Halo Infinite's second season has seen new maps, game modes and story content enter the game.
Let's cut straight to the point here: We still have a lot of questions about Season 2, but more and more is being revealed. After months of waiting, we now have an official release date, an idea of the new maps and content that will be coming, the theme of the new season, and updates on what is happening regarding both Forge and Campaign Co-Op.
Halo Infinite Season 2 Is Here: What's In It?
This article is chock-a-block full of everything that you need to know about Halo Infinite Season 2, but let's be real, you probably have a ton of specific questions that you want answered. That's where we come in. Below is a selection of articles that should answer every single question that you have.
- What's in it? Well, we've covered that here.
- What's the roadmap from here-on-out? Well, we covered that here.
- What are the new Maps? For goodness' sake, here they are.
- What are the new Modes? Again, they're right here.
- What are the Weapons? See them all here.
- What's the deal with the Battle Pass? One of my colleagues has prepared that.
All details are also laid out below, as this article was updated as information rolled in about Halo Infinite Season 2. The above articles are more detailed, but if you scroll down a little you will see it here as well!
[UPDATE: April 21, 2022]
343 Industries Reveal All New Modes in Halo Infinite Season 2
In a Tweet, which was quickly followed up by an extensive Halo Waypoint post (which you should totally check out!), 343 Industries have revealed three new modes coming the Halo Infinite in Season 2.
The modes, Land Grab, Last Spartan Standing and King of the Hill, all look absolutely fantastic and we can't wait to dig our teeth into them. They will honestly be a total blast. We're pretty excited, so let's first give you that epic trailer and then launch our way into each of these three new modes...
Knowing the rules of engagement is paramount to success. Today, we're giving you an early look at new game modes arriving with Season 2 of Halo Infinite - Landgrab, King of the Hill, and Last Spartan Standing. #HaloLoneWolves https://t.co/qTIhpb4JoZ pic.twitter.com/pMj3n0rbxo
— Halo (@Halo) April 21, 2022
New Halo Infinite Mode: King of the Hill
You read that right, folks, King of the Hill is returning! This is a classic mode where you have to - as the name suggests - hold the hill and earn points. If a player enters an uncontested hill, they capture it and begin earning a point per second in their capture bar. It does, however, get a little more complicated than that. Here's the mode description:
You know how the game is played, but there’s a little bit of a twist to this one. A neutral hill spawns on the map and two teams battle it out to control the hill and earn points. When a player enters the hill uncontested, it is captured and begins earning 1 point per second into a capture bar. When a team’s capture bar is full, they score 1 point and a new hill spawns somewhere else on the map.
New Halo Infinite Mode: Land Grab
In Land Grab, you have three neutral zones on the map that you need to capture. It's a pretty complicated new game mode, but to be honest, it sounds amazing, especially when played on one of those bigger maps like what we would usually play Big Team Battle on. Could you imagine this game mode on Fragmentation? Awesome! Here's the description...
At the start of the match, there are 3 neutral zones around the map. When a player captures a zone, it is locked and gives their team 1 point. When all zones are captured, there is an intermission before 3 new neutral zones spawn. The first team to score 11 points wins.
New Halo Infinite Mode: Last Spartan Standing
Is this the moment we've all been waiting for, a Halo Infinite Battle Royale? Well, sort of. It's actually way more interesting. In Last Spartan Standing you get five respawns and once they run out you are gone. The last Spartan standing wins, of course. With each kill you also upgrade your weapon to something better. It sounds actually incredible, and is apparently based on the Lone Wolves theme of Season 2. Amazing!
In this free-for-all experience, 12 players spawn on Big Team Battle maps with a confined loadout and 5 respawns. Once a player runs out of respawns and can no longer participate, they can either spectate or leave the match without penalty.If a player gets a kill in the match, they can upgrade to a different weapon—something players of “Escalation Slayer” will no doubt be familiar with. The match ends when there is just one Spartan left standing.
In the end, it's all about these incredible new game modes. If these are as amazing as they look like they'll be, and if they fix the game's matchmaking, they could absolutely combine with the two new maps to revive Halo Infinite and turn it into the masterclass it should be. Fingers crossed!
[UPDATE: April 8, 2022]
First Trailer For Halo Infinite Season 2!
