Spartan Ops

Spartan Ops is an episodic cooperative campaign that appears in Halo 4 as part of the Infinity game mode in lieu of Firefight.

Overview
It allows up to four players to play cooperatively. Though it is designed primarily as a cooperative experience, Spartan Ops can be played solo as well. It follows the SPARTAN-IV units Fireteam Majestic and Fireteam Crimson on their many missions. Missions intertwines directly with events in the main Halo 4 campaign, expanding on the story of the UNSC Infinity and her crew, who interacted with John-117 during the series; this new mode is being likened to a second full-scale campaign for the game.

343 Industries supports additional Spartan Ops missions for months after launch of the game and players will have the opportunity to play from the beginning of the episodic campaign regardless of when they started playing. The first season is included with the price of the game, though 343 Industries has not ruled out charging players for additional Spartan Ops seasons. Frank O'Connor has stated that it will "bridge the gap" between the events of Halo 4 and the future release of its sequel, Halo 5.

List of seasons
Each week, players with an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will have access to a cutscene that will tell the story of the 's mission, set six months after the events of the campaign. Each new story component will have five objective-based missions to go along with it. The missions offer new content, as well as challenges to complete for each week.

Characters

 * Austen
 * Casillas
 * Catherine Halsey
 * Dunlap
 * Estey-Bethel
 * Gabriel Thorne
 * Gek
 * Grant
 * Henry Glassman
 * Hoya
 * Jared Miller
 * John-117
 * Jul 'Mdama
 * The Librarian
 * Lincoln
 * Madsen
 * Margaret Parangosky
 * Parg Vol
 * Paul DeMarco
 * Robert Dalton
 * Roland
 * Sarah Palmer
 * Serin Osman
 * TJ Murphy
 * Tashi
 * Thomas Lasky
 * The Ur-Didact

Equipment and technology

 * Artificial intelligence
 * Promethean Crawler
 * Crawler Snipe
 * Alpha Crawler
 * Promethean Knight
 * Knight Lancer
 * Knight Commander
 * Knight Battlewagon
 * Promethean Watcher
 * Cryo chamber
 * Data pad
 * Deployable lookout tower
 * HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon
 * Kig-Yar combat harness
 * Storm variant
 * Heavy variant
 * Ranger variant
 * Sniper variant
 * Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet
 * Kig-Yar targeting headgear
 * M2705 Regenerative Kinetic Dispersal Field
 * M805X Forward Acceleration System/Fulcrum Mitigating
 * MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor
 * MJOLNIR [GEN2]
 * Requiem translocation artifact
 * Sangheili combat harness
 * Storm variant
 * Commander variant
 * Ranger variant
 * Warrior variant
 * Zealot variant
 * Series 12 Single Operator Lift Apparatus
 * Stationary shield generator
 * Type-3 Refraction Dissonance Modifier/Camouflage
 * Unggoy combat harness
 * Storm variant
 * Heavy variant
 * Imperial variant
 * Ranger variant
 * Z-90 Photonic Coalescence Emitter/Aegis
 * Z-2500 Automated Protection Drone
 * Z-5080 Short-Range Spectrum Augmenter/Vision

Events

 * Human-Promethean War
 * Battle of Earth (2557)
 * Requiem campaign

Locations

 * Copernicus Base
 * Sol system
 * Earth
 * United Republic of North America
 * New Phoenix
 * Luna
 * Requiem

Organizations

 * Ecumene
 * Lifeworker
 * Promethean
 * Covenant remnant
 * Prehistoric human civilization
 * United Earth Government
 * United Nations Space Command
 * Spartan
 * SPARTAN-IV Program
 * Fireteam Crimson
 * Fireteam Majestic
 * UNSC Army
 * UNSC Air Force
 * UNSC Marine Corps
 * UNSC Navy
 * Fleet Command
 * Naval Special Weapons
 * SPARTAN-II Program
 * Office of Naval Intelligence

Species

 * Forerunner
 * Human
 * Kig-Yar
 * Lekgolo
 * Mgalekgolo
 * Sangheili
 * Unggoy

Vehicles

 * CCS-class battlecruiser
 * CRS-class light cruiser
 * D79-TC Pelican
 * F-41 Broadsword
 * Infinity-class ship
 * Harvester
 * HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark IX ADS
 * M12 Force Application Vehicle
 * M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle
 * M12G1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle
 * M12R Light Anti-Aircraft Vehicle
 * M274 Ultra-Light All-Terrain Vehicle
 * M808 Main Battle Tank
 * Type-26 Assault Gun Carriage
 * Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft
 * Type-31 Exoatmospheric Multi-role Fighter
 * Type-32 Rapid Assault Vehicle
 * Type-44 Troop Carrier
 * Type-55 Anti-Infantry Stationary Gun
 * UNSC prowler
 * Type-55 Anti-Infantry Stationary Gun
 * UNSC prowler

Weapons

 * ARC-920
 * Assault cannon
 * BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle
 * Combat knife
 * M247H Heavy Machine Gun
 * M363 Remote Projectile Detonator
 * M395 Designated Marksman Rifle
 * M41 Surface-to-Surface Rocket Medium Anti-Vehicle/Assault Weapon
 * M45D Tactical Shotgun
 * M46 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun
 * M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle
 * M6H Personal Defense Weapon System
 * M739 Light Machine Gun
 * M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenade
 * MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System
 * Sniper Rifle System 99-Series 5 Anti-Matériel
 * Type-1 Antipersonnel grenade
 * Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword
 * Type-2 Energy Weapon/Hammer
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle
 * Type-27 Special Application Sniper Rifle
 * Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher
 * Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon
 * Type-50 Directed Energy Rifle/Heavy
 * Type-51 Carbine
 * Type-52 Directed Energy Support Weapon
 * Type-55 Directed Energy Rifle/Advanced
 * Z-040 Attenuation Field Generator/Localized
 * Z-110 Directed Energy Pistol/Exotic
 * Z-130 Directed Energy Automatic Weapon
 * Z-180 Close Combat Rifle/Asymmetric Engagement Mitigator
 * Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon
 * Z-390 High-Explosive Munitions Rifle
 * Z-750 Special Application Sniper Rifle
 * Beam turret

Production notes

 * The weekly cinematics are animated by the British studio Axis Animation.
 * Prior to the adoption of the photorealistic CGI used in the final game, Spartan Ops episodes were to be accompanied by stylized motion comics akin to those featured in the Terminals. A sample was produced by Planet Jump, an animation studio based in North London, United Kingdom.

Trivia

 * In every episode so far, there has been a hidden radio box that, when shot, will play the very first few notes of the Red vs. Blue theme song, and replace some of the dialog in the episode with lines from the voice actors of the show.
 * Several miscellaneous crates and weapon racks will refill the weapons of their corresponding faction providing unlimited ammunition.