Halo Infinite fans have discovered a way of playing the shooter in splitscreen co-op, after the game mode was officially canned.
While local campaign co-op had previously been announced for Halo Infinite, 343 Industries’ head of creative Joseph Staten confirmed work on the mode had been scrapped in a recent video update. As spotted by Eurogamer, a fan on Twitter discovered a workaround that lets players access the shelved feature.
The nifty menu glitch lets you add other players to your campaign session, so you can play Halo Infinite co-op with a buddy beside you. It only appears to be accessible for players on Xbox Series X|S, leaving PC gamers out of the fun.
How to play Halo Infinite co-op
To play Halo Infinite in splitscreen co-op you’ll first need to boot up the campaign solo, create a save file, and have a friend waiting in the game’s main menu. They can be idling on a console version of the game or on PC, but must be connected to the Halo online network. From there, follow these steps:
- Select and load a campaign save file
- As the game starts to load, immediately tap the Xbox Wireless Controller's View Button to bring up the 'Social' menu
- Navigate to the 'Friends' tab, find your buddy who’s idling in the game’s menu, and select to join their fireteam
- Go back to the 'Social' menu, find the fireteam you've just joined, and select to leave
- Navigate to the ‘Server’ settings screen and set the server to ‘Local Offline’
- Connect additional controllers to your console and link them with an Xbox profile, just as you usually would when playing a multiplayer match
- Select ‘Play’ to start
According to Halo fan account Halo Creation, who posted the tutorial online, the workaround is seamless. You should be able to play the campaign with a friend without running into any crashes, AI bugs, or other glitches. According to another player on Reddit, the trick also supports four-player co-op.
Don’t expect the workaround to be about forever, though. As a glitch, it will likely be patched out in a future update, and 343 is unlikely to ever provide an official alternative.
"We’ve had to make the difficult decision to not ship campaign split-screen co-op, and take the resources that we would use on that [to] go after... all of these other things," said Staten in the video update. Those "other things" include quality-of-life updates, live service content, and bug fixes.
Online campaign co-op is still on the table. It’s expected to roll out in the game’s Winter Update period between November 8 and March 7, overshooting its August release window that was announced after several delays. It’ll be joined by a beta Forge mode, new competitive game mode Covert One Flag, two new multiplayer maps, and a free 30-tier battle pass.
But Halo Infinite's local co-op mode might not have been as impressive as hoped. Online co-op has been available in beta for a few weeks, and while fun, doesn’t keep the campaign fresh.
