Halo Infinite’s battle pass and events are getting a huge overhaul in season 5

Halo Infinite season five, Reckoning, is shaping up to be one of the game’s biggest content releases since launch. A trailer released today showcased some major additions coming to the game, such as Halo 4’s Extraction mode and the much-anticipated return of Firefight, but there’s just as much changing under the hood as well.

In a new blog post, 343 Industries’ community director Brian “ske7ch” Jarrard revealed that both the Halo Infinite battle pass and its event system would be undergoing significant reworks in season five. That includes the battle pass being reduced from 100 tiers to just 50, and the current slate of events getting scrapped entirely in favor of a new content delivery method called Operations.

The battle pass being sliced in half sounds daunting at first glance, but ske7ch makes it clear that it’s a streamlining effort and not a reduction in total content. “The Season 5 Battle Pass is comparable to what’s been offered in prior seasons in terms of breadth of content,” he explained. “Thanks to some improvements with our game systems, we can now include multiple content items in a single tier of the pass.”

With rewards such as left and right shoulder pieces of the same design now consolidated into single nodes, the end result is a battle pass that is much tighter and more efficient. According to ske7ch, this will ultimately “net you more content with less grinding,” which suggests that very little is changing with how quickly battle pass levels can be gained despite the rework to the number of tiers.

For the free-to-play crowd, season five changes the way its non-premium battle pass works, too.

Rather than free rewards being spread out throughout the whole battle pass, the first 20 tiers of the full 50-tier battle pass are completely free instead. This makes it much quicker to earn all of the free rewards but comes with a catch. The free battle pass will be active for a much shorter time window, expiring on Nov. 14, making it more comparable to a limited-time event pass rather than a season-long pursuit.

Beyond that suite of changes, though, a lot is staying the same. A premium battle pass still costs 1,000 Credits, still includes 1,000 Credits that can be unlocked, and still remains permanently available after being purchased.

Where a lot more changes are taking place is with events. The event system that players have become familiar with over the past few years is being scrapped entirely in favor of Operations. “While we have enjoyed playing events and earning cool content, we’ve heard feedback that they often feel too limiting,” ske7ch said, “and once they’re gone, there’s no way to ever obtain that content again.”

Operations are still completely free activities that sporadically launch throughout a seasonal cycle but now typically run for four to six weeks and always feature a 20-tier reward track. As before, once an Operation ends, that reward track will go away, but this new system comes with some premium alternatives that cut through the FOMO altogether.

Infinite players will now be able to upgrade an active Operation for 500 Credits, giving them bonus XP, exclusive cosmetic content and, most importantly, makes that Operation permanently available. Now, as with battle passes, buying into what was previously the game’s limited-time events will allow you to grind out the available Operation rewards at any time. Even after an Operation has ended, the premium version of it can still be bought in the future via the game’s store.

In another quality-of-life facelift, Operations are now completed via Match XP instead of challenge completions like previous events. This means that players can complete matches in any matchmaking playlist (or custom game, as season five now makes possible) and make progress on an Operation.

If players want to skip the grind altogether, another premium option will be offered for 2,000 Credits that grants instant access to all 20 tiers of an Operation’s reward track. Like with the 500 Credits buy-in option, players can also buy this more expensive alternative in the game’s store when looking to buy Operations that have already ended.

Halo Infinite’s season five battle pass launches on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Season five’s first Operation, Combined Arms, begins less than a month later on Nov. 14. A second Operation, Winter Contingency III, is then slated to run over the Christmas period starting on Dec. 19.