Halo 5's Next Free Update Gets First Images, Details

343 Industries has shared the first details about Halo 5's Ghosts of Meridian expansion, which is coming out in early April. While 343 will pull back the curtain in full later, for now, we've learned it will come with new weapons, weapon skins, helmets, armor, assassinations, emblems, vehicles, and new Warzone map.

The new Warzone map is called Skirmish at Darkstar. In a blog post, 343 explained how the arena will stand out from the game's existing Warzone battlegrounds.

"The upcoming map brings an entirely new feel to the Warzone experience, with a variety of unique sightlines, flank routes, and cover pieces that invite you to push across and throughout the map, dodge danger from patrolling vehicles, and perfectly time an attack on opponents," it said. "If you've been anxiously awaiting a new place to bust out your finest Reqs and lay down destruction, this is it."

343 senior concept artist Josh Kao further explained the design philosophy for Skirmish at Darkstar.

"For Skirmish at Darkstar, the team decided on having a derelict ship in the middle of the map on the mining planet of Meridian--which you can see to the left of the concept (above)," he said. "I originally thought about having a space elevator in the concept, but we decided against it because there was already one in the campaign. I also wanted to capture the mood of what a mining planet would feel like, with the sunlight peeking through its heavily polluted atmosphere."

Here is an actual screenshot of the map.

Ghosts of Meridian also introduces a brand-new mech-like Mantis vehicle, called Hannibal Mantis. You can see a piece of concept art for the new Mantis below. Looks pretty rad.

Every month since Halo launched in October has seen the release of a new, free update for the Xbox One shooter. New content arrived in November (The Battle of Shadow and Light), December (Cartographer's Gift), January (Infinity's Armor), and February (Hammer Storm). This streak comes to an end with Ghosts of Meridian, as it's not coming out until April.

343 will share more details about all of the new Reqs in future updates. We'll have more details as they are divulged. What do you make what we know about Ghosts of Meridian so far? Let us know in the comments below!