Series 2: Spark

Season 2: Spark was the second Season implemented into Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The Season debuted on July 13, 2020, with the launch of Halo 3 as part of the collection on Steam and Windows. Although launching alongside Halo 3, the cosmetic unlocks available focus on adding new Skins for Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer alongside new nameplates. This season was preceded by Season 1: Noble and is followed by Series 3: Recon with the launch of Halo 3: ODST for PC on September 21, 2020. The season's logo is a stylised representation of 343 Guilty Spark.

Season 2 was intended to release earlier in the year - likely coinciding with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for PC in February 2020 - though ended up delayed due to unforseen development issues (likely including the COVID-19 pandemic).

Seasonal events and challenges
Season 2 saw the launch of the Challenges feature in The Master Chief Collection. To celebrate the launch of Halo 3, two limited-time challenges were introduced to unlock the Acrophobia Skull and Alliance Nameplate. Additionally, a number of season-long challenges were introduced to earn the gold skins for the Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol and Sniper Rifle alongside XP and rewards.

Season unlocks
The seasonal unlocks for Season 2: Spark take the form of the skins for weapons, vehicles and visors in the multiplayer of Halo: Combat Evolved and nameplates for use in the menus. For The Master Chief Collection, the unlocks have been divided into 10 tiers of ten unlocks each. To progress a tier, all ten unlocks within must be unlocked.


 * 41 Halo: CE Weapon Skins.
 * 5 for the Sniper Rifle (One unlockable via "The Exchange"; previously via Challenge)
 * 5 for the Shotgun (One unlockable via "The Exchange"; previously via Challenge)
 * 3 for the Rocket Launcher
 * 7 for the Assault Rifle (One unlockable via "The Exchange"; previously via Challenge)
 * 7 for the Magnum (One unlockable via "The Exchange"; previously via Challenge)
 * 3 for the Flamethrower
 * 4 for the Fuel Rod Gun
 * 4 for the Needler
 * 4 for the Plasma Pistol
 * 4 for the Plasma Rifle
 * 18 Halo: CE Vehicle Skins.
 * 3 for the Warthog
 * 3 for the Rocket Warthog
 * 4 for the Ghost
 * 4 for the Banshee
 * 4 for the Scorpion
 * 30 Halo: CE Visor Skins.
 * 30 Nameplates.

Each unlock slot can be unlocked for, rewarded through the collection's updated rank scheme or the Challenges implemented in the Spark update.

Challenge unlocks
Alongside the standard skins available to unlock for, four additional Gold skins were made exclusive to Season 2's timed challenges. Later on in Series 6: Raven, they were made purchasable in The Exchange on a weekly rotation for each.

Patch notes
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July 14 patch notes (Version 1.1698.0.0)
Season 2: Spark launched alongside the addition of Halo 3 to The Master Chief Collection, alongside the addition of the Forge and Theater modes found in Halo 3, Halo: Reach and Halo 2: Anniversary to the PC versions of the game. This change accompanied a number of bugfixes and quality-of-life updates.

New Features

 * (PC) Forge is now available for Halo: Reach, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Halo 3.
 * Halo 3 Forge has been updated with new features, including Object Physics, rotation, coordinate snap and precision edit tools.
 * Halo 3 and Halo: Reach Forge pallets have been expanded with new objects and budget increases.
 * Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and Halo 2: Anniversary Forge tools have been updated with a new “Toggle Rotation Axes” feature adding toggleable rotation around World and Local axes. Note: This is planned to be added into Halo 4 at a later date.
 * Updated season unlock flow to feature non-linear unlocks per page and added Season 2 featuring 30 new nameplates, 46 new H1 Weapon and 18 H1 Vehicle skins.
 * Challenges are now available to complete across all available titles. Note: Campaign Challenges are currently not supported in Halo 4: Spartan Ops.
 * New spartan customization 3D model viewer for Halo 3.
 * Updated Skill Rank backend for Ranked Matchmaking. This resolved a long-standing rank reset issue and has required us reset all ranked playlists to 1.
 * “Highest Lifetime” rank is now displayed for rotational hoppers that are no longer available.
 * Halo: Reach & Halo 3 audio has been updated.
 * New Acrophobia skull for Halo 3.
 * “Dual Wield Inversion” has been added as a toggle for players who wish to disable the title from switching the “primary fire” weapon to your left-hand while dual wielding in Halo 2 or Halo 3.
 * Game Install Size and Version

Resolved Community Issues

 * Improvements have been across the board from our last update and previous flights. Below are several new game-specific features and resolved issues that come with today’s update and the platform (Xbox Only, PC Only, or All Platforms):

Global (All Platforms)

 * Fixed issues where achievements for killing Engineers were displayed as ODST-specific despite being attainable in Halo: Reach as well.
 * Fixed an issue where nameplate unlock criteria was no longer displayed once unlocked.
 * Fixed various cases where the game client could crash during shutdown.

Global (PC)

 * Fixed an issue where the “He’s Running a Marathon”, “The Guardians are Coming” and “Why am I Here?” achievements would not unlock in Steam after unlocking them on Xbox Live.
 * Fixed an issue where the campaign preview widget would appear on the root Main Menu after a sign-in change.
 * Fixed a crash which could occur when entering the Seasonal Overview immediately after sign-in.
 * Improved how the Seasonal Overview is displayed in non-standard aspect ratios.

