The glitched and overpowered "tank gun" from Halo Infinite will be added back to the game's campaign in a future update, developer 343 Industries announced Friday.
The tank gun is an extremely powerful weapon — essentially a portable version of a Scorpion tank's cannon with unlimited ammo — that has become popular among speedrunners and as a way to make the game much easier. Despite the fact that you must know exactly where to look to find the gun (which, by the way, is invisible), Halo senior community manager John Junyszek stated in April that 343 would be removing the "tank gun glitch" alongside the game's second season, which debuted on May 3rd. That decision was not well received by the community, and it appears that there was enough backlash that 343 has decided to reinstate the tank gun.
343 will also restore skill jumps to the game's multiplayer maps. The difficult-to-pull-off jumps (such as the "Pizza" jump) could give players an advantage in a heated battle, but it appears that they did so in a way that the developers did not intend.
"We originally identified these jumps as falling into two categories: places where the environment was poorly communicating the traversal options of the game world, places that created a combat imbalance, or a combination of the two," Junyszek explained on the Halo Waypoint forums on Friday.
With the season 2 patch, 343 made some changes that removed some skill jumps, but the community outcry was strong enough that 343 plans to restore many of them. "Players have clearly stated that our analysis of these jumps was incorrect, and we appreciate the feedback," Junyszek said.
Junyszek previously stated that 343 Industries was considering changes in response to player feedback following the season's launch. "We've heard feedback about changes that affected various multiplayer jumps and campaign speedrun strategies," Junyszek said on May 5th. "We are not yet in a position to make any promises, but we want to be transparent and say that we are taking the feedback seriously and reviewing options internally."
The complaints were also acknowledged by Halo Infinite's creative director, Joseph Staten. "Hey Spartans, this week has been rough," Staten tweeted, quoting Junyszek. "That was not our intention."
Junyszek did not provide a specific date for the new update on Friday, but it appears that it will be available soon. "Our team has been working hard to get as much as we can in this update as soon as possible, but there are still a few more steps we need to take before we can release it in the wild," he explained. "We'll share more information about the exact release date of this update in the coming days."
The reversals are just the latest setback for Halo Infinite, which has had a difficult time since its release late last year. And we'll have to wait a while for some key features to be added to the game; 343 announced last month that it plans to release online campaign co-op in late August and an open beta of Forge mode in September.