It’s a uncommon day in Video Recreation Land when followers ask for a bunch of stuff from a dwell service sport after which…really get it. However that’s precisely what occurred in the present day, when developer 343 Industries rolled out a ton of community-requested options to Halo Infinite, its free-to-play multiplayer shooter.

Halo Infinite, first launched final yr, has had a little bit of a rocky life cycle. As with many free-to-play shooters, Halo Infinite is predicated on a seasonal mannequin. Initially deliberate to final three months, the seasons have to date operated on six-month cycles. (We’re partway by way of the second season, which is about to run till early November.) Followers say this has left the shooter starved of important content material—like maps, modes, and cosmetics—stopping it from feeling as contemporary because it might be.

The shooter can also be structured round a rollout of weekly challenges. Finishing your challenges nets you XP, which ranges up your battle move, providing you with new beauty choices with every stage. Beforehand, you would solely test in your energetic challenges whereas idling within the foyer between matches. Following in the present day’s replace, you possibly can see them in the midst of a match. There’s a catch, although: Challenges don’t observe progress in actual time, so that you received’t really know if you happen to landed these 5 headshots or no matter till the match is over. However hey, progress!

In the present day’s replace additionally marks Halo Infinite’s first step towards “cross-core customization,” or the power to make use of all customization choices on all “armor cores.” Relatively than one set of armor to your avatar, a Twenty sixth-century supersoldier, you’ve got 5 so-called armor “cores.” Each rocks a special look; you possibly can customise them as you see match. However beauty choices—from equipment to armor components to even the varied colour choices—are tied particularly to every core. You may’t, as an example, use any colours from the Mark VII core’s veritable Crayola field of armor coatings on the cores that lack stable choices (trying proper at you, Mark V [B]).

Now, after in the present day’s replace, all visors work with all armor cores; they’ll simply present up robotically for all 5 of your cores. Except I’m lacking it, although, the armory doesn’t point out which armor core the visor was initially related to. And since some are roughly an identical—just like the Yoroi core’s deep blue Tempered Metal and the Rakshasa core’s deep blue Tempered Metal—you find yourself with a handful of visor choices that seem like duplicates. (Your common reminder that you could maintain the Y button to check any beauty possibility with what you’ve at the moment geared up.) However hey, once more: progress!

That’s not all. Later within the month, Halo Infinite will obtain aggressive and social variations of the beloved Workforce Doubles playlist, during which groups of two face off on small maps. (These are at the moment scheduled for August 23, however 343 hasn’t at all times hit focused dates for Infinite’s updates.) However 343 quietly modified the Workforce Snipers playlist in the present day, rolling out an replace that wasn’t in the official announcement, calling consideration to it solely on social media.

Ever for the reason that Workforce Snipers playlist’s rollout earlier this summer season, it’s featured a mode that begins you off with the stalker rifle—a rattling good precision weapon…that’s additionally extraordinarily not a sniper rifle. After in the present day, that mode is gone, changed by a mode that solely spawns you with snipers. Shotty Snipes, during which you begin with a sniper and a shotgun, remains to be there, fortunately. Sadly, the Brute Snipes mode hasn’t been purged, although a minimum of the beginning weapon, the skewer, is technically a sniper rifle. Sorry, no phrase but both on whether or not or not Halo Infinite will get a mode with solely the shock rifle. However hey, one final time: progress!

Certain, individually, these are all small adjustments. However taken collectively, it’s an indication of a sport that’s slowly adapting to what gamers need it to be—very similar to Halo: The Grasp Chief Assortment earlier than it. Quickly sufficient, we’ll all get up and notice Halo Infinite too has legitimately advanced right into a dwell service sport.