Halo Infinite Season 5 Patch Notes

What a time to be alive for fans of Halo Infinite. The launch of season 5: Reckoning has rejuvenated the Halo community, and it is evident through the massively improved player count. Ultimately, all of this positivity is thanks to some fantastic new content. The Reckoning update is huge, and you might miss some of its features if you are out of the loop. Here are the patch notes for Halo Infinite season 5.

Season 5: Reckoning Patch Notes

Battle Pass

Halo Infinite doesn’t get enough credit for being one of the most consumer-friendly battle passes out there. This time around, 343 has made some adjustments to make it somehow even better.

• Tiers that reward Armor Coatings now grant that Coating for all available Armor Cores at the same time.
• Tiers that reward Shoulder Pads will now grant both the Right and Left versions of that Shoulder Pad at once rather than splitting the two versions between different tiers.
• Rather than being dispersed throughout the full reward track, the free Battle Pass rewards are now grouped within the first 20 tiers. Tiers 21-50 are only available to players who purchase the Premium Battle Pass.

The Halo Infinite season 5 battle pass will cost the usual 1,000 credits. The Battle pass will provide buyers with the following benefits:

• Permanent access to progressing the full Battle Pass, which includes 1,000 earnable credits across its 50 reward tiers.
• An exclusive Weapon Model customization: the Defiled Bulldog.
• If the Battle Pass is equipped while the Season is active, an extra Challenge slot and bonus Match XP during multiplayer matchmaking

Operations

Halo Infinite season 5 is transforming themed events into what are now called “Operations.” Operations will remain free to all players, and will also be longer lasting than events were. However, this time around there will be even further options for players who choose to indulge in the following premium offers:

• For 500 credits:
  • Permanent access to the full Operation pass.
  • An exclusive customization item.
  • If the Operation Pass is equipped while the Operation is active, an extra Challenge slot and bonus Match XP during multiplayer matchmaking.
• For 2,000 credits:
  • Instantly unlock all 20 tiers of the Operation Pass.
  • An exclusive customization item (the same item included in the 500-credit offer).
  • If the Operation Pass is equipped while the Operation is active, an extra Challenge slot and bonus Match XP during multiplayer matchmaking.

At this time, there are two announced Halo Infinite season 5 operations:

• Combined Arms
  • Active between November 14, 2023, and December 18, 2023.
  • Free 20-tier Operation Pass featuring RHAKSHASA-themed rewards.
• Winter Contingency III
  • Active between December 19, 2023, and the end of Season 5 in early 2024.
  • Free 20-tier Operation Pass featuring holiday-themed rewards.

Match XP In Custom Games

Importantly, players can now earn XP towards their Battle Pass and Operations in custom games. There is a daily custom games cap of 7,500 XP, however multiplayer XP will remain uncapped.

REWARDS FOR REACHING MAXIMUM CAREER RANK

Players who achieve the maximum level in the Career Rank system, also known as Hero rank, will automatically receive the following customization items to use in multiplayer:

• The Infinite Mark VI Armor Kit for the Mark VII Armor Core.
• Two Mark VII Armor Coatings:
  • Campaign Season
  • Midway Emerald
• The Gilded Infinity visor
• The Hero emblem set

MULTI-CORE FOR ALL HELMETS AND ADDITIONAL COATINGS

All helmets in Halo Infinite, regardless of when or how they were released, can now be used on any Armor Core. Additionally, 28 Armor, 2 Weapon Coatings, and 1 Vehicle Coating released prior to Season 4 can now be used on any Armor, Weapon, or Vehicle Core.

Furthermore, this list of coatings will continue updating throughout the game’s life cycle, so expect that number to change.

New Arena Multiplayer Maps

Forbidden is now available in Custom Games and various matchmaking playlists. On Forbidden, players will compete inside a long-abandoned Forerunner structure with two distinct sides: a lush jungle side, and a dry barren side.

Prism is now available in Custom Games and various Matchmaking playlists. On Prism, players will fight in the caverns of an asymmetrical blamite mine. Players can pick up and throw chunks of blamite found across the map.

NEW MULTIPLAYER GAME MODE: EXTRACTION

The Extraction multiplayer mode, which was first introduced in Halo 4, is now available in Halo Infinite Matchmaking and Custom Games. In Extraction, two teams of four players compete to arm and defend Extraction Sites on the map.

To learn more about the Extraction mode, visit the “Extraction Overview | Season 5” blog on Halo Waypoint.

NEW WEAPON VARIANT: BANDIT EVO

A new variant of the M392 Bandit Rifle, the Bandit Evo, is now available in Ranked matchmaking playlists and Custom Games. For more information on the Bandit Evo and Ranked matchmaking in Season 5, visit the “Ranked Update | Season 5” blog on Halo Waypoint. 

