Series 4: Reclaimer

Season 4: Reclaimer is the fourth season released for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and began alongside the launch of Halo 4 on PC platforms on November 16, 2020. It featured new customization items for Halo 3 and Halo 4. The season's logo is a stylised representation of the Ur-Didact's Cryptum.

Halo 3's items took cues from the customization added to Halo: Combat Evolved in Season 2: Spark.

Originally, the season was to feature customization items for Halo: Reach, such as new helmets and armor pieces, and a wider array of armor sets with the prosthetic arm, but difficulties during development forced the Legacy team to push this content back to a later season. Nevertheless, armor effects for Elite player models in Reach were still implemented alongside Season 4, as intended.

Season unlocks
The content of Season 4: Reclaimer involves that of the long-absent Champions Bundle weapon skins for Halo 4, along with additional skins for Halo 3, including newly implemented vehicle skins, with weapon skins now encompassing new weapons. New nameplates have also been added, being mostly Halo 4 themed in nature. The unlocks have been divided into 5 tiers of ten unlocks each. To progress a tier, all ten unlocks within must be unlocked, following in the footsteps of Season 3: Recon. Including Challenge unlocks, Season 4 introduces the following content to The Master Chief Collection;


 * 18 Halo 3 weapon skins.
 * 4 for the SRS99D-S2 AM sniper rifle (One unlockable via challenge)
 * 3 for the M90A shotgun
 * 3 for the M7 SMG
 * 2 for the M41 SPNKR
 * 2 for the M7057 flamethrower
 * 1 for the Type-33 needler
 * 1 for the Type-25 plasma pistol
 * 1 for the Type-25 plasma rifle
 * 1 for the Type-33 fuel rod gun
 * 15 Halo 3 vehicle skins.
 * 3 for the M12 Warthog
 * 2 for the M12G1 Gauss Warthog
 * 3 for the Type-32 Ghost
 * 3 for the Type-26C Banshee
 * 4 for the M808C Scorpion


 * 15 Halo 4 weapon skins
 * 3 for the MA5D assault rifle
 * 3 for the BR85HB battle rifle (One unlockable via Challenge)
 * 3 for the M395 DMR (One unlockable via Challenge)
 * 1 for the Type-55 storm rifle
 * 1 for the Type-51 carbine
 * 1 for the Z-130 Suppressor
 * 1 for the Z-250 lightrifle
 * 3 for the M6H magnum
 * 1 for the Type-25 plasma pistol
 * 1 for the Z-110 Boltshot
 * 29 Nameplates.

All new Halo 4 skins are those which were previously useable in the game's original Xbox 360 release by way of the Champions Bundle, with two additional skins cut from the original launch of Halo 4 obtainable via seasonal Challenges. All skins previously in The Master Chief Collection remain unlocked by default. The new system of unlocks has also expanded the way Halo 4 weapon skins work. As well as being customisable on a per-loadout basis like in the original game, skins can also now applied universally, which will affect gametypes without custom loadouts, in addition to custom loadouts that do not explicitly override the universal setting. Unlike Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3 skins, Halo 4's skins still operate the way they did in the original game; only weapons that you spawn with will have your skin applied, and picking up a weapon will not change the skin it uses.

The Halo 3 Sniper Rifle Avalanche skin was unlockable by hitting Competitive Rank in the timed Recon Slayer playlist. This challenge was started prior to the update's launch with progress carrying over to the final release. The challenge was timed, and ended on November 25, 2020.

Unlike Season 3, each unlock slot can be unlocked for - rewarded through the collection's updated rank scheme or the Challenges implemented in the prior Spark update. In total, are needed to unlock all content in Season 4.

Patch notes
Season 4 launched alongside a large patch for The Master Chief Collection, with bug fixes and quality of life changes. The patch notes can be seen in full below.

New Features

 * Halo 4 is now available on PC
 * Halo 4’s Forge mode now includes “Thorage” content – this means new features, a higher budget, dozens of new items, and more
 * Per-piece armor customization and “global” weapon skins for all loadouts are now available on all platforms as well
 * PC players can now jump into Cross-Game Playlists in Campaign
 * Crossplay and input-based matchmaking for multiplayer are now available on both Xbox and PC
 * While players will be prompted to select their preferred input device upon their first launch of the game, this option can also be changed at any time from Settings menu while in the Main Menu
 * This update also brings Xbox Series X|S enhancements to the Collection
 * Season 4 with 70+ new customization choices – including new nameplates, weapon and vehicle skins for Halo 3, and weapon skins for Halo 4
 * Interpolation improvements for Halo: Reach, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Halo 4 when running at 60+ FPS
 * Player Emblems are now visible in gameplay for both Halo: Reach and Halo 4
 * Video settings can now be set on a per-title basis in the Settings menu
 * Players can now select their preferred servers in the Network tab of the Settings menu
 * Text Chat has been improved with a new Text Chat Availability option and auto-moderation

Resolved Issues
Below is a breakdown of the specific fixes that have come with today’s update:

Global

 * Players will no longer be returned to the main menu while loading into online multiplayer matches in Halo 3: ODST
 * Unlocked customization items no longer appear locked while the Season menu’s data is being retrieved, this will reduce the occurrence of erroneous exclamation point notifications next to already unlocked items
 * The Weapon Skin menu for Halo 3 will now accurately display the appearance of the highlighted weapon
 * Nameplates in the Season Rewards menu are now the correct size and resolution
 * The Magnum is now named correctly in both the Halo: CE and Halo 3 Customization menus
 * Dare’s visor color is now consistent between the Halo 3: ODST Customization menu and in-game
 * Various localization improvements have been implemented throughout the menus
 * The "View Maps in this Playlist" menu now always displays a count of maps
 * Fixed an issue where maps would often be duplicated or displayed incorrectly in the “View Maps in this Playlist" menu after matchmaking
 * Added dynamic scaling to names on Challenge progress notifications to resolve text clipping issues

Halo 4

 * General
 * Increased volume of the switch grenade audio cue, making it audible once more
 * The amount of time needed to trigger the hold or toggle behavior of zooming in with a weapon has been adjusted
 * The correct sound effect now plays when performing a melee attack on objects and walls


 * Campaign
 * Accessing a Terminal now plays the video in-game rather than the Halo Channel app
 * The skybox in the mission “Reclaimer” has been upscaled and is now more clear


 * Spartan Ops
 * Spartan Ops Episodes now play in the menus rather than the Halo Channel app
 * Added support for Spartan Ops to PvE challenges


 * Multiplayer
 * Weapon audio no longer cuts out after firing in the Sword Room on "Pitfall"
 * The correct emblem is now shown when starting a Free-For-All match
 * Custom emblems now appear on armor in gameplay
 * Some maps are no longer brighter than normal when playing local split screen on Xbox One consoles
 * Fixed an issue where shadows from forge objects were not displayed appropriately
 * Fixed an issue where various toy objects such as Golf Balls and Dice would despawn almost instantly
 * Fixed various issues where incorrect or duplicate power weapons were present in matchmaking
 * Fixed an issue which led to instability and, sometimes, network disconnects from matches played on Forge maps

Halo 3: ODST

 * General
 * Fixed an issue causing incorrect shadows to appear on some objects on Enhanced graphics


 * Firefight
 * Fixed an issue causing multiple sound events to fire instead of one, leading to repeated voice dialogue of covenant enemies and player actions

Halo 3

 * Multiplayer
 * Improved how weapon skins on battle rifles appear in gameplay
 * The multiplayer weapon "dirtying" strategy has been returned to MCC, realigning with legacy behavior

Halo 2: Anniversary

 * General
 * The amount of time needed to trigger the hold or toggle behavior of zooming in with a weapon has been adjusted


 * Forge
 * Held objects now move smoothly when playing with framerates above 60 FPS
 * Non-host players can now use the Toggle Rotation Axes function as expected
 * The Edit Mode Controls window in the Pause menu now lists the binding for Toggle Rotation Axes
 * Fixed an issue where 'Toggle Rotation Axes' displayed in English while in other localizations

Halo: Combat Evolved

 * Campaign
 * The “All According to Plan” Achievement can now be unlocked as expected

Halo: Reach

 * General
 * The game will no longer freeze when a headset is unplugged during gameplay
 * The correct emblem will now appear on the player’s armor in both cutscenes and gameplay
 * Adjusted centered-crosshair viewmodel position to be more in line with the other titles
 * Fixed various culling artifacts present on first person view models when crosshairs are centered


 * Theater
 * In Forge films, players will no longer appear stuck in place after editing an object’s coordinates


 * Forge
 * Non-host players can now use the Toggle Rotation Axes function as expected
 * Fixed an issue where 'Toggle Rotation Axes' displayed in English while in other localizations

New Features
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been optimized to take full advantage of the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. Below is a breakdown of the features available on Xbox Series X|S
 * Improved resolution
 * Xbox Series X: 4K resolution at 60 or 120 Hz in both single player and two player split screen modes
 * Xbox Series S: 1080p resolution at 60 or 120 Hz in both single player and two player split screen modes
 * Both Xbox Series X and Series S will run similar “enhanced” graphics settings as PC
 * Field of View (FOV) can be adjusted via a slider that ranges from 70 to 120 degrees
 * Adjusting FOV requires the console to be set to 60 Hz output, FOV will be locked to default value when the console is set to 120 Hz output
 * Several enhancements to the split screen experience
 * Four player splitscreen runs at 60 frames per second (FPS)
 * Reduced or removed performance throttles from the original titles
 * In-game high dynamic range (HDR) options have been added to the Settings menu
 * Quick Resume and Smart Delivery are supported

Known Issues
The following are active issues for Series X|S enhancements as of 2020/11/17 in build 1.1955.0.0.


 * When playing Halo: Combat Evolved’s campaign with Anniversary graphics enabled on an Xbox Series X console and at 4K 120 Hz, the framerate may drop noticeably in some areas and/or create noticeable screen tearing
 * If the display supports variable refresh rate (VRR), enabling this feature may reduce the impact of this issue
 * If the display does not support VRR, playing at 60 Hz will provide a smoother gameplay experience
 * On both Xbox Series X|S consoles, increasing the Gamma option above 5 may result in oversaturation of darker areas in the menus and gameplay

Cut Season content
Part of the original content that was pulled out of the season was:
 * 2 new Halo: Reach helmets: AKIS, Mariner
 * 3 Halo: Reach helmet attachments for AKIS: GRD, CBRN, GRD/CBRN
 * 2 new Halo: Reach chest pieces: EXO/TSCS, Unknown
 * New combinations of chest pieces combined with the prosthetic arm for Halo: Reach