Halo: The Master Chief Collection Season 6 Kicks Off With A New Map And Game Mode

343 Industries and Microsoft kicked off season 6 within Halo: The Master Chief Collection earlier today, and the new seasonal update is shipping with some big additions. Obviously, the new season also kicks off a new progression system for players to work their way through, with 100 tiers of content to unlock. Beyond that, however, there's a new map, a new game variant, and a new feature called The Exchange going live in the Master Chief Collection.

Starting things right off, a lot of the cosmetic unlocks in season 6 are centered around Fireteam Raven. In fact, the new season is officially titled Season 6: Raven, so the inspiration should be clear. For a look at some of the new cosmetics, check out the trailer for Season 6: Raven below.

Cosmetics are just a portion of the update though, and perhaps the biggest addition shipping along with it is a new map called Waterfall. Originally from Halo Online, Waterfall is now available in custom games within Halo 3, so those who don't mind taking a break from ranked playlists can check out a slice of Halo history that has rarely been seen before.

Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4 are all getting a new game mode called Escalation Slayer, which grants players a new weapon every time they secure a kill. There's also a new feature called The Exchange, which is basically a new in-game shop that will rotate in items from previous seasons and new items alike as a way of allowing those who weren't around from previous seasons a chance to obtain those items.

Of course, new features aren't the only component of this patch, as there are a number of fixes and changed shipping along with it as well. You can check the full patch notes for the season 6 update over on the Halo Support website, but otherwise, the season 6 update is ready to download today on Xbox consoles and PC through both Steam and the Microsoft Store.