In Defense of a Battle Pass

I’m not hiding my love towards the Halo franchise in general, and for the new Halo Infinite in specific; consider me biased. Since the Halo Infinite Multiplayer Began, I’ve played it for at least 60 hours; consider me informed. There is a lot to love about the multiplayer, and it appears that I am not alone in singing its praises. However, those praises share another popular opinion: the Battle Pass needs work. Before I share some of my improvement ideas, I think it will help to discuss how player progression and microtransactions work in other games, detail the differences between Halo multiplayer and other shooters, and defend what works in the current Battle Pass.

Background: Halo Infinite was originally intended as a launch title for the Xbox Series X/S (November 10, 2020), but it was held back one full year. During the 20 Year Anniversary celebrations of Halo and Xbox (November 15, 2021), the Halo Infinite Multiplayer (beta) was released as a separate free to play mode, exclusive to PC and Xbox consoles. Both the Halo Infinite campaign ($60 or free to Game Pass subscribers) and Halo Infinite Multiplayer will launch on December 8, 2021. This will be the first time that Halo is making its multiplayer separate and free to play.

DavPoint: Halo Infinite is the 11th Halo title that developer 343 Industries (343i) have worked on since taking over the series from its original creators, Bungie, in 2007. This includes collaborating with other studios on various spin-offs and remasters, and developing Halo 4 (2012) and Halo 5 (2015). Halo Infinite was developed by 343i in collaboration with SkyBox Labs, Sperasoft, The Coalition, and Certain Affinity.

Other Battle Passes: For this discussion, I’m going to stick to the examples set by games I am most familiar with: Call of Duty, Dauntless, and Fortnite. The basic premise is simple: during a regular Season, or about 10 weeks, players can play for free as normal and earn a collection of cosmetic items by completing specific challenges, or can pay for a “premium” version of that Season and attempt to complete additional challenges and earn more compelling items. These Seasons usually revolve around a unique theme, and the items tied to that Season are only available for that specified, limited time. This can create some prestige around the most notable items, as savvy players will recognize the efforts other players have taken to acquire them, but it also creates a sense of urgency to complete all the ranks of a given Season to get the most value from it. Along their progression paths, players will also be rewarded with in-game currency to either use in the respective game shops for other cosmetic items, or save up and “buy” the next Season when it releases, effectively earning the privilege of playing the premium version – and the chance to earn even more items – for free.

To those ends, I most appreciate Passes that offer challenges that either reflect a player’s skills, such as earning so many wins, kills, or damage against other players, encourage the unskilled to participate, such as exploring key areas on the map or completing non-competitive challenges, or both. Call of Duty, on the competitive side, offers a lot of challenges and paths for progression, ranging from “career” activities in general, down to specific “Operator” challenges and performance with individual weapons; Dauntless is exclusively a cooperative game, so it excels at tracking all the different weapons players can use and monsters they can fight, and providing ample rewards for their efforts; and Fortnite is good at offering both, in abundance, so players can choose to focus their energies on what is fun for them, and have more than enough challenges to help them progress pretty quickly through any given Season.

Halo Sandbox: It might be easy to say that Halo Infinite Multiplayer should just copy one of the more successful Battle Passes instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, but Halo’s multiplayer is pretty unique, and might not translate directly to any current template. As I mentioned in my first Halo Infinite Preview, Halo is an “arena shooter” where “each player starts a match with the same weapons, on a level playing field, and the more powerful weapons and items like sniper rifles, rocket launchers, extra shields, and so on, periodically appear on the map for everyone to fight over. This creates opportunities for different strategies, a lot of tension, and a high skill ceiling.” Halo Infinite has refined the “Halo Sandbox” by randomly switching up the special items and weapons each match, and although I enjoy this predictable chaos, it does make it unfair to track player progress with specific weapons – especially if those weapons are hard to obtain match after match.

