Weapons - Tech Preview September/October 2021
Updated: Feb 9, 2022
The September/October Halo Infinite Technical Preview featured all the same weapons as the July Tech Preview, but with the addition of the Shock Rifle, M247 HMG, and Plasma Fusion Coil. Thanks to the Weapon Ranges and Training Mode, it was also easier to try out all the different weapons than ever before.
Note: The written content in this article is mostly identical to the content from the July Tech Preview Weapons article due to the fact that the video content has been greatly improved. There will be a list of updates in the Summary section.
Every weapon in the Halo Infinite Technical Preview could do increased damage on precision hits, with the exception of the Fists and Gravity Hammer. This only applied once the target's shield had been depleted, but it was very significant for most weapons, especially the Plasma Pistol. Precision hits with weapons are indicated by double hitmarkers, as opposed to the typical single hitmarkers.
Descope will knock a player out of their zoom whenever they are shot. This applied to all scoped weapons, but it did not apply to the default 1.40x zoom available to most unscoped weapons.
Finally, weapons with a battery or charge level (in percent) automatically refilled when walking over the weapon on the ground or on a weapon rack. For example, holding a Plasma Pistol with 50% battery and walking over another Plasma Pistol with 75% battery will automatically recharge the held Plasma Pistol to 100%, leaving the one on the ground at 25%. The player did not need to manually pick up the Plasma Pistol with the higher battery level as they would have in previous games.
This article contains screenshots of the weapon FPS models and pickup prompts, as well as short videos showing the animations while using each weapon. I have also included a list of relevant stats for each weapon. The following sections are included in this article:
Summary
BR75
When viewing the weapon pickup prompt for a few seconds, additional details appear underneath the weapon name. These details are in the following format: "[Weapon Type] | [Firing Mode(s)] | [Range(s)]".
The BR75 is a Kinetic Burst Tactical Rifle, effective at Mid range. The weapon fires in a three-round burst and is most well known for being able to kill enemy Spartans in four bursts, provided all rounds from each burst land on the Spartan and the final round in the fourth burst is a headshot. No matter what, if one round from the BR75 hits the head of an unshielded target, it will instantly kill them.
The BR75 has the following magazine size and reserve ammo capacity:
Magazine Capacity: 36
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 216
The inventory ammo capacity, in particular, is quite exciting. Historically, this value has been 108, meaning players could only store three additional Battle Rifle magazines in their inventory. The increase to 216 allows players to hold up to six additional BR75 magazines in reserves, making it much harder to run out of ammo for the weapon in Campaign.
The first-person view of the BR75 is shown above. The weapon displays how many rounds are in the magazine on a digital readout. The reticle is very similar to its Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 3: ODST (MCC) appearance.
When zoomed in, the BR75 uses Smart-Link to super-impose the scope view on the player's HUD, much as it was in Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 3: ODST (MCC).
Nearly every weapon in the Tech Preview has a separate animation for reloading when the magazine has been fully emptied. Additionally, most weapons have two different melee animations, a handful of idle animations (of which only one is particularly interesting), and more. This video shows all of these animations for the BR75.
CQS48 Bulldog
The CQS48 Bulldog is a Kinetic Pump-Action Shotgun, effective at Close range. The weapon fires more quickly than the Tactical Shotgun from previous games, and it has a higher range. However, it does not have as much stopping power, and it cannot kill a Spartan in one-hit. If the player desires, they can fire the CQS48 Bulldog at its fastest firing right by holding down the fire button, but this will invariably result in reduced accuracy compared to pressing the button for each shot.
The CQS48 Bulldog has the following drum size and reserve capacity:
Drum Capacity: 7
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 14
Since the last Tech Preview, the CQS48 Bulldog has been retuned to make it more effective for the average user while reducing its lethality at range.
The first-person view of the CQS48 Bulldog is shown above. The reticle is circular, but with notches in each of the four corners that can expand to show reticle bloom.
The CQS48 Bulldog does not have its own scope, so the default 1.40x zoom is used instead. This increases the size of the reticle since scope-less weapons do not become more accurate when zooming in. The only benefit to zooming in is that you can gain the benefits of bullet magnetism and aim assist at slightly longer ranges.
The CQS48 Bulldog, like the BR75, has separate animations for reloading depending on whether the drum was fully emptied. It also features two melee animations, among others.
Fists
When starting a Weapon Drill, the player initially starts with no weapons equipped. Surprisingly, they can still attack things with the melee button.
There are two melee animations for the Fists. Once a player picks up a weapon, they cannot drop it to return to using their Fists, so this was only available in Weapon Drills during the Tech Preview.
Fusion Coil (Plasma)
During the Tech Preview, the Plasma Fusion Coil was available exclusively in Big Team Battle. It could be picked up and thrown, shot from afar, or even grabbed with the Grappleshot.
