Halo Infinite update nerfs grenades and power weapon spawns

343 Industries outlines its Halo Infinite update for mid-February, which includes grenade nerfs, a reduction in power spawns for Ranked Arena, and a direct response to the ‘drop weapon meta’ employed by competitive players looking to climb the Halo Infinite ranks. There’s also some nice buffs for the S7 Sniper and a number of bug fixes for the FPS game.

Halo Infinite community manager John ‘Unyshek’ Junyszek shares the big details coming with the next Halo Infinite patch, though says players can expect full patch notes to arrive when the update releases. He explains, “The updates in this patch are the direct result of player feedback online and community reported issues on the Halo Support site.”

Weapon racks in Ranked Arena are a primary focus, as 343 addresses feedback that there is “too much power on the map in Ranked Arena” due to the high respawn rate and generous ammo count on many weapons. As such, weapon racks will now only provide one weapon at a time, being set to a ‘red rack’ state after a weapon is picked up and staying that way until the original weapon has despawned.

Junyszek adds, “As for ammo reductions on the weapons themselves in Ranked, players should expect those to come for the Heatwave, Stalker Rifle, CQS48 Bulldog, and Shock Rifle with the launch of season 3.” These changes should hopefully shake up the best Halo Infinite guns for multiplayer somewhat, lessening the effect that grabbing one has on how long you can run roughshod over the competition.

A Halo Infinite frag grenade nerf comes in the form of a reduction to their overall damage radius, which Junyszek says “should help reward skilled frag grenade placement while also addressing the concerns around grenade spam effectiveness in gameplay.”

There’s also a direct response to the ‘drop weapon meta,’ where players are dropping their weapons instead of switching out to their secondary due to faster ready up times. “Nearly every top player was doing it,” Junyszek explains, “so we’ve made sure the weapon ready up time after a dropped weapon matches the speed of swapping between weapons normally.”

Finally, there’s some fairly significant tweaks to improve the no-scope error angle for the S7 Sniper, which means it will be more accurate when firing from the hip. Junyszek notes that the current properties “were in line with previous Halo titles, but we’ve seen the requests to make it even more accurate when firing from the hip.” Good news for all you trickshotters out there, then.

This Halo Infinite update arrives on February 15, with full patch notes expected at that time. Also included are improvements to client and server stability, along with reductions on semi-automatic weapons jamming and fixes to a visual glitch causing them to appear as if they were double-firing.

A recent update introduced cut Halo Reach Spartans to Infinite, while 343 Industries promises that plans for Halo Infinite Forge haven’t changed despite recent Microsoft layoffs affecting the studio. If you’re a big Halo fan, then you might want to take a look at more of the best space games on PC, or other great multiplayer games worth your time.