Halo Infinite Update – February 15, 2023

Updated: February 21, 2023

Balance Changes

As mentioned on Halo Waypoint in November, some changes are being made to the Halo Infinite sandbox in this and future updates. To learn more about these changes and other sandbox changes planned for future updates, visit the Sandbox Balance Updates February Update blog. The blog covers all the changes listed below, as well as an additional change regarding ammo reduction of certain weapons during Ranked matches.

“Drop Shot”

Dropping a weapon and swapping between weapons now takes the same amount of time.

Developer Notes

The Drop Weapon meta was becoming very prominent in competitive play, to the point where nearly every top player was doing it. Many players shared their concerns about it becoming too prominent at the highest level of competition, so we’ve made sure the weapon ready up time after a dropped weapon matches the speed of swapping between weapons normally.

Sniper Rifle

The accuracy of the Sniper Rifle has been increased when firing without zooming in.

Developer Notes

Halo Infinite’s S7 Sniper no-scope error angle properties were in line with previous Halo titles, but we’ve seen the requests to make it even more accurate when firing from the hip. When this update lands next week, the sharpshooters out there should notice some improvements when going for kills in which no scope was involved.

Changes:

  • Error angle max reduced by 30% 
  • Error angle minimum reduced by 55% 
  • Time to reset bloom reduced by 20%  

Frag Grenade

The explosion radius of the Frag Grenade has been reduced slightly.

Developer Notes

After listening to community input and doing in-house tuning, we’re happy to be rolling out a change that slightly reduces the damage radius on Frag Grenades. The update should help reward skilled Frag Grenade placement while also addressing the concerns around grenade spam effectiveness in gameplay.  

Change:

  • Radius reduction from 2.7wu to 2.5wu (world units)

Weapon Racks

In the Ranked Arena playlist and HCS, each Weapon Rack will now be set to a “Red Rack” state after the weapon is picked up. This means once a weapon is picked up, the Weapon Rack won’t spawn another weapon until the original has despawned or the ammo has been depleted.

Once the original has despawned, the light bar at the top of the Weapon Rack will countdown to the new weapon’s respawn. Reference the table below for each weapon type’s default respawn length in Ranked multiplayer playlists:

30 seconds after ammo depletion or expiration 60 seconds after ammo depletion or expiration
Pistols (Disruptor, Plasma Pistol, Mk50 Sidekick) SMGs (Needler, Sentinel Beam)
Assault Rifles (MA40 Assault Rifle) Shotguns (CQS48 Bulldog, Heatwave)
Tactical Rifles (BR75 Battle Rifle, VK78 Commando) Non-Power Weapon Snipers (Stalker Rifle, Shock Rifle)
  Non-Power Weapon Launchers (Hydra)

Developer Notes

We’ve seen the feedback around there being too much power on the map in Ranked Arena, with many players calling out the respawn rate and ammo count on weapons. To help address this, we’ll be updating all Weapon Racks in Ranked Arena to provide only one weapon at a time. We expect this to help reduce the overall power and ensure a more competitive environment. As for ammo reductions on the weapons themselves in Ranked, ranked players should expect those to come for the Heatwave, Stalker Rifle, CQS48 Bulldog, and Shock Rifle with the launch of Season 3.

Resolved Issues and Bug Fixes

Many improvements come from Halo Insider and Halo Support tickets submitted by our community. Thank you for participating and please keep submitting tickets!

Halo Support tickets help the team here at 343 Industries understand what issues you would like to see addressed in future Halo Infinite updates. The development team is actively working on a variety of game updates and improvements based on both player feedback and bug report tickets.

Global

Multiplayer

Sandbox

  • Rapidly firing the Plasma Pistol or the Battle Rifle will no longer result in the weapon "jamming" and not firing on every pull of the trigger.
  • Semi-automatic weapons, such as the Sidekick, now appear to fire at a correct rate from the perspective of other players.
  • Players using Active Camo will now consistently appear visible while sliding or sprinting.

