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A week ago, 343 Industries announced that you will be able to get time-limited cosmetics through the new Exchange feature in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. As a part of the Halo: MCC Season 6 update, 343 admits that the Exchange was created as a way for players to engage with the game’s progression system, gives more choice in what we unlock, let players spend their surplus Season Points, and minimize the “fear of missing out” (or FOMO) often associated with this online-focused, season pass experience. Halo: MCC technical designer Dana Jerpbak details the new feature currently tested in closed beta in the latest Community Update. Read on below for the summary!
What is the Exchange in Halo: MCC Season 6?
The Exchange is a new tab that’s easily accessible through Halo: MCC main menu. You can buy the items on offer using Season Points, the points you accumulated by raising seasonal levels and doing Challenges. It’s split into two different categories:
- Featured Items, containing new themed content.
- And Limited Time Items, containing previously seen seasonal content.
As its name suggests, the Featured Items row showcases a collection of new themed bundles that will grow over time, usually when a new season is introduced. Meanwhile, the Limited Time Items row gives you an opportunity to get previously available items that you haven’t been able to get. Items on offer will rotate weekly. All other non-seasonal cosmetics will always remain available through the Season Pass. So while it may take a while to unlock everything you want, you won’t be missing out on anything if you can’t afford to unlock it in the short term. Dana also said that upcoming items in the Exchange will be shown to all players.
We want the Exchange to be something players are excited to revisit each week. It adds another choice for where players can spend their hard-earned [Season Points]. Players shouldn’t expect to unlock everything the first time it rotates into the Exchange AND blow through the season’s track right away. However, there will be a few additional [Season Points] on offer each week to accommodate the new place to spend them. If players miss out on an item they’re interested in, they can rest easy knowing that it will rotate back through the Exchange before too long. Additionally, the upcoming week’s batch of items is always displayed (along with their [Season Points] price) and fully previewable so players can plan to save up or set aside [Season Points] for an upcoming item.“
Special Ranked Rewards and How New Players Can Catch Up
For those who have worked hard and sweat blood to clear Challenges for that sweet Avalanche Sniper Rifle skin, don’t fret. Dana said that he and his team do not want to “trivialize the efforts” you have gone through to unlock them initially. With that in mind, while they do want to use the Exchange to offer unique limited-time items, no ranked rewards will be offered through the feature in Season 6. Any former challenge item will “sit out for at least a full season” (or roughly two months) before entering the Exchange rotation as well. The Season Point price will reflect the difficulty too, should the cosmetics eventually enter the Exchange.
Lastly, Dana reiterates that you can only “buy” items in Exchange through Season Points; no real money is involved whatsoever. He also adds that new players will earn Season Points “at an accelerated rate” until reaching level 100 in addition to extra earnings from Challenges. The Halo: MCC team even plans to increase XP payouts for Challenges with Season 6. With that in mind, newcomers won’t have to deal with “FOMO” in Halo: MCC.
And that’s all for Halo: MCC Season 6’s new Exchange feature breakdown. 343 Industries said that they will drop more news around Custom Game Browser in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to The Nerd Stash for more information on Halo and Xbox games.