Halo Infinite's redemption arc begins today with the long-awaited Winter Update
Halo Infinite's redemption arc begins today with the long-awaited Winter Update
The Winter Update for Halo Infinite comes with a lot of promise, but will it do enough to reinvigorate the game?
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Halo Infinite update
❄️ Halo Infinite Winter Update is out today
🤩 The update contains several major improvements to the game
🆕 Players can jump into campaign co-op, Forge, and new multiplayer modes
👍 The game’s multiplayer progression system has also been reworked
The Winter Update for Halo Infinite is out today and promises to provide a significant overhaul of the game as we know it.
The update includes a number of highly anticipated, fan-requested features such as the Forge beta – which lets you design your own multiplayer maps – and online campaign co-op.
Perhaps more importantly, though, is the various tweaks to Halo Infinite’s much-maligned multiplayer mode, which has drawn the ire of players due to its slow and clunky progression system, some frustrating bugs, and ongoing delays to seasonal content.
Halo Infinite has had a rocky launch, with the move to a free-to-play live service model proving too much for developer 343 Industries to cope with almost a year into the game’s release. That hasn’t stopped Halo Infinite from earning a spot on our best Xbox Series X games list, but there’s definitely work to be done.
The Winter Update should course-correct many of the game’s issues and will hopefully put Halo Infinite on a better footing heading into 2023. Whether or not it will be enough to kickstart a revival remains to be seen, but let’s take a look at the main highlights of the Halo Infinite Winter Update below.
What’s in the Halo Infinite Winter Update? ❄️
😇 Campaign co-op
🔨 Forge beta
🆓 Free 30-tier Battle Pass
🆕 Two new multiplayer maps
🚩 New multiplayer mode Covert One Flag
🙏 Reworked XP system
👍 Changes to Challenges
👨🏻🔧 Tweaks to the sandbox
🥇 Updates to Ranked play
The two main highlights of the Winter Update for Halo Infinite are the long-awaited arrivals of campaign co-op and Forge. Campaign co-op lets you and up to four players tackle Halo Infinite’s excellent campaign online, in its entirety. You’ll be at the mercy of a pretty generous tether, which means you can’t just run off on your own across the game’s open-world areas, and you’ll be warned if you stray too far from your partner.
Halo Infinite’s Forge mode arrives in beta form as part of the Winter Update but offers creators a myriad of functionality to craft all sorts of maps and modes for players to enjoy. Check out the video below to get an idea of how Forge works in Halo Infinite.
In terms of the game’s multiplayer, a free Halo Reach-inspired Battle Pass with 30 tiers is now available, along with two new multiplayer maps: Argyle and Detachment. A new multiplayer mode is also available for Spartans to enjoy called Covert One Flag. It’s a variant of One Flag CTF, which sees the attacking side armed with Active Camo and the defenders armed with Threat Sensors.
As a keen Halo Infinite player myself, it’s the changes to the game’s progression system that honestly excites me the most. Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, though mechanically excellent, hasn’t done a great job of rewarding players after each match, and has instead relied on players completing laborious challenges if they want to progress through the battle pass and earn additional cosmetics.
The Winter Update looks set to change that all-too-familiar grind, as in-match XP bonuses will reward players based on their performance. You’ll get extra XP if you’re on the winning team, for completing a match and being the MVP of your team. It’s something that the game has desperately needed, and you can expect the XP system to be tweaked further as the months roll on.
Challenges are mercifully being reworked, too, as you’ll no longer have to complete 20 challenges to earn the Ultimate reward each week. What’s more, challenges won’t be locked to a specific mode which is huge. It means you can now complete Halo Infinite’s biggest XP earners without having to suffer through modes you usually wouldn’t play.
Last, but by no means least, are changes to the game’s sandbox and Ranked play. Developer 343 Industries has said weapons such as the Plasma Pistol, Pulse Carbine, and VK78 Commando are all being adjusted, and the trusty Battle Rifle is also being nerfed slightly to make it more rewarding to use. You can read about the changes in further detail on the official Halo Waypoint website.
Ranked players can now experience local region matchmaking, improved logic for CSR progression (competitive skill rank), and improved rules for quitting with uneven teams. You can head to Halo Waypoint for all the finer details about the changes to Ranked.
Halo Infinite Winter Update release times ⏰
There are a lot of pleasing changes with the Halo Infinite Winter Update, then, and here’s when the patch goes live in your region.
East Coast US: 2pm EST
West Coast US: 11am PST
UK: 7pm GMT
Europe: 8pm CET
Australia: 4:30am ACT, November 9
The Winter Update is likely to be a sizable patch, so if you’re running out of room you might want to pick up the Seagate Storage Expansion Card, which is one of the best Xbox Series X accessories you can buy. Alternatively, if you want to get an edge on the competition online, you can’t go wrong with Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller.
First published: November 7, 2022
Updated: November 8, 2022