343 Industries is telling Halo Infinite players not to use Quick Resume, a key feature of the Xbox Series X/S, for fear of missing out on special multiplayer cosmetics.
During the Halo Infinite campaign, hidden caches known as Mjolnir Armories can be found that unlock customization options for the game’s online multiplayer modes. These include several armor, weapon, and vehicle coatings as well as trinkets like dogtag charms and a pre-match, back-turned stance. That said, if you’re offline or disconnected from the Halo Infinite servers—which often happens when the game is suspended with Quick Resume—they won’t be added to your game.
“The team is aware and we will eventually have a retroactive fix (you will get the cosmetics you’ve earned),” 343 Industries community director Brian Jarrard recently explained via Twitter. “For now, I recommend not continuing a Quick Resume session and making sure you’re online before venturing into Zeta Halo.”
Apart from its impressive technical prowess, Quick Resume was one of the key features Microsoft touted in the lead-up to the Xbox Series X/S launch in November 2020. I didn’t quite understand (and still don’t, frankly) needing to be able to jump in and out of five games at once, but nevertheless, it was a great example of the leaps this latest generation of home consoles were prepared to make.
Unfortunately for all the aspiring video game jugglers out there, however, Quick Resume has hardly lived up to the pre-release hype. At launch, major games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla didn’t support the feature. Over a year later, users are still finding that Quick Resume sometimes drops sessions and crashes without warning, especially with games that require a constant connection to the internet, which I think we can all agree is way too many these days.
In the case of Halo Infinite, you often can’t hop into a multiplayer match after Quick Resume because the game thinks you’re offline, forcing you to restart.
Halo Infinite is, by most accounts, a pretty great game. Just be careful (at least for now) if you like to utilize your spiffy Xbox Series X/S to the fullest, because it’s probably going to let you down.