Almost a week before the launch of Halo Infinite’s third season, developer 343 Industries has released new information about upcoming map and mode updates.
As was shown earlier in Season 3 launch trailer, the season will introduce three new maps for Halo: Infinite. The first, Oasis, is a large team battle map set on red rocks in the process of terraforming to verdant green. A vehicle is available pretty much everywhere on this map, meaning you can take a warthog into the tunnels and buildings that fill the landscape. This offers both chaotic and strategic opportunities, especially for CTF.
The second is an arena map called Cliffhanger. This map is a snow-capped mountaintop that hides the ONI research facility. Cliffhanger was designed with zonal control modes in mind. It’s asymmetrical, and the design team wanted to make each area unique and tactically different depending on which mode you’re playing the map in.
The third is another arena map called the Abyss. This one shows off the interior of the Zeta Halo with bridges and floating columns standing over a huge drop. The Abyss is based on the Halo Infinite campaign area, but not taken directly from it. It has been tweaked to be a more symmetrical map and set up to make fighting in space a risky but deadly challenge.
As for the rest of the update, the last part of the blog post was about Escalation Slayer. Similar to Call of Duty’s gunplay mode, Escalation Slayer tasks you with killing enemies with special weapons. With each kill you will progress through the given loads. The first player to be killed with each load wins. Melee, attacking enemy players from behind will lower their level. Escalation Slayer will be launched in two variants: FFA Escalation and Team Escalation, where the whole team progresses through the load levels together. A Big Team Battle version is on the way, as well as another variant that includes the “super” weapons seen in Halo Infinite’s campaign.
Here’s a full breakdown of Escalation Slayer downloads.
- LEVEL 1: Missile launcher, Cindershot, Repulsor
- LEVEL 2: Energy sword, gravity hammer, griller
- LEVEL 3: Sniper rifle, skewer, threat sensor
- LEVEL 4: Hydra, Ravager, Repulsor
- LEVEL 5: Bulldog, Needler, Grappleshot
- LEVEL 6: Combat Rifle, Commando, Threat Sensor
- LEVEL 7: Shock Rifle, Stalker Rifle, Drop Wall
- LEVEL 8: Heat wave, sentinel beam, engine
- LEVEL 9: Bandit, Assault Rifle, Falling Wall
- LEVEL 10: Mangler, Sidekick, Threat Sensor
- LEVEL 11: Crazy, Shroud Screen
You can read the full deep dive at Halo Waypoint.
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