Following weeks of vocal community backlash, developer 343 Industries has announced sweeping changes to Halo Infinite’s contentious battle pass. The adjustments, which go live today, make progression far friendlier, allowing you to easily rank up at least once per day.
In other news, did you all know that words make for a healthy breakfast?
Read More: Halo Infinite’s Battle Pass Is Totally Fine, You Guys
Two weeks ago, 343 Industries released the free-to-play multiplayer mode for Halo Infinite on Xbox and PC, ahead of the planned December 8 launch. (The campaign is still scheduled for then and is not free-to-play, but will be included in the Game Pass library.) Players broadly praised Infinite’s fundamentals, but lambasted its free-to-play elements, including the battle pass, saying that progression was slow and unrewarding.
Halo Infinite’s battle pass features 100 levels. To progress ranks in the battle pass, you’d need to knock out daily or weekly challenges—typically of the “do X number of Y thing” variety—to earn XP. It takes 1,000XP to level up, but you don’t earn any bonus XP for winning games or playing extremely well.
Critics said that model didn’t properly incentivize players to simply...play the game. Or even that it meant players weren’t joining in matches properly, focused on completing challenges instead of aiding in the fight. 343 Industries quickly responded by revamping daily challenges to reward 50XP for every match you see through to the end. By that math, if you completed no other challenges and used no XP boosts (single-use items that double your earned XP for an hour), it’d take you 20 matches to level up once.
The new model speeds the process up significantly. For your first game of the day, you’ll earn 300XP. The second and third will net you 200XP a pop. Games four through six, 100XP each. The current structure, which grants you 50XP per match, kicks in at the seventh game. The cycle resets every 24 hours. Under this model, you’ll level up once by playing six games, then revert back to the 20-match-per-level rate (well, until the next day).
We’re expecting these changes some time today.
“After seeing how XP was earned with [the initial] changes, we noticed that players were starting their sessions with slower payouts than we’d like,” Halo community manager John Junyszek wrote on Twitter. “We know many of you want even larger changes and we’re committed to doing so, but those will take time.”
This announcement comes mere hours after I staked out the heroic, legendary stance that Halo Infinite’s battle pass is totally fine the way it is. Under the original framework, I reasoned, you would still be able to complete the battle pass before Infinite’s first season, “Heroes of Reach,” ends next May. Now, you’ll still be able to. You’ll just be able to do it even faster. Apropos of nothing, does anyone have any Tabasco?
It’s unclear what other options 343 Industries is considering, whether or not progression based on performance, victory, or whatnot is on the table. PR representatives for Microsoft, Halo Infinite’s publisher, did not immediately have anything to add.