Halo Infinite: Operation Frontlines, Major MTX Changes, Fuel Rod, Assault, Major Sandbox Updates, + much more

Good changes, just worded poorly.

Today Halo Studios published the "Spring Update" including Operation: Frontlines, Major MTx/Funding model changes, Assault (the game mode), Squad Battle Assault (8v8), Ranked Squad Battle (8v8), Origin (Forge Map), and MAJOR sandbox changes.

Operation: Frontlines and the MTx Changes

Again, Halo Infinite's MTx model is changing. Now something similar to Season 5 back in late 2023, a 50 tier battlepass with 20 free tiers and 30 paid tiers, priced at 1000 credits or $10 (i'll discuss how to get this cheaper at the end). However this 50 tier pass is only for the first pass out of the 3. Let's use this list to explain the schedule easier:

Spring Update
* Operation: Frontlines (50 Tiers) $10 to unlock 30 and keep
* Operation: Blue Team (20 tiers) $5 to keep
* Operation: Forerunner (20 tiers) $5 to keep
Summer Update
* Operation: Summer 1 (50 Tiers) $10 to unlock 30 and keep
* Operation: Summer 2 (20 tiers) $5 to keep
* Operation: Summer 3 (20 tiers) $5 to keep
Fall Update
* Operation: Fall 1 (50 Tiers) $10 to unlock 30 and keep
* Operation: Fall 2 (20 tiers) $5 to keep
* Operation: Fall 3 (20 tiers) $5 to keep

and so on...

Now with those you can expect the 50 tier passes to be 4 armor sets, and the 20 tiers to be 1 armor set.

Here's the catch, unless you initially buy these following operation passes during their initial runs, you can't buy them later. HOWEVER, the free content will go into the exchange, and the paid content will go into the shop (at a discounted price).

I don't personally mind this, but it is a slight downgrade over the now very old season system from pre season-5 as these operations still lack the ability to earn credits (the paid ones). However I do feel like they're options were to either stop working on the game as it wasn't making ANY money or do this. At the end of the day, it's still cosmetic content and previous passes are not affected by these changes whatsoever.

Fuel Rod... SPNKR?

The Fuel Rod has returned to Halo Infinite in the form of the "Fuel Rod SPNKR". Gameplay-wise, it's mostly identical other than that it lacks the bouncing projectiles (rip the grunts).

Visually, it's obviously a kitbash of the SPNKR, it's not like they're trying to hide it (it's literally in the name) but it does feel like a spruced up SPNKR weapon model.

Why do this?

The majority of resources at Halo Studios have moved onto the next few games, leaving the infinite team with a reported headcount of around 40-50 people. And the worst part is that they lack any animators, so every new weapon has to fit the animations of an old one.

Hence the MA5k Avenger sharing it's animations with the MA40 Assault rifle, and now the Fuel Rod SPNKR sharing it's animations with the regular SPNKR.

I know this isn't the best result, but obviously the other option is no new weapons whatsoever, so I'll take this.

Assault Returns!

The fan-favorite mode from Halo 2 returns, described by HS as:

Each team defends their bomb site as they battle over a neutral bomb in the center of the map, aiming to escort the intrepid and heroic bomb carrier to the enemy base to arm and detonate it.

With this comes both the Neutral Bomb and One Bomb variants + 8v8 Squad Battle variants.

Oh, and Squad Battle is coming to ranked.

Major Sandbox Changes:

• Heatwave: Vertical Spread Decreased
• Stalker Rifle: Fire Speed Slowed
• Disruptor: Long Range nerf
• Bulldog: 3 shot kill instead of 2
• Shock Rifle: No-scope nerf
• Assault Rifle: Less Recoil, more consistent
• Frag Grenades: Bouncier, similar to previous halo's
• Frag Grenades: Longer throw time
• Strafe Speed: 1 > 0.78, MUCH slower, similar to previous halo's

The strafe speed is by far the biggest change, you won't be able to "jitter strafe" as much as you were able to before. This makes the gameplay much more in line with previous halo's "feel".

Minor Changes:

• Increased Nav Marker functionality for fine-tuned control, including when a player takes damage, is sprinting, or is in another player’s line of sight.
• Added the ability to Set Object Team for multiple generic objectives, with more on the way.
• Improved control of Generic Objective objects when entering Kill Volumes.
• Enhanced physics controls for objects through Set Object Physics Mode (Normal, Zero Gravity, and Fixed).
• Inclusion of Damage Source Object input pin allows for better kill attribution by selecting a player to be the source on the Apply Damage node.
• Added forge map "Origin"

How to get Cheap Halo Infinite Credits:

CDKeys, or Kinguin, or G2A if you're a scumbag. They're all dirt cheap, I personally use kinguin: https://www.kinguin.net/category/128379/halo-infinite-multiplayer-1-000-halo-credits-xbox-one-series-x-s-windows-10-cd-key?currency=EUR&nosalesbooster=1&r=3445

That's all folks...