343 tweaks Halo Infinite battle pass progression again to make challenges better
Through the eye of a Needler.
343 has tweaked Halo Infinite's challenges system for multiplayer again.
It's the third overall update to challenges and progression since Halo Infinite's multiplayer launched on 15th November.
343 took the controversial decision to restrict battle pass progression to the completion of challenges. This sparked a backlash from players who said the system made progression painfully difficult.
In a blog post, 343 said significant changes to this system, such as performance-based XP, per-match XP and "additional progression vectors" will take time to add to the game, but in the interim "meaningful" services-side updates have been made.
So, what's changed? A number of mode and activity-specific challenges have been removed entirely, had their requirements lowered, and/or had their weight reduced across the challenge pool. Also, the overall weighting of "general" challenges has been increased.
This is very much a good thing. One of the big frustrations with the challenges system was that it asked players to complete mode and activity-specific challenges when there was no way to pick modes and activities to play.
"We understand the inability to pick a specific mode to coincide with a specific challenge can be frustrating and today's changes should help reduce some of that friction in the near term as longer-term work continues," 343 said.
Meanwhile, new playlist-specific challenges have been added to the game. There are specific playlist versions of each of the following new challenge types:
- Personal Score: Accumulate personal score in the specified playlist to complete
- Kills: Earn the required # of kills in a specific playlist
- Double Kills: Earn double kills in a specific playlist
- Complete Games: Play and complete games in a specific playlist
- Win: Win games in a specific playlist
The specific requirements and corresponding XP will vary depending on the rarity type of the challenge ("Normal", "Heroic", "Legendary"), 343 said.
And finally, there are changes planned for event challenges in response to negative feedback from the recent Fracture: Tenrai limited-time event.
"Player's gave feedback that it was difficult to progress Event Challenges due to them getting 'stuck' behind Weekly Challenges and/or not having enough to tackle during the event week," 343 explained.
"Going forward, and when Fracture: Tenrai returns, Event Challenges will come in more frequently, removing gaps where a player would previously be stuck waiting.
"And, while Events will often still have a finite limit to the number of challenges available in a given week - meaning it will take playing across a few weeks to fully complete - the maximum will increase to provide more buffer and let highly engaged players progress a bit faster."
Fracture: Tenrai returns on 4th January, 343 said - it will explain more about these changes then.