Among Us snuck a Halo energy sword into its new Airship map

The new Among Us Airship map has a bounty of secrets, and one of them is a special energy sword from the Halo series.

The sword appears in the new map's Vault room, and once you see its distinct two-pronged design with a handle in the middle, there's no question what it could be a reference to. While standard energy swords are blue in Halo, this one looks like it's actually a Covenant Special Operations' Bloodblade. Fancy!

The new among us map has an energy sword in it! from r/halo

This is a fun intertextual reference by itself, but what if I told you that it's also a reference to a reference. The entire Airship map from Among Us is based on the airship from the Henry Stickmin games, a series of Flash-based adventures which were created by Innersloth co-founder Marcus Bromander. The airship's vault contained a wealth of valuables and distinctive weaponry pulled from other series, including a standard blue energy sword from Halo. There are so many layers going on with this.

The Airship is the first new map to come to Among Us since the social deduction game's popularity exploded late last year. It's the largest map yet, and aside from including a bunch of winks and nods to other franchises, it also introduces new tasks to complete, different starting rooms for players, and more. 

If all the scheming and deceit of Among Us has your nerves frazzled and your relationships on the rocks, do some rebuilding with our guide to the best co-op games to play right now.