Matchmaking Playlists

  • As announced via @HaloSupport on Twitter on February 14, 2023, multiple map and mode combinations were removed from matchmaking playlists based on usage data:
    • Rumble Pit
      • Oddball on all maps
      • Slayer on Empyrean
      • Slayer on Detachment
      • Slayer on Launch Site
      • Fiesta on Empyrean
    • Team Slayer
      • Slayer on Launch Site
      • Slayer on Behemoth
    • Social Slayer
      • Slayer on Bazaar
      • Slayer on Argyle
      • Slayer on Detachment
    • Team Doubles
      • CTF on Argyle
      • CTF on Bazaar
    • Quick Play
      • Slayer on Detachment
      • Slayer on Catalyst
      • CTF on Argyle
      • CTF on Bazaar
    • Ranked Doubles
      • Attrition on Argyle
      • Attrition on Detachment
    • Bot Bootcamp
      • Slayer on Catalyst
      • Slayer on Behemoth
    • Team Survivors
      • Attrition on Detachment
      • Elimination on Streets

Menus

  • The appropriate subtraction and addition symbols now appear whenever players lose or gain CSR during Ranked matches.

Custom Game Browser (CGB)

  • Players are now less likely to experience a looping "Unable to Connect to the Fireteam" error message while joining or playing a Custom Game Browser session.

Known Issues

With this update, the team has added a few new issues to our Known Issues lists:

Multiplayer

Ranked

  • Due to a bug affecting Power Weapon spawns, Recharge & Detachment have been removed from the Ranked Arena playlist.
    • These maps will return to the Ranked Arena playlist when the bug is fixed in the Season 3 update.
    • This change was made on February 14, 2023, and announced via @HaloSupport on Twitter. Stay tuned to @HaloSupport on Twitter for the latest news on upcoming updates.

Custom Games

  • In Custom Games, players can get suspended in mid-air after jumping upwards where gravity is set to 30% or lower.
    • Workaround: Move the character in any direction to fall back down.
  • When playing King of the Hill (KOTH) on any Big Team Battle map in Custom Games, multiple weapon racks, vehicle, grenade, and Equipment pads do not function.
  • If players exit a Custom Game and rejoin on the opposite team, the scoreboard will display incorrect Gamertags.
  • If players swap from Forge mode to Custom Games, the Custom Game menu may display inaccurate information about the selected Forge map and mode.

Menus

  • After updating Xbox privacy settings while running Halo Infinite, players are required to restart Halo Infinite for the updated settings to take effect.
  • After navigating to the Match History menu in Theater mode and selecting a Filter option, players may be unable to navigate back to the Match tiles.
    • Workaround: Select a Filter, use the Refresh shortcut, or use the Clear Filters shortcut to return to the Match tiles.

Forge Creation Tools

  • Players can move, edit, or delete Script Brains that are being worked on by other players.

For a full list of known issues in Halo Infinite, go to our Known Issues section.

More Information About This Update 

Many platforms automatically update games. To manually update or verify your game is up to date, follow the steps included in our How to Update Halo Infinite article.

To learn more about Halo Infinite, check out the following resources on Halo Support or Halo Waypoint:

Join the Halo Insider program for the chance to see new features before they’re released publicly and, if you’ve encountered a bug in-game, submit a Halo Support ticket so that the development team can investigate the issue. Thank you to all Halo Insiders and ticket submitters for their bug reports and feedback!

Download Size by Platform

  • Xbox consoles: approximately 2 GB or less
  • Microsoft Store app or Xbox app on PC: approximately 2.2 GB or more
  • Steam: approximately 600 MB or less

Further Resources

  • If you experience problems with your Xbox console or Game Pass, Xbox Support can help you.
  • If you have problems with your account, Microsoft, or Xbox purchases, Microsoft Support can help you.
  • If you have problems with other purchases, please contact the retailer you purchased your game from.
  • If you experience a problem in Steam that is not an in-game issue, please contact Steam Support.
  • If you want a chance to participate in future Halo flights, sign up for the Halo Insider Program.

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