Halo Infinite players who are itching for something new in the game, you’re about to get just that next week, as 343 Industries has announced that the Halo Infinite Winter Update is out on November 8!
Halo Infinite Winter Update:
Release: November 8
Match XP Beta:
On November 8, when the Winter Update launches, Halo Infinite’s Battle Pass progression system will be overhauled via the Match XP Beta! The Winter Update will bring a free 30-tier Battle Pass, and with the Match XP Beta, Challenges, and Ultimate Rewards, players can expect a significant rework and improvement in how progression is handled.
Note that this will not only affect this upcoming Battle Pass, but those who haven’t completed the Season 1 and S2 Battle Passes will too.
With Match XP, players will be rewarded for playing whatever mode they want, and your performance in those matches will tie into those rewards. As such, when the Winter Update launches, the majority of XP that you will earn will come from Match XP.
Match XP consists of:
- XP for completing matches
- Additional XP for your performance in the match (this accounts for things like being on the winning team, your end-of-match placement, and more)
Take a look at how it appears in-game…
According to 343, they will be monitoring the values of each reward, and will adjust them throughout the season, so don’t expect these values to be final.
Challenges and Ultimate Rewards:
Challenges will now provide a bonus boost to Match XP, and while completing these will still provide XP, they will also serve as a path toward earning customization items each week through the Ultimate Reward.
This system is getting an overhaul of its own based on player feedback, which can be summarized in three main points:
- We are reducing the number of Challenges required to hit the Ultimate Challenge from 20 to 10
- All Challenges in regular weekly decks can be completed in any playlist
- Challenges are more “general” overall
343 has also heard the feedback regarding playlists and progression too. Starting with the Halo Infinite Winter Update, players won’t be forced to queue in playlists simply to complete a Challenge. All Challenges will be playlist agnostic starting with the update! For now, Event Challenges will remain as what they are now and tied to their respective Event Playlists, but players can expect that to change in the future.
343 Industries has also shared that career progression that acts as an overarching system is still being worked on, and more news regarding this will be shared in the future.
Playlist Structure:
Starting with the Winter Update, there will be a permanent and rotational approach to playlists. Players can expect these to change week-to-week and should feel similar to Halo MCC and Halo 5: Guardians.
Halo Infinite’s playlist offerings will continue to evolve and shift in response to player behavior in-game (where players spend their time) and community feedback. With that in mind, here’s a look at the playlist plan that’ll be landing with the Winter Update on November 8:
PERMANENT PLAYLISTS
- Quick Play
- Big Team Battle
- Ranked Arena
- Fiesta
- Tactical Slayer
- Team Slayer
ROTATIONAL PLAYLISTS
- Rotational Core Slot: A playlist that is typically close to the core Halo gameplay experience, similar to Quick Play (e.g., Team Snipers, Team Doubles, etc.)
- Winter Update’s first core rotational will be Covert One Flag, our new mode, on various maps
- Rotational Social Slot: A playlist that is usually closer to the fun, social, and whacky side of Halo (e.g., Social Slayer, Big Team Social, Rumble Pit, etc.)
- Winter Update’s first social rotational playlist will be Social Slayer, which includes fun-filled modes like Kong Slayer, Purple Reign, and Rock ‘n’ Repulsors
Per 343:
Our goal is to have the rotational core and rotational social slots update every two weeks on alternating weeks, meaning a new experience will roll into matchmaking every week. This is very similar to the setup that Halo 5 used post-launch to rotate through multiple playlists as well. The plan is to hit this increased cadence, but playlist management will need to adapt and remain fluid based on community input and production realities.
Additionally, once a playlist rotates out, we’d like to refresh its contents with different map and mode combinations before it returns. Whether that means new maps or modes (or simply changing the map/mode combos), we want each playlist to have something different about it when it comes back.
- Rotational Ranked Slot: A playlist that fosters a competitive experience (e.g., Ranked Doubles, Ranked FFA, etc.)
- Winter Update’s first Ranked rotational playlist will be Ranked Survivors, consisting of Ranked variants of the Attrition and Elimination modes.
Right now, our plan is for Ranked rotationals to be live for two weeks before the slot shifts to another Ranked offering. The two-week cadence was chosen based on data from Ranked FFA and Ranked Doubles’ performance, which both saw their engagement decline after their first two weeks. Ranks will not reset when a playlist rotates out, so you’ll be able to continue your progress the next time it comes back. Since we’ll keep a predictable cadence, there will be multiple opportunities to jump into your favorite Ranked experiences.
EVENT PLAYLISTS
- Event Playlist Slot: A slot that will be used when Events roll into the game (e.g., Cyber Showdown, The Yappening, etc.)
PLAYLIST SCHEDULE
Note: the playlists above are not final and subject to change.
Same as always, once the update is live, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.