In Halo 5, 343 Industries introduced an interesting new feature to the game with weapon variants. In the campaign, these weapon variants were hidden throughout certain levels, granting players a boost in strength particularly useful for higher difficulties. Variants were much more controversial in Halo 5's Warzone multiplayer as they could only be earned via randomized gacha REQ card packs. A datamine is now hinting that this divisive feature could be coming to Halo Infinite.
The datamine comes via Halo Infinite's new "Fiesta" multiplayer playlist, part of its first Fractures event. Dataminers managed to discover and access five different weapon variants for Halo Infinite, all of which can be accessed by players via custom game settings. It's unclear if, when, or how 343 plans to officially introduce these weapon variants into Halo Infinite's multiplayer, or if they're simply carrying over from usage in Halo Infinite's campaign.
The six variants discovered so far include the Convergence Bulldog, a version of the shotgun with a larger magazine and tighter bullet spread, the MA40 Longshot, which has a smaller magazine but 1.65x zoom, the S7 Flexfire, with a 10-round magazine and a larger crosshair (implied to convey worse accuracy), the BR75 Breacher, with faster fire-rate but a slightly smaller magazine, the Rapidfire Pulse Carbine, with a higher fire rate, and the Volatile Skewer, which has projectiles that explode shortly after hitting their target. There are likely more specific changes, but these are aspects of the variants that should be immediately recognizable.
Those interested in checking out the Halo Infinite gun variants can do so right now. Just start a custom game in an offline server in the currently-available Halo Infinite multiplayer release with Fiesta mode. Lastly, the leaker mentions activating the weapon platforms, but it isn't clear if they mean during setup or simply in-game.
343 has long maintained that new weapons would be added to Halo Infinite over time. However, weapon variants were never a topic of focus pre-launch. It's not surprising that 343 would bring back a feature that it apparently liked from Halo 5, but fans were likely hoping for entirely new weapons rather than variants. It's unclear if 343 only plans to add variants going forward.
Player response to the addition of weapon variants to Halo Infinite will likely heavily depend on how 343 implements them. If they're added to game modes like Fiesta as part of events, that seems in line with player expectations. If 343 brings back Warzone and REQ packs, that's a controversy waiting to happen. Needless to say, 343 has some questions to answer.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.