Within Arena modes, equipment items, grenades, and weapons spawn on various plates and racks. Normally, these spawners wouldn't be too spectacular in their own right, but there are a few details and features offered by Halo Infinite's item spawners that are worth writing a full article. The below sections are included in this article
Tier Explanation and Demonstration
Before discussing the item spawners, it is important to clarify some terminology. In Halo 5: Guardians, there were three tiers of weapons and power-ups.
Tier 1 items start their respawn timer as soon as they are picked up or disrupted off their spawn. Once that timer elapses, a new copy of the item respawns. An example of a Tier 1 item in Halo 5: Guardians would be the Battle Rifle. If you pick one up from its spawn point, another one will spawn a set amount of time after you first acquired it. That means multiple Battle Rifles can be in play at once from the same spawn.
Tier 2 items do not start their respawn timer until the existing copy of the item has either been fully used (i.e. all ammo fired) or despawned. There cannot be multiple copies of the item at once. An example of a Tier 2 weapon in Halo 5: Guardians is the Shotgun. There can only be one Shotgun from a given spawn on the map at a time. Until all the ammo in that Shotgun has been fired or the Shotgun despawns, the respawn timer for the next Shotgun will not start counting down.
Tier 3 items have a fixed respawn time based on how long the match has been running. These items spawned on Weapon Pads in Halo 5: Guardians and had visible, clearly announced timers leading up to their spawns. The Sniper Rifle, for example, respawned every 3 minutes during the match. So, if a match had a 12-minute timer, the Sniper Rifle would respawn at exactly 9:00, 6:00, and 3:00 on the timer, regardless of whether a copy of the Sniper Rifle already existed on the map.
The same three item tiers exist in Halo Infinite, but it is now possible to determine which tier an item belongs to by noticing the behavior of its spawner.
This screenshot show the behavior of the Drop Wall spawner on the map Recharge. Note the small blue line that is just beginning to fill in the dark circle around the spawner. This line indicates how long the respawn timer has elapsed. Once the blue line fully fills in the circle, the item will respawn.
All item spawners in Halo Infinite feature a lit bar that fills in as the weapon respawns. This bar can be used to determine roughly when an item will respawn. It can also be used to determine which tier the item belong to.
In the above screenshot, the Drop Wall Spawner is a Tier 1 spawner because the Drop Wall already exists on the map (as shown by the pickup prompt). The respawn timer started counting down as soon as the item was picked up off its spawner.
The Heatwave is an example of a Tier 2 weapon. Once the weapon is acquired off the spawner, the Heatwave Spawner shows a red weapon icon and the bar at the top of the spawner stays dark. Once the Heatwave has been emptied or despawned, the respawn timer will begin filling in.
This video shows how the Tier 2 spawner behaves. The spawner has a red Heatwave icon until said weapon is empty, at which point the respawn bar begins to fill. Note that some of the audio in this clip sounds muted due to a bug stemming from Join-in-Progress during the Tech Preview.
Finally, Tier 3 items have their own unique spawner designs. Rather than a blue lit bar, Tier 3 Spawners feature a yellow bar that slowly fills until the item respawns. Once the item is retrieved from the spawner, the yellow bar jumps to the correct position in order to be fully filled by the next respawn time. This screenshot shows the spawner for the Gravity Hammer with the yellow bar filled more than halfway. The Gravity Hammer spawns every four minutes, so the dark portion represents one minute and 21 seconds.
Tier 1 Spawners
Tier 1 items begin respawning the instant they are removed from their spawner. The following items used Tier 1 Spawners in the Technical Preview. Tier 1 items are considered effective but not so powerful that they need restrictions on their respawns.
The BR75 spawns in a wall-mounted weapon rack, which was used for all Tier 1 and Tier 2 weapons in the Tech Preview. The respawn bar is a blue line at the top of the rack.
The Drop Wall, like all multi-charge equipment items in the Tech Preview, is a Tier 1 item. The Tier 1 Equipment Spawner is a circular green plate with a circular blue respawn bar.
The Grappleshot is also a Tier 1 equipment item.
The M9 Frag Grenades, as with all other grenade types in the Tech Preview, spawn on a Tier 1 Grenade Spawner. This spawner is shaped like a triangle with clipped corners, and the respawn bar is a blue line that forms a smaller triangle with clipped corners. Each grenade spawner always spawns two grenades at once.
Plasma Grenades also spawn on a Tier 1 Grenade Spawner.
Unlike in Halo 5: Guardians, the Plasma Pistol was a Tier 1 weapon in the Tech Preview.
