Okay, we all know the customization is bad. The prices are kinda absurd, and the amount you get for the Battle Pass is underwhelming at best. That said, how long will it take before there’s enough free stuff to match what Halo: Reach had (at least before they added more to it in MCC). Let’s do some math here…
Halo: Reach, at launch, had 156 unlockable armor customization and ID items (including helmet attachments), plus 80 different possible emblems and 53 emblem backgrounds. Then add the 30 different possible colors as equivalent to Infinite’s “armor coatings” and we have a total of 156 + 80 + 53 + 30 = 319 cosmetic items.
*This of course doesn’t include toggled emblems or different color combinations.
Now let’s compare that to Halo Infinite. For the purposes of this, I’m counting only the unlockable stuff (as I just did with Reach, so that the number of categories is irrelevant), and I’m also counting all the different weapon/armor/vehicle emblems as a single item, since they are exactly the same item and thus really can’t be counted as unique customization items. So, right now we have…
- Season 1 Battle Pass has 20 free customization items
- Fracture: Tenrai Event pass has 12 free customization items
- 1 free customization item from challenges per week
- HCS Giveaway on shop = 1 free customization item
So, how long will that pattern take to give us the 319 items we had in Reach? Well, assuming they do a seasonal battle Pass every 6 months, do a similar event at least once per season, and continue to do one free item per week, then in 3 years we’d get:
- 120 battle pass items
- 72 event items
- 156 weekly challenge items
- 1 more giveaway to be generous
In 3 years we’d have about 350 customization items (up from 291 in 2.5 years). So about halfway between the 2.5 year and 3 year mark, or effectively 2.75 years past launch.
So, make of that what you will. Mathematically speaking, without buying anything, you should get about as much customization as you had in Reach after the game has been out for 2 years and nine months, assuming you unlock everything. That can be unlocked. I’ll also note this doesn’t include pre-order or campaign reward items, though to be fair those aren’t really free items.