343 Industries has confirmed today that Halo Infinite’s next update on December 14 will add a Slayer playlist to the game’s popular multiplayer mode, as well as playlists for Fiesta, Free-For-All, and Tactical Slayer aka SWAT. Plus some welcomed tweaks to the game’s challenge system.
On Reddit today, 343 community director Brian Jarrard shared the good news via a post on the Halo subreddit. According to Jarrard, four new playlists are coming to Halo Infinite via that already mentioned December 14 update, with each new playlist dedicated to a specific and separate mode. The new playlists are Slayer, Fiesta, FFA, and Tactical Slayer aka SWAT.
This follows news earlier this month that more modes were indeed coming via new playlists, though at the time Slayer was planned for next year. I guess we can consider this an early Christmas present.
According to Jarrard, the community’s demand for a Slayer playlist led to the team changing their initialplans. Originally, they were going to launch the deathmatch-focused mode next year alongside numerous variants. However, based on feedback from players, the team is adding a barebones Slayer mode on December 14, though the team still plans to add more variants next year too.
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Currently, Halo Infinite doesn’t have a dedicated Slayer playlist and the current playlists it offers are limited, with many longtime Halo players disappointed in the slim pickings. So this is a welcomed update for many.
Next week’s update isn’t just adding new modes.
343 is tweaking Halo Infinite’s challenge system too. Jarrard explained that the devs are removing some of the more annoying mode-specific challenges from the game, reducing the requirement for some others,and adding new challenges that correspond to these new modes.
Also coming in this December update is a new challenge category that, according to Jarrard is “based on accumulating player score” and is the team’s small, first step towards adding performance-based XP rewards. Currently, winning, losing, playing poorly, or leading your team doesn’t give you more or less XP towards your battle pass. This has led to players not playing objective and just farming XP by idling in matches.
It also has frustrated Zack Zwiezen (me) when I have a great match and my team wins and yet I get no bonus XP reward.
While I’ve been busy playing Halo Infinite’s amazing campaign and finding some silly Easter eggs, I’m excited to jump back into multiplayer after this update to check out the new playlists and maybe go one night without having to fucking play 4v4 CTF.