Image: 343 Industries
No, the key art above is not a promotional image of Wolfenstein. It is a promotional photo of a Halo Infinite armor cosmetic set called Eaglestrike. Very clean, right? Good news: the kit itself is pretty easy to get. Bad news: Your custom version won’t look great for months.
The second season of Halo Infinite has just been released a few weeks ago, and developer 343 Industries has already released two “events” (or limited-time playlists where you can play to unlock specific rewards) for the free shooting game . . The first event of the season, “Interference,” focused on the new do-it-yourself mode in the actual Last Spartan Standing battle. The second, “Fracture: Trenched,” is about the new way of capturing land, don’t say it, King of the Hill.
“Fracture” events are essentially an excuse to add unconventional Halo cosmetics to Infinite, justified in history through a lot of things related to interdimensional fractures and multiversal travel and blah, blah, blah. In the first season, the “Fracture: Tenrai” event allowed players to unlock the samurai-inspired Yoroi kit with an additional 30-level battle pass. Earning rewards in “Entrenched” works the same way.
Like the “Tenrai” pass, the “Entrenched” pass is free and you can complete it with your standard seasonal pass. Progress is made by completing affiliate challenges on the currently active “Entrenched” playlist, which introduces you to Land Grab matches.
For the standard battle pass, completing the challenges allows you to gain XP, and gaining 1,000 XP allows you to level up. But for events, XP doesn’t matter: once you complete a challenge, unlock a new level and get your reward; no need to keep track of XP or add an armchair or anything. (Completed Fracture Challenges also allow you to gain XP for your standard battle pass.) Some of the challenges, such as “completing a PvP Land Grab” game, are very simple. Others, such as “win a PvP Land Grab game,” are subject to your teammates’ skill level. Good luck.
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The problem is, there are basically no good rewards in the first week. You can get a gun skin pretty soon, and you also get Eaglestrike relatively quickly. But that’s … basically. Cosmetics that are worth not being available until later levels. These are some of the highlights that will be available as “Fracture: Entangled” cycles inside and out of availability:
- Level 3: Eagle Perspective, an obviously ridiculous posture (which I am absolutely equipping the second I win it).
- Level 5: The core of the Eaglestrike armor.
- Levels 13 and 14: Crabshell Thick Backpacks for Eaglestrike.
- Level 17: Carbon Tundra, the first armor coating for Eaglestrike; this is the time when all who make the armor will not have the exact same color scheme.
- Level 20: The Kerberos helmet, which looks like the kind of thing a soldier would carry in the trenches of World War II.
- Level 29: Ultramarine Core, a delicious mahogany and indigo armor coating I called dibs, sorry.
This week’s leading reward, earned by completing all your weekly challenges, is a visor for Eaglestrike. Image: 343 Industries
Right now, as you can only have up to 10 trench-themed challenges available during a given week, you’ll reach a tough stop after reaching level 10, which means Eaglestrike armor won’t start to look unique among players. to use it until July. (unless, of course, 343 Industries makes a bunch of attractive armor coatings available in the microtransaction store in intermediate weeks).
Currently, “Fractured: Intricate” is scheduled to run one week a month for the next few months. The Halo Infinite game menu says the first week ends on May 30th. But in a blog post, 343 says the first week ends May 31 at 2:00 pm ET. In other words, the game itself doesn’t seem to list the dozens of hours the event is active during the weekly reset every Tuesday, but if you don’t complete all of your challenges on Monday evening, you’ll still have time. Tuesday mornings to knock them out. Anyway, at least I didn’t go down without explaining myself first. This is the current calendar:
- The first week runs from May 24 to 31.
- The second is from June 14 to 21.
- Third, July 5-12.
- Fourth, from the 16th to the 23rd of August.
The previous fracture event ran six times during the first season of Halo Infinite. This second one will also happen six times, says the developer, but it is unclear when exactly these scheduled dates in August have passed. When contacted for feedback, 343 Industries representatives did not immediately have this information on hand.
For what it’s worth: Land Grab, at least for the games I’ve played so far, is pretty fun. It’s a bit of a twist on Halo Infinite zone capture modes, like King of the Hill. Two teams of four face off on the Arena maps. (Land Grab is available in four levels: Aquarius, Bazaar, the deliciously old Catalyst, and Behemoth, the map so hopelessly fucked up that 343 Industries removed it from the classified playlist.) At the beginning of each game, there are three zones. on the map. But unlike other zone capture modes, once one zone is secured in Land Grab, it crashes and the other computer cannot retrieve it. Once all three areas have been captured, three more will appear. The first team with 11 points wins. I’m sure my thoughts will be calcified as I end up playing more, but for now I’m enjoying the tension these games can have.
There is also a discussion about fracture armor kits that appears occasionally in Halo Infinite. Purists say it’s a repudiation of Halo’s long-standing aesthetic. Others accept how strange it is. Personally, I think these kits are great in theory, albeit a bit short on customization options. (I love the Yoroi, but I wish the colors available weren’t gray, light gray, slightly lighter gray, and slightly pinkish gray.) anywhere or, uh, anytime, it means there’s a whole multiverse of possibilities for future seasons. Hi, who knows, maybe this is how we get playable elites.