Halo Infinite’s Helljumpers Gamemode Explained

For over 15 years, Halo players have long sought to play as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers in a dedicated multiplayer game mode, ever since the release of Halo 3: ODST. While the 2009 spin-off title allowed up to four players to embody ODSTs in Firefight multiplayer, Halo fans have never truly been able to experience unique special ops missions as ODSTs in multiplayer. From Halo: Reach to Halo 5: Guardians, players often strived to make their own ODST-themed missions in Forge and original Machinima films, but these were often regulated to small player groups and not the general Halo audience. However, this will change on October 25 with the upcoming debut of the Helljumpers game mode in Halo Infinite.

The Lead-Up to Halo Infinite’s Helljumpers

First announced in March 2024, Helljumpers was created by Halo Infinite’s leading Community Forge group called The Forge Falcons. The Falcons previously produced the Call of Duty Zombies-like Survive the Undead game mode and the Fortnite-esque TFF Battle Royale game mode in May earlier this year. Survive the Undead initially debuted for a limited time in Infinite’s multiplayer Combat Workshop, but recently became the first community-created playlist to join an official matchmaking rotation as a part of Infinite’s Haloween Operation. After over seven months worth of development and testing, Helljumpers was officially unveiled with a gameplay demonstration at the 2024 Halo World Championship.

At the Championship, 343 Industries, now called Halo Studios, held a Community Stage panel featuring The Forge Falcons entitled "Forging the Future." Here, the Falcons’ Graphic Designer BB12, Scripting Team Lead MaxBloodBath, Forger and Scripter Mr. Multibit, and Lead Environmental Artist Prim27 discussed their game mode and map production process. Near the end of the panel, the Falcons showcased a teaser trailer of Helljumpers showcasing an ODST preparing to drop in their iconic drop pod. Prim27 explained that this game mode was heavily inspired by PlayStation’s Helldivers 2 in terms of gameplay.

While the term helljumpers is often associated with ODSTs overall, only members of the 105th Shock Troops Division of ODSTs are actually referred to as helljumpers in Halo's lore.

The Mechanics of Halo Infinite’s Helljumpers

MaxBloodBath explained that, since experience from each Heljumpers game can’t be carried over from match to match like Helldivers 2, players can drop feet first into hell six times per game. They can additionally upgrade themselves with perk machines in each game similar to those seen in Survive the Undead. The perks include four tiers of health upgrades, damage upgrades, and speed upgrades. Players can additionally select their own personalized loadout before dropping into the map such as equipping Assault Rifles, Sidekick pistols, Commando Rifles, Battle Rifles, and more. While new weapons can be picked up from fallen Banished or Covenant forces, players will always respawn with the weapons they selected on the dropship.

Before each drop, players can select which faction they’d like to encounter in the combat scenario and select two stratagems: one offensive and one supportive. The offensive stratagems are basically power boosts intended to deal more damage to enemy AI. In contrast, support stratagems are intended to help squadmates or set up traps along certain paths. However, the offense stratagems and traps can also harm squadmates, so players have to be careful when using them. In terms of factions, the Banished are made up of Brutes, Jackals, and Skimmers, while the Covenant are made up of Elites, Hunters, and Grunts. To add a bit more of a challenge, players will encounter rogue Spartans fighting alongside both the Banished and Covenant.

The Objectives of Helljumpers

Once on the ground, players will have to complete three objectives before extraction. These objectives include one story objective and two main objectives. Completing each objective will give the entire squad an upgrade for subsequent drops. However, the objective will increasingly become more difficult in each subsequent drop, with classic Halo skull modifiers becoming active, similar to later waves in Firefight from Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. Higher-ranked, more powerful enemies will increasingly have a chance to spawn in each subsequent drop as well. During extraction via a pelican dropship, the squad will receive a point bonus if all players manage to board the pelican before departure.

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