Summary:

🎁 New Operations – The “Frontlines” Operation, which launches alongside this update, features a free 20-tier reward track themed around the frontline soldiers of the UNSC. Purchasers of the Premium Pass will have access to 50 tiers of paid rewards in addition to the free rewards. Looking ahead, “Blue Team” launches in March and “Forerunner” launches in April.

💥New Weapon: Fuel Rod SPNKr – The Fuel Rod SPNKr is a semi-auto rocket launcher with a six-shot magazine. This Banished-made weapon features a slightly faster rate-of-fire than the UNSC’s M41 Rocket Launcher, but only a direct shot will one-hit an enemy Spartan and its projectiles will arc over longer distances.

💣 New Game Mode & Playlists – Assault, which was first introduced in Halo 2, is now available in Halo Infinite matchmaking and Custom Games. Two new Assault-centric rotational playlists are currently available: Assault and Squad Battle: Assault.

🗺️ New Forge Map in Playlists – Origin is now available in Custom Games and various matchmaking playlists. Origin was created in Forge and is based on the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer map Coliseum, albeit with tweaks for the Halo Infinite sandbox.

🆕 New Rotational Ranked Playlist – The all-new Ranked Squad Battle rotational playlist features the following 8v8 game modes: Squad Slayer, Squad One Flag CTF, Multi-Flag CTF, Neutral Bomb Squad, One Bomb Squad.

🏅 Ranked Gameplay Updates – New jumps have been added to the Ranked version of several maps to improve map flow and create new routes. Additionally, weapon and equipment spawns on various Ranked multiplayer maps have been updated to improve encounter balance.

⚔️ Sandbox Balance Changes – 7 weapons and 2 actions have received balance changes in this update, including but not limited to:

• The Heatwave now fires slower and, when set to a vertical fire orientation, its projectiles now fan outward rather than firing straight ahead.
• The Stalker Rifle’s rate-of-fire has been decreased.
• The “bounciness” of Frag grenades has been increased.
• The time it takes for a player to throw a grenade has been increased to better align with previous Halo titles.
• Strafe acceleration values are being updated to improve the feel of gameplay engagements and better align with previous Halo titles.

🕹️ Forge: New Generic Bomb Object – With the introduction of the Assault game mode, players can also add the bomb object to their Forge creations.

👁️ Forge: Navigation Marker Visibility Scripting – Over ten new scripting nodes have been added to allow for greater customization of navigation marker behavior.

🛠️ Forge: New Object Scripting Nodes – Several scripting nodes have been added to improve Forge creators’ experience when designing game modes and maps around specific objects.

🐞Resolved Issues – 30+ bug fixes in this update, including:

• Improved stability for Halo Infinite on both Xbox consoles and PC.
• Match loading has been improved to reduce instances of players becoming stuck in looping match intro sequences.
• Dropping a weapon by holding the Weapon Swap button now functions more consistently.
• Improved the process for reconnecting to Halo Infinite services after the game has been suspended on an Xbox console.
• Dynamic objects no longer have a chance to slightly rotate when switching between Forge’s Play and Monitor modes or when entering Custom Games.