The Bandit Evo features similar damage and performance as the M392 Bandit Rifle, but with a 1.6x holographic scope. If players are damaged while using the Bandit Evo’s sight, they will be descoped back to their standard hip-fire view.

The Bandit Evo will inherit all customizations, such as Coatings and Weapon Models, from the standard M392 Bandit Rifle.

FORGE IMPROVEMENTS

AI Toolkit

As detailed in the “Forge Overview | Season 5” blog on Halo Waypoint, Forge players now have a new AI Toolkit to create and share experiences using Campaign AI in Forge. The AI Toolkit enables players to spawn AI, control where the AI navigates, change the AI’s team, and use a node graph to further modify AI behavior. Up to 32 AI units can be present on the map at one time. 

The Forge AI Toolkit contains 43 characters, which fall into the categories below:

• Grunts: 5 variants
• Jackals: 4 variants
• Skimmers: 3 variants
• Elites: 5 variants
• Brutes: 16 variants
• Hunters: 2 variants
• Marines: 6 variants
• Bosses: 2 variants

The AI toolkit contains the following spawner objects:

• AI Spawner: up to 8 AI units spawn at this location.
• AI Drop Pod Spawner: a single AI unit is delivered to this location via a Drop Pod that falls from the sky.
• AI Phantom Spawner: up to 8 AI units disembark from a Banished Phantom that flies into the map at this location.

Once AI units are spawned, they can be redirected to a new area via the AI Move Zone object. Once the AI units arrive at the directed location, they will carry out normal AI behaviors via the Forge Nav Mesh.

AI traits such as their weapon and squad behavior can be adjusted via the AI Spawner Object Properties menu in Edit mode. Additionally, players can create or edit AI waves, behaviors, and events via a node graph.

The following Tool Settings are available for AI unit testing in Edit Mode:

• Deathless: prevents the player from dying to AI-inflicted damage.
• Valhalla: prevents the player and all AI from dying, except for kill volumes and backsmacks.
• Undetectable to AI: AI units cannot detect players.

AI unit difficulty, including a Player Count Difficulty Multiplier, can be set via a node graph in Edit mode. Or, when playing a Forge experience with AI in a custom game, AI unit difficulty can be adjusted via the AI options in the Custom Games Mode Editor menu. 

New Forge Canvases

Two new canvases are now available to Forge creators:

• Barrage: Scarred terrain from a Banished bombing. Features a blackened play area with water-filled craters and broken trees
• Permafrost: Features snow-covered terrain with frozen ponds, ice and sharp snowy peaks in the distance

Banished Objects and Visual FX

Players now have access to new Banished-themed Forge assets and various visual FX. This includes the following object types:

• 11 primitives
• 27 structures
• 10 lights
• 86 accents
• 15 decals
• 13 FX
• 23 material swatches

Snow & Ice Objects and Visual FX

Players now have access to new snow and ice-themed Forge assets and visual FX. This includes the following object types:

• 9 FX
• 84 biome objects
• 21 material swatches

New Lighting Options

New properties and options have been added for lights in Forge:

• Minimal Roughness: a new slider ranging from 0 to 1 that adds roughness to the light, with 0 being no roughness and 1 being maximum roughness. Rough lighting may help improve an area’s fill lighting and ambient tones.
• Near & Far Begin: adjusting a light’s Near Begin will change how far from the source that light starts rendering. Adjusting the Far Begin will change the softness of the edge of the light.
• First Person Contact Shadows: up to 4 lights can now feature higher fidelity first person shadows. These higher fidelity first person shadows are not visible when playing with lower quality video settings on PC or Xbox One.
• Volumetric Fog Intensity: a new slider ranging from 0 to 1 that adjusts how a light interacts with the map’s fog. Setting this slider to 0 will disable interaction with fog.
• Area Lights: enabling the Area Light option in a light’s Object Properties allows players to adjust the radius and length of the light’s specular highlight.
• Gobo & Light Cone additions: Additional gobos and light cones are now available for use in Forge. Near Fade Start and Near Fade End options are now available for making further adjustments to these light objects.
• Light Groups: Forgers can add lights to a group to turn off shadows on lower end hardware, increase shadow resolution, or make other performance adjustments.
• Reflection Volume options:
  • Active Volume toggle: enable or disable the volume’s reflection volume.
  • Intensity: adjust how bright or dim the cube map is.
  • Origin: create an offset from the origin where the cubemap will be created.
  • Blend on Top: set 1 cubemap that will have a higher priority than any overlapping cube maps.
• Rotating OBBs: the Oriented Bounding Box (OBB) of a light can now be rotated on the X, Y, and Z axis. This will allow for better control of the lighting in maps, and for better performance management.

