Even before release, Halo Infinite’s seen a lot of praise for its approach to Battle Passes, which will never expire, and can be paid for at any time after they’re released, meaning no player should have a fear of missing what’s on offer within. However, a new clarification about how players will progress through those Battle Passes hasn’t been received as warmly.
In the latest Inside Infinite news post from developer 343, head of design Jerry Hook addressed how the recent technical preview handled its Battle Pass, where players progressed by completing in-game daily challenges. While doing so, Hook said, “Using challenges, our goal is that you will always be earning progress in your Battle Pass through playing and winning matches.”
Most other games’ Battle Passes use an XP-based system to progress, with everything from wins in Fortnite to sailing nautical miles in Sea of Thieves tied to numerical points, which allow you to level up a Pass. Halo Infinite, it seems, will tie all of its progression to completing challenges instead and, following the post, fans on Twitter sought some clarity.
Community manager John Junyszek confirmed that point: “Playing and winning matches will be challenges, which will help players progress through the Battle Pass. Even though this means no per-match XP at launch, you’re still always progressing through challenges and therefore the BP.”
That choice has some fans worried, as tying progressing to specific actions, rather than general play, could cause multiplayer matches to become unbalanced, with players seeking to complete their specific challenges rather than playing normally. It’s a concern expressed elegantly by kami102 on Reddit:
“I’m not trying to be negative but one thing I noticed a lot in the flight was that a lot of challenges were like [Get 15 kills with the Needler]. On it’s own [sic], it’s not bad, when it’s just an optional bonus where after time you unlock it after getting 15 Needler kills through normal gameplay.
“But when you make it so that [Get 15 kills with the Needler] is on your challenge list and it’s the ONLY way to get XP to level up your BattlePass then it completely breaks the flow of your gameplay and the weapon sandbox.
“You are then essentially ignoring the weapon sandbox, and instead joining the game with the sole focus of getting kills with the Needler to complete the challenge. You’re camping the Needler spawn point every time, you’re ignoring all other weapons on the map now because the only objective is to get kills with the Needler. And that’s just you. What if 3 of your teammates also have a Needler challenge? Now the 3 of you are fighting over control for a Needler because all 3 of you need the challenge.
“That’s breaking the flow of gameplay, and breaking the weapon sandbox. That’s why this decision is terrible.”
Kami102’s point has been echoed across social media, with many players expressing their concern about the decision. While the challenge progression approach seems to be set in stone for launch, Jerry Hook did join the conversation to say that the system could be changed in future, and 343 is listening to the feedback: “We’re always looking at ways to expand progression across the board. We’ll have more to share about the outcomes from key Tech Preview feedback, including this, in an upcoming blog on Waypoint.”
Junyszek did take the time to counter another worry from the community – that daily challenges could feasibly be so limited that progression felt time-gated, forcing you to come back every day to make sure your Battle Pass moved along. While there won’t be an endless number of challenges per day, there will seemingly be a lot to get through, and more than enough for most players.
“The Tech Preview had an issue that caused people to run out of challenges”, the community manager explained. “Our current plans for launch, while not ‘infinite,’ mean it’s extremely difficult to run out daily challenges. I won’t say ‘impossible,’ cause [sic] there are some grinders out there, but I’d be impressed.”
With just a few months before release, it feels unlikely that 343 will make sweeping changes to its plans for multiplayer at launch, but we’ve seen the company make major changes to games after launch before (see: the entirety of The Master Chief Collection), so it’s not outside the realms of possibility that we’d see a shift to this idea one day.
If you’re counting down the days until Halo Infinite’s release (or just a new technical preview you might get into), why not check out whether your PC can run the game, or our thoughts on the first hands-on. Just don’t go dreaming about Forge mode or campaign co-op, as they aren’t going to be in the game at launch.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].