It’s a uncommon day in Video Sport Land when followers ask for a bunch of stuff from a stay service sport after which…really get it. However that’s precisely what occurred in the present day, when developer 343 Industries rolled out a ton of community-requested options to Halo Infinite, its free-to-play multiplayer shooter.

Halo Infinite, first launched final yr, has had a little bit of a rocky life cycle. As with many free-to-play shooters, Halo Infinite relies on a seasonal mannequin. Initially deliberate to final three months, the seasons have thus far operated on six-month cycles. (We’re partway by means of the second season, which is ready to run till early November.) Followers say this has left the shooter starved of important content material—like maps, modes, and cosmetics—stopping it from feeling as recent because it might be.

The shooter can be structured round a rollout of weekly challenges. Finishing your challenges nets you XP, which ranges up your battle cross, providing you with new beauty choices with every degree. Beforehand, you would solely verify in your lively challenges whereas idling within the foyer between matches. Following in the present day’s replace, you’ll be able to see them in the course of a match. There’s a catch, although: Challenges don’t observe progress in actual time, so that you received’t really know should you landed these 5 headshots or no matter till the match is over. However hey, progress!

At this time’s replace additionally marks Halo Infinite’s first step towards “cross-core customization,” or the flexibility to make use of all customization choices on all “armor cores.” Reasonably than one set of armor on your avatar, a Twenty sixth-century supersoldier, you could have 5 so-called armor “cores.” Each rocks a special look; you’ll be able to customise them as you see match. However beauty choices—from equipment to armor elements to even the varied colour choices—are tied particularly to every core. You possibly can’t, as an illustration, use any colours from the Mark VII core’s veritable Crayola field of armor coatings on the cores that lack strong choices (wanting proper at you, Mark V [B]).

Now, after in the present day’s replace, all visors work with all armor cores; they’ll simply present up robotically for all 5 of your cores. Until I’m lacking it, although, the armory doesn’t point out which armor core the visor was initially related to. And since some are kind of similar—just like the Yoroi core’s deep blue Tempered Metal and the Rakshasa core’s deep blue Tempered Metal—you find yourself with a handful of visor choices that seem like duplicates. (Your common reminder that you could maintain the Y button to match any beauty possibility with what you’ve at present geared up.) However hey, once more: progress!

That’s not all. Later within the month, Halo Infinite will obtain aggressive and social variations of the beloved Workforce Doubles playlist, through which groups of two face off on small maps. (These are at present scheduled for August 23, however 343 hasn’t all the time hit focused dates for Infinite’s updates.) However 343 quietly modified the Workforce Snipers playlist in the present day, rolling out an replace that wasn’t in the official announcement, calling consideration to it solely on social media.

Ever for the reason that Workforce Snipers playlist’s rollout earlier this summer season, it’s featured a mode that begins you off with the stalker rifle—a rattling good precision weapon…that’s additionally extraordinarily not a sniper rifle. After in the present day, that mode is gone, changed by a mode that solely spawns you with snipers. Shotty Snipes, through which you begin with a sniper and a shotgun, continues to be there, fortunately. Sadly, the Brute Snipes mode hasn’t been purged, although at the least the beginning weapon, the skewer, is technically a sniper rifle. Sorry, no phrase but both on whether or not or not Halo Infinite will get a mode with solely the shock rifle. However hey, one final time: progress!

Positive, individually, these are all small modifications. However taken collectively, it’s an indication of a sport that’s slowly adapting to what gamers need it to be—very similar to Halo: The Grasp Chief Assortment earlier than it. Quickly sufficient, we’ll all get up and notice Halo Infinite too has legitimately developed right into a stay service sport.