Halo Infinite Team Deep Dives On Season 3's New Maps

Almost a week ahead of Halo Infinite Season 3's launch, developer 343 Industries has released new information about the upcoming updates maps and modes.

As previously shown in Season 3's launch trailer, the season will introduce three new maps to Halo: Infinite. The first, Oasis, is a Big Team Battle map, set on red rocks in the process of terraforming to a verdant green. Basically everywhere on this map is vehicle accessible, meaning that you can take a warthog into the tunnels and buildings that populate the landscape. This offers both chaotic and strategic possibilities, especially for CTF.

The second is an arena map called Cliffhanger. This map is a snowy mountaintop, which hides an ONI research facility. Cliffhanger was designed with zone-control modes in mind. It's asymmetric and the design team wanted to make each area feel unique and tactically different, depending on the mode you are playing the map in.

The third is another arena map, entitled Chasm. This one showcases the interior of Zeta Halo, with bridges and floating columns standing above an immense drop. Chasm is based on, but not directly taken from, an area in Halo Infinite's campaign. It has been adjusted to become more of a symmetrical map and tuned to make grappling through the space a risky, but deadly, challenge.

As for the rest of the update, the last part of the blog post concerned Escalation Slayer. Similar to Call of Duty's Gun Game mode, Escalation Slayer tasks you with killing enemies with specific weapons. With each kill, you'll advance through set loadouts. First player to get a kill with every loadout wins. Melee attacking enemy players from behind will drop them a level. Escalation Slayer will launch with two variants: FFA Escalation and Team Escalation, where the whole team advances through the loadout levels together. A Big Team Battle version is on the way, as well as another variant that incorporates "super" weapons seen in Halo Infinite's campaign.

Here's the full breakdown of Escalation Slayer loadouts.

• LEVEL 1: Rocket Launcher, Cindershot, Repulsor
• LEVEL 2: Energy Sword, Gravity Hammer, Grappleshot
• LEVEL 3: Sniper Rifle, Skewer, Threat Sensor
• LEVEL 4: Hydra, Ravager, Repulsor
• LEVEL 5: Bulldog, Needler, Grappleshot
• LEVEL 6: Battle Rifle, Commando, Threat Sensor
• LEVEL 7: Shock Rifle, Stalker Rifle, Drop Wall
• LEVEL 8: Heatwave, Sentinel Beam, Thruster
• LEVEL 9: Bandit, Assault Rifle, Drop Wall
• LEVEL 10: Mangler, Sidekick, Threat Sensor
• LEVEL 11: Oddball, Shroud Screen

You can read the full deep dive on Halo Waypoint.