Warzone Firefight is an ambitious new multiplayer mode coming to Halo 5: Guardians that stands primed to offer the biggest Halo cooperative experience ever in franchise history. In Warzone Firefight, up to eight players will work together to complete five rounds of increasingly difficult, dynamic objectives set against a timer to emerge victorious. Since its reveal, players all across the world have been chomping at the bit to get a taste of this evolved PvE experience, and now we’re happy to announce that from April 14-18, we’ll be offering all Halo 5: Guardians players a chance to do just that with our special Warzone Firefight Beta.
The five-day beta experience will see Spartan fireteams of up to 8 players battle against an onslaught of enemy AI on the Escape from A.R.C. Warzone map. You and your friends will tackle a new objective for each of the five rounds, with each task growing progressively more demanding along the way. And since the mode is a fully realized member of the Warzone family, players will have full access to their arsenal in the Halo 5: Guardians REQ system, letting you leverage your REQs in new ways against computer-controlled enemies. In addition, we will offer a brand new promotional pack – the Mythic Warzone REQ Pack – which will make it even easier for eager Spartans to unlock the most powerful REQs in the system.
Welcome to Warzone Firefight. You picked a helluva week to join up…
New features and updates:
New Warzone map added: Skirmish at Darkstar New Arena map added: Tyrant Weather effects added to Forge New sound effects added to Forge Spartan Company members will now appear in the Active Roster April 14 – 18: Warzone Firefight Beta playlist goes live.
Multiplayer:
Fixed exploit that allowed players to hide inside Armory base geometry in Warzone Significantly improved the speed and responsiveness of the REQ Menu, especially for players with a large number of REQs Favorited friends now appear at the top of Active Roster Fixed issue where players that a join a match in progress did not have full REQ Energy to start Reduced instances where the assaulting team could be spawn blocked on Warzone Assault maps Fixed issues with invisible environment boundaries allowing vehicles to push players out of normal map boundaries Fixed issue where some players who had recently dealt damage to a Boss did not receive Takedown credit when the Boss was killed by a teammate SWAT DMRs added to the SWAT playlist Fixed an issue that caused the Event Feed to not dispalyer at the end of a round or match SWAT game type options have been balanced to allow for even weighting between Magnums, BRs, and DMRs Gravity Hammer is now the starting weapon in Grifball Reduced Boss Takedown damage requirement from 10% to 1% Random Weapon and Random Vehicle REQs can now unlock the most up-to-date REQs, including those from Ghosts of Meridian Daily Win Bonus Packs can now unlock the most up-to-date single-use REQs, including those from Ghost of Meridian Players can now “ping” their location in a game when alive to alert teammates by pressing UP on the d-pad in Warzone or Arena Fixed an issue that caused explosive barrels to not be explosive when the Deathless option is turned on in Custom Games
Sandbox:
Fixed a bug that caused the Spartan Laser to deal incorrect damage against shields Fixed a bug where damage dealt to Gungoose Cannons did not properly transfer damage to the rest of the vehicle. (The Spartan Laser is excited about this change, too) Mantis armor has been increased Reduced the explosion radius of the Whiplash Needler projectiles now do damage to Wraith and Scorpion weak points Fixed an issue where Rail Gun aiming light can be seen through geometry Fixed server crashes surrounding picking up powerups Fixed a bug that made picking up powerups impossible With Speed Boost activated, Spartan Charging now kills upon impact Hydra Launcher now only locks onto the torso of enemy Spartans Fixed a bug that allowed players to perform a Spartan Charge after performing a Thrust in mid-air Fixed a bug with Phaeton damage regions that resulted in incorrect weak spot hit markers Slightly reduced bloom for the Halo: CE Pistol Improved readability of shields popping immediately after they begin to recharge Lowered the damage of an uncharged Plasma Pistol shot when fired upon a Ghost’s weak point Fixed a bug that did not allow Ball holders to pick up grenades Fixed a bug with Advanced Sensors’ speed threshold that caused players to show up on radar in some cases where they were not moving at Sprint/Thrust speed or faster
Forge:
New & Updated Features:
Weather Effects added to map properties [Rain, Snow, Dust, Embers, Papers, Motes] Sound Effects added to extras menu Starting energy can now be adjusted on weapon Starting energy and clips can now be adjusted for weapons on weapon pads
Fixed issues where objects would become almost completely black when placed under certain conditions Fixed an issue that would prevent Forgers from being able to save a map until they restarted Halo 5: Guardians Fixed a bug where objects would randomly rotate when opening the objects property menu Objects moved via scripting will respect, “Reset Object Position” commands Fixed bugs surrounding welding, especially when welding to animated machines (i.e. pistons) Fixed Magnets for Wall 2x64x4 base variant Fixed various object LOD (level of detail) issues Grav volumes: Fixed dimensions of some grav volumes that were intended to be wider than tall, and vice versa Fixed magnets on some grav volumes Grav volumes can no longer be selected from the top, making it easier pick up objects inside them Fixed an issue with Phased/Fixed crates despawning incorrectly Crates despawned via scripting now correctly respawn on “Respawn All Objects” Locked objects can no longer be accidentally deleted Fixed an issue that caused FX to stop working after the first round in round based game types Fixed an issue where changes to a script’s properties wouldn’t take effect right after changing the script’s type Fixed an issue where opening the object properties menu, rotation edit is applied and is incorrect Added length, width, and height organization to Shields and Grav volumes to help organize the increased quantity of those objects One-way and Two-way shields respawn time can now be adjusted with the respawn properties. NOTE: All previously placed shields will no longer respawn unless updated. To replicate original behavior, set respawn timer to 10 seconds (default) All objects in props>exploding now do consistent damage when destroyed Fixed an issue that caused weapons and power ups to block players when set to Phased or Fixed
Massive update. Had already been playing the new Ghosts of Meridian maps before it hit so I'm guessing this is more prepping for the Firefight beta and the Forge additions.
