Halo Infinite was given a surprise multiplayer beta release in November, and with it came a whole load of information and gameplay, as well as mountains of the gaming community flocking to the free-to-play multiplayer.

Here are the patch notes for Halo Infinite, including what's changed and what we expect to change in the future.

January 21 2022

You can find the full Halo Infinite update info on Halo Waypoint, but we've pasted the information below for your convenience.

Changes include tweaking item shop prices, as well as working on solving the consistent issues players have had with Big Team Battle.

Hey everyone - the team wanted to provide a few updates on Halo Infinite to close out the week. We worked directly with our Head of Design here at 343, Jerry Hook 51, to share updates on some topics that have been top-of-mind for a lot of you this week:

Since launch, the team has been monitoring the discussions on the Shop, bundles, and pricing in the game. Using data and community feedback, we’ve begun rolling out changes to how we package and price items in the Shop this week.
Our focus with these changes is on reducing pricing across the board, providing stronger values in our bundles, starting to put individual items outside of bundles, and more. This week we focused on reducing the prices of our weekly bundles, while next week will have individual items starting to appear on their own.
We will be trying new things throughout the rest of the season so that we can continue to learn and improve for the future. Please keep the feedback coming during this process.

As we work on resolving the issues with Big Team Battle matchmaking, the team also plans to remove Challenges that require Big Team Battle for the time being. We don’t want to alter Challenge decks when they are live (as it would removing people’s progression on those Challenges), so these changes will start next Tuesday when the Weekly Challenges typically rollover.

Thanks to your continued feedback, we are happy to confirm Credits will be earnable in Season 2’s Battle Pass. That means you will be able to earn Credits as part of your Halo Infinite progression. We’ll have more to share on this as we get closer to Season 2.

Please note: The team is continuing to investigate the Big Team Battle matchmaking issues. This week’s hotfix, though not as effective as we had initially hoped, also contained additional telemetry that has been providing promising data to the team. We’ll continue to share updates when we have them. In the meantime, please be sure to keep an eye on @HaloSupport 43 as well.

Thank you for your continued feedback, and we hope you all have a great weekend!

December 15 2021

After Halo Infinite's full release, players struggled with numerous issues with the game's functionality. Quick Resume failed to work properly in campaign mode, and specific mode playlists weren't available in multiplayer. Well, let's take a look at the Halo Infinite patch notes since the campaign came out and see if that's changed!

You can take a look at the full patch notes here too.

RELEASE OVERVIEW

With this update, Halo Infinite Campaign is available on Windows PCs and Xbox consoles. Campaign can be purchased in-game, online or on a physical disc. PC players should ensure their graphics card drivers are up to date and ensure their PC meets minimum specifications.

Many platforms automatically update games. The article How to update Halo Infinite has instructions for how to manually update your game or check if it is up to date.

RESOLVED ISSUES

Many improvements come from Halo Insiders feedback and Halo Support tickets submitted by our community. Thank you for participating and please keep submitting tickets!

• Local Area Network (LAN) multiplayer is now available. There is a known issue for LAN multiplayer:
  • Match settings changed in the Mode Editor still show as the defaults. The changed settings work as expected once the match begins.
• Players with AMD Radeon RX 500 Series GPUs no longer experience crashes because Async Compute in Video Settings is turned on.
  • Players who have turned off Async Compute because of this can now turn it back on.
• If Halo Infinite is launched without an internet connection, players can connect to the internet while on the main menu and play online.
  • This does not resolve all scenarios where the game is launched connected to the internet, later loses internet connection, and is stuck offline until the game is restarted.
• When launching in windowed mode on Steam, the window shows correct borders.

December 14 Playlist and Service Update

New Matchmaking playlists are being introduced:

• Team Slayer
• Free-For-All (FFA) Slayer
• Fiesta Slayer
• Tactical Slayer

If you do not see these playlists in-game, close and re-launch Halo Infinite to ensure you've received the latest changes. The Matchmaking playlist menu scrolls as well, so ensure you've scrolled down to view all available options.

