Xbox Game Studios has released a Halo Infinite season 3 update, and we have the changes with us. Today, March 3, 2023, the update is on season 3, which includes new content for matchmaking, new playlists, as well as improvements to the ranking system. Let’s dive right into today’s Halo Infinite season 3 patch notes.
Halo Infinite Season 3 Update Patch Notes March 3, 2023
Playlists For The Month
Season 3 brings with it 3 entirely new maps in Chasm and Cliffhanger for 4v4 Arena, as well as Oasis for Big Team Battle. The franchise version of “gun game,” Escalation Slayer, also makes its way into Season 3.
As with Empyrean, Xbox Game Studios is offering a special playlist for the first week that only features Chasm and Cliffhanger called New Arena Unlimited. After a week, New BTB Unlimited will rotate into that slot and exclusively feature Oasis for the next week.
New Arena Unlimited
- 4v4.
- Maps: Chasm and Cliffhanger.
- Modes: Escalation Slayer (new mode!), CTF, King of the Hill, Slayer, Strongholds, One Flag CTF.
New BTB Unlimited
- 12v12.
- Map: Oasis.
- Modes: BTB Escalation Slayer (new mode!), CTF, Slayer, Fiesta, Fiesta Total Control, Total Control.
The dev team has also updated most of the playlists to feature Season 3’s new content with an increased weighting for the start of the season.
Playlists Featuring New Content
- Quick Play
- Bot Bootcamp
- Fiesta
- Team Slayer
- Tactical Slayer
- Big Team Battle
And here’s a look at the full calendar for the month so you can see when each playlist will make its way into the game.
The franchise is, however, eager to jump into matchmaking with you on March 7 when Season 3 releases!
Ranked Improvements
CSR-Based Matchmaking
As announced and released on February 28, an update has been made to the ranking system to match based on CSR as opposed to MMR. From a philosophical standpoint, this means teams will match based on what they’ve accomplished in the system as opposed to an underlying skill rating. The franchise is today nearing the end of the season, and almost all active players have settled into a rank, the experience will be different from prior seasons on March 7 when the rank reset hits.
There will still be placement matches, but you might find that early on, there are higher-skilled players in matches where there weren’t ones for prior season starts. Because matching is done on CSR, the players at the higher skill rank (Onyx, for example) will have to qualify (Diamond 1 is the highest placement) and then work their way out of Diamond and into Onyx. This will mean that you might see some more lopsided matches at the start of the season, particularly for true Diamond players, while players settle into their ranks. And, for those wondering, we will use MMR to match players who are still completing their placement matches.
The Fireteam CSR Limit range has not changed as part of this update and is as follows:
- For 899 CSR (Gold 6) or lower, there are no restrictions.
- At 900 CSR (Platinum 1), a limit of 900 points is introduced.
- Between 900 CSR (Platinum 1) and 1500 CSR (Onyx), the Fireteam CSR limit will slowly tighten as you climb the ranks. It will start at the 900 limits mentioned above and tighten to its final destination of 500. This essentially means that on the way to Onyx, every 2 CSR gained will tighten the Fireteam limit by an increment of 1 CSR
For example, if a player progresses from 900 CSR (Platinum 1) to 1200 CSR (Diamond 1), their Fireteam CSR limit would tighten from 900 to a stricter 750. At this new 1200 CSR, the lowest rank they could party up with would then be 1200 (their CSR) – 750 (the Fireteam CSR limit) = 450, or Silver 4 - At 1500 CSR and above, the limit is 600 points
For example, if a player was Onyx 1700, the lowest CSR they could party up with would be 100 or Platinum 5
Xbox Game Studios is closely monitoring the performance of these changes across all CSR divisions to ensure things are behaving as expected via data as well as what player feedback we see online.
Placement Matches
Placement matches are in place to ensure players are accurately put in the appropriate division to ensure they have a smooth and fair experience once they’ve been placed. While this is working, the franchise is also finding that the number of placement matches is also creating a barrier between friends who want to play together but haven’t finished their matches yet. In order to alleviate this, we’re reducing the placement matches required from 10 to 5.
The game Halo Infinite is available on Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. For more on today’s update, visit the official Steam page.