Other than the color of the Fusion Coil, the only way to determine the damage type of a Fusion Coil is by Marking it. Pinging a Fusion Coil indicates its damage type in the killfeed. Only the Plasma Fusion Coils were available in the Tech Preview. The Plasma Fusion Coil explodes after taking enough damage, whether that be upon significant impact with another object or from being shot at a distance. The explosion does some damage, but then bits of flaming plasma cover the ground around it, creating a damage-over-time effect that slowly harms all enemy players and vehicles in the pool.
The Fusion Coil pickup prompt is simple and likely identical for all Fusion Coil types. Picking up a Fusion Coil will not replace the player's current weapons, but in order to switch to another weapon, a player must drop the Fusion Coil on the ground.
This video demonstrates picking up and dropping a Fusion Coil, as well as meleeing while holding it and throwing it at the environment. Note that the glowing blue chunks generated after the explosion are what causes the damage-over-time effect. There is also a unique reticle that only appears while holding a Fusion Coil.
Gravity Hammer
The Gravity Hammer is a Power Melee weapon, effective at Close range. Since it is a Melee weapon, it has no firing mode in the extended pickup prompt. The weapon does not need to directly strike an opponent to do damage. In fact, it has a much larger damage and kill radius than Gravity Hammers in previous games, made possible by its much longer swing time before dealing damage.
The Gravity Hammer has the following ammo stats:
Charge per Powered Swing: 10%
Inventory Charge Capacity: 100%
Since the last Tech Preview, the Gravity Hammer has been improved slightly due to a small area-of-effect added around the wielder when the hammer strikes. This AOE allows the Gravity Hammer to kill enemies that get in close more reliably than before.
The first-person view of the Gravity Hammer is shown above. The reticle is similar in appearance to how it was in Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 5: Guardians.
Unlike most other weapons in the Tech Preview, zooming in with the Gravity Hammer does nothing, so its lunge range cannot be increased.
The Gravity Hammer animations are shown in the above video. Since the weapon does not have a magazine or overheat mechanic, there are no venting or reload animations.
Unlike most other weapons, there is only one Gravity Hammer melee animation, which is identical to the powered slam animation. This melee animation not only takes longer to perform than other melee animations, it also does not do damage until well into the animation.
Since it does about the same amount of damage as melees from other weapons, there is no reason to melee with the Gravity Hammer. In fact, it is likely a bug or placeholder animation until they can add the proper, faster melee animations that are seen on Gravity Hammers in previous games.
Heatwave
The Heatwave is a Hardlight Semi-Auto Shotgun, effective at Mid range. Each shot from this weapon consists of six individual Hardlight projectiles that ricochet off surfaces several times before expiring. The projectiles overpenetrate targets, dealing damage to everything they pass through.
The weapon also features an alternate firing mode, switching the firing pattern from a horizontal line to two triangular groups of three stacked vertically. Unlike the last Tech Preview, the Heatwave now fires at the same rate in both modes.
Reloading the weapon occurs one round at a time, and the reload animation can be interrupted at any time to continue firing with however many rounds are currently loaded.
The Heatwave has the following magazine size and reserve capacity:
Magazine Capacity: 8
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 16
The first-person view of the Heatwave in its default firing mode is shown above. The reticle has six dots, showing where each of the six projectiles will go when fired.
Pressing the Zoom button switches the Heatwave into its alternate fire mode. In this mode, the six dots rearrange to form two vertically stacked triangles. Again, each dot represents where a projectile will go once the weapon is fired. On the weapon itself, the two "wings" on either side of the barrel retract inward in this firing mode.
As mentioned previously, the Heatwave reloads one round at a time in a looping animation. If desired, the reload process can be interrupted at any time to continue firing. Switching the firing mode plays a short animation where the "wings" on the sides of the barrel extend (for default) or retract (for alternate). The Heatwave also features two melee animations like most other weapons.
M247 HMG
Like the Plasma Fusion Coil, the M247 HMG was only featured in Big Team Battle. The M247 HMG is a fully-automatic mounted turret that fires Kinetic rounds.
When mounted, the M247 HMG has infinite ammo but can only look in a 180-degree semicircle. It cannot be moved from its original position while mounted. The reticle for the turret is reminiscent of the Halo: Combat Evolved through Halo: Reach versions. Notably, there is a hard-to-read prompt under the reticle that says to press the Melee input to detach the M247 HMG.
After unmounting the M247 HMG, the reticle increases in size to indicate a reduced accuracy. Additionally, the ammo for the turret becomes finite, starting at 100% when unmounted and draining to 0% as the player fires. The player can move around with an unmounted M247 HMG, albeit more slowly than with other weaponry.
