As the best Halo Infinite players on the planet flock to North Carolina to fight over $250,000, developer 343 Industries dropped something for the rest of us: a trailer for the multiplayer shooter’s new season 3.
Halo Infinite’s third season, titled Echoes Within, has been a long time coming. Initially planned for release last fall on Xbox and Windows PC, 343 Industries pushed it back a few months, opting instead to release a so-called “Winter Update,” which included a handful of new maps and features but not the sort of content deluge that typically defines full seasons. (Halo Infinite seasons typically have a 100-level battle pass replete with cosmetics; the Winter Update included 30 levels.)
Echoes Within will add the hotly anticipated bandit rifle, a single-shot weapon that appears to function much like the DMR from beloved Halo games like Halo 4 and Halo: Reach. That drops alongside the shroud screen: basically a smoke grenade. Echoes Within will also add three new maps: Oasis is a large scale level for the Big Team Battle playlist, while Chasm and Cliffhanger are for the more popular four-vs.-four Arena mode.
Shortly after rolling out the Winter Update, 343 also launched a beta for Halo Infinite’s Forge mode — a set of creation tools that allow players to design fully customized maps. Earlier this month, Forge levels were finally added to Halo Infinite’s general matchmaking as part of the Community Collection playlist. Four maps — including remakes of totemic levels from Halos past — were added to the initial rotation. Season three will bring more, but the standout is “Art’s Room,” a stage set in what appears to be a teenager’s room in suburbia.
Echoes Within will run from March 7 to June 27, and is the first instance of a Halo Infinite season lasting just three months.