What Halo Infinite’s Weapon Variants Actually Do

 

Halo Infinite’s semi-open world features 15 optional mini-bosses, ostensibly some of the most formidable members of The Banished. Every time you defeat one, you’ll unlock a weapon variant—a spin on the basic weapons you can find—you can then select while building loadouts at forward operating bases. All of the variants are different, but they always spur the same reaction: “Cool! So…what the fuck does this do?”

Most of Halo Infinite’s weapon variants are done up in a pristine power-snow weapon skin (that, frankly, would make a killing in Infinite’s microtransactions shop). Some of them have obvious perks—a faster fire rate, say, or a lock-on function—indicated by a melodramatic adjective like “volatile” or “purging” preceding its name. Others, however, are less clear, and seem to function no differently than the standard models they’re based on.

Read More: Halo Infinite Players Discover Automatic Weapon Is Automatic

Complicating matters is the fact that weapon variants found off mini-bosses don’t feature descriptive flavor text, not like what you’d find with the alt-versions of UNSC guns (the striker sidekick, the convergence bulldog, and so on, all unlockable over time by earning Valor). So, to clear things up, here’s how every weapon variant in Halo Infinite actually works, and where you can find them.