This Monday’s Matchmaking Update welcomes the long awaited Halo 4 Weapon Tuning Update as well as other Matchmaking updates. Starting today, several of Halo 4’s multiplayer weapons have been slightly tuned to provide optimal Matchmaking experiences. To see the full details of this update and how each weapon has changed, check out last week’s Halo Bulletin. 

In addition to weapon tuning, the following updates have also been applied to Matchmaking:

The “Slayer Pro” game mode in Big Team Infinity Slayer and Infinity Slayer now has an Assault Rifle loadout. Also, the “Global Skill searching,” or CSR matching duration, has been increased once again for all playlists. This increase will help ensure that Matchmaking is primarily searching for both teammates and opponents at your per-playlist CSR level.

The Majestic DLC playlist has returned as the “featured DLC” playlist. We will continue to offer a variety of DLC maps in this slot, and may update the game types, maps, and even team sizes moving forward to keep DLC content fresh and available in Halo 4 Matchmaking. The Community Forge Island playlist has been retired.  In Capture The Flag, the overtime period has been increased from one minute to two minutes in order to allow for even more nail-biting, and “big party matching” has been turned on, which ensures that parties of three or more will get matched with parties of three or more. In King of the Hill, the hill point limit has been increased from 25 to 50, and the score to win has been increased from 150 points to 250 points to provide more control-based game play.

Lastly, the multiplayer design team has been updating all of Halo 4’s maps with new weapon (ordnance) locations, new weapon drops, updated starting, vehicle, and objective spawns, and even new Forge objects to diversify and balance gameplay. Full details of these changes are below.

Abandon

Sniper rifle above gold lift
Sniper rifle next to red spawn by the cliff
Overshield placed on 1st floor of center structure equidistant from both team spawns
Red flag moved to bottom of gold lift
Blue flag moved back closer to cliff

Adrift

Overshield placed in center of map below Mantis
Twin Sniper rifles placed on the corners of the map
Needlers replace the frags in the center room in the corners
Adjusted cover and line of sight in the top hallways to help attackers in objective modes

Complex

Moved spawns farther apart and in proper “bases”
Flags are now moved to their respective “bases”
Red team Sniper rifle moved to the 2nd floor of their “base”
Rocket Launcher replaces Sword in the courtyard

Exile

Mantis replaces Scorpion and placed equidistant from both team spawns
Laser spawns in center cave
Railgun is in front of each team spawn replaces SAW
Removed Gauss Hog and replaced with Rocket Hogs for each team

Exile CTF

Team spawns and flags pushed back into their respective “bases”
Sticky Det spawns in Banshee hangar (no Banshee)
No team Warthogs
Gauss Hog spawns in the center of the map and is flipped onto its side
SAW in front of each team spawn
Beam rifle spawns in the cave over by the Scorpion bay

Haven

Rotated team spawns 90 degrees to oppose each other on the opposite axis found currently in matchmaking
Sword spawns in the upper center
Concussion rifle spawns next to closed ramp
Sniper rifle spawns next to open ramp
Lifts are now at the drop downs to allow more flow to the upper level
Colored lighting to distinguish player/map orientation
Miscellaneous grenades placed around the map

Landfall

Moved spawns and flags to opposite corners of the map. Blue flag in lift room and red flag by sea side
Shotgun, sniper rifle, and Overshield are initial weapon spawns

Longbow

Gauss Hog at each team spawn
Banshee at each team spawn
4x Shade turrets at the center fort on the ridge
Overshield in center cave
Beam rifle and Rocket launcher at each team spawn

Meltdown

Fuel Rod replaces Incinerator cannon at each team spawn
Gauss Hog at each team spawn
Plasma turrets inside each side bunker
Scattershot at each side bunker

Meltdown (CTF)

Mantis at center of map under bridge
Beam rifles on top of the side bunkers
Plasma turrets inside each side bunker

Ragnarok

Added Rocket Hog to vehicle set

Ragnarok (CTF)

2x SAWs at each team spawn
Railgun in the field opposite Pelican crash site

Solace

Removed Incinerator from low center
Sword is alone at low center
Fuel Rod spawns on the side of the map equidistant from the team spawns

Vortex

Gauss Hog at each team spawn
Mantis at each team spawn
Banshee low center equidistant from team spawns

Thanks for checking out the details of today’s update. We hope you enjoy these changes, and we’ll see you on the virtual battlefield!

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Barker is back with another Halo 4 montage featuring footage from Murphinator. With slick editing and laid-back music, this is one montage you don’t want to miss!