Halo Studios has just released a new update for Halo Infinite, adding the Firefight: Gauntlet mode. This is welcome news for players who believed the game had stopped receiving major content updates.
Even though fans are excited for the upcoming Halo: Campaign Evolved, many still play Halo Infinite. Released in 2021, it’s currently the newest major Halo title. The developers have consistently added updates over the years to keep the multiplayer experience engaging. While major updates were thought to have ended in late 2025 as the studio focused on future projects, a surprise new content drop has recently appeared.
Gauntlet Puts a New Spin on the Firefight Experience in Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite received an unexpected update on May 5th with the addition of a new cooperative mode called Firefight: Gauntlet. Building on the existing Firefight experience, this mode lets up to four players battle through five arenas filled with tough enemies. Players face endless waves until they defeat each arena’s powerful champion to move on.
Critical Mass
Pick games to balance the averages.
Scales
Results
To keep things interesting, players return to a central hub after each round. Here, they can customize their gear and improve four key stats: Damage, Recovery, Resistance, and Speed. Players earn points by completing rounds and challenges, letting them tailor their Spartan’s abilities to fit how they like to play.
Firefight: Gauntlet offers more exciting battles than previous modes, thanks to a new system called “AI Aggro.” This system controls how enemies focus their attacks. You draw enemy attention by defeating opponents, but can reduce it by hiding behind Shroud Screens. The strongest enemy in each arena will always target the player with the most attention. Learning how this system works can help you survive the mode’s increasingly challenging rounds.
What’s That Weapon? 
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Results
High Score: 0 —
It’s great that Halo Infinite is receiving new content for its dedicated players years after its release. This new mode, called The Gauntlet, will be available as a limited-time playlist. Players will battle it out on two maps created using Halo Infinite‘s Forge tool: Munera Platform H6 and Munera Platform W4. Although the dedicated playlist ends on May 19th, The Gauntlet and its maps will then become a permanent part of the Firefight playlist.
Fans of Halo have a lot to look forward to this year. Halo: Combat Evolved is set to release in 2026, marking the first time a Halo game will be available on PlayStation. There’s also talk of remakes for Halo 2 and Halo 3, and we might hear more at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7th. This event could provide updates on the future of the Halo franchise.
Halo Infinite Firefight: Gauntlet Update – Patch Notes
Published: May 5, 2026
Download Size by Platform
- Xbox consoles: 10.2 GB or less
- Microsoft Store app or Xbox app on PC: 7.1 GB or less
- Steam: 1.9 GB or less
New Features
Halo Infinite is getting a fresh update that adds a new Firefight mode and a rotating playlist of featured games.
New Multiplayer Mode – Firefight: Gauntlet
Okay, so I just tried out the new Gauntlet mode, and it’s intense! Basically, you team up with three other players, and you’re thrown into these crazy battle arenas where you have to fight off endless waves of enemies. You can’t actually finish an arena until you take down its champion, but the longer you take, the more enemies come at you, and eventually this super-tough boss called the Harbinger shows up! There are five arenas in total, and trust me, the enemies get smarter and harder with each one. You really need to work together to survive!
After you beat all the opponents in an arena, you’ll have 30 seconds in a safe zone to get new weapons and gear before moving on to the next challenge.
You can improve your character’s skills by spending points at the terminals located in the central hub. The skills you can upgrade are:
- Damage: increases the amount of damage dealt by a player’s weapon and melee attacks.
- Recovery: reduces the amount of time before a player’s shields and health begin restoring after taking damage.
- Resistance: increases the amount of damage that a player’s shields and health can take before the player is downed.
- Speed: increases the speed of all player actions, including player movement, reload speed, and recovery from performing melee attacks.
The game features four player attributes, each with four levels of improvement. These improvements come in two types: minor and major. Players begin with one upgrade point and can earn more by finishing levels or accomplishing specific goals.
Gauntlet mode includes a new system called “AI Aggro” that shows how enemies are focusing on each player. Dealing damage to enemies draws their attention, while hiding behind a Shroud Screen reduces it. The player receiving the most enemy attention is marked as the VIP and becomes the primary target for the arena’s champions. You can see how enemies are distributing their focus during the game using the Custom Input prompt shown on your screen. This attention level resets whenever a player respawns.
