Halo Infinite's campaign finally arrived on December 8th, and players are finally getting their first chance to try out all of Master Chief's new upgrades. Halo Infinite's campaign is the first open-world campaign in the series, and with that comes plenty of new ways to traverse the map and combat enemies. These new additions come in the form of armor upgrades for the Chief and add a whole new layer to the Halo Infinite campaign experience. Unlike multiplayer, Master Chief has access to all of the equipment in the sandbox for use at any time. As a result, Chief can quickly swap between the grappling hook, thrusters, drop shield, and threat sensor during combat and gain the upper hand against Infnite's high enemy count.
Each piece of equipment has its specific use. For example, the grappling hook turns Master Chief into Spider-Man, allowing for quick traversal of the map and multiple helpful uses during combat like snatching a Jackel's shield by grappling it, allowing for a quick headshot. On the opposite side of that playstyle, there's the drop wall, which is much stronger than it is in Halo Infinite multiplayer after a few upgrades and can help protect Chief in tight situations. The thruster returns from Halo 5: Guardians, but it's much more situational than in Guardians. Then there's the throwable threat sensor, which allows Chief to mark enemies through walls, regardless of whether they're using active camo or not.
Each piece of equipment can be upgraded by using spartan cores, which can be found spread across the open world in campaign missions. Players can easily see the locations of these cores by clearing out enemy forward operating bases or outposts. Doing so marks the game's collectible locations, like spartan cores and lockers containing cosmetic multiplayer unlocks. Halo Infinite's skulls and voice recordings are the only collectibles not marked by clearing these areas.
The Best Upgrades to Unlock First in Halo Infinite's Campaign
Some pieces of equipment are far better than the rest, but all are necessary to complete the campaign on higher difficulties. Here's what players are going to want to upgrade first in the campaign mode:
The Grapple Hook
The grappling hook is by far the best piece of equipment in Halo Infinite and the only piece of equipment players need to upgrade on lower difficulties. Chief can use it to move around Zeta Halo quickly and efficiently, as well as make hard-to-reach places much easier to get to. The grappling hook is essential to survival during combat, and its upgrade makes it even better. One of its upgrades stuns enemies that Chief grapples, while another allows Chief to deliver a powerful melee strike to grappled enemies, similar to Halo 5's ground pound, but even stronger. Its last upgrade adds a shockwave to the melee attack that stuns enemies in the general vicinity. The fully upgraded grappling hook in Halo Infinite is endlessly fun to use and extremely handy on harder difficulties.
The Drop Shield
The drop shield isn't very good without upgrades, but it becomes a damage-absorbing beast once players can get the 'Blockade' upgrade. The upgrade increases the shields damage absorption and increases its size significantly. As a result, it becomes extremely useful on harder difficulties and can help Chief handle tight rooms with many enemies inside.
Master Chief's Shields
Although it is not useable equipment, the Chief's shields can also be upgraded to increase the amount of damage it can absorb. This is very helpful for higher difficulties and does not have any added effect other than more shield health. It is best to upgrade Master Chief's shields in-between equipment upgrades, so it doesn't feel like Chief is underpowered in later campaign levels.
As for the thruster pack and threat sensor, they aren't instrumental in the campaign apart from one boss fight towards the end. The thruster pack is underpowered until its 4th and 5th upgrade, which does add active camo after every thrust, but it only lasts for 3-4 seconds, and enemies seem to see where Chief is moving anyway. Likewise, the threat sensor does not have any use except detecting a camouflaged Elite that is invisible, which only happens during one boss fight of Halo Infinite's campaign.
Halo Infinite is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.