Challenge changes:

• Easing or removal of some difficult Challenges
• Weekly Ultimate Challenges are now less intensive
• New Challenges specific to New Playlists added in this update
• New type of Challenge that rewards in-game Personal Score

Event changes:

• More Event Challenges appear when an Event is active

More information is available in Halo Waypoint News: Halo Infinite Playlist and Challenge Update.

DECEMBER 15 HOTFIX

The following issues were resolved by the December 15 Hotfix.

Global

• Improvements to online service connections after re-entering Halo Infinite using Quick Resume on Xbox Series X|S consoles. Players should see quicker and more stable reconnections to our services.

Campaign

• MJOLNIR Armor Locker customizations collected in Campaign are now consistently unlocked in the Multiplayer Customization menu.
  • Players who did not receive their customizations, either due to losing their internet connection or using Quick Resume on Xbox Series X|S consoles, should now have their customizations unlocked.
• Xbox Achievement reliability has been improved in this update.
  • Achievements no longer track progress toward their completion, but will unlock as expected when their conditions are met.
  • If an Achievement’s conditions were met prior to this update but the Achievement did not unlock as completed yet, it should unlock after installing this update and continuing Campaign gameplay.

Download size

Starting with no existing Halo Infinite installation:

• Installing Multiplayer only: approximately 26.54 GB
• Installing both Multiplayer and Campaign: approximately 48.4 GB

If Halo Infinite is already installed:

• Update only (all platforms): approximately 1 GB or less

KNOWN CAMPAIGN ISSUES

Working with the developers, we have compiled a list of known issues. A few of the highest impact issues are:

• When you purchase Halo Infinite Campaign in-game, there may be a delay of several minutes while the purchase is processed before you can play.
• Equipment upgrades cannot be purchased in the Upgrades menu while using the Linear Navigation accessibility feature.
• Fast travelling while dead may cause an endless load screen.
  • Workaround: Close Halo Infinite and reload the save game on the main menu.
• Very rarely, players may be unable to progress the current mission. See Halo Infinite Campaign Known Issues for more details.
  • Workaround: Restart the mission.

For a full list of known issues for Halo Infinite, go to our Known Issues section.

BALANCE CHANGES

When there is a balance change in future updates, Halo Support will include these in our release notes.

FURTHER RESOURCES

• If you experience problems with your Xbox console or Game Pass, Xbox Support can help you.
• If you have problems with your account, Microsoft or Xbox purchases, Microsoft Support can help you.
• If you have problems with other purchases, please contact the retailer you purchased your game from.
• For information about in-game purchases and how to redeem codes, see How to get support for an issue with an in-game purchase or code in Halo Infinite.
• If you experience a problem in Steam that is not an in-game issue, please contact Steam Support.
• If you missed out on Halo Infinite Technical Previews this summer and want a chance to participate in future flights, sign up for the Halo Insider Program.

November 18 2021

The Battle Pass progression issue is being fixed! Thanks to a Twitter thread by John Junyszek, 343's Community Manager for Halo Infinite, we now have faster progression to look forward to. You can see our full report for more details, but basically, bugs with Weekly Challenges have been fixed, double XP tokens will have their time upped to an hour, and single-match challenges will be present to increase the feeling of ranking up.

It's a really nice change to see, and one we hope is indicative of things to come with the responsiveness of 343 and the Halo Infinite team.

November 15 2021

For the Halo Infinite beta launch prior to the full release date on December 8, we'll be seeing tweaks and improvements throughout the pre-launch period.

The playlists for multiplayer were announced. They're pretty simple but should offer a focused experience for Halo Infinite players:

Big Team Battle

Featuring 12v12 combat on large maps with a wide array of vehicles, Halo Infinite brings the beloved Big Team Battle experience to new heights.

