Site Seeing
As you may have noticed, April is almost over, which means it’s time for a Community Update to round up all the latest Halo news and goings-on—from narrative elements in Fracture: FIREWALL, Season 3 Intel, and the upcoming Site Unseen event, to showcases of community-made MCC mods, fan tournaments, and more!
HALO INFINITE
FRACTURE: FIREWALL
The second week of Fracture: FIREWALL concluded earlier this month, leaving just two more recurrences for the event where you can earn twenty tiers of free customization rewards for your CHIMERA armor and Spartan ID.
The following dates are scheduled for FIREWALL’s return and conclusion:
- Week 3: May 23-30
- Week 4: June 13-20
Alongside the return of this event, a new chapter in the Story Shard series Precipice will unlock, detailing the origins of your CHIMERA-clad Executor in the wake of Cortana’s sacrifice at Zeta Halo, with High Auxiliary Sloan laying the foundations for the future of the Created.
INTEL
As Season 3 progresses, more Intel becomes available regarding certain narrative elements—available both in-game and here on Halo Waypoint.
Three of the six total entries have thus far been received, detailing aspects of Spartan Dinh’s backstory, the reawakening of the Lifeworker ship’s creation engines on the location of the Oasis multiplayer map, and ONI black site experiments with Forerunner hex pillars recovered from Zeta Halo.
SITE UNSEEN
The narrative of Season 3 comes to a close with the Site Unseen event, where we answer a question that has been on everyone’s minds... what’s behind the door?
Stay tuned for the event launch blog going live when Site Unseen kicks off on May 2, but what you can expect is a free 10-tier Event Pass with customization rewards for your MIRAGE IIC armor.
In the meantime, if you need to catch up on the events of Season 3: Echoes Within, then be sure to check out the cinematics we’ve uploaded to YouTube.
Catch up on the events of Season 1: Heroes of Reach and Season 2: Lone Wolves in “Previously On Halo Infinite.”
Witness Spartan Dinh’s confrontation with his traumatic past as the Banished AI Iratus invades his memories, kicking off the events of Season 3.
Finally, after Spartan Dinh has awakened, catch up with him and Spartan Eklund at the firing range where you receive a special gift as the newest member of their pack.
HALO GEAR REWARDS - PIN PROGRAM
The Halo Gear Rewards Pin Program for Season 3 continues, with the fourth and final pin becoming available with the Site Unseen event.
- Shroud Screen Pin: Complete the Season 3 Mindfall Event Pass.
- M392 Bandit Pin: Complete the Season 3 Site Unseen Event Pass.
- FIREWALL Logo Pin: Complete the Fracture: FIREWALL Event Pass.
- Season 3 Insignia LE Pin & matching in-game emblem: Complete the Season 3 Battle Pass.
Complete the qualifying event, find your reward code from your Halo Waypoint profile’s notifications, and grab your Halo Infinite pins from the Halo Gear Shop.
(Note that the Shroud Screen Pin is no longer available, as the Mindfall event has concluded.)
FORGE FEATURES
We’ve been bringing you issues of Forge Features every other week to spotlight the community’s creative cartography that’s been added to the 343 Recommended tab of the Content Browser. You can check out our latest issue below.
And what’s that you say? Tomorrow marks two weeks since we released the previous issue? Well, I suppose that means we should drop a new one tomorrow then!
FORGE MAP SUBMISSIONS
Forge maps and modes continue to be a centerpiece of the Halo Infinite experience. As such, we wanted to make it easier for your creations to be considered by the Halo Infinite team for future matchmaking additions.
In the next few days, we'll be rolling out a new process to ensure your hard work can be seen by 343 and considered for matchmaking. Thanks to the tagging system in-game, all you will need to do finish your creation, attach a screenshot to it, and then use the appropriate tags when saving your map or mode.
Here's a list of the tags:
Please note: Not all of these tags equate to playlists we're planning to build right now, but they could be in the future—and we'd want to allow players to start submitting their creations ahead of time just in case.
Once you've used one of the new ask 343 tags, our team will be able to find it and give it a look. This won't mean that your map is guaranteed to make it into matchmaking, but it does mean we can find it and review it much more easily than before. We hope you take advantage of it and we look forward to seeing what you've been building!
COMMUNITY COLLECTION – NEW MAPS
Speaking of community content, we updated Halo Infinite’s Community Collection playlist earlier this month, adding three new maps (Solution, Vagabond, and Curfew) into the mix of arenas that have been created in Forge.
Take a closer look at these new maps in the Community Collection Update blog below.
