The guy behind HaloDotAPI and I are very close friends since a very young age, and we have an habit of having Halo related informations ahead of time. I don't know if you remember the Defiant Map Pack which was leaked for Halo Reach once Bungie left the game, but it was us, with our previous website dedicated to Halo, called HaloDestiny.
Yep, this is my tweet. Bathrobe Spartan is our new Halo dedicated media, mostly oriented to the French community, and this is the latest episode from our
Podcast.
This one was dedicated to Tatanka. We, and others, were recently able to get our hands on several files from the mode, which we decompiled and were able to gain access to many more informations.
Note that we didn't play this new mode. But, we read all the files once decompiled, there was a ton, and reading the code, we were able to relate different elements to understand how a typical game of Tatanka would play. This is mostly a work a relating elements to each other thanks to the many comments left in the code, and how functions were related and ordered.
I won't translate the hour long episode as it would be quite a little bit long, but I can try to summarize the main points and guide you through what would be a typical Tatanka game, from start to finish.
Note that this is not the final version of the mode and they're still working on it, so what we said is, once again, detective work and how we were able to relate informations between them. I'll use a lot of conditional like in our Podcast. Informations aren't all new, but this helps us going deeper into the mode at this point:
How many people are working on Tatanka from Certain Affinity
There seems to be 5 to 6 people working on the mode, at least that's the number of people we found mentioned in the different files. We're not going to publicly share the names we found, but we checked to be sure the names we found were working at Certain Affinity and they are.
Note that the file are commented by Lead Programmers and Designers, but maybe some other hands updated the files without writing comments about what their code is doing.
Modes available for Tatanka
- FFA
- Duo
- Trio
- Squad
Those modes, while available, probably won't launch all together, but they are available as separated playlists/selections for 343 Industries to use whenever they would want to.
Where does a Tatanka game take place
In our
Bathrobe Spartan Podcast, we discussed that there's a dedicated map for this mode. It's taking place on the Ring (probably one part of the Zeta Halo), and so far, there's only one map available.
How many people can play in a Tatanka game
It's currently up to 60 players. Previous leaks shared this could be up to 100 players, but it was mostly for stress testing the map, with several bots roaming around it. This part is still available in the code, but it is for testing purpose and the final decision at this stage of the file were updated was to cap the number of players to 60, like Apex Legends.
How does a Tatanka game play
You begin the game in a lobby so the several assets can load, similar to what you would have in PUBG or Fortnite, roaming around with other Spartans.
Once the game is ready, you're teleported/transitioned to a Ship, from which you're able to Drop on the map. Drop Pods, the one used in ODST, are mentioned as the way to drop on the map.
It seems that the game would allow for the option to drop in a place selected directly without you having to control the Drop Pod itself, and while we guess we will also be able to control the Drop Pod, we can't say if it would be from a 1st or 3rd person perspective.
Once landed, you only have a weapon, apparently a very basic one so you can progress. Could be the Sidekick or the Disruptor, it wasn't mentioned, but it's not a high tier weapon apparently.
There doesn't seem to have loot on the ground, or at least, not high tier loot. You will find ammo cache on the ground, like you could during the campaign, to refill your ammo.
There're several Point of Interest on the map, and those aren't just locations like in other BR games, but Objective to reach and achieve so you can gain point and unlock new tiers, really similar to what was done in Halo 5's Warzone, where you had to capture base and kill AI bosses to get points and unlock new tiers.
In the code, we found several type of objective, some are similars to contract from CoD Warzone, such as:
- Capture & Control a base/zone
- Oddball (keep an objective with yourself for a certain amont of time)
- Supply Run (bring an element to a point Alpha then Bravo so you can unlock loot)
While you're doing one of these objectives, players around the Area are notified of these, probably to incentive players to meet and fight against each other in central locations before the Tempest begins to close.
Completing these objectives (and eliminating other players we guess) will grant your points that you'll then be able to spent in stations you select the weapons, and vehicles, you want to use, against, similar to how you were doing that in Halo 5's Warzone.
Completing these objectives will also grant you a Special Key (Containment Key we think is the name), and you will need 4 of them to access very high tier loot cache.
We think it's made so you don't camp in the zone you captured, and so it push you to get against other players to get their key and have all the chances to unlock brutally destructive loot.
How to move around the map
As said, once you get points, you'll be able to order vehicles, similar to the way you were doing in from the FOB during the campaign. Of course, you can do that on foot, but a vehicle is always nice I guess?
