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 Sniper Rifle (One unlockable via Challenge)
 * 3 for the Shotgun
 * 3 for the SMG
 * 2 for the Rocket Launcher
 * 2 for the Flamethrower
 * 1 for the Needler
 * 1 for the Plasma Pistol
 * 1 for the Plasma Rifle
 * 1 for the Fuel Rod Gun
 * 15 Halo 3 vehicle skins.
 * 3 for the Warthog
 * 2 for the Gauss Warthog
 * 3 for the Ghost
 * 3 for the Banshee
 * 4 for the Scorpion


 * 15 Halo 4 weapon skins
 * 3 for the Assault Rifle
 * 3 for the Battle Rifle (One unlockable via Challenge)
 * 3 for the DMR (One unlockable via Challenge)
 * 1 for the Storm Rifle
 * 1 for the Carbine
 * 1 for the Suppressor
 * 1 for the Lightrifle
 * 3 for the Magnum
 * 1 for the Plasma Pistol
 * 1 for the 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.

Challenge and event unlocks
A number of items were made exclusive to specialised challenge unlocks. These include two weapon skins for the battle rifle and DMR in Halo 4 originally cut from the Xbox 360 release and one skin for the sniper rifle in Halo 3. The sniper rifle challenge skin was active during the final few weeks of Season 3, with the reward given upon Season 4's release or upon the successful completion of the Challenge. During the flighting for Season 6, the Avalanche skin was one of the items made available in the widespread test of The Exchange, though community pushback meant the item did not appear in the final season, with 343 intending to leave more time before pushing ranked play skins into the Exchange.

A number of nameplates were made available for all players as of the start of Season 4, with a few others unlocked as event rewards. Notably, the Infinite nameplate corresponds to Halo Infinite's original release date of November 2020, the Anniversary nameplate to the 19th anniversary of the release of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Veteran nameplate to Veterans Day on 11/11, and the Movember and Native American Heritage Month nameplates both corresponding to the month of November in general. The Turkey Shoot nameplate was unlocked for all players as of Thanksgiving Day 2020, and the 343 Day nameplate for players who played on December 8 and December 9, 2020 - the 343rd day of 2020. However due to a bug, this nameplate was awarded to all players who played MCC before January 4, 2021. The Shadow nameplate was unlocked for all players as of December 16 after previously being cut from the original seasonal unlock table.

Flights
Flighting for this season was conducted in late-October and early-November of 2020, and was active starting on October 20. The Flight was intended to end earlier, though ended up being extended to end on the eigth anniversary of Halo 4's release; November 6. The Flighting for this season did not actually focus on Season content, but instead on testing the upcoming release of Halo 4 on PC platforms. Due to this Flight being for the final game brought to PC, all users registered for the Halo Insider Program were invited. Players who played the Flight were able to earn an exclusive nameplate.

Flight features
During the Flight, the following features were tested;
 * Input-based matchmaking & crossplay
 * Crossplay is fully available in Firefight, Forge, and multiplayer modes
 * Halo 4’s Campaign and Spartan Ops mode do not currently support crossplay between Xbox and PC
 * Server Region Selection
 * Per-Piece Customization for Halo 4 (Visors can now be selected for Halo 4 Customization)
 * Halo 4 Forge improvements including Trait Zones, New Movement Control, and Local/World Axis Toggle
 * Advanced Graphics Options for Halo 4 (PC only)
 * Text Chat Availability and Moderation
 * A Field of View (FOV) option will be available for Halo 4 on Xbox One consoles


 * Gameplay content
 * Campaign
 * Missions: Requiem, Forerunner, Reclaimer, Shutdown, and Composer
 * Playlists: Canyon Combat


 * Spartan Ops
 * Departure: Land Grab, Sniper Alley, The Challenge, Sacred, and Core
 * Artifact: Clean Up, For Science, Hacksaw, Pelican Down, and Gagarin


 * Multiplayer
 * Social Games: 2v2, 4v4, 8 player Free-for-All (FFA), 12 player FFA (Infection), 8v8
 * Competitive: H4 Squad Battle (6v6)
 * Maps: Adrift, Exile, Haven, Longbow, Meltdown, Ragnarok, Impact, Landfall, Skyline, Perdition, and Pitfall

November 17 patch notes (Version 1.1955.0.0)
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

December 16 patch notes (Version 1.2028.0.0)
Released on December 16, 2020, this patch added the content for the upcoming Season 5: Anvil (including the new Halo 3 armor and Halo: Reach armor) to view, though not unlockable or equippable until the launch of Season 5.

