Halo Infinite Season 2 'Lone Wolves' New Maps, Modes And Narrative Events Explained

Halo Infinite's multiplayer component has finally kicked off it's second season of content, with Lone Wolves arriving as part of a hefty 14.8GB update for the game on May 3rd.

So, what's new this season? Well, 343 Industries has dropped two brand new maps, introduced a couple of timed narrative events and served us up three additional modes to dig into, King of the Hill, Land Grab and the brand new Last Spartan Standing. Let's take a look at everything in a little more detail.

New Maps

In terms of those maps, we've got Breaker and Catalyst. Breaker, the new Big Team Battle arena, whisks players to a huge Banished junkyard, a properly massive space full of sniping spots, tunnels, jump pads and plenty of places to fall to your death. It's gonna take a while to get a read on the best strategies in this dust bowl.

Catalyst, on the other hand, is playable in Arena mode only and features an abandoned Forerunner bunker that's packed full of tight corridors, balconies and a very exposed central light bridge. This one feels like a much tighter affair, with multiple levels twisting and turning around within a relatively small indoor space.

Season 2 Battle Pass

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Of course, this season also sees a brand new Battle Pass kick off and once again this is made up of 100 tiers of both free and paid cosmetic goodies (up to 180 in total) to get your hands on as you complete challenges. The paid "premium" version of the Battle Pass comes in two varieties, one setting you back 1000 in-game credits, whilst the other costs 2,800 credits and nets you the first 25 levels of rewards instantly. Both premium Battle Passes also net you an extra challenge space to fill with an activity.

Timed Narrative Events

Tying into the Battle Pass is this season's new timed narrative events. The first event, Interference, is already underway and runs from the 3rd - 15th May. This will be followed by Alpha Pack, which takes place from July 19th to August 1st.

Each of these events features ten specific rewards for players to get their hands on by taking part in event-specific challenges, all of which are related to the brand new Last Spartan Standing mode on Breaker and, according to the official documentation which you can find over at the official Halo site:

To earn items in either Event Pass, players must complete Event Challenges while the event is active. Event Challenges can be identified by the orange banner icon visible by the Challenge's name. These challenges will often require players to complete matches or perform certain actions in the event playlist. Event Challenges cannot be completed in Custom Games or non-Event playlists.

New Modes

Last Spartan Standing

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The 12-player Last Spartan Standing has got some Battle Royale-lite elements to it, every spartan fighting for themselves to become the Last Spartan Standing with just five lives to play around with. It also incorporates a little touch of Call of Duty's excellent Gun Game, with player loadouts upgrading when they kill or assist in killing foes, filling up a little in-game XP bar to reach the next weapon level.

During the current Interference event, Last Spartan Standing will only be available on the new Breaker map, with a standalone playlist featuring all Big Team Battle maps for the mode to follow once both Interference and Alpha Pack events have come and gone.

Let's take a look at Last Spartan Standing's rules in a tad more detail:

• 12 players against one another on Big Team Battle maps. Each player has five respawns per match, and can level up to new weapon loadouts by gaining Personal Score.

• Personal Score is earned by killing enemies, earning assists, and collecting eliminated players' AI. When an enemy's AI is available for collection, a "Bonus XP" waypoint is visible for all players in the match. Capturing an AI awards more Personal Score than any other action in the mode.

• Once enough Personal Score has been gained, a prompt will appear on-screen to Level Up the equipped weapon loadout. These weapon loadouts unlock in the following order:
  • Level 1: Disruptor and Sidekick pistol
  • Level 2: Mangler and Disruptor
  • Level 3: Assault Rifle and Mangler
  • Level 4: Commando Rifle and Assault Rifle
  • Level 5: Bulldog Shotgun and Commando Rifle
  • Level 6: Battle Rifle and Bulldog Shotgun

• In addition, a Danger Zone will begin closing in on the map once five minutes have passed or when all players are out of respawns. Staying in this Danger Zone will damage players, so it's important to keep moving towards the center of the Zone.

