As usual, at the very end of every month 343 Industries shares their progress on the on-going Halo: The Master Chief Collection updates. On their latest monthly blog post, they detailed how well Halo 3: ODST beta ran, what they’re bringing for Halo: MCC Season 3, and teasers for future updates as well.

First of all, they noted that although they are currently tracking more than 2,000 bug tickets from ODST beta testers, the third ODST beta had lower than average participation compared to previous tests. If you want to get your hands early, this might be your best chance yet. Just don’t forget to register for the Halo Insider program. And now let’s see what 343 has in store for us in Halo: MCC Season 3.

What’s New in Season 3

The launch of Season 3 will bring over 80 new customization items for your profile and Halo 3 and ODST multiplayer characters. Just like in Halo: CE, you will be able to disable the customization items via an option toggle. Any seasonal challenges that award skins like the Golden Assault Rifle in Season 2 will be rotating out for the new season. Although you don’t have to worry too much since items that rotate out may return at a future date.

Also, you will be able to unlock items quicker in Halo: MCC Season 3 considering it will only have 50 tiers compared to the 100 of the previous seasons. Technical Designer Dana Jerpback said in the blog post:

Also, Halo 2: Anniversary is getting a tiny update for its customization options. You will be able to customize your Spartan or Elite’s armor components on a per-piece basis, similar to Reach and Halo 3 armor permutation system.

Halo: MCC Season 4 and Future Updates Sneak Peek

Season 4 will bring new “long-lost” customization items to both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, including Elite per-piece customization similar to the Spartans and “a couple of surprises”. Aside from the upcoming Custom Game Browser and PC File Sharing features, 343 Industries is finally going to add a Region Selection menu as well. That way you can manually choose which region servers you want to connect to and also see the server population along with their current ping. Great news for those who keep getting stuck in matches with terrible latency.

And that’s not all. When Halo 3: ODST drops, the previously-exclusive weapons will be added to the Halo 3 multiplayer sandbox. 343 said that they have to tune quite a bit of how ODST weapons originally work especially since, in ODST, all of the bullet damage is cut in half against shields:

  • Brute Plasma Rifle will fire and overheat faster while taking longer to cool down compared to the standard Plasma Rifle.
  • Silenced SMG will be the first fully automatic weapon that can zoom in in Halo 3. It will have an extra range compared to the standard SMG but need controlled bursts to be effective at longer ranges.
  • Automag got the most changes thanks to its high fire rate. In Halo 3, the recoil is removed and they made it into a consistent “five-shot kill” weapon. Sounds like it might turn to be the worthy successor of CE‘s Magnum.