Season 3 of Halo Infinite releases tomorrow!
Ahead of Season 3: Echoes Within’s launch, we wanted to give you a first look at the customization and rewards included in the Battle Pass, the two new Armor Cores, and how the Shop is evolving.
BATTLE PASS
Season 3 brings with it a new Battle Pass for you to earn a plethora of customization content (over 180 individual items!)
The Echoes Within Premium Battle Pass features over 100 tiers of rewards, including 1000 Halo Credits, and additionally offers players a fourth Challenge slot whenever this Battle Pass is equipped. Premium Battle Pass owners will also receive bonus Match XP for every match they complete throughout Season 3 (no matter what Battle Pass they have equipped) and will begin their great journey through Season 3 at tier 25.
Oh, and purchases of the Premium Battle Pass instantly unlock the Redsteel Splinter armor coating for all available Armor Cores!
Let’s break some of that down further...
The Echoes Within Premium Battle Pass will be available for 1000 Credits, never expires, and includes:
- 100-tier reward track
- Bonus Match XP per match during Season 3
- Redsteel Splinter armor coatings
The Echoes Within Premium Battle Pass Bundle costs 2800 Credits, never expires, and includes:
- 100-tier reward track
- Bonus Match XP per match during Season 3
- Redsteel Splinter armor coatings
- Jumps you ahead 25 levels in the reward track
In Halo Infinite, individual Battle Pass level skips cost 200 Credits each, meaning that skipping 25 levels would normally cost 5000 Credits. At 1800 Credits to begin a quarter of the way through the reward track, this particular element works out as a 64% discount.
Play matches, earn XP, and unlock rewards for the new MIRAGE IIC Armor Core through the Match XP system introduced in Halo Infinite’s Winter Update. Once purchased, the Echoes Within Premium Battle Pass is yours to keep and progress at your leisure – it never expires, and you can switch back-and-forth between the incomplete Battle Passes you own whenever you want.
For players looking to jump into Season 3 of Halo Infinite without purchasing the Echoes Within Battle Pass, there is a free track which offers a selection of customization rewards, XP Boosts, and Challenge Swaps, totaling 86 rewards overall.
MIRAGE IIC
With roots that extend to the jungles of Onyx, MIRAGE IIC joins Halo Infinite as a new free Armor Core for Season 3. Based on the fabled SPI armor of previous Spartan generations, MIRAGE IIC provides a sleek and stalwart solution to any danger the galaxy throws at you.
Whether you’re an old-timer who discovered the meaning of the phrase “Spartans never die” within the pages of Eric Nylund’s Halo: Ghosts of Onyx in 2006, or if you’re just joining us now, MIRAGE IIC brings the fan-favorite semi-powered infiltration (or “SPI”) armor to Halo Infinite.
CHIMERA
Born from the ashes of a failed AI uprising, CHIMERA is the second free Armor Core for Season 3.
Serving as the theme for the Fracture: FIREWALL Event series, CHIMERA offers a unique vision of a potentially dangerous digital future where artificial minds and augmented bodies have become one.
The Fracture: FIREWALL Event debuts March 21 and will see a total of four occurrences in Season 3. We will be exploring the connective tissue between this armor and the Halo universe in a four-part Story Shard series titled Precipice that will certainly surprise fiction fans with just how deep its roots go...
Stay tuned for further information on Fracture: FIREWALL!
A Caboodle of Coatings
To those valiant souls who fought their way to SR 152 in Halo 5: Guardians, your time has come in Season 3 of Halo Infinite. For ye who were forged in the fires of Arena, Breakout, and Warzone over a span of time that one fears to count, the Watchdog Neo coating will soon be yours.
On March 8, Watchdog Neo will be added to all Armor Cores, and will also be available as a new weapon coating for your M392 Bandit and S7 Sniper as well.
As we mentioned in the Outcomes Report for Season 1 of Halo Infinite, the Watchdog coating that is currently in the game is not being taken away – for those of you who have grown fond of it, nothing will change, but you will have the additional choice of the shiny new Watchdog Neo coating.
Let’s see how it’s looking:
We also stated that we were working on an updated version of the MARK VII’s Red Shift armor coating, which will additionally arrive in Season 3 under the name “Shred Shift” (try repeating that aloud five times faster...)
Also coming as a free addition for players are the new Steel Series armor coatings, which will be available in Red Steel, Green Steel, and Blue Steel variations for all Armor Cores at the start of Season 3.
As noted earlier, purchases of the Premium Battle Pass instantly unlock the Redsteel Splinter armor coating for all available Armor Cores.
And finally, we’ve got a couple of additional Cadet coatings coming for free to all players as well. Added to your base selection of coatings across all Armor Cores will be Cadet Olive for those who like the undefeatable big green style of life, along with Cadet Red for those who might describe themselves as the gruff team leader type that favors shotguns.