• The match will end when all enemies are out of respawns and one Spartan is left standing. Players who have used all five of their respawns before the match ends are able to leave the session without penalty or continue spectating the match.

King of the Hill

The classic King of the Hill returns and, for now, it's available in Ranked Arena, Quick Play, Bot Bootcamp, a dedicated King of the Hill playlist and Custom Games.

In Ranked Arena matches, Hill locations follow a strict sequence on each map. In non-Ranked matches, however, the first Hill will always appear in the same spot on each map while later Hill locations are randomized.

Here's a look at the mode's official rules in a little more detail:

• In King of the Hill, two teams of four players race to gain control of a neutral zone on the map. This neutral zone is known as the Hill. When the Hill is captured, the capturing team receives a point and a new Hill will appear somewhere else on the map.

• Capturing a Hill requires a team to fill its Capture Meter. Each team has its own Capture Meter which will begin to fill when a player enters the Hill's zone. If an enemy enters the Hill while it is being captured, it will become "contested" and neither team's capture bar will fill. All enemies in the Hill must be eliminated before capturing can resume. If all team members leave the Hill before their Capture Meter is filled, the Hill will remain "owned" by that team but quickly decay back to a neutral zone.
  • In Custom Games, "classic" scoring can be enabled for KOTH. This option will reward points over time rather than rewarding points when the Capture Meter is filled.

Land Grab

Land Grab (basically King of the Hill with 3 hills) is tied to Season 2's Fracture vent, Entrenched, and will become available in matchmaking when this event launches on May 24th. After this, it will appear in matchmaking on rotation and in Custom Games.

Let's check out the full rules for Land Grab:

• Similar to the King of the Hill mode, Land Grab pits two teams of four players to capture neutral zones. The key differences in Land Grab are that there are 3 neutral zones active at a time and the goal is a quick capture of each, rather than maintaining control over time.

• To capture a neutral zone in Land Grab, players will need to have uncontested control of the zone for just a few seconds. Once that zone has been captured, it is no longer available for capture and the capturing team scores a point. Once all three active zones are captured, a new set of three neutral zones will appear on the map and teams must race to capture them before the other team can.

• When one or both teams are one point away from winning the match, the number of active zones will reduce to drive more players towards the same zone(s).

Rotating Playlists

Further to the three new modes we've detailed above, 343 Industries has also introduced new rotating playlists for this season, the first of which is Rumble Pit!

Rumble Pit

Rumble Pit will replace Free For All Slayer and comes with the following new gameplay variants:

• Ninja Slayer: Infinite ammo Energy Swords and Grappleshot loadouts, with only Grappleshots and Power Equipment on-map.
• Vampireball: In this Oddball mode, the Skull carrier is no longer nerfed—instead, the Skull is a one hit kill and has 50% Shield Vampirism.
• Rocket Repulsors: Infinite ammo Rocket Launchers and Repulsor loadouts, with only Repulsors and Power Equipment on-map.

Attrition

Attrition, which we've already seen in season one, returns and is now available through Quick Play, Custom Games and in the Bot Bootcamp. Let's check out its rules in a little more detail:

• Two teams of four players face-off in classic Slayer fashion, however, the teams have a shared pool of respawns. Once that pool of respawns has been depleted, downed players will drop their Personal AI. Teammates can use the dropped AI to revive downed players while enemies can use the dropped AI to eliminate players entirely.

• Players must work together across multiple rounds to ensure they can eliminate the enemy team first.

• If the round continues long enough, a Danger Zone will begin to close in on the map. Players caught outside of the Danger Zone will begin taking damage.

Elimination

Finally, Elimination, a variant of Attrition in which the shared pool of respawns is disabled, will be available later in Season 2 as a rotating playlist and we'll have more details on this mode once it drops.

Have you already jumped into Halo Infinite's Season 2? Happy with the new modes and content? As always, make sure to let us know in the comments.