In the latest Halo Bulletin, 343 Industries details the entire multiplayer progression suite. An enlisting Spartan is granted access to an Assault Rifle, Magnum, Frag Grenade, Recruit Armor, Emblem, Visor, and Stance.
What’s a stance you ask? Stances are a new customization option that let you choose a pose for your Spartan. In every multiplayer lobby this is how you’re character will appear.
Spartan-IV Ranks
As always there is a consistent rank that’s carried between all gametypes. You’ll earn experience towards these first 50 ranks as you play War Games (earn more for winning and high personal score), Spartan Ops (earn more for higher difficulties), complete each level of a Commendation, complete Challenges, use Forge.
As you play you’ll earn Spartan Points (SP) which are used to unlock more options for yourself such as customization and loadout weapons. By SR-26 everything is unlocked but everything cant be unlocked until you max out your rank at SR-50.
Loadouts
Speaking of loadouts, each loadout consists of a Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Grenade, Armor Ability, Tactical Package and Support Upgrade. Beginning with your Armor Ability these are unlocked at SR-3, SR-7, and SR-12, respectively. You will only begin with one loadout, however, you will unlock more for a total of five at the ranks of SR-6, SR-14, SR-26 and SR-41.
Visual Customization
One of the more anticipated parts of the multiplayer is the visual customization. As usual you have the ability to customize your Armor, Armor Skins, Weapon Skins, Visors, Emblems and Stances. These can be unlocked by achieving a specific SR rank, earning a specific rank in a specialization, mastering a commendation, or completing a Waypoint goal (just like in Halo: Reach). These will unlock automatically and will not require you to spend your Spartan Points.
Specializations
If you’ve been in the dark with Halo 4, specializations are what is unlocked after you hit the level cap. As you rank up in these specializations you’ll new armor sets, emblems, visor colors, armor and weapon skins and armor mods. They consist of ten levels which are roughly equivalent to levels SR-40 to SR-50. On launch date everyone will have access to two of these: Wetwork: WK-1 to WK-10 and Operator: OP-1 to OP-10. The rest will be systematically released based on demand and 343′s discretion. However, those who purchased the Limited Edition will have access to the other six right off the bat: Engineer: EN-1 to EN-10, Tracker: TK-1 to TK-10, Rogue: RG-1 to RG-10, Stalker: SK-1 to SK-10, Pathfinder: PT-1 to PT-10, and Pioneer: PR-1 to PR-10. In total, you’ll be able to max out your rank at SR-130 where 343 promises there will be a surprise for those who achieve that rank.
Commendations
Commendations are returning as well, but they’ve also been overhauled a bit. You probably already know that these are based off of kills per weapon, kills per enemy type and wins per game type, for example, but there’s more. These 120 commendations also include aggregate multiple commendations to complete, something that hasn’t been done in a Halo game before. 343 says that these will take much longer than it takes to complete the specializations and are aptly rewarding those who “master” these by maxing out the rank.
Challenges
Challenges have also been tweaked a bit. Rather than having four daily challenges and one weekly challenge as was the case in Reach, we’re going to experience a vastly different situation. There will be: two weekly Campaign challenges; two daily, two weekly, and one monthly challenge for War Games; six challenges per Spartan Ops segment, and exclusive Halo Waypoint daily challenges for War Games. It’s going to be a grind to complete all these on time, but you know it’ll be worth it.
