With the Halo Infinite Winter Update arriving next week on 8th November, 343 Industries has detailed a long-awaited overhaul for the in-game progression, shifting to match XP and revising the Challenge system.
After the update goes live, player progression will more directly map to playing matches and performing well – things like being on the winning team, placing in the top 50% of your team, being the MVP, and so on.
To start with, this is being labelled as a ‘Beta’, which 343 are using to indicate that they will monitor and adjust the amount of XP being handed out to balance progression.
Challenges will still be a part of the game, but instead of being the only way to progress through the Battle Pass, they will now be the sprinkling on top that boosts your progression. After the update, the number of challenges you need to complete to unlock the Ultimate Challenge and the weekly cosmetic will drop from 20 to 10, and all challenges will be available in the regular weekly deck and can be completed in any game playlist. They’re also going to be made more “general” and less specific to particular annoying tasks.
Some of this will happen over time, but this is a fantastic and long, long-overdue change.
The one thing missing from this is a career progression. This is still on 343’s to-do list, but for the time being, the player progression will still be tied to the seasonal battle passes.
The Winter Update, a stand-in for the further delayed Season 3, during which Campaign co-op and mission replay will get their official launch, Forge mode will enter into Beta, alongside two new maps, a free battle pass, and more smaller content changes. As if further delays weren’t enough, the real kicker is that 343 Industries has cancelled the official release of local split-screen co-op. This despite local co-op actually working really damned well, when accessed through a not-too-tricky glitch.
Further reading: Halo Infinite co-op is a glimpse of Halo’s past, present and future
We handed the game a fantastic 9/10 in December last year, but 343 has been unable to follow that up with the kinds of strong support and constant additions that are required to make a live game successful. Getting a third map with the next update (even if it is a Forge remake) is a small step to improving things, and we hope to see 343 take more positive steps in the coming months.
