Halo Infinite’s campaign co-op beta begins July 11, with mission replay

Halo Infinite players will finally be able to try out campaign co-op when 343 Industries’ test period begins July 11. The 10-day event — running from July 11 to July 22 — is open to anyone that owns the Halo InfiniteCampaign or an active Xbox Game Pass subscription.

343 Industries confirmed the complete launch Halo Infinite’s campaign co-op is expected later this year. Campaign co-operative and Halo Infinite’s level-editor Forge Mode has been delayed a few times since the game’s launch. There is no word on when the campaign mode or Forge mode will be released.

You won’t be able to try this out on your current Halo Infinite save, however. To access the beta, players must download a new campaign test build and start fresh — no progress will carry over from your original save, and progress will not transfer back to your original game either. You can read the full article. Halo InfiniteHowever, campaign can be accessed via an online co-op, with up to four players. You can also replay the campaign during this time. Halo Infinite campaign missions with a new feature — Mission Replay, which was missing from the game’s launch last year.

Players must join the Xbox Insider Program to be eligible for the beta. Players accessing the game from Steam have until July 5 to sign up, but there’s no deadline for those playing elsewhere.

Other than the Halo Infinite343 Industries released an interview with Isaac Bender (principal software engineer) and John Mulkey (lead world designer). The two developers went long on all aspects of the beta — including how co-op works. Evidently, they were able to work together on the beta. Halo InfiniteBecause co-op allows players to work on their campaigns independently, but all at the same time, it can make things more complicated. Master Chiefs are a team of Master Chiefs.

Here’s how Mulkey and Bender put it:

Mulkey: This is an area I love. The goal going in was to “allow everyone to play their campaigns together.” This meant that all progress made in the game, regardless of it being through Solo or Co-Op play, would be retained. You could play Solo, go into Co-Op, have a couple of hours and then jump back in to Solo. All mission progress, collected collectibles and equipment, achievements, upgrades and missions would still be there. Gone are the days of playing someone else’s game while earning no progress.

The way we are handling this is through something we internally refer to as “No Spartan Left Behind”. Fireteam players can join and select their save slots. The game then aggregates the missions from all saved missions and creates a world in which all mission completed by Fireteam members will be marked “complete” and any others marked as uncompleted.

Isaac: 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. You can think of this as a system where no one completes missions in a different order, regardless how much you do.

This means that unlocks found in Co-Op can be retained by single-player. So, if you’re having a really hard time collecting a Skull, you can get in a game with a friend, and if they collect it while you’re in that session, you’ll get it too!

Mulkey, Bender and others also talked about adding Mission Replay. Some users may not be able to use it without the launch. Halo Infinite levels and areas remained gated off from players after initial completion — specifically the first area. Without the need to create a save file, players will be allowed back in any mission they have completed, even those that were previously closed off.

The Tac-Map allows you to replay any mission.

You can read the entire interview on Halo Waypoint’s blog.