Nearly six months after it launched, Halo Infinite‘s second season is on the way. Officially arriving on May 3, Season 2 of the free-to-play Halo title will add a buffet of changes, all of which have been shared by developer 343 Industries in a large, dense post on Halo Waypoint.
The most immediate changes that players will notice though are likely the two additional maps coming to the game, along with some adjustments to weapon and melee damage that will shift Halo Infinite‘s meta.
Halo Infinite‘s two incoming maps are Catalyst and Breaker. The former is an arena map that will be added to multiple playlists as soon as Halo Infinite‘s second season launches. Breaker, on the other hand, is a Big Team Battle-exclusive map. Catalyst and Breaker mark the first time new maps have been added to Halo Infinite since the game launched this past December.
Along with new maps, Season 2 of Halo Infinite is changing the balance of some weapons, namely the Mangler. The heavy revolver has been a dominant force throughout the game’s first season thanks to its enhanced melee damage, which meant killing an enemy was as simple as smacking them after a single shot. However, a 10% decrease for melee damage across all weapons means that players will have to hit two shots with the Mangler followed by a melee attack to take out an enemy. The Ravager, which most players often ignore thanks to its low DPS, will also be getting a buff to the damage dealt with its non-charged shot.
Season 2 of Halo Infinite will introduce some adjustments to melee as a whole as well, making the entire system of beating down another Spartan much easier. Thanks to some networking adjustments, melee should be much more consistent, with fewer attacks whiffing when they should have connected.
Despite the suite of new content arriving in Halo Infinite‘s second season, it won’t include everything that 343 Industries originally promised. The developer intended for campaign co-op, a fixture of the Halo franchise, to launch alongside the game’s second season, with Forge following in the third. Following a delay, campaign co-op won’t be arriving with Season 2 and will instead launch sometime over the course of the season.