Halo: The Master Chief Collection Update Adds Flood Firefight Mode, Co-Op Crossplay

As promised about a week ago, 343 Industries released the first major Halo: The Master Chief Collection update of 2022 on Monday.

Last year, 343 announced that although the MCC would be moving away from seasonal updates for the title after the release of Season 8: Mythic, they were also "by no means" done with the legacy project. Now, it appears they've taken that first step towards delivering on that promise. From the debut of "FloodFight" in Halo 3: ODST, to the addition of campaign co-op crossplay support for Halo 3 and ODST, here's a breakdown of the April 11 update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection April 11 Patch Notes

Kicking off the patch is the addition of Flood to Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode with a fan-favorite playlist called "FloodFight."

In addition to simply adding the Flood into the game, however, 343 went in-depth in their developer blog post that they've made numerous networking improvements, fixed several issues with enemies getting stuck or not seeking out the player properly and a handful of other tweeks and inclusions that have been imported back to Halo: Reach as well.

The Flood in Halo 3: ODST are also said to have also received numerous upgrades in Firefight missions over their counterparts in Halo 3 in that they will be accompanied by a dynamically fading fog, will be able to occupy vehicles for the first time since Halo 2 and have a few new animations to enable them to do so as well as simply traverse the environment more effectively.

There are also three new types of Flood Combat Forms — the infected civilian, the infected ODST and the infected Elite Major which sports red armor and energy shields.

The other major feature of the latest MCC update is the launch of campaign co-op crossplay in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST for players on PCs and Xbox consoles.

343 was sure to note that while the feature has been tested internally, the team requires "additional insight from real players with different networking setups," so it might not be absolutely perfect on day one.

Additionally, 343 mentioned on Twitter that this update contains changes that will invalidate previous Theater films and mid-mission Campaign saves. Before updating, affected players are invited to record their favorite clips or complete any in-progress missions or playlists with information on how to do so on their official website.

For more on the latest MCC patch, from Forge and Mod Tools to a Halo 3 Medal Update, be sure to check out 343 Industries' full blog post.