Getting to grips with Halo Infinite's ranking system

Red spartan in multiplayer carrying flag
(Image credit: 343 Industries)

We still have a ways to wait on the continuing adventures of Mister Chief and his many blue girlfriends, but with the surprise launch of Halo Infinite's multiplayer on November 16, we can already party like it's 2007, Slayer-style.

Infinite's interminably sluggish battle pass is not its only concession to modern multiplayer shooter design, however. It's the third decade of the 21st century, baby, and as such we've got a ranked queue and its attendant numbers we need to make go up.

Ranked matches are a bit leaner and less forgiving than normal play: your radar is disabled, friendly fire is enabled, you no longer have a HUD indicator if there is a hot grenade nearby, and you always start each life equipped only with the battle rifle (Halo's equivalent of Fox-only, Final Destination.) Ranked gameplay consists of 4v4 teams in the capture the flag, oddball, slayer, and strongholds game types. Unlike unranked play, weapon spawn locations are locked in on each map from game-to-game.

The beginning of a long journey (Image credit: 343 Industries)

Before you get into the fight, however, you'll also have to choose between two broader ranked categories. Open queue allows one to four members in a premade party, and includes both controller and mouse-and-keyboard players. For the hardest of the hard-core, solo/duo mode only allows up to two members in a premade, and will exclusively pair you with players whose input devices match your own.

(Image credit: 343 Industries)

The basic set-up of Infinite's ranked progression should be familiar to anyone who's even dabbled in getting yelled at by teenagers in their free time. Your first task is to complete ten placement matches to assess your worth as a human being, before being assigned to one of six ranks in the following order: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, or onyx. Players begin a tier at its first level, and have to win their way through six levels to ascend to the next tier. For example, if my placements sent me to silver, I would have to win my way through silver ranks two through six before having a chance to get up to gold. 

The whole set-up reminds me of League of Legends' ranking system, and like League of Legends, if you find yourself placed into poop tier zero, you may want to get comfortable, because you'll probably be there awhile. My advice would be to queue up with a friend and try not to put too much psychic weight on the good boy gamer badge you get assigned. 

Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.

Read more
Thor charging up his hammer.
I've navigated Marvel Rivals' chaotic ranked play and dragged myself out of Plat hell, which means it's time to start preparing to do it all over again next season
Marvel Rivals tier list - A big group of heroes fighting
Marvel Rivals ranks: everything you need to know on your journey to the top
Sue Storm close up
Marvel Rivals' ranked distribution for Season 1 is pretty evenly spread except for the 482,526 players just sat in Bronze 3
Slork on a roof
Deadlock's ranked play has improved quite a bit since its arrival, but a small quirk has left only 75 people down at the bottom rank to battle it out
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals players use the power of overwhelming negativity to encourage the devs to abandon plans for a mid-season rank reset
Helldivers 2 Discord header image - four Helldivers celebrating side by side on a large rock
Helldivers 2 and Marvel Rivals convinced me: Battle passes should never expire
Latest in Halo
Saber Interactive's head honcho pulled a wild stunt to nab the Halo: Combat Evolved remaster, telling Microsoft he'd do the job for free before ultimately squeezing the publisher for millions
Halo 2 e3 2003 demo
Halo 2's playable E3 2003 demo is an astounding feat of preservation, and everything great about PC gaming
Halo Infinite
Welcome to shooter bizarro world: First Fortnite goes FPS, now Halo Infinite's adding a third person mode
Team members standing in an underground cave
'Y'all killed it': Survive the Undead, a community-made PvE zombie mode, is bringing players back to Halo Infinite
Halo Redshift fan mod Trailer Still
Check out the trailer for this big, cooperative Halo campaign mod
halo infinite season 3 echoes within
Halo Infinite is done with seasons, will get smaller 'content updates' from now on
Latest in Features
midnight murder club
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 17, 2025)
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Alligator skull with glowing eyes on human body and cords coming out sitting at piano with "The Norwood Etudes" ready to play
My new most anticipated RPG let me be a kleptomaniac gourmand set loose in a noir city on a quest to make 'the perfect sandwich'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Manhunt 2
I played the notoriously ratings-board-ravaged Manhunt 2 and was quite glad for the censorship actually
Wyrdsong concept art
Wyrdsong, the RPG from ex-Bethesda talent, isn't dead—but it's no longer an open world: 'We're down to a skeleton crew'