Halo Infinite’s First Drop Pod Update Arrives Today, Brings Ranked Changes And Faster Load Times

Halo Infinite is set to receive its first “Drop Pod” update today, and it will bring a number of smaller changes to 343 Industries’ shooter, including improvements to ranked matchmaking.

Halo Infinite senior community manager John Junyszek confirmed on Twitter that the update is prepped to land later today. 343 has described “Drop Pods” as mid-season quality-of-life updates that will periodically come to Halo Infinite, and that’s exactly what this June update is. The ranked matchmaking changes are perhaps the biggest part of the update. New players will need to complete 25 matches in a social playlist before being able to queue in ranked, and ranked matchmaking will also require Fireteam members to be within a certain skill rank of one another in order to queue up.

Also coming as part of the update are menu optimizations that should make for faster load times when swapping between Battle Pass, Challenge, and Shop menus, with improvements said to be more noticeable on lower-spec hardware. Additionally, Halo Infinite’s loading screen artwork has been updated to feature Season 2’s Lone Wolves key art.

The only major gameplay change coming as part of the June Drop Pod is an update to vehicles. All of the game’s light and medium vehicles (which is every vehicle aside from the Wraith and Scorpion tanks) have had their durability slightly increased. The Scorpion’s controls have been adjusted as well, with 343 stating driving the tank should now “feel more intuitive.” One particularly game-breaking bug, the ability to ping enemies through walls, will also be fixed once the update is live.

Halo Infinite Season 2 kicked off in May, bringing two new maps, the Last Spartan Standing mode, and a new battle pass. The game’s long-awaited online co-op mode is set to arrive in August, but players interested in taking it for a spin early can sign up via the Halo Insider program for a chance to play in July.