• Capture the Flag on Fragmentation, Highpower, Deadlock

• Slayer on Fragmentation, Highpower, Deadlock

• Total Control on Fragmentation, Highpower, Deadlock

• Stockpile on Fragmentation, Highpower, Deadlock

Quick Play

Enter the Arena with an MA40 AR & Mk50 Sidekick and play 4v4 matches for fun.

• Capture The Flag on Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth

• One Flag CTF on Launch Site

• Oddball on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

• Slayer on Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth, Launch Site, Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

• Strongholds on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

Bot Bootcamp

Hone your skills and practice new strategies in 4v4 matches that pit players against Bots.

• Capture The Flag on Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth

• Oddball on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

• Slayer on Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth, Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

• Strongholds on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

Ranked Arena

Start with a BR75 (Battle Rifle), Combat Sensor disabled, friendly fire on, grenade hitmarkers disabled, and static item spawns in these competitive 4v4 settings.

• Capture The Flag on Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth

• Oddball on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

• Slayer on Aquarius, Bazaar, Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

• Strongholds on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

Season 1

Season 1 of Halo Infinite is now officially open too. This means we have a constantly-levelling Battle Pass system, along with the Halo Infinite item shop with cosmetics purchasable with credits.

We'll also get a 6-month Season 1, so hopefully, all the issues can be ironed out and Season 2 will be a real treat when it does eventually arrive in March 2022.

A letter from Joseph Staten

Halo Infinite's Head of Creative Joseph Staten offered a letter to the game's player base, offering an update on the game's development and what changes to expect since the technical preview flights. Here's what he had to say:

On behalf of the entire Halo Infinite team, and in celebration of Halo’s 20th anniversary, I am very happy to announce that your Spartan journey begins… today! Sincerest thanks to the entire Halo community for your support, passion, and feedback. This day belongs to all of you. Whether you’ve been part of the community from the beginning or are joining with us today, welcome! Please read on or jump directly to the Halo Infinite multiplayer beta download links HERE.

Why is this release a beta? Our previous Multiplayer Technical Previews went a long way to battle-testing our services and infrastructure. But as we prepare for a significant increase in the number of players jumping into Halo Infinite on launch day, December 8th, we want to ensure all our systems are good-to-go. While you may experience some bumps and bugs during this beta period, it does mark the official start of Halo Infinite Season 1, with all day-one maps and modes enabled as well as the full Season 1 Battle Pass. This means all the Battle Pass and customization items you earn or purchase during the beta will stay with you after December 8th.

When you start playing the beta, you will notice in the Battle Pass UI that Season 1 will last from now until May 2022, which is a change from our original goal of shipping a new Season every three months. We made the decision to extend Season 1 to give ourselves more time to ensure Season 2 meets our high quality bar and so we can finish development for Season 2 in a healthy and sustainable way for our team.

Importantly, with the Season 1 extension, we aren’t just stretching-out our original Season 1 plan. Indeed, we took this opportunity to add additional events, customization items and other content to Season 1 to make it an even richer experience from start to finish. For example, starting today and through the first week, you can log-in to Halo Infinite to unlock a free collection of 20th anniversary themed cosmetics. Following this free reward period, the start of our Season 1 opening event, “Fracture: Tenrai”, will kick off on November 23. This will be your first of multiple opportunities to earn Season 1’s samurai-themed armor pieces and other customization items.

In January, after all of you have had a chance to play Halo Infinite’s expansive and adventure-filled campaign starting December 8th, and all of us on the Halo Infinite team have had an opportunity to recharge our energy shields over the holidays, we will have more details to share about the Season 1 event calendar as well as our Season 2, campaign co-op, and Forge release plans.

Again, sincere thanks to all of you in the Halo community for joining with us to celebrate this 20th anniversary milestone. We are incredibly excited to have reached this first step on our Halo Infinite adventure, and we can’t wait to share more about where your Spartan journey goes from here.

That's all for the current Halo Infinite patch notes! For more information on the Halo Infinite release, why not have a look at all the Halo Infinite weapons, or countdown to the game's full release in December?