Halo Infinite Season 2 is less than a month away and we finally got our first trailer for it. The trailer is only about a minute long, and it shows off the new maps Catalyst & Breaker (which we discuss in detail below), as well as some of the new armors and cosmetics. I can't lie... I'm pretty hyped! Check out the trailer here:
[UPDATE: April 5, 2022]
New Maps Catalyst & Breaker Come With Major Multiplayer Changes
A brand new Arena and a brand new Big Team Battle Map will be coming in Halo Infinite Season 2: Lone Wolves, but that's not all. A recent blog post from 343 Industries has revealed that a lot of changes are coming on May 3, including the reintroduction of Jeff Steitzer's voice for medals and big changes to CSR.
Halo Infinite Season 2's new Arena Map, Catalyst, is launching with Season 2 on several playlists. In Big Team Battle, Breaker will give us a nice big new battlefield to blast our way through. There are various buffs and nerfs coming with the new Season, with melee getting some pretty significant downgrades.
A small patch for #HaloInfinite will go live at 11am PT tomorrow, April 5. This includes fixes for Power Seed spawns, Fireteam invites on Xbox, and changes to CTF's Sudden Death rules. Patch Notes will be published at https://t.co/VGbBZeo64K when the patch is available.
— Halo Support (@HaloSupport) April 4, 2022
King of the Hill and Attrition are coming to new playlists, and fixes are coming to the issue in Big Team Battle that is causing weapon racks to spawn weirdly. Changes are also coming to CSR, which is greatly appreciated, and the Motion Tracker will be fixed. Thank goodness for that!
There is just so much coming that it's hard to give you all of the information in one place. Here is the TLDR from the Blog post, so that you can get a more detailed overview.
Multiplayer
- Arena
- Catalyst (new Arena map) will be added to multiple playlists on day one
- King of the Hill will be added to multiple playlists
- Attrition will be added to multiple playlists
- In Attrition, a revived player will be able to move immediately after spawning back in
- Motion Tracker (Radar) will have its outer edge detection enabled for shooting and sprinting in social playlists
- Big Team Battle
- Breaker (new BTB map) will be added to matchmaking on day one
- Jeff Steitzer’s voice is returning to call out player-earned medals
- Issue causing asymmetrical Weapon Rack spawns has been addressed
- Matchmaking
- Rather than track a player’s entire session, the CSR progression bar will now reflect the progress made from their most recent match
- Custom Games & Forge
- Addressing some Custom Game bugs, with more coming down the road
- Personal AI & Spartan Chatter
- Balance adjustments were made to emphasize what’s most important for players
- PC
- Noticeable stability improvements; the team has resolved dozens of PC crashes
Sandbox
- Networking
- Melee fights should be more consistent, with opponents “phasing” through each other less and “whiffing” less when a melee should’ve connected
- Weapons
- A global melee damage decrease of 10% on all weapons will require the Mangler to land two shots and a beatdown for a kill.
- The Ravager’s base (non-charged) shot will see a damage increase
- Friend or Foe (IFF) Recognition (Player Outlines)
- This system will now have options allowing players to modify the opacity and thickness based on their preferences
- Equipment
- Drop Wall will see slight performance increases
- Overshield will provide slightly more shielding
- Vehicles
- Chopper collision (splatter) damage will be increased to its vehicle-splattering glory
- Banshee’s agility and damage output will be increased to improve its role as a strike fighter
- Warthog & Razorback should be more resistant to flipping and bouncing
Well, there you have it, a bunch more information regarding Halo Infinite's second season. It's all rather exciting, if we're honest. Stay tuned to this article for all of the most recent Season 2-related information!
[UPDATE: March 29, 2022]
343 Industries Confirms More Season 2 Details Coming Soon, Explains Poor Communication
In an interview with the Washington Post, 343 Industries' creative director Joseph Staten not only confirmed that more Halo Infinite Season 2 details are coming soon, but spoke about the challenges of communicating with fans.
Staten took the opportunity of the interview to confirm that "really soon, fans are going to be exposed to some of the cool stuff we have going on for Season 2." The studio previous announced a large assortment of details around Season 2 (that can be found further down this article), but fans are still unhappy with the state of the Halo Infinite and its current roadmap.
Speaking of the challenges posed by communicating with fans, Staten said the following:
It's challenging to always be constantly open and transparent with fans because we don't want to expose them to the uncertainty and, sometimes, that churn that happens on any game development process. The decision we're making, and I believe that this is the right one - even though it's hard some days - is to make sure that when we talk to our fans that we can rely on what we say.
