Halo Infinite multiplayer: Winter Contingency start time, rewards list, and more

happy halodays halo infinite
(Image credit: 343 Industries)

The next Halo Infinite in-game multiplayer event, Winter Contingency, begins this week and there are new holiday-themed rewards up for grabs. The event was confirmed in the recent 343 Industries blog post, Happy Halodays, though the rewards seem to have been leaked early via Reddit. But as with any leaks, they're subject to change. 

Anyway, here's the Halo Infinite Winter Contingency start time, and everything else you need to know.

(Image credit: 343 Industries)

Halo Infinite Winter Contingency start time 

We don't know for certain yet, but Winter Contingency is rumoured to begin at the weekly reset on December 21 at 9 am PT/ 12 pm ET/ 5 pm GMT. It should run until January 4, 2022, so there's plenty of time to get your hands on some wintery goodies.

Halo Infinite Winter Contingency rewards

Playing a game once per day will unlock free rewards such as a nameplate, emblems, special backdrops, holiday-themed coatings for weapons, armour pieces, and attachments. The armour coating is peppermint themed with fresh shades of pinky-red, mint green, and white to keep your Spartans looking cool. There's even a Santa hat and Rudolph nose rumoured to be part of the rewards list. Perfect if you're in the mood to go hard for Christmas.

As far as we know, Winter Contingency will work something like the Fracture: Tenrai event, with a special event playlist to access and challenges to complete. It's much smaller in scale, though, and it's very likely that you'll earn all of the rewards quite quickly. The Halo Infinite storefront is also likely to have items available to purchase if spending your Christmas cash on microtransactions is your thing.

While these remain unconfirmed, here's a rough list of the rewards you can expect:

  • Peppermint armour and weapon coating
  • Snowflake Spartan backdrop 
  • Festive Spartan helmet armour, weapon and Spartan emblem 
  • North Star armour, weapon and Spartan emblem 
  • Rudolph helmet accessory 
  • Santa hat
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The first three games Lauren played on PC were Star Wars: X-Wing, Zoo Tycoon and Barbie Fashion Designer, which explains her love of all things space, strategy and aesthetically pleasing. Lauren recently took over as PC Gamer's Guides Editor after three years of writing many dozens of Destiny 2 guides at VG247, as well as casually trying to shoehorn in The Witcher 3 articles wherever possible. When she's not trying to force everyone to play as a Warlock in Destiny 2, Lauren is either mastering her SEO abilities to help smash the competition, or patting one of her red sons.