As Cadet Red is free on all Armor Cores, we have also updated the purchasable “Scarlet” coatings that were released in Season 1 with new and improved looks – these coatings are Scarlet Empress, Scarlet Skies, and Scarlet Wake.
The Shop is evolving in Season 3 of Halo Infinite.
What this means can be summed up in four main points:
- There will be a half-week slot which refreshes every Tuesday and Friday
- There will overall be more offers throughout the season
- The Shop will have a consistent layout
- Dailies will refresh every day
The Shop will also see the addition of “super bundles,” which provides players the opportunity to buy multiple offers packaged together at once – at a price that is substantially less than buying each of them individually.
The philosophy behind this experimental change is to deliver more valuable bundles at a reduced price out of the gate, meaning that players can obtain more of Season 3’s customization content early and at a lower price than buying them all separately.
These super bundles will only be available in Weeks 1 and 3, after which they will be split apart into multiple separate bundles.
Let’s take a look at an example...
During the launch week of Season 3, the Aquahex Bundle will be available in the Shop, which offers a plethora of cosmetic items for your MIRAGE IIC and MARK VII armors, along with additional weapon coatings.
MIRAGE IIC items include:
- Erinyes helmet
- Erinyes Hymn helmet attachment
- TAC/LACEWEB SCM-P shoulders
- TAC/SCM-P knee pads
- Void Ultra armor coating
- TAC/LACEWEB TRM CORE chest gear
- TAC/SCM-P wrist gear
MARK VII items include:
- Security GEN3 helmet
- Oppressor Mark II helmet attachment
- UA/AHALA shoulders
- UA/MACROSPLINE chest gear
- Project CASKLOOM wrist gear
- Pattern Shift armor coating
- Cyan Sky visor
Additionally, the bundle also includes the Aqua Hex coating for these weapons:
- MA40 Assault Rifle
- MK50 Sidekick
- BR75 Battle Rifle
- VK78 Commando
- CQS48 Bulldog
Players can obtain this super bundle for 2200 Halo Credits, but after Week 3 it will be split into separate bundles and priced accordingly. If items in the super bundle take your fancy, you will be getting more customization content at an overall reduced price.
We will continue to experiment with different formats for the Shop in Season 4 and beyond, and we are keen to hear your feedback to guide future adjustments.
Forgers of Will and Might
Just last week, we announced that – as of January 2 this year – over one million creations have been made in Forge.
We’ve been releasing issues of the Forge Features series (Forge Features 001, Forge Features 002, Forge Features 003, Forge Features 004, Forge Features 005, Forge Features 006) every two weeks to showcase some of the amazing community content that has made its way to the 343 Recommended section of the Halo Infinite Content Browser.
And back in February, we launched the evergreen Community Collection playlist, featuring four incredible community-made maps that you can play in matchmaking and earn Match XP from.
For those among the Builder rate of the Halo community who get a map added to the Community Collection playlist, we’ve got a unique reward for you: the Master Builder armor coating, available for all Armor Cores.
Additional Attachments
We’ve got a few additional free goodies for all those who log into Halo Infinite in Season 3 in the form of helmet attachments.
This includes the MK62 CBRN/ISES helmet attachment for the FIREFALL helmet on the MARK VII Armor Core, and the UA/TYPE O5 which is available on the Mark V , CQC, HAZOP, Air Assault, JFO, ODST and Recon helmets on the MARK V Armor Core.
Capstone Couture
Finally, players can earn more free rewards to enhance their customization suite by completing all their Challenges to earn the Weekly Ultimate Reward.
These update every Tuesday with the weekly refresh, and as a reminder we changed the number of Challenges you have to complete from 20 to 10 back when Halo Infinite’s Winter Update launched at the end of last year.
First up for Season 3 is the Purple Reign weapon coating for the M392 Bandit.
We’re less than twenty-four hours away from the release of Season 3, and to help you pass the time with the countdown to launch you should definitely check out our other blogs detailing all the goodness that awaits!
- Maps & Modes Preview: Get some insight into Oasis, Cliffhanger, and Chasm in a Q&A with our multiplayer designers, along with info on the new Escalation Slayer mode
- Playlist & Ranked Overview: Learn more about playlist updates coming to help you enjoy Season 3’s content along with changes to Ranked Arena
- Sandbox: Discover the new toys you’ll be playing with in the form of the M392 Bandit, Shroud Screen, and additional sandbox updates
With all that said, it well and truly is the final countdown. Season 3 of Halo Infinite is almost here, and we couldn’t be more excited to have you all along for the ride.
Sleep well, Spartans – the sun will be up in a few hours, and it’s going to be a very busy day!