Thursday Thaw
August is coming to a close, but we can hold back the great existential dread around the passage of time by taking a look at all the latest happenings in the world of Halo.
Halo Infinite’s latest update brought various improvements and fixes, along with a new map, and we’ve got an opportunity for you to get your seasonal-themed maps into matchmaking. Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam and Spartan Olympia Vale returned in Halo: Outcasts, the latest novel by Troy Denning. And there’s plenty more for us to cover, so let’s dive in.
HALO INFINITE
AUGUST UPDATE
Halo Infinite received an update on August 9 which brought new additions, improvements, and bug fixes. You can read the full update here, but let’s get you a highlight reel:
- NEW MAP – DREDGE
Inspired by Halo: Reach’s Countdown, Dredge is the latest addition to Halo Infinite’s roster of internally made Forge maps.
- IMPROVED PELICAN VEHICLE DROPS
Pelican drops in Big Team Battle matches now deliver the same vehicles to both sides of the map in the same wave.
- BTB FIRETEAM IMPROVEMENTS
The BTB intro line-up will prioritize showing members of your fireteam.
- DEATH CAM IMPROVEMENTS
When you’ve fallen in combat, you are now able to rotate the death cam around while spectating other teammates.
- EXTERMINATION
Those of you channeling your inner Dalek will be able to get the Extermination medal (earned by getting an Overkill on the entire enemy team) in all game modes.
- FORGE IMPROVEMENTS
A scalable reactive water plane has been added to Forge (which reacts to players, vehicles, and projectiles), alongside various quality-of-life updates and bug fixes.
FORGE FEATURES
We’ve had a veritable feast of incredible community-made maps featured in our two August issues of Forge Features, where you’ll find an expanded remake of Halo 3’s Longshore (now with more boats), a less grey version of The Cage from Halo: Reach, a beautiful olde worlde village and tavern, and more.
Oh, and we’ve also put a call out to solicit some community maps based around the seasons—Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
If you want to get your maps noticed and potentially put into matchmaking, be sure to tag it with the relevant “343ask” tag- when you publish it!
- 343ask-Autumn
- 343ask-Winter
- 343ask-Summer
- 343ask-Spring
If your map is one that we’d like to move forwards with, we will reach out to the gamertag listed as the author of the map and continue further dialogue on Discord.
Get cooking!
RANKED ARENA PARTY MATCHING UPDATE
Tashi has the low-down on updates to party matching in Ranked playlists coming later this summer, which you can check out here.
Here’s the summary:
- If your CSR is 1500 and above (Onyx), you'll be unable to search with a Fireteam of 3 or 4, and will be shown an error message.
- This is not based on Fireteam average. If even 1 player on the Fireteam is Onyx and the rest are below Onyx, the Fireteam will not be able to search.
- Effectively, this means that the Ranked Arena playlist will be solos and duos only if you’re an Onyx player.
SQUAD BATTLE
There’s some kind of weird magic to 8v8 in Halo. Maybe you’re not feeling like jumping into some 4v4 arena, or maybe 12v12 BTB is just a bit too chaotic for you today—and that’s where Squad Battle comes in. This happy medium has taken off with the community since it was introduced, along with its selection of community-made maps from across the series, and we really couldn’t quite bring ourselves to say goodbye to it either.
So, Squad Battle is sticking around as a staple playlist. We’ll see you in Valhalla!
INTEL
Our third of five Intel drops has arrived for Season 4, with this entry concerning test trials for the Quantum Translocator.
(It is also highly advised that you read this particular entry in a heavy New York accent!)
HALO ESPORTS
HCS MAJOR FORT WORTH 2023
We’re in the home stretch! Competitive Halo is back in Texas for the HCS Major Forth Worth 2023 from September 1 to 3.
After a thrilling grand finals match in Salt Lake City earlier this month, Spacestation Gaming are looking to repeat history to emerge as champions and take home the top share of the $250,000 prize pool. Fans in attendance can expect surprise giveaways all weekend, booth activations from OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, and Spacestation Gaming.
In addition to the $5K Free-For-All tournament, look forward to more details on MCC, Halo 5, and Halo Infinite side tournaments.
Watch all weekend to earn new Twitch Drops as well. Follow @HCS for more info!