The Pulse Carbine is yet another Tier 1 weapon.
As with the other two grenade type, Spike Grenades are Tier 1 grenades.
The Threat Sensor belongs to the Tier 1 family of equipment.
Finally, the VK78 Commando is a Tier 1 Weapon.
Tier 2 Spawners
Tier 2 items only begin respawning once the existing item runs out of ammo/uses or despawns. In the Tech Preview, only some weapons used Tier 2 Spawners. Tier 2 items are generally more powerful than Tier 1 items but not quite as powerful as Tier 3 items.
The CQS48 Bulldog is a Tier 2 weapon. Like Tier 1 weapons, it spawns in a wall-mounted weapon rack. However, once it is removed from the rack, the respawn timer will not begin counting down until it either runs out of ammo or despawns.
The Heatwave is another Tier 2 weapon.
The Needler is also Tier 2 weapon, much as it was in Halo 5: Guardians. However, it was the only Tier 2 weapon in the Tech Preview that had multiple weapon racks on the same map, Bazaar. As such, one could pick up the Needler from one rack and refill it using the other rack. This would immediately despawn the Needler in that rack and cause its respawn timer to start counting down instantly.
The Ravager was the final Tier 2 weapon featured in the Tech Preview.
Tier 3 Spawners
Tier 3 items respawn at set times in the match. When only 30 seconds remain before the item respawns, a timer will appear, and the Personal AI will announce the upcoming item spawn. Tier 3 items are considered the most powerful items in the game and as such have relatively long respawn timers (2-4 minutes, depending on the item). In the Tech Preview, both weapons and equipment were seen as Tier 3 items.
The Active Camo was considered Tier 3 equipment in the Tech Preview, a step up from its Tier 2 status in Halo 5: Guardians. Tier 3 equipment spawns on a larger circular plate with a yellow/orange circular bar indicating the respawn timer.
As mentioned earlier, the Gravity Hammer is a Tier 3 weapon. Tier 3 Weapon Spawners are floor-mounted rectangular plates. The respawn timer is indicated by a circular yellow bar around the center of the spawner.
The M41 SPNKR is another Tier 3 weapon, as it was in Halo 5: Guardians.
Like the Active Camo, the Overshield is a Tier 3 equipment item, a step up from its Tier 2 status in Halo 5: Guardians.
The S7 Sniper is also a Tier 3 weapon, just as it was in Halo 5: Guardians.
Finally, the Skewer is a Tier 3 weapon as well.
Summary
Item Spawners may not be the most interesting thing to discuss, but Halo Infinite's spawners add a ton of visible information to something that has been part of the game series since Halo: CE. From respawn times to Tier behavior, Halo Infinite's Item Spawners are more informative than ever before. Here's what we discovered about these spawners.
Tier 1 Spawners begin respawning their item as soon as it is removed from the spawner.
Tier 2 Spawners only begin respawning their item once the item has been fully used or has despawned.
Tier 3 Spawners respawn their item on a relatively lengthy set timer, starting at the beginning of the match and ignoring when the item was picked up or used.
All spawners have a respawn timer indicator in the form of a lit bar that fills up completely when the item respawns.
The Tier 1 Equipment Spawner is a floor-mounted circular plate with a blue-lit circular respawn bar around the center.
The Tier 1/2 Weapon Spawner is a wall-mounted rack with a blue-lit horizontal respawn bar at the top.
The Tier 1 Grenade Spawner is a floor-mounted triangle with clipped corners and an in-set blue respawn bar around the center.
The Tier 3 Equipment Spawner is a larger floor-mounted circular plate with a yellow-lit circular respawn bar around the center.
The Tier 3 Weapon Spawner is a roughly rectangular floor-mounted plate with a yellow-lit circular respawn bar around the center.
The Tier 1 Weapons are: BR75, Plasma Pistol, Pulse Carbine, and VK78 Commando. Note that the MA40 AR and MK50 Sidekick are not included because there are no spawners for these weapons in the Tech Preview.
The Tier 1 Equipment items are: Drop Wall, Grappleshot, and Threat Sensor.
The Tier 1 Grenades are: M9 Frag Grenade, Plasma Grenade, Spike Grenade.
The Tier 2 Weapons are: CQS48 Bulldog, Heatwave, Needler, and Ravager.
The Tier 3 Weapons are: Gravity Hammer, M41 SPNKR, S7 Sniper, and Skewer.
The Tier 3 Equipment items are: Active Camo and Overshield
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