Here's exactly how the Halo Infinite ranked multiplayer tiers work

Halo Infinite multiplayer stealth launched during Xbox’s 20th-anniversary stream earlier this week, and players have already begun charting their course for supremacy in the game’s ranked queue. In the absence of previews or official videos detailing those finer features, we’re here to offer a brief overview of how the system works. Every rank means something, so we’ll tell you how the tiers can be used to compare your performance to others in your squad inside and out of the battle pass.

Halo Infinite ranked tiers order

There are six different rank tiers that are listed as follows in ascending order.

• Bronze I-Bronze VI
• Silver I-Silver VI
• Gold I-Gold VI
• Platinum I-Platinum VI
• Diamond I-Diamond VI
• Onyx

As portrayed above, there are six ranks within five of the ranked tiers, which means it’s quite a climb to the top to advance to the next level. That said, this arrangement of tiers shouldn’t be that strange to anyone who’s enjoyed ranked modes in other games.

How ranked multiplayer works in Halo Infinite

In Halo Infinite, there are two different ranked queues: Open and Solo/Duo. Open is crossplay, and the match size varies between 3v3 and 4v4. Solo/Duo, on the other hand, has separate sub-queues for controller-keyboard players.

Developer 343 Industries has confirmed it will provide more details on how ranked works in a future blog post, but for now, the only thing players know on an official level is that “your rank improves when you perform better than expected.” As such, the speed at which you climb the tier ladder presumably relates to a few different metrics.

• Your basic performance in the match.
• Your performance relative to others in the lobby. If you squad-up with less-skilled players and do well, you’ll get less of a boost from that.
• You can lose and still maintain rank as long as you continue playing to your standard.
• You need to keep overperforming until you rank up, which can make it hard to rank up once you’re properly placed.

You’ll start by playing 10 placement matches to determine where you start on the spectrum. In these matches, you’ll be pooled together with a wide variety of players of different skill levels.

Right now, Halo Infinite is technically in a beta phase, so it's possible you may lose some of your ranked progress if you disconnect. We suppose 343 will fine-tune the details of leaver penalties as they see how the audience responds, but not much is known about that at this time.

What game modes are in Halo Infinite ranked multiplayer?

Halo Infinite ranked play consists of the following modes:

• Capture The Flag on Aquarius, Bazaar, Behemoth
• Oddball on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets
• Slayer on Aquarius, Bazaar, Live Fire, Recharge, Streets
• Strongholds on Live Fire, Recharge, Streets

These settings are also standard in accordance with the nascent Halo Infinite esports scene.

• Players start with the BR75 Battle Rifle
• Combat Sensor Disabled
• Friendly Fire on
• Grenade hitmarkers disabled
• Static item spawns

How does ranked relate to the Battle Pass?

If you’re wondering how to rank up the battle pass outside the Ranked Arena, that’s a different matter entirely. As has been widely discussed by now, your battle pass rank and tier increases as you complete challenges. Unlike most other multiplayer games, Halo Infinite doesn’t offer experience for a great performance. Instead, your progression relies entirely on making sure you get those dailies and weeklies done.

While battle pass progression in Halo Infinite might feel insanely slow, players do have an unlimited amount of time to earn the free and paid rewards. It should also be noted that Halo Infinite Season 1 continues through May 2022, so even those who prefer to take a more seasonal approach still have a long way to go until time becomes a factor. Ranked Arena accounts for all those awesome moments of gameplay, but ranking up the battle pass is a challenging grind — just like ranked modes!