Halo Infinite Cyber Showdown: Start date, rewards list, and more

During each Halo Infinite multiplayer season, players can expect several free events that bolster the Halo Infinite Battle Pass with additional cosmetic items for players to earn or buy. These events are designed to give fans things to look forward to throughout Halo Infinite’s multiplayer seasons, and much like the seasons themselves, these events come with a unique theme.

One of these events is the Cyber Showdown event, and while 343 Industries hasn’t given fans many details about it just yet, both the name and promotional artwork of the event itself as well as several leaks of the event’s rewards give us a good idea of what to expect. Here’s an overview of everything we know about Halo Infinite Cyber Showdown.

Officially, it’s currently unclear when Halo Infinite’s Cyber Showdown event will begin, though we do know that it will come after the Halo Infinite Winter Contingency event that’s going live in December 2021. Because of this, we expect that the event will arrive during the latter half of January 2022. It’s worth noting that according to a leak, the Cyber Showdown event will begin on Jan. 18, 2022, and end on Jan. 31. This suggests the event will be active for two weeks.

Like Halo Infinite’s standard weekly resets, we anticipate that the Cyber Showdown event will begin at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET. This is likely also the time that the event will conclude on its final day, so make sure you keep that in mind if you’re planning on doing some last-minute event grinding.

What is Halo Infinite Cyber Showdown?

Similar to the Halo Infinite Fracture: Tenrai event, the Cyber Showdown event is a free event that all players will be able to participate in once it goes live. Based on the official teaser for the event as well as its leaked rewards (more on those below), it looks like Cyber Showdown will have a futuristic theme centered around bright synthwave colors, flashy visual effects, and cyberpunk-style items.

Players can expect lots of cosmetics based on this theme, including a holographic helmet display, a neon-lit mohawk, and bright purple and pink effects for player armor and kills scores against other players. We also expect to see a variety of additional cosmetics like weapon charms and emblems for weapons, armor, and player profiles. These items will likely be available through a free Event Pass as well as Halo Infinite’s microtransactions shop.

It’s important to highlight that if Cyber Showdown is roughly the same size as the Winter Contingency event, players shouldn’t expect something that’s as big as Fracture: Tenrai. This is because the developers have stated that Winter Contingency “is not the same scope/magnitude” as Fracture events. Players shouldn’t expect as many rewards as they’ve been able to earn through the Fracture: Tenrai event, and there may not be new forms of playable content either.

Will Halo Infinite Cyber Showdown have new content?

While the inclusion of Fiesta in the Fracture: Tenrai event suggests it’s possible that new forms of playable content will be added during free events like these, it’s unclear whether there will be a new playlist when the Cyber Showdown event arrives. Since it appears to be the same size as the Winter Contingency event, which itself is confirmed to be smaller than Fracture: Tenrai, there’s a chance that there won’t be new gameplay content due to the event’s smaller scope.

With that said, it’s also possible that the developers will add a new playlist for players to enjoy during the event. Whether or not that playlist would be a brand-new mode or just a slight variation of an existing mode remains to be seen, but we’re not ruling anything out until 343 Industries goes into more detail about the event’s offerings.

Halo Infinite Cyber Showdown rewards list

While we don’t know about all of the rewards that will be available during the Cyber Showdown event, several different leaks have revealed what many of the rewards likely are. For example, this leak shows the Neon Superfly armor and vehicle coating (seen above), while this one shows the Synthwave death effect. Leaks also indicate that players will be able to earn XP Boosts and Challenge Swaps from this event as well.

Based on leaks like these, we’ve compiled a rough list of the rewards that players can expect from the Cyber Showdown event. Note that since leaks aren’t always accurate, these rewards are subject to change and may not be available in the event. We won’t know for sure what rewards Cyber Showdown will offer until 343 Industries officially reveals more about the event.

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is free to play and is available on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One consoles, and Windows PCs. It’s a ton of fun, and paired with the Halo Infinite campaign, it’s easily one of the best Xbox games available right now.