Halo Infinite season four is right around the corner, slated to launch on June 20. And a large focus for its content additions lies in bringing much-anticipated community requests to the title that were sorely missing in its launch window.
With two weeks left before the season launch, developer 343 Industries dropped an in-depth preview blog today for one of the key systems that was controversially omitted from Halo Infinite's release: Career Rank. With season four's release, Career Rank will finally give players a real form of personal account progression to grind for in multiplayer. Not only will the Career Rank system allow players to flex their playtime but it comes with rewards to chase as well.
"Career Rank will likely feel most like MCC's progression system," community manager Unyshek said in the blog. "Tiers such as Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc. are the largest bucket, which are all broken into smaller military-style Ranks such as Cadet or General. Then, within each of those Ranks, you will move in three smaller increments called Grades."
The progression system is most similar to those found in Halo: Reach and Halo: The Master Chief Collection but comes packaged with a few small tweaks to make sure players have some incentives to push through the levels. This comes in ways both small and large, from your Career Rank now being displayed on your nameplate in-game to select ranks handing out rewards. These rewards range from corresponding nameplates to armor, weapon, and vehicle emblems to equip on your gear.
Related: Iconic Halo mode finally getting added to Infinite in season 4
Despite the system only launching over a year after Halo Infinite's release, one major detail about Career Rank is that it will not be retroactive. Those who have sunk hundreds of hours into the title will not see that progress reflected in their Career Rank when it launches alongside season four, instead starting them at the Recruit Rank with everybody else. XP boosts also won't help players in terms of Career Rank progression, according to today's blog.
Both of these details have already drawn some immediate criticism from prominent Halo content creators, such as Mint Blitz, who further noted that the API suggests there could be artificial daily limits put in place to prevent players from leveling too quickly. Such a cap on a player's ability to level through the account progression system was previously a feature in Halo: Reach, where it gained some notoriety for how it punished anyone playing for long periods of time each day.
Despite the early critiques on certain aspects of the system, Career Rank will be inevitably easier to improve based on community feedback once Infinite players have had a taste of how it operates in season four. It will launch with the returning Infection game mode, new maps, Forge updates, and more on season four's June 20 release date.