Halo Infinite Update: Why its Battle Pass progression should be removed

Halo Space'south Battle Pass progression needs to be fixed ASAP

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Halo Infinite

halo infinite update battle pass progression challenges

Halo Infinite'southward progression through its Battle Pass is solely express to daily and weekly challenges. Unlike other online multiplayer games, which typically complement these challenges with performance-based XP, in Halo Infinite players can only level upward if they complete certain challenges. Currently, this is non but grinding in-game progression to a halt, just it'southward besides actively pushing players abroad from its objective-based gameplay. A major rethinking of this system is needed, and it's needed fast.

Why Halo Space'due south progression system needs fixing

halo infinite progression battle pass changes

Even if yous don't care about cosmetics, Halo Infinite'southward bizarre progression system volition negatively impact your experience. When players are given challenges that instruct them to kill enemies with certain weapons, you can bet that they'll choose not to play the objective. Instead, they'll be bouncing around the loonshit trying to get 15 kills with the pistol, or whatever other arbitrary objective they've been assigned.

This has its place in other multiplayer games. In Fortnite — the flag-bearer for alive service games of this ilk — players earn XP for wins, losses, and general functioning aslope their challenges. This ensures that while you may have one middle on your dailies and weeklies, you're likewise incentivized to perform well in-game. But in Halo Infinite, if your active challenges don't ask you to win the friction match type yous're currently playing, in that location'south no existent reward for winning aside from a personal sense of satisfaction. For many, this isn't plenty.

343 Industries' Customs Manager John Junyszek has responded to criticisms of Halo Infinite's progression system, saying that the developer volition be adding "Play 1 Game" challenges, volition speed upwards the weekly challenges, and will double the duration of double XP boosts:

Nosotros'll also exist adjusting, fixing bugs with, and removing some Weekly Challenges based on your feedback. These tunings to challenge difficulty volition aid you progress through Weekly Challenges faster and thus directly speed up your progress through the Boxing Pass.

— John Junyszek (@Unyshek) November 18, 2021

Still, this still doesn't accost the core consequence: challenge-based progressionsucks. Fifty-fifty if these processes are sped up and players can work through their challenges faster, that still doesn't solve the problem that players are only rewarded for completing them. Win, lose, play the objective — it doesn't matter if such accomplishments don't help you complete an active claiming.

That Halo Infinite doesn't requite you XP for winning, losing, playing the objective, or getting kills is inexplainable and comes across equally a cynical mode to convince players to fork out cash to progress. Currently, I have seven hours of playtime and, without purchasing a level upwardly, I'thou on level 5 of the Boxing Pass. Of form, there's a Battle Pass bundle that automatically unlocks a number of levels right off the bat, along with the ability to purchase individual level-ups, also.

halo infinite update battle pass

Now, I'thou all for victory being a reward in and of itself, but equally someone who doesn't care about completing inane challenges, information technology'due south deflating to win a match and not have anything to show for it. It doesn't help that Halo Space is also thrifty with the number of rewards it distributes, simply this wouldn't be an issue if every player — non merely those completing challenges — could progress relatively rapidly through them.

Only for 343 Industries, launching Halo Infinite with claiming-just progression presents further problems. For one, the game's first multiplayer season will concluding all the way until May 2022. That'south ahugelength of time when you consider other alive service games' seasons typically last 9–10 weeks. While the Battle Pass has a whopping 100 levels, with over vi months to become until the second flavor, it's likely that many players will complete it ahead of schedule if the speed of progression is dramatically increased.

The reason for Space's lengthy commencement season is understandable, with its Head of Artistic Joseph Staten explaining in a web log post: "We made the decision to extend Flavor 1 to give ourselves more time to ensure Flavor ii meets our loftier-quality bar and and so we can stop development for Flavour 2 in a good for you and sustainable fashion for our team."

All the same, the combination of its highly criticized Boxing Laissez passer, a playerbase that wants to be rewarded for more only completing challenges, and an elongated first season is shaping up to exist a headache for 343 Industries, and one that could have been avoided by not barreling so heavily into the live service model over a traditional multiplayer progression organization. Hopefully, a future update will resolve these problems, as the only 'Infinite' affair about Halo's multiplayer experience so far is the length of time it takes to get to level 6.