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The Halo Infinite Winter update is now available for download on all platforms, and it comes with a fix for a longstanding animation issue.
After the Winter update is installed, Halo Infinite players will notice that the facial animations on characters now appear smoother at all target frame rates, instead of being at a locked 30 FPS at all times, as seen in the video below.
Halo Infinite Winter Update Patch Notes
The Halo Infinite Winter update weighs in at 13 GB (or less, depending on your platform). Patch notes can be seen below.
Balance Changes
Several weapons have been adjusted in the Halo Infinite Winter update.
- BR75 Battle Rifle: The base damage and aim assist for the Battle Rifle have both been reduced.
- VK78 Commando Rifle: The VK78 Commando Rifle’s aim assist has been increased, making it more effective at shorter distances.
- Disruptor: The Disruptor’s magazine now holds 12 rounds rather than 10.
- Plasma Pistol: Charged shots from the Plasma Pistol will now more effectively track enemies in both close and mid-range combat. Uncharged shots now deal more damage as well.
- Pulse Carbine: The Pulse Carbine’s plasma bursts will now better track enemies in short to mid-range combat, however, their tracking at longer ranges has been reduced.
- Frag Grenade: The detonation timer for the Frag Grenade has been slightly increased to reward better placed grenades and to give players on the receiving end more time to react.
Resolved Issues and Bug Fixes
Several improvements have been made, especially in relation to Campaign online Co-op.
Global
- Text on loading screens will no longer change size when the UNSC emblem appears in the bottom left corner of the screen.
- The Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 icons in the Keyboard/Mouse tab of the Settings menu are no longer reversed. Binding an action to Mouse 4 will now show the upper side button of a mouse and binding an action to Mouse 5 will show the lower side button.
- Various instances of overlapping text in menus have been improved.
Multiplayer
Sandbox
- Fusion Coils attached to the back of a Razorback will now consistently detonate when the Razorback is destroyed.
- Firing the Disruptor will now correctly uncloak players using Active Camo.
- Rockets reflected by the Repulsor equipment no longer appear invisible to some players.
- Collision fixes have been implemented on the multiplayer map Catalyst so that players cannot take objective items out of the playable area.
- Spawn points on the multiplayer map Catalyst have been adjusted to reduce instances of players respawning in an enemy player’s line of sight.
- The Dynamo Grenade’s “ticking” sound effect will no longer play when dealing damage to an enemy in a Ranked multiplayer match.
- The Volatile Skewer’s projectile will now be launched in Man Cannons like the base Skewer’s projectiles.
Visual
- Equipped armor customizations will now consistently appear on the player’s Spartan when rewatching the Season 2 Introduction Cinematic.
- During multiplayer matches, emblems and nameplates will now appear consistently on the Scoreboard and the “Killed By” Heads-Up Display (HUD) element.
- The third-person animation for reloading the Bulldog shotgun has been improved.
- The third-person animation for Spartans clambering up a ledge no longer has a chance to appear temporarily frozen.
- The Repulsor equipment is now visible in first-person.
- The windshield tint of the Spacestation Gaming Warthog coating has been adjusted so that players in the driver and passenger seats are more visible to other players.
- Multiple overlapping Spartans will no longer appear on the Multiplayer menu.
- The Kythera Battlepad wrist armor will no longer appear to float above transradial or transhumeral prostheses on the Eaglestrike armor core.
- A missing UNSC decal has been restored to the Liteknuckle gloves for the Mark VII armor core.
Audio
- Multiple Iratus AI voice lines have been added for kills with kinetic, plasma, hardlight, and shock weapons.
Menus
- Challenges listed on the pause menu during multiplayer matches will now show their correct XP values.
- Reintroduced the “Congratulations” message for players who have completed all available Battle Passes. This message was previously removed due to a bug which has since been fixed.
- Using the Save a Copy shortcut in the Custom Games Mode Editor menu will now save all currently applied but unsaved changes to the new copy.
- To reduce instances of players unintentionally leaving a multiplayer match early, the Leave Fireteam shortcut in the in-game Pause menu’s Social menu now has a confirmation dialog.
Challenges and Medals
- Grappling to and hijacking a Brute Chopper now correctly progresses the Grapple-Jack Challenge.
- Kills will now more consistently track for weapon-specific Challenges.
Theater
- Players can now consistently bookmark Theater films.
- When viewing bookmarked films in the Content Browser menus, their tiles will show “New Film” as the film’s name. Selecting the film will show the correct map and mode names.
- Theater Films in the My Bookmarks menu now have a Watch Film option.
Campaign
Menus
- Previously enabled Skulls no longer have a chance to become disabled after resuming a save file with the Continue button in the Campaign menu.
- Gameplay Time will no longer carry over between new save files using the same save slot in the Campaign menus.
- The Bandana Skull will now be marked as collected on the Tac-Map as soon as players pick it up.
- All Weapon Variants are now correctly labeled in the FOB tab of the TacMap.
- Completing missions will now consistently show the correct difficulty levels in the TacMap and, if applicable, unlock the correct full Campaign completion achievements.
- Access to the Screen Calibration menu during Campaign gameplay has been restored.
- This menu can be accessed by navigating to the Video tab of the Settings menu and using the shortcut listed on the bottom of the screen.
- Closing Halo Infinite via outside methods (such as Task Manager on PC or powering off the PC/console) then loading or starting a different save file will no longer overwrite or corrupt save files.
Gameplay
- Simultaneously reloading a weapon and refilling ammo at an ammo crate will now correctly refill both the weapon’s magazine and the reserve ammo.
- An erroneous kill volume near the eastern anti-air Gun Battery has been removed.
- Kill volumes have been adjusted so that enemies launched off the surface of Zeta Halo due to the Boom and Cowbell Skulls’ increased explosion velocity will no longer block objectives from being completed.
Visual
- Character facial animations now appear smoother at all framerates.
- The Grunt Birthday Party Skull will now only trigger confetti effects when a headshot kills a Grunt.
- Skipping cutscenes no longer has a chance to disable first-person animations and make weapon models invisible.
Network Co-Op
The following improvements are based on feedback and Halo Support tickets from a Halo Insider flight in July 2022.
- Players will no longer teleport to the wrong position after having their vehicle hijacked.
- Improved loading after Fast Traveling and initiating Mission Replays to resolve instances of players entering extended loading screens or being booted to the main menu.
- Improved the Threat Sensor’s unlock sequence so that it can now be equipped consistently and no longer has a chance to halt player progression.
- Skipping cutscenes will no longer result in Fireteam members seeing black screens with music or sound effects continuing to play.
- New save files will no longer be named “Finish the Fight” in the Load Game menu and the Co-Op Save Slot Summary menu.
Achievements & Unlocks
- The Headmaster Achievement will now unlock consistently.
- If the conditions for unlocking this Achievement were completed and it did not unlock in a previous version of Halo Infinite, the conditions will need to be completed again after installing the Winter Update.
- The “It Really Does Beat Everything” Achievement will now consistently unlock when the requirements are met.
