343 Reveals Halo Infinite’s Co-Op Beta Launch Date And Details How Cooperative Play Works

As previously promised, Halo Infinite’s long-awaited campaign co-op takes its first steps towards launch, thanks to a network beta flight scheduled for next week. 

Much like the multiplayer beta that proceeded Infinite’s launch last fall, this co-op beta, which runs July 11 to July 22, allows registered players to tackle the entire campaign alongside a buddy to ensure everything works as planned for the full rollout. Players will have to download a brand new campaign build. 343 states no story progress is saved, and players will start from scratch. Progress made during the beta will also not transfer back to the retail version. 

In a Halo Waypoint blog post, 343 lead software engineer Isaac Bender and lead world designer John Mulkey discussed the co-op mode’s features. A fireteam of four players can create separate campaign saves for co-op, and progress – such as completed missions, acquired collectibles, equipment, upgrades, and achievements – count toward both players’ individual saves. That means you don’t need to be the Fireteam leader to retain your team’s accomplishments. If one player has one of the upgrade cores then it is shared with all players. Cores can only be spent by players individually. 

In terms of how the game accounts for each players’ individual campaign progress, Mulkey states:

“The way we are handling this is through something we internally refer to as “No Spartan Left Behind”. When players join the Fireteam and choose their save slots to play on, the game aggregates the states of all missions across those saves and sets up a world state in which any missions completed by all Fireteam members are marked as complete while any missions not completed by all are marked as incomplete.”

Bender continues: 

“You can think of this system as creating a version of the world that’s like the “lowest common denominator” (or “intersection,” if you’re into set theory) of everyone’s Campaign progress. This ensures no matter your actions, you are completing mission in the right order.

Since Halo Infinite unfolds in an open world, 343 confirms that players can tackle various locations separately, governed by a system called Area of Operations. This term refers to the maximum distance Fireteam members can stray from each other; going too far triggers a warning to return to the team, or you’ll die and respawn near everyone else. 343 describes the radius of the AOO as having an 800 ft “warning radius” and a 1000 ft “kill radius.” 

Players can redo missions thanks to the return of Mission Replay. Highlighting completed missions in the Tac-Map now displays a Replay option. You have the option to choose how difficult you want and then activate Skulls found by your colleagues. This also allows you to revisit earlier stages using all the upgrades and weapons you’ve collected since then.  

Also, new achievements will be made for replaying and co-op. Crossplay is possible between Xbox and PC via co-op. Sessions are hosted on separate servers. Every player is master chief in terms of what characters they assume while playing together. 

To participate, you’ll need to be part of the Xbox Insider Program or, if you’re playing on Steam, a Halo Insider. Follow these steps to join the Insider Program for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. For the greatest chance to be selected for the co-op beta, steam players need to sign up for Halo Insider Program prior July 5. The invites will go to Halo Waypoint, where players will find instructions for downloading the campaign build. After the beta ends, surveys will be sent.

You can learn more about 343’s approach to Halo Infinite’s co-op by visiting its Halo Waypoint blog post.