Halo Infinite Winter Update patch notes: Ranked improvements, new maps, Forge & more

The Winter Update for Halo Infinite has dropped and it is without a doubt the biggest one yet. With many new game modes and content updates coming to the Microsoft exclusive, let’s break down everything brought in with the Winter Update as well as the full list of patch notes.

Halo Infinite has been out for almost a year, and despite initial reception to the game being mostly positive, the Halo community has expressed their frustration at the game’s lack of updates and missing content.

Most notably, the game mode Forge had still been missing from Infinite as well as previously promised features like split screen Co-op now scrapped altogether. However, this new update does introduce online multiplayer. For more on that feature, check out Dexerto’s guide here.

However, the Winter Update brings lots of big changes to gameplay, content, customization, and much more. So without further ado, here’s everything in Halo Infinite’s Winter update.

Contents: 

• Halo Infinite: New maps & Forge
• Reworked XP system 
• Multiplayer playlist schedule outline
• Matchmaking & Ranked overhaul
• Halo Infinite patch notes

New multiplayer maps & the arrival of Forge

After months of teasing and anticipation, Halo Infinite Forge finally arrived, in Beta. And while the delay was a source of frustration for Halo players, the depth and freedom of Infinite’s Forge mode promise to be the best version to date.

For a more extensive look at Forge and its new features, Dexerto’s in-depth guide can be accessed here.

As well as this, the Winter update brought with it two new Multiplayer maps. The maps – Argyle and Detachment – have both been created in the new version of Forge. Both include a UNSC backdrop and appear to be smaller maps. 

However, the fact that they have both been built in Forge is a hopeful sign of big things to come.

New match XP system makes leveling much simpler

One of the most common complaints from the Halo Infinite community is how hard it can be to level up in Multiplayer. While players have the chance to earn weekly cosmetics and upgrades by completing challenges, gamers are finding it hard to level up the Battle Pass and unlock the rewards it includes.

Now, however, players will be able to earn XP for simply playing games. Match XP consists of:

• XP for completing matches
• Additional XP for your performance in the match (this accounts for things like being on the winning team, your end-of-match placement, and more)

Developers 343 are also reworking the weekly and daily challenge system to make it easier to complete. Completing the Ultimate Challenge will only require players to complete 10 challenges now, this number reducing from 20. Challenges will also no longer be playlist specific and be more “general.” 

Revamped Playlist system includes permanent and rotational game types

With more Multiplayer game types than ever before, Halo Infinite will be moving forward with a clear Playlist system so that players know which games will be available at all times and which match types will be made available for a limited amount of time.

With the Winter Update live, the following game types are featured in the Permanent playlist:

• Quick Play
• Big Team Battle
• Ranked Arena
• Fiesta
• Tactical Slayer
• Team Slayer

As well as these mainstays, Halo Infinite will include one rotational core slot and one rotational social slot.

Game types such as Team Doubles and Team Snipers will be included in the core slot while the likes of Social Slayer and Rumble Pit will feature in the social slot.

There will only be one match type per slot that will then be swapped out every two weeks for various purposes.

Matchmaking & Ranked changes, fixes, and reworks

Along with new content, the Winter Update also sought to fix up Matching and Ranked lobbies so that Halo players can dive into games without much of a fuss. In a recent blog post update, 343 explained that some of the areas of improvement for matching will include the following:

• Local Region Matchmaking will make its debut
• Improved logic for CSR progression
• Improved rules for quitting with uneven teams

Now that the update is live, continue reading below for the full list of Halo Infinite Winter Update patch notes.

Halo Infinite Winter Update patch notes

BALANCE CHANGES

BR75 BATTLE RIFLE

• Headshot Prioritization Angle reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 degrees.
• Bullet Magnetism Angle reduced from 2.4 to 2.2 degrees.
• Bullet Magnetism Range reduced from 20wus to 18wus.
• Bullet Magnetism Falloff Range reduced from 12wus to 10wus.

VK78 COMMANDO RIFLE

• Increased Headshot Prioritization Angle from 0 to 0.1 degrees.
• Increased Bullet Magnetism Angle from 1.25 to 1.3 degrees.
• Increased Aim Assist Angle from 5 to 6.25 degrees.
• Decreased minimum error angle max from 0.8 to 0.6 degrees.

DISRUPTOR

Increased magazine ammo count from 10 to 12.

Plasma Pistol

• Increased base shot damage from 20 to 28.
• Increased charge shot angular velocity from 20 to 35 degrees per second.
• Increased charged shot guided angular velocity at rest from 50 to 70 degrees per second.

Pulse Carbine

• Increased guided angular velocity at rest from 25 to 35 degrees per second.
• Decreased angular velocity from 50 to 30 degrees per second.
• Increased targeted leading fraction from 0.35 to 1.
• Increased guided projectile error radius from 0.2 to 0.22 degrees.