Massless Children Prefab Property

Players can now set the “child” objects in a prefab to have no mass. For prefabs that are welded onto vehicles, this option will allow the prefab to have less of an impact on the vehicle’s handling. 

Object Collision Toggle

A new Object Collision toggle is now available for static Forge objects. This toggle enables objects to not collide with players or vehicles but will still collide with bullets and grenades. This will allow for small decorative objects to have less of an impact on player navigation and potentially reduce instances of desync.

Mouse and Keyboard Improvements

Mouse and keyboard controls in Forge now have the following new functionalities:

• Camera Pan: while holding the middle mouse button, drag the mouse to pan the camera.
• Plane Restricted Camera Movement: use the arrow keys to navigate through the map without adjusting the camera’s altitude.
• Node graph panning: players can now use the WASD keys to pan across the node graph menu.

BALANCE CHANGES

MANGLER

The Mangler can now kill an enemy Spartan with one shot followed by a melee.

M12R ROCKETHOG

The Rockethog is now more effective against turrets and vehicles. When locked-on, the Rockethog’s rockets will track targets more aggressively.

RESOLVED ISSUES AND BUG FIXES

GLOBAL

• Improved stability for Halo Infinite on both Xbox consoles and PC. 

MULTIPLAYER

Menus

• The Search Region option, found in the Gameplay tab of the Settings menu, will no longer reset between multiplayer matches or relaunches of Halo Infinite.
• Decorative objects on clambered surfaces are now less likely to result in minor warping or desync during online multiplayer sessions.
• To improve clarity when setting up a Customs Browser session, the Privacy setting for Custom Game lobbies has been renamed to Visibility.
• The Gamertag filter now is now correctly reset when leaving and re-entering the Customs Browser menu.
• Fireteam members can now switch their team in a Custom Game lobby using a button next to their Gamertag.
• Purchase buttons in the Shop menu now have a distinct hover state when using a mouse.
• While in multiplayer gameplay, leaving a Fireteam via the pause menu’s Roster will no longer remove the player from the active match.
• The Ranked widget visible in the Ranked playlists on the Multiplayer menu no longer shows a value of -1.
• The post-match Rewards menu now better supports non-16:9 aspect ratios.
• Vehicle and Weapon Emblems will now remain visible in the Customization menus after equipping then unequipping them.
• Players will no longer see an incorrect error message when customization items are loading in an Armor Hall menu.
• Keyboard shortcuts have been added so that players can scroll up or down through the desciption of a Customization item.
• The Premium Battle Pass’s bonus reward tiers in the Battle Pass menu now have the intended endcap icon.
  • Players who have purchased the Battle Pass will now see a checkbox at the end of the tier, while players who have not purchased the Premium Battle Pass will see a lock icon.”
• The correct Battle Pass title is now shown when viewing your own profile via the Player Inspect menu.
• The shortcuts listed along the bottom of the screen will now remain visible after using the tabs in the Post-Game Carnage Report.

Gameplay

• Bots will no longer enter gameplay and attack players during the match’s non-interactive intro sequence.
• The fullscreen visual effect for players caught in the Threat Seeker’s pulse radius now aligns with how long they are visible to the player who activated the Threat Seeker.
• Players who join in-progress Free-For-All Escalation Slayer matches will now be able to win the match as expected when they level up all weapon loadouts.
• Players will no longer receive duplicate Extermination medals when all four required kills are completed in rapid succession.
• Players will now respawn as expected when playing Free-For-All Escalation Slayer on the map Empyrean.
• Players can no longer use the Grappleshot to leave the intended playable space on the map Behemoth.
• Pelicans vehicle drop-offs on the map Deadlock have been improved to deliver the same vehicle for both teams in the same wave.

Audio

• Players will no longer hear voiceover lines for BUTLR when a different Personal AI is equipped.
• Iratus voice lines in the Infection game type now consistently play in the selected Audio Language.
• Survivors who win a round of Infection will no longer hear Iratus declaring victory.
• The in-game announcer will no longer announce an inaccurate amount of time remaining in Infection.

