I know this has been addressed many times but 343 seems insistent on the battle pass being enough. I gave it a shot going into the beta and I disagree, and I feel the vast majority of the community does as well. The game is very fun, that’s the most important aspect of any game obviously. It feels good to play, but once that magic slows down what will be your incentive to keep playing? the battle pass. alright so you decide to grind the battle pass but each challenge only gives you a small amount of xp per game and maybe the things in the battle pass don’t interest you that much. alright whats my next option? I guess I go to ranked, well maybe I’m not feeling like playing ranked and I just want to have fun and be rewarded for having fun. What next? nothing. There is no basic reward for just playing the game the way you want to be playing it. There NEEDS to be a consistent XP drip per match that is unrelated to the battle pass. When I play a game I want to feel like I’m rewarded for doing better than the rest, to have incentive to outplay my friends and the other team. I want to know that I got more xp with 20 kills and 10 assists than the guy who got 5 kills and 1 assist. I want my time to be rewarded with a presentable rank/number that is shown to other players in an obvious way. I want my time to be respected. The battle pass system is fine, ranked modes are fine, but there NEEDS to be a normal xp grind system that rewards you for kills, assists, objectives and medals (the more difficult the medal the more xp) so that the player doesn’t feel like their time is being wasted. Take a game like Apex Legends for example. They have a battle pass system, daily and weekly challenges that keep the player paying attention in the hopes that they can earn points towards the pass. They have ranked modes and free battle pass items for those who want to play. But, on top of this they have a normal leveling xp based system, so if the player isn’t able to get a daily or weekly challenge in a match, they are instead rewarded for how well they played. And if they do get a challenge, they are still rewarded for how well they played on top of the challenges towards the battle pass. This keeps the player feeling like their time is being respected, that they have a level to show for their efforts, and that they get rewards on the side for that effort as well. Halo infinite’s normal xp and leveling system doesn’t have to be anything crazy. If its just an armor core every 5 levels or something that would be fine, and just have it be 152 levels again like halo 5 whatever you want to do. But as the system is right now, it is not rewarding to do well in this game.
To summarize
Halo Infinite’s current xp system centered entirely around the battle pass is not rewarding. It does not reward the player for doing well, doing better than the rest, doing things above what is to be expected, or even just having fun. There is nothing wrong with the battle pass as is, but there needs to be a normal xp progression system separate from the pass that rewards players based on the usual parameters, that being kills, assists, medals and objectives. Just borrow from previous halo games, there is no need fix what isn’t broken. The battle pass is fine, the ranked modes are fine, but reward the player with a level and a number/emblem whatever, based around game to game accomplishments outside of the battle pass, with a satisfying amount of xp, that ticks upwards over time adding to the grind factor of it, with potentially occasional rewards for hitting certain milestones, so that the players time, skill and play style are respected. Please 343, this is a bigger issue than you seem to think it is. The game is fantastic so far, don’t let something so simple hold it back.