Halo Infinite is shaking up its battle pass and fans aren't happy

We already know that Halo Infinite multiplayer will be free-to-play when the game arrives this December. Just like Halo: The Master Chief Collection, 343 Industries will offer seasonal battle passes to Halo Infinite players, allowing them to level each one up and unlock new cosmetic items each season. However, today we're learning that Halo Infinite will handle battle pass progression differently than Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

As it turns out, the Halo Infinite battle pass won't be leveled up with XP. Instead, the only way to progress the battle pass in Halo Infinite will be to complete challenges. In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, players get XP for each match completed, but it seems that Halo Infinite players won't be able to grind battle pass progression in the same way.

On Twitter, Halo community manager John Junyszek confirmed that there won't be per-match XP in Halo Infinite, saying, "Playing and winning matches will be challenges which will help players progress through the Battle Pass. Even though this means no per-match XP at launch, you're still always progressing through challenges and therefore the BP."

In a separate tweet, Junyszek notes that while there was an issue with the Halo Infinite technical preview that caused some players to run out of challenges, that won't be the case in the full game. "Our current plans for launch, while not 'infinite,' mean it's extremely difficult to run out daily challenges. I won't say 'impossible' cause there are some grinders out there, but I'd be impressed."

So, it sounds like in Halo Infinite, you won't be able to ignore challenges if you want to progress your battle pass. The response to this seems pretty negative on Twitter, so we'll see if 343 Industries decides to backtrack and implement XP progression before launch.