Landing Page: halo.gg/FortWorth2023
Spectator Tickets: aka.ms/HCSFTW23-TIX
GA: Available
VIP: Sold out
Discount Codes for Spectator Passes: Get 10% off your ticket purchase by using a Team Code:
CLOUD9
COMPLEXITY
FAZE
NAVI
OPTIC
QUADRANT
SENTINELS
SPACESTATION
Team Passes: aka.ms/FTWTeamPass
Deadline: 8/28 - 3PM PT
HALO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2023
HaloWC 2023 returns to Seattle, WA to cap off Year 2 of HCS. The top 16 invited teams from all supported regions will be competing for their share of the $1,000,000 prize pool.
There’s still time to get your passes! Look forward to the return of Halo Community Stage, Cosplay Contest, exciting Partnered Team booth activations, and some surprise guest appearances!
Landing Page: aka.ms/HaloWC2023
Spectator Passes: aka.ms/HaloWC23-tix
GA: Available
VIP: Sold out
Discount Codes for Spectator Passes: Get 10% off your ticket purchase by using a Team Code:
CLOUD9
COMPLEXITY
FAZE
NAVI
OPTIC
QUADRANT
SENTINELS
SPACESTATION
HALO GEAR
HALO: OUTCASTS
Halo: Outcasts, the latest novel by acclaimed author Troy Denning, is now available!
The novel features the return of Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam and Spartan Olympia Vale, who find themselves in a race against time to seek out an alleged Guardian-killing weapon that could turn the tide against Cortana’s despotic rule.
Of course, you may want to sample a taste of the novel first, and we’ve got you covered there with three previews released over the last month.
Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam, Usze ‘Taham, N’tho ‘Sraom, and Kola ‘Baoth are halted by Cortana’s occupying armiger forces on Sanghelios.
The Arbiter returns to Vadam Keep where he is visited by a new character who is pivotal to the story of Outcasts—Oath Warden Crei ‘Ayomuu.
As an expedition to Netherop is prepared in the wake of news that it may hold a Guardian-killing weapon, Spartan Olympia Vale and Professor Keely Iyuska head to the independent world of Gao to recruit somebody who knows Netherop well—a former castoff who grew up while stranded on the so-called “world of death.”
OFFICIAL HALO BOOK GUIDE
Interested in diving into Halo’s extensive expanded universe? Looking to catch up on some of the recent books but not sure where to start? Or are you simply looking for a specific flavor of Halo story, be it stories with Blue Team, standalone tales, short story anthologies, and so on...
In this evergreen blog, which will be updated with each new addition, you will find a complete listing of all the Halo books (of which there are thirty-six thus far) and links to our marvelous partners over at Simon & Schuster where you can purchase them.
Happy reading!
RADAR BLIPS
- COMMUNITY CORNER – ENTRANSING: Check out our latest issue of the Community Corner, featuring Entransing. Join us as she tells us about her journey with Halo as a fan and artist and we take a closer look at some of the stunning work she has produced.
- CYBER SHOWDOWN SPOTLIGHT: After debuting our take on a retro ‘80s-inspired Halo magazine cover for the recent Cyber Showdown II event, we gave you the tools to make your own. Suffice it to say, we were thrilled by the results of what we saw, so get your cyber on and learn more about Chips Dubbo’s survival tips, discover the secret Golden Warthog, find out what your favorite weapon says about you, and more!
- 8-BIT BEATS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE TO: Alongside our Cyber Showdown offering, we also released a musical experience with some classic Halo tracks that have been 8-bit-ified.
- SPARTAN CHATTER – HALO: OUTCASTS: With Halo: Outcasts out in the wild, our fourth episode of Spartan Chatter sees us gather to discuss the latest book by Troy Denning and tease some of the story elements contained within.
THE ARTIST’S CORNER
This month’s art piece is the cover for Halo: The Thursday War, the second book of the Kilo-5 Trilogy, illustrated by Eddie Smith.
It depicts Naomi-010 on an observation deck looking down at the UNSC Infinity at Sanghelios, which made its formal debut in this story prior to the release of Halo 4 (though we had, of course, seen the ship appear in various promotional material and concept art for the game).
When Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam came under siege—first by a Jiralhanae attack, which prompted Avu Med ‘Telcam and the keeps that had pledged themselves to him to make their move—it was Lord Hood who sought to assist his alien ally by bringing the full might of the UNSC’s new flagship to bear. A MAC round from the ship left a new crater by Vadam Harbor and turned the tide, but accepting the UNSC’s help in this desperate hour was a move that would lead many to question the Arbiter’s true strength and allegiance for years to come.
That wraps us up for this month, which means the Halo World Championship is on the horizon, Season 5 of Halo Infinite is growing ever closer, and even before that we’ve still got two free events to come in the form of Containment and Tenrai III.
See you in Squad Battle!