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MARCH UPDATE PREVIEW | HALO INFINITE



ByAlex Wakeford
  -  12 hours ago
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A major new update is dropping feet-first into Halo Infinite this coming
Tuesday, March 19, delivering on some of the biggest requests from the
community.

Networking overhaul, weapon balance tunings, bug fixes, stability, and
anti-cheat improvements, Firefight Custom, and more—we've got the official
briefing on all these major elements in this blog (with even more detailed
information to come in the patch notes).

Let’s take a look!

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NETWORKING OVERHAUL



A completely overhauled networking model will be coming to Halo Infinite in a
matter of days.

After launch, we heard the feedback around the game’s online experience loud and
clear: desync, being shot around corners, etc. And while we did release numerous
updates to the previous model, they were not having the impact that players
expected and deserved. When we recognized this, the team decided to shift gears
and pursue a fundamental change to the underlying networking model. Since then,
we’ve been heads down to make it happen.

Last December, we shared a first look at it when it launched in Firefight: King
of the Hill and was featured in the Combat Workshop. It was great to see such a
positive response from the community online, in our surveys, and on Halo
Support—but we knew that it still needed some extra polish before it could roll
out on a wider scale.

Now that we’ve given it that extra time, we are confident that this updated
model will result in a better and more consistent multiplayer experience.

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EASY ANTI-CHEAT



Next week, Easy Anti-Cheat will arrive in Halo Infinite!

Easy Anti-Cheat is a tool that monitors players’ game files while they’re
playing Halo Infinite to ensure the integrity of each match and combat cheating.
With the March Update, our detection and enforcement capabilities will be
enhanced, greatly improving the game’s overall security and our ability to
respond to cheaters.

If you encounter cheating, be sure to use the in-game reporting feature or head
over to Halo Support to submit a ticket at aka.ms/HaloReportAPlayer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SQUAD BATTLE REFRESH

Since its debut in Halo Infinite, Squad Battle quickly became a beloved staple
playlist for those who were looking for something between the concentrated
action of 4v4 and the larger-scale mayhem of 12v12 Big Team Battle.

With the arrival of the March Update, we’ve got a refresh of the Squad Battle
playlist featuring seven new maps made by incredibly talented Forgers.

There are some returning classics, like Halo 4’s Perdition and Halo: CE (on
PC)’s Timberland, along with brand new maps for you to fall in love with.

 * Perdition
 * Refuge
 * Timberland Evolved
 * Rendezvous
 * Gyre
 * Harvest
 * Behemoth

To get all the details, be sure to check out our Squad Battle Refresh blog when
it drops next week!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


WEAPON TUNING UPDATES



The March Update is packed with weapon balancing changes that seek to address
community feedback across the board.

M392 BANDIT & BANDIT EVO

 * Increased reload speed.

Reload speed has been increased by 10% to address common feedback that reloading
feels slow and clunky.

HEATWAVE

 * Decreased aim assist falloff range
 * Decreased aim assist range
 * Decreased aim assist angle

We’ve seen players share that they were getting frustrated when getting hit by a
longer-ranged Heatwave shots. The weapon’s unique ability to hit those shots,
particularly with its alt-fire setting, is still core to its identity. That
said, we do feel like it was a bit too easy to be effective outside its intended
range.

Starting next week, it will require more precision when going for those
long-range shots, while keeping its close-range capabilities largely untouched.

PLASMA PISTOL

 * Faster charge-up time
 * Slightly decreased rate of fire for single shots
 * Faster overheat

Over time, we have observed that using the Plasma Pistol’s single-shot
functionality has become the primary way that players operate the weapon,
effectively utilizing all the benefits of the weapon but with minimal risk
element.

These changes are intended to give the charged shot greater effectiveness while
still allowing players the ability to find success with its single shot.

STALKER RIFLE

 * Decrease the number of shots to overheat
 * Slower venting rate per second

We noticed an increase in community feedback expressing that the Stalker Rifle
was over-performing. When watching players use it online, we could see they were
able to use the weapon to chain together multiple kills without much room for
counter-play.

As a result, we have decreased the Stalker Rifle’s overheat threshold and
increased the venting duration. This adjustment should reduce how often players
can find success while rapid-firing shots and require them to be more
intentional with each pull of the trigger.

