343 has finally provided the long awaited roadmap for Halo Infinite detailing the current schedule for Season 2, tentative plans for larger content additions throughout Season 2 and in early Season 3, and more. While these plans are subject to change, they provide insight into what's to come for the rest of 2022.
We already know about most of the new content that will be releasing during Season 2, namely the Catalyst and Breaker maps and the King of the Hill, Land Grab, and Last Spartan Standing game modes. Season 2 will also feature two Narrative Events: Interference from May 3 to May 16, 2022, and Alpha Pack from July 19 to August 1, 2022.
The third event to be featured in Season 2 is Fracture: Entrenched, which will return for one week at a time throughout the Season and offer a non-canon armor core, starting May 24 through May 30, 2022. Additionally, the Battle Pass will contain a new free Armor Core, with earnable credits in the premium pass.
In terms of larger features throughout the season, Campaign Network Co-op (online or LAN) is scheduled for late August, alongside Campaign Mission replay. In September, the Forge Open Beta is scheduled to begin ahead of Season 3. Finally, Quality-of-Life (QoL) improvements will be delivered throughout Season 2.
In Season 3, currently scheduled to begin on November 8, 2022 players can expect another Battle Pass, more maps, modes, and sandbox items (i.e. weapons, equipment, and/or vehicles), new Narrative Events and a Fracture Event, the continuation of the Forge Open Beta, more QoL improvements, and the addition of Campaign Splitscreen Co-op at some point.
"[W]e’re targeting a Forge open beta later in Season 2. We’ve successfully had Forge in private flighting with a limited audience for some time, so we’ve decided to forgo a large-scale formal flighting program and go right to open beta. With this approach, we can get the core Forge tools out to everyone quicker while also remaining focused on our core priority of continuing to improve foundational aspects of Halo Infinite. Forge will persist from the open beta onwards, evolving and growing over time." - Joseph Staten
The Forge Open Beta, scheduled for a September debut, is a way for 343 to deliver Forge before its formal release, allowing content creators to make use of the map tool as soon as possible. Once the Open Beta begins, Forge will be available indefinitely, without being part of the isolated flighting program or disappearing before the full release of the map editor.
"Quality of life (QoL) is shorthand for bug-fixes, new features and/or content to address issues negatively impacting player experience. We’ll be delivering QoL improvements as part of Season releases and as separate updates during Seasons.
"Our player-facing term for QoL updates that land during Seasons is “Drop Pods.” And much like their ODST namesakes, these release vehicles are meant to drop in hot, just as soon as they’re ready. Our target is one Drop Pod every month, and you can expect Drop Pods to vary in scope and size. We’ll have more to share about what’s going into Season 2’s Drop Pods as soon as possible after Season 2 launch." - Joseph Staten
Season 2 has been extended primarily to allow for more Quality of life improvements to be made, giving the game a much more solid foundation before spinning up content creation efforts all the way. Roughly once a month, players can expect to see "Drop Pods", which are QoL updates containing bug fixes and new features or content separate from the initial Seasonal release.
"We’ll have a lot more to share about Season 2 including a deep dive into its Battle Pass rewards, events—including brand new 'multiplayer narrative events' that place your personal Spartan in the center of an evolving Seasonal storyline—game modes, and much more during a community livestream scheduled for next Wednesday, April 27, at 1:00 PM PST on Twitch.tv/Halo and YouTube.com/Halo. We’ll also be discussing the roadmap in more detail during this livestream." - Joseph Staten
There will be a livestream on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at 1:00 P.M. PDT discussing all the new content dropping with Season 2, including what "Narrative Events" entail, and diving a little deeper into the aforementioned roadmap.
Summary
The long-awaited roadmap for Halo Infinite has finally arrived, showing 343's current plans for content delivery throughout the rest of 2022. Here's a quick rundown of the most important details from this roadmap and associated article:
Season 2 will run from May 3 to November 7, 2022, and it will feature the following content:
Two new maps: Catalyst (Arena) and Breaker (BTB)
Three new game modes: King of the Hill, Land Grab, and Last Spartan Standing
Narrative Events: Interference (May 3 - 16) and Alpha Pack (July 19 - August 1)
New 100-tier Battle Pass: New free Armor Core, 1000 earnable credits in premium track
Fracture: Entrenched Event: Week 1 (May 24 - 30), with more to be announced
Campaign Network Co-op and Mission Replay (late August)
Forge Open Beta (September)
Quality of Life updates each month including features, content, and bug fixes
Season 3 begins November 8, 2022 and will feature the following content:
New 100-tier Battle Pass
New maps
New game modes
New sandbox items (weapons, vehicles, equipment)
New Narrative Events
New Fracture Event
Forge Open Beta continues
Quality of Life updates continue
Campaign Splitscreen Co-op (release target TBD)
The Season 2 content and roadmap will be discussed in more detail in a livestream on April 27, 2022 at 1:00 P.M. PDT. It can be watched on Twitch or YouTube.
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