SHOP & ULTIMATE REWARD
I’m gonna level with you here: I think I’ve mined all there is to get out of Prince references, so allow me to simply encourage you to complete all of your challenges this week in order to unlock the Ultimate Reward: The Purple Reign M41 SPNKR coating.
And head over to the Shop to grab the Synthetic Runtime bundle, featuring the following items for your CHIMERA armor:
- Abatur helmet
- Decimation Adaptation helmet attachment
- Cooling Star armor coating
- Synthetic Markers Mythic effect
- Synthetic Emitters armor effect
- Synthetic Runtime kill effect
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS & ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH
May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, where we have the opportunity to educate, advocate, and raise awareness about mental health—both in taking care of ourselves and each other.
We also honor our colleagues and community members who celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and acknowledge the rich culture and contributions they bring to both Halo and the world.
In recognition of these occasions, an exclusive nameplate and emblem for Halo Infinite and MCC can be earned simply by logging in at any time during May.
MCC
Once upon a time, modding Halo was a clandestine art, whether you were using something like Action Replay to modify save files on console or delving into the depths of Halo: Custom Edition on PC.
Since Halo: The Master Chief Collection came to PC and received Steam Workshop support along with open access to mod tools, we’ve seen something of a renaissance in Halo’s modding community with creations that look to restore elements from the cutting room floor of previous games, remix the campaign experience in various ways (be it in seeking further balance, or in unleashing chaos unlike anything you could imagine), offer the player entirely new sandbox toys to play with, and more.
We’ve rounded up a collection of some of our favorite Halo mod recommendations that you should download. Hit the link below to check it out.
HALO ESPORTS
Upcoming Online HCS Events
We’re about a month away from our next LAN event, but there are still plenty of online competitions to take part in or watch over the next couple of weeks.
Players in all supported regions will have 2K and 4K events to compete in. Visit aka.ms/HCS-Reg.
Teams will be competing for highly coveted HCS Points that will be used for seeding in upcoming events including the next LAN at Dreamhack Dallas June 2-4. Catch player POVs and community streams here.
HALO GEAR
HALO VEHICLES IRL!
Take the Master Chief for a ride with the new Halo Infinite RC Gungoose from NKOK!
WOLVERINE X HALO SPARTAN BOOTS
INCYMI: In March, we teamed up again with Wolverine Boots to bring you four limited-edition Halo Spartan boots.
These Wolverine x Halo boots feature designs inspired by Spartan armors from Halo Infinite Multiplayer with various nods to classic Halo insignia all on the dependable Wolverine Forge UltraSpring boot. For over 135 years Wolverine has strived to support those who forge their own path; the fearless, the selfless, the steadfast.
RADAR BLIPS
- CANON FODDER – SHIP STRIKE: Celebrate the eighth birthday of Halo: Spartan Strike, learn about the UNSC’s wet navy glimpsed in Halo 3, and there’s a fresh round of answers for community lore questions.
- COMMUNITY CORNER - DAGGER6ART: In the latest issue of the Community Corner, we caught up with Dagger6Art to chat about their journey with Halo as a fan, artist, and animator.
- COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Our round-up of some of the latest and greatest community-made art.
- STEAM PUBLISHER SALE: The Xbox Game Studios publisher sale is live on Steam, which means you can grab a 50% discount on Halo Infinite and a 60% discount on MCC.
- HALOHUB TOURNAMENT: Watch your favorite Halo pros and content creators battle it out live on Twitch on April 29. It’s 12v12 BTB action with a $2000 prize pool up for grabs!
THE ARTIST’S CORNER
April 2023 marks the twentieth birthday of Halo: The Flood by William C. Dietz, the second ever Halo novel!
The Flood was a novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved, but also featured many additional perspectives from UNSC and Covenant characters who were active on Installation 04—from the likes of Jacob Keyes and Wallace Jenkins as they are merged with the Flood, to Melissa McKay defending Alpha Base, and Zuka ‘Zamamee and his not-so-trusty Unggoy companion Yayap attempting to assassinate the Master Chief.
Twenty years later, it seems that the cover art of the book’s original release—illustrated by the amazing Lorraine McLees—has never actually had a full and proper release. Only low-res copies can be found online, so let’s do something about that...
That wraps us up for April!
Get ready for the Site Unseen event to close out the story of Season 3, be sure to check out our various features for all kinds of amazing community content (whether that’s MCC mods, Forge maps, or artwork), and don’t forget to tune into the HaloHub tournament this weekend for some BTB chaos.
We’ll catch up with you again next month.