The Best Spartan Core Upgrades in Halo Infinite’s Campaign

Many Spartan Core upgrades are scattered around Installation 07 to help upgrade your character. While not all the equipment is available from the start of the game, these upgrades help enhance your playstyle or just your favorite way to take on combat scenarios. Today we will go through all the Spartan Core upgrades in Halo Infinite and give you our recommendations on which upgrades are the best and which ones you should obtain first.

1. The Shield Core Upgrade

It comes as no surprise that our first and highest recommendation is to prioritize the Shield Core upgrades during the Halo Infinite campaign. The Shield Core is the only passive upgrade in Master Chief’s arsenal.

Each rank put into the shield core enhances the shield capacity by 15%. The total strength of the shield capacity is an extra 75% for a total of 175%. Having more health and shields in any video game is always nice, especially for playing on Legendary difficulty where Jackal snipers and Skewer shots are still a massive threat.

The upgrade list is:

• Shield Core (Rank 1): An enhanced shield module that increases capacity to 115% of base shield strength.
• Fortress (Rank 2) (1 Spartan Core): Increases shield capacity by an additional 15% of base shield strength.
• Bastille (Rank 3) (2 Spartan Cores): Increases shield capacity by an additional 15% of base shield strength.
• Redoubt (Rank 4) (3 Spartan Cores): Increases shield capacity by an additional 15% of base shield strength.
• Citadel (Rank 5) (3 Spartan Cores): Increases shield capacity by an additional 15% of base shield strength

2. Grappleshot is One of the Best Halo Infinite Upgrades

The Grappleshot is one of the more highly used equipment and for many good reasons. Pulling Fusion Coils, weapons, other equipment, and grappling onto any object or enemy makes the Grappleshot the most versatile ability in the game.

The more powerful tiers of the Grappleshot’s upgrade tree include the ability to lower its cooldown, stun grappled enemies, and perform a powerful shockwave punch that deals tons of damage to enemies.

An extra cooldown to a widely versatile ability is always great for escaping or engaging in any situation. The cooldown reduction also helps traverse the world more quickly, making this upgrade tree one of the more essential picks to max out early on.

The core upgrade list for Grappleshot in Halo Infinite is: 

• Grappleshot (Rank 1): A retractable hook for personal transportation and retrieving objects.
• Voltaic (Rank 2) (1 Spartan Core): Grappleshot stuns grappled enemies for several seconds.
• Quick Shot (Rank 3) (2 Spartan Cores): Reduces Grappleshot cooldown by 40%.
• First Strike (Rank 4) (3 Spartan Cores): Delivers a powerful shockwave blast when holding melee while grappling.
• Reachfall (Rank 5) (3 Spartan Cores): Increases damage and radius of shockwave blast. Enemies within it will be stunned.

3. The Threat Sensor Ability

The Threat Sensor is surprisingly helpful during several parts of Halo Infinite’s campaign. This fantastic upgrade deploys a small beacon that sticks to any surface or enemy and reveals nearby enemies. Players can upgrade the radius of the sensor to have an increased radius and reduced cooldown.

The Threat Sensor helps locate cloaked enemies, which is crucial to defeating Chak Lok and Jega later in the game. Main story missions usually involve tighter corridors and indoor locations, where enemies will funnel through or try to flank you.

The Threat Sensor can also help reduce the danger of these fights by improving your situational awareness. We recommend putting some campaign upgrade points into the Threat Sensor early to help with future fights and boss battles, but it’s unnecessary to max out first.

The full list of improvements to the threat sensor is:

• Threat Sensor (Rank 1): A scout projectile that tracks enemies through walls and terrain.
• Seeker (Rank 2) (1 Spartan Core): Increases Threat Sensor detection radius by 50%.
• Operative (Rank 3) (2 Spartan Cores): Adds a second charge to the Threat Sensor.
• Clairvoyant (Rank 4) (3 Spartan Cores): Reduces Threat Sensor cooldown by 40%.
• Omniscience (Rank 5) (3 Spartan Cores): Adds uninterrupted enemy visibility to the Threat Sensor and reveals their health.

Related Article: How to Use the Stalked Rifle in Halo Infinite Effectively

4. Consider Grabbing Yourself the Drop Wall Core Upgrade in Halo Infinite

The Drop Wall allows you to deploy an active cover. That cover blocks all projectiles, including grenades. At the same time, it allows you to fire through the back of the cover. Each squared-off segment of the wall has a limited amount of health before breaking, allowing you to reposition to utilize the different segments of the Drop Wall’s shielding.

Grabbing more upgrades in Halo Infinite for the Drop Wall increases its health and size. Also, its final tier adds shock damage to any projectile fired through the barrier. While this equipment is valuable, allowing you to soak up rockets, Skewer shots, and sniper rounds, often staying hunkered down in one spot doesn’t always have a good result.

Using the Grappleshot to move about the map or reposition is more helpful. Still, upgrading the Drop Wall to the maximum makes it very strong.

The upgrade list for this great Core upgrade is:

• Drop Wall (Rank 1): A single-sided deployable shield providing instant cover from enemy fire.
• Swift Shelter (Rank 2) (1 Spartan Core): Reduces Drop Wall cooldown by 20%.
• Rampart (Rank 3) (2 Spartan Cores): Increases Drop Wall strength by 35%.
• Blockade (Rank 4) (3 Spartan Cores): Increases Drop Wall strength by 70% and increases wall size.
• Direct Current (Rank 5) (3 Spartan Cores): Adds shock damage to any projectile fired through the Drop Wall.

5. Thruster

Lastly, the Thruster reintroduces the thrust pack, which is like Halo 5’s default movement. Those familiar with Halo 5 will remember that this equipment allows you to have a short burst of movement speed in any direction you are currently moving.

Adding more points to this Halo Infinite upgrade adds a second charge and reduces its cooldown. Yet, it mainly becomes noticeable at the final upgrade, where every dash cloaks you for a short amount of time. The Grappleshot achieves what the Thruster does, but much better.

Of course, equipment doesn’t share cooldowns so that you can Grappleshot into Thruster dash for even more mobility. We still recommend saving the Thruster upgrades for last, especially since you obtain them last. The upgrade list is:

• Thruster (Rank 1): A module that activates short bursts of directional movement to evade attacks.
• Afterburner (Rank 2) (1 Spartan Core): Adds a second charge to your Thruster.
• Thermal Control (Rank 3) (2 Spartan Cores): Reduces Thruster cooldown by 20%.
• Impulse (Rank 4) (3 Spartan Cores): Adds significant power to the Thruster, allowing further and faster travel.
• Escape Velocity (Rank 5) (3 Spartan Cores): Adds a personal cloak effect to Thruster, lasting 4 seconds after activation.

Conclusion

That was our shortlist on what Spartan Core upgrades we think you should obtain first in Halo Infinite’s campaign. Many of these equipment upgrades impact how abilities feel in the campaign vs. how they are used in multiplayer. Recently 343 has added the unique campaign weapon variants to BTB. Hopefully, we will see these fully upgraded equipment added to multiplayer or custom games in the future. As always, good hunting, Spartans!