January Jottings
2023 is upon us, January is almost at an end, and that means it’s time for our first Community Update of the new year—the place where we round up all recent Halo news, events, and partnerships.
We’ve got the final week of the Joint Fire Event in Halo Infinite, news on Year 2 of HCS, new Halo Gear inbound, exciting partnerships, additional Mythos art, and more. Let’s dive right in!
HALO INFINITE
JOINT FIRE EVENT
We’ve kicked off 2023 with the Joint Fire Event in Halo Infinite, which runs from January 17-31 and brings a free 10-tier Event Pass featuring Halo: Reach-themed rewards based around the JFO-class Mjolnir for your MARK V [B] Armor Core!
Hop into the Joint Ops playlist to play rounds of Covert One Flag (the 4v4 CTF “cat and mouse” gametype you’re familiar with now where attackers have active camouflage while defenders have threat sensors) and complete Event Challenges to progress your Event Pass.
FORGE FEATURES
The Halo community continues to amaze and astound with their stunning Forge creations, which we feature in the 343 Recommends tab of the in-game and Halo Waypoint content browser, as well as the Forge Features blog series.
(Oh, and we’ll have a new one arriving tomorrow!)
PROPERTY OF NINA KOVAN, DO NOT STEAL (OR ELSE)
Complete all of your Challenges and the Ultimate Challenge this week to earn the Abbey Lime coating for your S7 Sniper.
Use this one with care, or else Nina Kovan might think you’ve stolen her sniper—and you wouldn’t want to upset a Spartan who boasts skills mentioned in the same breath as Linda-058...
And head over to the Shop to acquire the Brodie Armor Set and outfit your EAGLESTRIKE Armor Core.
HALO ESPORTS
HCS KICKOFF MAJOR CHARLOTTE 2023
Welcome back Spartans! Join us next month in Charlotte, NC as we kick off the first Major of the 2023 HCS season. Year 2 of HCS starts now!
Spectator Passes On-Sale Now: 1/12 (VIP Tickets are sold out.)
Use a Partnered Team Discount code to get 10% off your purchase.
- FAZE
- OPTIC
- SPACESTATION
- NAVI
- SENTINELS
- QUADRANT
- COMPLEXITY
HCS GRASSROOTS 2023 REFRESH
Designed to support the community directly, HCS Grassroots helps content creators and community tournament organizers continue to do what they love, while introducing new and exciting opportunities.
Oh, and check out the new Grassroots logo!
Give a warm welcome to four new HCS Grassroots members: LouisVTitan, YNOT_B_RECKLESS, alyekly, and Extremebreaker1.
You can see them in action in the new Grassroots Member BTB Playdate, which was broadcast on January 21. The February Winter Playdate is scheduled for February 10, and the March Women’s Playdate will be broadcast on March 11.
HALO GEAR
INFINITE LOVE
Don’t stop at flowers and chocolate—spread the love this February with the new Halo Valentine’s Day themed collection. Featuring fun and unique designs across apparel and accessories, this collection is perfect for gifting a loved one, a friend, or yourself.
NEW YEAR, NEW MEGA HALO
Spartans, prepare for your next mission—orders inbound on January 30!
Stay tuned to @MegaConstrux and @Halo for an exciting announcement and all the details.
PARTNERSHIPS
HONDA FAN CUP TOURNAMENT
We’re back for another round in 2023! The Honda Fan Cup tournament—featuring Halo Infinite—gives you another chance to show off your skills and take a shot at a new, hefty $20,000 prize pool.
In addition to the prize money, the top finisher in the Finals will win an exclusive Haworth x Halo: Fern Gaming Chair.
The tournament kicks off with four Qualifiers on January 28, February 4, February 11, and February 18. The top players from the qualifiers will secure a spot in the Finals on March 4.
All the Qualifiers and the Finals are double elimination and will consist of 1v1 matches, so get ready for tense action—where every decision and every move are critical!
Whether you compete or not, we invite you join us and watch the Finals, which will be livestreamed on the Xbox Twitch channel on March 4 at 10am PT.
For Halo Infinite fans who aren’t able to compete in the tournament, we have you covered with the Honda Fan Cup Play & Win sweepstakes, where you have a chance to win cool prizes including an Xbox Series X console, an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2: Halo Infinite Limited Edition controller, a Halo Infinite Master Chief Standee, and Game Pass membership codes.
Note: Game Pass subscribers can enter the Honda Fan Cup Play & Win by clicking on the Honda Fan Cup banner on the Xbox home screen (tip: hit home refresh if you don’t see it).
OREO x XBOX
Just in case you didn’t see the mania surrounding the Parade Ground armor coating we’re offering in our new partnership with Xbox and Oreo, here is everything you need to know.
Xbox has teamed up with Oreo in 22 countries across Europe, releasing special edition packs of Xbox-themed cookies AND Oreo-themed in-game content from some of the most beloved Xbox games, including Halo.
CALM
2023 has already started its shenanigans, so if you need a moment to yourself in your happy place, just remember Calm has created a Halo Infinite-themed soundscape. The soothing ambient journey through Zeta Halo will solve all of your problems (for legal reasons that’s a joke) but it is the perfect escape for a Halo fan in a busy world.
Xbox and Calm are offering an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perk, where Ultimate members can receive three months of Calm Premium for free, and then 50% off their first year subscription for new Calm Premium members.
RADAR BLIPS
- THIS OR THAT? Round 3 of voting for your favorite Halo Infinite map has begun. Head over to our Instagram Stories and have your say!
- CANON FODDER – NEW YEAR, NEW LORE: In our first issue of 2023, we look at the history of the fan-favorite SPI armor, explore the fall of the UNSC Infinity, and detail how a deadly meeting of master and pupil earned Okro 'Vagaduun his unique energy sword.
THE ARTIST’S CORNER
Our latest piece for The Artist’s Corner comes from artist Darren Bacon and was featured in Halo Mythos.
This stunning piece depicts the Anodyne Spirit, the Forerunner keyship that would go on to live at the heart of High Charity, grounded on Janjur Qom—the homeworld of the San’Shyuum (or, as you may know them, the Prophets). But how did this come to be?
After the firing of Halo to defeat the Flood, the surviving Forerunners served their penance in reseeding the many species they had indexed on the Ark—utilizing keyships to return life where it had been taken.
The rogue ancilla known as Mendicant Bias was also put on trial by Bornstellar (then known as the IsoDidact), preserving the construct within the sands of the Ark in case the Flood were ever to return and the secrets of the parasite needed to be sought out. Mendicant’s processes were locked into a single thought for the rest of living time: atonement.
Awakening on the Ark, an aspect of Mendicant Bias broke off and stowed away on a keyship, desiring to head to Earth and bring the humans to the Ark so they could discover the great responsibility they had inherited—that of the Mantle itself, to learn from the Forerunners’ mistakes and become the shepherds of life in the galaxy. However, the journey to Earth was cut short when the keyship crashed on a world known as Janjur Qom, where it would be discovered by its native species, the San’Shyuum.
The Anodyne Spirit became an object of worship, with two groups emerging that would escalate hostilities into the devastating War of Wills, depicted in the image below as the Stoics believed that entering the ship was an act of heresy while the Reformists sought to explore and understand the technology of the gods—leading them to eventually lock themselves within the keyship and learn how to launch it, tearing out a sizable chunk of Janjur Qom as the vessel headed for the stars.
That’s a wrap on this Community Update, and we’re almost at the end of January as well—just where does the time go? (No matter, this just means we’re that much closer to the release of Season 3!)
See you in the Joint Ops playlist, Spartans—please let me capture your flags...