This week’s update takes a decidedly blitzing view on the upcoming (January 20th!) beta for Halo Wars 2! It’s full on Halo Wars 2 Blitz mode with details on the card system, leaders to choose from and really the entirety of how to play Halo Wars 2’s Blitz Mode. It’s all included in this week’s Halo Community Update!(MacGyver10 22:46:48 UTC)

The first Canon Fodder of the new year comes today with plenty of news on the upcoming ‘Halo Wars 2’. Lots of lore and beautiful concept art for a number of new (and old) players, a shoutout to the Halo Archove for their prophet piece, some ‘Halo: Ground Command’ tabletop pieces and more! Check it out in Issue #96 of Canon Fodder!(MacGyver10 22:34:30 UTC)

Have a Twitter account? Looks like you can play a text-based DM game of Halo Wars with the AI from the new game to earn some in-game items! Neat!

Isabel, UNSC Logistics, Ark research outpost. We need your help. Prepare for war in the first-ever #TwitterHaloWarshttps://t.co/iDe63JomdG

— Isabel UNSC Log. (@ISA1307_2) January 17, 2017

(MacGyver10 15:38:53 UTC)

The LootCrate folks have put up an interview with Ray Makowski, the designer of the Halo Icons series of figures that comes with the Halo Legendary Crate! You can read how Halo introduced him to Neil Patrick Harris and the news that the line of figures will continue after the six LootCrates! If you’d like to grab a crate, you can use our affiliate code, ‘HBOCrate’ for a discount!(MacGyver10 15:20:48 UTC)

It’s been awhile since he put out some videos, but Chappified stopped into our forum to share some strategies he picked up to make it through Halo 3: ODST and Halo 2 a little faster. He has a couple of box launches for ODST and a grenade jump for Halo 2 that could really help you skip some tough parts!(MacGyver10 15:14:28 UTC)

After the previous explosions, Rockslider decided to come back for more! Check out his post in our forum to see some different setups and fireworks!(MacGyver10 15:11:24 UTC)

Adv Jones gave us a heads up on the latest Archive Beacon. With a lot of changes this past year, the Halo Archive isn’t resting on their laurels, but still striving to improve how they do what they do! Give it a read as they look ahead at what’s to come!(MacGyver10 16:14:50 UTC)

Thanks to the aforementioned Community Update, we found out about this blog post from studio head, Dan Ayoub on the upcoming Halo Wars 2 beta!(MacGyver10 16:12:47 UTC)

Davidfuchs gave us a heads up on the earlier than normal (thanks Ske7ch!) Halo Community Update this week. Plenty of Halo Wars 2 info as we approach the newly announced beta on January 20th, with pre-order bonuses, physical discs for PC and a reminder of the HW2-themed LootCrate coming. The Halo World Championship for 2017, XP/RP boosts across gamemodes, Warzone changes and still-to-be-found easter eggs, dev spotlight on 343’s Olga and the community spotlights! Make sure you give it a read sometime soon when you get the chance!(MacGyver10 16:07:49 UTC)

The second beta for Halo Wars 2 starts January 20th! This time it features the new ‘Blitz Mode’ that combines tactical combat, card-based strategy and microtransactions (we’ll see how that goes)!

The Halo Wars 2 Blitz Beta begins on Jan. 20! Tactical combat meets card-based strategy on Xbox One & Win 10 PC. https://t.co/s5ZTDIdUPK pic.twitter.com/thNiFnjth6

— Halo (@Halo) January 11, 2017

(MacGyver10 23:13:22 UTC)

Looks like the winter season is over, and the new one has started in Halo 5’s Arena mode! If you played ten games in a ranked playlist during its duration, your emblem should be there. In the meantime, here’s the preview of this new season’s emblem!

Hop into Halo 5 and complete your Arena placement matches to earn this season’s emblem. The Jan-Feb 2017 Season is live! pic.twitter.com/Dv5SJLw0Xp

— Halo (@Halo) January 10, 2017

(MacGyver10 23:11:13 UTC)