In other words, it makes sense to challenge players to track their progress with each weapon in a game like Call of Duty, that literally lets them choose their own loadouts, but not in Halo Infinite when players have little influence over what weapons they can find each match. Similarly, challenging players to do non-competitive challenges like those found in Fortnite doesn’t make sense in a competitive game like Halo. As it is, players are already grumbling when they assume other players are trying to complete personal challenges instead of trying to win the match with their teammates!

Defending What Works: For what it’s worth, 343i has already made some minor changes to Halo Infinite’s Battle Pass, and promises more substantial changes down the road. When it launched, for example, players could complete a number of challenges every day to earn the XP needed to progress ranks in the Battle Pass, but once finished with those challenges, they didn’t earn ANY XP in subsequent matches, until the next day! To the developer’s credit, they acted quickly and first, swapped the finite list of challenges with a system of repopulating “weekly” challenges, and second, modified the “daily” challenge to continuously reward players a minimum of 50 XP per match. After more player feedback, they further tweaked the “daily” system to award bonus XP after the first six matches played every day, which dramatically speeds up the rate players can progress.

I confess that I was just as upset as anyone with the Halo Infinite Multiplayer Battle Pass when it first launched. I was definitely spoiled by the progression systems in the excellent Call of Duty Vanguard, and was disappointed that Halo’s Battle Pass was nothing like it. It wasn’t until the week of Thanksgiving, when 343i released a concurrent timed event called “Fracture: Tenrai” that something “clicked” in my mind: the first “Season” of Halo Infinite Multiplayer is more like a “career” type tracker, with its own set of themed rewards, and the special timed events are similar to the specific “Operator” challenges and their own rewards, found in games like Call of Duty. At least, that’s what I wish it could be, and even though it’s not exactly like that, the slower pace of Halo’s Battle Pass stopped feeling so obnoxious. It feels even better after 343i sped things up with the bonus XP mechanic, but there is still room for improvement.

More To Come: I’m curious to see what 343i has planned for Halo’s Battle Pass, though I have my own suggestions. I am not as frustrated with it as I once was, as indicated by playing many matches these past several weeks in spite of not being able to earn a lot of XP. Unlike other Battle Passes, Halo Infinite will not expire previous “Seasons” when new Seasons start, allowing players the option to continue their progress until they are ready to begin the next. This takes some of the pressure off trying to get the “most value” from each Season, though it will be up to 343i to keep creating compelling themes and items for players to continue striving for. I appreciate that there aren’t a lot of things to challenge the players with, other than completing/winning matches, tracking different weapon/eliminations, earning “badges” in matches like double-kills or melee eliminations, or completing match objectives.

My Suggestions: For these reasons, I think that tracking “career” progress over time makes more sense than tying progress to weekly challenges, similar to the way that games like Call of Duty and Dauntless track long term progress. Additionally, Halo could provide special challenges for each “Armor Core” the way that Call of Duty and Fortnite reward players with special “Operators” or Characters, and then continue to track progression with more challenges specific to them; both games reward the player with additional appearances for these special outfits, which makes other players even more jealous of their efforts. Seasons can be tracked concurrently with the player’s career progress, even if the challenges are more or less the same, because they offer opportunities to earn special themed rewards and in-game currency to save up for the next Season or spend in the cash shop. Tracking “career” and “Amor Core” paths like this also keeps with the spirit of allowing players the choice to stick with a previous Season and jumping to new Seasons when they are ready. Then, like the Fracture: Tenrai event, special timed exclusive events can occasionally pop up with their own set of challenges to complete and items to earn. I should emphasize this again: The “premium” version of the Halo Infinite Multiplayer Battle Pass *needs* to reward currency! I’d love to see these adjustments to the Halo Infinite Multiplayer Battle Pass, though I’m open to what ever 343i has planned.

At any rate, Halo Infinite comes out tomorrow, so watch me play on the DavPoint!

• Developer: 343 Industries
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• Platforms: PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S
• Rating: (Pending. Likely M for Mature for Blood and Gore, and Violence)
• Release Date: November 15, 2021 (Multiplayer), December 8, 2021 (Campaign)