Frag Grenade

• Increased detonation timer by 0.2 seconds.

Resolved Issues and Bug Fixes

GLOBAL

• Text on loading screens will no longer change size when the UNSC emblem appears in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• The Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 icons in the Keyboard/Mouse tab of the Settings menu are no longer reversed. Binding an action to Mouse 4 will now show the upper side button of a mouse and binding an action to Mouse 5 will show the lower side button.
• Various instances of overlapping text in menus have been improved.

MULTIPLAYER

Sandbox

• Fusion Coils attached to the back of a Razorback will now consistently detonate when the Razorback is destroyed.
• Firing the Disruptor will now correctly uncloak players using Active Camo.
• Rockets reflected by the Repulsor equipment no longer appear invisible to some players.
• Collision fixes have been implemented on the multiplayer map Catalyst so that players cannot take objective items out of the playable area.
• Spawn points on the multiplayer map Catalyst have been adjusted to reduce instances of players respawning in an enemy player’s line of sight.
• The Dynamo Grenade’s “ticking” sound effect will no longer play when dealing damage to an enemy in a Ranked multiplayer match.
• The Volatile Skewer’s projectile will now be launched in Man Cannons like the base Skewer’s projectiles.

Visual

• Equipped armor customizations will now consistently appear on the player’s Spartan when rewatching the Season 2 Introduction Cinematic.
• During multiplayer matches, emblems and nameplates will now appear consistently on the Scoreboard and the “Killed By” Heads-Up Display (HUD) element.
• The third-person animation for reloading the Bulldog shotgun has been improved.
• The third-person animation for Spartans clambering up a ledge no longer has a chance to appear temporarily frozen.
• The Repulsor equipment is now visible in first-person.
• The windshield tint of the Spacestation Gaming Warthog coating has been adjusted so that players in the driver and passenger seats are more visible to other players.
• Multiple overlapping Spartans will no longer appear on the Multiplayer menu.
• The Kythera Battlepad wrist armor will no longer appear to float above transradial or transhumeral prostheses on the Eaglestrike armor core.
• A missing UNSC decal has been restored to the Liteknuckle gloves for the Mark VII armor core.

Audio

• Multiple Iratus AI voice lines have been added for kills with kinetic, plasma, hardlight, and shock weapons.

Menus

• Challenges listed on the pause menu during multiplayer matches will now show their correct XP values.
• Reintroduced the “Congratulations” message for players who have completed all available Battle Passes. This message was previously removed due to a bug which has since been fixed.
• Using the Save a Copy shortcut in the Custom Games Mode Editor menu will now save all currently applied but unsaved changes to the new copy.
• To reduce instances of players unintentionally leaving a multiplayer match early, the Leave Fireteam shortcut in the in-game Pause menu’s Social menu now has a confirmation dialog.

Challenges and Medals

• Grappling to and hijacking a Brute Chopper now correctly progresses the Grapple-Jack Challenge.
• Kills will now more consistently track for weapon-specific Challenges.

Theater

• Players can now consistently bookmark Theater films.
• When viewing bookmarked films in the Content Browser menus, their tiles will show “New Film” as the film’s name. Selecting the film will show the correct map and mode names.
• Theater Films in the My Bookmarks menu now have a Watch Film option.

CAMPAIGN

Menus

• Previously enabled Skulls no longer have a chance to become disabled after resuming a save file with the Continue button in the Campaign menu.
• Gameplay Time will no longer carry over between new save files using the same save slot in the Campaign menus.
• The Bandana Skull will now be marked as collected on the Tac-Map as soon as players pick it up.
• All Weapon Variants are now correctly labeled in the FOB tab of the TacMap.
• Completing missions will now consistently show the correct difficulty levels in the TacMap and, if applicable, unlock the correct full Campaign completion achievements.
• Access to the Screen Calibration menu during Campaign gameplay has been restored.
• This menu can be accessed by navigating to the Video tab of the Settings menu and using the shortcut listed on the bottom of the screen.
• Closing Halo Infinite via outside methods (such as Task Manager on PC or powering off the PC/console) then loading or starting a different save file will no longer overwrite or corrupt save files.

Gameplay

• Simultaneously reloading a weapon and refilling ammo at an ammo crate will now correctly refill both the weapon’s magazine and the reserve ammo.
• An erroneous kill volume near the eastern anti-air Gun Battery has been removed.
• Kill volumes have been adjusted so that enemies launched off the surface of Zeta Halo due to the Boom and Cowbell Skulls’ increased explosion velocity will no longer block objectives from being completed.

