Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta

The Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta also known as the Halo 5: Guardians Arena 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.

List of permutations
During the Halo 5 beta, the player could unlock armor permutations for their Spartan. Most armor was unlocked by ranking up with the beta's XP system, however, four sets of armor were unlocked through achievements in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and by watching Halo: Nightfall on the Halo Channel. Barring Mark VI Gen1, Mark VI Gen1 - Scarred, Nightfall, and Helioskrill, no armor from the beta transferred to Guardians' final release.

Trivia

 * Despite appearing in multiple promotional images and screenshots for the beta, the Technician armor was not available in the beta.
 * During the game's final stretch of development, from the beta to release, some descriptions were altered:
 * The VISRs changed from having their VISR numbers in the description. This was replaced with their name.
 * The armor skins lost their descriptions, opting to use the base armor's description.
 * Recruit's body armor description changed.
 * The Blindside visor's description had an error in which it said it was "VISR 4.05", while Halo 4 had it under "VISR 4.04".
 * The final version of Halo 5: Guardians removed the manufacturer names for each item in the customisation menu.