Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta

A promotional image for the beta

The Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta was a phase in the development of Halo 5: Guardians, produced by 343 Industries and organized by Microsoft. Purchasing Halo: The Master Chief Collection gave players access to the beta, which was made available on December 29, 2014 and ended on January 18, 2015. It was first revealed with a teaser trailer shown at Microsoft's E3 2014 media briefing.

The focus of the beta was on small maps with 4v4 arena gameplay. A notable difference to Halo 4 was the absence of custom loadouts; every player started with identical equipment. A notable addition in the beta were the new Spartan abilities, which will replace the armor abilities from the previous games in Halo 5: Guardians. 343 Industries described the beta as traditional in that it would be used for the intended purpose of beta testing and gathering feedback for a game still in progress, as opposed to merely showcasing a largely finished product for marketing reasons.

Included features

The beta featured eight maps, three game modes, eleven weapons and thirteen sets of armor. The beta also allowed users to offer feedback on things like power weapons, maps, and game modes in the Halo Channel.

Weapons BR85HB battle rifle Hydra MLRS M395 DMR M6H magnum M7 SMG M9 fragmentation grenade MA5D assault rifle SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle Type-1 energy sword Prophets' Bane Type-1 plasma grenade M57 rocket launcher Z-250 lightrifle Armors MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor MJOLNIR [GEN1] Mark VI Original Scarred MJOLNIR [GEN2] Air Assault variant Athlon variant Aviator variant Centurion variant Defender variant Helioskrill variant Nightfall variant Recon variant Recruit variant Scout variant (Helmet only) Soldier variant Warrior variant

Maps Crossfire Eden Empire Orion Pegasus Regret Trench Truth Game modes Breakout Slayer Strongholds

Trivia

• Some armor unlocks from the Beta will carry over to the final game.
• Despite appearing in multiple promotional images for the Beta, the Technician armor was not available in the beta.

Gallery

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  The Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta main menu

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  The Arena space station

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  The default Xbox controller layout for the beta

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  The service record in the beta

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  Customization in the beta

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  The map Empire

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  The map Truth

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  The map Regret

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  The map Crossfire

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  The map Trench

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  Gameplay on Pegasus

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  Spartans in the Breakout gametype

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  First person view of the Prophets' Bane

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  A Spartan with a rocket launcher

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  A Spartan using the Ground Pound

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  A game of Breakout begins, with Spartans about to be launched into the arena.

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  The newly introduced team victory screen.

See also

• Halo 3 Beta
• Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta