Season 8 (Halo Wars 2)

Season 8 was the eighth season of Halo Wars 2 to launch, beginning on November 2, 2017. The season followed Season 7 and was succeeded by Season 9 on January 16, 2018. The season's release coincided with the launch of the Xbox One X and as such, the season's emblem is the same stylised representation of John-117 boarding a Scorpion tank - itself a reference to the console's codename "Scorpio" - printed on the console's motherboard. This season saw the release of 4K support for Halo Wars 2 on Xbox One X consoles.

Season 8 Title Update
The launch of Season 8 saw the launch of an accompanying Title Update for Halo Wars 2.

November 2 patch notes

 * Halo Wars Patch Notes - Xbox One X Update & More!
 * November 2, 2017

New features

 * Added support for 4K Ultra HD & HDR gameplay on Xbox One X
 * Crossplay is here for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs!
 * Crossplay will be supported for Campaign, Blitz Firefight, Terminus Firefight, Custom Games, and all UNRANKED Playlists
 * All of the existing ranked playlists will remain platform-specific for the sake of fairness and parity
 * For players who really want to see how console stacks up against PC, a new playlist called "Ranked 3v3 X War" will be added that will support crossplay.
 * Crossplay will be rolled out in phases to make sure everything is working as intended and to give the team time to assess.
 * When the update is released, the following will be enabled for crossplay:
 * Campaign
 * Blitz & Terminus Firefight
 * Custom Games
 * Unranked Playlists: 3v3 Deathmatch, Terminus Firefight
 * Ranked Playlist: (NEW) "Ranked 3v3 X War"
 * Crossplay will be added to more playlists at a later date once everything is verified to be in good shape.


 * Arena support on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs
 * Halo Wars 2 now supports tournament play between members in the same club.
 * Available tournament types at launch:
 * 1v1 Deathmatch – Rift
 * 1v1 Deathmatch – Bedrock
 * 2v2 Deathmatch – Sentry
 * 2v2 Deathmatch – Vault
 * 3v3 Deathmatch – Ashes
 * 3v3 Deathmatch – Fissures
 * 2v2 Blitz
 * 3v3 Blitz

Core systems

 * Fixed various crashes, soft locks and desyncs
 * Improved disconnection handling
 * Fixed medals and progress not being restored from services
 * Fixed potential cause of lost progression

Gameplay

 * Fixed mobile garrison units not ejecting garrisoned units
 * Fixed ODST units not capturing Power Nodes and Control Towers

Campaign

 * Fixed progression blocker in Manifestation caused by recycling a Mega Turret
 * Fixed temporarily invincible scripted Flood Infectors in Manifestation

Firefight

 * Fixed friendly fire towards the Nexus and Spires from player turrets and offensive leader powers
 * Fixed the Find Match tile in the Firefight menu
 * Fixed an issue where season leaderboards were not loading in the leaderboard data

Cosmetic

 * Fixed placeholder mission briefing video in Manifestation
 * Fixed Operation: Spearbreaker DLC placeholder achievement images
 * Fixed missing splash art from the ATN loading screens
 * Fixed missing Shield Barrier VFX in Firefight
 * Fixed missing flare VFX for Lotus Mines in Firefight
 * Fixed missing supplies glow VFX
 * Fixed flickering Barriers during deployment
 * Fixed premature Colossus deployment animation in Not On My Watch
 * Fixed inconsistent camera boundary on mini-map in Gatecrashers

PC only

 * Restored ability to rebind the Cancel command
 * Fixed default Push to Talk key (‘\’) not functioning until rebound

Balance updates are being worked on and will be forthcoming in a separate server-side update at a little later date. Stay tuned for more details!