343 Industries Shares Details on Halo Infinite Battle Pass System

Battle passes never expire, and it’s confirmed there will be no loot boxes in the game.

In a recent interview with IGN, Head of Design for Halo Infinite, Jerry Hook, and Lead Progression Designer, Chris Blohm, shared information about what the battle pass system will look like in Halo Infinite. 

Recommended Videos

Not only will the battle pass you purchase never expire, there will be additional ways to earn cosmetics outside of the battle pass through things like weekly challenges. Oh, and no loot boxes! 

343 Industries Shares Details on Halo Infinite Battle Pass System


Image Source: IGN

If you’ve been wondering how the battle pass system will work in Halo Infinite, information was recently shared on the subject as part of an interview with IGN.

In the IGN interview, Halo Infinite’s Head of Design, Jerry Hook, and Lead Progression Designer, Chris Blohm, talk about what players can expect from the battle pass. First, battle passes for Halo Infinite won’t expire, giving you plenty of time to work your way through them and earn rewards.

According to Chris Blohm, they don’t want people to feel burned out by having to rush to finish the content they paid for. They’d rather people “feel healthy and come back because they’re excited to” which is wonderful to hear. 

Chiming in on the subject, Jerry Hook noted:

“We wanted to be able to say, ‘Hey, look, when you put 10 bucks in, you keep that 10 bucks.” 

We’re excited to hear that battle passes don’t expire. We imagine the knowledge that battle passes don’t expire will inspire more players to purchase them, and that it’ll also help players maintain healthy gaming habits rather than stressing over the need to unlock every piece of content as quickly as possible. 

In terms of healthy gaming habits, Hook and Blohm also confirmed there will be no loot boxes in Halo Infinite – what you see in a battle pass is what you get.

Taking a closer look at how the battle passes in Halo Infinite work, given that they don’t expire, you’ll be able to have multiple battle passes, if you like, and you can switch between which battle pass you’re actively working on.  

In the interview, Hook and Blohm explain that while you can only have one battle pass active at a time, you can switch between battle passes whenever you like. So, if you’re working through one and buy a new one and want to get a few cosmetics from it right away, you have the freedom to switch that one to your active battle pass.

And when you’re ready to go back to your other battle pass, you can easily switch it right back. 

The reward system for battle passes will have a legendary cosmetic on offer every quarter of the way through, with legendary cosmetics being a “character canon-related” or “new type of customization object with special attributes or effects” as outlined by IGN.

With the release of Halo Infinite on December 8 fast approaching, players can soon look forward to the first season’s battle pass called Heroes of Reach which features, you guessed it, Reach-related items. Speaking on the Heroes of Reach battle pass, Blohm explained:

“We know people like [Halo] Reach and we knew the story was going to have another Reach beat – in the paperback books, there’s a Reach beat [in Halo: Shadows of Reach] after Halo 5. The Infinity goes back to Reach. So we just started full speed ahead on the best of the Reach customization.” 

With the Heroes of Reach battle pass, players will receive the new Mk. VII armor core, and can then mix and match cosmetics or create a look that replicates characters like Jorge or Kat. Elaborating further on this, Hook stated:

“When we were looking at the Heroes of Reach and what [Blohm] and the team pulled together is a really great model of how we’re trying to tell a visual story with the battle pass of earning characters, basically through all the Reach characters with the battle pass.

For us, the system that’s been created with the [armor] core at the center, and then all of the attachments that players can choose to add. Do you want Emile’s knives? You want Jorge’s grenades?

Mix and match how you want to create your own, or if you’re just like, ‘No, I want to look exactly like Jun’ then you can do that. And for the first time, you can look exactly like Kat with the prosthetic arm.” 

Other rewards include Death Effects, armor effects, armor kits, and more. While the battle pass clearly has a lot going for it, it’s nice to know that players who either don’t want to or can’t afford to spend money on the battle pass won’t be left out in the cold either. 

In the IGN interview, it was confirmed that you’ll be able to earn cosmetics by playing the campaign, and by completing weekly challenges. If you complete all of the weekly challenges, you’ll earn a special weekly reward called the Capstone. 

“At launch, we have the challenge system that fuels the battle pass and the event system,” Blohm explained. “Events go live every few weeks.” 

“You get a special playlist and you get a new reward track for [each event]. That’s two weeks for an event and one week for the Fracture, but the Fracture comes back every month and it saves your progress. Now that’s another case where we had a long talk.

We said, ‘How much do we expect people to play?’ Right? And let’s balance it. So you know what, if they’re at their parents’ house for a week and they don’t have their Xbox they can still get everything that is on the reward track.” 

To ensure things run smoothly after launch, the team will be keeping an active eye on event progression and community feedback. Concluding the interview, Jerry Hook shared the team’s goal of simply wanting players to feel rewarded – whether they’re taking part in events, or working through the battle pass.

“The battle pass system is really just a small part of the overall ecosystem for a season. When we take a look at our events or events structures, it’s not just about another place in which you’re selling things.

It’s about taking that structure of a battle pass and layering it with each of the events structures that we have as well. What Chris says a lot, which is I think pretty critical to the success of it, is we want players anytime they engage in an activity to be able to feel rewarded.

The battle pass sort of sits above all of that, which is whenever you’re playing, you’re feeling rewarded from the battle pass. That’s our goal.”

For more on Halo Infinite, including its battle pass and special events, be sure to read through the full interview over on IGN. While we wait for the release of Halo Infinite on December 8, we’re curious to hear your thoughts on the battle pass system.

Do you like the fact that battle passes don’t expire? What about being able to earn cosmetics through events and weekly challenges? Let us know in the comments below, or on our social media channels including Facebook and Twitter!

Related: Halo Infinite Campaign Overview Shows New Baddies, Open World, Skill Trees & More


 


Prima Games is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article Uber Lilith Will Finally Have Worthy Rewards in Diablo 4
Lilith Diablo 4
Read Article HotA Barbarian Gets Hammered Down Before Diablo 4 Season 4
Barbarian Season 4
Read Article Epic Games Just Removed the Best Way to Earn Fortnite XP
Related Content
Read Article Uber Lilith Will Finally Have Worthy Rewards in Diablo 4
Lilith Diablo 4
Read Article HotA Barbarian Gets Hammered Down Before Diablo 4 Season 4
Barbarian Season 4
Read Article Epic Games Just Removed the Best Way to Earn Fortnite XP
Author
Morgan Shaver
Morgan is a writer, metalhead, horror lover, and indie game enthusiast. When it comes to games, they love nothing more than to wax poetic about all the latest and greatest indies to anyone who'll listen. They're also a Tetris fanatic who's fiercely competitive in games like Tetris 99... and all games in general. But mostly Tetris. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @Author_MShaver