'Halo Infinite' Fans Aren't Happy With The New Progression System

Despite the massive praise fans and critics have been giving “Halo Infinite,” nearly every player agrees that the free multiplayer’s progression and monetization systems have been lackluster, even with new changes meant to make grinding less tedious.

343 Industries recently implemented a change that gave players season pass XP for the first few matches they play per day, as community manager John Junyszek explained in a previous tweet. The game also received updated challenges and a new “Play 1 Game” challenge. The duration of XP boosts has also doubled.

Many players welcomed the changes, but others weren’t as excited. In the same tweet thread, some users complained about how the XP system would discourage players from playing more than seven multiplayer matches per day as the XP reward per match would shrink drastically from 300 XP on the first game to only 50 XP on the seventh.

The addition of daily XP rewards was able to reduce player frustration to some extent, but the angst around other non-battle pass progression systems remained. Players’ perspective on “Halo Infinite’s” monetization scheme is still negative as the game asks players to buy minor cosmetics like Spartan armor colors or recolored weapon skins for unreasonable prices.

Reddit user Quillows summarized “Halo Infinite’s” most frustrating progression features in a post, citing how the developers have made an unrewarding system that focuses more on making money than giving players anything worthwhile for the time they spent with the game.

The Armor Core system, for example, limits overall Spartan customization by gatekeeping certain cosmetic pieces to specific cores (Mk VII, MKV and Yoroi). Armor pieces like helmets, decorative ammo pouches and even colors are not compatible with different armor cores. Armor paint in particular was especially infuriating as players would need to spend money again for a single color that they already own.

As “Halo Infinite” inches closer to its official release date, 343 Industries has been keeping an ear to the ground as they take player feedback into consideration. Only time will tell if the cries of the player base will lead to meaningful monetization and progression systems in future battle pass seasons.