The Halo Infinite battle pass has its issues, and 343 is giving it another look
The progression embedded into the Halo Infinite battle pass is a unifying blemish for the community, and the devs seem to be working on it.
The Halo Infinite battle pass has proven to be a bit of a unifier for the Halo Infinite community. Far removed from leveling systems from previous installments in 343 Industries’ famous sci-fi FPS, the new approach comes alongside a new twist on the typical seasonal pass you’re seeing in the majority of new multiplayer releases.
For those who haven’t seen it, the battle pass for Halo Infinite is one hundred levels of free and premium content. To make your way up the pass, players need to complete a set of daily and weekly objectives that grant battle pass XP when completed. Sounds standard so far, right? Not unlike perfectly acceptable battle passes in other titles like Apex Legends.
The problem lies in how much XP you’re given. Progression feels glacial in Halo Infinite for many, the higher-tier rewards but a mirage, seeable only when squinting across the desert of long-winded busywork. This, as you may expect, has led many to express their displeasure at the new system. The Halo Infinite Reddit moderators went so far as to create a dedicated megathread for those with complaints regarding in-game progression.
As a multiplayer beta, it’s apparent that everything in the game isn’t quite locked down just yet. Brian Jarred, community director at 343 Industries, posted on Twitter confirming that the team has heard the playerbase loud and clear, and is watching the battle pass progression issue very closely.
“FYI the team is looking at Battle Pass progression and gathering data from yesterday's sessions and we'll share updates as we have them. Please continue to share feedback and raise flags as you see them.”
This comes only a week after a Halo Waypoint update post brought up similar community concerns surrounding progression, specifically the request for an additional path for doing so. “Beyond that, there’s been a large number of requests for an additional career progression system. We want this too and it’s our team’s top priority, but doing it right will take time and that may mean it won’t come as quickly as many of you would like.”
It continues: “As we look at what our team needs to build, adding an entirely new progression system on top of everything else is a lot. Building a progression system with solid design, good implementation, top-tier UXUI presentation, thorough testing, and time for polish will take some time and we want to do it right.”
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. While progression is slow, it’s worth noting that season one of Halo Infinite is incredibly long, with it coming to close in May 2022. This gives the developers at 343 Industries plenty of time to tinker away at this concern, which judging by the multiple statements on the matter, it seems to be doing!
In addition, battle passes in Halo Infinite don’t go away once a season ends, they’re permanent progression paths that you can pick up and work on at any time. This means there isn’t really much of a rush to climb through the levels in the battle pass. If nothing were to change, players who are motivated enough to work their way up to the highest ranks of the battle pass will be able to do it without a deadline hanging over them.
As it stands, the battle pass appears to be the most obvious issue with the multiplayer experience. If we were to look for silver linings in all this, releasing the multiplayer beta has certainly allowed 343 to collect plenty of data and hastily work to address this issue. Imagine if we couldn’t get our hands on it until December. For now, we’ll just have to cope with it.
This discussion comes only a day after 343 Industries suddenly released the multiplayer beta to players via Xbox consoles and Steam ahead of the full game’s December launch. The initial player count has been astounding, reaching peaks of 272,000 concurrent players on Steam alone.