Now, it's true that we don't really know much more about Halo Infinite's second season. After it was delayed significantly and then briefly revealed a few weeks ago, little has been said and we have pretty much nothing except for a few pieces of concept art to show for it. In the rest of this article - written after the announcement a on March 07, 2022 - we go through what we know in a great amount of detail. Please read on.
[ORIGINAL ARTICLE: March 07, 2022]
You might not be one hundred percent happy with this news, we do warn you. It seems that Halo Infinite Season 2 is introducing a decent amount, but nowhere near what we wanted in terms of new features and content. Probably the most notable piece of information here is that Campaign Co-Op won't be coming when Season 2 launches, which was so notable that we detailed it in a separate article. If we're honest with you, though, we think it's better to just jump straight into the content, so let's take a look...
Halo Infinite Season 2: Lone Wolves Revealed
Halo Infinite's second competitive season will not only introduce new content and a new Battle Pass, but a new "Lone Wolves" theme. We can imagine that this says something about the new Game Modes that will be dropping along with the second season, as well as the brand-new armor that's coming. This "Lone Wolves" theme will tie into every aspect of Halo Infinite Season 2, including the new Story Events, cinematics, and more. Here's what 343 Industries had to say about "Lone Wolves" in their press release:
By “theme” we mean a core idea that guides the creation of much, but not all, of a Season’s content. Lone Wolf Spartans are hunters. Trackers. They’re resourceful improvisers, operating deep in enemy territory without resupply or support. They’re fierce, rugged, and prefer to work alone—but they’re still loyal to the Spartan pack. Here’s an early peek at two of these Lone Wolves:
Two new "Lone Wolves" are joining the pack as well, Spartan Sigrid Eklund and Spartan Hieu Dinh... Throughout Season 2's story, which explains 343 Industries' recent job advertisements, we will receive "a mix of cinematics, story-themed Events, Battle Pass items and more" that will incorporate these two characters as well as the core theme itself.
Halo Infinite Season 2 Release Date Confirmed
Halo Infinite Season 2 finally has a confirmed release date of May 3, one day after the current Season One Battle Pass ends. It's very exciting to know when the next chapter in Halo Infinite's (hopefully) epic shelf life will begin, especially after a couple of months of boring Events have caused the player base to begin to drift off a bit. It will be legitimately quite interesting to see how Season 2 is received, and what is fixed, after a season that has been rather hit-and-miss in terms of fan expectations and what we actually got.
Halo Infinite Season 2's New Maps
Two new maps, Breaker and Catalyst, will be coming to Halo Infinite in Season 2. The former is a new Big Team Battle map whilst Catalyst in a classic new Arena Map. Both look absolutely awesome, when considering the beautiful concept art that they shared. Here they are...
In the words of 343 Industries, Season 2 will have a selection of "maps, modes, customization options, and narrative content in April, as our marketing and promotional campaign kicks into high gear". It does seem to be a little odd that only now are they talking about kicking their promotional campaign "into high gear", but still, these maps look pretty cool!
Updates On Co-Op And Forge
Campaign Co-Op and Halo Infinite's much-anticipated Forge Mode have been delayed later into Season 2 and Season 3 respectively. In the press release, 343 Industries confirmed what we all feared in that Season 2 won't see Campaign Co-Op on launch, but the developers are keen to get the mode out by the end of that three-month-long Season. For details on the Co-Op delay, check out our designated article. In terms of Forge, though, it seems that the developers are very hopeful that we will still see it in Season 3 later this year...
We are also making great progress on Forge. Indeed, we are already flighting Forge to a small group of community creators and working closely with them to ensure that all of you have a terrific experience creating, sharing, browsing, and playing Forge content. In the near term, we will continue to privately flight Forge as we develop it while also planning for public flight(s) later this year. We still have the goal of shipping Forge with Season 3.
So there you have it, folks, everything that your body needs for some real high-quality Halo Infinite sustenance. With all of this yummy content coming your way, we're not sure how you could possibly complain. Honestly, the incessant complaining is starting to bother the living daylights out of me, so shut the fork up and enjoy the game. Seriously. You're not twelve anymore, so stop complaining about poop that doesn't matter. Fork off. Seriously.