Exactly a month after its February 21 launch, Halo Wars 2 has received its first add-on content. The Kinsano pack adds a new leader and a bunch of new units, while a new patch released today brings a whole load of bug fixes and overall improvements.
Lt. Colonel Morgan Kinsano is the first of many new leaders to be added in the months after Halo Wars 2's launch--more will drop every month, says developer 343 Industries. The Lt. Colonel's abilities include Helldrop, which brings in friendly reinforcements from the sky; Hellcharge, which buffs friendly units' speed and damage stats; and Inferno, a huge blast of fire that's expensive to use but lethal to everything in its area of effect.
Kinsano pilots a personalized Flame Cyclops, whose dual flamethrowers make it deadly at close range. Accompanying units--the Flame Warthog, Veteran Flame Hog, and Veteran Hellbringers--continue the fire theme and are particularly suited to short-range combat against enemy infantry.
The DLC, which is out now, costs US $5.99 / £4.79 / AU $9.95, and it's included in the season pass.
Halo Wars 2 was also updated for all players today, and the patch mostly fixes bugs and brings minor performance enhancements--check out all the details below.
Halo Wars 2 March Patch Notes
Crashes / Errors / Performance
- Fixed a crash that occurred in Skirmish against AI opponents
- Fixed some error handling with Xbox live service messages
- Fixed a crash that can occur in a LASO play through
- Fixed a hardlock that could occur when loading into "Lights Out"
- Fixed a desync that could be hit in Firefight
- Fixed a crash that could occur while watching the prologue cinematic
- Fixed a crash that could occur while a user signs out while loading into a certain game mode
- Fixed a crash that could occur when transporting newly deployed units
- Fixed an Windows 10-specific issue with the game hanging sometimes when restarting a mission
- Fixed some suspend/idle issues that caused infinite loads
- Fixed some Intel Iris Graphics 520 issues that could cause a crash
- Improved performance when running on various Intel integrated GPUs
- Fixed some improper localization strings in controller layout while playing the Basic Tutorial
- Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when a Wolverine is destroyed by a Lightbridge toggling off while it was on it
- Improved stability by fixing a large variety of one-off crashes
- Fixed some performance hitches in Campaign that were caused by scripted events triggering
- Fixed an issue where players were sometimes able to quickly assign one Leader Power point to two different Leader Powers
- AI now garrisons a bit more often in Legendary when low on health
- Nightingale Smoke bombs now stop Turrets shooting outside of the smoke, identical to how units behave
- Damage against Bases show as soon as it happens
- Fixed an issue with Hornets sometimes not responding to Banished unit attacks
- Fixed an issue with pressing the 'Q' key twice did not select all units, if there were no units on the screen
- Fixed an issue with Challenges sometimes not progressing in Solo/Team War or Team Objective Playlists
- Fixed Shift-Right-clicking to set multiple waypoints not working in some cases
- Fixed an issue with AI ignoring Sentinel recaptured Control Points
- Fixed some units getting stuck on the campaign mission The Halo
- Fixed a bug where the enemy AI retreats too often on Normal
- Fixed an issue where the AI would sometimes kill its own units by toggling a Lightbridge
- Fixed an issue with units doing no damage in a specific scenario
- Fixed an issue with Departures video being unlocked after completing The Halo
- Fixed a bug with Just the Facts and The Full Story achievements not triggering properly
- Fixed an issue where players would get their Favorite Leader instead of the one picked
- Various unit animation fixes
- Added three new achievements unique to the upcoming Kinsano leader DLC
- Fixed some text truncation that could occur in some Campaign missions
- Fixed some text in a few Phoenix logs
- Fixed some UI callouts for failed objectives in a previously played mission showing in a different mission
- Fixed some cases of audio corruption when multiple sound effects were played at the same time
- Fixed an issue with vehicle engine audio stuttering when on the edge of battle
- Fixed an issue with clipping/corruption occurring in higher waves of Blitz Firefight
Note: Balance changes affect units in standard and Blitz multiplayer modes unless otherwise noted.
For Halo Wars 2 game designer notes and context surrounding these changes, please check out the March 16 Community Update blog.
Leader Powers
- Shipmaster's Scout mines cannot be dropped on buildings anymore
- The Banished Cleansing Beam speed slightly reduced
- ODSTs cost increased from 600 to 800, HP slightly decreased
- Adjusted the Supply income curve to give less of a bonus income on the first few Supply Pads/Warehouses, but less limiting as player’s build additional pads.
- Sgt. Forge: Removed the discount on Supply Pads and Reactors in the Rolling Economy leader power
- Sgt. Forge: Accelerated Assembly and Lotus mines swapped places
Jump Pack Brutes
- Increased HP
- Incased basic DPS
- Slight increase to move speed
- Significant increase to HP
- Significant increase to fire damage dealt to basic infantry units
- Move speed slightly increased
- Cost reduced from 80/50 to 80/40
- Reduced pre-attack and post-attack cooldown to improve responsiveness
- Increased HP
- Base damage decreased
- Base AOE range increased
- Move speed slightly increased
- Charge distance increased
- Charge speed decreased
- Cost reduced from 100/25 to 100/20
- Significantly increased HP
- Armor type changed to be more resistant to small arms fire from Marine & Grunt squads
- Cost reworked from 80/110 to 125/90
- DPS increased
- Cost reduced from 220/15 to 200/12
- Cost reduced from 265/20 to 230/15
- Cost reduced from 280/20 to 245/15
- Cost reduced from 150/200 to 160/160
- DPS reduced
- Cost reduced from 120/150 to 120/120
- DPS reduced
- HP significantly increased
- Shields significantly increased
- Build time reduced
- Cost changed from 550/40 to 525/70
- Plasma Cannon DPS increased
- Plasma Mortar DPS increased
- Plasma Mortar Fire rate increased
- Y ability initial damage increased significantly
- Incoming healing reduced
- HP increased
- Cost changed from 650/50 to 600/90
- Machinegun DPS increased
- Cannon DPS increased
- Cannon AOE size decreased
- Canister shell DPS increased
- Canister shell AOE size increased
- Incoming healing reduced
- HP increased
- Machinegun DPS increased
- Missile pod DPS increased
- Cannon DPS increased
- Missile Barrage ability damage increased
- Grunt squad build time reduced
- Overall DPS increased for basic and mine-upgrade squads
- Overall DPS increased for pack brother upgrade squads
- Grenade DPS decreased significantly
- Grenade large AOE size reduced
- Move speed decreased
- No longer has a huge damage bonus vs. buildings
- General DPS decreased
- Lockdown Bolt damage decreased significantly
- Banshee Plasma Torpedo damage reduced
- Basic DPS slightly reduced
- Line of sight range reduced
- Weapon range reduced
- UNSC and Banished upgraded turrets DPS increased
- Banished turrets HP increased
- UNSC turrets build time reduced
- Banished turret build time reduced
- UNSC and Banished HQ HP increased to a constant, high HP amount across all tech tiers
Source: GameSpot
