Halo 4 Updates Include Weapon Tuning, New Grifball Playlist Rules

The next update for Halo 4 will deliver a host of changes and tweaks to the game's weapons and vehicles in its multiplayer modes. A brief regarding what the studio plans to change was posted on the Halo Waypoint.

The weapons being tweaked include the Battle Rifle, Light Rifle, and Carbine. Here's what they plan to change:

Battle Rifle
Right now, we feel that the mid-range role of this weapon is undermined by the strength of the DMR. To combat this, we are looking at decreasing the kill time for the Battle Rifle through various tweaks. This means testing a “4-shot BR” (currently, the Battle Rifle takes 5 bursts to kill) with a reduced rate of fire, though these changes are not final.

Light Rifle
At this time, we have adjusted the range at which the reticle turns red to match the DMR.

Carbine
The Carbine has been adjusted to take one less shot to kill, bringing it to a 7-shot kill. This change was applied because we felt that players who used this weapon and took the time to become skilled with it were not rewarded due to the weapon’s kill time.

These changes have sped up the kill times of some of these weapons, which will provide a faster overall Halo 4 competitive War Games experience. The above tweaks have also led to the need to adjust the automatic weapons, which would likely be beaten at even the closest of ranges if tuning ended with the above changes. As a result, the Assault Rifle, Suppressor and Storm Rifle have all received a slight damage buff along with an auto-aim decrease that requires players to be more accurate than they would have previously. This means that while these automatics will be slightly more deadly at close range, they will require that players are more accurate.

Lastly, as we’ve mentioned in the past, we understand the need for viable and effective vehicles in Halo multiplayer, and as a result, we’re looking at bumping up the damage on both the Warthog and the Mantis chain gun. This is not the extent of our tuning, and we are actively investigating tweaks to additional weapons, such as an aim-assist decrease on the Beam Rifle.

In addition to the changes to the weapons, the game's matchmaking playlists will be getting an update this coming Monday. The Regicide playlist will be seeing the additions of the following maps: Landfall, Dispatch, Simplex, and Scythe.

Additionally, the Grifball playlist will be updated to the current community settings, which according to 343 Industries provides for "better overall gameplay across both Grifball and Grifball Pro."