Halo: MCC Season 5 Update Arrives: Patch Notes, File Size, Battle Pass, And More

It's a big day for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, as the compilation game's newest seasonal update has arrived--and it's a big one.

The Season 5 update is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and it delivers a new battle pass-style refresh that introduces more than 100 items to unlock and collect, including the fabled GRD helmet, the Mister Chief armor, and content from the canceled Halo Online.

The Season 5 update is called Anvil and the main offering is the 100-tier Season Pass AKA Battle Pass that includes new armors for Halo 3 and Halo: Reach--some of which stem from the canceled Halo Online game for Russia--more weapon skins, and a bunch of new nameplates.

The new content is unlocked the same way as with Season 4 and before--by obtaining Season Points through gameplay and then spending them as you wish. The content from previous seasons remains available as well.

The Season 5 update is a big one in terms of file size, weighing in at 6.3 GB Xbox Game Pass and the Microsoft Store for PC and around 9.9 GB on Xbox One and Series X|S. The Steam edition, however, is only 258 MB for some reason.

The new unlockables include a series of helmets and other customization pieces for Halo 3 and Halo: Reach. The GRD helmet is of particular note, as it was seen in marketing materials for Halo: Reach more than a decade ago but never officially released until now.

Players can also snag two limited-time nameplates just for logging in during February and March. These include the Black History Month and Women's History Month nameplates.

There are also special seasonal challenges you can complete to earn elusive gear. To get the very silly Mister Chief meme helmet, you need to perform an assassination on an Elite to survive a fall that would otherwise kill you in the Halo: Reach campaign.

Season 5 is expected to run for about two months, wrapping up sometime in March. Check out the videos in this post and the full announcement letter to learn more about everything that's new in the Season 5 update.

Halo: MCC Season 5 Patch Notes:

New Features

• Season 5, “Anvil,” begins with this update. It includes a variety of new unlockable cosmetics for Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, including new skins for armor and weapons, new nameplates, and a new Mongoose skin.
• The New Skins in Halo 3 toggle in settings has been expanded. Players who want to maintain a classic Halo 3 experience can flip this setting to “disabled” to avoid seeing any new cosmetic items while playing Halo 3, including weapon skins, vehicle skins, and armor. While cosmetics are disabled, any players in your game who are wearing new armor will appear with the default Mark VI.