VK78 COMMANDO

 * Increased close range friction
 * Less aggressive bloom

With the change from the Battle Rifle to the Bandit EVO as the primary weapon in
Ranked Arena, the viability of the Commando was inherently lowered.

A recurring theme from players was to give the Commando some love, and so the
goal of these changes is to give this weapon better handling – to address the
feedback around it feeling “slippery” – and a more consistent damage output so
players can hold their ground against the Battle Rifle and Bandit EVO.



GRAVITY HAMMER

 * Fixed issue that was doubling the power of the Gravity Hammer and its
   variants.
 * Increased its original tuning by 1.5x to allow for better damage and
   knockback

The Gravity Hammer’s reign of terror is... well, not over, you’re still going to
be soiling your armored breeches when you turn around only to find a player
speeding towards you with a Grappleshot and Gravity Hammer already mid-swing,
but it’s not quite the boogeyman it has been recently.

We have increased the damage and knockback of the Gravity Hammer (and its
variants) to be 1.5x its pre-Season 5 strength. This places those values at a
halfway point between what it was pre-Season 5 and what it has been in recent
months.

We’re excited for these updates to make their way to the battlefield next week.
Once you go hands-on with them, be sure to share your feedback and let us know
how they feel!

And, rest assured, we’ll be continuing to fine-tune the sandbox in future
updates.

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FIREFIGHT CUSTOM



Since Firefight: King of the Hill arrived in Halo Infinite back in December
2023, players have been having a blast fighting the Banished within the House of
Reckoning and across other maps—and on custom-made Forge maps.

With the March Update, we are introducing Firefight Custom. This is a "blank"
Firefight mode that keeps the high-level structure of Firefight: King of the
Hill intact (Sets, lives, skulls, scoring, Custom Game options), but removes all
the logic related to hills. In other words, this is Firefight: King of the Hill
without the King of the Hill.

Mode scripters will have full control over what constitutes a win or a loss of a
point, whether teams earn skulls, which spawners are triggered and when, and if
players can earn more lives. We wanted Forgers to spend less time and budget
scripting basic features of the mode and instead spend their time on the logic
that supports their ideal experience. This new variant also pairs well with
Forge’s previously released Mode Creator, allowing mode creators to create their
experience once and share it with many map creators.

New Forge Node Graph functions have been added to empower Forgers on this front.
These nodes will work in both Firefight Custom and the original King of the Hill
variants:

 * On Firefight Set Start
 * On Firefight Set End
 * End Firefight Custom Set
 * Fail Firefight Custom Set
 * Adjust Firefight Custom Lifepool
 * Get Firefight Custom Set State
 * Get Firefight Custom Wave Spawners
 * Get Firefight Custom Boss Spawners
 * Override AI Spawner Definition

With the granularity of these options, Forgers have more power than ever before
to create their own unique PvE modes, and we’re excited to see how that
continues to level up the experience for players!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS



FORGE

In addition to Firefight Custom, Forge will also be receiving numerous bug fixes
next week. One of the most noticeable updates will be improvements to Copy
Protection for Maps and Modes. Now, Forgers’ creations will be more secure, thus
reducing copy-cats, and clearing the way for the creator to get more credit for
the things they build and share with the community.

STABILITY

Last, but certainly not least, this update also has lots of improvements to
stability thanks to a plethora of crash fixes. We use data via in-game
telemetry, community feedback, and reports shared with the Halo Support team to
identify crash fixes that would provide the most impact to our players. If you
do ever run into a stability issue with Halo Infinite, please report them on the
Halo Support site.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That wraps up this preview of the upcoming March Update. Thank you to the Halo
community for your continued support as we continue to go after player feedback
that continues to improve Halo Infinite!

When the update drops on March 19, be sure to head over to
aka.ms/HaloInfiniteUpdate for the full patch notes.

Alex Wakeford
Community Writer
As a long-time community member, Alex Wakeford has permanently wired his brain
to the Halo universe over the last two decades – its stories, characters,
themes, and community are the ‘pillars of awesome’ that drive his love for this
franchise. After ...

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