Halo Infinite will launch with a battle pass, but you won’t progress through by simply playing games—at least not in terms of “traditional” battle pass progression tactics like XP.
You won’t gain XP for completing matches, according to Halo community manager John Junyszek. The only way to progress through Halo Infinite‘s battle pass will be by completing challenges.
“Playing and winning matches will be challenges, which will help players progress through the Battle Pass,” Junyszek said. “Even though this means no per-match XP at launch, you’re still always progressing through challenges and therefore the BP.”
But several of those challenges will be to simply play and win matches, which should ensure that players get the most out of the battle pass without having to put themselves through a gauntlet of arduous, menial tasks.
Halo Infinite finally has a launch date, set for Dec. 8. The game has been delayed for over a year to work out some technical and presentation kinks and is slated to be one of the biggest releases of the holiday season.
If you’re short on cash, fear not: The core multiplayer functions will be free-to-play. Players will only have to break open their wallets for the single-player campaign, battle passes, and select team-based esports skins that will be available at launch.
Halo Infinite has a lot to live up to. The past three main-story Halo offerings (Reach, Halo 4, and Halo 5: Guardians) underwhelmed fans in the story aspect. Additionally, the franchise introduced controversial mechanics like sprint into Halo‘s tried-and-true multiplayer system, although Halo 5 arguably got the formula for advanced movement right toward the tail end of its run. The technical test preview of Halo Infinite seems like a complete win in terms of combining mechanics from all the Halo games together. The final hurdle for 343 is placing all these in a functioning game.
