‘Halo 5’ Warzone Firefight Beta: What You Need To Know

343 Industries launched the Warzone Firefight beta for Halo 5: Guardians Thursday. Owners of the Xbox One shooter should gain access to the beta for the upcoming PVE mode with an update. The developer added some twists from Firefight in previous entries of the franchise. This article will let you know what to expect when you jump into a match.

When Does It Run

The Halo 5 Warzone Firefight beta will run from Thursday, April 14 through Monday, April 18. The beta gives 343 Industries a chance to get feedback on the difficulty of enemies, scoring, and other items.

Maps

The beta will only feature the “Escape From A.R.C.” map. All existing and future Warzone maps will be used for Warzone Firefight when it is fully released.

Matchmaking

Warzone Firefight does support matchmaking for up to 8 players in Halo 5. Simply select Warzone from the main menu, choose Firefight, and matchmaking will begin.

There are five rounds in each Warzone Firefight match that last five minutes each. Each round has an objective that must be completed before the end of the round. Failing to complete the objective will end the match, while completing the objective will bring on the next round.

Each round ends with a 30-second intermission before the start of the next round. This gives players a chance to regroup, restock on ammo, and call in any REQs that may be ready to use in the upcoming round.

The enemies and objectives will get progressively more difficult as players progress through each round. Generally speaking, the third round is when players will need to start calling in power weapons and vehicles to help complete objectives.

The fifth and final round features two boss encounters. The first encounter is similar to the bosses from earlier rounds. The second encounter features a battle against a Mythic level boss with a huge health pool. He is usually accompanied by minions and Legendary tier bosses. It will take the entire fireteam, plus plenty of power weapons and vehicles to bring it down before the timer runs out.

Note that the beta will feature some, but not all of the Mythic level bosses.

There are three objective types: Eliminate the boss, killing specific types of enemies, and defending a base. Each round of Warzone Firefight will pick from a pool of possible objectives to try and ensure that each play-through of the game mode has a different progression of objectives.

An example of a killing specific type of enemy objective is killing 55 Jackals. Another objective tasks players with hunting down 100 Crawlers.

When a small percentage of specific enemy types are left, they will be marked on the screen for players to mop up, instead of potentially losing out because they are hidden somewhere on the map. For example, the marks on the 55 Jackals will appear when only five are left.

Boss objectives will require slightly different strategies with each variant. Some will spawn more enemy minions, and others enemy minions will be easier to bring down with vehicles. A fixed number of minions will typically spawn for a boss objective. Cleaning those up quickly will allow a fireteam to focus on the boss or bosses.

When facing multiple bosses, it is a good tactic for the entire fireteam to focus on bringing down one boss at a time. In other words, teamwork, focused fire, and communication helps greatly.

Players earn points for killing enemies, assists, and taking down bosses. Bonus points are also earned at the end of each round. Some of the bonuses include surviving the round and completing the round quickly.

Examples of the scoring are 50 points for an Assist, 100 points for a Kill, 500 points for a Boss Takedown, 400 points for a Round Kill Bonus, and 250 points for a Speed Bonus. Completing each round will earn more points, so finishing the first round awards 1,000 points, the second round gives players 2,000 points, the third round is worth 3,000 points, and so on. The points received for Boss Takedowns also get higher as the rounds progress.

Player experience points and REQ points are rewarded at the end of the match based on how many rounds were completed, individual score, plus the time it took to complete the objectives.

343 Industries has also added a Mythic Warzone REQ Pack for a limited time. The pack contains 10 Mythic tier single-use REQ cards and one Ultra Rare or Legendary weapon or vehicle certification. It can be purchased for 80,000 REQ points or from the Xbox Store for $9.99 in real-world money.

[Image via 343 Industries]

[Edit: Corrected date typo.]