Warzone has never been bigger, better, or more threatening.
New and Improved
Warzone Firefight is Firefight, except with brand new objectives, mechanics, and a much bigger scope. Now an 8-player cooperative PVE mode, you and seven of your Spartan friends take on increasingly difficult waves of AI-controlled enemies over five rounds of objective-based mayhem. The goal is to complete each round’s objective within the five-minute time limit. That means no more life saving.
As you progress through the match the three objective variants get progressively harder. In one round you might have to destroy a couple of very difficult boss AI units like Hunters or Promethean Knights, in another you’ll have to defend your base against swarms of enemies as they try to capture it, and in yet another round you’ll have to scour the map to find and eliminate a certain number of a particular type of enemies -- all while fighting off the random spawns of aggressive enemies gunning for you and your team. If at any point you fail to achieve the round’s objective, your team loses the match right then and there.
The Spoils of War
Alternatively, each round completed grants you and your team experience points, requisition points, and requisition energy, in greater amounts depending how many rounds your team completed, how much time you took, and your final score. In this mode, efficiency is your goal: the faster you complete objectives and the more enemies you kill, the more requisition energy you get which allows for better weapons and vehicles, which helps you complete objectives faster and kill more enemies. It’s a very satisfying gameplay loop. After a few rounds, you’ll never want to waste a second.
Requisitions help you and your team deal with all this mayhem. Like in Warzone, players have access to their requisition library, which means that you can coordinate with your team to call in power weapons, armor boosts, and vehicles to help achieve your objectives. You definitely want to do this. Numerous times during my hands-on demo, I found myself waiting to see what objective would pop because it would directly inform how I decided to spend my requisition energy.
The objectives in this mode are difficult and time consuming, so the last thing you want is to be useless, and calling in the wrong weaponry or vehicle can render you just that. When I called in a Mantis on a defend-the-garage objective round and couldn’t get line of sight on any of the base’s top-floor enemies, I was useless. But I absolutely cleaned house on a seek-and-destroy round with a warthog and a ghost, because they’re highly mobile vehicles capable of high, sustained damage on strong targets and running over groups of smaller ones.
Speaking of Legendary…
The newest and most game-changing addition to Warzone Firefight is the introduction of Mythic bosses. Appearing only on the fifth round, they’re extraordinarily strong boss units with special abilities and a ridiculous amount of health requiring your entire team of Spartans to coordinate power weapons and vehicles in order to bring them down. And you still only have five minutes. To give you an example, the Warden Eternal can shoot multiple lasers at once, and as if that’s not bad enough, it also shoots black holes that kill you on contact. Mythic bosses are awesome to fight, even more awesome to kill, and stressful when your team is out of position with the timer running out.
In the End
Every second that you’re not actively contributing to your team puts them under the gun. Make no mistake, this mode makes communication and teamwork a requirement– it’ll be damn near impossible to “lone wolf” it and carry your team to victory by virtue of your legendary skill. Players who enjoy working collaboratively to maximize efficiency using a wide range of weapons and vehicles, you’ll find yourself right at home, while those who’d rather put the team on the back of their battle rifle, will find Warzone Firefight to be a tough and unforgiving road.
Join us live from 343 Industries for the gameplay world premiere of Halo 5: Guardians newest game mode: Warzone Firefight. Tuesday, April 12 11PM BST on twitch.tv/halo, YouTube Gaming at aka.ms/HaloLivestream, and The Halo Channel.
Played it for about 4 hours straight tonight, had a ton of fun. Bit too easy but nothing like mowing down a load of enemies in my ghost. Got a load of Commendation Req packs with all the alien kills.
Had 3 goes on firefight. All the same map. Its a bit frenetic and easy to get lost. The req system spoils the experience. It really lacks the tactical nature of Reach firefight.
Good to have Firefight back. Not as good as it was in Reach or ODST. Seems more objective based a la Spartan Ops than Survival focused. Seems shorter too.