‘Halo 5’ Adds Clan Support With Spartan Companies, Free REQ Pack For Signing Up

Halo players have long expected the ability to form and join clans but have not always enjoyed the ability to easily set up groups of friends. Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One is making a more concerted effort to support players to organize with the launch of Spartan Companies on Monday. Developer 343 Industries is even providing an incentive to do so by offering a free REQ Pack when you sign up.

“For the launch of Halo 5 and beyond, we wanted to give players a simple way to gather, to share identity, to plan games and to orbit and connect around Halo’s multiplayer experiences,” Halo Franchise Director Frank O’Connor wrote in a Halo Waypoint post.

“Companies is that center of gravity, and we’ve created a short video to help explain how it works, and how you can use it to meet, recruit and organize players and matches in a single, custom-created ‘Company’.”

The new Spartan Companies will allow players to form groups of up to 100 players with friends and other like-minded individuals. Each company will have access to their own private forum on Halo Waypoint, complete with customized banners, descriptions, mottos, and emblems. This can also be used to set up matches, scrimmages, practices, custom matches, and Warzone sessions.

The REQ Pack incentive that 343 Industries is offering for Halo 5 fans can be earned after joining or creating a company with at least four others. This will add a free REQ Pack that players can open and use in the Spartan Customization preview feature that also just launched on Halo Waypoint. This allows players to view what REQ Pack items they have unlocked already and customize the look of their Spartan for multiplayer from color scheme to armor pieces.

For those who aren’t aware, there are several ways to earn free REQ Packs for Halo 5 already. In addition to setting up or joining a Spartan Company, players can watch a series of short videos to receive a REQ Pack code on the Xbox website, watch a video on the Halo YouTube channel, pre-order the game from certain retailers, watch all five episodes of Halo: Nightfall on the Halo Channel or purchase various items from the Halo: Last Light novel to McFarlane Toys action figures to AXE Body spray. A comprehensive list of all the way promotional REQ Packs can be earned that is much too long to list in this article was shared by MrBrandonPotts on the Halo Waypoint forums.

For a complete explanation on REQ Packs and how they work in Halo 5 multiplayer, please see this Inquisitr article which covered the new collectible system.

In other Halo 5 news, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition and Xbox 360 Edition will receive a free update on Friday, October 23 to bring in characters from the game to the Halo Edition mash-up pack. The $3.99 pack already features a number of pre-made worlds, vehicles, and characters from the Halo franchise. Now it will add all four characters from Blue Team – Master Chief, Frederic, Kelly, Linda – and all four characters from Fireteam Osiris – Locke, Buck, Tanaka, and Vale.

Halo 5: Guardians is set to launch for the Xbox One on Tuesday, October 27. The game will require approximately 55 GB of space on the console’s hard drive. This includes the 46 GB download from Xbox LIVE or the install from the disc plus a 9 GB day one update that must be downloaded. The update size was confirmed by executive producer Josh Holmes via his Twitter account.

Developer 343 Industries is planning a huge launch blowout, and the multiplayer launch lists for Halo 5 have been set. The developer has also sent out a warning to players on what negative behaviors they can engage in to earn the banhammer being dropped on them. Meanwhile, Nathan Fillion explains how Buck ended up more handsome than himself. Perhaps the best news is that the entire Halo 5 soundtrack is available to listen via SoundCloud for free until the game’s launch.

[Images via Halo Waypoint]