Vehicles we found were mostly co-operative vehicles, such as the Warthog, Mongoose or the Razorback, and it also included several mention to a long time gone vehicle we all loved: the Falcon
We don't know if it was a placeholder or something left from an earlier version of the mode, but, since the Falcon wasn't in Halo 4 and Halo 5, we doubt it was a leftover and therefor, it was probably intentional they mentioned it in the code.
We didn't find any mention of the Banshee, and the Ghost wasn't explicitly mentioned as well.
Respawn System
There were several mentions of different respawn system.
One is based around your Spartan being downed, similar to what you can have in the mode Attrition, where you have to stand close to it to get your friends back on their feet. We don't know if they will use the rounded ball like in Attrition or downed animation like in Halo 5.
The second one is a real respawn system if you happened to be eliminated. You would have to go to certain locations to respawn your friends, and they will drop, either from a Ship like in Apex Legends or thanks to a Drop Pod.
How does a Tatanka game end
Like other BR games, the Circle/Tempest (that's how it is called) will be closing more and more, forcing groups to reunite. Once you win the game, you have a Stance system, similar to the one you have after each PvP game at the moment.
Other elements we found
- The Tactical map from the campaign should be back for Tatanka, showing you a 3D representation of the map with elevation
- You'll be able to put a Waypoint on the map which will be visible to all your mates
- Ping system could be improved, but we didn't found much
- Random events can happen on the map, and those Event will be displayed to all players so they can go to them
- It could be Loot Crate or other things
- DMR was also mentioned as a weapon, but we don't know if they were talking about the real DMR or if it was a codename for the Commando
- Variations of weapon found in the campaign should be available from the very high tier loot I mentioned, possibly unlocked once you get the several Keys needed
- You could be able to upgrade your weapons, but we don't know how, it was just mentioned
- You select the weapon you want with your points, it's not a linear path like in Last Spartan Standing
- A Backpack is mentioned, but we don't know if it's a inventory system or something else
- Radar / Combat Sensor is nowhere to be found in this mode, exactly like in Last Spartan Standing, FUNKNOWN iXi should be happy
To summarize
All the things we found made us believe that Certain Affinity and 343 Industries are creating a different kind of BR game. While it's still about doing a Top 1, you seem to have much more control about the loot and how you'll get it.
Basically, you're playing classic gametypes (Control a zone, Bring an objective to a point, etc...) of Halo within a giant map. It's not only about eliminating players to get their loot, it's about playing objectives to increase your loot and the control you have over it.
It seems to be done this way so you rely less on RNG and luck to get your loadout, but more on tactical decisions and strategy.
In the end, they're bringing Halo classic gameplay to a BR, rather than just injecting BR within Halo, with a very straight forward FPS gameplay without too much worries about the ressource management and such.
All those things are making us quite interested honestly, and while things could still change (we don't think it will be available before 2023), if Tatanka ends up being the way we connected the dot, it will be something a little bit different from the current BR games.
Shall it be good can only be found once played.
We know that there should be 2 announcements during the showcase which are Halo related. One is 100% sure, but this one is not related to Halo Infinite, and it's not something big, it's just Halo related and I wouldn't be too excited unless you like flying.
The second one is... Well, we're not sure they're going to reveal this one during the showcase as it doesn't seem to be 100% ready, and we won't spoil it because we think it's better for them to share the surprise, but if they don't announce it during the showcase, we will probably share what we were told later one.
About that two weeks thing, it's not related to the Xbox Extended (at least not directly), we just were able to get our hands on something else related to Halo Infinite's PvP, and we will share more details about this during our next
Podcast episode, which will be recored and published in... two weeks haha.
But as you guessed from my previous messages, it's related to Maps.
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Well, that's a long read, hopefully it can be fully posted in ResetERA without character limitation!
Please note that nothing said above is 100% confirmed. We got access to certain code, we decompiled them and studied them, and we connected the dots as much as we could to get an idea of how we will play a Tatanka mode once available. Things could still be up for a change from Certain Affinity and 343 Industries.
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If we have some French here, our Podcast is available on
Spotify,
SoundCloud,
Deezer and
Apple Podcast. We don't plan to do it in English, but feel free to use Google Audio Translated haha.
And we also have our website for the Podcast and all the Halo News in Fench:
https://bathrobespartan.news/
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https://twitter.com/bathrobespartan
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