Visual

• Several Nameplates have been updated to improve the placement of their artwork in relation to the Career Rank flag.
• The Weapon Coatings listed below no longer display a black texture when equipped to the MK50 Sidekick with the Swiftguard Weapon Model:
  • Flash Fjord
  • Snowbound
  • Tigris Dread
• Loading screen images and text are no longer offset after increasing either of the Heads-Up Display (HUD) Display Margins values.
  • The HUD Display Margin options can be found in the Gameplay tab of the Settings menu.
• Adjusting the Head-Up Display (HUD) Opacity value will now adjust the opacity of navigation markers, such as the Last Spartan Standing icon in the Infection gametype.
  • The HUD Opacity option can be found in the Gameplay tab of the Settings menu.

Accessibility

• Improved contrast ratio for the text in the top left corner of Forge file thumbnails.
• The arrows for dropdown scrollbars are now larger and scale with the Text Size option.
• Improved readability and navigation of setting descriptions in the Video tab of the Settings menu, especially when the Large or Extra Large Text Size options are enabled.
• “The UI Narration feature now reads out the following:
  • The name of all Halo Championship Series (HCS) Shop bundles.
  • Whether a highlighted bundle in the Shop menu is already owned.
  • The name and assigned keys for all keybindings in the Keyboard/Mouse tab of the Settings menu.”
• The Linear Navigation feature now navigates the Shop menu as expected.

Theater

• The spacing between the current timestamp, the film’s total length, and both ends of the film’s timeline has been improved.
• To better clarify the camera’s behavior, the Cinematic camera type has been renamed to Orbit.
• Disintegrations via the Heatwave or players leaving the match will no longer cause the viewer to swap between players.

Observer

• Bots are now listed in the Observer scoreboard.
• The Observer camera will no longer switch to a different player’s perspective when the currently spectated player respawns.
• Players can now remap the Change Outlines, View Previous Player, and Toggle Player Switcher functions to another controller button as expected.
• Setting the Starting Occluded Outlines option to Off, found in the User Interface (UI) tab of the Settings menu, now correctly results in occluded players’ outlines being visible through map geometry.
• The Free-For-All Attrition game type now ends as expected when there are Observers in the match.

FORGE

Edit Mode and Creation Tools

• The maximum number of possible nodes in a map has been increased from ~400 nodes to ~2000 nodes. This is dependent on map budget.
• The Reactive Water Plane now consistently displays water splashing effects for players and vehicles.
• Using the Undo or Redo function no longer has a chance to apply unintended rotation to the updated object.
• Disabled or unavailable actions are now greyed out in Forge mode’s radial menu.
• The position and rotation of Scriptable Switch objects will now be more responsive in Edit mode.
• Magnet connections no longer vary depending on the camera’s position in relation to the selected objects.
• Objects set to be non-visible via the Folders tab in the Forge menu will no longer appear visible when entering a Forge map.
• Prefabs with an asymmetrical Center of Mass pivot point will no longer break when rotated.
• Scripts using Declare or Get Generic List Variable nodes will now function as expected in every round of a Custom Game.
• Previously available material swatch regions have been restored to the Eroded Terrain E object, and a separate Terrain Inheritance version of the Eroded Terrain E object is now available.
• The parent object of a prefab can now be changed more consistently.
• The Radius and Length options now function as expected for Area Lights.
• Forerunner Energy objects now consistently have audio in Test and Play mode.
• Improvements to the performance and speed of light probe generation on Forge maps. For example, here are the light generation times for Argyle when using an Xbox Series X:
  • Argyle (Winter Update): 13663 probes took over 8 minutes to generate
  • Argyle (Season 5): 13663 probes took around 1 minute to generate

File and Map Publishing

• The maximum file size for Forge maps has been increased from 2MB to 10MB.
  • Map file size is affected by placed objects and node graph scripts. Lighting, audio, nav mesh, and reflection volume data are separate files that don’t contribute to map file size.
• Non-latin characters and emoji can no longer be used in Forge file names.
• Highlighting text in a Forge file’s description field no longer results in some characters shifting between lines.
• Bookmarked Forge maps will now consistently load into the author’s latest published version of that map.
• A map’s Details menu will now consistently show the correct publishing status.
• The Forge lobby menu will now consistently reflect the selected version number on the map’s thumbnail.
• Players can now consistently add or update the screenshots attached to their Forge files.
• The My Published Files menu will now consistently show all published Forge files.

CAMPAIGN

• The Headmaster Achievement will now unlock consistently.
  • If the conditions for unlocking this Achievement were completed and it did not unlock in a previous version of Halo Infinite, the conditions will need to be completed again after installing the Season 5 update.

XBOX

• The Play button can now be used by any player who has menu control during splitscreen sessions on Xbox consoles.

And there you have it, folks. We said that Halo Infinite’s season 5 was big, and we meant it. Now, as Master Chief once said, get out there and ‘Finish. This. Fight.”

Source: halowaypoint.com