343 Industries has celebrated the 20th anniversary of Xbox with the launch of the full Halo Infinite free to play multiplayer (though technically still branding it a beta), however, they’ve also made some changes to the game’s season pass structure and the content you’ll enjoy.
Season 1 will now run until May 2022, running for six months (from the 8th December release date) instead of the originally announced three months. This will, however, mean that Season 1 will have more in-game events and special customisation options added to it
Head of Creative Joe Staten explained on the Halo Waypoint blog: “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.”
We applaud this kind of decision making, as 343 Industries and their partners will have been going through extended crunch in order to get this game ready for launch, not once, but twice. Additionally, there’s less pressure on players to dive in and grind immediately, as there will be more time to earn most of the cosmetics on offer. This is particularly true, as seasonal content will not expire at the end of a season – if you have a battle pass, you can go back and earn the older items still.
The one kicker is that this implicitly delays the release of campaign co-op and Forge modes even further, both of which have been cut from the initial game’s release. At the time of the delay, 343 said they expected to ship campaign co-op during Season 2 and Forge during Season 3. If that holds true, it could be six-nine months before you’ll be able to share the campaign with a buddy and maybe a full year before the Forge creative mode returns.
Some examples of how 343 are adding to Season 1 include this week, with everyone who logs in this first week of the beta – from 15th to 22nd November – earning some commemorative items:
- Platinum Anniversary Coatings (Armor, AR, and Warthog)
- I Love Bees Emblems
- “Assembled” Emblems
- Blue Team Weapon Charm
This will be immediately followed on 23rd November by the Fracture; Tenrai event. Running for one week, this free event will let players earn the Yoroi (Samurai) armor core and feature an Event Pass that can be progressed while the event is active. It will return on several occasions during the season so players can keep plugging away at it.
The bulk of Season 1 will be spent with the Heroes of Reach. This theme defines the kinds of cosmetics you earn through the premium pass, tying in with certain armour “cores”. All Halo Infinite players will have and unlock customisation options for the Mk. VII Spartan armour, mixing and matching shoulders, helmets, visors, kneepads, and more. If you have the battle pass, you’ll be able to unlock the Mk. V armour core and then earn cosmetics for that armour set. Cosmetics for different cores will not be mixed.
Source: Halo Waypoint