What you need to know
- Halo Infinite's latest mid-season "Drop Pod" update for August brings various improvements to customization, with further tweaks to gameplay balancing and player progression in multiplayer.
- Highlights include new cross-core visor compatibility, allowing existing and future visors, and some helmet attachments, to work with the full range of armor options.
- Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has also posted a full changelog, detailling other tweaks to Challenges, gameplay balancing, and some squashed bugs.
Halo Infinite has received its August “Drop Pod,” the latest in its bite-sized content updates pledging new features and quality of life improvements. The second patch to follow the arrival of Season 2 “Lone Wolves” stows considerably more than its predecessor, with sweeping changes to player customization, among other tweaks and fixes.
The August update delivers upon past promises from Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries, including plans to expand the game’s customization options through a handful of fundamental changes.
Highlights include the first instances of cross-core customization, allowing players to equip all existing visors between the game’s various “Armor Cores.” The developer has pledged that all future visors will also work between current and future cores, with coatings and some armor pieces to follow in a later update.
The game expanded armor compatibility also trickles down to select helmets, with some existing Mark VII attachments now working with a broader range of Mark VII helmets. The update brings three attachments to twelve new helmets, providing interoperability between unlocked and purchased gear. Future updates plan to address player concerns around customization with more cross-core and cross-armor support.
343 Industries has also added Challenges to Halo Infinite’s Pause menu, allowing players to view their requirements and progress during multiplayer matches. It’s a minor improvement to a fundamental component of the game’s multiplayer progression, once present in past Halo games. However, Challenges won’t be updated in real-time, though 343 Industries plans to change this at a later date.
The new features are accompanied by an exhaustive list of tweaks and fixes, including several aiming to address multiplayer balancing. Post-update, non-tank vehicles like the Ghost and Warthog will take less damage from small arms fire, while the Warthog specifically sees increased impulse from the Rocket Launcher and Repulsor. The Grappleshot also receives a minor buff, preventing players from leaving vehicles to avoid an enemy “Grapplejack.”
Halo Infinite’s August Drop Pod clocks in around 2GB on Xbox consoles and PCs, with a full changelog also available below, as posted via Halo Waypoint.
MULTIPLAYER
- The volume of a nearby player's shield recharging has been lowered, especially when the recharging player is out of the line of sight.
- Choppers will no longer continue boosting after being disabled by a Dynamo Grenade's EMP effect.
- The M41 SPNKR's damage radius has been improved and now more consistently damages enemies.
- A fully charged shot from the Plasma Pistol will now correctly deplete all Shields, including active Overshields.
- Mark Assists and medals related to the Mark system will now appear correctly when the Superintendent AI is equipped.
- Players can no longer mark enemies who are obscured behind waist high cover.
- Headshots more consistently register on enemies without shields when using precision weapons such as the Mk50 Sidekick or the Stalker Rifle.
- In Custom Games, King of the Hill now goes to Overtime when both teams have the same score as time runs out.
- In Free-For-All King of the Hill matches, the mini scoreboard near the bottom of the screen no longer shows unused meters and the full scoreboard shows the following stats:
- Points
- Score
- Kills
- Deaths
- In Custom Games, Attrition rounds now consistently end when a team is fully eliminated.
- While spectating a player in Observer Mode on PC, player weapons will no longer shake when the camera moves up or down.
- Resolved an issue where dropped Equipment could not be picked up near the lower light bridge on Catalyst.
- Observers will no longer be counted as a member of the enemy team in Attrition Custom Games.
- The outline of the Danger Zone's final circle will no longer appear early in Last Spartan Standing Custom Games.
- Dropped weapons will no longer accumulate during Tactical Slayer matches.
MENUS
- The fourth Challenge slot will now always be enabled when a Premium Battle Pass is equipped.
- Visor colors will now appear correctly when using the following helmet and attachment combinations:
- Cambion helmet with the UA/Februus attachment
- AKIS II-GRD helmet with the TAS/Lantifrid attachment
- Land Grab and Last Spartan Standing now have unique Game Mode icons in various menus.
- In the Ranked Arena playlist menu, changing the Ranked Queue type now correctly updates the Estimated Wait tooltip.
- Error messages now consistently appear in matchmaking playlist menus.
BALANCING
- To maintain multiplayer balance, players will no longer be able to exit a vehicle to cancel an enemy's Grapplejack.
- Non-tank vehicles, such as the Ghost or Warthog, are now more resistant to small arms fire. All of these changes apply to Multiplayer and a few apply to Campaign as well. See the Developer Notes for a full breakdown of the changes in each mode.
- The Warthog can now be knocked around more easily by players using weapons such as the M41 SPNKR or the Repulsor Equipment.
KNOWN ISSUES
With this update, the team has added one new issue to our Known Issues list. Visit the Known Issues & Workarounds section for more information.
- In Last Spartan Standing Custom Games, bots do not level up after gaining enough score to improve their loadout.
- The Xbox app or Microsoft Store app version of Halo Infinite may download extra data upon launching the game.