Visual

• Character facial animations now appear smoother at all framerates.
• The Grunt Birthday Party Skull will now only trigger confetti effects when a headshot kills a Grunt.
• Skipping cutscenes no longer has a chance to disable first-person animations and make weapon models invisible.

Network Co-Op

The following improvements are based on feedback and Halo Support tickets from a Halo Insider flight in July 2022.

• Players will no longer teleport to the wrong position after having their vehicle hijacked.
• Improved loading after Fast Traveling and initiating Mission Replays to resolve instances of players entering extended loading screens or being booted to the main menu.
• Improved the Threat Sensor’s unlock sequence so that it can now be equipped consistently and no longer has a chance to halt player progression.
• Skipping cutscenes will no longer result in Fireteam members seeing black screens with music or sound effects continuing to play.
• New save files will no longer be named “Finish the Fight” in the Load Game menu and the Co-Op Save Slot Summary menu.

Achievements & Unlocks

• The Headmaster Achievement will now unlock consistently.
• If the conditions for unlocking this Achievement were completed and it did not unlock in a previous version of Halo Infinite, the conditions will need to be completed again after installing the Winter Update.
• The Requiem Revengeance stance, Act of Genesis stance, and the Infinity weapon charm can now be unlocked by achieving 100% completion on a single Halo Infinite Campaign save file.
• For save files that reached 100% completion prior to installing this update, players may need to load into the save and play for a couple minutes to ensure these items are unlocked.
• The “It Really Does Beat Everything” Achievement will now consistently unlock when the requirements are met.

Known Issues

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

PC

• Prior to the Winter Update’s release, a recent NVIDIA graphics driver (version 526.47) resulted in players experiencing more crashes while playing Halo Infinite. If you’ve installed this driver version and are experiencing crashes, install the new hotfix driver update to improve stability.
  • To view the recommended drivers and hardware specifications for Halo Infinite, visit the PC hardware specs and drivers article. 

MULTIPLAYER

Gameplay

• Rarely, players may become stuck in place and unable to fire their weapons when joining a multiplayer session.
• Weapon racks may remain half-closed after spawning a new weapon. Players can still pick up the weapon while the rack is not fully open.
• In King of the Hill multiplayer matches, the third Hill location is skipped on all maps.
  • Due to this issue, King of the Hill has been temporarily removed from the Ranked Arena playlist. King of the Hill will return to the Ranked Arena playlist once this issue is resolved. Stay tuned to @HaloSupport on Twitter for the latest news on game updates.
  • This issue also occurs in Custom Games. While King of the Hill is being temporarily removed from the Ranked Arena matchmaking playlist, players can continue to play this mode via Custom Games.
• Sliding into Kinetic Launchers may result in players not launching the intended distance and, on some maps, falling out of the map’s boundaries.
  • Due to this issue, the map Detachment will not be included in Ranked matchmaking playlists.

Menus

• The input-restricted Solo/Duo Ranked Arena playlists have been temporarily removed from matchmaking. The Crossplay playlist is still available.
  • These playlists will return alongside a future game update, so stay tuned to @HaloSupport on Twitter for the latest news.
• When playing a Custom Game using the Local Area Network (LAN) server option, all players and observers will be removed from the lobby when attempting to load into either the Argyle or Detachment multiplayer maps.

Academy

• Detachment or Argyle are listed in the Map menu for Training Mode.
  • These maps are not supported in Training Mode. Attempting to load these maps will result in an error.

CAMPAIGN

• After completing the boss fight and activating the terminal at the end of the mission Spire, players in a Network Co-Op session may become stuck on a loading screen or stuck in place if they skip the cutscene. This issue only occurs when playing the mission Spire via Mission Replay.

FORGE CREATION TOOLS

• The Forge Beta will support canvas maps and not developer-made maps (such as Live Fire, Recharge, Fragmentation, etc.). Support for developer-made maps will be implemented in a future update.
• At launch, uploading screenshots for a published Forge file is only available on Xbox consoles. To upload images for Forge files created on a PC, an owner or co-owner can upload screenshots on an Xbox console.
• Exiting a Forge session without saving the map may result in a new map version being listed in the file’s Version History menu. This version of the file does not contain the unsaved changes made prior to exiting the previous session.
• Once a player has placed the maximum amount of objects on a map, the Simulation Memory Budget meter and the Dynamic Object Limit meter show percentages less than 100%.
• When viewing files in the My Bookmarks menu, they may have missing or incorrect information such as their version number, creator/owner name, or publish state.
  • Workaround: viewing the files in another menu (for example, the My Files menu or by searching for them in the Community tab) may result in the file details populating in the My Bookmarks menu.
• Unexpectedly ending a Forge session will not trigger an autosave and all unsaved progress will be lost. Examples of unexpected conditions include game crashes, server crashes, losing connection to Halo services or the Xbox network, or the loss of power to the PC/console.

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