In an announcement on Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries have announced more details about the upcoming Memories of Reach update for Halo 5. Have a look at the changes below.
Infected:
The highly anticipated game mode is back.
Total player count: 12
Number of rounds: 4
Round time limit: 3 minutes each
New Custom Game option: “Last Squad Standing”
Spartans have all Spartan abilities (naturally!)
Infected have Thrust, Smart Scope, Stabilize
New medals
PLASMA CASTER UPDATE
The intended use case of the Plasma Caster has been “indirect fire”. Shoot around cover, predict enemy movement, etc. And it does fill that role to a degree.
However, the indirect fire from the sticky grenade was pretty much only effective if you get a direct stick. The use case of putting the sticky in a strategic position and letting the cluster grenades rain down on enemies was not working as intended.
The following balance changes will be in effect after Memories of Reach:
Cluster grenades are more effective
Charge shot has less arc
Regular grenade will explode slightly faster after bouncing
HYDRA LAUNCHER UPDATE
Hydra is filling its role well, with the exception of engaging multiple targets at close range. The splash damage radius was very, very small. Also, the recoil when jumping was not helping players accurately place rockets where they intended.
The following balance changes will be in effect after Memories of Reach:
Recoil has been reduced
Rocket splash damage radius increased
Typhon variant: Can now lock onto 3 enemies at once for extra coolness!
WEAPON BALANCE UPDATE SUMMARY – MEMORIES OF REACH
Plasma Caster: Default
Reduced non-charged timer from 0.5 to 0.3 (less overshooting of enemies)
Sticky grenade has less arc (to be able to place it on the map more reliably)
Sticky grenade detonation is now more damaging vs. vehicles, but less damaging vs bipeds (will still kill bipeds in one shot when stuck)
Increased sticky grenade submunition damage values from 43 to 75 (indirect fire from a sticky shot can now actually kill!)
Sticky submunition grenade inner AOE increased from 0.65 to 1.0
Plasma Caster: White Scar
Needles have improved aim toward nearby targets
Plasma Caster: Scourge of Fire
Sticky shot now has 7 submunitions instead of 5
Hydra Launcher: Default
Reduced recoil in hip
Increased inner AOE radius from 0.4 to 0.8
Increased impact damage to make it more effective against vehicles (still two rockets to kill Spartan)
Hydra Launcher: Typhon
Enabled multi lock on for up to 4 targets
Increased impact damage (still two rockets to kill Spartan)
Scattershot: Loathsome Thing
Increased number of hardlight projectiles to be same as normal scattershot (5 -> 8)
Rocket Launcher: High Five
Increased AOE radius on cluster rockets
Binary Rifle: Twin Jewels of Maethrillian
Reduced recoil
Placed twin projectiles a bit closer together for easier biped targeting
Covenant Carbine: Rain of Oblivion
Reduced recoil
Increased zoom magnification a bit (closer to default Carbine)
Incineration Cannon: River of Light
Added slight homing to charge shot to hit multiple bipeds easier
Incineration Cannon: Heatseeker
Added proximity detonation to charge shot (like the normal Inc. Cannon has) to make it more effective against airborne targets or targets behind cover
Fuel Rod Cannon: Pool of Radiance
Fixed a damage bug (was not causing AOE damage on initial explosion)
Made projectile thicker
Needler: Talon of the Lost
Reduced supercombine count to be same as normal Needler
Needles have longer lifetime to more easily supercombines against difficult to hit targets (8s instead of 4s)
Spartan Laser: Selene’s Lance
Reduced recoil
Made beam thicker
That’s all the details we have on this update at the moment. Hopefully, we’ll learn about updates new maps closer to release. If you want to find out even more content about Memories of Reach, click below for more.
Source: Halo Waypoint
Lewis is a games journalist, freelance gaming and consumer-tech journalist. They contributed 344 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: has since served as Editor-in-Chief at StealthOptional and Gaming Editor at MSPoweruser, with bylines at Gfinity Esports and FRVR.