With the recent launch of Halo Infinite Season 2, dubbed “Lone Wolves”, 343 Industries has made an active effort to bring new content to fans while also tweaking and balancing gameplay. While Season 1 was fairly successful, many players found it difficult to look past its lack of maps, game modes, and poor progression system.

Season 2 answered the fans’ concerns by introducing new game modes: Last Spartan Standing, King of the Hill, and Land Grab, all of which are featured in the new and updated playlists. Halo Infinite has the core of the series' multiplayer but has needed more time to grow, and Season 2 looks to be the beginning of that growth.

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New Halo Infinite Maps

Halo Infinite Catalyst

The first season of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer featured 10 total maps, seven of which were available in the traditional 4v4 Arena modes while three were only available in Big Team Battle, which was rendered unplayable for most of the first season due to server issues. However, these issues have since been fixed and Season 2 has expanded upon these original maps.

Joining the Arena playlist is Catalyst, a more traditionally laid out, asymmetric map. Fans of the series will find this particular map reminiscent of Halo 3’s Epitaph, as it was the developer's inspiration. The second new map, Breaker, is playable in Big Team Battle mode and features two large bases on either side which is ideal for objective modes such as Capture the Flag.

Additional Game Modes

halo infinite last spartan standing

The new season features the addition of three new game modes, two of which feel pretty familiar while one adds a new twist to the series. Popular modes King of the Hill and Land Grab are now part of the Arena playlists. Both require players to capture neutral zones around the map to score points. King of the Hill has a single zone while Land Grab has a total of three.

The most ambitious change coming to Season 2 is the addition of the game mode Last Spartan Standing. This mode adds a unique alteration to the Free-For-All game type by introducing features similar to battle royales and Call of Duty’s Gun Game.

The maps are pulled from the Big Team Battle list but are adjusted in size and are further shrunk by an engulfing Danger Zone. There are a total of 12 players at the beginning of each match who all start with the same equipment and weapons, which can only be upgraded by eliminating enemy players and moving up in rank. Whichever player is the lone survivor wins the match. Drawing a lot of inspiration from other popular game modes, 343 Industries has created a unique change to the multiplayer without straying too far from its roots.

Battle Pass and Armor Core

Halo Infinite Armor Core

Compared to the previous season, the Battle Pass for Season 2 features more content for both its free and premium tiers. Players are still completing matches and challenges to progress through the Battle Pass and gain new armors and emblems, but there are noticeably more viable rewards in each tier and more forgiving challenges. Many fans were concerned with the quality of each reward, especially for completing weekly challenges, and it seems developers have listened and made most weekly rewards items that players want such as new color schemes or armor parts.

Perhaps the biggest change coming to the Battle Pass and customization is the removal of the Armor Core system at some point during Season 2. The Armor Core system severely limited the players’ customization options and had a fairly negative effect on the community. Thankfully, 343 Industries is getting rid of the system entirely and allowing players to customize individual parts of their Spartan’s armor just as they could in previous Halo games.

The launch of Season 2 also came with many quality of life changes for Halo Infinite's multiplayer. Vehicles such as the Banshee and Chopper have received some tweaks to how they operate and melee damage as a whole has been dropped by 10%, meaning many vehicles and weapons will now play a lot differently in this season.

The Halo community has been very vocal about its needs and wants for multiplayer, and Season 2 shows that the developers are listening and actively making changes. 343 Industries is also still working towards popular game modes Forge and Co-Op and has said that sometime during Season 2, there will be a Forge open beta. Halo Infinite's multiplayer is definitely receiving some improvements, with more tweaks and additions to come in the future.

Halo Infinite is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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