Halo Infinite February Update Targets Drop-Weapon Meta, Changes Ranked

Halo Infinite February Update Targets Drop-Weapon Meta, Changes Ranked

Time Stamp: February 20, 2023 4:23 AM

The Halo Infinite February Update includes a list of balance adjustments to weapons, mechanics and ranked, along with a change to dropping and swapping weapons.

Rather than focusing on deploying in-game content, the February patch ensures a stable in-game experience by deploying stability and performance improvements. The newest patch also targeta the “Drop-weapon meta” by increasing the time required to switch to another weapon after dropping it. Dropping weapons OR swapping between them would now take the same amount of time. Here’s the full list of changes revealed in the patch notes posted by 343 industries in the official Halo Infinite blog.

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.

The development team is actively working on a variety of game updates and improvements based on both player feedback and bug report tickets. Here is the full list of bug and glitch fixes deployed in the Halo Infinite February Update.

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 sprinting.

Matchmaking Playlists

  • 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.

The new update also addresses a plethora of “known issues” players are currently dealing with in-game. Based on the community feedback and support tickets on Twitter, the update promises to deploy fixes for the below known issues in future updates.

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.

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.

What is the File Size of Halo Infinite February Update?

On Xbox consoles, the file size of Halo Infinite February update is approximately 2 GB or less. While on Microsoft Store app or Xbox app on PC update is a 2.2 GB download. On the other hand, players can download the update from Steam that has an approximate file size of 600MB.

Halo Infinite February Update Release Date

Halo Infinite February Patch is slated hit live servers on February 15, a day after Valentines’ Day holiday. With Season 3 lined up for a March 17 release, fans of EA’s sci-fi shooter franchise can expect a plethora of new content in the upcoming updates. The full patch notes article can be accessed by clicking here.

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