Global (Xbox)

 * Fixed a crash which could occur when looking up certain Gamertags with the Find Player feature in the Roster.

Halo: Reach (All Platforms)

 * Audio has been updated with Waves integration, aligning closer to Xbox 360 quality.
 * Fixed an issue where “Xbox 360” was referenced on the Boot Betrayer prompt in non-English languages.
 * Added localization for map location names in non-English languages.
 * Fixed an issue where the wrong key was displayed on the Boot Betrayer prompt.

Halo: Combat Evolved (All Platforms)

 * New Customization Support for Halo: Combat Evolved Multiplayer, including Visor, Vehicle, and Weapon Skins.
 * “New Skins” can be disabled under the “Gameplay” submenu in settings to locally return H1’s appearance to legacy.
 * Fixed an issue where spamming the plasma pistol’s trigger would cause the charge-up sound to stick.
 * Rocket Warthog can now be manually reloaded.
 * Fixed an issue where some starting weapons were not respected on Rat Race.
 * Gameplay audio should no longer be heard in the background while a terminal plays in Co-Op Campaign.

Halo 2 (All Platforms)

 * Resolved a crash that could occur during long playthroughs.
 * Enemy Elites now dual wield.
 * Fixed an issue where the Energy Sword displayed incorrectly when viewed against flood tanks in “The Oracle.”
 * Rebuilt the lightmap for the initial classic cinematic on “Outskirts” to return lighting and shadows to OG Xbox visuals.
 * Adjusted a default gamma option to bring it closer to OG Xbox. This may result in lighting and brightness looking different then our past patch.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing players in matchmade games to grenade jump higher than expected, bringing the height back down to OG Xbox clients.
 * Fixed an issue where the “Malfunction” skull would display HUD elements incorrectly while dual wielding.
 * Infinite ammo and grenades now display with the “infinity” symbol in the HUD.
 * Fixed an issue where a controller would sometimes be stuck vibrating after coming out of gameplay.
 * Resolved a loading issue that would cause Campaign Co-Op Players to disconnect when starting a mission.
 * Horizontal mouse movement while on a stationary turret is now unbound and no longer restricted by the turning radius.
 * Fixed an issue where some dynamic music tracks in Campaign Classic Mode was looping incorrectly.

Halo 2: Anniversary (All Platforms)

 * Fixed an issue where the sentinel beam VFX would occasionally not display.
 * Added 0% option for fall damage in Custom Games.
 * Players can now move while the Scoreboard is open.

Halo 3 (All Platforms)

 * Audio has been updated with Waves integration, aligning closer to Xbox 360 quality.
 * Several matte paintings have been updated with higher fidelity versions in Campaign cinematics.
 * Customization has been updated to support individual armor pieces and tertiary colors.
 * Emblems now display on armor in gameplay.
 * Footsteps in the snow no longer appear with black textures.
 * Fixed some incorrectly lit particles when Scarabs or Phantoms were destroyed.
 * Hornet and Brute Chopper turning speed has been improved to better match Xbox 360.
 * Added the Fuel Rod Gun, Sentinel Beam, Carbine, Mauler, and Plasma Rifle as starting weapons to Custom Games.
 * Fixed an issue where the prowler was misrepresented as the mauler in tools of destruction on the Post Game Carnage Report.
 * Fixed issues where some strings extended outside of the gametype objective widget in non-English languages.


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July 29 patch notes (Version 1.1716.0.0)
A small hotfix was released for MCC on July 29, 2020.

MCC Hotfix on July 29, 2020
Today, July 29, 2020, we are releasing a hotfix to update several issues that Challenges were encountering. A breakdown of the update sizes and bug fixes can be found below:

Game Install Size and Version
Please see the information below to ensure you have proper disk space to install the latest update.

Latest Version
The latest version of the game is 1.1716.0.0.


 * Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta)
 * Max size of 1.07 GB
 * Steam
 * Max size of 47.2 MB
 * Xbox
 * Max size of 3.08 GB

Resolved Community Issues
Today’s game update consists of targeted fixes for the updated Challenge system that was added with Halo 3’s release and game update earlier this month on July 14. Below is a breakdown of the specific fixes that have come with today’s update:


 * Global (All Platforms)
 * Fixed an issue where challenge progress was not retained across multiple platforms.
 * Fixed an issue where sometimes on relaunch, your challenge progress would display as none.
 * Fixed an issue where challenge progress could display less than the actual progress made.
 * Timed Unlocks Feedback Update

Starting July 29, at 5pm Pacific, until the launch of Halo 3: ODST on PC, you can unlock the Acrophobia skull and Alliance nameplate by logging into Halo: The Master Chief Collection on your choice of platform. After ODST's launch, the nameplate will no longer be available while the skull will be automatically added to the menus for everyone to enjoy. }}

Cut Season content
Two skins for the Halo: Combat Evolved Warthogs, both referencing Jurassic Park, were later removed from the game in the Series 5: Anvil update for unknown reasons. The skins were replaced with the Park Ranger and Field Medic skins, respectively.