Install Size Version

 * Steam
 * Max size of 6.4 GB
 * Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass for PC
 * Max size of 26.47 GB
 * Xbox
 * Max size of 22.29 GB

New Features

 * Profanity filter: A new option has been added to disable the profanity filter on incoming messages. Disabling the text chat profanity filter will only impact what you see in other players’ messages.
 * Your outgoing messages will still appear filtered from your perspective, even if some other players can read it.
 * By understanding what the filter is hiding, you will know what your teammates with the text filter enabled can see and you can communicate during teamplay more effectively.
 * Season 5 content: Season 5 content has been added to the game files and will become available early next year when Season 5 begins.
 * Tech suits in Halo 3: Tech suits for Halo 3 Spartans are available now in the customization menu.
 * Halo 4 Squad Battle changes:
 * Increased respawn time to 10 seconds in Squad Battle objective games.
 * Reworked Dominion objective ordnance in Squad Battle so that each base has a precision rifle, a grenade, and a power weapon drop. This reduces the total number of power weapons that will be in play at any given time in this game type.
 * Added a jump-up to the Dominion Bravo base from the red side on the “Outcast” map variant used in Squad Battle.

Resolved Issues
Many improvements come from Insiders feedback reported by our community during or after the Flight period of Halo 4. Thank you for participating and please keep submitting tickets! Below is a breakdown of fixes in this update:

Global

 * The default setting for text chat channel availability is now set to All instead of Squad Only.
 * Clarified messaging in console to specify that the Xbox Series X|S console must be set to 60Hz for field-of-view adjustments to apply, and fixed several workarounds that caused problems for some users with multiple devices.
 * Switching to a second monitor with the resolution scale set to 75% or below should no longer cause menu screens to decrease in size.
 * Switching between fullscreen and borderless modes while using two monitors with certain resolutions will no longer cause the game to switch to the other monitor.
 * Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred if the monitor was set to an unplugged secondary screen.
 * The ping times for the list of selectable servers for matchmaking now refresh properly in the Network tab of the Settings
 * Increasing Brightness settings will no longer change the saturation of objects on Xbox Series X|S.
 * The interface will now display the “Limited Server Region Selected” message when settings are changed from within a matchmaking menu.
 * The push-to-talk button on a gamepad will now update properly when changing the D-Pad & Buttons setting during a game.
 * Players 2, 3, and 4 will now correctly restore their individual settings to default with the Restore default settings
 * On Xbox, signing out of a second active profile will no longer cause the player to lose the ability to change text chat channels.
 * On PC, restoring controls to default settings will now set Preferred Input to Mouse & Keyboard.
 * The UI will no longer display a huge number of unspendable season points if a player somehow ends up with a season points value of -1.
 * Idle users are now kicked during the intermission when the game returns to matchmaking.
 * Gameplay
 * Fixed an issue causing the “Stick With It… A Little Longer” achievement to unlock early.
 * In the Game Session window, when pressing down to scroll through profiles, the player selection will no longer skip any profiles.
 * Pausing the game while holding down the Push-to-talk voice chat button on a gamepad will no longer cause the user’s mic to stay active indefinitely.

Halo: Combat Evolved

 * General
 * Weapon pick-up time is no longer shorter while playing at 120Hz on Xbox Series X|S.
 * The Warthog skins for Clever Girl, Park Ranger, and the Dino Tracker nameplate have all been updated.
 * Campaign
 * Camera position will no longer stutter in cinematics during splitscreen co-op with Remastered Graphics turned on.
 * Field of View (FoV) will now match the settings the player chose in the settings menu during co-op campaign gameplay.

Halo 2: Anniversary

 * General
 * Toggle crouch will now work correctly when the game is running above 60 frames per second.
 * On Xbox Series X|S devices, the Graphics Quality toggle is now set to Enhanced by default with Remastered Graphics on for Solo Scenarios in the campaign.

Halo 3

 * Campaign
 * Visual feeds displaying characters in cinematics throughout the campaign will now display properly.
 * Multiplayer
 * Certain weapons will no longer appear totally black in dimly lit areas when New Skins in Halo 3 is enabled.
 * The Active Camo pickup will no longer respawn instantly on the Sandbox map variant “Multicog” in social 8v8.

Halo: Reach

 * General
 * Toggle crouch will now work correctly when the game is running above 60 frames per second.
 * Targeting display now displays the outline effect when viewed on weapons and vehicles (such as the sniper rifle and Ghost).
 * Multiplayer
 * The Elite Armor Effect customization will no longer reset to default after closing and relaunching the game.

Halo 4

 * General
 * On PC, the level of detail on some objects at a distance will now change accordingly between graphics settings.
 * Toggle crouch will now work correctly when the game is running above 60 frames per second.
 * Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred while exiting the loadouts screen.
 * Campaign
 * Weapons on the ground will no longer disappear more quickly than expected.
 * Multiplayer
 * A ramp that allowed players to move outside the boundaries of the Ravine map variant “Epicenter” has been fixed.
 * An out-of-map exploit on the “Complex” map variant used in Squad Battle has been fixed.
 * Weapons’ “universal” skins will now appear properly on all maps.

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