When an enemy AI takes down a player, they’ll drop an orb that can be used to revive them. Teammates can use this orb by interacting with it, or they can deploy a Repair Field to bring the player back into the fight. If no one revives them, the downed player will automatically respawn after 30 seconds. To win, players need to successfully complete all five battle arena simulations. If the entire team is downed simultaneously, the match will end in a loss.
Every match in Gauntlet is different because many things are randomly chosen. These random elements include:
- Players will see all five of the map’s battle arenas in each match, but the order in which they see them will be randomized.
- The types of enemy waves seen in each arena are randomized.
- The champions in each arena are randomized.
- If a champion is not clearly visible in a battle arena, they may be using Active Camo.
- When entering the hub area, empty power weapon slots in the armory are restocked with a random power weapon.
- When a champion is defeated, their weapon will become available in the next restock of the armory’s weapon slots. A champion’s weapon can be retrieved from the armory multiple times in a match, including repeated use by the same player or different players.
You can get power equipment from the armory in the central hub, but it won’t be refilled after each arena battle, unlike power weapons. Also, each piece of power equipment has special bonus effects when you play in Gauntlet mode.
- Active Camo removes all enemy AI attention from the player.
- Overshields instantly refill a player’s health and shields as well as provide a 15-second window of invincibility. Activating an Overshield will also draw all enemy attention to the player.
- Repulsors stun non-champion enemies in their tracks. Arena champions, however, will not be stunned by a Repulsor.
You can find details about the playlist and game mode in the “Firefight: Gauntlet” article on Halo Waypoint.
Gauntlet Maps: Munera Platform H6 and Munera Platform W4
Gauntlet mode now supports two new Forge maps, each offering a distinct arena for battles.
Munera Platform H6 features three distinct battle arenas: a train car used by the Banished, a UNSC base built inside a volcano, and a Forerunner structure overrun by the Flood.
The Munera Platform W4 map features diverse combat arenas, including a well-preserved Forerunner chamber, a UNSC hangar, and a Banished dig site within an ancient Forerunner structure.
New Featured Rotational Playlist: The Gauntlet
A new playlist highlighting the Gauntlet map is now available in Halo Infinite matchmaking to celebrate its recent update.
The special Gauntlet playlist will no longer be available in matchmaking after May 19, 2026. However, the maps and game mode from The Gauntlet will then be added to the regular Firefight playlist.
Known Issues
With this update, the team has added new issues to our Known Issues lists:
Multiplayer
Menus
- The following stats in the Post-Game Carnage Report (PGCR) scoreboard always display a value of “0” after completing a match of the Gauntlet game mode:
- Rounds Won
- Max Killing Spree
- Grenade Kills
- Headshot Kills
- Melee Kills
- Power Weapon Kills
Gameplay
- Players who join in-progress matches of Gauntlet start with 1 upgrade point regardless of how many upgrade points have been earned by the other players in the match.
- When viewing the “Enemy AI Aggro” status during a match of Gauntlet, longer Gamertags may appear to overlap with the other listed Gamertags.
- Occasionally, players may temporarily become stuck in place during matches of Gauntlet.
- Workaround: Player movement will be restored after a few seconds pass.
- Rarely, players who are downed at the end of a round of Gauntlet may not transition back to the hub area. When this occurs, affected players are transitioned to the next battle arena once the restock period has ended.
Read More
- Change Your Perspective Anomaly Commission Guide In NTE (Neverness to Everness)
- All Nameless Hospital Endings Full Guide In NTE
- Lonely Player Anomaly Commission Guide In NTE (Wandering Puppet Locations)
- Robinhood’s $75M OpenAI Bet: Retail Access or Legal Minefield?
- Beware! Phishing Emails Are Deceiving Robinhood Users in a Sneaky Plot!
- Midas Tower ReroRero Phone Booth Location in NTE
- NTE Banners (Current, Next, And Upcoming Banners)
- How to Get the Wunderbarrage in Totenreich (BO7 Zombies)
- All Skyblazer Armor Locations in Crimson Desert
- How To Get Day Off Arc (Free S-Rank Arc) In NTE
2026-05-07 06:36