Picking up the unmounted M247 HMG will not cause any of your equipped weapons to drop, but you will not be able to switch weapons without dropping the M247 HMG. Note that the description depicts the M247 HMG as a Kinetic Auto Turret, effective at Mid-range.
Unfortunately, this video does not include the behaviors of the mounted M247 HMG. Rather, it shows the behavior of the unmounted turret, including picking it up, dropping it, and firing it.
M41 SPNKr
The M41 SPNKr is a Power Semi-Auto Launcher. Due to the nature of the weapon, it does not have one particular effective range and can be used at most ranges, depending on the type of target. The weapon fires slow-moving explosive rockets that detonate on impact with anything. These rockets have a considerably high blast radius and can kill nearby enemies without a direct hit, so best practice is to aim for the enemy's feet.
The M41 SPNKr has the following magazine size and reserve ammo capacity:
Magazine Capacity: 2
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 4
The first-person view of the M41 SPNKr is shown above. The reticle appears as it did in every previous FPS Halo game except for Halo 4.
Unlike in previous games, the M41 SPNKr does not have its own scope and instead uses the default 1.40x Zoom available to most non-scoped weapons.
The M41 SPNKr does not appear to have a special reload animation when both rockets have been fired. The animation is identical whether one or both rockets have been fired. It does, however, offer two distinct melee animations.
MA40 AR
The MA40 AR is a Kinetic Auto Assault Rifle, effective at Mid range. This weapon is a classic Halo weapon, featured in every FPS Halo game except Halo 2. In Halo Infinite, this weapon has become a viable option for taking down opponents, particularly when coupled with its ability to do additional precision damage to unshielded enemies.
The MA40 AR has the following magazine size and reserve ammo capacity:
Magazine Capacity: 36
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 216
The 36-round magazine capacity was originally seen in Halo 5: Guardians as a way to make the Assault Rifle slightly more effective, increasing the likelihood of earning a kill before the user had to reload the weapon.
The first-person view of the MA40 AR is shown above. The reticle appears as it did in Halo: Reach, Halo 4, and Halo 5: Guardians. Firing in bursts will result in greater accuracy than firing in fully automatic, but the overall firing rate will be reduced. The number of rounds in the magazine can be seen on the weapon's readout, and the small arrow above this number functions as a compass.
Since the MA40 AR does not have a scope, it uses the default 1.40x zoom available to most unscoped weapons. This only increases the range at which bullet magnetism and aim assist apply.
As with the BR75, the MA40 AR has a special reload animation if the magazine has been fully emptied. Additionally, it has two melee animations.
MLRS-2 Hydra
The MLRS-2 Hydra was not usable in the Tech Preview through any official means, but we were able to determine its damage type through the Weapons Bench menus.
As can be seen in this screenshot, the MLRS-2 Hydra fires Kinetic rounds, although its actual functionality remains to be seen.
MK50 Sidekick
The MK50 Sidekick is a Kinetic Semi-Auto Pistol, effective at Close range. This weapon is not the Magnum, which has been seen in all FPS Halo games since Halo: CE. Rather, it is a new offering that is most similar to the Gunfighter Magnum in Halo 5: Guardians. Like the BR75, landing a headshot on an unshielded enemy will instantly kill them. It takes a minimum of 7 shots to kill a fully shielded enemy Spartan: six to break the shield followed by one headshot.
The MK50 Sidekick has the following magazine size and reserve ammo capacity:
Magazine Capacity: 12
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 72
The first-person view of the MK50 Sidekick is shown above. The iron sights on the weapon, while having no functional use in-game, are lit up in red.
The MK50 Sidekick is yet another unscoped weapon, meaning it uses the default 1.40x Zoom. This only increases the range at which bullet magnetism and aim assist apply.
The MK50 Sidekick also has a special reload animation if the magazine has been fully emptied. It has two melee animations as well.
Needler
The Needler is a Kinetic Auto SMG, effective at Close range. As in all previous FPS Halo games, the Needler fires a stream of homing needles at its target. If enough needles embed themselves in a target, a supercombine explosion will occur. This will immediately kill a full shielded enemy Spartan and damage those around them.
The Needler has the following magazine size and reserve ammo capacity:
Magazine Capacity: 26
Inventory Ammo Capacity: 78
The first-person view of the Needler is shown above. The needles poking out of the top of the weapon will shrink into the weapon as it is fired. Additionally, there is now a dot-based ammo counter on the back of the Needler. Each lit dot represents one round in the magazine.
The Needler is an unscoped weapon, meaning it uses the default 1.40x Zoom. This only increases the range at which needle homing and aim assist apply.
For the first time in a Halo game, the Needler has a special reload animation if the magazine has been fully emptied. It has two melee animations as well.
Plasma Pistol
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