Reach.

Reach from Halo: Reach

New California from Elite: Dangerous

It’s incredible to see this amount of detail gone into both games – they each draw from a real-life system, and they match each other surprisingly well.

We can’t wait to see what Elite: Dangerous players find next.