Halo Infinite co-op and Forge open beta coming in November

343 Industries announced on Wednesday that campaign network co-op, mission replay, and several other new features such as Forge open beta and a new 30-tier Battle Pass would be coming to Halo Infinite as part of the game’s Winter Update on Nov. 8th.

Campaign network co-op and mission replay have been some of the most highly requested features for Halo Infinite since the game first launched in December of last year. These features will be arriving in the game more than two months after the announcement that split-screen co-op — a mainstay of the series since the first Halo — would no longer be coming to Infinite.

The question of how 343 Industries would implement co-op in Halo Infinite has been a persistent one in the games’ community of players, particularly given that Infinite represents the first semi-open world campaign in Halo compared to the series’ individual, mission-based campaigns in the past.

Image: 343 Industries/Xbox Game Studios

Campaign Lead Designer John Mulkey emphasized in the Winter Update ViDoc that this same principle extends to items such as Spartan cores, weapons, and collectibles. “So if you’ve collected a Spartan Core, let’s say, and I haven’t, when we go to that Spartan Core [in a network co-op game], it’s still interactive and any one of us can activate it to collect it. Those who haven’t gotten that Spartan Core, they get it.” Mulkey also notes that, at the beginning of a Fireteam session for campaign network co-op, all skulls — specific combat or gameplay-modifying collectibles — acquired by each individual player in their respective games will be available to choose from.

343 Industries has implemented a radius-based system for when co-op players are navigating the semi-open world exterior map of the game. “We went to the largest base that we have in the game,” Mulkey says, “and then basically made the [maximum allotted space for players to be apart from one another] double that.” In addition, individual players will be able to skip narrative sequences without interrupting another player’s sequence; they’ll also be able to trigger a mission replay, fast travel to a new location, and switch off shared mission markers.

Image: 343 Industries/Xbox Game

New achievements will be included for co-op and mission replay that encourage players to go back and revisit parts of missions that were previously inaccessible before the mission replay feature.

All this, as well as the Forge open beta, two new official Forge maps known as Argyle and Detachment, a free 30-tier Battle Pass, a new multiplayer mode called Cover 1-Flag, two upcoming multiplayer events in December and January, and Match XP will be coming to Halo Infinite as part of the Winter Update on Nov. 8th.